Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 27 (Patreon)

I joined the battle to find the fighting well underway. Chuck was bruised and battered, but with his regeneration, he'd be alright. He must have taken a club to the side of the head. Kyle was the one I was worried about, slumped against a tree as he was.

Rick, the axe-wielding militiaman we'd brought with us was dead. That was a shame; he'd been a promising trainee. Kerrie, the archer, stood back and used her bow to land what clean shots she could. Bridget fought the tusked ogre.

She had a pair of daggers in her hands, each with their edges glowing with crimson light. Light on her feet, she ducked between and around the ogre's clumsy sweeps. She was dealing damage with each blow, though given the ogre's massive health pool, it would take her a while to whittle him down.

I turned my attention to the other ogre, the green spotted one. Sakura fought him, and her method was a lot more direct.

"Smash!" the green spotted ogre brought his club down. The chunk of gnarled wood was as thick as a tree trunk.

Sakura raised her own club to block. In its former life, it had been a baseball bat. With the difference in size between the clubs and their wielders, the ogre should have snapped Sakura’s weapon like a twig.

If her club didn't break, her arms certainly would have. But Sakura had reinforced her club who knew how many times with her own powers, and another ability kept her legs steady. And point for point, Sakura had the ogre beat in strength.

I watched as she blocked the ogre's overhand smash, shoved him to the side, and then struck him in the side with her much smaller club.

The ogre lashed out to retaliate, only for Sakura to stick out an arm and grab hold of the ogre's club herself. The ogre's look of fury transformed to one of shocked surprise when he realized he couldn't wrench his weapon free of Sakura's grasp.

I activated my ultimate and ran at Bridget’s foe. I activated Arcane Blade, empowering it with Secrets of the Unseen. The blue light lining my blade shifted and shone with that strange color I could only remember when using the ability. With one slice, my sword cut straight through the ogre—from the top of his head to his hip. He slid apart in two big chunks.

"T-that works," Bridget said, suddenly coming to a stop as her intense fight came to an abrupt and bloody end.

"Help Sakura!" I shouted.

With Bridget free to gang up on the last ogre, the battle was as good as won. I focused on calming myself down and letting go of Blood Frenzy. It always took me a minute, and for what came next, I needed a clear head. I slowly pulled myself back from the third level of Mania to the second, and then to the first.

By then, Bridget and Sakura—with the help of Kerrie—had worn down the ogre’s health pool enough that all they needed from me was a few Mana Bolts and to detonate my Corrupting Marks. That final kill restored me back to full health.

And just in time, too, because I heard more ogres coming our way. The fight might have felt like it lasted an hour but, in truth, no more than a minute had passed.

"Ow... fuck... what happened?" Chuck said, slowly lurching to his feet. His regeneration ability had finally healed him from whatever had knocked him out.

"We won. Time to get out of here!" I shouted in reply.

I ran to the nearby tree, scooped up Kyle, and threw him over my shoulder. I found another member of Kyle and Chuck's team who was still breathing and lifted him onto my other shoulder. Then I sucked one of the dead ogres into my Bag of Holding.

Nork had been beyond salvaging, but this was what I'd come here for.

Sakura found two more of our wounded and carried them like I was doing. There was only one person left in good enough condition that they'd have any chance at recovering, so Bridget took him. Chuck did his best to keep up with us in his wounded state.

The ogre's poor perception was a boon to us, yet again. Not one among them was anything that could be considered a tracker. I imagined any game they hunted regularly was as big as they were—and just as prone to snapping whole trees in half as it fled.

While we no doubt left a trail, we were as circumspect as could be considered reasonable under the conditions. That must have been good enough to fool the ogres, because we soon left the howling ogres shouting to one another in frustration far behind us.

"Did... did we really do it?" Chuck asked.

"Yes, we did," I said while easing Kyle and the other wounded man I carried into the back of my truck.

"Chuck,” I turned to the man as Sakura and Bridget deposited their burdens in the back of the truck, “I hope you remember how to drive."

"Uh... it might come back to me when I'm behind the wheel?" Chuck shrugged.

"Take Kyle and the others to Doctor Roswell's clinic. Be quick about it. They don't have much time." I handed Chuck my keys.

He nodded, his face resolute as he hopped in the driver’s seat and sped off.

With the wounded taken care of, Bridget, Sakura and I returned to the task at hand. Our mission today wasn't complete—not yet. Resolutely, we jogged to the rendezvous point and then waited for the other groups to return.

We'd lost some good people today, and if the fight with the two ogres had made one thing clear to me, it was that humanity wasn't strong enough to face the ogres head on. If these people hadn't joined me for what we were trying to do today, we could very well be in danger of going extinct a month from now. Sooner, if the ogres realized how many snacks there were for them to eat in Crownhill.

I had hoped that with superior numbers, Margaret, Marcus, and Franks' teams would have fared better than us. Unfortunately, when they finally showed up it was clear that they'd taken heavier losses than we had since the trolls only died when their regeneration powers were tapped out. This meant they either had to kill a troll several times, or remove their blue orbs. But, just like us, they’d returned with several dead foes.

"Here they are," Marcus presented the dead trolls to me.

"And here are your ogres. You know what to do with them."

Marcus grimaced. "And here I was just starting to enjoy the frying pan. Back into the fire for me."

"You don't need to fight,” I told him, “just drop off the corpses somewhere the trolls will find them. Use bait if you have to, but don't take any unnecessary risks."

"Agreed. I don't want to lose anyone else," Margaret added.

We separated again, and Sakura, Bridget, and I returned to where I'd slain Nork. Perhaps the other ogres would think he'd made a bloody last stand surrounded by trolls. That would be our best-case scenario.

"How do we get their attention?" Sakura asked.

"I suspect an ogre battle would involve a lot of bellowing. Probably some knocking over of trees, too." I turned to Sakura expectantly.

She hefted her club, started shouting, and did her best to pulverize the local plant life into submission.

I glanced at Bridget. "Those trolls had pretty long claws."

Bridget nodded, extending her own nails into claws. "I'll see what I can do."

She inspected the fingers on the dead trolls for a moment, then splayed her fingers wide and made deep grooves on the knocked over tree trunks. We were big and obvious about planting evidence of a battle. We had to be, because I was pretty sure the ogres wouldn't grasp subtlety.

Eventually, Sakura's yelling and smashing started attracting the ogres’ attention. When we heard them crashing through the forest, we made our escape once more. I lingered a few steps behind, hoping to catch a glance of the ogres.

I wanted to ensure they found the clearing where I'd killed Nork. Sure enough, the massive giants stumbled into the clearing one at a time. They cried in rage, hefted their clubs in the air, and pointed to the dead trolls each in turn.

"Trolls attack us! We go smashing!"

"Smashing! Smashing! Smashing!"

The ogres’ voices became a chant loud enough to carry all the way to Crownhill. Which meant they'd easily carry far enough to reach the trolls’ encampment.

Perfect.

We regrouped with the other team. Unfortunately, their escape hadn’t been nearly as clean as ours.

"One's on Marcus!" Margaret shouted as soon as she saw us. "Those things just won't go down! The only one who has been able to kill them is Michael, and he took a nasty hit."

Nearby, Michael lay dazed over Frank's shoulder. Frank had his pistol in one hand raised and aimed back the way they'd come. He pulled the trigger, but then swore when all he heard was the click of an empty chamber.

"Did any see you and return to tell the others?" I asked anxiously.

"One did," Margaret replied.

I cursed. "Bridget, Sakura, you two keep those trolls off Marcus. I'm going to hunt down the one who fled to report to the others. We can’t let the trolls know we were behind this."

I rushed ahead using Warp Step, covering ground in the blink of an eye. I ran straight past Marcus and the three trolls chasing him. I needed to get the runner.

I eventually found him racing along in that odd loping gate I'd seen from the previous troll scout we'd encountered. He crouched low on all fours, fingers curled inward, bounding along like a gorilla. They stood upright like large hunch-backed humanoids most of the time, but their bodies weren't designed for running. Come to think of it, I was pretty sure they couldn't lock their knees to walk upright.

The dense forest that had characterized the ogres’ encampment quickly turned to swamp where the trolls lived. I suspected this was their natural environment. Fortunately, the trees here were tall enough that I could hop from limb to limb without falling into the muck.

Eventually, I spotted the runner. He was anxious to get back to the heart of the tribe. Unlike the ogres and their collections of firepits, I had yet to see the heart of the trolls’ domain.

Like giant birds, they lived inside the hollows of enormous trees. I wasn't sure if they’d carved the holes out themselves or if they just waited for a tree to rot and lay claim to it. But it didn't seem too sophisticated. They’d added to their homes with reeds and mud, but nothing that might require use of stone tools. I was starting to suspect that the goblins were the best thinkers of any of the races humanity had integrated with.

I targeted the troll immediately. I hit it first with an Eldritch Blast, and then again with a Mana Bolt.

The troll shrugged off both blows, its flesh healing as fast as Chuck's. Looking closer, I saw a blue spherical organ under its skin—much like the one inside of Chuck. I was more confident now than ever that Chuck and his fellow raiders had encountered the trolls before now, since he had their power.

The troll glanced up at me. It bared its teeth in my direction, letting out a wordless shriek. The sound pounded against my eardrums like a physical force, and blood leaked from my ears.

Gritting my teeth, I drew my sword. Then, casting Arcane Blade on it, I threw my sword.

It tumbled end over end before embedding itself in the troll's throat, severing its spine and angling up to catch in its jaw. I'd seen Chuck's regeneration enough by now to know this wouldn't be enough to put the troll down.

I closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye. Pulling my sword free, I tried to cast Disassemble. Unfortunately, there was enough life left in the troll to resist my spell. So I cast Arcane Blade again on my sword and carved into the troll’s skin, layering on Corrupting Marks so that its regeneration had something else to deal with.

When I tried to cast Disassemble again, it worked. The troll exploded into pieces, all of which flew into my bag of holding. There was only one item of interest, really—a smooth blue sphere with a faint glow. I saw it in my bag and pulled it out.

It was hard to the touch and looked almost like a large pearl, roughly half the size of my fist. I couldn't tell if it was an organ or something the trolls inserted into themselves. Whatever it was, though, it was the source of their regenerative powers.

I used Study to find out a little more.

Azure Lifesource Orb Fragment (Epic): This shimmering blue fragment is a remnant of the Divine-ranked original Azure Lifesource Orb. Each subsequent orb has been chiseled from its predecessor, creating a lineage of fragments tracing back to the original orb. Crafted by a mysterious entity who once visited the troll realm, these orbs have since disseminated throughout the troll population.

While the whereabouts of the original orb remain a mystery, every fragment retains a portion of its remarkable power. When embedded into a being, this fragment bestows incredible regenerative capabilities, amplified vitality, and the potential for complete restoration.

This particular Azure Lifesource Orb Fragment can be empowered either by assimilating additional fragments or by nurturing it within a compatible host, allowing it to grow and intensify its effects.

Note: This orb is a valuable material for your Artificer job.

The description was enlightening. Like the Wolfmen, the trolls had once been greeted by a mysterious visitor better traveled than they were. I suspected the trolls were compatible hosts for the orb. Whoever created the original orb did so to nurture the orb's power over time. Unfortunately—for them, at least—the system decided to take the troll world for itself.

My mind went back to Myrina and her time as a mysterious stranger on Earth. Perhaps visitors from other worlds spending time among the unintegrated wasn't so uncommon, after all. I tucked the orb back into my Bag of Holding. I was curious what exactly my job would let me make with it.

I returned to the others in time to watch the tail end of their fight against the trolls that had been chasing Marcus. From the look of things, they mostly just needed help putting the trolls down. Sakura had bashed one troll's head in and was busy pulverizing the rest of its body in the hopes that she could damage the thing beyond what its regeneration allowed. She looked to be succeeding, too. Other than a few twitches, the troll she'd downed was healing far slower than the others.

Two trolls were still on their feet and fighting—one confronted by Bridget and Frank, while Margaret and Marcus dealt with the other.

I hit both trolls in the back with a barrage of spells before darting in with Arcane Blade. I finished off one troll with a combination of Blood Sacrifice and detonating my Corrupting Marks. I didn't have many of them on the troll, though, so it didn't completely explode.

Its healing could have saved it, but I cast Disassemble in the brief moment that its heart stopped and before its regeneration kicked in to resuscitate it. The troll wasn't going to be regenerating from being separated into its component pieces and finding a new home in my bag of holding.

I quickly took apart the last troll just as I had the first, and soon our entire group was heading back to the settlement. I looked around for Michael. Frank had been carrying him, the last I knew. There had been other wounded, as well, though now they were nowhere to be seen.

"The wounded went on ahead," Frank explained. "They took the last of the cars though."

"At our levels, we'll probably make it through these woods faster on foot." I gestured around us, and then we all took off at a run.

Humans, as it turned out, were quite good at running. A bunch of office workers like us wouldn't have been able to put on a good showing before the integration, but a few life and death battles did wonders for the waistline. Once we got going, we had the persistence that trolls and ogres lacked.

Perhaps the Wolfmen might have been able to keep up with us after their transformation to Chaosborn Lycans, but the other races stood little chance. We were well clear of the battlefield long before things grew truly dire. And it really was a battlefield.

Once we were certain we were out of the crossfire, we found a nearby cliff face and scaled it. It was one of those sheer chunks of rocks that had come with our shard’s integration of the Wolfman's home world.

"I think that was an ogre battle cry," I pointed in the distance.

"It sounded like a rock slide... you guys really fought those things?" Margaret raised an eyebrow.

Sakura nodded. "We kicked their asses!"

"I wouldn't want to fight a whole tribe of them," Bridget added.

The forest surrounding the ogre tribe came alive with commotion. The huge hulking figures made no attempts to hide themselves, nor any attempt to get into something resembling a formation. They simply stormed across the divide between their forest and the troll swamp.

The towering trees the ogres were familiar with were soon replaced by willows and muddy ground. Ogres in scattered ranks barreled right through both. The ogres burst forth from the woods, charging through the muddy water with ferocious roars.

The trolls hadn't been caught completely off guard, though. They'd heard the ogres coming, and were expecting them. They'd had an incident of their own in the last hour and had recovered a few ogre bodies, suggesting who'd murdered some of their own.

"The ogres are stronger, but it looks like they're struggling in the swamp," Margaret reported, then she pointed.

"Agreed. They aren't particularly maneuverable in the first place. The swamp takes away what little maneuverability they have left." I stroked my chin, forcing the smile off my face. It seemed wrong to be smug about starting a war between separate factions, because that was exactly what we'd done.

We'd planted evidence in both factions, proving to each that they were irreconcilable foes. I’d expected that they would kill and murder one another as a result. From here on out, the conflict would be self-sustaining. The kin of the fallen would see the work of their enemies with their own eyes. I wasn't sure if any ogres and trolls had fought one another before today, but by the time the sun set they certainly would have.

Already, the dead were piling up on both sides, thinning their ranks. Part of me wanted to feel bad about that, but by all accounts, both ogres and trolls were hungry for human flesh. That, and the fact that most humans were not nearly as capable as me and my companions were, smothered the ember of empathy within me.

And, in a way, I was simply encouraging the natural course of events. If trolls and ogres both ate humans, they would eventually come into conflict over their favorite food. It was either eat us or eat monsters, and I had little doubt that ogres and trolls would choose us instead of something powerful enough to fight back.

I was just bringing this battle to the fore long before it came to that end. Instead of waging a war of extermination when humanity had been bled dry and fended off their incursions again and again, I’d ensured that the war would happen today—long before humanity had to face trolls and ogres on the field.

I turned to my companions. "This won't solve the ogre and troll problem—not forever. But it will delay it. And it will buy time for the rest of you to gain more levels. When that war winds down,” I flipped my thumb over my shoulder at the bloody swamp, “I want Crownhill's militia to be ten times the size it is today."

"That would be wise," Margaret agreed.

There were more nods of agreement all around. I stood, watching the ogres and trolls and their bloody conflict. Despite the gory scene before us, everyone knew we'd just saved the lives of hundreds of people back in Crownhill. And unlike our attack on the Wolfmen, this time my plan had worked.

We may not have pulled it off flawlessly, but it had worked. Margaret, Marcus, and Frank seemed much the same as before. But in the others gathered with us on top of that cliff, there was a certain something in their eyes.

I thought it was respect, but it had a hint of something more. Admiration? Loyalty? I wasn't sure what it was, but it made the weight on my shoulders feel that much heavier.

"Should we have a celebratory feast back in Crownhill? God knows we've hunted enough to have one," Frank said.

I shook my head. "No. This was a secret mission, remember? Those ogres and trolls may not be smart, but it'd be better not to lay our cards on the table if we can help it. As far as anybody back in Crownhill is concerned, this was just a special hunt."

"But we'll know!" Kerrie, the archer who'd traveled with my group said. Her gaze had been locked on me all the while, not interested in the trolls or ogres in the slightest.

"That we will," I promised.

I grunted, thinking that now was about time for me to depart before the archer woman and the others bore a hole in the back of my head with their stares. "Tell everyone to keep up the hunts and their training. Keep an eye on the ogres and trolls, too, if you can. We need to know how their war is going, so we can step in to keep it going, if need be.”

I nodded to Sakura and Bridget, turning to leave. “As for me, I've got some more training of my own to do. I'm going off-world again soon. I'll check in with you all upon my return."

<Note>
So I've gotten some beta feedback on this and Dutch did an exact count of Carter's level at this point and he was actually a bit higher than I thought when initially writing this. I need to adjust this fight scene and the previous one to account for that, but haven't gotten to it yet because I'm trying to finish the first draft soon.

When I have more time I will probably make it so Rick is just wounded instead of dead as well, since Carter at a slightly higher level would have gotten there faster. So if you see Rick again later in the story, just know that I made some edits and didn't forget that he's dead.