A Sinner’s Chance

I had severely underestimated the Forest of Darkness. At first it had been just as I expected and the denizens of the forest were unable to stand against me, let alone Steria and Arya who infused their attacks with energy that was a perfect counter to the nature of the creatures. However, the difficulty quickly rose as we went deeper in, and it soon came to be that monsters I'd been taught were rare encounters were normal. I knew the forest was quite large, but I'd thought that it would only take a day or so for us to get to the center, but I had failed to anticipate what was in store for us.

We'd gotten maybe a mile into the forest when everything went to hell. Steria was the first to sense the incoming monsters, but by then it was already too late and we were suddenly beset by two Lesser Trolls. Standing at around nine feet tall, they wielded thick wooden clubs that bashed apart the undead horses and slammed into the side of the carriage, tipping it over and sending Renae into the ground, those of us in the carriage getting tossed around as the trolls continued to bash the carriage.

While it didn't take too long for the carriage to be destroyed, we had plenty of time to exit through the sunroof before it happened. I was deeply sorrowful as I looked upon the wreckage, it hadn't been a cheap venture to refurbish the carriage, and while I knew I would replace it one day, I had thought it would be much farther in the future. On top of that, most of our supplies and other equipment was wrecked as well, and with the exception of Steria, none of us could outrun the trolls, so we were forced to engage.

I had thought that this fight would be a clash of forces, but I had not been prepared for what fighting larger enemies entailed. I rushed towards the monsters giving the other two time to prepare as my limbs became carapaced and my clawed fingers became covered in purple-black fire. I was able to evade most of the attacks that were launched at me, but their coordination was impressive and I soon found myself facing two incoming swings that left no room to evade. Without much choice I dug my feet into the ground and crossed my arms prepared to take the blow, trusting that my ability to regenerate would take care of me.

It wasn't the worst choice, in fact, I'd say it was probably the best one available, however, sometimes the best choice is really just a choice that isn't as bad as the worst. The club connected and I felt myself suddenly tossed through the air, the carapace on my arms breaking apart to reveal muscle. It wasn't a slow toss either and I had no time to register what was happening to me as I spun and felt my self impact and tear through branches before slamming into a think tree trunk, the sound of splitting wood, breaking bones, and erotic moans as I fell to the ground, purplish ichor being ejected from my mouth as I coughed.

I struggled to my feet as my Yinfire engulfed me and healed my wounds, one arm wiping blood from my mouth, before I took a step towards the Lesser Trolls who were slowly sauntering towards a backing up Steria and Arya. A single hit to either one of them and they'd be paste against a tree or the ground, not something I would allow. Utilizing both the Communication Jewelry and Familiar's Bond, I told both of them to take Renae and take distance while I began to rush forward once again, discharging the dark purple Yin lightning towards the two trolls.

It was my only long distance attack but it was still comparably short ranged compared to something like a bow, and I now realized that it would be best to equip everyone with some long range weaponry and not just Arya, though both Steria and I would need to start from basically scratch to learn, though with our strength, crossbows would be a good option, maybe even firearms if I could find an easy source of gunpowder or something to replace it, both requiring a significant investment of time and money, not something I currently had much of.

The lightning did cause the trolls to redirect their focus as Steria shifted into her pure Khetoran form while Renae and Arya climbed atop her and began getting some distance. I had bought them plenty of time to fall back to a safer spot, now all I had to do was the same. While I was sure that I could eventually win against the trolls, it would be a long and grueling fight of me trying to exhaust them as their wounds healed at a rapid pace, even with the life-devouring aspect from my flames. It would probably be best if I actually worked leveling Hathor's Fangs as well, since it had the ability to produce poison, but right now it was quite weak and likely wouldn't do anything to the trolls.

I worked in tandem with Arya, coordinating through the Communication Jewelry as she fired arrows infused with golden energy from an extreme distance. On top of that I was pushing Multitask to its limit so that I could focus on not only the trolls, but on communicating and cycling mana to Arya, as I had once done in the Well of Balance. The reason for this was that I had her infuse obscene amounts of mana into each arrow, essentially turning each one into an artillery strike of golden flames.

Better yet, as long as the arrow arced close enough to me, I could use webs to redirect them closer to the trolls, slowing them down further and allowing me to obtain more and more distance from them despite their superior speed. However, even with me, Arya and Steria pushing our limits, the trolls seemed no worse for the wear and had only become enraged.

The chase had continued for close to ten minutes, and Arya's arrows were becoming more infrequent as even though I was able to supply more mana, her body was beginning to suffer from overexertion. Even the most powerful mages had a limit to how much mana they could spend in a day before their bodies began to break apart. It was one of the reasons that Wisdom was the most important attribute for any magic user, as not only mana pool, but how much one's body could endure was determined by it. In that sense I would have made an extremely powerful mage, as if one were to look at just my magic capabilities and the endurance of my body, being a mage would be no brainer. Unfortunately, my Domain limited me greatly as it was simply too small, just past the length of my arms, which meant using magic on the trolls was nearly ineffective for me.

As less and less of Arya's arrows came, the closer the trolls got to me, slowly catching up to me once again. I really thought that I was going to need to exhaust the trolls in combat, just as I suddenly spotted my salvation, a small hill. It was easy to miss and there were probably only a few people among the Races that could identify why one side of the hill seemed just a bit off, not enough to notice unless you looked and even then unless you knew what was going on, you'd probably think it was just a trick of the eyes.

I made my way to the hill at full speed before leaning back and sliding on my legs like a baseball player, a small tear of white webbing breaking apart as I slid under the ground and onto hard stone. I could tell the trolls had become frustrated, but it seemed they weren't smart enough, or perhaps didn't have enough experience to know where I had gone and I soon heard their heavy footfalls fade away.

I had found the burrow of an Arachne. I only recognized the entrance due to the fact that Ashara used to show me how to make one. I didn't want to intrude, and my Arachneren was rusty, but this was probably the only safe space I'd find for quite some time. I only hoped that the owner of this burrow would let the others come as well, the longer they were in the forest, the higher chance of them running into trouble.