The two grey-furred trifley carrying the barrel of explosives continued their wild chattering as they raced to join the rest of their crew already in the fight. They stumbled several times in their excitement, nearly falling and toppling their oversized load, but each time managing to right themselves before they lost control entirely.

  Jarod had no idea how much of a punch their barrel would carry. It seemed entirely possible that an explosion at this close range would do as much damage to the trifley’s numbers as it would to their own, but he wasn’t about to make an argument on why they should stay and find out. He had to hope that Tex’ana would be able to take out the trifleys with his reach before they got too close. They’d managed to fend off most of the first wave attacking them, but there was still a pair darting between the sight servant’s legs, drawing his attention.

  Roll for initiative

  [1]

  Lose initiative

  Jarod had started to get used to the messages by now, but he was surprised to see this one pop up. Another initiative lost, but why had another chance come up in the first place? When he’d fought Avery that first night at the tavern, the ebb and flow of the battle had been determined from the first initiative roll. When they’d fought the trifleys on the bridge though, they’d rolled after each side had taken a turn, just like they were being given now. He was still a little hazy on how all of these messages affected outcomes in battle, but he knew that they did have an impact. A message that indicated he’d succeeded on an attack made each slash with his shortsword hit hard and deadly. Same with the initiative messages: winning or losing gave him or his opponent the first opening.

  Why had another message popped up then? Maybe it was a chance to turn the tide of battle. One that he’d failed on, but maybe one he could affect. Jarod thought back to the mysterious message about the “fate die” that he’d received earlier. Some intuition told him that now was an opportunity to use it.

  Fate die used

  Re-roll for initiative

  [4]

  Win initiative

  It worked! Whatever hidden access he had to this sixth sense had given him another chance, and he’d succeeded. Now all that remained was to see if it had any effect.

  The situation on the battlefield certainly looked grim. The group of them had weathered the initial attack just fine, but the mass of incoming attackers threatened to quickly overwhelm them, especially with explosives in the mix.

  The corpses of the trifleys they’d slain lay strewn about the battlefield, leaving blue puddles of mud from open wounds that seeped into the dirt. Next to him, Nikolao held onto his collar with his injured arm, trying to keep it from moving around, all the while holding his longsword as steady as he could. Filgrin was uninjured, but he didn’t like the old bowyer’s odds if the trifleys were able to close in on them, and Jarod himself felt fine, but believed he was on the verge of death based on his missing health.

  The only member of their troupe he had any faith in was Tex’ana, but their glaive-wielding front line was spending as much time avoiding trifley attacks as he was launching his own.

  Suddenly though, the long-limbed man seemed to find an opening. The two trifleys beneath him, each paying attention to their own combat dance with the sight servant, lost track of each other and collided head-first together. The impact was only enough to make them stumble back in momentary shock, but it was the only opportunity Tex’ana needed.

  Tex’ana whirled aside, pivoting on one foot to open space to the trifley beneath him, while simultaneously closing the distance to the approaching reinforcements. Holding his mighty glaive by the middle, he stabbed down at one of the trifleys below him, skewering the small creature. In one smooth movement, he slashed the blade out of the trifley’s body, swinging it up and over his head, while allowing the momentum of the blade to carry it out, finally closing his grip on it at the edge of the shaft to allow for maximum reach. He continued the now enormous arc of the blade, slashing down with a mighty force directly atop one of the trifleys holding the lit barrel of explosives, killing it instantly.

  Jarod couldn’t help but cheer as he saw the remaining trifley fall forward under the increased load, unable to haul the full weight. Tex’ana pivoted back around on his leg again, taking one large step away from the still-lit barrel to refocus his attention on the remaining creature beneath him.

  Everything had gone perfectly. Jarod’s strange connection to the messages had allowed Tex’ana to seize the initiative and take out the threat before they had a chance to hurl the explosives at the group.

  Filgrin acted next, firing an arrow at the trifley currently trying to extricate itself from under the barrel. The shot sailed alongside the creature’s arm, before finally sinking deep into its leg. It howled and thrashed, managing to finally crawl out and regain its footing, unstable though it was with an injured leg.

  Jarod sprung forward now, hoping to repay the favor to Tex’ana by taking out the trifley still swinging wildly around his legs. At the same time, Nikolao followed parallel to him, and their two downward slashes sliced out at the same time.

  Roll to hit

  Longsword: [10]+1

  Hit for [3] damage

  Both longswords landed at the same time. Jarod felt the resistance of cutting through flesh, and then a metallic clunk as their longswords met in the center. They’d entered on either side of the monster’s neck, carving down and in, fully cutting a wedge of its body. They withdrew their swords, and the wedge, including the trifley’s head in grim rictus, slid cleanly apart from its body.

  Jarod glanced sideways at Nikolao, jaw clenched and brows tight. That should have been his kill, he didn’t need help from the cowardly surveyor to finish it off. Every one of Nikolao’s actions seemed chosen with intention to make him angry.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  They could hash it out after the fight though. Right now, the trifleys were continuing their advance, running through the open space between the hole blasted in the bakery and the corner of the building where the group of rescuers were making their stand.

  He could count 11 of them now, including the injured one that had been carrying the barrel. That injured one kept his stance next to the barrel. Jarod would have assumed it was dealing with the pain from its injury, but the crouch it was in was low and balanced, hunkering down as though in anticipation. The other trifleys that were charging didn’t seem to pay any mind to the fuse on the explosive, quickly burning away, running right alongside it.

  Maybe it’s an intimidation tactic, thought Jarod. Or maybe it’s got a much longer fuse than we thought, and we’ll have to worry about them picking it up again. He didn’t have any longer to think over the situation, because at that moment, the barrel exploded.

  The shockwave rippled outward, the sudden pressure and rush of air hitting Jarod first. It felt like a giant roll of hay smacking into him, the cushioned pressure that still knocked the wind out of you, only a hundred times faster and more powerful. He tumbled backwards, shaken, but not immediately harmed from the blast.

  As his brain caught up, it tried to process a strange picture. Trifleys flying through the air, arms pinwheeling to keep their balance, faces focused ahead. They flew much slower than the shockwave, slow enough that he was on his back trying to regain his senses when one of them flew directly overhead, its arms now outstretched. It took another second before he could process the trifley’s primal yammering, and the harsh smacking sounds of punches behind him.

  Jarod rolled onto his side, head swimming, balance lost. He looked up in a daze, seeing but not comprehending at first the trifley now in front of him, an arrow still sticking out of its thigh, raining blows down upon Filgrin.

  Jarod blinked hard, trying to clear his mind. Deafened sound filtered back in slowly, as he heard shouting in common-speak. Nikolao, calling for help. Filgrin, cursing the foe atop him. He sucked in air, catching his breath finally, and stood up automatically. His sword was somehow still in his hand, though he could feel a drip running down his arm where he’d nicked it going down.

  The battlefield was a mess. He didn’t have a clue where Tex’ana was, but he saw an enemy in front of him and slashed right to left with his blade.

  Roll to hit

  Longsword: [12]+1-4

  Hit for [1] damage

  The longsword slashed the trifley across its back, and it arched in pain, howling and stumbling on its bad leg. The attack was enough to get its attention, but not enough to finish it off. Weaponless, but apparently in better control of its senses than Jarod, the creature hopped forward, mostly on one leg, and threw a wild haymaker at Jarod.

  Jarod brought up his sword early, falling into the ready stance he’d used earlier. The trifley swung forward, but noticed the unflinching position Jarod stood in, and pulled its attack short. It looked at Jarod warily, fists still raised, looking for Jarod to open himself up for an opportunity, but Jarod was still trying to get ahold of the situation, and he didn’t make a move.

  In the moments of their standoff, the situation began to clarify as his higher-order faculties returned. Clearly, the trifleys had not been affected by the blast in the same way they had been. Their group was far enough away to avoid any damaging effects of the blast, but close enough to still have been knocked back and dazed. They may have been uninjured from the blast, but it had freed enough time for several of the monsters to close the gap by launching themselves forward, and for the stragglers to gain ground for free.

  Jarod looked back over his shoulder to assess the rest of the battlefield. First, there was Tex’ana. The sight servant had regained his feet, but was fighting off a group of three trifleys, one of whom was clutched onto his leg, climbing to reach more vital organs. Past Tex’ana, the other trifleys hadn’t managed to advance as much as Jarod had feared. The blast seemed to have caught most of them out of position, and they’d been scattered across the battlefield. Thanks to their apparent immunity to explosives though, they were already on their feet, sprinting to join the fight. They’d probably be there inside of 10 seconds.

  Jarod felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and he whirled around just in time to see the trifley charging at him, its opening found. There was no time. The creature was already practically upon him. Jarod tried to raise his sword up, but he felt a tight grip on one of his arms that stopped him dead in his tracks. He pulled back, cringing away from the grey-skinned face directly in front of him. It raised its free hand above its head, and Jarod could see its short claws flex and lengthen slightly as it readied the blow. At least now he would get to see if Tex’ana’s potion had any actual restorative effect.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Jarod saw the creature’s head rear back, and then felt its weight upon him. He fell back into the dirt, sliding, and then coming to a halt. The creature’s body was hot and surprisingly heavy on top of him, as he kept fighting to bring up his arm to defend himself. In the fall, the creature’s grip must have loosened, because he was able to finally pull his sword up, trying to wedge it between him and the trifley before it slashed down at him with its claws.

  Before what though? Surely the creature’s attack would have come by now. Jarod wedged his other arm between his body and the trifley’s and pushed. It rolled off without a fight.

  Jarod crawled away from under it, and saw the source of his luck. An arrow was lodged deep in its back. Enough damage to finish it off.

  Up ahead, a bloodied and bruised Filgrin had taken his feet, bow raised, looking now to the trifley currently wrestling with Nikolao.

  “Hurry,” Filgrin said. “My other arrows are scattered. We have to be ready for the reinforcements if we’re to survive this.”

  Jarod glanced over, and ran forward without another thought to Nikolao.

  Roll to hit

  Longsword: [10]+1

  Hit for [6] damage

  He ran forward, longsword extended, skewering the trifley wrestling with Nikolao. His momentum pushed the sword deep, all the way through the monster, and out the other side far enough to almost stick Nikolao with the tip. The surveyor yelped in surprise, and dropped his grip on the now dead weight of the creature.

  All that remained now was Tex’ana. While Jarod had helped dispatch the ones on Filgrin and Nikolao, Tex’ana had culled the numbers on him down to just two. That number was about to go up significantly though, as the other trifley were rapidly closing in from all sides.

  Before Jarod had a chance to move to assist, a low, guttural sound came from the sight servant. It was deep and rumbling, like a wolf’s warning growl, totally unlike the usual composed manner Jarod had seen. Ignoring his own defense for a moment, Tex’ana swept around with his blade, taking deep wounds to his legs in the process, but cleaving the remaining two trifleys into halves.

  His immediate threats taken care of, the unnaturally tall man seemed to stretch even farther up, tilting his head back, and raising both arms high with his glaive. A roar, warbling and otherworldly resounded out among the battlefield. Jarod felt his breath catch as he witnessed it, and thought about taking cover himself. Whatever the sight servant was doing was something primal, perhaps even evil. Jarod’s whole body tensed at the sight.

  The effect was even more powerful on the trifleys. The blue blood dripping down from high atop the raised glaive, combined with the hellish appearance of Tex’ana mid-roar was enough to stop them in their tracks. Scattered on all sides as they were, the trifleys backpedalled in every direction, seeking any way out and away from the monstrous creature before them.

  Tex’ana lowered his glaive at their retreat, but stayed standing, tall and imposing as he turned to the other three. Darkened eyes stared at Jarod, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse, strained from whatever display he’d put on. “Now, we shall finish our job.”