Now, trolls heal very quickly - some would even call it instantaneous regeneration - so to dispose of them I usually use a single decapitating stroke. In my initial plummet from above, I had the head off the hindmost troll before I hit the ground; I rebounded and beheaded the second troll from behind. By the time they noticed me, I had cut their number down to four. The third troll raised his club as he turned to face me, so I took off his arm at the shoulder, and his head as I passed him.
The last three trolls were ready for me, so I ran a few paces (yes, away from them - the better to divide and conquer) and paused to take on troll Four. He had a big nasty cutlass, but when he went to chop me in half - whoops, there was a tree in the way. I spun out from behind the other side of the tree and took his head. Troll Five, on arrival, went to retrieve his comrade's primitive blade, but when he bent over - his head fell off (he'd never miss it). By the time the last troll caught up, I was waiting for him in the canopy. Ordinarily, I might have chased and teased him for half an hour, lurking in the treetops, but tonight I had guests, and disposed of the last troll as I had the first.
Then I fell on all fours, coughing and coughing with no opportunity for pause until I coughed up half a mouthful of syrupy blood.
That Blam Blazer - had Rustiven known what it would do?
I wiped my mouth. Probably he had...
My dark little thoughts were interrupted by the bats. The local bats were reasonably friendly critters, and I had convinced them early on to act as an alert system under certain conditions. Now I Felt them sound off all over the whole side of the mountain: trolls trolls trolls trolls TROLLS TROLLS The air hummed with the panic of bats. I picked up my lance and ran again. My breath was visible as little puffs of steam - it was so hard to breathe, I was lucky to keep my balance - and I could smell smoke distinctly.
I was too late; the first band of trolls had been a ploy: the little clearing was ringed with flame and engulfed in a hulking host of trolls.
"Flare Arrow!" someone hollered. Rather than fight my way through the back of the horde (and risk getting toasted) I crossed over the rabble in the canopy again, and dropped into the clearing beside the tiny, smoldering campfire (there was really plenty of light, all of it generated by fire magic). I looked around - it was amazing: against the chaotic army of trolls, the four travelers were holding their own!
Lina Inverse was making use of a wide range of innovative spells, Gourry was making use of his sword - I mean, spectacular use - Zelgadis (so, he was a mage after all) was demonstrating his skill with spells and sword, and Amelia - was also a sorceress?? None of them had seen me yet, fighting with their backs to the campfire, but I didn't have time to gape. Amelia squealed when a troll began to breach her defense, and I had to back her up with my lance.
"Miss Ana! Where did you come from?" she cried.
"Where the hell have you been?" Zelgadis yelled at me over his sword arm.
"I was - deliberately diverted - by a smaller band of trolls," I shouted, dismembering another monster. "I've never seen them use strategy before - "
"Rustiven's controlling them," Lina explained.
Again, if I am ever struck by lightning, it will probably remind me of that moment. My disbelief was complete, but her conclusion was too obvious and horrible to be anything but absolute truth.
"H - he's not," I faltered, turning toward Lina in stunned horror. A troll took advantage of my total, momentary lapse to club me solidly across the shoulder blade (yes it was painful) but as I bounced off a nearby tree, I spun and fetched up with my back against the trunk. With my usual professional speed, I got my leg up and blocked the next blow of his club with my boot, and decapitated him with one neat stroke. Then, I had to use the tree as a shield against the continuous assault as I greyed out for a little while.
" - huddle up and take them all out in one big attack," Lina was directing. Casting a powerful defensive shield (I don't know what kind; I knew nothing about magic then), Princess Amelia dragged me back from the fray by the elbow. It was a bit embarrassing. Presently Gourry and I were squished together by the backs of the three sorcerers, who faced outwards in a ring against the menacing trolls. They began to cast the same spell in unison:
"Fire - "
Gourry and I ducked hastily.
"BALL!!"
There was a ripple of energy and a fantastic blast of heat. I had my eyes shut, but it was still the most phenomenal explosion I'd ever attended (at that point in time). I didn't look up until after I felt Gourry move.
Everything smoldered for thirty paces in any direction along the ground, and for thirty hands straight up - flaming autumn foliage pattered down like burning snowflakes. The underbrush had been ashed out completely and replaced with chunks of charred troll. I can't say I appreciated the smell.
Lina dusted her palms briskly.
"Works every time," she boasted happily, and put her hands on her hips. "Now," she turned to me (almost on me). "Where do we find this Rustiven guy? I want a word with him."
I coughed croupily into my elbow. No one would see the blood, at night, on black leather.
"Just leave it to me," I said, and went to take a seat on a mostly-extinguished log. I shut my eyes and combed the side of the mountain with my mastery; most of the bats had scattered at the troll alert, and the rest had been scared off with the fireball attack, but they regrouped quickly at my summoning.
"Bats," I murmured, and they began to filter in through the trees, accumulating first at the edge of the burnt zone, then wherever a charred branch would hold their weight. I heard the humans cluster together.
"It's so creeeepy," Amelia whimpered. I looked up; there were more than enough bats for one command.
"Bring me Rustiven!" I called up to the bats, and they took to the air in one intimidating body. Gourry and Amelia cowered beside Lina, stricken with the willies. Lina just watched, slackjawed, arms still akimbo.
"You're - a Beastmaster, aren't you?" she deduced slyly.
I nodded, and called the foxes. They had weathered the conflict and inferno in their cozy underground dens, and all six (such sweet and obliging creatures) assembled neatly on the border of the burnt zone, feeling clever and looking smug (not big red field foxes, but small golden forest foxes).
"Bring me Rustiven," I told them, and they ran off immediately. I extended my mastery to its tenuous limits, to the most distant valleys, and called the deer: Return to the heights! and I hoped they had heard. I strained myself to locate the wolves - they were so few, and so distant - and deliver a similar message: Come home, to the mountain I knew the wolves had heard me. The effort was debilitating. I rested my head against the shaft of the lance, and just breathed.
"It shouldn't be long now," I told the others. Distantly, I could sense the bats looking, looking, and the foxes searching, searching, smelling. ... "He . . he's not far - " I murmured. Presently there was a bright spike of pride from the foxes: found! and a collective murmur from the bats: bringing him
"This way," I said suddenly, and headed northeast, up the mountain, to where the terrain got stonier. Of course - Rustiven had been in the caves all day, brooding and trying to heal his shoulder. Gourry and the sorcerers followed close behind me; Lina and Amelia cast lighting spells as we left behind the incinerated clearing.
Now, remember I was leading them uphill, and walking uphill requires a degree of exertion; exertion, in my case, led to more frequent fits of nasty coughing, which let to disorienting dizziness. Presently, I leaned heavily on the staff of my lance as we hiked. So, when I missed the ground once and Zelgadis caught my elbow before I caught my balance - he got nice fresh blood on his glove (and of course it was a white glove). He looked at his hand and he opened his mouth and he looked at me -
I shot him a glare as fierce and keen as the blade of my lance.
Don't you dare, don't you dare!
He shut his mouth and I was satisfied, but angry.
We were halfway to the road, by my reckoning, when we encountered Rustiven. He couldn't see us becaue the bats were on him like a hive's worth of bees, seething and chirping and squittering, driving him forward. The foxes jumped at his knees, gamboling and snapping at his ankles - except the little fox who had been stepped on, and limped in the wake. Snarling, Rustiven kept trying to shake the bats from his cloak, but they'd snagged their little claws into the weave of the fabric, and would not be moved. I dismissed the foxes and they ran away to ground quickly.
" - Dammit!" I saw Rustiven pluck a bat from his face, crush it in his fist, and fling it down. The little bat died on the ground at my feet ... and in the back of my mind.
That was when I saw red, red, RED -
Like a cloth whipped off a table, I dispersed the bats instantly, completely, and before Rustiven could orient himself, his back was against a tree and my blade was against his throat.
Understand, I did not actually hate Rustiven at that time, but I held no affection for him, either. He was just the only human I'd known personally for any length of time ... as far as I could remember. Still, I was most certainly not apathetic.
Local fauna alerted me to a perimeter disturbance (I can't sense trolls directly, since they're not even part beast).
"Trolls coming," I told those behind me. "Call them off," I commanded Rustiven.
"Call them off," Lina repeated, swaggering forward a step. "We've got some questions for you."
Rustiven's face was all scratched where the bats had bitten him with their tiny insectivorous teeth. Warily, he took out a red crystal amulet - and flinched when I kicked it out of his hand and it shattered on a tree trunk (even though I'd steadied my blade and not even nicked him). I sensed - indirectly - the trolls cease their advance; some of them began to drift off into the woods. It's hard to know what trolls will do without authoritative direction.
"Now, Rustiven," Lina started. "First, we want to know where you found the chimera spell - the one you used on Ana."
It was not what he expected. "The spell," he began unsteadily, "was written in an old, rare codex of spells - I was told it was handwritten by the Red Priest himself - "
"Rezo!" Zelgadis murmured, and I realized that he and Gourry were flanking Lina and me.
"Who told you?" Lina pressed. Rustiven seemed to hesitate (no doubt wracking his brain cell) and I nudged his neck with my lance.
"Master Diol," he confessed.
"D-Diol??" Lina nearly gagged.
"Do you know him?" Amelia inquired from beyond my field of vision.
"Nevermind that," Lina snapped. "Is there a way to reverse the spell?"
Reverse? I twisted the blade a fraction when I thought he was about to laugh.
"Not to my knowledge," he answered, and after a heartbeat he met my glower with a steady, nearly smug gaze. Probably he heard my breath beginning to rasp. The need to cough again was building. Lina and Zelgadis were exchanging mutters when Gourry drew everyone's attention to
"What are we gonna do with him now?"