Our archer's arrow didn't quite hit home, but it still managed to embed itself into the forehead of one of the approaching trolls. Draco's body swelled with his magic and his scales soon took on a black color as his form grew again. His speed seemed proportionally higher as well as he charged in and cut one of the troll's legs.

It seemed to be the theme we relied on, making sure our enemies were immobilized before finishing them off. It seemed to be the logical course of action considering their superhuman strength and the fact that they were quite slow with their attacks.

Another arrow flew and pierced the crotch of one of them.

''That's just nasty, Seralyn.'' I spoke.

''Effective though, look at him.'' She answered with an evil smile.

The troll in question fell to his knees while covering his privates with his hands. I could see blood spill and was thankful they wore at least some kind of clothing.

I charged forward with Velariah on my back, ignoring the troll on the ground and going straight for the one with the arrow lodged in his forehead. It hadn't killed him but it caused him to be confused as he tried to pull the arrow out.

Our speed once again caused Velariah's sword to impact the troll's calf with great force and bits and pieces of his flesh flew in front of me. I turned around and noticed that the troll whose privates were damaged was still on the ground. I walked a circle around him and the troll whose leg was severely damaged, entangling them in at least some thread. That would slow them down while I put my attention to the two trolls that were bashing away at Draco's shield.

Draco seemed to hold his ground well, but his berserk mode wouldn't hold forever. He got a few cuts on the trolls here and there but nothing that would be fatal anytime soon, unless my venom started to kick in.

I charged from behind and the elf on my back inflicted a deep cut in the backside of the troll's knee.

Our fighting was just dirty. Dirty, but effective.

More screams filled the air, and I could see the last troll that hadn't been severely wounded in some way become angry with rage as his eyes started to glow red.

''Draco, watch out!'' I shouted.

The troll raised his large mace high above his head and brought it down with heavy force.

It impacted the ground but caused tremors to shoot through my legs. I became a bit unsteady for a while before I regained my footing.

In the distance I could see two more trolls running in our direction, drawn in by the screams and sounds of battle.

Seriously, how many were there?

''Behind you!" Draco shouted my way.

I wasn't going to bother checking what was going on behind me. Instead, I jumped forward from my previous position.

Not a moment too soon, it seemed. The troll whose privates were pierced hit the ground with his oversized hammer and caused more unsteadiness in my legs.

''Velariah, one more charge, then dismount.'' I said in reaction to the two upcoming trolls.

Draco wouldn't be able to hold two of them busy at the same time anymore, I could see his magic begin to fade as his scales started to turn back to his usual green. His heavy panting confirmed he was nearing the end of his strength.

''Draco, fall back!'' Velariah shouted as I walked away to start another run in the direction of one of the approaching trolls.

Seralyn shot another arrow, this one hit the belly of one of the two approaching trolls.

Draco received a full blow to his shield, the sound of the impact of stone on steel caused me to turn my attention to him instead.

He needed help, and fast.

Instead of charging at one of the approaching trolls, I turned my attention to the damaged crotch troll first.

''Velariah, double charge.'' I said loudly.

''Got it!'' she confirmed.

I ran towards the troll that had previously missed me at top speed. Velariah's sword cut out another piece of troll leg and her sword glowed red hot during the impact, setting the wound on fire. His screams were fading behind me as I was already sprinting towards the troll that was about to land another hit on Draco.

The other two trolls would be upon us soon and I saw another arrow flying their way. I could hear a scream and a thud, but didn't have time to look their way.

Our charge was effective once more, a little too much even. The troll was leaning a bit too much on the leg that Velariah sliced, which, combined with the speed of impact, caused the leg to almost come off cleanly. I took a look for a second as I lowered myself to the ground for Velariah to dismount and could see that his leg was held by a few sinews connecting it to his upper leg. It was bleeding profusely and seemed to cause him massive pain, judging from his deafening roar.

Draco moved away from the wounded troll and pulled out a red potion from his bag. He quickly chugged it down as Velariah and I ran out to meet the other two trolls.

It appeared one was ahead of the other. The second troll seemed to have dropped his weapon as I saw an arrow stick out of his eye.

Damn, Seralyn was just as nasty as us.

He ripped the arrow out of his skull which almost resulted in me vomiting. That was disgusting. Blood and gore erupted from his socket when he pulled it out and I could see his other eye glow with a deep red color.

I stopped spinning thread, deciding to conserve my strength. I had immobilized two trolls already and the other didn't seem like he was going to move anytime soon with that leg.

I took a quick look at what had happened so far. We had four trolls that were on the ground but not dead. One whose privates were pierced and had a cut in his leg, one with a large cut out of the backside of his knee, one whose lower leg was nearly chopped off and one troll with an arrow in his forehead and a cut in his calf who seemed to be entangled in my silk.

''Seralyn, take care of the guy in the web.'' I asked of the archer.

Because of his entanglement, Seralyn dared to walk up close and personal to the troll and fired an arrow into the troll's eye from point blank range, instantly killing him. She then repeated the same process for the other troll that got caught by the silken restraints.

Brutal.

She wasn't going to be so lucky with the other two. They could still move around, albeit very limited, and there was no reason to get up close and personal, one of them would soon die from exsanguination while the other was immobilized enough to ignore, for now.

Draco cut the other rear side of that specific troll with his axe as he seemed reinvigorated by the potion.

Nasty.

I took my spear in a firm grip and charged for the one troll that was slacking behind the other. With his eyesight already cut in half and my speed being fast as the wind, I had a little plan in mind.

Velariah was charging the troll that was further forward, another arrow soon flew in his direction but actually missed.

That was the first time I'd seen Seralyn miss a shot.

I ignored what happened and focused on the troll in front of me. He seemed to be preparing for me to charge his left side.

How wrong he was.

Moments before reaching him, I switch to his other side, causing his swing to miss entirely and I thrust my spear into his undamaged eye.

It would seem my training with Velariah had paid off. Even if the training wasn't that extensive, I could at least aim my spear far better than before.

I lost my spear in the process as it became stuck in his skull. It didn’t seem to have gone deep enough to instantly kill him either. He was left completely blinded and wildly swung his mace around while screaming.

I had to cover my ears from the screams as they actually hurt.

I wanted to finish this quickly before more reinforcements arrived and stuck my abdomen to the floor to start a new thread. I then ran a few circles around the troll, turning his legs into a sushi roll and soon had him fall to the ground.

He dropped his mace as he fell and I quickly snagged it away with all four of my arms.

That thing was heavy!

With the troll disarmed and immobilized I dared to step up to him. I pulled out my fangs and brought them down into his now eyeless sockets before filling them with a highly-pressurized stream of concentrated venom.

I left him alone after that to see how my companions were faring.

Draco and Velariah seemed like a great tag-team. The lizardman protected the elf from blows with his shield before Velariah struck. Her cuts didn't get nearly as deep as when she was mounted on me but her new sword still seemed to do a fair amount of work. The troll ended up with many cuts and blood flowing down from each and every one of those before falling to the ground and receiving the coup de grâce from the elf.

Well, I wasn't sure if you could call it that. She needed several blows before she was able to pierce his neck, though, I believe the first one would have already been fatal.

With the other trolls dead, that only left one alive. I turned my attention to the troll whose knees were cut from the rear side and found him lying still against a tree. I walked up to him carefully, but found him dead.

I assumed it was my venom that did the trick. It didn’t seem he had lost nearly as much blood as the other troll.

''You guys okay?'' I asked.

The thrill of battle slowly faded and we prepared to take some time to recuperate.

''I'm fine.'' Draco said.

''Same here.'' Velariah added.

''Yup.'' Seralyn concluded.

There was nowhere we could hide in the area, so if anymore trolls came, we would just have to deal with them. Fortunately, it didn't seem like more were coming our way. Seralyn excused herself for a minute as she walked behind a large tree. Draco in the meantime handed out some canteens of water, one of which I greedily emptied in its entirety.

''Anyone need an energy potion?'' Velariah offered.

I shook my head. I would still be fine. This was nothing compared to running from the Searing Peak to the village.

''Already took one earlier.'' Draco said.

Seralyn came walking back to us and took a canteen from Draco as well. I allowed the others to eat in peace as I went around the troll corpses collecting arrows. Some of them broke off from the arrowheads so I decided to only take the heads. It seemed they could be used again multiple times.

In the meantime, I also recovered my spear. It seemed the troll had died to my venom and I could see a nasty liquid leak out of his eyes. It seemed blood had mixed with venom and was now exiting his wound.

Disgusting.

Upon closer inspection of the arrowheads, I could see that they were hardly damaged. They still retained their sharpness and held a slight warmth to the touch. This Coldanus really had many years of experience under his belt, I concluded.

I handed the arrowheads to Seralyn who, strangely, thanked me for returning them.

We took several more minutes of rest before Draco and Velariah went around and cut off their ears. In the meantime, I walked back and picked up Draco's large double-bladed axe. I was amused with how fast he was getting used to his current ''weapon''. It seemed this axe would soon belong to the history books. It made me excited to see him in action once the other piece was finished.

I inspected the axe-shield and besides a few dents, it wasn't all too damaged. It left me surprised that such heavy blows only managed to make these tiny dents.

Enchanting combined with high quality metal sure seemed powerful.

In the end I decided to eat a few pieces of meat to replenish my silk. I had no idea how I was faring in that area. It was quite hard to keep track of how far I could go, but I wasn't feeling tired or hungry yet so I assumed I would be alright. Couldn’t hurt to make sure, though.

Besides, we weren't planning on staying here for long. It was somewhere in the afternoon right now, if we really wanted to, we could be back in the village somewhere within the evening.

We continued onward. Velariah was back on my back as a precaution. Our charge seemed to be mighty effective, after all!

Seralyn had commented on how easy Velariah had it, getting free rides and such, to which Velariah had commented that our effectiveness was undeniable.

The archer didn't seem to have a response to that.

We reached the clearing with the cave and I stopped dead in my tracks.

I didn’t even have time to reminisce on the past. There, in the middle of the clearing, was a woman bound to a thick wooden pole. The others seemed to stop to observe as well.

The first thing that I noticed about her was a set of large white-greyish wings connected to her shoulders. For a moment I thought she was some kind of angel until I looked further down. Instead of legs and feet, she had human upper legs which then gradually transformed into large bird-like feet, complete with large claws at the end, consisting of four ''toes'' for lack of better word. I had no idea what they were called. Three of them pointed towards the front and one slightly to the back, each of them had a large talon at their end that seemed deadly if provoked.

She had medium-length turquoise hair stopping at her shoulders and the feathers of same color sticking out from under her hair where her ears would be. I could make out that her clothes were completely torn and ragged.

What I believe was once a white shirt was almost gone completely and revealed a fair amount of skin. The same could be said for her pants, which were once brown shorts.

She seemed to be unconscious, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was what this world would consider to be a harpy. She wasn't like the harpies that I had read about. The one I knew had their arms fused together with their wings, she still had a set of arms free.

What the hell happened here after I left?

We slowly walked into the clearing. Seralyn at range and Draco in front. I was keeping some distance from Draco to be able to build up enough momentum for a charge, should we find ourself in a fight soon.

We found nothing in the surrounding area. We carefully stepped towards the bound harpy while scanning our environment. Draco reached her and a deep, loud laugh came from the cave.

We turned our attention towards the sound and saw a large troll stepping out of the shadows.

His skin was a dark green color instead of the blueish-grey that the others had. Around his neck was a chain with a dozen skulls. He, too had a mace that was far too large for any other soldier to wield. This one had a solid block of metal on top of the handle instead of stone, with spikes sticking out of the sides. Like the others, he didn’t wear any armor either, which only added to his intimidating aura. His tusks were quite a bit larger than the other trolls' as well.

There was no doubt in my mind. This was the troll warlord.

He uttered a stream of words at us in an incomprehensible language as Draco worked quickly to untie the harpy with his axe. It would seem she was captured by these trolls, poor thing. She seemed to be in need of healing as well.

Seralyn opened with a shot while the troll was still talking in his weird language. The arrow seemed to embed itself in his forehead but didn't cut nearly as deep as with the other trolls.

He frowned for a second before pulling the arrow out as if it were a mere sewing pin and flicked it away.

''Fuck.'' I uttered. ''Seems this guy is quite a bit tougher than the others. Seems this is up to us Velariah.''

I hoped our cavalry strategy would be enough to wound him enough for us to be able to finish him off. I started another line of silk and charged as another arrow flew past me.

I almost reached him but had to change course at the last second as his mace came crashing down. He seemed to be faster than the other trolls as well which kind of ruined my plan. I ran a circle around him instead and caught his feet in silk.

He barely even noticed it as he stood still as I came charging again. This time I was the one to change course and Velariah was quick to catch on. His swing completely missed as I strafed him from the other side. Velariah's swing however, did not. It cut in his leg a fair bit deeper than the arrow had gone and blood started to stream down, but this wouldn't nearly be enough.

I needed Draco's support.

I looked his way and saw he was almost done freeing the harpy.

The sound of another arrow drew my attention and I could see it hit the troll's back. The arrow head caught fire and seared his flesh.

The troll reached back with a hand to remove the arrow which caused me to initiate another charge. Velariah cut deeply into his hand which gripped the handle of his mace which was resting on the ground.

Not a bad idea, at all.

He screamed in pain and ignored the arrow. He picked up his mace again and tried to slam me but I was faster. The vibrations in the ground caused me to fall to the floor and Velariah quickly dismounted. I stopped creating thread. It would be too dangerous to continue doing that with the elf resorting to melee combat.

Once Draco was finished and held his attention, we could continue.

I needed this venom to do its work...

I stood up again and saw Velariah dancing around the troll's attacks which seemed to infuriate him. His eyes started to glow with a slight red color.

This could get nasty if this continued for too long.

Another arrow hit the troll's back and I wondered what Seralyn was aiming for.

Enlightenment hit me.

I think I knew what she was aiming for.

I stepped behind the troll who was fixated on Velariah. She managed to get a hit in between the attacks but nothing serious would come out of it. One of the cuts had caught fire which caused the troll to scream in rage and pain.

I struck my spear in his back as hard as I could and managed to actually penetrate a few centimeters. Another arrow soon followed suit. The troll's fixation wasn't easily broken and I managed to get a few more stabs here and there. More arrows started to adorn his back as well, he was slowly being turned into a pin cushion by Seralyn.

It appeared Draco finished freeing the trolls' captive and moved her away from the fighting before joining the fight himself. Velariah used the opportunity to step back and the heavy mace impacted Draco's shield. Thanks to the flexibility of the weapon, Draco managed to cut the troll warlord twice before he had to step aside to dodge an attack. In the meantime, I landed two more stabs as well.

Another arrow landed in his back of which the arrowhead promptly caught fire.

The troll finally broke his attention from what was in front of him and turned to me. Once I got his attention, I quickly started another sticky thread in the grass. I slowly walked away as he followed me. I kept my eyes on him to see how this would fare. He stepped into the silk and took several more steps without issue. I started to worry if it would work but eventually it seemed to cause him trouble moving as the threads became entangled around his feet and legs.

''Velariah, mount!'' I yelled at the elf.

I stopped the thread as I got the result I wanted: A semi-immobilized troll. This should make landing harder hits easier.

I lowered myself and had Velariah hop on my back. I took a good hold of her and created some distance while Draco was hacking away at the troll's exposed calves. The troll warlord stumbled to a knee and Seralyn ran a large circle around him to end up at his rear side before continuing her barrage of arrows.

The troll roared in rage and swung at Draco. The lizardman managed to block the attack but was thrown several meters backward from the impact.

Ouch.

Draco healed himself slightly with his magic, I could see a soft green light envelop him briefly before he transformed into his black-scaled form again. He charged at the troll's exposed leg once more and opened a fresh cut.

''Aim for his back Vel.'' I said to her in private. ''I believe I know what Seralyn is getting to.''

''Got it.'' She confirmed.

The troll was still down on a knee but raised his torso upward again and took another swing at Draco who was too fast and fell to the ground, ducking the attack.

This created the opening I was waiting for. I approached his exposed back with unrivaled speed and had Velariah swing. Her blade glowed hot red as she landed the blow.

A load scream from behind me confirmed that the blow had the desired effect.

I ran back as the troll stood up again.

Seralyn landed several more arrows in his back before she shouted.

''I'm out, get the arrows out and do your work Elania!''

''Gotcha!'' I shouted back.

''Your work?'' Velariah questioned.

''Vel, I need you to get the arrows out of his back with a well-aimed swing. You think you can do it?''

''I think I start to get the idea, and yes, I can do that.''

The troll seemed to be overcome with rage as his eyes now glowed fiery red. It took a swing at Draco who blocked the attack, but there was so much force behind the blow that the shield was slammed into his body with brute force. He flew through the air again before falling to his bum and screamed in pain.

''Draco, fall back!'' Seralyn shouted.

''Let's go Velariah.'' I told the white-haired elf.

I approached the troll from the side and Velariah held her sword up high, the blunt side forward.

I ran past his back and heard the impact of the sword on the wooden shafts of the arrows. I turned to see all but one arrow had fallen out of the troll's back. The now visible puncture wounds were several centimeters deep and there were many of them. In addition, there was a large, fairly deep cut from Velariah's attack. The flames of that attack had just now died out.

The troll approached Draco who was still down on the floor and struggling to get up.

I quickly ran behind him, pulled up my fangs, held them in my hands and aimed.

I shot another high-pressure stream of venom into the exposed wounds. I continued spraying each and every wound until I was completely out. The screams coming from the troll warlord made me think they had the desired effect. Now, we would allow the venom to run its course.

The problem was that the troll didn't seem to be stopping and Draco didn't seem to be able to get up.

I quickly ran past the troll into his direction and pinned my pedipalps under his shoulder blades and lifted him up so I could hold him with my human arms. Velariah held my belly tightly as I let go of her.

I was quick, but not quick enough. The troll brought down his mace and I could feel sensations disappearing from behind me. My movements became a bit wobbly and fear of what happened just now filled me. I got us out of immediate danger first while Velariah gasped.

Then, the pain set in.

I screamed. My mind almost went blank from the pain.

I kept going forward as fast as I could before collapsing to the ground in pain.

I looked behind me to see the troll still walking our way, albeit in a much slower manner, but what really made my heart race was the fact that the last of my legs on one side had been snapped in half.

The lower part of the leg that was the furthest back on my left side was missing and red blood dripped from where it was once connected.

Velariah jumped off me and reached into her pack. She pulled out a yellow and green potion and forced me to drink them.

The pain was overwhelming, but I still managed to ingest the liquids.

It did little to ease the pain...

My vision was flashing red and white.

''Finish the troll, Velariah.'' I spoke softly, no longer able to talk with a normal voice.

We wouldn't be safe until it was killed.

The knight looked over behind me.

''I think he's finished already.'' She said.

I looked behind me and saw the troll faceplanting the grass. A weird mix of blood and venom was leaking from his back.

I sighed in relief and soon found the pain overwhelm me.

I fucking hated trolls.

''Elania!'' Velariah's voice screaming my name was the last thing I heard as everything went black.