Even with such a strong surprise attack, the trolls weren't going to be so easy to take down for good. The troll crushed beneath Blue Raspberry twitched and spasmed from the continuous exposure to the electric ooze's lightning, but it was putting itself back together even as Blue stood atop it. Pops and cracks could be heard as its joints and bones snapped back into their proper places only to be immediately dislocated or broken again by Blue's assault.

The giant reptilian-looking Blue kept punching down with metal-clad fists to try and end the troll, but they didn't know why it wasn't dying. They practically crushed its skull in, how was it still alive!? What were they supposed to do to keep it dead!? The only solution they could think of was to devour both of the trolls, but they couldn't do that with Zarius conscious and back on his feet. They were glad he was alright, but they kind of wished he'd taken a quick nap so they could finish this fight similarly to the Origin Matter, but without having to spit the Fellblood out.

But, Zarius did help out. A sudden blast of blue flames flew past Blue and onto the troll they'd stabbed who had been healing just as quickly as the one beneath their feet. The troll let out a roar of pain while it was engulfed by the fire, grasping at the hole in its abdomen and thrashing wildly, but not dead. The healing had stopped though! So, fire could make them stop healing? Perfect! Except Blue couldn't make any fire.

"Mister Zarius! I'll finish that one, can you burn this one too?" Blue called to him, their voice deeper and a bit slurred in this form. They jumped off of the broken one to let Zarius use his fire magic on it. Another blue crystalline glaive formed in Blue's hand which they used to stab the burning troll some more until it stopped moving.

---

Red Rogue's Coat (2/2 Posts)
Desert Blessing- Glaive

The fire worked like a charm, thank the gods. The only problem was that Zarius didn't have much more fire at his disposal. He could probably manage one more blast, but after that they'd both be out of luck. 

"Yeah. Got it." The fellblood gives a thumbs up while he grits his teeth. 

It was difficult to think clearly, but all he had to do was hit the other one with another blast of fire. Wolfe would finish them off. All he had to do was burn them. All he had to do was burn-

He doubles over and grips at his head, thankfully the flames from his hands do not have any effect on himself. The whispers would not leave him alone, desperately trying to force their collective will over him. He just needed to focus on something. Anything! He's nearly taken back down to the ground before movement from the broken troll catches his attention again. 

The broken troll was putting itself back together after Wolfe rushed over to deal with the burning one. It was a slow and awful process with the bones snapping back into place and the muscles knitting themselves back together. It gets to the point of being able to stand back up, though hunched as its internal organs take a bit longer to repair themselves from being crushed and shocked. 

It was an opening. A precious opening that would end any second. The fellblood grinds his teeth and forces himself to stand back up. One final push and he launches another blast of fire towards the no-longer-broken troll.

The flames impact and sear into the creature's newly reformed skin. The reek of burning flesh permeates the air as the troll reels back and roars in agony. Though it was hardly at the end of its life just yet and it bears down and charges towards the fellblood in a blind reckless rage. 

Shit. 

He has to move, but his legs only shake and won't budge. 

The troll is steps away now. 

Shit. 

Move.

It looms overhead with both fists raised up above its head, ready to crush the fellblood like an ant. 

MOVE!

Just as the troll brings its fists down, Zarius manages to dive forward, between the legs of the troll before rolling back up onto his feet as a bust of adrenaline pulses through is veins from the imminent threat of death.^[2] He whirls around, draws his fist back and slams it into the back of the troll's ankle in an attempt to stun the limb and hinder its mobility.^[3]

The troll's leg goes numb, and it staggers as it attempts to keep its balance. Zarius takes the chance to retreat further back. He'd stall for time if Wolfe needed it, but by the Gods he hopes the man does not end up needing it. 

---

[1] Art of the Burning Fist (2 out of 5 post duration; 2 out of 2 fire blasts)
[2] Adrenaline burst (1/2 per topic)
[3] Stunning Blows

One troll was decimated. Already burnt by Zarius and pounded into a pile of mush by Blue, but there was still one to take care of. Blue turned around, ready to fight the remaining one now that Zarius had used his fire on it, but they felt a fmiliar sensation like they were being stretched too thin.

Already? Blue thought this to themself as they began to shrink back down to normal, the metal plates of their armor clinking together as they locked back into a full suit of armor around them. They couldn't believe their enlarged form was already unable to be maintained after such a short amount of time. Was it the strain of the battle? Maybe the stress? They still had no idea what decided when they had to shrink back to normal, but that time had come.

Dealing with the troll would be a bit more difficult now, but they would still handle it. They'd already beat one at their normal size. With the fire keeping it from healing, they just had to beat the shit out of it. They also still had their tail and extra pair of arms. Those would help.

Blue ran up behind it as it burned, its arms in the air to smash Zarius. With a heavy punch to the back of both of its knees, its legs crumpled beneath it and it dropped to its knees on the ground. They kept up their assault, punching its back repeatedly. They ignored the flames that licked at their hands with each punch. Most of it was blocked by their gauntlets anyways, but they could heal their hands when this was over. With each punch, the troll's skin started to melt, the liquified flesh almost immediately being consumed by the flames. Acid oozed from Blue's fists as they punched away.

---

Bare Hands
Bull's Strength
Flesh Rend

Zarius gets out of the Wolfe's way as the knight lays into the troll. Blood and other viscera splattered across the knight as he fully tenderized what was left of the char broiled troll. The stench of burning flesh was terrible and the fellblood stands back while pulling up the collar of his shirt to try and filter out the disgusting odor.

After a few minutes, everything goes still. The wind howls between the stone pillars and the light finally dwindles from the sky, casting their surroundings into twilight.

The fellblood leans back against one of the pillars and catches his breath. His breath catches in his throat and doubles over coughing. A stream of smoke pours from his mouth. 

Gods. He hated that. 

Once he's able to take a solid breath, he wipes his mouth and tries to compose himself for facing the knight now that the fight was over and done with.

Hopefully Wolfe didn't need any healing as the fellblood had nothing else on him that would help in that department. Perhaps he should get over his paranoia about being poisoned and start carrying potions with him as well. 

He walks over to the knight, surveying the destruction the trolls had caused and ultimately became mixed amongst the rubble thanks to the sheer might of Wolfe. It was impressive. He knew the man was a capable fighter and adventurer, but his abilities seemed beyond what he would expect from a normal knight. Then again, he was best friends with Astrid and she was a far cry from a normal little girl. This really should not be that surprising. 

"Mister Wolfe, are you alright? Seems the threat is neutralized for the time being."

Neutralized might be putting it lightly, the man had pulverized the trolls to a point of being unrecognizable.

With both trolls adequately burnt, pummeled, and partially dissolved, Blue stopped punching what used to be a troll in front of them and surveyed their handywork. Both trolls were undoubtedly dead this time, no sounds of flesh mending or bones snapping into place audible over the sounds of sizzling from the drops of mixed acid and troll blood dripping off of Blue's gauntlets and second pair of fists.

Even with the trolls dead, Blue felt that same disoriented feeling and burning pain in their hands they had earlier thanks to their exposure to the troll's toxic blood. Blue heard Zarius say something to them, but didn't understand it. Their mind felt like it was running around in circles, the troll blood poisoning much more severe this time with it soaking much more than just the tips of their claws. Thankfully, the splatter on the front of their armor didn't reach past the metal plates to inflict them with even more of the poison, but what was soaked through their gauntlets and on their exposed secondary fists and arms was already too much for them to handle.

"Wha- Huh?" Blue mumbled, looking to Zarius. Their hands burned. They needed to get this stuff off them. They couldn't think straight with this stuff on their hands. The ooze didn't have lungs, but they felt as if they couldn't breathe properly. Why was Zarius spinning? Wait, no, why was everything spinning?

Blue stumbled backward and fell onto their butt, their tail not helping to provide them with any support like they thought it would. It was like nothing was functioning right.

"I think... I need a minute..." Blue stammered out, holding their hands out as far away from them as possible. The blood was slowly being absorbed into their body and then dissolved and rendered into just more blue slime, like everything else that entered the ooze, but it was a slow and painful process.

Zarius nods. "Take your time."

He's about to walk away and find a place to keep watch for any other trouble that might sneak up on them now that night has finally fallen, but then he pauses. 

He looks back at the knight and his eyes narrow. Even in the dark, his golden eyes could easily see despite the lack of available light.^[1]

Something was off about the knight, even more so than usual. Lingering for a moment, he takes note of what was going on with Wolfe's hands. It was like the man was absorbing the toxic blood. That was certainly not something a normal person could do. That certainly was not how the blood had reacted to his own body. 

As tempting as it was to grill the knight for answers, it was clear that Wolfe was a little disoriented currently. He decides to wait until Wolfe had a chance to recover before asking his questions about what exactly was going on with the man. 





On second thought, maybe it was best NOT to ask. 

For the time being, he scales the side of a stone pillar and sits up there to keep an eye out for any trouble.^[2]

---

[1] Dark Vision
[2] Spider Silk Boots

Blue was relieved when the blood had finally all run its course and they stopped feeling the burning sensation. Their senses also cleared up and they stopped feeling so disoriented. They could finally stand back up and retract their extra arms and tail back into themself and close the metal plates in their armor.

All the blood that had gotten past their armor and made contact with their slime was absorbed and processed, but there were still splatters and streaks across the metal plates on their torso and their gauntlets that would need to be cleaned off. Normally, cleaning their armor was easy to do just by eating it and absorbing whatever muck or grime was on it, but they didn't want to absorb any more of that nasty blood. They'd need to wipe the stuff off the old fashioned way and then also not eat whatever they used to do that. Gosh, this was such a pain.

Blue looked around to find Zarius perched atop a pillar and called up to him. "I'm fine now. How are you doing?" They asked. If the blood had affected them that much, they didn't know how much it might have hurt Zarius. He had looked pretty messed up when they'd charged in. He looked alright though, so they weren't that concerned. He was already climbing pillars, so he couldn't be that hurt, right?

"That blood was nasty! It burned and made me feel all sick! And it's all over my armor." Blue complained as they pulled out a rag from beneath their cloak. They tried wiping the blood off, but it had already congealed too much to be cleaned by a dry cloth. They produced a bit of slime in the palm of their hand and added that to the cloth and resumed their wiping. Thankfully that did the trick enough to clean the blood off of them, though it left their armor a little slimy. That, they were happy to absorb later though. The bloody, slimy rag, they just tossed onto what was left of one of the trolls.

"So, now what do we do?" Blue asked, looking up at Zarius again with their hands on their hips. Their mission out here wasn't just to beat up some trolls, was it? Wait, was beating up the trolls part of their mission? Blue really needed to get better at listening and learn to read. They were kind of just following Zarius's lead here since they pretty much had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.

---

Space Pocket
Ever Flowing Chalice

"I have been better."

The power of the potion he used was incredible and it had healed his wounds from the trolls pretty effective. Too bad it didn't do much for the other thing. All he can think is thank the dead gods that Wolfe hadn't noticed his coughing. He really did not want to be interrogated about that, especially since he didn't really have an explanation for what was going on with him. 

Seeing that Wolfe was back on his feet and not being too keen on lingering in the wilds in the dark for much longer, Zarius climbs back down to join the knight on the ground. 

"I am certain the guild has healers back at the docks. You should make sure to check in with them."

Zarius was certain the knight could take care of himself, he had more than proved that in their encounters thus far, but he still did not want to risk the man's health mostly because he didn't want to face Astrid in the aftermath. 

"We go back. We accomplished what we needed to. Though I suppose we will need to take some proof." 

He contemplates that, considering the poisonous nature of the blood and the states that all the bodies were in, it wouldn't be easy to haul back any body parts as proof of their success. Reaching back into one of his belt pouches, he pulls out a vial that seems to be filled with a black powder. Uncorking it and turning it upside down, the contents spills out revealing the black powder is actually dozens of little black soot balls with tiny arms and legs.^[1]

Zarius stoops down and whispers instructions to the little creatures to go collect any bits they can pull free from the corpses to which the sootlings immediately obey. Though it doesn't take long to realize that the plan was not the greatest as the little sootlings bumble about the corpses and get poisoned themselves which just makes them look like they're stumbling around drunk. 

He sighs. Well, was worth a shot. He looks back at Wolfe. "We can always just tell them where we encountered the trolls and they can send a scout to confirm if they do not believe us. Come on. We should get out of here before something worse shows up."

The fellblood turns and starts leading the way back to the W.E.F. camp to report their encounter. 

---

[1] Bottle of Sootlings

"Don't worry, I feel fine. It was just a little poison." Blue replied with a shrug. They didn't think any of the healers back at the docks would be able to do much for them. The bandages and medicines didn't seem like they were made for oozes. And, Blue already felt perfectly fine. All the blood had been dissolved already.

"Oh, there's one more troll I left over there that's not so goopy! We could take that one back with us for proof." Blue stated, pointing to where they left the first troll they'd fought on the other side of a rocky crag.

"I'll finish things over here and meet you over there. I want to check some stuff out. I'll shout if any more trolls show up or anything." Blue said, giving Zarius a thumbs up.

They waited for Zarius to leave before looking around at the two messes that used to be trolls. Was Blue really stupid enough to want to eat these right after experiencing how poisonous their blood was?

Yes.

It took a few minutes for Blue to fully recover from the poison and walk over to Zarius and the other troll corpse whose abdomen was still swollen from the hardened ooze in its lungs and stomach. Looked like they didn't need to use fire to stop its healing if they killed it through suffocation.

It was a bit awkward to carry the troll with it being so much bigger than them, but Blue could drag it behind them pretty easily. With one arm over each shoulder, Blue and the troll looked like a horse pulling a wagon across the Mesa as they headed back to the base camp with their new research subject. If they wanted to beat these trolls, they wanted to learn everything they could about them.

---

Bull's Strength