And the rest of the Trolls were pretty easy to mop up without a leader after that. They had lost all cohesion and, in a matter of minutes, they had all either fled or gotten killed.
“Nice work, Sang!” Van said. “Normally, when I don’t have a relevant weapon, I just get killed instantly.”
“Well, that’s the difference between you and I,” Sang said. “I’m actually good at this game.”
Van laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Alright, well, it looks like we finished this quest up! That means we should talk to the lead Druid and then get the hell out of here.”
“Yeah, perfect!” Sang said. She expected that, now combat was over, the Druids would be coming back... but she didn’t see any of them around. “Where are they?”
Van glanced around. “Dunno... give them a minute; they probably need to repopulate from the server or something,” Van said as he sat down by a rock.
“Something’s wrong,” Sang said. “Normally, we get some kind of experience after combat’s over, if just a little bit. But I didn’t get anything.”
“Well, maybe we should check the area? A Troll might have gotten stuck on something and still be nearby,” Van said as he glanced around, poking his head behind a few bushes and trees.
“No… something’s… wait, what was the original quest’s purpose?”
“I dunno... kill some stuff?”
“Wasn’t it to kill the Troll Lord?” Sang asked.
“Oh yeah, I think it was. I just assumed that the Troll Lord didn’t exist,” Van said. Sang glanced at her quest log and saw the following objectives.
Kill Troll Lord
She grimaced when she realized that the ‘Kill Troll Lord’ part was still active. The ground began to shake violently then, and she felt herself losing her footling a little as she stumbled forward.
“Wow, I completely forgot about the Troll Lord!” Van said as the tunnel emitted a deep bellowing sound. A massive blue hand came out from the hole and crashed into the ground. Another hand came out behind it, landing on the tunnel’s other side, and then the appendages hoisted the enormous Troll Lord of out the ground, causing the dirt to erupt as its body emerged. It stood nearly 10 feet high and stared down at them, its eyes full of hatred and rage.
“How was something that big underground?” Sang asked.
“It was sleeping... Troll Lords usually just sleep until something wakes them up!” Van said. “And probably, killing all of its children woke it up. And if I am not mistaken... you, not I, were the one who killed most of them… soooo...” he trailed off as he looked at her with big eyes.
Sang slapped him in the arm and ran for cover as the massive creature howled and hissed, slashing its massive claws at her. She barely avoided its attack as she rolled out of the way. She glanced back and took a look at its stats.
Troll Lord
Health: 1,000
Strength: 28
Claw Attack: 35 damage per hand
Acid Spit: 50 damage +10 damage over time
None of those stats looked appealing, and especially considering the fact that Van wasn’t particularly adept at actual fighting. The Troll Lord roared angrily as it swung its hands at Van, throwing him back against a tree.
“Ooof! That hurts!” Van cried out as he scrambled to stand back up.
“Distract it!” Sang called out as she fired a few arrows at the massive, lumbering blue monster. The arrows ignited in midair and the words 100 damage! floated above the monster’s head for a moment. It was down to 900 hit points now, but it would take more than just a few arrows to fell the creature. The words +5 in green appeared over the creature then. She watched as his Health rose from 900 to 950.
“He’s regenerating!” Van cried out as he scrambled underneath the Troll Lord’s legs. “You’ve got to deal damage that blocks regen!”
“What type of damage does that?” Sang demanded as she fired another arrow at the creature. This arrow missed, but immediately vanished and reappeared in her quiver—at least she still had their magic on her side.
“You’ve got to aim for vitals! See the big glowing sections on its body?” Van asked as a claw crashed into his face, knocking him to the ground. Sang looked back at the Troll King and saw that it did indeed have yellow glowing areas on its chest, legs, and neck.
“Shoot those!”
“Why are those areas glowing?” Sang asked even as she complied, firing her arrows at the brightly glowing weak spots.
“It’s how bosses work!” Van replied as the arrows crashed into the side of the Troll Lord, causing him to howl and scream. The words CRITICAL 150 damage! appeared then and, unlike the last amount of damage, this wasn’t regenerating.
“Perfect!” Sang cheered as she drew her bow back again. The Troll Lord promptly forgot about Van and turned to look at Sang with more focus. With a deep, angry hissing, he spat out a stream of green liquid. She tried to dodge, but couldn’t because the liquid was seemingly everywhere. She felt the hot burning splash of acid on her skin.
“Ahhhh!” she cried out in sheer pain as she felt it begin to burn, her Health dropping down by 50 points. The good news was that Van’s anti-damage over time buffer was still active, meaning that the acid wouldn’t do anymore damage to her. Still, it sucked to feel so much pain in an instant. In fact, Sang realized that she would have preferred to be cut or stabbed rather than experience the acid again.
“Sang! Shoot my lantern!” Van shouted as he threw his lantern right at the creature. It bounced off of the monster and Sang waited a split second more so that she could aim properly, and then she shot the lantern right out of the sky. The lantern shattered immediately, causing oil to burst everywhere, soaking part of the Troll.
“Haha, brilliant!” Van screamed out as he grabbed a rock and whispered a spell into it, causing the stone to erupt into flames. “Watch this!” he called, and with that he threw the rock as hard as he could—right into the gasoline-soaked stomach of the Troll. The flaming stone immediately ignited the lantern oil and the words 10 damage! 10 damage! 10 damage! began to appear over the Troll’s head.
“Nice shot!” Sang yelled as she fired a few more arrows at the Troll’s legs. It seemed that each time she damaged a leg, it would slow down even more. This meant that it wouldn’t be able to rush up as close to them and use its claw attacks on them. The creature was now snarling and howling as its Health rapidly dropped from 800 down to 300.
“We’re killing it!” Van called out as he grabbed his bagpipes and began to play “The Song of Fire, Fury, and Thunder”, and the music, while still wretched, inspired Sang to aim at the Troll’s neck; she snapped off a quick shot, hitting it square in the glowing center of its neck. The word CRITICAL! appeared again, and Sang grinned as she watched its Health drop down to only 150 points.
The Troll Lord hissed and shrieked at them both, spitting more acid, but Sang was able to dodge it. She realized that rolling forward would only get her hit, but that if she rolled backwards, she was able avoid the splash. The creature stepped forward and made a wild dive tackle for Sang, but she fired another well-timed arrow right into the creature’s throat, causing it to shriek in agony before it fell to the ground... finally dead.
“Oh, man! Did we actually kill that thing?” Van asked as he cautiously approached the corpse.
“I think we did!” Sang said, laughing a little. “Man, that was insane! I can’t believe we pulled it off! Van, that lantern idea was genius!”