Chapter 6 - Confrontations "Be Prepared for Anything When World-hopping."

Thelessia

The Hawk Talon Company took to the mountains, following the instructions of the cat-witch girl to find the mountain trolls. They'd been given new weapons from the silver-haired Elf woman. Daniel said they weren't Elves, but they looked like Elves to the men.

As they were preparing and finalizing their plans, Chrystianna started bringing out beautiful gleaming weapons from thin air.

Darius watched her for a while. "Mom. Why do you have so many weapons?" he asked.

Chrystianna shrugged. "Be prepared for anything when world-hopping," she said casually. "These are made with medium grade Draconite from the southern part of the Eternal Mountains. Not the best, but certainly better than anything found here on Thelessia. A gift for your company," she said with a smile toward the men.

Guennit's ruddy face turned even redder. "Much obliged to you, my lady," he'd said, wiping suddenly sweating palms on his rough linen trousers.

Afterwards, Guennit distributed the weapons to the men. The cat-witch asked if they had a map, and they produced one. Daniel's sister used magic to make a copy of it then wandered off to do some more even more magic. Everyone else ignored her while the cat-witch drew on the map with a charcoal stick to show them where the mountain trolls were camped.

Afterwards they agreed to meet in the village when everything was done. 

The Hawk Talon Company set out.

They planned to ambush. Guennit sent his archers to encircle the mountain trolls camp to watch the backs of the front-line attackers. The rest of his men were preparing to dive in. Guennit made a hand gesture, and the swordsmen pulled their shiny new swords.

The Hawk Talon Company was a mercenary group that had a good reputation, but they weren't rich. None of the men had ever held such good weapons. They weren't bejeweled or anything, but just looking at them was a treat. The blades were a matte silver-white with characters carved down the middle of the blade. The hilts were wrapped in the finest quality leather they'd ever encountered. They appeared to be uniform and simple. As an ex-military man Guennit realized they were probably uniform weapons assigned to lower ranking soldiers. He didn't mind. Like the lady said, they were beyond anything that could be found anywhere on Thelessia.

The mountain trolls were settled in a rocky ravine with caves lining the walls. They were in the middle of the ravine talking to each other, loudly laughing, drinking something from rough stone bowls. They were also ripping into the carcasses of dead animals, and had some human food scattered around.

Mountain trolls were ugly. They were at least eight feet tall and green. They had rough, wiry hair in a streak starting on their head and going all the way down their backs. They wore animal skins around their waists and nothing else, even the women. There was almost no difference in their appearance. They all had large teeth and under tusks. If there was a striking difference between the sexes, the females had larger tusks.

They also smelled and didn't bathe. Even as far from the entrance of the ravine as they were, the smell was overwhelming. Since this was a raiding party, there weren't many of the mountain trolls, but even so, they were incredibly strong and violent.

Guennit made another hand movement, and the men ran into the ravine, slashing their weapons at the nearest trolls. The swords cut through their tough skin, almost shocking the soldiers. Because the skin of the mountain trolls is so tough, one cut was not going to be enough to put them down. It did hurt and anger them.

The mountain trolls roared and swiped with their huge beefy, clawed hands or reached for stone clubs. The men of the company were well trained. Some of them were military trained, some used to be parts of private armies. None of them had seen battle. Even earlier that day, they faced the mountain trolls several times.

The mountain trolls didn't know tactics. They were pure brute strength and head on attacks. They swung their clubs violently, but the soldiers had the agility of smaller bodies. They also had to deal with the occasional arrow flying into the ravine, sticking into the skin of the trolls. They were also gifts of the silver-haired lady.

Not to say there were no injuries. The mountain trolls did outnumber them and were much stronger. The ravine was filled with the roars and grunts of the mountain trolls and the sounds of metal clashing against stone. 

One of the mountain trolls, slightly larger, with silver streaked through his wiry hair staggered under the onslaught of Guennit's sword. He had a number of cuts on his body, seeping stinking greenish blood. He roar-grunted something and threw his club at Guennit.

Guennit had to drop and roll to dodge the projectile. Much to his surprise, the mountain troll turned and ran into one of the caves. The other trolls, still able to run, ran into other caves. 

"Don't chase!" Guennit shouted to the few hot-blooded young soldiers who wanted to chase down, high on the adrenaline and thrill of victory so close.

"Ay, s'right. These caves is like rabbits' warrens. We'd ne'r find our way oot," said an older member of the company as he finished off an injured mountain troll that wasn't able to flee and decided to fight to her last breath.

"Take care of the rest. The mountain trolls won't be troubling us," Guennit ordered. Even if the villagers never intended to pay them, the weapons from the silver haired lady were more than enough to cover their excursion this time. This trip was worth it.