Big thanks to my good friend and fellow writer, Bloodrayne666, for her help and suggestions with this chapter.
Also, warning for violence, blood, gore, distress and the other usual things. If you've read this far, you have no right to complain.
Chapter 40
On Borrowed Time
Pandora could only stare in horror, first at her injured friend and then at the headless body of the troll, as it stood back up, and with one bloody hand, it picked up its head and placed it back on its neck. After cracking its neck, it uttered a loud and guttural growl and started walking towards them.
Grabbing Mr Swinger tightly, she prepared to defend herself and Sonia, but she didn't really know what to do.
For if decapitation didn't work, what could she do? Then she remembered what they had been told before the battle, that they needed to use either fire or acid to kill a troll properly, and she didn't have any of that on hand.
But she had to try something, Sonia's life might depend on it.
Quickly putting away Mr Swinger, she once again got into a fighting stance for use of her metal claws and tail blade. She would bleed the troll to death if she had to, kill it with bug bites.
But it proved far harder than she had hoped. Just like before, no matter how much she cut, slashed, stabbed or otherwise drew blood with her rapid attacks, the troll just kept healing, losing very little blood in the process.
Even as she kept sidestepping and ducking under its attacks, she didn't stop attacking, but the only thing that grew was her frustration. Nothing she did worked, she was barely even slowing it down.
"Fucking die already!" she screamed, instinctively going for the troll's throat, only to remember that it survived having its head completely cut off.
During that brief moment of indecision, the troll managed to strike her hip with the palm of its hand, fingers quickly curling and claws sinking into her flesh as she was picked up from the ground even as she cried out in pain.
A second hand clamped down around her upper arm, holding it tightly in place as she was lifted towards the troll's face, the mouth wide open. Pandora could feel the stench of rotten meat and bile on the troll's breath, and in a panic she struggled for her life as she realised that it was going to bite her head off.
Nearby, Raphael stabbed his sai into the chest of a gnoll, giving it a twist before dropping the creature to the ground. His breath quick and shallow, he quickly scanned the area, and when looking beyond the closest enemies, he spotted Pandora in the troll's clutches.
"NO! PANDORA!" he roared from the bottom of his heart, and instantly turned to run and save his daughter.
But more gnolls and hyenas blocked his path, some aware of him, others not, but despite trying to fight his way through them all as quickly he could, an overwhelming sense of dread, of not being able to reach Pandora in time, washed over him.
"PANDORA!"
Pandora had closed her eyes, as no amount of kicks or slashes could deter the troll from eating her then and there, and she had no choice but to wait for the inevitable.
"Heads up, ugly!" someone shouted suddenly.
Percy descended upon the troll from a powerful jump, delivering a powerful kick to the forehead of the troll, staggering it for a moment and making it drop Pandora, while the grasshopper placed himself in front of her, holding a large glass vial filled with a dark red liquid in his right hand.
Acid.
Having gathered its bearings, the troll straightened itself just in time to see another foot coming its way, striking it in the face. And Percy kept kicking, striking the troll's arms, legs, chest and head, over and over to keep it off balance long enough to get an opportunity to use the acid.
But before he got the chance, the troll powered through the grasshopper's attacks and grabbed him by the collarbone, the long claws piercing his carapace-like skin and into his flesh. Percy grunted in pain as he was lifted off his feet, and he scrambled to undo the metal stopper of the vial.
This did not go unnoticed by the troll, who understood what it was. It took an iron grip on Percy's left arm and tore it off by the shoulder.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as Percy screamed in pain, but he clenched his teeth and quickly blinked away as much of the tears as he could.
"Well, fuck you too!" he snarled, and brought the vial to his face and grabbed the stopper with his teeth. With a strong yank, he pulled the vial open, splashing a decent amount of the acid on his own face and upper torso as he did, before violently tossing the remaining content in the troll's face.
The troll shrieked in pain, forcefully tossing Percy to the side as it frantically tried to wipe away the acid, resulting in the grasshopper getting slammed into the ground hard and was left limp and motionless.
Much of its face had melted away, the same with the palms of its hands, and the damage was not healing, at least not at the moment, but it still had one good eye, and it was filled with rage as it set it on Percy, raising a clawed hand as it roared and started walking.
"Don't you fucking dare touch him again!" Pandora shouted as she lashed out with Mr Swinger, striking the troll on the temple, making it recoil.
The troll glared at her and changed its path, raising its hand high above its head as it got closer to her, and was just about to bring it down on the hybrid, when something swooped down and cut it off, making the troll shriek again.
It was Loki, black blood clinging to the edges of his twin kodachi swords as he landed in front of Pandora and spun around, dashing back towards the foe.
"Leave her alone!" he roared.
The troll swung its other hand at the geckoling, but was stopped before it could even get close, pain shooting through its arm as Freya had descended from above, piercing the troll's wrist with her spear, and pinning it to the ground with her entire body, leaving the troll at their mercy.
"This time, you die for real!" Freya snarled.
Loki was quick to take advantage of the situation, and quickly delivered several quick slashes with his swords, severing muscles and tendons to it's limbs, crippling it, if only for a moment.
But that was all the time the twins needed, both of them quickly backing away and breathing fire at the bloodied body. The troll shrieked, writhed and tossed as the twins' flames consumed its flesh, until finally it fell silent and still.
It was finally dead.
"That should do it..." said Loki, relaxing slightly, but still keeping his eyes on the ongoing battle around them.
"Are you okay, Pandora?" Freya asked her cousin.
"I'll be fine, but Percy and Sonia are badly hurt!"
"We have to pull back, get them to safety." said Loki.
"Then you and I have to get back into the fight, brother." said Freya.
"If you do that, I'll look after Sonia and Percy."
The three hybrids all nodded as they agreed on their next course of action, quickly gathering up their fallen comrades and withdrawing from the battle.
Elsewhere, the fighting continued as both sides refused to surrender, but the gnolls were fierce opponents, and the Mutopians and their allies were forced to match that in whatever way they could.
Louie reluctantly used the best of his biggest kitchen knives to slash and stab whenever a gnoll nearby was distracted by someone else, trying his best to take the pressure off of the better fighters.
Hacker wielded a thick, wooden club in each hand, which proved to be quite effective with his unrivalled ambidexterity and eight eyes, and at least two witherlings and one gnoll fell to the spider's wall of attacks.
However, there were just too many for him to be able to hold out against in the long run, his general lack of stamina showing as the gnolls soon overwhelmed him, wrestled him to the ground and started eating him alive.
Numerous gnolls were tossed aside as the minotaur mercenary Dorron barrelled through them, horns first, taking swing after swing with his double-edged battle axe. He was in turn followed closely by his co-worker, the sliver dragonborn Graz, who quickly cut down any gnolls that Dorron missed. Once the two had cleared the immediate area around the spider, Dorron picked him up and retreated, while Graz covered his escaped.
As more gnolls approached, Graz took a deep breath and unleashed his ice cold breath attack. The first three gnolls caught in it were quickly covered in a thick layer of frost, bordering on solid ice, while those behind them faired better. Still, the intense cold cost many of them their lives, and gave Graz time to follow his friend as they regrouped.
Gnolls, witherlings, and hyenas alike fell quickly after receiving strong blows to their heads from Casey's aluminium bat, as the former vigilante fought back to back with his wife, who in turn wielded a sword to cut down the foes she faced.
"Come on, you ugly sons of bitches! I can do this all day! Goongala!" Casey shouted.
But his boasts were cut short, as a javelin was hurled through the air, impaling Casey through the chest, forcing him to his knees, only to collapse completely as blood stained his shirt.
"Casey! NO!" April cried out, but she could not aid her husband, not when so many gnolls surrounded her and the others.
Richard was doing his best to properly wield the sword his grandson had forged for him, and had so far scored a few kills by attacking gnolls that were preoccupied with others. His luck changed, however, when he caught the attention of a larger gnoll, armed with a sword of its own, made from a sharpened bone from some large creature.
While the gnoll was no master with the blade, it was still more skilled than Richard, and more fierce, so all Richard could do was to try his best to parry the attacks.
This was not enough.
Despite having the worse weapon of the two, the gnoll quickly found an opening, and drove his bone sword into Richard's abdomen.
At that time, Erica had taken some potshots with a few instances of her Ice Knife spell, taking out a handful of the approaching gnolls. But when noticed that her husband was locked in combat with one, and she saw how he was cut down, something snapped inside of her.
A primal rage quickly built up with in her, and her body seemed to move on its own as she flung herself into a sprint, her eyes filled with hate and locked on the gnoll, then she began to change.
Her clothes melded into her body as her skin became scales and her nails sharp claws. A long tail grew just as her mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth. With a shrill roar, she pounced on the unsuspecting gnoll, shredding it in the blink of an eye with the vicious claws of her new form, that of a velociraptor.
Zaleria looked out across the battlefield with disgust. She hated it, the war, the fighting, but even more than that, she hated the gnolls, they and their dark master were an affront to nature and life, and she would gladly wade through a thousand wars against them if she could end their threat for good.
A crack of thunder above her caught her attention, and a bitter smile spread across her lips.
Nature itself was lending her its powers.
Raising her staff to the heavens, her eyes shone with a white light, and a lighting bolt shot down from the storm clouds, striking in the middle of the battlefield, electrocuting half a dozen gnolls.
With the storm above at her command, Zaleria would rain down death from heaven upon her enemies until they were all dead.
A wide swing from Donatello's staff knocked off the heads of a pair of witherlings, as the purple-masked turtle did his best to help fight off the still advancing horde. If any foes got too close to him or those close to him, he would either swing or stab with his staff, aiming to disrupt the gnolls so that others could get an opening to finish them off.
But despite their best efforts, they were slowly losing ground as the gnolls just kept coming, and Donatello saw how a few of the Nordlings, while fighting fiercely, still fell to the horde, being overwhelmed as if swarmed by ants.
And Donatello might soon join their fate.
A pair of hyenas bit down on his staff after a swing, holding it in place as a gnoll lunged at the turtle, sinking its sharp fangs into his upper arm.
Donatello cried out in pain as he was tackled to the ground, struggling to fight off the bestial creature, when another gnoll entered his field of vision, this one having a large, rusty axe raised above its head.
The axe was brought down in a mighty chop, and Donatello's head was gone in an instant.
This confused the gnoll greatly, as it couldn't see where the head had gone, nor any blood.
"Too close for my taste!" Donatello said, having ducked inside of his shell just in the nick of time.
Before the gnolls could gather their wits, Donatello grabbed the axe wielder by the ankle and yanked as hard as he could, tripping it to one knee.
Suddenly, the gnoll's own head came off, as the female orc Gorma had come to the turtle's rescue, quickly killing both hyenas before burying her own axe in the back of the last gnoll so that she could help Donatello back on his feet.
"Gave me a real scare there!" she said.
"Trust me, me too!"
Despite having had a sharp bone jabbed into one of his eyes, Jack refused to give in, using his scimitar to cut of a gnoll's leg by the knee before using the opening to decapitate it.
Chloe's once beautiful butterfly-wings had been torn to shreds and she was currently struggling to fight off a gnoll that had wrestled her to the ground and was trying to strangle her, only avoiding a slow death thanks to Velnak running his sword through the gnoll.
Sharky bit a hyena in half with his large jaws, even as he was being pelted with arrows from a group of gnolls that still had ranged weapons. Gunshots echoed as Jake emptied his gun on the enemy archers, following up with his cutlass when he ran out of bullets.
Even as Leonardo cut down yet another gnoll, having lost count at this point, their numbers still felt limitless.
Gaining a brief moment to survey the battle around him, he saw that many of his friends and allies had been or was being hurt badly, some had even fallen.
While they had killed far more of the gnolls, it was still painfully clear that they were losing ground and people as the battle dragged on. They needed to do something to turn the tide.
A gnoll roared as it pounced at Leonardo, taking him completely by surprise and snapping him out of his brief thoughts.
Something silvery swooshed past Leonardo's face, and a metallic cross blade embedded itself in the gnoll's face, cutting through its lower jaw and piercing its throat as well, the body landing limply on the ground beside the turtle, quickly choking on its own blood.
Kemeko quickly dashed up and retrieved her boomerang weapon as she engaged yet another gnoll with her mother's tanto, managing to spill its intestines with a single, deep slice of the blade.
Leonardo, now having snapped back into battle mode, quickly aided his adopted daughter, crossing blades with more gnolls as they continued to close in.
Though surrounded, they both gained additional help when Karai cut down several gnolls, opening a path for the two to withdraw and regroup.
As Kemeko hurried together with Karai, Leonardo lingered for just a few precious seconds, taking another look at the battle that raged around him. They were fighting a losing battle right now, but there was still a small chance that they could pull it off, they just needed a bit of time to catch their breath.
And he knew exactly what they needed to do.
"Scorched earth!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, several times, and soon it echoed as those that heard it yelled it just as loudly, and everyone began to disengage from the battle.
All except two.
Sephie and Amber were both engaged with several gnolls, each on their own side of the battlefield, and when they heard the call, they knew their next move, just as they had discussed with Leonardo prior to the battle.
Quickly finishing whatever foe they were fighting, despite being separate from each other, they acted almost synchronised, as they both reached into pouches on their belts and pulled out the stones that Tyroth had given them and spoke the Dragon words out aloud.
"Sos Gron!" they both said in near unison, and the runes on the stones shone with an intense red light, one that quickly spread to the girls' bodies, which instantly started to transform.
Nails and claws grew into large black claws, teeth into sharp fangs, horns sprouted from their skulls, and wings grew from their shoulder blades, as they both became draconic in nature.
With a surge of new power, they took flight and started raining down fire upon the horde.
The battle rages on, and our heroes are taking losses, but they refuse to give up. It remains to be seen if their last move will pay off.
And we still don't know how the battle is going for Tyroth.