I went about twenty feet up in the air and as many yards back to crash down on my left side back behind the wall!
I knew before I even hit the ground that I had fucked up. I knew from the split-second view of the world below I got from the peak of my flight that I had fucked up. Then when I finally smacked into the ground and bounced with several hundred pounds of rebound from my suit, I was simply fucked up.
All of my ribs were displaced if not cracked and the mushed surrounding tissues felt like they were on fire and swelling. My left hip that had snapped down behind my upper body felt like it been smashed by a hydraulic hammer and was in pieces despite the fact that it simply could not have hit hard enough to break it. Even my back was probably all kinds of bruised up.
Luckily, in some regards, when I bounced off of the ground I flopped sideways up and over onto my less injured but still aching right side. Sadly, in every regard, I did not have any time in which to pity myself. The ogre appeared at the top of the wall less than three seconds after I settled on the ground and I needed to move.
I was just barely able to get on my feet by the time the ogre arrived, haughtily walking up to me despite the arm it was favoring that hung limply at its side. Its chin was raised and it even had the gall to thump itself once in the chest with its good fist. There was a sudden flexing of its face in a grimace, though, as it remembered my midair kick.
Still as slow as drying paint in comparison to the ogre, the trolls were only just topping the wall as I unsteadily held my ground while leading with my right side. Buying time by circling around me, the ogre feints taking steps in at me while trying to get around to the side that I was hiding. I simply maintained my stance and kept myself facing him at all times.
Just the fact that the ogre had showed pain when it hit himself in the chest meant that it had sustained a decent injury and these cautious tactics showed how weak it really was. I simply did my best to breathe evenly and deeply despite the pain in my expanding and contracting ribs. Then, like a gift from the heavens, the opening that I was looking for presented itself.
Foolishly taking his eyes off of the target, the ogre briefly glanced over to check on the trolls when they heavily reached the bottom of the rock wall. The instant the ogre took his eyes off of me was the instant that I moved into action, taking a quick step forward. Bringing my other leg forward while shifting my weight forward behind it, I raise my knee almost to my chest and snap my foot up and out under the very top of the ogre's solar plexus.
Had my goal been to simply kill the leaders this entire time, I might have been down to the last one by now. Since things were the way they were, I could only 'passively' slam the heel of my foot up into the bottom edge of the ogre's sternum. The already weakened cartilage connecting the sternum to some of its ribs disconnected and the ogre's upper body was suddenly useless as it was thrown back through the air.
Pain from the movement and exertion was quickly expressed in a loud groan and buckling of my knees, bringing me to a kneel after coming down from my kick. Encouraged by my weakened state, the trolls only seemed to stretch their legs out faster than ever before as I fight to push myself up. However, I just could not get up in time.
Before I knew it, a troll's fingers were closing around my midriff and I was no longer on the ground, then I was on the ground again and rolling. Then I found myself splashing back into warm volcanic water. Without any fear of outright drowning thanks to my helmet, I shamelessly milked my time in the water to catch my breath while drifting and paddling.
Gritting my teeth and grunting against the pain of exertion, I pull myself out of the water not far beyond the wall before finally caving in. "Heal," I sigh bitterly, triggering the bracelet I wore under my coat sleeve to drain some of my mana. In exchange for about a quarter of my mana, about ten percent of my injuries were healed.
Clenching my fists while the trolls tiresomely mantle the walls once again, I take a moment to assess the relief in pressure on my body before walking slowly forward. Both of my sides still hurt, but the misplaced feeling in my ribs had most gone away so my sense of balance was mostly back. "Heal," I growl again as I approach the trolls landing at the bottom of the wall, draining myself down to half of my mana to help make sure my ribs stay in place.
Taking a page from Poniard's book, I decide to stop fighting like I was one of them and instead fight like I had a brain. Feinting a forward leap, I dive and roll to the side before coming up just out of reach of both trolls between them. Thinking they would force me to the other, one troll backhanded at me but instead I simply leaped back and then shuffled forward at the other.
Afraid of an attack that never came, the other troll takes half a step back while raising its arms to protect itself. Leaving the other troll who was regaining their balance, I leap forward into a flying kick that stomps right into the troll's belly under its parallel forearms. Forced back even further as the other troll pushed forward, I land and drop under the sweeping leg the second troll tries to kick me with before rushing in under its leg to grab the one it stood on and stand up for myself.
At nine feet tall with a belly and body as big as the one this troll had, it could have easily outweighed a polar bear.
No matter how much it actually weight, though, the troll's foot left the ground by most of my height and its body went up. Twisting at the waist and them spinning on my heel to build momentum, I turn around with the troll and slam it down on the ground on the other side of where I picked it up from. They hit back flat to the ground and they hit HARD.
The ground sounded like it shattered as it spider-webbed with fractures under and around the troll's body but that did not stop me from jumping up onto its chest. Even as the other troll was lumbering forward, I drew back my best arm at the moment and aimed down right at the stunned troll's forehead. Then I punched, slamming not only my fist down but my body and weight behind it as I dropped into a kneel to complete the punch.
With the unforgiving volcanic rock under the troll's head, the forehead and entire cranium seemed to split down the middle under my fist before the forehead around this split under the thick scalp began caving inward. One ogre and one troll were dead, the other ogre was basically crippled from the waist up, and the remaining troll was currently trying to punch me in the face.
Raising my arms up in front of my helmet and jump into a ball with my knees under my elbows was the only hope I had, but both my arms and my legs quickly went to shit from the attack. My body flew like a baseball for almost twenty yards before finally hitting the ground and rolling almost as far. There went all of the healing I had done on myself.
Relying on what little mana I had replenished since the last time I used it to keep me from going over the edge of safety once I finally stopped rolling, I climbed to my feet hoarsely yelling to myself, "Heal! Fucking. Heal!"
The edge was taken off of my pain and injuries but it seemed like every time I healed myself I would just end up hurting myself even worse than before. The only remaining enemy was cautiously striding forward from the first punch breaking the fist of an ogre to that last punch smashing a troll's big-ass head, my hand was starting to hurt as much as the rest of my body. Still, as the troll lumbered forward I could only take a few running steps to meet them.
Feinting a dive my throwing my hands forward and pretending to jump forward, I watch the troll try to sweep one leg across the ground in anticipation only for me to jump straight up. Rising up until I was eye-to-eye with the troll, I perform another contorting twist in midair before landing a roundhouse kick with the top of my foot and bottom of my shin cupping the back side of the troll's head.
Thrown forward from the surprise attack, the already hurting and tired old troll could only stagger forward to the ground after having their balance thrown forward with their weight. Landing effortlessly on the ground beside them as the troll pushes itself up to its hands and knees, I simply sweep my leg across the inside of one arm and collapse the troll back to the ground.
Since the troll still had the strength to try pushing itself up once more, I took a single running step forward once more before outright punting the troll in its upper ribs. The giant grayish monster with all size and weight comparisons of a polar bear was rolled up and over onto its back from my kick. Then, I kicked them again, but this time I kicked forward instead of up like a kickball instead of a football.
The ribs on that side of the troll's body caved around my shin and the troll was slide about eight feet over the rocky ground with a slight spin as their feet ended up pointing in the direction their head had been. Briefly surveying the area to see the other living ogre had managed to drag itself backward onto some rocks to watch me, I check the goblins and remaining hobs to see everyone had retreated toward the back of the settlement with the female hobs and goblin children.
Making sure the troll in front of me stayed down with another kick to its lower ribs, I call out, "Poniard, come tell these piss ants who they now belong to! Ms. Gwyn, the duel is over. You can heal me, now!"
Everyone started into the settlement after my yells, scaring the upwards of fifty goblins who were still alive into tightening their group and defenses. Poniard, for her part, suddenly appears in front of the stray goblins and starts yelling at them in clicks and hisses. A hob tried to step forward and argue with a grunting roar but Poniard slapped her claws across his throat and the hob went down drowning in its own blood.
Accepting resistance with death, Poniard soon had the settlement's hobs and trollkin and goblins kneeling one by one in the direction she was pointing. From thirty yards away, I watched as dozens of goblins and second stages knelt and lowered their heads in my direction like knights swearing fealty. "Convince the troll and ogre that they belong to us or they belong in the dirt," I encourage my hob as she skips over to me to receive a head pat.
Sneering at the troll on the ground by me, Poniard walks up hissing and clicking to the wounded troll before raising her chin in question. The troll growled something around its large tusks, earning himself a swift slapping kick across the face from Poniard. She started talking and clicking at the troll again, this time pointing at me and roaring in the troll's face.
Baring its teeth while looking at me, the trolls growls something at Poniard before raising its chin to bare its throat. Poniard could only look to me while reaching for her new saber and sadly shake her head. Then, she whipped her arm out with a flick of her wrist, opening the troll's throat from one ear to the opposite shoulder
Not even stopping by me for a head pat reward since she had failed to convince the prideful troll, Poniard moves on to try her luck with the ogre. Wounded as he was, as soon as Poniard came close he swung his one good arm at her. My hob barely batted an eye at the wounded beast, drawing and pointing one of her daggers in the same motion so that the ogre impaled his own hand on her Poniard.
Ignoring the indignant and agonized yowls of the ogre, Poniard twists their poniard and snatches it free form the back of the ogre's hand before speaking in goblin. Unlike the troll, though, the ogre had no interest in honor or dignity and argued only enough to get slapped once across the face before lowering its head to Poniard's demands. "Ogre, ours!" Poniard says proudly soon after the slap, walking back over to receive their head pat.
"Ms. Gwyn," I call out while playfully massaging the hobgoblin's scalp and hair that was now around five inches in length. "The caldera belongs to us, it's time to call the director and see what they think of my plans. Heal the ogre of all its injuries except where Poniard stabbed it, he needs to learn not to argue with my second in command," I add even though my own healing was only just finishing up.
*