Mutants Misplaced
Chapter 41
Trolled
The team sat around the fire, still recovering from the cold, hoping to warm themselves as much as possible before they had to continue. And it was nice with a break, even if the cold winds in the canyon still chilled them to their bones.
Standing a few meters away from the camp, Tyroth was punching the air with flaming fists, trying to see if he could actually preform anything similar to a Falcon Punch. Mikey, who had suggested the idea, watched and cheered Tyroth on whenever he seemed to make progress.
"Great, dude! I totally saw wings that time!"
"Then I'm getting somewhere, but I think I'll take a break from this now." said Tyroth as he extinguished the fire around his hands and walked back to the others.
"But you were so close."
"I'll keep trying, just not now. I'd like to save some strength in case I need it."
"Good thought." said Leo. "I'm impressed with how quickly you went from using your hands to shape the fire to only using your mind."
"Me too actually. I thought I might be able to learn that, but it went a lot quicker than I had imagined. And the precision I have in shaping the fire is incredible, watch this."
A ball of fire burst into life in the palm of Tyroth's hand, then it changed shape into a head.
"Hey! That's me!" said Sephie when she saw her head, face and hair made out of fire, with every detail.
"Yep, and almost as hot as the real thing too." said Tyroth, making his lover blush. "When I was trying to replicate the punch, shaping my fire at the same time was difficult, but if I only focus on the fire, it's like I've always been able to do it."
The fire changed shape, taking the form of a heart and floated towards Sephie. The heart stopped a few feet in front of her and split into dozens of small butterflies with wings made of small hearts that fluttered around her before flying up into the night, going out one by one.
"And I can even do it at a distance."
"Showoff." Raph muttered. "At this rate, you won't need us at all."
"That's not true, Raph, and you know it." said Tyroth. "If I didn't have you guys, I'm not sure if I'd be able to control myself with this kind of power. Knowing that you guys are there for me helps a lot more than you might think. I might be powerful, but I'm just one guy, and I'll always need my friends."
"Who doesn't?" said Leo, looking up into the night sky, wondering how everyone back home was doing. "Come on, we've rested long enough. Time to get back on track."
After sadly putting out the fire that had warmed them so nicely, the group continued on their way, they still had a lot of ground to cover. They traversed the canyon for a good half hour before they found the exit and got back on the right track, following a path close to the glacial mountainside.
But as they kept walking, with the wind howling among the cliffs of rock and ice, they couldn't shake the feeling that someone, or something was watching them.
"Guys, does anyone else have that same feeling as just before we ran into the charrus underground?" said Mona.
"Yeah, something's definitively around. But what?" said Donnie, his eyes scanning their surroundings.
All of a sudden, they heard a beastly roar from above. Everyone turned their attention to the source of the sound, and up on a cliff stood an ape-like creature, easily as tall as Tyroth, with broad shoulders, long arms ending with clawed hands and a big head with a third eye in the middle of the forehead. Its skin and fur was almost white and it grunted and snarled as it jumped up and down, as if it was trying to scare the team away from its territory.
"A frost troll!" Devina exclaimed, but before she could say anything else, more roars were heard all around the team as more and more trolls came into sight, bringing the count up to nearly twenty.
"Whoa, there's a lot of them!" said Mikey as he and the others drew their weapons.
"This isn't good, I've never seen so many frost trolls in one place before." said Devina. "Two or three can live close to each other, but this... something's wrong."
Another roar was heard, louder than the others, and a giant troll jumped down from the cliffs, landing in front of the team. It was almost twice as tall as the other trolls and it violently pounded the ground with its massive hands while roaring, showing its jagged teeth.
"Let me guess, you've never seen one that big either?" said Raph as he gripped his sais tighter. Devina answered by shaking her head.
Tyroth took a quick glance at the beasts surrounding them. They couldn't fight them all, there were just too many trolls. Looking back at the way they were heading, the dragon knew what had to be done, he just hoped that he could do it.
"Listen, I sort of got an idea." he said. "I'll get their attention, then you guys run as fast as you can to Morthal."
"That's crazy! You can't take them all on by yourself!" said Leo.
"I don't need to win, I just have to keep them busy for a while, then I'll catch up by air. Now, get ready."
Taking a few quick steps away from his friends, Tyroth breathed a massive stream of fire at the trolls that stood most in the way, clearing a path for his friends as the beasts scattered. But his attack caused the rest of the trolls to attack, giving his friends no time to argue, only run.
Spinning around while breathing fire, Tyroth forced the trolls to keep their distance, but a few managed to slip past and chased after the others. Tyroth saw this but was unable to do anything because of the rest of the trolls, which he had to avoid attacks from as they slashed at him with their claws.
Catching one arm with his hand, Tyroth spat fire in the troll's face, making it roar in pain as it fell backwards holding its face. Moving around to avoid more attacks, he blocked several more with his sword as the beasts swarmed him. Using his magic to set himself on fire, he managed to get some breathing space, allowing him to counter attack with his mighty blade. Not really aiming, just trying to keep their attention, he didn't score any hits of worth. There were a few trolls that lost a couple of fingers and one that got a hand cut of, the rest that were hit only received cuts on their arms and chests, but those stopped bleeding not long after.
Once Tyroth had the full attention of the enemy, he put out his fire aura to conserve energy and continued fighting whilst moving further away from his friends, praying that they could handle the few trolls that pursued them. But as much as he hated to admit it, he had far bigger things to worry about, namely the giant troll that was just about to pummel the dragon.
Jumping away in the nick of time, Tyroth saw how the ice he had been standing on was shattered and cracks shot up the nearby ice wall, and that gave him an idea. Running against the wall, he encased his fist with mana and ignited it, but there were still trolls in the way that he to had fight past using his sword and fire-breath. Once he reached the wall, he punched it hard with his burning fist, causing the cracks to spread.
'One more hit should do it.' Tyroth thought, pulling back his fist for another punch, but he wasn't able to as the giant troll caught up with him and struck him with its long arms, sending Tyroth flying to the side like a rag-doll.
Tyroth grunted in pain when he hit the ground, and again when he got back on his feet and felt how his back hurt, some of the ribs must have broken near the spine. Looking over at where he just were, he saw the trolls coming at him again. One of them were already almost on top of him.
Ducking under a swipe from the troll, Tyroth countered by driving his sword through the chest of the beast and giving it a twist before pulling it out and cutting off the head. With one troll down, and roughly a dozen more to go, there was only one thing that Tyroth could do. Collecting fire and mana in his mouth, he launched a fireball at the base of the wall, where he had punched it.
The fiery projectile shot past the incoming trolls and struck the weakened ice wall with a loud explosion. The cracks spread like wildfire across the whole of the frozen wall, and it started to collapse, loads of snow and huge chunks of ice falling, burying any and all that were in that part of the valley.
Tyroth ran as fast as he could to avoid the avalanche that he had started, trying to fly away, but he was having problem staying in the air, most likely because of his not yet healed injuries.
'Shit! I really need to get higher up, or I'll end up as a snow cone!'
Back with the others, they had just made it out of the canyon and were still running to get as far away from the trolls as they could. All praying that Tyroth would be okay. Looking over her shoulder to see if her lover was in sight, Sephie spotted three frost trolls that were following them from the canyon.
"We got company!" she called out to her friends.
"They must have slipped past Tyroth." said Leo.
"Well, let's clean up his mess then!" said Raph. "Otherwise they'll just follow us all the way to Morthal."
"I agree, we can't keep running forever." said Sephie.
With everyone agreeing, they stopped and readied themselves for a fight, drawing their weapons again. They would face these foes head on, and they would not falter.
Devina transformed into her werewolf bat form and engaged the largest of the three trolls, tackling it to the ground. But despite the impact, the troll got back up rather quickly and started trading blows with Devina, both slashing at each other with their claws and trying to bite each other.
With one of the trolls occupied, the reptiles split up to take on the remaining two. Leo, Raph and Donnie took the one on the left, while Mona, Mikey and Sephie dealt with the one on the right.
The three turtles easily dodged the attacks of the beast, they were easy to read and avoid, but the mutants still wouldn't have been able to fight twenty of them. Donnie swiped at the feet with his staff, causing the troll to trip and allowing Raph to attack from the side, jabbing his sais into the side of the beast, while Leo slashed it across the back. But the wounds started to heal shortly after they had been inflicted and the bleeding slowed to a halt.
The turtles didn't let up, they continued to attack, even the normally peaceful Donnie, having fought foes with powerful regenerative powers before, such as Foot ninja improved with healing-serums and the monstrous clones of Tyroth, they knew how to deal with them. They had to attack aggressively and aim for the head and heart, which they did.
Donnie parried another attack from the beast, keeping its clawed hand away from Raph as the hot headed turtle dived in and began stabbing the troll in the chest, trying to find the heart. At the same time, Leo jumped over the troll from behind and delivered a twin slash at the head, decapitating the beast.
Mikey and the lizards were constantly moving all over the place as they jumped around and attacked the beast from every angle while it furiously tried to hit them, but with no success. They were simply to fast and nimble for it. Mona and Sephie's bladed weapons left the troll with many bleeding cuts, even thought they healed shortly after, the sheer amount of them was draining the blood faster than it could be replaced. Mikey, on the other hand, didn't cause as much damage, but he did draw the attention enough for the girls to score more hits.
But Mikey left himself very vulnerable when he almost slipped on a patch of ice, giving the troll an opportunity that not even the simple minded beast could miss. Its attempt to skewer the youngest turtle was foiled when Mikey caught the clawed hand in the chains of his nunchakus, though he struggled to keep the beast at bay.
"A little help here!" Mikey yelled to the girls.
Moving to help her youngest adoptive brother, Mona began slicing her war-fans across the troll's back several times, to make it focus on her instead of on Mikey. And it worked, the troll turned to face the lizard lady instead, but was still caught in Mikey's weapons and couldn't untangle its fingers from the chain. With its attention split between the two ninja, Sephie took the opportunity to attack. Dashing towards the troll, Sephie aimed her dragonteeth daggers at the arm that was stuck with Mikey, and in one double slash, cut off the arm just above the elbow, the blades slicing through both flesh and bone with ease. She then finished off the beast by stabbing both daggers into the throat and ripping it open. Even with its rapid healing rate, the troll didn't last long with that kind of wound and fell dead to the ground.
With two of the trolls dead, the only one left was the one fighting with Devina. Just like the reptiles, she was too fast and nimble for the troll to be able to land any hits, but there were a few close ones none the less. Devina had managed to score several hits with her own claws, and even though they had healed to some extent, it was clear that she had the advantage.
Jumping backwards to avoid an attack from the troll, Devina used the powerful legs of her beast form and jumped back at the troll, knocking it on its back again and pinning it down before savagely striking it time and time again with her clawed hands, beating the life out of it. But the troll didn't give up without a fight, and managed to give Devina a few nasty looking gashes on her face before it died.
"Everyone alright?" Leo asked. Aside from Devina, no-one had been injured in the fight, even if there had been a few close calls.
"I'll be fine." Devina said after transforming back to her human form, covering the cuts on her face with one hand.
"Are you sure? Here, let me take a look." said Donnie.
"Don't worry, I can handle this." A warm light formed around her free hand and swirled around her body, healing her wounds completely, just like with Mikey several days earlier.
"Man, you gotta teach Tyroth that trick!" said Mikey.
"Tyroth… We have to find him." said Sephie, remembering that her mate might still be in danger. She was just about to wipe her daggers clean when she froze. She stared at her blades, they were covered in dark red blood, dripping from the edges. Trembling, she brought the weapons to her mouth, salivating at the mere sight of the blood. It was so close she could almost lick it of the blades. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing.
"NO!" she yelled and threw away her weapons, falling to her knees.
"Sephie? What is it?" Mona asked upon hearing Sephie's outburst, but turning around, she saw the bloodied weapons in the snow and understood.
"It's the thirst, isn't it?" she asked, picking up and cleaning the daggers.
"It's getting stronger… I don't know if I can hold out much longer..."
"You have to, it's not far left." said Devina.
The team was abruptly interrupted by a distant explosion, originating from the ice canyon. Shortly after, they could also hear a powerful rumble.
"Was that… an avalanche?" said Raph.
"Sure sounded like one, aside for that explosion." said Donnie.
"Come on! Tyroth might still be there. Double time people!" said Leo as he lead the others back to the canyon. It took a little while before they reached their destination, and by then the masses of snow and ice had come to a complete stop.
"Oh man, I hope Big T isn't underneath all that." said Mikey.
"Tyroth! Honey, can you hear me?" Sephie called out, but there was no response. "Tyroth!"
"You don't think he?" said Mikey.
"Not a chance! A glacier won't kill him." said Raph. "Keep looking, he has to be around here somewhere."
"What are you doing, Devina?" Mona asked when she noticed that the vampire's eyes had a very faint red glow.
"I'm using a certain vampire spell, it allows me to detect other living creatures and people nearby, even behind buildings and such."
"Any luck?"
"No, sorry. But he could be outside the range, so I'll continue to se- Hold on! There is something farther ahead!"
With Devina as a guide, they hurried over the snow and ice and when they finally stopped, they had past the place where they had been attacked.
"Here! It's right below us." said Devina.
"Are you certain he's still alive?" Leo asked.
"I am, this spell is used to find victims, and since we need the life-force in their blood, it wouldn't be of much use if it detected the dead."
"Less talk, more work! We have to save him!" said Sephie as she began to dig away snow and ice with her bare hands, and the others quickly joined in. They moved hundreds of pounds of snow and large chunks of ice, getting deeper, but they still hadn't found any trace of their friend. As they worked, Devina's sensitive hearing picked up something.
"Something's coming." she said, and the group stopped digging for a moment, some drew their weapons in case they had to defend themselves. And soon enough, they heard the sound of snow crunching underneath heavy feet, coming their way from deeper in the canyon. Rounding a corner further ahead, they saw that it was Tyroth that came walking. Seeing them on the top of the pile, he raised an eyebrow.
"Hey guys, what are you doing?"
"Tyroth!" Sephie exclaimed and ran over to her mate, throwing herself around his neck. "I was so worried. I'm glad that you're alright."
"It was rather close, but nothing I couldn't handle one way or the other. But I think I got something stuck in my back, it is healing so it should go away, but I'd still like someone to take a look."
"I'll check it." said Donnie and walked around Tyroth, inspecting his back. "Uhm… well, you do got something stuck in your back. Your ribs. They must have pierced the flesh after being broken. Should heal on its own, but let me see if I can't put them back in place."
Tyroth clenched his teeth when Donnie pressed the broken bones back into his body, but after that, it didn't take long before they set themselves and started to heal, the flesh-wound healed a lot faster and was almost gone in no time.
"But, guys… If Tyroth's there… who the shell have we been digging after?" Mikey asked, and it was a fair question that all of them wanted to know the answer to. And they got it.
A large clawed hand erupted from the snow and ice, accompanied by muffled roars, scaring Mikey half to death. The orange-masked turtle scurried to get away from the hole they had been digging, together with the others, regrouping by Tyroth.
More frozen debris was thrown aside as another clawed hand erupted next to the first one and started clearing away the snow. It wasn't before long that the giant frost troll managed to free itself from its icy prison, roaring loudly.
"Tenacious bastard, he ain't dead yet." said Tyroth, stepping forward. "Guess I'll have to try again then."
"Hold on-"
"No offense, Raph, or to the rest of you, but this is between him and me. Besides, I owe him for that sucker punch he threw earlier."
Seeing Tyroth, the troll roared even louder and began frothing at the mouth. It jumped up and down, stomping with its feet and pounding the ice with its hands. The troll was angry, really angry.
Tyroth stared down his opponent with a determined gaze, while a red glow formed around his body. Then, without warning, he dashed towards the troll, delivering a mighty punch into its abdomen, causing it to stagger backwards a bit. Retaliating by swiping its claws at Tyroth, the dragon evaded the attack by jumping to the side and blew fire back at the troll.
Despite its bulk, the troll managed to evade the flames, though some licked its fur. With a hefty grunt, it picked up a chunk of ice nearly the size of Tyroth himself, and threw it at him. But Tyroth didn't make any attempts to evade it, instead he drew his sword Ryujin and sliced the frozen boulder in half. But in doing so, he didn't see the troll charging at him until it was too late, and he received a shoulder tackle to the chest.
Quickly recovering from the blow, Tyroth was forced to block several slashes from the troll's claws. Twisting the angle of his sword, Tyroth pierced the troll's hand when it slashed again, making it roar in pain and try take his head off. Quickly pulling out the blade, Tyroth ducked and slashed at the legs, leaving long gashes on the shins.
Most of the wounds that the combatants had received weren't of serious nature and healed quickly, and that would keep them both going for a long time, something that Tyroth didn't want, he wanted to end the fight as soon as possible. He needed to deliver a decisive blow.
Apparently having the same idea, the giant troll lifted its hands above its head and brought them down with great force. Tyroth dropped his sword and caught the massive arms, pushing back against the beast. Seemingly locked in a power-struggle, it ended when Tyroth set himself ablaze, burning and frightening the troll, making it pull back its arms and back away a few feet, giving Tyroth some much appreciated space.
All the fire around his body started to move and converged around his right fist, completely engulfing it in a bright sphere of concentrated flames as he pulled it back for a punch. As the flaming fist made its way towards the abdomen of the troll for the few split seconds, some fire erupted from the sphere and took the vague shape of a winged creature with the head around Tyroth's fist. Striking the troll's stomach, the burning shape exploded violently into the beast, ripping through intestines and the spine, leaving a large gaping hole in the back of the troll while throwing the massive creature backwards several meters.
Landing on the frozen ground, with smoke coming from the charred wound, the troll lay motionless, its eyes void of life.
"Heal that." Tyroth said in a low voice.
"Dude! That was awesome! You almost did it!" Mikey exclaimed. "A real Falcon Punch! One more time and you'll nail it!"
"Are you okay?" Sephie asked slightly worried, walking over to her boyfriend.
"A bit sore and rather tired, but otherwise I'm just fine, sweetheart." he said putting his arms around her, holding her close. "How about you, are you alright?"
"… No, I'm not. I almost fell for the temptation earlier. I'm starting to lose it, and I'm scared."
"Don't worry, we'll help you. Just hold on a few more hours,"
"I'll try, but I think you might have to redo that thing you did to suppress my thirst, it might have worn off."
"I'll do what I can, love."
Phew, I though this chapter would never end. It just kept going and going, but hopefully it was worth the wait. Will try to update faster, but with the summer here, and thus tourist season, I may not have as much time as I'd like due to my job. Still, will keep on working.
They survived the frost trolls, but Sephie's starting to loose control over her bloodlust. With Morthal so close, will they make it before something bad happens?