The Sprite & the Fairyhunter:  Quality Time

 

Room 11 (The Troll)

 

As far as Neena was concerned, THIS was just dirty pool.

The monster loomed over both of them, its entire aura radiating harm to others, and she knew they were in trouble.

Or more importantly, Adrian was in trouble.

She’d never had a problem jumping behind things and attacking them, but this was usually because she’d never had to worry about using luck. She had enough actual skill at fighting and sneak attacking, as well as a natural ability to hide, to make the idea of being touched by any of these creatures a VERY remote possibility.

Adrian, on the other hand, had always possessed some amazing skills with his rapier, but had also always had the ability to just be…well, not where the death strike was when it was dealt. And frankly, the rest of the beasts they’d fought thus far had at least been an equal or even lesser match for the two of them. She’d only been REALLY worried when she’d thought she’d have to kill that innocent Asperi…

But this was a TROLL. Neither of them had EVER fought something that could regenerate itself before. What good was slicing into a beast if it was just going to pick up its parts and put them back on again as if nothing happened???

Olidammara was definitely not in control anymore, not with a monster like this. Whoever had done this was playing for keeps.

“Get back, Neena!” she heard Adrian yell, just before he backed up, arrow nocked in his bow. He fired a shot off, then in classic Adrian style, slipped backward and hit the stone floor, causing his second shot to embed in the ceiling. In horror, she watched the now enraged troll lumber toward her husband. Without thinking, she charged the beast herself, Frost and Flame drawn in front of her as she moved in for a fly-by.

Had she been thinking clearly, she might have hidden herself first and avoided the holiday rush, which came in the form of a huge fist knocking her back to the ground next to Adrian. She turned her head to look at him, who mirrored her look of shock before facing the beast again. With a roar that was obviously meant to be a battle cry, he sat up and fired two more arrows, this time right into the troll’s face.

His determination to protect her made her heart swell. If he thinks he can do it, she thought, leaping to her feet and zooming between the legs of the blinded beast, then who am I to tell him otherwise? She watched Adrian duck and weave, throwing his bow aside to slash into the troll’s chest fervently with his rapier. She did the same, finally plunging Frost, then Flame into the troll’s kidneys. She ducked, just as Adrian’s rapier slid out from the troll’s back, just above her head.

For a moment, the troll stood wavering, gurgling a death knell as Neena leaned to one side to see her husband. His head appeared from around the monster with a half smile. “We gotta stop meeting like this,” he said, arching an eyebrow seriously. “People are gonna talk.” He yanked his rapier from the troll’s chest to let it fall down dead, just as Neena pulled her thinblades from the corpse to rush into Adrian’s arms.

“That was a little close,” he gasped, sinking to the floor as he hugged her back.

“Too close,” she replied predictably, hugging his head now that he was more level with her shorter figure. “I thought it was going to regenerate on us.”

“I don’t think we gave it much time to do that,” Adrian said wryly.

“We DID hit it pretty fast and furious,” Neena agreed. She paused, then swallowed. “Think whatever’s next is worse than that?”

Adrian nodded. “It has to be,” he replied. “If this were over, we’d be heading home now. Besides, have you ever been in a dungeon where things didn’t get progressively worse?” She shook her head no and he sighed. “Let’s just hope the LAST door is coming soon.”

“Don’t say last like that,” she shuddered.

“Final door? Door signaling the end of all doors? The exit?”

“That last one will work,” she nodded. “We’re looking for the EXIT.”

“Which will be the next door?”

“Next door,” she agreed, but she could tell by his tone that neither of them really believed it…

 

 

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