I started my ascent, heading left along the narrow road that spiraled around the mountain. My boots crunched on loose stones and jagged slate riddled with cracks. I focused my eyes on my surroundings and kept my hypersensitive ears peeled for trouble. Something caught my eye—a network of cables reaching from one ridge to another and climbing ever upward. They were the remnants of a primitive cable car system. While they were old, they weren’t fraying. The rope’s threads glistened and sparkled. When I touched them, my skin tingled as though the ropes harbored a magical energy. Possibly it was Infernal Essence, the same substance hovering in my jewel?
I approached an upturned cart on the ground and inspected the magical symbols on its sides. The cable cars must have worked by magic, but the substance that had infused it was no longer active.
I traced over the symbol, and a dark point appeared where my finger had been. My Infernal Essence total appeared, slowly ticking down to thirty-nine. I continued tracing the symbols until they were completely covered in the black substance. When I was finished, my Infernal Essence totaled thirty-seven.
I stepped back as the symbol burst with an eerie blood-red light. The magical seal now active, I shifted the cart onto its wheels and pushed it toward the cables. It took me a few minutes to secure the cart to the ropes. As much as I enjoyed the senses, the speed, and the look of the elf, he couldn’t lift things or fight like I needed him to—at least, not yet. As soon as I was completely inside the cart, it started to move of its own accord, ascending toward the mountain’s peak.
After a few minutes, the cart suddenly jolted to a stop, and I glanced over the edge and looked at the dull symbols on its sides. The magic had eroded, and the cart was hanging a few feet away from the mountain. I was stretching over the side to trace the symbol again when I heard a deafening roar.
A monstrous troll sprinted out from a cave and surged toward me. Tracing the magical symbol earlier had taken more minutes than I currently possessed, so I climbed onto the edge of the cart and launched myself over the distance and onto the mountain. Only as my gut lurched and I slammed into the rock face did it occur to me the elf could definitely jump. My fingers struggled to find purchase on the cliff, but I managed to scramble up and onto my feet.
I sprinted up the mountain path with the troll scrambling up behind me, creating mini-avalanches of stones that plummeted off the cliffside. He was an ugly fucker, a giant green brute rippling with muscle. He was gaining, and I couldn’t keep this up all day—my timer was ticking down. I rounded a corner in the path, saw a crack in the mountain face to my left, and lunged for it.
When the troll turned the corner, I leaped from my hiding place and cracked him in the stomach with the sharp end of the club. The wood fractured into splinters, but his hardened abdomen remained unharmed.
The troll straightened, his massive form now drowning me in its shadow. He grinned and chuckled at me while I wrinkled my nose at the pungent smell. Worse than the gnome, this thing smelled like fossilized, just-microwaved dinosaur shit.
“You be a little weakling, elf. You cannot harm me.”
“How about I give you a bath? That do the trick?”
What was it about this world that made me want to run my mouth?
The troll drove his fist toward me, but I twisted aside at the last second. The monster’s hand was almost as big as my torso, and a single hit would cave in my chest and kill me in one blow. Little remained of my club, so I tossed it aside. The troll lunged and swiped, but I barely managed to duck before he took my head off. I couldn’t keep this up, not unless I could convince him to jump off the cliff.
I dodged a second too late, the troll snatching my tunic in his hand. I had to repress the urge to gag when he pulled me into his face. Fuck, this creature smelled bad, almost making me wish for the gnome again.
Looming in my vision was a huge, square-jawed face with chipped and yellowed tusks curling out of his jaw. He twisted his grip, and my tunic tore down the middle to reveal the sling I’d fashioned out of my tunic’s sleeves. His eyes locked onto my sling, and my jewel sparkled beneath the fabric in the reflection of his black pupils.
“Aye?” the troll paused. “Something shiny be in your sling.”
I recalled my avatar’s ability to enthrall an enemy from his creation screen, but didn’t know how to activate it. Lilith had been under my sway when I’d stared into her eyes, so I guessed I had to do the same to this troll if I wanted to charm it.
“Shiny? The only thing that’s shiny is your bald-ass head.”
“What did you say?” The troll tightened his grip around my tunic, and the tightness cut off my air supply. But he had just locked eyes with me.
My mind connected with his, and I felt my power smother him as my vision bathed in scarlet.
Charm test . . . Success!
Charlie the Hell Troll successfully Enthralled!
“Master,” Charlie croaked. His arms hung from his sides, his knuckles dragging across the ground as he swayed, entranced by my power.
What the hell kind of name was Charlie for a troll? I wasn’t sure how the naming conventions had started in this world, but I figured trolls would have had more harsh-sounding names.
“Charlie?” a voice called out from further down the road.
Just my luck. More of these things.
“Who’s that?”
