We heard their heavy steps coming closer. The breathing of the trolls showed they were carrying heavy armor. Then I saw them, like two giants metal towers advancing slowly on each side of the cavern, 5-6 meters in front of the sorcerer, scrutinizing the area carefully. A fourth person that I did not hear before was following him. He had a very light step.

“Stop, stop!” - the sorcerer commanded, alarmed. Looking around, moving slow and taking air as if he would be sniffing, he added - “I feel heavy magic around. Heavy magic... Too heavy magic... Retreat!”

Fuck. A mage that can feel magic like an assassin does. Like I do.

I saw now the fourth person: an orc rogue. I bet the Lynx had heard him before me, but he could not tell since we separated.

The trolls grunted. One of them hit his shield with his heavy mace sending gong-stroke-like noises through the cavern, whilst the other troll was looking ferociously around, balancing the heavy two-handed hammer that would crash a rhinoceros head like a potato. Hell, I would not feel safe in an armored transporter, with that thing moving around.

“Grunt! Grunt!”

I was wondering, do they check for hidden magic with sound waves like a bat would do?

A voice murmured in my head:

“Evolved trolls!”

Evolved? As if fucking common trolls would not have been enough trouble?

“Denisa!”

The sorcerer turned toward the fourth person.

“Call the others. We might need all hands to clean this part!”

Denisa turned, ready to leave, but I teleported into her side before she managed to make any steps further.

>

No, you won't call the others!

Maybe I made an error. Maybe I shouldn't have attacked. Maybe the sorcerer had only 'smelled' the wolshi which was strangely silent the last time. I don't know why I was so convinced that the sorcerer was speaking about us. If he would have assumed rational beings here, would he give an order that they could hear? Would he not retreat first?

Maybe, maybe, maybe... I did attack, and now I have to bring this to the bitter end.

The rogue quacked under the heavy foot strike, almost like a duck, and tried to evade, but I followed immediately with a poisoned katar hit. I was using paralyzing venom. Good that I let Cala's instincts prepare all. The rogue must have had some resistance to it, as she was able to move, making further evading steps but slow. Too slow. I was on her and decapitated her with a swift movement.

One done, three left.

The others did not stay idle whilst I fought the rogue. After the first moment of shock, the sorcerer blasted me with a strong ice spell. I partially resisted it, and I executed the rogue in the next movement, but the sorcerer chained with another ice blast and teleported away.

The first strike was only a preparatory strike. I was now partially frozen, glued to the floor with two giants steel towers closing in on me, with two maces like incoming meteors.

The fairy screamed in my head:

"Give me the lead!!"

I hesitated for a moment. That hesitation could have cost me my life then and there. Why should I give her the lead? I tried to free myself with > but in vain. It did give me a little more mobility within my ice confinement, but it did not free me.

I heard the sonic boom of a targeted arrow that exploded next in the ice armor of the mage with another bang.

It seemed that the mage had Grackak's level ice armor, as it was not shattered by Alice's arrow.

The Lynx jumped in the back of one of the trolls, but the one with the two-handed hammer was on me.

"You're in lead! Take the lead!"

The fuck it did not work.

"You're in lead!" I screamed just as the hammer was booming toward my face, and suddenly I lost control of my limbs.

A giant fire explosion shattered the cavern, but the hammer still got my shoulder. White Flower has not been fast enough to move, and my shoulder and left leg were transformed into reddish jello. Well, she did move my head from the trajectory, I have to give her that.

The troll screamed, raising his hammer again whilst I was healed. Strange thing to see the jelly transforming back into limbs almost at the same speed. The sorcerer shot another ice spell at me, but the fire around me extinguished it even before it touched me.

Were these two spells that the fairy had said at the same time? She stepped fast backward, and she shot another two fireballs, one at the mage and the other at the troll.

The mage teleported away, and that fireball missed. The troll just took it in his face with a heavy grunt, raising again his hammer to strike me. Fuck, what is this for a beast to ignore a fireball like this. Meanwhile, the Lynx was ferociously fighting the other troll.

I had to roll over to avoid the hammer. It was not a perfect roll, as Cala would have done it, but still good enough to avoid the terrible hit. The fireball seemed to be at least somehow inconvenient for the troll as his aim was a little off. The meteor-hammer struck the ground with such force that the cavern shook, sand and pebbles falling from the ceiling.

The mage and Alice were meanwhile exchanging fire and, at a moment, Alice hat to hide behind a rock to avoid a direct hit. The mage used the moment to hit the Lynx with a spell. That spell slowed the Lynx enough for the troll to be able to hit him with his mace, sending the Lynx flying backward.

Fuck.

White Flower sent a terrible thunder that shattered the troll, immobilizing it for a couple of seconds, but that was a second of inattention that did cost me my ribs. My whole thorax was transformed into pasta from another hit with that mace, and I flew now backward.

Fuck, I feared I'll remain glued to that mace like a squashed bug. Fuck! White Flower is a mage, she is not good enough for a direct body-to-body fight. She should keep her distance from these roaming catapults. Cala would have never got hitten by that thing. If that blows my head, I am done.

"Don't stay like that, move!! Let Cala's instincts take over!!"

I have to give it to her, she healed me whilst I was still flying, ignoring my rant. I flew about 8 meters and crashed against the cavern's wall, but even there, hanging at the wall, she sent another double fireball, one at the mage and the other at the troll that had catapulted me. Both screamed furiously under the hit, whilst another sonic boom shattered the cave, and this time the arrow penetrated the mage's armor.

The mage screamed, hiding behind some boulders.

"Per Mephisto!!"

I yelled in my mind:

"Let me lead!"

I was confused for a short moment, lying against the wall, then I realized I was in lead. I had seen that the Lynx was having a hard time trying to stand up, whilst the troll was recovering from White Flower's thunder. I had to help him before it was too late.

Alice was now shooting at 'my' troll whilst the mage was recovering behind those damn boulders.

>

I should have healed myself before, but now a heal would take me out of the speed spell. So I ignored the pained muscles and possibly cracked bones from the hit against the wall and ran as fast as I could to the Lynx, healing him, just in time for him to avoid the next mace hit.

He disappeared to my left towards the other troll that was trying to corner Alice, and I speeded up towards the mage who was just coming out of his hideout.

The second troll turned, furious that the Lynx had escaped, following with heavy steps behind him.

Before the mage could say a spell, I sent him a >. This took me out of my speed spell and made me almost trip over my own feet but blocked him. He swore again, shaking his head.

"Per Mephisto!!"

I healed myself whilst I closed the next two steps towards him, but before I got there, he teleported away. As I turned, I yelled again:

"You lead!"

I said that guessing she would have a spell prepared, but she was for a moment confused. The next moment she took over, and a terrible fireball engulfed the troll. Yes, that was more than what I hoped, as the troll fell on his ass with a pained grunt, but now the mage blasted Alice with an ice spell that she could not avoid.

Another giant fireball went towards the mage, but he teleported away just a fraction of a second before being engulfed by it. The fireball shattered the cave, boulders falling all over, and the next moment the spell hiding Spartacius and Tina disintegrated. Oh, fuck!

Spartacius ran away, dragging Tina behind him, protecting both of them with a shield.

Alice drank an elixir that helped her recover and avoid the next blast from the mage. The troll that had tried to corner her, the troll that White Flower had previously sent flying backward with a fireball, was now being attacked by the Lynx, whilst the other troll was chasing after Spartacius and Tina.

Fuck I need to do something about that!

Another set of arrows fizzled on the sorcerer's renewed ice barrier.

I realized with horror that this fight might take long, the trolls' regenerative power fighting against our damage whilst the sorcerer was very strong and seemed to have an enormous mana-well. He seemed to have many spells of an ice-mage, but a more fluid and fast way to spell.

One error and we are doomed.