waved frantically at my attackers. Several of them caught fire, which sent them
running around the room in a panic. But there were too many of them, and I
could feel my shield wavering as the attacking magic ate away at it.
Fuck this. Time to kick it up a notch.
I let go of the shield, knowing it would take a few seconds to dissolve,
and focused all my concentrating on forming a ball of whirling saw blades just
outside of it. The elaborate force construct took far more effort than a simple
blade, and was slower to form.
But I was rewarded by a chorus of shrieks and screams, and a shower of
blood raining through the gaps in my failing shield. In a matter of seconds the
goblins who’d been trying to dogpile me were reduced to shredded meat. The
wooden floor beneath me and the post behind me came apart as well, and the
house groaned ominously.
I levitated myself before I could fall through to the cellar, and looked
around. Most of the room was ablaze now, and the troll was staggering
towards the hole it had made coming in.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
I launched myself towards it, hoping my sphere of blades would deal with
it as effectively as the goblins. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that easy, as the
troll’s flesh proved considerably tougher than wood. Instead the thing’s right
shoulder and part of its back were badly shredded, but my spell collapsed as
13
the unexpected resistance drained it of power faster than I could supply more.
I lurched away, noting that it was damned cold outside the house. The
night was lit by the glow of burning timber, and there were more goblins
lurking about the yard and garden. Beyond that the plot was surrounded on all
sides by dense forest, which could easily be hiding hundreds of the little
buggers.
An arrow grazed my side, and I threw up another shield with a curse. At
least now I had some room to work with, but how was I going to take out that
many goblins?
Obviously I wasn’t. But maybe intimidation would work instead.
I dropped back to the ground in front of the troll, and saw that just as I’d
feared its wounds were already closing. It had left its club back inside, but
when it saw me it growled angrily and ripped a beam out of the porch to
replace the lost weapon. The house groaned again, and the beast rushed
towards me.
As it stepped off the porch I turned the ground between us into mud six
feet deep.
The troll’s first step sunk a foot into the sucking muck, and tripped it. It
went down face-first with a tremendous splash, and immediately began
thrashing about trying to get a handhold to climb out. I gave it a few seconds to
get good and stuck, and then turned the mud into stone.
A couple of arrows bounced off my shield, but I ignored them.
The troll strained, but now it was pinned with both arms and two thirds of
its body stuck in a solid mass of rock. I walked up to its head, and conjured a
sledgehammer made entirely of stone that probably weighed forty pounds. I
used a bit of force magic to augment my muscles as I lifted it over my head,
and brought it down.
The first blow cracked the troll’s skull, but it took two more to properly
cave it in. I wasn’t sure if even that would be enough, so I pried it open and
roasted the tiny brain inside with a sustained jet of flame.
Then I turned to regard the goblins who’d been plinking arrows at me, and
raised the gore-streaked hammer.
14
“Who’s next?” I growled.
They ran.
“Fuck, yeah! Look at the little bastards go. I like your style, Champion.”
I turned to find a pair of battered and bruised young witches regarding me
from the doorway of the burning house. Cerise had a goblin arrow stuck in her
shoulder, and Avilla was bleeding from several nasty gashes on her arms, but
they were both on their feet. Cerise had acquired a second silver knife from
somewhere, while Avilla held a bloody meat cleaver in one hand and clutched
a massive tome against her substantial chest.
Cerise was wide-eyed and flushed, giving me a half-crazed look I
couldn’t quite read. Avilla, on the other hand, wore a fierce expression of
defiance that somehow reminded me of a kitten. She was so adorable I just
wanted to bundle her up and keep her safe forever, and never mind the bloody
meat cleaver.
“You’re not bad yourself,” I replied wearily. “My name’s Daniel, by the
way. Daniel Black.”
“Well met, Daniel of the Blacks. May we shed oceans of blood together.”
O-kaaay.
“Thank you for saving us, Mr. Black,” Avilla put in. “But I have to ask
what Cerise offered for your help? Should I be prepared for a ravishing?”
She seemed more amused than worried, so I chuckled.
“I think the ravishing had better wait until we aren’t going to be
interrupted by another monster attack,” I said dryly. “Besides, the house is on
fire.”
She turned to look up at it, and nodded gravely. “Poor thing. It was
granny’s home, but it was always nice to me. I tried to stop the shamans from
killing it, but between the four of them and the troll it was just too much. I don’t
suppose you can put out the fire?
I glanced around at the snow-covered clearing, and then eyed the blazing
roof. “I think the house is done for regardless, but a chance to salvage supplies
would be good. Let me see what I can do.”
15
Quenching fires was normally a simple task, easily within even my
minimal command of fire magic. But this was too big to put out all at once, and
house fires can be tricky. I took a deep breath, made sure my shield was stable,
and stepped past them into a living room that was rapidly filling up with
smoke.
I put out the floor and burning furniture easily enough, but as I worked on
the walls the floor began smoldering again. Was the basement on fire too?
I cut away a circular section of floor with a force blade and stepped back,
carefully holding the disk of wood in place until I was well away from the
hole. Sure enough, tongues of flame leaped up around the edges when I moved
it.
So I had to drop into the basement, put that out, and then gradually work
my way up. It took fifteen minutes before I got all the fires out, and by the time
I stumbled back out the door I was hacking coughing from the smoke despite
having heal myself twice. I collapsed next to the girls, and took a deep breath.
“Are you alright?” Avilla asked mildly. Her arms were bandaged now,
and she was carefully extracting the barbed arrow from Cerise’s shoulder. I
couldn’t help but notice how adroitly she wielded the little knife she was using
for the task. Cerise looked a little pale, but she was enduring the treatment as
stoically as anyone could have.
Avila paused to hand me a spare cloak, and I gratefully covered myself
up. It wasn’t enough, but it ought to keep me from getting frostbite in
uncomfortable places for the moment.
“Yeah, I’m just running low on mana,” I reassured her. “Need to catch my
breath a minute and let my lungs heal. But the fire’s out, so as soon as the
smoke clears you two can go back in and collect whatever you need.
She set the arrowhead aside and paused. “You have healing sorcery?
Should I be letting you do this? I was just going to sterilize it and sew it shut.”