"Last chance, Lance. Join us, and we'll reclaim the kingdom together."
"I'd rather die trying to cut you down than join anything you fake knights have created."
There was frustration in his tone. Disappointment, too. Now he had realized his mistake.
Hogan's grip loosened on my back. But before I could recover, the troll swung its massive tree-club straight into the house we stood on.
The building didn't just break—it disintegrated. The entire structure gave way in a deafening crash, beams and bricks scattering like dry leaves. The force of impact sent us hurtling through open air, the wind roaring past my ears.
If that club had hit me directly, I'd be dead. No question. But I wasn't.
Because Hogan—quick-thinking, red-haired Hogan—had yanked me back just in time.
We were still falling, though. And with the house gone, there was nothing beneath us but empty space and hard ground rushing up to meet us.
The troll was already raising its club for another swing, intent on swatting us midair like insects.
"Mage!"
"On it!"
A split-second before impact, the air warped.
Everything shifted. The troll, the club, the falling debris—it all twisted away, vanishing in a blur of distorted space.
A moment later, I landed hard on my back, the impact jarring through my spine. Solid ground beneath me. Concrete, not rubble.
I blinked, vision swimming. We had teleported.
Again.
I rolled onto my side, sucking in a breath. The world spun with lingering vertigo, but we were alive.
"So that pesky magic of yours is why your group has been so much trouble, huh?"
The voice was thick, guttural.
I turned my head.
The troll had already left the ruins of the house, stepping into the open like the collapsing building hadn't even phased it. Dust and debris still clung to its massive form, but it didn't seem to care.
No time to talk.
"Lessa! Liel!"
Two arrows shot through the air, striking the troll's shoulders and thighs. They hit their mark—but the thick skin barely let the shafts sink in.
The troll grinned.
"This ends now. Besides, I'm tired of spiders. Hogs are tougher to chew through. You lot'll make a perfect morning snack."
It licked its crude lips.
Now that I had a moment to actually look at the thing, I took in just how enormous it was.
The beast stood several stories tall, easily towering over us. In its grip, the tree-club it wielded was only half its height—and still, it dwarfed anything we had.
We'd been in bad situations before. Worse ones, even.
But we'd always relied on Mage's teleportation to escape. It was our wild card, the trick enemies never saw coming.
The problem?
This troll had seen it. And it wasn't impressed.
Think, Bolton. Think!
Mage had already used three warps in the past hour. Three.
One to teleport into my workshop.
One to escape from Ralph.
One just now, to keep us from getting flattened.
She had five left before she burned out.
We had to make them count.
I needed a plan—
Thwip.
An arrow buried itself deep into the troll's chest.
Another followed, slicing into its thick neck.
Then one more—straight into its groin.
The troll barely reacted. It flinched, yes, but nothing serious.
Then the fourth arrow struck home.
Straight through the eye.
The reaction was instant.
"My eye!"
The beast staggered back, clutching its eye socket as blood seeped through its thick fingers. It should've been retreating. It should've given up.
Instead, it only got angrier.
"You're going to pay for that!" it roared. "I'll tear you limb from limb!"
The elf girl—Fee, if I recalled correctly—drew her bow and loosed another arrow, her voice sharp. "Shut up if you want to keep the other eye."
That wouldn't stop this stubborn troll.
I recalculated the situation. New variables had joined the fray—the knight, the lumberjack, the wolf, the elf. Our odds had improved, but not enough to take this thing down outright.
The troll lunged, slamming its massive club into the ground. The impact split the stone street, sending jagged shards of rock and wood flying in all directions.
"Come on, Meili," the knight—Kevin, I think his name was—called, scooping the little girl into his arms and rolling away just in time. The rest of us scrambled in different directions, barely avoiding being flattened.
We had to conserve our space warps. We had five left, and I wasn't about to waste one just to reposition. We needed a real solution.
"Mage. Light."
"On it, bro."
A beam of burning white light shot from Mage's staff, striking the troll directly in its remaining eye. The spell sizzled against its flesh, blinding it with a furious hiss of smoke.
"PrideFall knight, you have the floor," I called.
Kevin hesitated for just a second before forcing confidence into his voice. "Ahh, this is way harder than the one we fought in the forest, right, Fee?" He forced a nervous laugh, then snapped into focus. "Alright! Hogan, take the flank! Fee, cover me!"
The lumberjack rushed in first, using his raw strength to bury his axe into the troll's back. The beast roared in pain, swinging wildly—but that gave Kevin the opening he needed. He lunged in, slashing across its arm, while Fee pelted its exposed side with arrows.
But it wasn't enough. The cuts were too shallow, the arrows barely lodged in its thick hide. No vital injuries.
If this dragged on, reinforcements would come. We had to end this now.
"Bolton?"
"On it, Mage."
It was my turn.
I focused, gathering the energy I needed for the only spell I had perfected beyond all others.
Breathe in. Separate the positive and negative particles in the air. Channel everything to my fingertip.
The air thickened, charged with static. Tiny sparks danced along my arm as the familiar sensation of raw energy coiled at my command.
A sphere of electricity formed at my fingertip.
"Lightning Strike."
The words left my lips, and the world crackled to life. A bolt of searing blue energy lanced forward, streaking toward the troll's exposed chest. It struck with a deafening clap, sending a shockwave rippling through the battlefield. The troll's body jerked violently, its massive frame shuddering as the charge coursed through it.
And then, everything went black.
My head throbbed. My vision swam with dark spots. The scent of scorched air still clung to my nose.
A voice cut through the haze.
"Wake up, Bolty."
I recognized it instantly. Mage.
The morning sun gleamed overhead, casting long shadows. And somewhere above me—swords clashed, voices shouted, and something heavy growled in frustration.
The fight wasn't over.
"Ugh." My fingers still tingled, and my head pounded from the spell. "How long was I out?"
"Thirty seconds," Mage said smugly.
Ugh. I thought everything would be over by the time I woke up.
"Your fainting times have gotten shorter. You know you can just use my arcane crystals, right?"
No. I would do this the pure way. "It's fine," I muttered, forcing myself up.
The troll lay sprawled on the ground, smoke still rising from its scorched skin. Its massive limbs twitched, its fingers flexing unconsciously. But the steady rise and fall of its chest told me it was still alive. Any human, spider, or hog would have died from that lightning strike. This thing, however, was built differently.
"You guys finish it off." I waved a hand toward the downed troll, my attention already shifting to the real fight.
Lancelot and Ralph had been clashing steel the entire time. Even with only one functional arm and an enraged hog snapping at him, Lance dodged every attack, countering with a level of precision that was almost unreal. No wonder he was considered the strongest knight in PrideFall.
"Give up, Lancelot!" Ralph barked, pushing his hog forward as he launched another strike. "The kingdom is finished! There's nothing left to save!"
Lancelot parried effortlessly, his shield absorbing the impact. "Not as long as I'm here."
The hog snorted, lowering its head before charging. Lancelot barely had time to raise his shield. The force of the impact shoved him back, his boots scraping against the stone as he was driven toward a wall.
Could he break out of this deadlock?
Yes.
He jumped—lightning-fast. His foot hit the wall, and he pushed off, twisting mid-air before landing a downward slash at Ralph.
But Ralph saw it coming. He ducked, barely dodging the strike.
Maybe Lancelot had anticipated that too—because the moment his feet hit the ground, his blade shot forward, stabbing into the hog's hind leg.
CRACK.
The beast shrieked in pain, its leg giving out beneath it.
Good. Now it couldn't run.
With its balance shattered, the hog stumbled, nearly throwing Ralph off its back. He barely avoided Lancelot's follow-up strike but still took a shallow cut across his lower back.
"Ah, shoot. Not that again." Hogan groaned, pressing his hands over his ears as the hog let out an agonized, ear-splitting bellow.
We all knew what that meant.
Reinforcements were coming.
"Lancelot! We need to leave! Now!" Mage called out.
She could warp us again, but was it enough to reach the hideout?
Lancelot exhaled, blade still pointed at Ralph. He could finish him right now.
"What?" Ralph scoffed, wiping the blood from his side. "You're running already? Just like you ran from the kingdom when the slime invaded?"
Lancelot's grip tightened on his sword.
"I didn't run." His voice was steady, knightly as ever. "I was on a mission to find a way to save the kingdom. Unlike you false knights."
Ralph sneered. "Save the kingdom? You couldn't even do that! If you really wanted to save it, the King and the Duke wouldn't be missing, and the Queen wouldn't be dead!"