*Crack!!*
With two new bullets in the chamber of his shotgun, William dodged the swing of Grurk's remaining right arm.
The thick bone claws that replaced his fingers left deep gashes in the dry earth from the residual flames of the exploding runic bullets.
William ran behind Grurk; the two larger trolls seemed more intelligent, and letting them organise with the smaller hill trolls was not a good idea.
*Boom!!!*
The head of one of the small trolls exploded into pieces. The thick fur covering most of its body seemed as resistant as natural armour, but the flames set its hair on fire and the bait it was carrying made the task easier.
Its dirty hair burst into uncontrollable flames and turned its body into a giant humanoid torch. If he hadn't died instantly, he would now be screaming in pain as he burned.
"Each troll has different characteristics. Could it be because they each have a different mother?"
When a troll is born, it disembowels its mother as it emerges from her womb and devours her corpse to grow faster. As a type of giant related to fae being, their reproductive options are varied, including animals and humans.
William rolled quickly to one side, the long, thick bone spikes flying from Brub's arms like rain, their penetrating power quite high as they buried themselves deep into the Torch Troll's burnt flesh.
The knights' helmets, strapped to their simple loincloths, clashed together, and one could almost hear the knights' screams before their bodies were crushed and devoured bone by bone.
*Clash of teeth!*
Brub pushed his brother's burning body aside with his left arm and lunged at William with a ferocious bite; his thick horse teeth snapped with an audible crunch.
Grurk struggled to his feet; the burns from his wound prevented much of his black blood from escaping his enormous body.
William escaped into the forest, and five consecutive shots overheated the barrel to the point that it changed colour from black to bright red.
"Five consecutive shots is your limit before you risk warping the barrel."
William felt his Imp King ring vibrate on his left hand, turned his head, and saw the huge tree flying in his direction.
William's boots slipped in the mud a second before the huge tree crashed down. William transformed into an owl, and his black feathers helped him disappear from the trolls' view in the night. Their small eyes searched everywhere for him.
"The smell, follow the smell of the human!"
Grurk lifted the tree off the ground and sniffed the area, his large vertical nostrils expanding and contracting as he inhaled close to the ground.
"I can't smell anything!"
"I can't find it!"
"Little bird!"
One of the hill trolls felt small feet on the calluses of his shoulders; his prominent hump still bore traces of a layer of stone that had not completely fallen off.
"Arggghhhh!"
The troll screamed in pain as Titan in his dagger form pierced his eardrum, entering through his right ear.
William returned to his human form on the troll's hump and twisted his dagger, causing more pain to the trolls as black blood spurted everywhere.
Leaning on one knee with his sharp black claws dug into the troll's scalp to prevent himself from falling, William did not hesitate to expand Titan's sword.
The thick layer of fat that could stop axes did not stop Artemis' spear for a second. Its blade penetrated the skull, cut through the brain, and came out the other ear.
"Four down, three to go and a rat with scales!"
Titan retracted and returned to its sheath, the black blood simply sliding off the blade.
Grurk grabbed William with his remaining arm and lifted him several metres, bringing him closer to his mouth. The skin on his cheeks tore as he opened his mouth too wide, planning to bite the human's head off.
"It's finally cooled down!"
William pressed the barrel of his shotgun against Grurk's forehead. His shiny silver armour covered his body, preventing Grurk's hand pressure from breaking his ribs.
*Bang!*
Gruk's head disappeared after the deafening noise that scared the insects in the grass.
The smell of burnt flesh was so strong that it would make a normal person vomit.
William fell gently to the ground and loaded his last two cartridges. Tonight he only had nine cartridges with him, attached to his belt.
"You make this all look so easy, young man."
William looked at the man standing a few metres away from him, dressed in an elegant dark grey trench coat.
Brub's eyes widened, barely feeling the palm of the human's hand on his leg when he heard his voice. He didn't smell him or hear any noise.
He was absorbed in his brother, who was about to avenge his younger siblings.
*Applause*
The man clapped his hands and the huge body of the cave troll twisted into a spiral, entrails and blood splattering everywhere, the flesh seemingly squeezed by invisible hands in all directions.
The crunching of bones only ceased when Brub became a grotesque, deformed, bleeding ball.
The last of the hill trolls ran off, smashing trees in his path, his thick tail almost tripping him up, but he managed to get a few metres away.
*Boom!!!* *Boom!!!*
Two separate shots, first in his waist and then in his chest, the rest of his burnt body fell among the broken trees as hot smoke poured from the barrel of William's Benelli shotgun.
"Who are you?"
William rested the shotgun on his shoulder. They were several kilometres from Stone Manor, and his tone of voice was neither aggressive nor authoritative.
"Benedict Straton, golden hair, runic weapons and great skill in hand-to-hand combat. Guess what, are you a Stone?"
Benedict, a man in his thirties, dressed in an elegant grey trench coat with the buttons undone, a black shirt and silver-rimmed glasses.
His black hair was carefully combed back, his thick boots stepped into the pool of black blood, and he removed his face mask.
"William Stone, son of Uriel Stone."
"God, you're better than Max told us. What are you doing here?"
Benedict walked towards William with a smile, pushing his trench coat aside and revealing the badge hanging from his belt on a silver chain.
"I'm from the same squad, an active Fang on duty."
The badge depicted a three-headed winged Hydra. Max wore the same badge on his belt and Nort wore it on a necklace.
'Our security cameras detected unusual activity. I came to take a look. Do you mind if I confirm your identity with Max?'
William took out his phone. A simple text message to Max or Nort would confirm the identity of the man standing in front of him.
[Benedict, he's one of us, an idiot in some cases, but he does his job well.]
A text message from Max was enough. Benedict watched William's reaction.
"Shouldn't we have received a notification if any of this was happening on Mount Hood?"
"In theory, our captain should have called your father to inform him of this operation, but that man must have forgotten or didn't think it was important."
Benedict sighed in frustration.
"We were lucky to find out, but how did the Fangs find out about this pack of trolls?"
"Through the seer who works for us, Miss Vivian. Her family lineage allows her to capture her visions in a physical medium, in her case a snapshot, which gives us a date and approximate location."
(This was how Andreus found out that he had killed a White Widow, through one of these visions.)
William remembered the photo his parents had shown him, his Artemis spear and the White Widow. He had always wondered how they got it if no one was with him that night.
William was right. Andreus immediately recognised the Artemis spear William had used against the Imp King. In the photo, the White Widow was dead, so no Fang had been deployed.
"That sounds convenient."
"On some occasions... how do you want to deal with this lizard? It seems to have surrendered to you."
Benedict turned to the old bipedal lizard that had knelt before William, its head bowed and both palms pressed together in front of it.
"Are you offering it to me?"
William noticed the pendant in the scaly hands, three metal skulls with open mouths hanging from a silver chain.
"Shouldn't you be careful? It could be a cursed object."
"Don't worry."
The Imp King's ring that warned William of danger did not react. William took the pendant, and for the first time in three weeks, his system reacted.
(I thought you would hibernate all summer, but with the end of hunting season, no matter how many beasts I hunted, I got no reaction from the system).
William hunted down a couple of different Trasgos, one covered in spikes and another that spat acid, during his journey back to Oregon from Vermont. He waited for the system to notify him of their deaths and the names of the species, as it had done with the imps, but it remained completely silent.
[Three Jaws Pendant: Effect translates the language of the fae races. For a limited time.]
"I surrender to your majesty, descendant of heroes, I beg for mercy on behalf of my pack!!!"
The lizard begged for mercy as he bowed and pressed his forehead against the ground, his claws digging into the mud.
"Are there more of you?"
"Forty of us awoke from our cold stone prison!!!"
"Did you encounter more kobolds on your way here?"
William released the pendant and held it by the chain, before turning to look at Benedict.
"Oh! They're kobolds. I encountered a few dozen and destroyed them all."
The Fang replied without changing his expression, his hands in his pockets. He vaguely understood that William now understood the old lizard.
"I will tell you everything about the leader of the Trolls in exchange for the safety of my children and their descendants!"
"I promise I won't hurt you. Now tell me who their leader is and where he is."
William rested his elbows on his knees, the shotgun disappeared from his hands, and he returned to his room. The second fairy ring appeared in his hand, and he placed it on top of the first one he always wore on his left hand.
"It's Damrock!!!, The Wyvern Eater, you may know him by the title given to him by humans...!!!"
The kobold looked pleased as he placed his claws between his fangs and made an expression that resembled a happy smile.
Being a slave to the trolls who devoured them whenever they wanted was torture for his species, a source of constant fear for him and his future offspring, a new clutch of eggs that the females would lay in about two days.
It was a pity that now they were nothing more than shapeless pieces of flesh.