The Stone Tree: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 1)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  Its red eyes glinted with menace as it reached its long arm towards him, trying to grab him, but Terran focused on his Stone Touch spell. Normally, it only converted a small section of living material into stone, but he wanted to affect the whole bush, so rather than let the spell have a succinct ending point, he continued to flow mana into it.

  The Crag Troll's fingers bumped off Terran's forearm as the spell took hold, the leafy branches hardening into stone. The Crag Troll's slow realization started as a grunt, followed by an exclamation, then devolved into sheer panic as it tried to extricate itself from the bush before it completely turned to stone.

  Changing from living material to hard rock constricted the bush, which made the thorns only dig in further, trapping the Crag Troll. The beastly humanoid cried out as the thorns penetrated its hide. Terran followed it up by jamming his little-used short sword through the gap, finishing off the Crag Troll while its companion fled.

  "Two down, fifty to go," said Terran, wiping the blood off the back of his hand where he'd nicked it on a thorn.

  As they worked their way around, Terran paused when he felt a strange tugging in his chest. He looked out through the bushes, even though he knew he couldn't see through them.

  "What is it?" asked Luna, crouching in readiness.

  "I, uhm," he said as the feeling faded away. "I don't know. It was, uhm, familiar, but it's gone now."

  At a shout from the back of the settlement, Terran pushed the mysterious feeling from his mind. They ran at full tilt, finding a group of eight Crag Trolls methodically hacking through the brambles, using axes and torches. The living bush was resistant to catching fire, but the flame was doing enough collateral damage that the axes easily finished the job.

  "Should we go back and get the others?" asked Luna.

  "No, we need to deal with this ourselves somehow," said Terran, crouching down in the grass. He sent his senses into the earth looking for deep stone, but the nearest patch was further down the hill. "I guess it's wall time."

  The ground rumbled as rocks knitted together, climbing upward until a ten-by-ten section of wall blocked the area where the Crag Trolls had worked through the bramble.

  "That should slow them for a while," he said, knowing in the end that it wouldn't win the battle, only slow their attack.

  The rest of the trolls he'd found around the barrier had either kicked up the spores from the hibernating mushrooms and fallen asleep or had taken enough damage from his oil cask explosion in camp that they weren't willing to fight their way through the bramble wall.

  "I hope we can keep this up all night," said Terran as they jogged back to the front.

  Back at the ravine, the Crag Trolls had mostly destroyed the bramble wall, but Lhoris and his warriors were keeping them from breaking through the final section. The elves were snaking their long blades through the undergrowth and cutting at the Crag Trolls' ankles, while Ara and her sappers were attacking with their suffocation traps from above. The four dead Crag Trolls in the ravine were making it harder for their brethren to make headway against the brambles, and even when they did, Terran was ready to put a stone wall up.

  But that wasn't necessary yet, because he knew there was a good patch of deep stone in the ravine, easy to reach.

  "Softened them up?" he asked Chanterelle, whose sweaty forehead had hair plastered to it as she lunged forward with her hook blade.

  "Ready for the killing blow," she said.

  "Warriors, back up," said Lhoris, and within a second, everyone was standing behind Terran, who had knelt in the rocky grass. Above him, he could hear the sappers climbing back from the forward branches.

  The lag in the fighting encouraged the Crag Trolls to push further, though he could tell by their hurried shouts they expected some trickery. Terran didn't want to disappoint them.

  He found the oblong stone that was right at the head of the ravine, a boulder that had been dislodged long ago, possibly when the hill was a mountain, and got stuck. It was good solid stone, ready and willing to do its part against the Crag Trolls.

  When the stone exploded, it sent its deadly shards through the massed Crag Trolls, killing the majority of them instantly. The display of experience messages counted almost twenty dead in one blow, followed by a hearty cheer from the tribe.

  In the aftermath, the elves around him patted his back, telling him, "For rock and leaf" with a grin plastered to their faces.

  "Let's not get too cocky. There are more Crag Trolls out there, working their way through the brambles. We need scouts to check the other locations, look for places that they might be getting through. If you find some, call out, and we'll send the warriors to the location to deal with them," said Terran.

  "What about the ravine?" asked Lhoris. "Shouldn't we leave some warriors here since they almost broke through?"

  Terran looked down the hill. The brambles were thin enough he could see the piles of lumpy bodies fallen over each other.

  "I don't think they'll want to come this way," he said, "and if they do, I'll put up a stone wall, which will hold them should they try again. Go on, check the other areas, we don't want a breach."

  Before she left, Chanterelle touched him softly on the shoulder, a hungry look in her eyes. Terran tried not to let thoughts of a victory party distract him as he rubbed his hands together, getting ready to summon his wall.

  "Focus, Terran," said Luna after Chanterelle left. "Don't want to pass out after all your blood leaves your head."

  "I know," said Terran. "We're not clear yet, but everything's working to plan." He looked into the darkness behind him. "Why don't you go with the others. We need to make sure no Crag Trolls are getting through. I'll put up the wall and join you."

  "You sure?" she asked, tilting her head.

  "Absolutely," he said.

  The gray-furred lynx disappeared into the night on silent feet.

  Terran took a big breath, prepared to summon the stone wall, when he thought he saw a glint of something further down the ravine. It was only there a moment, and then it disappeared. It could have been metal, or the eyes of a scavenger looking for a snack.

  He dismissed it, brought the patterns for the spell to his mind, and let his fingers work through the gestures required. As the wall rumbled from the ground, closing off the gap in the brambles, a sense of relief followed.

  Then he heard a shout from one of the elves from a section of the wall about a quarter of the way around to his right. It wasn't a frightened call, but a notification of Crag Troll spotting. He turned towards it, trying to decide if that was where he should be, or if he should circle around the other way, looking for incursions.

  A click somewhere behind him brought his hackles up high. Terran half-turned before a speeding shape knocked him off his feet, throwing him backwards to land in the rocky grass, ripping the skin off his hand. The impact took a tenth of his health off, but the immediate damage wasn't the most concerning thing.

  He looked up from his position on the grass to see three familiar faces staring down at him. The sneer from Selune's pretty mouth was only made worse by the two figures flanking her—Kratow and Roald. How they'd gotten past the brambles, or his wall, was a mystery to him.

  "Hello again, you little shithead. Ready to die?" asked Selune with a head tilt as she motioned for her companions to advance on him.

  Kratow hefted his enormous claymore from his back, while Roald spun blades in his fists. Terran scurried backwards, but there was nothing much he could do to get away from the trio.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The ghoulish grin on Kratow's lips would have made a serial killer proud, but Terran didn't know what was worse, that or the complete lack of expression on Roald's face, as if killing was only a means to an end.

  "Hey guys, what a surprise to see you," said Terran, pushing up to his elbows.

  "The only surprise for us was finding out you somehow found the rock leaf seed," said Selune from behind them. "You should have come crawling back to
us with it, and we would have forgiven you for backstabbing us in the Formidite caves."

  "Uhm," said Terran as he shuffled backwards in the grass. "Last I checked, you guys left me there to die, but it ended up being a good thing because I trained all the Formidites into the Crag Troll cavern and came away with the seed. But hey, we can work that out now, make it profitable for all of us. I have a settlement now. Many good things are happening."

  Selune squinted. "I don't think you get the bigger picture. That seed is our gateway to bigger things, and if we need to hack this fucking stupid tree to bits to get it back, then so be it." She spit in the grass. "There are levels here that you're blind to, which is fine by me, because one day I'm going to be the fucking queen of this whole place, and you're going to be sorry you ever opposed me."

  "Wait, who wants the seed? I thought this was a new world. How can someone be aware of it already?" asked Terran, who was surprised they'd let him live this long, but they seemed to be enjoying taunting him. He hoped they waited long enough for the elves to return, though he wasn't sure how well they would fare against these three.

  Roald opened his mouth to explain, but Selune barked at him. "Let him be ignorant of the real game going on. Enough screwing around, kill him."

  The two melee fighters stepped forward at the same time, bumping into each other. Kratow bared his teeth in a feral growl.

  "He's mine."

  The smaller man initially deflated then stiffened right back up. "You always take the best kills, the best loot. Stop stepping on my dick, man. I'm taking this asshat."

  The moment after Kratow faced off with Roald, Selune shouted, "Hurry up and kill him before the elves come back. I want to get this stupid seed and move on, this whole quest has taken entirely too long."

  While the two men had been arguing, Terran kept scooting backwards, never too fast, or giving the impression that he was trying to escape, until he found a good patch of ground that suited his plan.

  "Fine," said Kratow, with a cagey glance towards Selune, clearly showing that he was more intelligent than he looked, "you kill him, Roald, but don't screw around. Get the deed done."

  "About time," said Roald, advancing as he shifted his shoulders as if he were giving them a warm-up. "Think you're going somewhere?"

  "No, but you are," said Terran as he gripped the earth with his fingers, digging them into the loamy soil. He triggered the patch of deep stone that he'd just crawled past, leaving a perfect platform for Roald to stand on.

  Even though he was ready for the explosion, it still startled him as the earth blew in a wide arc, throwing dirt and rocks into everyone's faces. With his ears ringing, Terran scrambled to his feet and ran directly into the center of the settlement—

  —right into a Crag Troll covered in blood and leaves, clearly having just pulled itself through the bramble bush.

  The Crag Troll swung its makeshift cudgel, a stump, right into Terran's chest, throwing him into a nearby tree. The enormous humanoid closed the distance before he could escape, grabbing Terran by the arm and shaking him like a rag doll. The Crag Troll slammed him on the ground as if he were slapping water out of a wet towel, knocking him silly.

  "Put him down," said Kratow, who'd come upon them with his claymore in his fists. "I'm going to cut him in half."

  The Crag Troll sneered at Kratow. "No. Stupid elf mine. Going to eat bones."

  "Fine," said Kratow, hefting his blade onto his shoulder nonchalantly, "then do it quickly, I want to kill elves."

  As the big man stepped back, the Crag Troll held Terran into the air, raising its fist. Terran was faster, reaching into his pouch for a pine cone and exploding it like a trap, right in the Crag Troll's face. The beastly humanoid dropped Terran, who rolled quickly to his left as the claymore bit into the earth, right where he'd been a moment ago.

  Kratow advanced with a half-step, lifting his blade, right as a gray blur appeared from behind him, landing directly on the big man's back. Luna bit Kratow right in the neck, forcing him to drop his weapon to grab the lynx and throw her off.

  The distraction gave Terran enough time to get to his feet, and together, he and Luna sprinted away from Kratow, who was screaming obscenities.

  "Thanks, Luna, good timing."

  "There are holes in the wall, multiple ones," said Luna. "The hilltop is crawling with Crag Trolls."

  He paused in his escape, listening to the sounds of battle: the twang of bowstrings, clanging of blades, grunts and screams. Terran wiped the blood off his mouth that had dripped down from his nose. The pride that he'd felt in their defense had been completely wiped away and now he was wondering if the tribe would survive the night.

  He heard a scream, Enoki's voice, and ran towards it with Luna at his side. A Crag Troll had Enoki by the foot, hanging her upside down with one hand while the other pawed at the glistening leaves plastered to half of its face, covering part of its mouth and its left eye. Seeing a broken bridge on the grass, Terran assumed the Crag Troll had jumped up and pulled the whole structure down.

  At the same time he arrived, so did Chanterelle, her arm covered in blood, a longsword in her fist. They nodded at each other as they approached the Crag Troll from opposite directions. Chanterelle made a lunge towards the Crag Troll, forcing it to defend itself, while Luna went after an ankle. There was no good way to attack the creature without hurting Enoki, so he threw himself behind the Crag Troll on his hands and knees. Chanterelle quickly saw what he was intending and rotated her hips as if she were going to do a spinning back slash, and when the Crag Troll bought the feint, she lowered her shoulder and rammed it, toppling it over Terran's back.

  [You have increased your skill Improvisation]

  Improvisation 6 - skill

  Using your body like that? Not what I would have done, but you do you.

  Terran thought his ribs were breaking as the enormous Crag Troll fell over him, but the surprise and impact loosened the troll's grip, allowing Enoki to spring free. Chanterelle took the opportunity to run up the Crag Troll's body and used her blade like a roasting spit, jamming it directly into its neck, scoring a critical hit. The Crag Troll, already injured from previous fights, stayed down, gurgling on its own blood.

  Enoki threw herself into her sister's arms. The younger elf shook. "I thought I was going to die."

  "Let's get you back in the trees," said Chanterelle. "It's not safe for you down here."

  Enoki made no protests, expertly climbing up the trunk of the nearest tree like a squirrel escaping from a predator. They handed up her bucket of sap and pole once she was back on the bridge.

  "You be our eyes in the sky," said Terran.

  Before he could even wonder where next he might be needed, a shout from the back side of the hill, "For leaf and stone!" brought them all running.

  They reached the location in time to find Lhoris alone against three Crag Trolls, using his hook blade to fend them off. The Crag Trolls had severe limps, as he'd sliced their ankle tendons, leaving them to hobble after him, but he was trapped against the brambles, while the other two elves with him had already been killed, their bodies slowly disappearing. They would return to the Mother Tree shortly, but that would be their last defense.

  "We can't take three," Terran said as he analyzed the Crag Trolls. They were almost at full health.

  "But we can't leave him to die," said Chanterelle.

  Glancing up to see Enoki had caught up to them, Terran said, "You and Luna help Lhoris, keep them off him. I have an idea."

  They rushed off to the defense, while Terran pulled a coil of rope from his bag. "Catch," he called to Enoki as he threw it into the air. She grabbed it on the first try.

  "What do I do with it?" she asked.

  "Make a loop with one end, coat it with sap, and toss it over the head of one of the Crag Trolls," he said.

  Enoki nodded, dipped the end of the rope into the sap bucket, which she left on the platform, then nimbly ran across a slender branch while working the rope with h
er hands, making an expert loop by the time she reached the place above the Crag Trolls.

  The battle to save Lhoris wasn't going as well as Terran would have liked, since the Crag Trolls seemed intent on killing the captain of the guard. While Chanterelle and Luna were chipping away at their health, it wouldn't be fast enough.

  Enoki tossed the rope loop at a Crag Troll, but it lunged forward to grab Lhoris, so it missed. She tried again, but the Crag Troll was moving around too much to be caught. So Terran grabbed the rope, and before he could lose his nerve, ran up to the Crag Troll from behind and threw the loop around its head. Before it could pull it off, he tightened the rope.

  The Crag Troll spun around, slamming its warhammer into Terran's chest. The impact threw him across the grass, taking nearly half his health, leaving him precariously low. But the rope was around the Crag Troll's neck.

  "Now the other end," he shouted at Enoki, who squinted, but then nodded enthusiastically, clearly understanding his intent.

  While he climbed back to his feet, Enoki was already throwing a sap-covered loop around a different Crag Troll. This time, she caught it the first time, making a snap of her wrist to tighten the loop. Now the two Crag Trolls were connected by a long rope that went over the thick branch.

  "Now!" Terran shouted to his friends, and both Luna and Chanterelle darted forward, attacking the third Crag Troll, the one not caught by the rope, giving the bloody Lhoris a chance to slip away.

  As the two Crag Trolls, connected by the rope over the branch, tried to come after Lhoris, the rope snapped taut around their necks. Unaware of why they were being held back and choked, the Crag Trolls kept forging ahead.

  The third Crag Troll came after them alone, but the five of them were able to take it down, due to the crippled debuff Lhoris had applied during his defense. After it was dead, they easily chopped down the two Crag Trolls caught in the rope trap without taking a single point of damage.

  While all of them were severely damaged, they were alive, which counted for something. Terran was giving them a haggard but optimistic grin, listening for signs of the next battle, when he saw rising flames near the Mother Tree and heard the screams of Rock Leaf Elves being killed.