Close Call

“Groughhhhhh!” The trolls' drool strings fell over my face as I watched Freya, helpless to do anything. I never thought I’d be so useless in a battle of strength.

Get off me… damn it!

Rorick's face flooded my mind as I imagined what would happen if I couldn’t save Freya. Rage boiled up from a pit in my chest, and I raised myself a bit, only to ultimately fall again.

Damn it all to hell! What good am I, if I can’t even protect one person?!!!

Freya’s screams melted under the grotesque, nonsensical babbling of the troll that stood over her. The troll attacking her dragged her across the floor and, with a wild swing, threw her into the wall. Blood filled her mouth, and my vision darkened.

No… Stop it, please!!!! I clutched the ground and used my Greater Earth Manipulation skill to morph the ground beneath me into mud. The troll's weight shifted as it tried to keep its balance, then fell off as I threw my weight from under it.

Trapped in the mud, it thrashed and squirmed, sinking deeper into the dirt.

I had no chance of concentrating on a skill if I had that weight on me. Once free, my mana already got to work, and I activated the skills.

My hand rose forward to aim. I didn’t want to attack from such a far range before, but I saw no other options.

Magic circles opened up on the ground around me as I rolled onto my feet. Spiralled dirt hardened and focused into small drill heads from the ground around me. I poured everything I could into each one, then fired them out with terrifying speeds.

Small holes tore open in the troll's knees and gut. Its arms and wrist were the next to go, and Freya dropped to the ground. She coughed up blood as her body slammed against the floor and lay there, still.

Freya! Please be okay!

I rushed over and hesitated to touch her, afraid that she’d shatter if I so much as tapped her. She was covered in bruises and her own blood. It was a miracle she could even breathe after all that had happened.

The health bar above her head was in the red, barely anything left. She was in rough condition to say the least, but I wasn't sure how to react. I froze.

“M-my…bag…pot…potions…” Her finger twitched towards the bag that clung to her waist. I followed her order and took out the vial that contained dim, green liquids and poured it over her.

I never thought I'd be so happy to see them. I was glad she spent as much as she did.

Some colour returned to her face as the green glow took effect over her body. The wounds around her ribs and chest closed up, and her eyes fluttered open with some struggle.

The damp spots from where I poured it nearly dried in an instant under the green hue.

“Cough! Cough! I never… want to go into a dungeon…again.” She wiped the blood from her lips as she spoke.

I watched as the red of her health bar slowly rose to orange and then to a slight green. She had regained almost half her maximum health points from those potions, but she wasn’t completely recovered.

I wish I could have used more, but that's not exactly an option here. I only managed to use two on her, since three of the initial sum were broken from her getting tossed around.

The dark room at the end of the corridor resonated with an eerie presence that made my stone body shiver. It was where all the monsters had charged out of, and the only room left to enter. I didn’t want to go in there. No matter what, I wished I could have turned back. But it was way past the time for those thoughts. What we needed now was a game plan.

“Thanks for the save back there.” Freya offered a half smile and sat down beside me. “I hate to say it, but we should carry on and finish off the boss. It’s the only way to get out of here.”

She nearly got killed, and we hadn’t even seen the boss yet. My mind raced to think of other options, but all of them came to the same conclusion. It was way too dangerous for Freya, maybe even for me.

“Groaaah! Grooooooaaah!!” The troll rolled through the mud, half-buried.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about this guy when I went to help Freya. I should save my mana and beat him with my hands. I walked over and felt Freya tug on my shoulder.

“Wait, what if we can use it? Let's keep it alive and experiment a bit.” She said with sincerity. “I know I nearly died before, but that was because I was under that weird spell. I want to try out some magic on him and learn what we’re going up against.” Her grip on her staff trembled, but her expression told me she meant it.

I couldn’t exactly argue after showing me that kind of resolve. Still, I was a bit anxious. They could return at any moment and flood the room with even more monsters. There was no telling what would happen.

I kept my Perception skill on standby and stood close to Freya as she began her incantations. Her staff lit up with a cool blue light, and it spread across the troll's body. The raging red in its eyes calmed for a moment, and in an instant, the blue light vanished from its body, and Freya was driven back, "Gaaah-!"

I stopped her, and once she looked fine to speak, I noticed her eyes widen, “What was that? Even calming magic doesn’t stop it. Is it some kind of defuff then?”

I had no idea she could use magic to calm things down. For it not to work here, there must be something seriously strong to keep the monsters so enraged like that.

The troll grabbed at the loose mud and clawed for freedom, but before it could get out, I lowered its trap some more and kept it nearly completely buried. At this point, only its shoulders and head were revealed.

Freya held her hand against her chin, deep in thought. “I’m not sure what else to do here. I’ve already tried a calming blessing, we tried hurting it, restraining it and putting it to sleep… Geez! What else could it be?!” Her face scrunched and suddenly expanded at a thought, “I could try that, but would it even work...?”

Looks like she’s got something else up her sleeve?

Freya aimed the staff at the troll's head and muttered the long speech of her spell in monotone. There was a calmness to her demeanour I had never seen before.

Engrossed in the white light of magic, the orb attached to her staff was filled and projected a magic circle against its surface.

“Sense the forces of nature, wicked and just, and deliver the sight to see it. Detect Presence!” The light expanded as a bubble of white energy that surrounded the area. The dark corridor was instantly illuminated under the blinding light of her magic.

The crimson glow within the troll's eyes had completely spread through its body and seeped out like a dark miasma. Freya retreated a step, terrified at the sight of it. She took a second to recuperate, then focused on her spell; the light amplified at the end of her staff.

“It’s… a tether?” She gingerly pointed at the bend in the path ahead.

Once the light disappeared from around us, she collapsed to the floor, exhausted.

“The weird status effects are coming from a source, deeper into the dungeon. Probably the boss…” She rubbed her head. She struggled to keep her eyelids up as she spoke, “From what I can tell, it’s way out of our league. I've never seen anything like it, but... It's definitely in the room up ahead.”