City of Steel (Chaos Awakens Book 3) (20 page)

Imaginary Xan nodded. “We need to get out of here as fast as we can. This place isn’t secure enough. We need some place where we can shut that thing out or it’s going to kill us.”

Crawling back out from under the table wasn’t easy, but Xandrith did it quickly.  He moved through the house looking for a second way out.  The footsteps outside were close now, just beyond the front door.  A window opened out onto a small open area behind the house.  Xandrith scrambled through the window, making the best of it with his broken leg.  He landed on shattered glass, making a huge amount of noise. 

“This game could be amusing, little human.” A deep, rumbling voice called through the house. “How far and how fast can you run with all those injuries?”

Xandrith forced himself to move.  He had to fight back the panic that told him to throw his cane away and just run on his broken leg.  He wouldn’t get far like that.  He crossed the small open area and looked back over his shoulder just in time to see the troll emerge from around the house.  It was a massive creature, easily twice as tall he was.  Its flesh was blackened and split in multiple places, though Xan could see in the light spilling down from the shattered ceiling above that it was healing its wounds quickly.  It had four horns rising from its crown, two spiraling horns on the side, and two longer and straighter horns rising up from the front of its skull.  Its eyes burned red as though they were the heart of a blacksmith’s forge.  Even if Xan had been in perfect health with all of his weapons this wouldn’t have been a fight he’d have wanted to take on. 

“Oh, what are you?” The troll asked mockingly. “I thought your blood smelled strange, but I didn’t think I’d find myself a halfling.” It began to cross the courtyard, walking slowly, taking its time. “I’ve only seen one of you before. Tell me, did you kill your mother when you hatched from her womb? I hear that’s what happens when a halfling is born. Human flesh isn’t strong enough to survive all that clawing and ripping. Of course, usually they don’t even survive the breeding. Human women are so flimsy. They rip and tear so easily.”

Xandrith ignored the teasing.  It didn’t apply to him anyway.  He forced himself to move as quickly as possible, past the block of housing and out into the street beyond.  He needed to find some place to lock himself away from the troll before it stopped playing with him and came in for the kill.  He wouldn’t last long once it became serious about its pursuit.  He glanced quickly from home to home, looking for one that might provide some measure of protection, but they were all the same.  Ahead he could see the end of the block of houses, and beyond that lay an open area that might have been used as some kind of underground park before the city’s residence had fled.  There was nowhere left to hide.  He hobbled towards the park. 

There were artificial trees covered in handholds and crawlspaces that had been crafted of wood and metal.  They looked like they’d been built for children to climb, but Xandrith hoped they would serve to keep the monster behind him at bay.  He approached the nearest structure and ducked into it, wriggling his way between bars of steel and beams of rugged but charred oak. The spaces weren’t really made for an adult to fit through, but Xandrith forced himself inside anyway, abandoning his crutch quickly as he realized it just wasn’t going to make the journey with him.  His leg screamed in agony with every twist and bump, but he couldn’t let the pain slow him down.  He was halfway into the structure when the troll spoke from behind him again.  It was closer than it had been before.

“This is a feeble attempt at escape, halfling.  I thought we would enjoy the chase for longer than this.”  It stepped into the park, looking even more horrifying and gigantic amidst the skeletal remains of the children’s playthings. 

Xandrith stopped in his tracks and curled himself as small as he could in the middle of the puzzle of twisting metal bars and wood beams.  The troll wouldn’t be able to fit through the openings, and he was far enough in that it couldn’t just reach in and grab him. 

“It has been a rough day, troll.  Go find sport somewhere else.”  Xandrith called out at his tormentor.  “Surely someone with two working legs would give you more sport than this?”  To his own surprise, his voice didn’t waver as he spoke. 

The troll chuckled, a booming, grating sound like hollow bones being dragged over a metal washboard.  “Perhaps I would find better sport elsewhere, but you and I are here already and you seem lively enough.  You can tide me over until I find my next little human.  Besides, I think I want your puny little horns.  They’ll make an excellent necklace.”  He stepped forward and reached towards the structure in which Xandrith was taking refuge.  His massive hand encircled one of the steel bars and he pulled at it with a grunt.  Wood screamed as it splintered and the bar came free, bending beneath the troll’s grip.  He tossed it aside and reached for another. 

“I could just crawl out of the other side of this while you try to get to me from that side.” Xandrith said, not because it was a great strategy, but because if he could stall for time he might come up with a better one.

“Go ahead.  I can run around this thing faster than I can pull it apart, meat.  There is nowhere left for you to go.”  Another bar ripped away as he finished this statement and the troll grabbed a hold of one of the support beams, its claws sinking into the wood as though it were slightly packed snow. 

“I should warn you, I’m armed.”  Xandrith threatened, his mind racing for an escape. 

“I’ll have those off soon enough.” The troll answered smoothly. He gave a roar and tore the first support beam from the ground, causing the part of the structure closest to him to fall apart. “Humans, you think you own this world.” The troll growled. “You’re so smart, beautiful, strong, but you are nothing! Your kind chased ours into the darkness, away from the sun and the light, and you thought we’d never come back. We would have killed you all last time if not for the orcs, but this time the world will be ours. We will have the sun back, and you will be exterminated like vermin.”

“You think your god will spare you when he comes to power?”  Xandrith snapped, the question springing from somewhere between anger and fear. 

The troll stopped his destruction and considered Xandrith more carefully. “What do humans know of our god?” Then his fiery eyes opened a bit wider. “Oh, you’re not just any halfling, are you? You’re the assassin. Xandrith. Our god told us of you.” A black, vile tongue rolled across its split lips on a mouth that stretched from one of its ears to another. “Devouring you will be a distinct pleasure.”

“I’ll ask again, what makes you think your god is going to spare you once you get him to his source of power?”  Xandrith pressed, seeing an opening to at least buy himself some time. 

The troll rolled its shoulders in indifference. “Whether the god spares the trolls or not, he will at least deliver upon his promise wipe humanity from this world. That’s all that matters.”

Xandrith slowly slid his knife from its scabbard, hiding it along the inside of his arm. “You hate humanity so much that you’d destroy your own people, and this world, just to be rid of us? I don’t believe that.”

The troll tossed back its head and roared, a deafening screech of inhuman pain and rage. “You can’t begin to understand how much we hate you, meat! You will never know the breadth of our fury. We despise everything about your pathetic weakness. We were stronger! We were right! We chose the course of power and embraced our destiny, and you cast us into darkness for that! You were us! You had the chance to be great, but you not only turned your back on our people, you shunned us and scoured us from beneath the sun! We would die to the last number just to destroy you all.”

Rage radiated from the beast like heat.  Xandrith found himself leaning as far from the monster as he could, the steel bars at his back pushing right against his spine.  The assassin could feel himself shaking and he forced himself to keep it in check. 

“And you will because that‘s all your god wants.  He wants everything destroyed so that he can start it all over again.  I am not content to be so casually destroyed.”  Xandrith forced himself to his feet as he spoke. 

“Existence is chaos, human.  Our god is the incarnation of that chaos and his time has come.  I don’t expect you to understand that.  You don’t need to.  You need only die.”  The troll reached into the mess of fallen bars and beams and began pulling them apart again, digging his way towards Xan.  His attention was fixed forward and Xandrith knew that he wouldn’t be able to distract the monster again.  He stepped into the available space in the middle of the steel and wood construction and prepared himself for what he knew would be his last battle.  The troll was coming for him, and he had nothing left to do but fight until he died.  He prepared himself to spring forward using his good leg, ready to attack the beast as soon as it felled the last barrier between them, but it didn’t wait for that.  As soon as it was within arm reach, its giant arm surged between the bars and reached for the assassin.  Xandrith barely ducked back in time.

Claws, each as long as his palm, passed within inches of his head.  Xandrith struck out with his knife, ripping a narrow gash along the back of the troll’s arm and hand.  He’d struck hard, but trolls, especially the large ones, had particularly thick hides.  Unfortunately a knife was the worst possible edged weapon to wield against such a creature.  Another claw reached in for Xan, raking at the air in attempt to rip him apart. The assassin ducked easily out of the way, he was still too far from the beast for its attacks to be effective.  That didn’t last long.  The troll tore down another beam leaving only a single set of bars between them.  The horrible expression on its face told Xandrith that it knew he was just about done. 

“I’ll eat your guts while you’re still alive, meat. I once ate nearly half a man before he finally died. I bet you will hold up even better.” The troll stepped forward and reached through the bars with both arms.

Xan managed to duck the first arm, but the second hand grabbed him by the torso and pinned his left arm to his side.  With his right, Xandrith dove his knife into the creature’s forearm repeatedly.  The first two strikes didn’t even penetrate through its skin, but the third drew a small line of blood, and each subsequent strike drew a bit more.  The troll squeezed him hard as it pulled him out of his small hole, smashing his broken leg against the bars roughly as it did so.  Xandrith screamed and dropped his knife, hot white pain consuming all the world for a moment.

As soon as his mind came back into focus, the assassin launched a vicious attack at the wounded arm holding him.  He gave every ounce of strength he had to hammering away at the point of blood he’d drawn with his knife, hoping that he could shock the creature enough to get it to drop him.  He had no idea what he’d do once released, but that hardly mattered.  Just getting out of the troll’s claws seemed to be all that was important.  The troll tightened its grip.  Xandrith could feel its claws slip into his stomach, ripping through the flesh like a sharp knife through thin fabric.  A scream of pain ripped between his lips as he thrashed in the monster’s grip. 

“Is that the most fight all of your fury can summon?”  The troll laughed.  “I expected more from you, Xandrith.  Our god told us that you were dangerous.  Here I find that you are barely stronger than a common man.”  The troll gave Xandrith a vicious shake that sent a new wave of pain rolling through his broken leg. 

Xan fought to remain above the pain.  It threatened to consume his thoughts, but he pushed it away.  With a roar of determination he slammed his fist into the damaged spot on the troll’s arm.  He focused every bit of his energy and strength into the blow, and it seemed to work.  His fist struck harder.  He could feel the difference in the hit.  He did it again, letting his rage and terror drive his blows.  He was reminded of the moment he’d broken the door of the burning tower when he’d been recovering the scrap metal for caravan. 

The troll’s laughter died off, and he considered Xandrith with a critical eye.  “What’s this?  Maybe you have more fight left in you than I thought.  I felt that last hit.” 

Xandrith ignored the taunting and kept attacking.  The wound was getting wider as he bloodied his fists in the troll’s thick black blood.  “I’m not ready to die!”  He yelled as he drove a fist forward with an inhuman force.

The troll grunted in pain and suddenly Xandrith was being released.  The claws slipped out of his flesh and his left arm came free.  For just a moment he thought he was going to make an escape, but the monstrous troll was only shifting its grip.  Xan found himself suspended in the air by his horns.  He swung himself, trying to kick at his captor. He was being held at arm’s length however, and the huge troll had long arms. 

“These will make a good trophy of this event.”  The troll said as he began to twist the horns on Xan’s head.

The pain was excruciating.  It felt to Xandrith as though his skull was being torn in half, and for a moment he wondered if that was exactly what was happening.  There was a loud crack and Xan found himself dangling by only one horn.  The other had broken off in the troll’s hand.  The monster considered his new prize, his glowing red eyes analyzing the fixture that had only recently been a part of Xan’s head. 

“Yes, this is quite nice halfling.  It is small, but the ringing is intricate.”  He held it up in front of Xan.  “Do you see the pattern on the spiral?  It is uncommon.”  He dropped the horn at his side and his terrible gaze focused on the assassin again.  “Now, let’s see if we can get the other one off without breaking it too badly.” 

Xandrith twisted his body, swinging his good leg as well as he could to try and create some momentum and break the troll’s grip on him, but he might as well have been trying to fell a tree by throwing himself against its trunk.  The troll seemed to barely notice his struggles.  He grabbed Xandrith by the face, his fetid palm smothering the assassin and blocking out all light.  The claws wrapped around the back of his skull and the terrible twisting sensation on his skull started again.  Xan screamed into the suffocating hand around his face, kicking and fighting with all of his might.  A loud crack sounded, followed by a terrible shooting pain through the top of Xan’s head.  Even with his ears covered by the troll’s hand he’d heard the crack echoing through his own bones and into his ears.