Chapter 20: Killing A Troll
While the Protectors of the Mountains watched them, Sigurd hid within the snow, silently gazing at his target, a goat-like creature with six eyes and only one horn on its head, curving upwards.
"Another Horngeit... shouldn't be too difficult to hunt", he thought.
The Horngeit stood still, its eyes stared intently into empty space. Perhaps, it felt that something was amiss but there was only snow and tree. The beast's head slowly lowered, eating some of the snow to quench its thirst.
Just meters away was Sigurd, whose fur blended with the snow.
It was just those two and the time to kill was near.
Circulating his magic ever so slightly, he formed a small icicle just above his body. It was large enough to be a dagger and he slowly molded it to look like one.
"I can't just leap and maul it down. The kills should be clean, after all, I need to bring some food to the Haven no matter how small it is. The edible ones should be for them and the unedible will be for Dyrnwyn."
This was how he planned to hunt.
As he finished molding the icicle into a simple dagger, the Horngeit suddenly raised its head, scanning the area. It must have felt something for its eyes moved ever so slightly until it landed on Sigurd's location.
"Now."
SIlently, the ice dagger flew, stabbing right into the eye of the Horngeit but it was not enough to kill.
"Damn."
Sigurd was quick and followed up with a strike, swinging his claws through the neck of the beast before it could even react. Then he grabbed the Horngeit and widened the wound on its neck, draining the blood out into the snow. Still fresh, it began to melt all the way into the stone ground and Sigurd waited for it to drain.
"Ah, so it wasn't enough to kill in one hit. My control over magic isn't great but its much better than before. I need to practice more."
He was somewhat disappointed in himself but he did not let it discourage him.
In fact, he began to practice while waiting, controlling the snow and carving objects out of ice. It didn't take long for the blood to finish draining and he carried it over his shoulder.
Walking back, Sigurd suddenly paused and sniffed the air.
"Something's here", he muttered before placing the goat down and hid.
Just like he thought, something did came and it was attracted to the smell of the freshly killed Horngeit. The ground rumbled with each step as a massive shadow appeared from the misty snow. It snorted once or twice and sniffed the air, grunting before finally, it revealed itself.
A creatured twice the size of Sigurd, nearly five times the size of an ordinary man. Standing on just two legs with its hunched back and a club in its hands, it looked around. It's face was somewhat grotesque, uneven teeth and a large nose like that of a goblin. But this was no goblin, it was a Troll.
Its skin was light gray in color and its eyes featured sickly yellow pupils.
"A mountain troll? You don't see many of them."
He watched carefully as the Troll sniffed the air once more, walking closer and closer before it saw the Horngeit.
The Troll had a happy look on its face having found food that hasn't even been touched. It didn't seem to care about where it came from or how it was killed. It was a Troll after all, there are very few creatures able to fight it and even fewer could scare it off.
It continued to circle around the Horngeit, drool began to trickle down its mouth as it stared at the dead beast hungrily.
"So it was drawn to the smell of the Horngeit."
Sigurd realized this and began to form several icicles, this time they became spears that floated above him.
Just as the Troll reached for the dead corpse, the spears flew, stabbing into the beast's back. Piercing through the skin, it dug several inches into the troll's body causing it to wince and cry out in pain.
But he wasn't done yet.
Just like how the Troll circled the Horngeit, Sigurd circled around the Troll. He formed more ice spears and shot it out, attacking the Troll while it was still suffering from the first attack. But these spears were not enough, even as a bluish blood flowed from the wounds, the troll only became angrier and angrier.
In rage, it's eyes darted around, trying to find the creature that dared to ruin its meal time. And when it least expected, Sigurd charged out and growled as he swung with his claws.
The Troll turned to face him only to feel his claws rip through its chest as several gashes appeared. But Sigurd was not done, despite being half the size of the troll, a bear of his size had plenty of weight. Crashing into the troll, it lost balance and fell down only to suffer more lacerations.
But the beast struck out, punching Sigurd in the side and sending him rolling into the snow.
"Agh, damn."
He placed his paw on the side that the Troll hit. It wasn't terribly pain but a dull ache radiated from where he was hit.
"I probably should have used my armor but..."
His figure slowly stood up just as the Troll recovered. Standing on his hind legs, Sigurd stared at the beast, he didn't notice it but his mouth turned into a snarl. His mouth produced a low growl, his eyes stared intensely as his fur stood up.
This was the first time he met a beast of this caliber, there was a bit of excitement. The spirit of a warrior, the yearning of a strong enemy, the allure of a battle to the death, it was enticing.
The Troll felt it, Sigurd's thirst for battle and it returned that desire with rage.
Still bleeding from all sorts of places, the beast charged forward with its club swinging. It aimed to attack Sigurd at the some spot as before.
But he dropped to all fours and charged forward, lunging onto the Troll's swinging arm. With his jaws wide open, he bit down and began to tear away at the flesh with his fangs and claws.
The Troll cried out in pain but did not fall like before. Instead, it slammed its arm down, smashing Sigurd into the ground. The bear jumped off and began circling the Troll, icicles formed above him. Like spikes, they flew forward into the exposeed flesh, freezing it and causing an excrutiating pain. It was like the Troll's arm was burning.
Sigurd then charged forward once more, jumping onto the Troll and bringing it down. It struggled to move but after losing so much blood, it was too weak. He stared at the Troll, locking eyes with it.
"That Horngeit isn't your meal. It's my prey and I don't like it when others touch my prey."
He wasn't sure if the Troll even knew what he said. After all, his words came out as growls and what not but that did not matter.
Opening his jaws, he teared the Troll's neck apart as it coughed up blood and died to him. Getting off of it's corpse, he looked at the dead troll with calm eyes.
"Hm, something for the Haven and something for the sapling. Now, trying to move both of them, this might be troublesome."
Standing between to the corpses, he wondered how exactly he was going to move them both. Sigurd then glanced at the cuff with a bit of curiosity.
"Magical storage items exist but in this time... I mean, this is the Goddess's item but can this store things?"
The cuff glittered and glowed before shining, a grayish energy came out and fell upon the troll's body. In moments, the body was gone, sent into the cuff. His eyes widened in pleasant surprised as he took another look at his cuff and then pointed outwards, trying to take the troll's body out.
In the same way, it entered, that gray energy released a corpse in front of him.
"Oh, convenient", he thought.
Returning the Troll's corpse into his cuff, he then shined it upon the Horngeit but nothing happened much to his disappointment. Despite that, he didn't let it bother him and hoisted the beast over his shoulder.
"At least it stores things, though either it can only store one item or there's a limited space. Probably the second one but still, a whole Troll inside it, that's quite a lot of space though. Compared to back then, this would be an incredible item. If every soldier wore something like this."
But Sigurd chuckled at the thought.
"Ah, if only..."
Making his way through the snow covered mountain, he attracted a few eyes but they only watched. He could feel the stares all the way back to the gate only to have it stop when the gates closed behind him.
"Hmm, time to head to the Haven's Exchange then."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone