Broken Anomaly

Lydia had been continuing to do her job of distracting the troll along with her three companions. They were exhausted, but their sense of duty compelled them to continue to perform their current task.

Sadly, their bodies cared little for their own convictions. That was why one of the other rescuers had one of his legs give out, its muscles incapable of continuing to perform such complicated movements, especially as split-second decisions.

The troll was the first to notice what had occurred, its senses being faster than those of its opponents. It struck down on the fallen rescuer, crushing one of their legs.

Realizing that the situation was no longer in their favor, Lydia mentally ordered Connor to leave and support the others, while she and the remaining rescuer would try to keep the troll distracted long enough for the survivors to get to safety. Connor, sensing that her words carried her last bit of hope with them, turned and ran toward the others.

Lydia and the remaining rescuer tried all they could to divert the troll’s attention but had no success in doing so. The troll was strong enough to ignore their attacks, and even ones that went through its tough skin, healed before their eyes.

The troll turned and looked down, focusing its attention completely on the fallen rescuer. Even though its huge body was more than enough to block the view of its opponents, the sounds that followed painted a more than vivid picture of what was occurring to their companion.

They heard as flesh, muscle, and tendons were torn apart by the troll. The ease with which it did so deceived their eyes into thinking it was doing something else. But they heard it, the barely suppressed screams of their friend.

Through sheer force of will, the fallen rescuer was gritting his teeth, keeping his screams inside. He tried to ignore the pain and get his mind working, he wanted to do one last thing before he drew his last breath.

His hopes were crushed as the troll reached for his other arm, the pain finally overtaking his mind and his screams flooding the surrounding area.

Lydia, knowing with one hundred percent certainty that they wouldn’t be able to save their friend, maneuvered to the front of the troll and reached for the gun she was carrying. With only one bullet remaining, she aimed at her wailing friend, and shot him in the head.

Any onlookers would have questioned her judgment, asking why she didn’t shoot the troll instead. The onlookers would have no way of knowing that the reason she only had one bullet left was because all the others were shot at the head of one of the trolls, doing no damage.

Noticing that the troll was ignoring her, Lydia maneuvered behind the troll, to where the other rescuer was and gestured for them to run.

Taking advantage of the fact that the troll was occupied, they began to turn the road into a hindrance for it. Pushing cars to create a shoddy barricade, throwing toolboxes on the ground, or breaking windows so that it would step on shattered glass. They tried everything they could.

After finishing its meal, the troll turned to the other two, who were moving hastily through the vehicles. It got up and began to walk toward them, accelerating slowly. It noticed how things seemed to be more in its way than before but didn’t think about it too much. Eventually the obstacles on its path irritated it enough that it just bulldozed through everything.

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Connor had run into the forest, having left the road behind. Once inside the forest, it was harder for him to follow the trail that had been left behind by the people, that he hoped, would lead him to the settlement. It wasn’t just a case of dirt versus trees and grass, it was also his eyesight. It was becoming blurry, and as he fought off his body’s need to pass out, his sweat dripped down and irritated his eyes, making it worse. At some point he stopped pretending that he was following a trail and just walked forward.

With his head down and not really having a notion of where he was or where he was going, he stopped as his head hit a tree. He gave a weak smile and collapsed.

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“Get them some water,” Stella said firmly. “And make sure these people take priority. Who knows how long they’ve been like this.”

Stella looked at the people that had collapsed near the midway point between the incursion and their settlement. They had a thick layer of dirt, not only on their clothes, but also on their hair and skin. She saw people of all ages, collapsed before her. She had arrived in time to see some people trying to crawl forward and get just a bit further.

Stella took a deep breath, calming herself and forcing herself to see the situation as objectively as she could. She turned to Eric, who wasn’t helping with anything, and just stared in the direction from which these people came from.

When they had gotten a quest, she and Alex had wanted to spread some people around so that they would be able to react faster. However, Eric proposed an alternative. He suggested that both he and Stella could monitor the citizens list and immediately make any newcomers into citizens and hope that at least one of them was well enough that they could accept the invitation.

He suggested this because of the field bosses, he didn’t want other people to come across them, specifically because he wanted the rewards. Despite his selfish motives, the others recognized the value in his idea. Instead of spreading people as thin as they initially would have, they only put them far enough to have more coverage area, but close enough to retreat with ease.

It wasn’t long after they planned out what to do that the citizens list changed, showing multiple new people. Immediately, Stella and Eric began sending invitations, until finally one was accepted—a woman named “Lily Abrahms.”

Immediately, upon noticing her role change, Stella gave the order to everyone who had gathered. Food and water were gathered, but most importantly, people willing to fight the bosses were here.

Eric was reluctant to allow anyone else other than his friend group to fight the bosses, especially because of the hub crystals. That’s why Stella had to convince him that they were needed, reminding him that more time had passed, and they could be significantly stronger than the urstigars were.

People were handing out food and water to those that had remained conscious, while those who weren’t were moved to the settlement to get better rest on the repurposed mats from the taekwondo class, which should be better than the ground.

Stella turned to look at Alex, who was coordinating along with her, and moving people ever forward, in case any monsters got closer. She shifted to Anna, who just like Eric, was looking in the direction the survivors had come from. Then, she noticed that Anna twitched, followed by a shout from Eric.

“Stella!” Eric shouted as he moved forward, tightening the grip on his sword.

Everyone then began to move hastily, waking people up forcefully. Alex, Anna, and Stella caught up to Eric and stood at the front, with a few armed people, mostly from labs, following closely behind.

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When Lydia ran into the forest, she did so alone. The rescuer who had stayed behind with her, was currently being used as a travel snack by the troll.

She no longer cared if she lived or died, she only wanted to know if they had made it, if they had reached the settlement.

She pushed her body beyond its limits, it was so astonishing that the System had rewarded her with two titles. The System considered her current situation as a battle and gave her Tireless Fighter and Enduring Challenger. She didn’t know what either of them did, having only glanced at the windows, but she did feel stronger and with a bit more energy when she received them.

But now, even those bonuses made little difference. Whatever benefits they gave her were useless, overshadowed by her overwhelming exhaustion.

She continued until, suddenly, before her stood four distinct figures she couldn’t fully make out. She stood still and cleared her eyes trying to see what was before her.

She could make out that one of them was holding a sword horizontally, while the one who had the sword in front of them had a fire on their hand and pressed it against the sword.

She tried to speak, to warn them of the danger that the monster that was following her presented. How it was it dumb to fight and how they should—but before she could finish her thought, they all ran past her.

She turned to see what would happen, guilt flooding her as she had failed to warn them.

The one who had heated up their sword struck at the troll’s wrist, their sword getting stuck midway. Lydia grimaced, imagining what would happen next. To her surprise, the pause was only momentary as the sword sliced through completely, cutting off the troll’s hand and freeing the corpse of her companion.

The troll roared in pain and tried to strike with its other hand, only to be stopped by the largest of the four figures. Then, the figure that had used fire on the sword threw a ball of fire at the troll’s face, causing it to back away.

The fourth figure, also wielding a sword, knelt behind the troll and stabbed its Achilles tendon, severing it and causing the troll to fall on one knee.

The first figure, now at the troll’s eye level, grabbed the troll’s head and stabbed it through the eye, twisting the sword until the troll fell limp.

Lydia even got a system window, notifying her of the death of the troll. As her vision cleared further, she could make out who the four figures were—kids, or not, they were at least younger than her.

She attempted to get up to thank them for their help, but that’s when she noticed they were still staring into the forest. Two loud roars gave her the answer to a question she was just beginning to form in her mind.

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Eric once more extended his sword toward Stella so she would heat it up. The logic behind it was backed up by years of consuming media that tended to feature trolls.

Trolls always possessed a unique trait that distinguished them from other big creatures of pure mass, and that was their regenerative ability. With a heated sword he would be able to slice through easier and slow the healing process because of the cauterization that occurred.

Eric was the first to move, dashing toward the troll to his left. He tried to imitate what Anna had done and sever the troll’s tendon, only to fail miserably and be saved by Stella’s fireball.

Anna, seeing that the troll turned around to face Eric, took the opportunity to do what Eric couldn’t. She stabbed her sword vertically, severing the troll’s tendon, and backed away, leaving her sword embedded.

Eric got back up and tried to repeat what he had done to the first troll, only for it to protect its face with one hand and swing wildly with the other.

Seeing no opening he could exploit, he turned to the other troll, who was currently being held at bay by both Alex and Stella, and he once again tried to emulate Anna, this time actually being successful.

The troll had been trying to crush Alex's hands, gripping one in each of its massive fists. When suddenly, it fell to one knee.

Having both of its hands occupied, it could do nothing against the sword that tried to pierce the back of its head. It gave a twisted smile as it realized that the sword didn’t succeed in harming it. The smile remained even as Eric drove the sword in with a punch, killing the troll instantly.

The remaining troll could do nothing against the flurry of attacks that was unleashed against it. It tried to defend itself but failed due to the constant fireballs that aggravated its wounds.

It tried to remove the sword that prevented him from getting up, but failed as another sword pierced his hand and momentarily kept him in place. This allowed for a dagger to pierce its temple. Whatever followed after, it didn’t know, nor did it need to.

Troll +600 credits

Anna cleaned her dagger against a piece of cloth she had wrapped around her leg. “See, told you it would come in handy.”

“They were weaker right?” Eric asked, looking puzzled. “The urstigar were way more, you know… more.”

“They were, weren’t they?” Alex said, confirming Eric’s thoughts. “Definitely stronger than the spider boss, though.”

Eric confirmed Alex’s thoughts by snapping his fingers and pointing at him. “My thoughts exactly,” he said as he turned to grab the crystals from the bodies of the trolls.

“Hello, hey, are you okay?” Stella asked as she crouched and tried to get the attention of the person who was just lying on the ground without saying a word. “Do you need help?" she asked, turning to the others. "Guys, they’re not responding.”

“Maybe their passed out,” Alex suggested.

“Hey, over here,” Stella called out to the people who had been ready to fight but didn’t get the opportunity. “Take them with the others.” She turned to look at Eric. “Help Alex with getting those bodies back to the settlement.”

“Got it,” Eric answered, ignoring the urge to point out how she hadn’t asked politely.