Stardeep_ The Dungeons - Bruce R. Cordell [35]
Accepting the gift of salvation without understanding, Raidon deflected a gteen-muscled claw with his forearm. The troll snarled-his left eye was bloody, but was already visibly regaining its normal hue and shape. A memory surfaced from stories he'd heard-few things could permanently hurt these hulking terrors. Raidon slipped below another claw's vicious thrust.
He couldn't be distracted! The Thayan was still the greater threat.
Raidon ducked beneath the troll's legs and charged the wizard, unsheathing his daito. The look of triumph on the Red Wizard's face crumbled, and he backpedaled. A root caught his heel, and he went over onto his back. The monk leaped forward, his knee coming down firmly on the wizard's neck.
"Yield," he instructed the scarred man.
The red-robed caster mumbled something unintelligible, then clearly stated, "You have made an understandable mistake-I am your friend, so I forgive you. Now, get up and help me to my feet." The wotds rang through Raidon's head like a gong, growing stronger and more reasonable the more he considered the new idea.
Then warmth touched his back once again, and the compulsion blew away like ash, leaving only powerless words, naked in their inanity.
The man's eyes narrowed as he exclaimed, "That's the second spell you've thrown off! What fell resistance guards your-urk!"
Raidon leaned, exerting slightly more pressure with his knee on the scarred man's carotid. With the blood flow to his head restricted, the man passed out heartbeats later. The monk jumped and spun, but the rush of wind signaling the troll's attack had warned Raidon too late. The troll gtabbed him and raised him in the air.
Whatever guardian spirit had protected him from the Thayan's magic failed to tespond when the troll beat the monk like a wet rug against a nearby tree. The initial impact nearly jarred loose Raidon's grip on the daito.
The troll raised him high once more, ready to dash him against another tree. Raidon cast away pain and bent his body forward, slicing at the brutal fingers squeezing his leg. The troll squealed and lost its hold plus a few fingers. The monk dived into a shock-absorbing roll. He grunted on impact but used the energy of the fall to propel himself several yards away from the green-skinned giant before coming out of the maneuver on his feet.
Raidon turned and assumed a thrusting stance with the sword before him. He preferred using his limbs as weapons, but the daito was Raidon's answer to the troll's enormous, clawed reach.
Its roar of challenge was the sound of a furious waterfall at snowmelt. Raidon held steady in the blaring noise, but faint nausea touched him when he noticed new fingers growing from the bloody stumps of the troll's hand, waving and reaching like worms. It was obscene, too much like watching the birth of tiny monstrosities.
Raidon charged. The troll waited, its arms apart, its mouth wide and hungry. The monk feinted left and chopped right. Off came the troll's entire right hand. The creature's lack of response to such an injurious loss was unnerving. Raidon had expected to press his attack, but the troll was already clawing at him with its remaining hand and biting at his shoulder. Its breath stank of spoiled meat.
A sparkle of green light washed across the troll. Where the light passed, the troll melted away, entirely disappearing in the span of an eye blink.
The monk's head swiveled. Had a Commorand brother tracked him down and banished the Red Wizard's guardian? No, he remained alone, save for the scarred man. Raidon shrugged. The creature, called by a spell, had probably returned whence it came. He hoped that was so. The less palatable alternative had the troll in some nether realm waiting to ambush him. Raidon decided to act as if his first surmise was ttue.
He studied the defeated Red Wizard. He bent and wiped the troll blood off his daito on the man's expensive garment. The Thayan