Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 43: Spawn 10

 The Portal remained ominously still as the sun sank in the sky. For the first hour the Vanguard was in a state of anticipation, waiting in expectation and as time passed they had to focus just to remain vigilant. By the fourth hour of waiting, it felt like nothing was going to happen in their lifetimes. 

 The Vanguard decided to head back to the border to eat and rest. Benzhi, Gisael and Reyas met with Sakaala and Zoastria who had been harvesting all day.

 "We should have requested gatherers to support this hunt," Benzhi stated to no one in particular.

 "It is no problem," Sakaala replied waving her hand in dismissal. "I am happy just to be with you again, we haven't seen you in so long."

 "Even with ye hands deep in trollkin guts all day?" Reyas asked.

 "Yes, anything for Benzhi," Sakaala answered.

 Zoastria slapped herself on the forehead, "speak for yourself! Yes, Benzhi, please summon some gatherers, one thousand corpses is too much and we leave our supplies unwatched all day."

 Benzhi concentrated and reached out for Mother. He had no land Core, but he was in the Alpine Forest, although the distances had been less, he had communicated with her in this fashion before. 

 'Mother,' Benzhi called.

 'Protector,' came the reply from Mother.

 'It is good I can reach you from this distance,' Benzhi stated.

 'Distance is no matter, you are either in the Alpine Forest, or you are not,' Mother replied.

 Benzhi relayed his request for some Gatherer's to come and assist the Guardians.

 'Be well Benzhi, look after my Daughter,' Mother said her goodbyes.

 Benzhi left his meditative state and chatted with the Guardians and the Daughters, "if we still need help, it will be here in two days. There is a group of Gatherers not that far away."

 Zoastria smiled, "Thank you," she looked at Sakaala, "see, we but had to ask and be true."

 Sakaala scowled slightly and then, changing her expression, laughed lightly, "I am true. I would do whatever Benzhi asks." With that, she looked pointedly at Benzhi. 

 Benzhi held up his hand palm outward, "Woah there, I have," he looked at Gisael and Reyas, "enough on my plate." He then added, "but it is good you are so helpful, what would we do without you."

 Initially, Sakaala looked hurt by Benzhi's rejection but it seemed she was somewhat mollified by his words of comfort. 

 The group chatted for a while before they all rested, it had been a long day.

 The Vanguard headed towards the troll portal at dawns early light: the predawn light which came from the unrisen sun bouncing light off the atmosphere from the sky back down to land. Gisael could see in darkness using qi sense, Benzhi had some ability, where Reyas could not. However, with the connection, they could travel in darkness safely, if they wished. They travelled at this time of the morning to permit enough rest and still have the fullest of days.

 A few thousand paces out from the portal they spied the first troll. It was tall, well over twenty feet in height, with long arms, almost reaching the ground. It had pointy ears, beady eyes and a mouthful of fangs with long tusks on its lower jaw. The troll was lean and muscled, Benzhi recalled the last Troll uprooting trees, some with deep roots, an outstanding feat of strength.

 The Vanguard had a plan. "Now we kite," Benzhi said, almost to himself as the words were not necessary. He had received bemused looks initially until he explained to Reyas and Gisael what kiting was. Hell, they didn't know what a kite was.

 At two hundred paces, Gisael shot the troll with an arrow, that got its attention. Vanguard began to lead it further away from the portal, Gisael kept shooting it every now and then to keep it interested. Once they had lured the troll a few more thousand paces away from the portal, Benzhi veered off, whilst out of the line of sight in a gully. 

 Gisael continued to attract the Troll with arrows. It now had several sticking out from its chest and thighs, every now and then it would pluck an arrow out, overall they did not concern it too much. Gisael did not instil much qi in her arrows, just enough to penetrate the tough hide. A normal arrow, from a normal bow, would be extremely unlikely to penetrate a troll's hide.

  Benzhi hidden, allowed the troll to pass, he then approached it from behind. Slowly increasing his speed until he was twenty paces distant, then he put his pedal to the metal. 

 Extending his qi blade at full stretch, Benzhi slices its lower leg, as he ran past, the troll didn't even see it coming. Its leg was severed laying on the ground with what passed for its blood, green ichor, draining from just below its knee. The Troll looked down and then up at the departing Benzhi. If a Troll could effect a surprised bemused face, this was it.

 With its qi healing ability, the troll's leg stopped draining ichor quite quickly. It sat and was reaching for its severed leg when Benzhi charged again, this time he grabbed its severed leg by the foot and dragged it out of reach. Reyas then took over, picking up the leg and running with it off into the distance.

 Benzhi watched the troll warily.

 They had successfully separated one from the herd, behind this wandering troll were several others, but they were now a few kilometres away at least. The troll stayed seated, Benzhi engaged qi sight and watched as the troll, which had given up on reattaching its severed leg, began to grow a new one.

 Benzhi focused, trying to memorise every size, shape, concentration and pattern of the qi bubbles. As expected the qi core of the Troll was massive compared to Benzhis, Reyas and Gisaels. The only thing with more qi, that Benzhi had seen, was a Land Core.

 The Troll took almost an hour to grow a new leg, it used a massive amount of qi, Benzhi could see that its core was depleted with less than a quarter remaining. Benzhi approximated the Troll's qi core was at least five times his, and he was no slouch, he had a slightly bigger core than Gisael and Reyas. This would be compounded by the fact the Troll was a master at qi healing and did so naturally, Benzhi would not have the same efficiency as the Troll.

   Benzhi nodded. Gisael raised her bow, and at fifty paces, struck out one eye of the Troll. Benzhi closed the gap with Reyas trailing him for support, they were taking no chance. Gisael's second arrow struck the Troll's other eye it was now blinded. The troll was still seated, it's core depleted, it reached up to pull out the first arrow. Even seated its neck was over nine feet from the ground. 

 Benzhi passed the Troll slicing off its left arm, it screamed thrashing about looking for its tormentors. As Benzhi approached to attempt to sever its right arm the troll was busy waiving it around frantically. Benzhi decided to qi run up its back instead and began hacking into its neck.

 The Troll rolled, throwing Benzhi off, but not before he made two decent slices into its neck. Its neck was too thick for him to sever it with one blow with qi blade, the sword was just too small. 

 Reyas got tired of waiting and charged the troll embedding a pick into its foot, its calf, then she jumped back out of range. The Troll swiping, searching for her. It was still too busy to remove the arrows from its eye sockets. Benzhi nodded to Reyas. She ran in again, hacking at the Troll's chest. It tried to swipe her again, but Benzhi was ready and met its arm mid blow slicing it off. Other than the Trolls jaws, which Benzhi knew all too well was dangerous, the Troll had been disarmed.

  Benzhi charged it from behind, smashing his shield into its back, the Troll fell forward, its face on the ground. Benzhi climbed its back and Gisael approached from its left, she had stowed her bow and drawn her sword. Benzhi hacked the back of its neck and Gisael did the same from the side. Within five or six slices each, its head was separated from its body.

 "That one was certainly tougher than the last," Benzhi supposed, although he wasn't sure as he didn't actually see what happened, in the end, severing its head through. Ailen had done that.

 "I wouldn't want to be fighting more than one at a time," Reyas stated. She could not sever limbs with her picks, unless she stuck a mortal blow through its skull, into its brain, she was severely handicapped. "Will piercing its brain be a mortal wound?" She asked Gisael.

 Gisael shook her head. "I do not know," she responded.

 "We should ask the Stoneskin crafters for some big ass qi axes for these bastards," Benzhi pondered.

 "Well, that doesn't help now," Reyas said.

 "Do we have the information needed?" asked Gisael.

 Benzhi nodded, "we do, but, I would like to practice and then study another."

 "How are you going to practice?" asked Reyas.

 "Follow," he said and ran over to a large rock three hundred paces away.

 Benzhi stuck out his pinky on the rock, curving his other fingers up into his palm. He looked at Gisael.

 "You are stupid," she said repeated her favourite description of him. 

 "Do it, or do I.." Benzhi hadn't finished his sentenced when Gisael sliced off his pinky.

 "Fuck, warning!" he said.

 "It is better with no warning, my stupid," Gisael responded.

 "Who says I am yours?" Benzhi said.

 Gisael just laughed.

 While Gisael was laughing his finger or lack of it, began to hurt like hell. "I need something to staunch the flow of blood," Benzhi asked.

 "Hmm, perhaps you should have thought of that before asking to have it cut off," Gisael said, but she produced a bandage, from god knows where she didn't wear much except for a magic pouch the size of Benzhi's fist which produced miraculous amounts of useful items on request. Gisael cut the circulation which a tight tourniquet. 

 Benzhi concentrated on stopping the flow of blood first, recalling what the troll had done, it would be good to practice even with the tourniquet, it may come in handy one day. After a few minutes of trial and error, he finally got the stitch and bubble correct to close a severed vessel. It was not too different to what he had done in the past, it was more efficient, however.

 Now the real test was about to begin. Fortunately, a pinky is a lot smaller than a Troll's leg but it would still require a large amount of qi. Benzhi was practising and most likely making mistakes which would need to rectified and the method tried again.

 Benzhi focused on what he saw the Troll do in his mind's eye and attempted to recreate the qi bubbles correct size, shape, concentration and pattern for bone, skin, muscle, nerves, blood vessel and tissue. Each organ had a different qi healing bubble. This is why he had failed in the past and what he had learnt from the trollkin and Troll.

 After two hours of practising, Benzhi had made significant progress and used a significant amount of qi. However, he drew all the qi from reserves he stored in the shield. The amount of qi he had used was equal to his full core and he had only regrown half his pinky.

 "Um," Reyas said, unnecessarily as the other two knew exactly what she was seeing. A group of Trolls were wandering close to their location and there were more behind this group. The Trolls were wandering solo and in groups of two and three.

  "How goes the study?" Gisael asked. She had retrieved the core from the defeated Troll as Benzhi practised. "Should we move or kite and kill another?"

 Benzhi looked at his hand. Gisael had cut off his right pinky, which was his shield hand, as he used his sword with his left.

 "Let's kite one by itself well away from these groups, back towards the border," Benzhi decided.

 The Vanguard selected their victim and Gisael angered it with an arrow through the arm at three hundred paces, it was a spectacular shot.

 The solo troll was enraged and started running towards them, it roared, and all the other trolls within hearing distance came running too. They were being chased by fourteen full sized Trolls.

"Oh crap," Benzhi said.

 "Is this how kiting is supposed to work?" Reyas asked as they ran.

  Ignoring the rhetorical question, Benzhi said, "let's run for an hour towards the border and see if they drop off."

  The Trolls never gave up the chase, however, they did spread out.

 "Will they keep running forever?" Reyas asked.

  "I have no fucking idea. But, if they keep following, let's take them to the cliffs. We can climb and they cannot." Benzhi strategised.

 "Like the yetis," Gisael said.

 "Yes," Benzhi said. Hopefully.

 The Vanguard veered northwest, heading for the largest cliffs they had seen at the ocean's edge, just south of the Alpine Forest. If the trolls followed them for another two hours they would make it to the cliffs.

 After running another half hour Reyas asked, "If the faster ones tire and lose sight of us, will they stop following?"

 "We could pick up speed and try and lose them and see," Benzhi answered.

 The Vanguard did just that, they ran at near full speed for a couple of thousand paces, putting distance between themselves and the Trolls. The fastest ones were lanky, with long legs, and they loped after the trio, with their massive size and stride length they could keep up with the fast-moving Vanguard. However, when they put their mind to it, Vanguard could outpace even these twenty-foot plus monsters.

  The Vanguard kept moving until the cliffs, even with the Trolls out of sight they did not stop. They ran down onto the beach and then climbed up a craggy rockface which was separated from the southern beach, the Trolls would not be able to circumvent the cliff without a major detour. That was if they were still following.

 Benzhi, Reyas and Gisael climbed onto a ledge on the cliff face and waited. There was still quite a few hours left in the day, it was not long after midday.

 An hour passed and a Troll turned up onto the beach, stopping and sniffing the air, it kept coming in their direction. It was the lankiest Troll, the fastest of the fourteen. It looked up the rock face, it must have sensed them and it roared its guttural Troll sound calling its kin.

 "If we wait more will come," Benzhi guessed.

 "So we attack now while it is alone," Gisael suggested.

 Benzhi nodded, feeling what the warrior women felt, there was a chance more would arrive mid-fight.

 "We can always retreat back to this ledge," Benzhi said.

 The Vanguard headed down the rockface, the Troll had made no move to climb up and attack them, they would not wait. They would bring the fight to the Troll.

Chapter end