Chapter 18-Troll!

We moved through the night with our torches shining the path for us. Most of us stayed quiet in the hopes that we could attract less attention. However I was the constantly observing my surroundings with the thought that we could become ambushed at any time. My mind raced with the words Cade had told me.

No matter what he told me I couldn't completely trust his words. Sure he had plausible reasoning pertaining to some of the more specific questions I had like why I hadn't been attack when I was young. However I felt that he wasn't giving me the entire truth.

He had said that the monsters were after my blood, but that didn't make that much sense. If monsters were after my bloodline then wouldn't mother and father have been swarmed by waves of monsters long before I was born? Then again he did say that it wasn't until recently they discovered the anomalies of reincarnations. And he never explained to me how he came to find the term 'reincarnation'. There were too many holes in Cade's speech to trust him.

However the fact that monsters are targeting something about me is a problem I can't ignore. I would have to find out what exactly later because I need to focus on what I need to do to insure mother's safety. The first thing to do would be to distance myself away from her to avoid dragging her into the monsters that will chase me. And it's not like I plan to leave her in the care of my absent father, much less the untrustworthy Cade.

The problem was I never saw Cade attack during the Nightstalker ordeal so I am in the dark about his actual strength, but if we were just to go off of the amount of mana he wouldn't lose out to Harold. And going off the abilities Harold had showed, such as his storm of ice, I'd be hard pressed to confront him unless I had sufficient planning and even then the chances of success aren't guaranteed since he is definitely not as reckless as the giant Nightstalker. As such I decided that I need eyes on the inside to make sure mother is protected while I build up my strength for my inevitable return. I will either force answers out or find out on my own.

However the problem of who I can get to protect mother and give me inside information would need to be settled in these two days. While formulating my plan and thinking through how I'm going to convince my candidates I feel a tug on my right arm and find Cooper looking at me.

"What?" Cooper was studying the cultivation technique that I gave him, so I guessed that he had a question pertaining to it.

"Monster." Cooper said while pointing towards a tree stump 7 feet ahead of us. It was barely illuminated by the torches we held, and since we were shrouded in the blackness of night no one would pay much attention to a random tree stump.

I was about to ask him what he meant since none of the soldiers reacted to the stump when I saw Jared jump towards the stump and stab his sword downwards into the ground around it. The ground burst open in response and a loud roar came with it. A large silhouette slowly rose out of the ground with the tree stump anchored to it's hunched back.

"Stump Troll! Torches quickly!!" Jared had beautifully leapt away before the Stump Troll had burst out of the ground. The knights quickly reacted to Jared's words and they surrounded the Stump Troll in a crescent formation illuminating its features.

The tree stump that was fused to its large hunched shoulders was one of it's most striking features. The height of the beast reached around 8 foot with brownish skin similar to fresh dirt. The troll had stones and gravel imbedded in it's skin while clumps of dirt fell off as it rose its body out of the ground. The troll had large arms and legs that resembled large tree trunks and its body had a rounded belly making it look like it just swallowed a boulder whole. The troll had what looked to be a small head that was positioned underneath the roots of the stump with two pebbles inserted where its eyes would be.

I was shocked. Not because of its appearance, but the fact that I couldn't even sense it even when we were so close! The fact that the only two who noticed such a large monster were both Cooper and Jared took me by surprise. Jared was a knight captain, so he should be able to identify the monster. However Cooper was no older than me and yet he could accurately point out that that stump was a monster. I remembered that Cooper also pointed out the Nightstalkers when I first met him I gave a slight grin. It looks like I underestimated him again.

"Shush, it's still asleep." Jared said in a hushed tone as he motioned for his knights to stop. His words confused me greatly. Wasn't the Troll already standing? Hadn't he already stabbed it?

The Troll roared again and I expected Jared to react with a preemptive attack as I warmed up my body. However no one moved. Not Jared nor his subordinates. Not even the Troll. We just stood there in silence. I soon realized that that could've just been it snoring. However I didn't have time to differentiate roars and snores as I prepped my body and waited for the Troll to start charging me.

Contrary to my predictions the Troll began to walk away into the darkness with heavy steps, but when it looked like it had forgotten about us a sound akin to the cracking of bones rang out. Then the Troll turned around with an uncharacteristic speed and I saw a bulging bloodshot eye seen inside the tree trunk on its back. The eye eerily roved around for awhile and seemed to lock onto me.

Then it opened the mouth on its small head and a roar that sounded much deeper than the last two. It pounded the ground with its largest legs and tore a path to me.

"Move!!" Jared's yelled under the sounds of the charging Troll and the knight scrambled out of its way. I was already moving out of its immediate path as I was wondering why its reaction to me was so late. Cooper was sticking close to me while looking at the Troll with eyes filled with interest instead of fear.

I took some fire from the torches in the knight's hands and formed a ball of crude flame roughly the size of a head. The knights reacted quickly and some took up two torches and waved them rapidly around the Troll while others were circling around it looking for any openings to insert their swords. They moved under the leadership of Jared as I stared in amazement at his commanding skills. I extinguished my ball of flames when I realized that I wouldn't be needed in this one sided fight. It looked like it kept trying to come over in my direction, but whenever it turned its attention away from the encirclement it would receive a well timed sword into its side. Soon the rampaging Troll forfeited its life as a knight plunged their sword into its bloodshot eye on its tree stump.

After Jared made sure the Troll had died he spoke to two knights holding torches and they ran off ahead of us. He came over here while cleaning the blood from his sword and armor.

"Impressed?" He said with a grin. I simply nodded in response. I understand his talent in leading other better than others since I had once been a soldier.

"Anyways I'm pretty sure you also noticed, but why did that Stump Troll keep on trying to get to you?" Jared's grin had faded and a serious expression that he only used when he was commanding took over his face.

"I don't mind telling you, but didn't Cade already explain it to you?" I was confused at his question. I had expected Cade to have told him earlier. My distrust in Cade rose a little as I checked our surroundings I waited for it to only be Jared, Cooper, and I to begin to narrate who I am. I told him that because I had been reborn into this world monsters want me. I told him most of what Cade told me and ran the word 'reincarnation' by him, but he didn't seem to know what I meant.

"I see, so you have the memories of your past life and for some reason you are now being chased by monsters. That explains why the Troll woke up so abruptly... now is this the reason you are choosing to play dead? Ah don't worry about us speaking about you we are under a spell by sir Cade that restricts us from bringing it up to those who don't know." Jared spoke again and quelled my worries about someone spilling the information about me faking my death. I also took note that Cade's magic might have something to do with affecting the mind. A dangerous individual indeed.

"Part of it, I want to keep mother away from the dangers that will surround me, and I also don't want to get involved in being the prince of Thant kingdom. However I have a proposal for you; would you be willing to listen?" I said and quickly glossed over the reasons of my departure. He gave me a quizzical look and nodded for me to continue.

"I do not trust Cade much less the nobles of the kingdom. Can you possibly become my eyes and ears on the military matters? And whenever possible inform me on mother's condition?" I was never one to draw things out and directly gave him my thoughts.

"You do realize that I am a knight captain aligned with being a noble's guard. I could report you for treason just from your words alone. Protecting you mother is one thing, but you want me to spy for you?" Jared gave a smile and stated. He didn't really accept or deny my request, so I switched to a different method.

"So what, it's not like I'll raise an army and take over Thant. I just would like to know. As for mother's protection that is what I require more. You'd be best since I trust you and your personality seems to be more aligned to the protection of your men and the completion of your mission." Jared's smile didn't change throughout my explanation and when I finished he held out his hand.

"I'll help protect your mother as for giving you information on our military I can't give you anything too secret, but if it is just common knowledge I don't mind giving that away. You only need to know who we're attacking or who's attacking isn't that right?" I gave him a smile in the form of a response as I grasped him hand firmly. He asked how he would get in contact with him and I gave him a simple message transferring formation that every immortal learns and just needs a small bit of mana to activate.

After a little bit of explaining and showing him how it works Jared left and I easily gained a protector for mother. I turned to Cooper who had silently stayed by my side to find him drawing on a small piece of paper. Apparently the reveal of my identity didn't warrant any reaction from him and writing about the newly encountered Stump Troll was more important.

Jared suggested that the group rest due to some injuries caused by the fight with the Stump Troll earlier. And we waited for the sun to come up and illuminate our way before we returned to our journey. However I kept thinking about how the Stump Troll took awhile to notice me. I hoped that we'd meet another alone one so I can test my theories.