A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 134: Troll

Chapter 134: Troll

"I AM HERE!" The red troll announced in a deep growling voice. "AND I WILL KILL ALL YOU PATHETIC FOREST DWELLERS!!! AHAHAHAHAHA-"

He was cut off by a fist flying into his face, causing him to crash face first into the ground.

"You won’t be killing anyone." It was Dorrak, his body clad in streaks of lightning darting all over him.

"Hoho! A challenge! I’ll enjoy killing you! And when I’m done, I’ll be killing that little princess as well." The demon troll boasted arrogantly.

His words instantly sent Dorrak into a frenzy as he screamed, diving headfirst into the beast.

The troll laughed as he swung his mace towards Dorrak with a wide swing. The Minotaur just snorted and grabbed the mace with his hands, send lightning down the weapon and into the troll.

"YYAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!" He screamed out in pain as his body was subjected to torrents of lightning that covered him like a waterfall.

But despite all the pain and his body constantly shaking, he managed to throw a punch at Dorrak, throwing him off balance and stumbling back, letting go of the mace.

"AHAHAHAHA!!! I haven’t felt such pain in ages! You really are a worthy opponent!" He shouted in joy, tossing his weapon away as he started flexing his muscles before his body started to change and grow in size.

He started growing some grey horns from his head as his muscles started bulging out of his limbs. But before he could finish this transformation, he was punched in the face again, being planted in the ground once more.

And before he could cast a snarky remark, Dorrak went at him again, fists supercharged with power descending at the troll’s face like lightning.

Dorraks fist met the earth as the troll just barely managed to shift his head to the side. He kicked the Minotaur away and growled in frustration, no longer bothering to talk with him and instead just fighting.

They threw themselves at each other, fist met fist in constant head on collisions, shockwaves of air attempting to blow away the surroundings, including me.

I stood my ground and tried to restart the process of cancelling the ritual but could barely concentrate with all the noise and the constant force of the wind.

Soon the others had finished of the inhabitants of this camp and all that was left was this troll.

And before they could engage with the troll, Dorrak yelled at them, "Stay back! You can’t take him! You’ll only be killed!"

They all held back before they all converged around me.

"What are you doing here? I told you to stay back didn’t I?" The Darkhide patriarch scolded me for coming here.

I couldn’t respond as I was trying my hardest to concentrate on the inscription I was creating. But with everything that was happening around me, I just couldn’t focus properly.

The inscriptions I was making shattered for the second time and the frustration was reaching me. And it clearly showed.

"Traytora! What’s wrong?" The dryad asked her voice filled fear and worry.

’I can’t concentrate.’ I told them. ’I can’t stop it, it’s too much right now.’

"Well if you can’t stop it, then what are we supposed to do about it, I’m assuming by the way that the fact that it’s glowing is a bad sign." A wolf-kin quarrelled.

’I don’t know!’ I said, grasping my head as the stress started getting to me.

"Do you at least know what it is?" The Darkhide patriarch asked frantically.

’Not really, I just know that it’s powered with souls and is supposed to empower something or someone, but what or who I don’t know.’ I explained what I knew in the most basic way I could so that they would understand.

"We should fall back! Dorrak! Keep him busy!" The patriarch ordered.

"OH NO YOU DON’T!" The troll tried to stop us from leaving but he was stopped by Dorrak.

We all then rushed out of the camp as Dorrak held the troll busy.

"We’ll regroup and kill the demons in the forest from behind and then take the strongest warriors back there to deal with that thing and hopefully stop that ritual from activating!" The patriarch instructed.

I stopped them so that I could advise them against that, ’No! We have to order a retreat immediately otherwise we’ll just fuel the ritual with the souls of those we kill. I never got a read on how wide the range of its soul pulling was, so who knows how large it is."

The Darkhide patriarch seemed to contemplate my words but I urged him to just do as I said, as the more demons killed, the closer they were to their goal.

"Fine we’ll order a retre-"

He couldn’t finish his sentence as a blinding light came from the direction of the demon’s camp before a pure red pillar of infernal energy shot up into the night sky.

The colour drained from my face as I realised that we were too late. They got enough souls.

That wasn’t the worst thing though, as a second red light, smaller than the first but no less menacing, erupted off in the distance.

"FUCK! That’s in the direction of Athenela!" The patriarch yelled in panic.

All the colour had drained from my face when I heard that. And then it clicked, the cult I heard about, Arfos’ weird behaviour and now this empowerment ritual.

They have summoned a monstrosity from hell right in the middle of the city. We could clearly hear the roar of the beast even from here.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!"

And as the fear within me kept growing, the sounds of the monster destroying the city could be heard along with a cacophony of screams.

None of us were able to react due to the dread that was induced by the fact that we let this happen, our bodies trembling and sweating from this horrible feeling of despair.

But the worst part was when my heart felt like someone or something was pulling at it in terror. It took me a second to figure out what it was and I realised that it was coming from the ring I gave Cythistia.

That was enough to break me out of my stupor, the fear of losing her greater than my fear of anything else.

I slithered across the forest as fast as I could, ignoring anything and anyone I saw, be it friend or foe, I just flew past them, uncaring of anything else.

I was basically hoping, no, praying that she would be okay. I don’t know which god would answer my prayers, I just hoped that they did.