Death: Genesis

A beam of pure destruction cut through the mass of trolls. Hundreds of them burst into flame, burning to ash in only a moment, while the strongest among them were merely cut in half. A second later, a whirlwind of ethereal hammers slammed into them, pulverizing the scattered few who’d managed to live through [Eye of Reckoning]. A second later, a gout of fire, corruption, and earth erupted deeper into the troll settlement, destroying everything within a fifty-yard radius. Then, another exploded. And another after that.

The onslaught barely made a dent in their numbers.

“There are so many,” Eveline said in Zeke’s mind. “A million at least.”

“More,” Zeke said.

Indeed, the entire valley was covered in trolls. When they’d arrived, the entire mass of blue-skinned behemoths had faced inward, chanting something as they surrounded a huge bonfire. Atop that fire were the missing caravanners, though they had already succumbed to the effects of smoke inhalation. There was no telling if they were dead or simply unconscious, but Zeke suspected the former.

Regardless, saving those hostages had never been his primary goal. His hatred of trolls ran far too deep for that, and if he could have guaranteed the safety of his companions, he would already have let loose with [Wrath of Annihilation]. As it stood, he couldn’t afford to take that step, lest they all be killed. So, he embraced the next best strategy, which was to unleash a barrage of other skills that would hopefully slaughter as many of the hateful things as possible.

However, despite his obvious power, the trolls were strangely resistant to his attacks. [Eye of Reckoning] should have cut through without stopping, but it had only carved a small divot into the crowd of blue-skinned monsters. And though [Hell Geyser] and [Strom of Hammers] had claimed even more victims, the effects were not nearly as widespread as he had expected.

Only a moment later, Zeke saw why.

“There!” Pudge shouted, pointing to the right side of the huge bonfire. Zeke followed the gesture and immediately saw the same thing his companion had. There was a troll, taller and thinner than all the rest, there. It wore an elaborate headdress composed of bleached-white bones, with human skulls dangling from it. They swayed as it raised a brutal-looking spear, and a wave of mana spread across a quadrant of the valley. As it swept through the crowd of trolls, their muscles visibly bulged, and they let loose a collective roar loud enough to cause an avalanche.

Four more troll shaman repeated the actions of the first, and the entire horde of monsters added their roars to the first group’s. More importantly, Zeke could see even more trolls coming from a path on the other side of the valley, clearly intended as reinforcements.

“This is going to be more difficult than we thought,” Zeke said, having already shifted into his titanic form. Voromir appeared in his hand, having grown even larger and with a more pronounced head. It was a true hammer, now, and it radiated with enough power to make any warrior jealous. “Pudge, go for the shamans. Adara and Silik, take the right side of the pass. I’ll take the left.”

What had begun as an attack had quickly shifted into defense. If they charged in – as powerful as they were – they would be surrounded. Zeke could probably survive that, but he wasn’t so arrogant as to believe he was entirely invulnerable. He could die, just like anyone else, and a million empowered trolls was powerful enough of a force to make even him wary.

Especially given that when he used [Inspect], he saw that the lowest-level monster was in its mid-eighties. The most powerful among them had cleared the level ninety mark. Alone, they were strong enough to kill most fighters, and there were a million of them.

“More than that,” Eveline reminded him. “Reinforcements, remember. Their numbers seem endless.”

“Thank you for that,” he muttered, wishing she’d just kept her mouth shut.

“Glad to help!” was her chipper reply. “Better clench up.”

Zeke didn’t have a chance to reply before the wave of charging trolls reached them. He met the first with a compact hammer-strike that obliterated its chest cavity. However, to his surprise, the thing kept coming, ripping into his titanic body with sharp claws. The found little purchase, but the fact that those attacks left even slight scratches was enough to tell him that they were not to be trifled with. He hit the monster in the face, destroying its head.

That gave him a drop of kill energy, telling him that it was dead.

“Go for the heads!” he shouted toward Silik and Adara, who’d already established a viable strategy where Silik acted as the bulwark against the monsters while Adara attacked. A troll’s head went flying at the end of her blade, disappearing into the crowd of monsters and confirming that Adara knew what she was doing. So, deciding to trust her, Zeke lowered his shoulder and braced himself for the rest of the charge.

It crashed over him like a tidal wave, but Zeke was both larger and stronger than any of the trolls. So, he had no trouble holding his ground. However, the sheer weight of numbers made it extremely difficult to swing his hammer, so he dismissed it. He preferred fighting with his loyal weapon, but he could use his own two hands just as well.

He lashed out, embracing his twin domains as he fought. Then, he raised both hands above his head with an intended attack. One of the trolls rushed in, stabbing him with a rusty-looking sword. The weapon cut through his flesh, but stopped after only a few inches. As such, it hit nothing vital.

Zeke brought his hands down on the thing’s back, breaking its spine. However, that wasn’t the extent of his attack. No – he used [Titan’s Smash].

The results were explosive.

Snow, mud, and troll’s blood erupted from the ground, and a shockwave of herculean proportions obliterated the monster in front of him. And the next fifty or so in line. Another hundred were injured. The primary targets simply exploded into showers of viscera, while the others were merely grievously wounded. So, Zeke used it again – this time, after leaping to his left and aiming a simple right hook at a reeling troll. It exploded, just like the other twenty or so nearby.

Zeke used it again after leaping thirty feet to his right.

His efforts carved a hole in the trolls’ numbers, giving him enough room to resummon his hammer and use the ability associated with it. An ethereal red hammer – with head measuring at least fifty feet across – erupted into being, and when Zeke swung, trolls were knocked backward, their bones broken and their bodies ruptured.

Zeke roared, wanting nothing more than to charge forward. However, he knew better than to abandon his companions. If he did, they would be surrounded. So, he held his ground, swinging Voromir with ruthless fury as the trolls continued to flood the pass.

Meanwhile, Adara and Silik worked together seamlessly. Without having to worry about her own defense, the half-orc woman carved into the trolls with the precision of a trained soldier. But Zeke could see – or perhaps feel – the rage inside of her. She was part orc, and that side of her thirsted for battle at least as much as he did.

In a display of discipline, she kept it in check, though, loosing the battle lust only in short bursts.

“You could learn a thing or two from her,” Eveline said.

Zeke ignored the mind spirit as he steadily slaughtered trolls. They recovered from his onslaught of [Titan’s Smash] quickly, swarming over him with clubs and crude blades. Yet, he fought on, summoning [Storm of Hammers] the moment he could. The skill was powerful, but it was incapable of killing any of the monsters outright. And with their ability to regenerate, it was largely useless.

Especially when the shamans brought their own powers to bear. A huge stone statue – it looked to Zeke a little like a totem pole, but with unrecognizable designs – erupted from the ground, and suddenly, the trolls grew even stronger and more vicious. Zeke was pushed back by their newfound fury, though he quickly recovered by aiming a few more uses of [Titan’s Smash] their way. That cleared the area, but there were always more to fill the gaps.

Zeke stomped on the ground, using [Hell Geyser], but just before the column of corrupted flames cut through the horde, another totem came into being. This one pulsed with blue power that spread across the entire valley. And when Zeke aimed a hammer strike at one of the monsters, his attack was rebuffed.

Not to be stymied, he aimed another attack at the creature, and this time, he managed to crack the ethereal shield. Another attack shattered it, and still another killed the monster.

Yet, the message was clear. Those totems needed to come down, or there was no way they would be able to keep up with the horde.

Just as that thought passed through Zeke’s mind, he saw an eruption of shadow and fire that told him that Pudge was hard already hard at work. From so far away, he could only see hints of what was happening, but after a few seconds, one of the giant totems shattered into a million shards of stone. The blue shields flickered, but they didn’t disappear altogether.

However, a second later, when Zeke engaged in another assault, he found that it only took two attacks to get through it. Clearly, Pudge’s efforts had been effective, but now, the former direbear was in trouble.

“Back away!” Zeke shouted to Silik and Adara. “Down the pass and to that narrow path we saw a few hundred yards away!”

To their credit, they didn’t question his order. Instead, they executed a perfect fighting retreat. Zeke aided their efforts by launching a furious assault that included all of his skills – save for [Wrath of Annihilation]. He laid waste to the troll horde, pushing it back just long enough that Adara and Silik could reestablish themselves in the more defensive position.

Once they did, Zeke felt confident that he could enact the next part of his plan.

He used [Shifting Sands] and, once he was below the ground, launched himself forward with blistering speed. A few seconds later, he exploded from the earth and swept his hammer out. It was just in time, too, because Pudge had already taken enough blows that his hide was positively stained with blood.

Zeke used [Hand of Divinity], holding it for a few moments and healing Pudge enough that the bearkin was in no danger of dying. Then, together, they cut a path through the horde. It wasn’t easy, and Zeke had to be everywhere at once. Pudge used his own abilities, sending out beams of [Hellfire] and wreathing himself in black flames that allowed him to stand toe-to-toe with the monsters.

And fortunately, trolls – especially once attuned to ice – were weak against fire. Pudge’s attacks did even more damage than Zeke’s, but the former direbear was far less durable than his companion. So, Zeke was forced to bend all his efforts toward ensuring that Pudge was free to do what he did best.

With their combined efforts, the pair tore through trolls like they were nothing. Many died, but many more were simply injured. The companions didn’t stop, though. They could kill thousands of trolls, and it wouldn’t make much difference. If they wanted to win, they needed to take out the remaining three totems. And to do that, they would have to kill the shamans who’d summoned them.

So, aside from doing enough to carve a path through the horde of trolls, neither Zeke nor Pudge expended any extra effort – or time – to slay the monsters. Instead, they rampaged in a straight line until, at last, they reached one of the trolls. That’s when Zeke felt a curse hit him. Immediately, nausea twisted his stomach into knots, so powerful that it was all he could do not to double over and vomit.

But unbeknownst to the shaman, Zeke had quite a lot of experience with curses. Almost from the very beginning of his new life, he’d been forced to unravel them. So, without hesitation, he embraced his Will and ruthlessly plucked the rune apart. It wasn’t easy. Far from it. But Zeke’s Will was so powerful, and he had enough experience in unraveling curses, that he accomplished the feat in less than an instant.

Then, his hammer came down on the troll shaman at the same time as a flame-wreathed claw ripped into it. The results were predictable, and the creature positively exploded from the twin attacks. Fire and viscera sprayed in all directions, and the giant totem crumbled into dust and mana.

“Two down,” Zeke muttered aloud. “Two more to go.”

Pudge’s response was a simple roar, and together, the pair pushed through the horde, carving a path of blood and ash until they reached the next shaman. This one recognized the danger straightaway, and it growled something indecipherable as it aimed its staff at the pair.

Suddenly, it felt like Zeke was running through quicksand. His momentum came to a halt, and, for a moment, he was entirely vulnerable. Trolls collapsed onto him. Blades bit into his body, and claws dug deep groves into his metallic flesh. But it was Pudge’s cry – of pain and anger – that cut through all the damage and spurred Zeke forward.

He gritted his teeth and embraced [Unleash Momentum]. He swung Voromir, enacting the hammer’s ability at the same time. The huge ethereal hammer manifested, but it glistened with solidity it had never had before. The swing crashed through the trolls without issue, loosing the power of hundreds of attacks.

The results were explosive.

Trolls exploded, and the shaman – screaming as spittle flew from its mouth – flew backward, colliding with its own totem. The sound of cracking stone filled the air, punctuated by the thing’s pained screams. And its spell dissipated.

Suddenly, Zeke could move.

More importantly, so could Pudge.

The former direbear found the crippled shaman first, and the evisceration that followed was brutal even by Zeke’s standards. When Pudge had finished, he looked back at his companion and said, “One more.”

“One more,” Zeke agreed.

Then, they set off for the final target. Unfortunately, they’d saved the biggest and most powerful for last. It didn’t matter, though. Together, they could do anything.