by Eddie Patin
Then, a bright, golden light flooded the area.
Jason paused. He immediately realized that Morgana had drawn Dawnbringer. His natural left eye was filled with a glow that seemed to push the darkness backwards away from the four of them.
"Get back!" Morgana exclaimed above the noise of the storm.
In the next instant, Jason scrambled to turn off his image intensifier as Morgana stepped forward to meet the will-o-wisp, which bobbed up and down as it came in at them through the air like a small soccer ball floating on a turbulent sea.
She met the crackling, alien creature with a swing of her sword. Jason kept his lightning gun aimed just to the side of her in case she needed help.
The shining blade of Dawnbringer with its silvery edge cut right through the middle of the will-o-wisp as if she was chopping through a flying melon. The two resulting halves hovered in midflight for an instant with arcs of blue electricity straining to reach across the void that the sword had left, then, they fell to the ground, fading away into the black storm.
"Yeah!" Jason called out. He felt himself grinning despite the harsh wind in his face.
Morgana stood holding Dawnbringer at the bottom of its arc. She was beautiful and imposing with her long hair flying like a violent flag in the wind. The blade's fierce golden glow pushed the darkness away as she turned to face down the other two will-o-wisps drifting through the black distance.
Jason turned to face the troll cave's entrance, suddenly terrified that a monstrous DnD troll was slithering out of the splashing water and leaping into their midst...
There was still nothing there; nothing but water being pounded by the storm.
Scanning for more threats, Jason squeezed the grip of his lightning gun, wrapping his support hand around the front of its strange trigger guard. He searched the frantic darkness, but nothing came for him. The other will-o-wisps faded back into the murky distance.
Soon, the storm died down.
The four Reality Rifters were left huddled close to the entrance of the troll cave. Gliath appeared from the blackness, peering around without any emotion on his dark feline face. His Versa Max shotgun was shouldered and at low ready. Riley scanned the area as the bizarre black vapors swept away and out of sight, then, he reacted to something quickly as if staring through the high mound of bog that held the cave entrance.
"They're coming!" he exclaimed. "Be ready!"
The ettins?! Jason thought. "Shit!" he muttered to himself, holstering his lightning gun again and pulling up his AK.
He heard their deep, grumbly voices appear below the dying wind.
"Over there!" one monster exclaimed. "More strangers!"
"Next to hungry cave! Careful, now!" called out another.
The ettins were approaching from the other side of the mound. Jason couldn't see them yet. Part of him really didn't want to. He hoped that Riley was right; that they could kill them easily enough with their 'slug guns'. Those brutes were huge. The size of the arms on the ones he'd seen that they evaded before displayed an inhuman strength that could definitely pull them limb from limb.
"Five of them," Riley announced, grim and crisp and ready to rock. His Marlin was shouldered and he seemed ready to spring. "Try slugs, Gliath," he said. "Wait until they're close."
"Yes, Ranaja," Gliath said, quickly cycling several rounds out of the breach into one furry hand. The shells went into a pouch then the leopardwere expertly shoved others into the mag tube to replace them. With the big, metal case strapped to his back, Jason expected the leopardwere to be a little less graceful than usual, but Gliath moved as if it wasn't even there.
Something whooshed overhead, then there was a big splash in a pool of murky water behind them.
The ettins were throwing rocks.
"You—go that way!" one of the monsters snarled.
Jason looked at Morgana. She was standing and listening, waiting with her glowing sword in hand.
"Get your rifle," Jason exclaimed. "When they come around, just shoot a bunch of rounds right into the middle of their chests!"
She nodded, eyes wide, and Dawnbringer suddenly vanished. Morgana brought her AR up and clicked off the safety.
Jason felt the ground thump several times, then a huge, tanned and muscular body appeared around one side of the mound.
He didn't even have enough time to raise his AK. The instant the ettin came around the corner, Riley shot two booming rounds from his Marlin, cycling the lever in between with incomprehensible speed. Jason watched as a huge red crater appeared in the middle of a slab-like chest and one of the two heads exploded. It was the larger head. One head was bigger, and the other was slightly smaller with a curved horn growing out of its forehead.
The smaller head's eyes lulled and the filthy hulk immediately fell forward like a ton of bricks, crashing into the spongy bog in front of them.
Then, Jason was hit with the smell of the brute. As soon as the ettin was face-down in the mud, sending chunks of bog flying out all around it, Jason's nose filled with the stench of rot, vinegar, and moldy cheese that made an odor so unpleasant that it almost gagged him.
"One down!" Riley exclaimed, cycling his gun and quickly shoving two more rounds into the tube. "Four to go!"
"These ones have boom sticks!" one of the monsters on the other side of the mound exclaimed with a grating, deep voice.
"You! Go around the side!" another boomed.
"Oh, God!" Morgana cried, covering her face with her support hand. "It stinks so bad!"
Jason almost called out to agree, but he didn't want to open his mouth.
Two big rocks sailed over the mound. One splashed into the same pool as before. Another thumped into the mud. The rocks were the size of cantaloupes.
Jason regarded the fallen ettin, holding his nose now. It was maybe eight feet tall; not as tall as ettins in DnD.
Ettin/ogre hybrids, he reminded himself. Goddamn, it stunk so badly!
"Come on, frukers!" Riley called out with a laugh. "Come on around!"
Jason looked back down at the submerged cave entrance with jolt of fright. They were keeping their backs to that troll hole for the most part. Riley didn't seem to be concerned at all, but a cold dread was building up inside Jason.
Three more rocks flew over. One of them was in such a high arc that it hit the ground pretty close to their position. Jason jumped out of the way as the big stone heavily embedded itself into the mud and splattered his legs with muck.
"It's a standoff!" Jason exclaimed. "Let's move as a group away from the mound and sweep around the corner to kill 'em from a distance."
"No need," Riley replied with a smirk. He pulled the compressed flying disc off from around his back. Pressing the hidden control that Jason still wasn't familiar with, Riley opened up the device. The fins fanned out all around its circumference, expanding it to its full size. "I'll just fly up and take 'em all out."
He set the disc down onto the ground as two more rocks flew by.
"Get around there!" one of the monsters bellowed to another. "There are no more booms! They are out of fire!"
"Liar!" another shouted back with a higher-pitched, buzzing voice. "You go! If you so sure, you go around!"
Then the world darkened.
Jason turned to the blackest horizon and gasped when he saw the storm rising again.
Shit!
What the fuck is that?! he thought.
"Storm coming in again!" Jason shouted.
The black gusts and stinging rain immediately followed his words.
"Hold tight!" Riley shouted as the maelstrom overtook them again. It swept in like a furious thing alive, blotting out the light and the murky sky with a frightening quickness. "Shet—here they come around! Gliath!"
Jason squinted against the roaring storm—a hurricane of darkness on them in a flash like plunging into black waters—and rammed his AK stock into his shoulder. He made sure that his safety was off.
A moment later, he felt the thumping of several
more steps under his boots. The ettins were running in. Jason raised his muzzle and looked down his sights, waiting for the ettin-ogre things to run around the corner. He took a second to glance behind him to make sure that Morgana was okay—
The troll was rising from the water.
Freezing fear flushed over Jason like a wave of icy water. The monster was like one out of his nightmares: tall and lean as hell with thick, rubbery green hide that seemed covered with knobby natural armor and darker-green moss on its shoulders and back. Its arms were folded together and gradually unfurled as it silently emerged from the cave mouth, unwinding long, hooked fingers tipped with heavy claws just like his focus key. Water poured off of it. Its head hung low over its chest as if its neck was like a buzzard's, and its facial features were twisted sharp and long; its nose like a curved beak and its eyes and exaggerated bony brow almost comically full of malice. Everything about the monster's face was long and sharp. Its ears were wide and tapered to green tips. Dripping hair like seaweed hung haggard and thin over the troll's smallish cranium then down around its neck and shoulders...
For a moment, Jason couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. His heart fluttered in his chest. He couldn't scream.
Then, he cried, "Troll!"
Riley and Gliath's weapons were booming in the whipping storm, but they weren't shooting at the troll. Jason heard the ettins shouting and bellowing, but he couldn't understand a word. His mind was a fog of primal fear.
The troll rose to a towering height—the same as the ettins—and it opened its mouth, revealing a hungry maw full of yellow-grey fangs...
Jason spun and shot it in the chest. His AK boomed several times. He was so close that he barely had to aim.
"The troll!" he repeated, shouting as loudly as he could. "The troll is here!"
His AK rounds pierced its chest as if he was shooting green putty. The troll let out a roar of pain in Jason's face that made his bladder let go. In the corner of Jason's vision, he saw some of those blue balls of light bobbing around in the black distance of the storm.
Then, they were all shooting at the troll. Jason saw Morgana's muzzle flash on his left as she let the monster have it. He heard the boom of Riley and Gliath's bigger guns on his right and saw one of the troll's sharp-boned shoulders suddenly explode.
Jason shot it some more. He took two wobbly steps to the side and tried to aim for the thing's neck—they had to cut its head off, after all—but the head hung low and forward, so he pumped more lead into its chest again.
One of the holes from his first volley of rounds closed up.
Fuck! Jason thought. It really does regenerate fast!
"Gliath! Hold off the ettins!" Riley shouted above the gunfire.
The leopardwere's shotgun boomed repeatedly behind Jason.
They blasted the troll and the fearsome monster fell backwards almost into the cave again. It reached out to catch itself as it took round after round into its hunched and wicked body. Its long talons sank into boggy mound around the water-filled hole.
"Morgana, your sword!" Jason shouted.
Then she was there, holding Dawnbringer. Its golden light cut through the darkness like the sun's first rays piercing through the end of the night. Dashing forward with her AR-15 fallen to its sling and bouncing against her Merc armor, Morgana swung the sword in a mighty arc and lopped off the troll's arm nearest her.
The monster shrieked in pain and fury as the long, clawed limb flopped onto the mud.
Jason shot several more rounds into the nightmarish creature's chest.
Then, Morgana took off its head with a dazzling slash.
The body toppled and splashed into the cave mouth, immediately sinking into the turbulent water. The dismembered arm quivered on the mud; frighteningly long and large and still dangerous-looking
The head rolled to a stop near Jason's feet.
"We need the case!" Jason exclaimed. "Let's get out of here!"
"Okay, switch, Gliath!" Riley shouted. "Get Jason the case!" It was on the leopardwere's back. Riley suddenly disappeared and his rifle boomed once. "Come on, you frukers! Attack, you goddamned cowards!" he yelled.
Jason quickly changed mags. He had no idea how many rounds he had left, but he'd shot up that troll a lot and didn't want to run out if the ettins somehow made it past Riley. They needed to box up the head and get the hell out of there. Out of the storm. Back to R&R...
Looking down, Jason saw the severed head—as green as an avocado and similarly textured in places—gnashing its teeth and glaring with wild, black eyes.
"Holy shit!" Jason shouted.
The case appeared in the mud next to it. Jason looked up and saw Gliath standing by, ready with his shotgun. Gliath was aiming at the watery hole.
Jason crouched flipped open the case latches. He opened the lid and almost cried out in revulsion as he lifted the heavy, writhing head and threw it into the container, face down. He closed and latched it as quickly as he could, then let his AK drop onto its sling. Jason grabbed the case's handle in one hand—it was heavier with the head than he'd anticipated—and seized his 'home key' around his neck with the other.
He rifted to his garage.
As the portal opened with a snap, and the spinning orange fire added to the dark storm's roar, Jason felt something messing with his foot. He looked down and saw one claw of the dismembered arm scratching at his boot. The whole huge hand was squeezing and pulling at the muddy ground, coming after him, trailing the rest of the writhing arm—as long as a man—behind it.
"Fuck!" Jason cried as the sputtering rift spread out into a whirling disc of sparks then smoothed into a welcome vision of his garage. The whipping wind and warm rain stung Jason's face. "Let's go home!"
Then, as Riley fought with the ettins behind him, and Morgana ran toward him and the rift, Jason suddenly felt something odd wash over him...
Numbness swept over his skin and joints. His mind blanked and he lost track of where he was.
The swirling black storm immediately brought him back. Jason reeled, and as soon as he was about to call out to the others—to mutter 'what the hell' to himself—he watched them all drop.
Riley, Gliath, and Morgana all collapsed as if they'd been switched off.
They were down. They were all down, on the ground.
In that instant, Jason became aware of many things. He took in the sight of all three of his friends suddenly unconscious on the ground. He looked at the portal home. It was right there, swirling and loud and brilliant in the darkness. He felt the weight of the case with the troll's head in his left hand. He was aware of the ettins suddenly rushing around the mound. The troll's hand on the ground scratched at his boot...
Jason was alone.
The madness suddenly rushed back into his ears; the roaring and shouting and gusts of the maelstrom beating at him.
One ettin was charging in, crushing the dead one underfoot. The orange fire of Jason's rift gleamed in its two sets of narrowed, furious eyes.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Jason thought, pulling up his AK-47 with only his right hand. He dropped the case and frantically grasped the handguard of his rifle with his left hand. He fired several shots as fast as he could into the oncoming giant's chest.
Jason had no idea how many times he fired. He just shot the hell out of the bastard. The ettin bellowed in surprise, tripped, and fell forward to the ground, crashing into the mud right in front of him. The tremors under Jason's feet almost knocked him down.
Then, a galaxy of pain exploded in Jason's left leg! The weight of something hard and long pulled at his flesh and ripped at him, making Jason scream in agony. His mind flew back to desperate times when he was being sliced up by raptors.
When the stunning pain let up enough to let him move again, Jason looked down.
A long spear was sticking through his left leg. It wasn't impaling him through and through. No—it looked like it had hit him hard, sunk mostly through his thigh but was stopped from fully penetrating by his Merc ar
mor. The crude weapon sagged under its own weight, twisting its point in his leg.
"Fuck!" Jason roared.
He looked up and saw three ettins rounding the mound.
Oh, shit! Oh, shit!
He could have gone home right then and there, but he didn't want to leave his friends. Riley, Gliath, and Morgana were still passed out on the ground. They could have been dead, but Jason didn't want to risk losing them.
Turning to his rift home—crying out in pain as the tip of the spear stuck in his thigh wrenched around—Jason hefted the case with the troll's head and heaved it through the portal into the garage. He watched it fly through the membrane of the rift and land with a clatter on one of its metal corners onto the concrete.
Then, before the three ettins reached him, he dropped his AK back onto its sling, pulled his OCS, and worked with a desperate efficiency that amazed him. Jason inputted coordinates for another rift a hundred yards away—he needed space—and opened a second portal.
The rift to his garage shuttered and disappeared with a pop as the black storm raged and a new gateway unfurled. As soon as Jason could see the dark tempest appear in the middle of his new rift, he dove through—the spear still attached to his leg—howling in pain.
Jason fell through onto the same sort of boggy ground he'd just been standing on.
The pain threatened to make him pass out.
As soon as he was on the other side, Jason released the rift before the ettins could follow him through. Without the fiery, orange light, he was cast into the darkness of the storm once again. Crying in agony, he turned his image intensifier on and whirled around, looking for the giants.
He was still stuck in the tumbling darkness and stinging rain of the maelstrom, but was now standing farther up the slope. Down below, barely visible in the chaotic green soup of his night vision, Jason saw the three remaining ettins.
My friends are down there, he thought.
But it didn't matter. The ettins were heading his way. They must have seen the destination rift.
The spear twisted in Jason's leg.
He reached down, found the rough weapon's shaft near his thigh, and pulled it from his leg with a rattling scream, dropping it.