But this wasn’t Bertha’s first fight.
My champion slid to the side, and the club missed her by a mere inch, slamming down into my floor. I felt pain ricochet through my dungeon as he cracked its base. Gavin twisted his torso and heaved the club around for a backhanded blow. Bertha turned it aside with her poleaxe but grunted from the force of the strike, then leaped backward, inches from my Spring Trap.
“Zagorath’s greatest champion has arrived!” Puck yelled as he dive-bombed our enemy.
Gavin backhanded the imp before he could get his claws into the troll’s single eye. Puck crashed into the floor and skittered across before colliding with a wall. Bertha used the distraction to leap into Gavin’s guard, but he was ready for her. He allowed her to get in close and then slammed his head into her skull.
Bertha had recovered quickly as Puck harassed the intruder from above. Gavin still seemed oblivious to the hidden trap I’d constructed, and his feet kept nearing it but never actually struck the surface. Bertha knew where it was located, and she had to constantly avoid stepping on the trigger point. It made her fighting a little awkward, and eventually Gavin would understand just why she wouldn’t go in a certain direction.
We needed to cripple him and take away that horrifying mobility. Right on cue, Puck flapped madly into the fray and hurled a shadow-sphere. The dark ball exploded on Gavin’s chest, but he ran straight through it, seemingly unfazed. The enemy troll’s hate-filled gaze was locked on Bertha, her death his only focus.
The half-troll swept forward and used the reach of the poleaxe to her advantage. She swept the blade across in an attempt to slice at his throat. Gavin seemed to know exactly what Bertha had planned, and easily knocked her strike aside with an elbow. They continued exchanging blows while Puck flung ineffectual shadow-spheres whenever he got a chance.
Gavin was much faster than Bertha, and he probably could have killed her easily. He seemed to toy with her, as though he was enjoying a slow and painful revenge. His club grazed her exposed flesh often, but never hard enough to take her down. He knew my champion’s every movement, as though he’d been trained by the same master.
I thought my champion’s frustrated attempts were all over when Gavin drove his weapon forward and plunged the end of it deep into her gut. She bowed over in pain but gritted her teeth and returned to the fight. She must have adjusted at the last moment and avoided the full-impact of Gavin’s mace.
Puck burst out of the shadows, caught hold of the troll’s matted hair, and tried to drag him toward the trap. Gavin’s head barely moved, the muscles in his neck bulging as he snatched Puck from the air. The imp wouldn’t release his hold, and Gavin tore my champion free, losing a clump of hair in the process. The troll’s rage bubbled over, and he squeezed the imp within his hands for a split second before he roared and relinquished his grip.
A shallow cut ran across Gavin’s torso, and blood trickled from the wound. Bertha leaped back and balanced her left hand on the ground while she spun the bloodstained poleaxe over her right shoulder.
“Perfect,” I said to Bertha, almost feeling like a ringside commentator.
Puck hauled himself upright, shook his head, then took to the air again. He flew with a little less vigor but thankfully hadn’t been within Gavin’s grasp long enough to cause any serious damage.
“Keep your distance,” I forcefully willed the imp. “More shadow-spheres. Aim for Gavin’s wound.”
My Spring Trap was sadly neglected during the battle, and I’d given up almost all hope that Gavin would step on it. The next time I renovated my dungeon, I planned on either building a path to my traps or placing so many that adventurers couldn’t take a single step without triggering one.
A dark sphere curled around Puck’s tiny fist, and he hurled it at Gavin. This time, Gavin howled with pain when the ball of shadows crashed into him. The corrosive mist seeped into his open wound and turned a scratch into something far worse.
The troll bellowed some unknown obscenity and then swung his weapon again. Shadows crept over the boulder-like head and fortified it with Infernal Essence. I didn’t know the weapon’s full capabilities, but also didn’t want Bertha or Puck to discover them.
“Watch his weapon!” I guided my champions.
Bertha ducked under it as soon as the words left my jewel. She managed to evade his agile swing, then my champion whipped her poleaxe around and cracked the troll’s jaw with the handle. Gavin barely flinched, but slid back, and a surge of satisfaction rolled over me when his right foot touched my trap.
The spikes made an incredibly satisfying snikt sound as they slammed home. I felt the shards of stone powering through his left foot and tearing into his calf muscle. The spikes impaled his bones and forced the troll to a standstill. I chuckled at my enemy’s misfortune, but before Bertha could deal her killing blow, Gavin dropped his mace into his right hand and used his left to wrest his foot free of my trap. Bertha’ poleaxe cleaved thin air and crashed against the floor.
Gavin hauled himself back, and I retracted my spikes back into the trap. It became invisible again, merging with the surface of my dungeon floor. I figured I could reuse the trap and trigger it a second time, but I doubted the troll would be foolish enough to step onto the same spot again. Eight of the twelve stone spikes were still secured to the spring mechanism, and the other four were embedded deep within his leg. I could still feel the severed remnants of my trap as they ground against my enemy’s bones.
Another shadow-sphere crashed beneath Gavin’s feet, and he roared again. His balance had been affected by the wound in his
