Noticing that she had started to stare at him, she moved forward, trying her best to keep a confident, seductive tone. This had been a great orgasm, but she wanted more.

“Now that you got very well acquainted with my pussy, it’s time I get to meet your little one, don’t you think?” she said,  grabbing his head with one of her hands as she reached in for another kiss, the force of her movement making him fall flat on the soft grass. He immediately felt the weight of her chest on top of his torso and abdomen, as she shadowed his movement perfectly to keep her mouth locked with his. She was heavy, but he could see how she was restraining herself from dropping all of her weight on top of him. He soon realized that there was another reason for her restraint, as he felt her right hand snake through the gap between their bodies, traveling towards the hem of his pants.

She slipped her hand inside, slowly caressing the rock-hard member. She had already gathered that he wasn’t particularly big down there, around half the length of her hand or so, but she didn’t mind that much.

She looked forward to see if he was able to use his dick as well as his mouth.

Still embraced in her kiss, he felt a wave of arousal upon him as she started to touch his member, the tip of her index finger caressing its length slowly and deliberately. He moaned loudly as she gave his balls a soft squeeze, before grabbing his dick in a strong grip with her first three fingers, starting to run them up and down the shaft.
However, as soon as she started, her hand stopped moving, and she pulled away from his lips, looking at him happily.

“Please, remove your pants. We don’t wanna ruin such fine clothes. I can’t repay you, I don’t have that kind of money” she commanded, in a soft but stern tone.

He followed her order eagerly, untying his belt, wriggling his body as she slid the other hand from under his head and slowly pulled his pants away, feeling the cold ground under his legs and butt.

Her left hand reprised its movement, sending wave after wave of pleasure upon him, loud moans erupting from his lips at the occasional squeezes her other hand gave to his balls.
He came violently, a stream of cum emitting from his shaft, covering her fingers and painting her abdomen.

She smirked as she moved the hand towards her face, cleaning her fingers with a long, sensual lick.

“I’d never tasted a human before,” she said, savoring the flavor “I like it, even if it’s a bit more delicate than what I’m used to.”

“Now, let’s see what you can do with it” She added, looking at him.

She felt her cheeks becoming slightly warm as she saw his form spread out on the grass, sweat coming down on his face as he panted heavily. Humans are so cute, she thought.

“Oh, is the little guy tired already?” she asked, mocking disappointment as she glanced at his now quasi-flaccid dick, “I know just the way to wake him up” she added, as she slowly moved her face towards the member, opening her mouth and pulling out her long, thick tongue, the tip of which started to gently caress the balls and the bottom of the shaft, a movement that rapidly made the cock spring to attention.

Daniel looked down. He had no idea that he could get hard again immediately after blowing a load as big as that one.

He also saw, with a note of disappointment, how small his 5.5” member looked against her tongue, a tongue that was able to cover it completely, with room to spare, and which was almost double his girth in terms of thickness. He hoped that it would not leave Zevna unsatisfied.

That didn’t seem to concern her, as she deftly sprang up, his dick now resting against her crotch.

“As great as you taste,” she said, “I wanna feel it inside me. You did one for me, and I did one for you. I think it’s only fair that we move to something that we can both enjoy at the same time.”

With this, she let herself fall to his left side, spreading her legs, eyeing him expectantly.

As much as she was enjoying dominating him, and how much more she liked being on top, he seemed to be struggling with her weight before, and she didn’t feel like making him uncomfortable. Let’s leave the reins to him a bit.

Reins that he took eagerly, sliding out of the pants hanging at his feet, approaching her spread-out pussy, his dick erect and eager to feel her insides. He grabbed her muscular leg, heaving it up against his shoulder, noticing that it was every bit as heavy as it looked, before slowly inserting his member, feeling her dampness against his member. She was definitely less tight than other girls he had been with, but the soft, wet tissue felt nevertheless amazing against him. He rose a little and immediately began to move forward and backward rhythmically, trying to push with all of his strength, leaning against her leg for support.

 Zevna loved it, the feeling of his hard cock against the walls of her pussy was divine, able to make her forget completely how inadequate the organ had seemed to her at first. He maneuvered inside of her like a trained swordsman would do with his trusty blade. Instinctively, she closed her legs, squeezing his body in between firmly, feeling all of his length sliding against her labia and cervix, a movement that caused the orcs to erupt in a series of moans. She released her grip a little, bringing a hand against his torso, grabbing a handful of his chest hair, and giving him a light, playful pull to make him lay down against her.

“Come on, let’s give the twins some love,” she said in a heavy voice, glancing at her breasts. In this position, his face reached just above her cleavage. Perfect height, she mused.

He happily obeyed, laying against her body, putting out his tongue, giving her right tit a long lick, before putting the nipple in his mouth, as if he wanted to be breastfed by her. She moaned loudly as he started to work on her nipple, the combination of his tonguework and the light nibbles he was giving to her nipples, first the right one then the left one, created waves of pleasure inside her,  mixing and adding up with those that came from her womanhood. She was close.

As close as her partner was, overwhelmed by the mixture of sweat and the strong natural scent of her body, and the softness of her mounds,  that left him in a state of pure bliss.

He pulled his head away from her nipple, starting to lick in between her ample cleavage, a gesture that she immediately understood. She grabbed her breast with her hands, pushing them against each other, moaning loudly as she smothered his head in between the two orbs. It was too much to bear for Daniel, and he came, a stream of thick, white cum filling her womanhood. The feeling of his semen inside of her was enough to push her over the edge as well, and she orgasmed shortly thereafter, pressing the back of his leg at the knee against him out of instinct, squeezing his right shoulder so hard that it was almost painful for Daniel.

He collapsed on top of her, feeling his upper body moving up and down slightly with her breathing.

“By the spirits,” she said, gasping for air “I need to lay with humans more. This was… amazing.”

“You were great yourself” he replied, panting heavily. That was an understatement, he thought.

She looked down at him, a smile appearing on her lips.

“Well, whenever you want another go…just ask” she mused, smirking “I always like guys that know how to have fun”.

They both looked up, seeing that the moon was slowly moving towards its Zenith.
“Better go to bed now. We still have a long journey ahead of us.” Said the huntress “ Feel free to stay here, I’ll try to squeeze as much as I can.”

He laughed “Have a good night, Zevna” he said.

“You too, Daniel”

 The orc watched as he started to move toward the bedroll.

The sensation she had felt in her body at the sight of his naked boy was still there, stronger than ever. She hadn’t felt something like that in years, so much so that at the moment, she even doubted it was real, and if it wasn’t just the bliss that she always felt after great intercourse. What if it was real, though? Should she just…go for it? A hint of sadness overtook her, as she thought about what would happen if she came forward to him.

Sure, he had enjoyed her body, but he was a human, a landed noble at that. He would never consider a relationship with a brutish, enormous orc like her, it would make him the laughingstock of the kingdom.

Then again…he was different from the other “civilized” folks. His past relationship with her people proved that. Maybe…she could see where this was going, and if her feelings were real…

She rose up from her position, walking towards the lake’s bank, hoping that a dip in the cold water would wash away all her doubts.

The next morning, Daniel woke up to the feeling of humid grass under the top of his head. As he opened his eyes, he noticed that he was on top of a large bedroll, covered in brushed black hair. He could still smell a hint of the large wild animal this hide had belonged to, which although not unpleasant, was certainly not the smell he was used to. His bedroll, while functional and austere, was certainly finer than this. He however realized that the hair that they had left on the hide was most likely the reason why it felt so comfortable.

Right, he and Zevna had slept together. That was something he wouldn’t have expected to happen three days before.

“Good morning Dan,” he heard a familiar voice say, and he looked up, seeing Zevna standing beside his makeshift bed, already fully clothed, smiling as he looked down at him.

“Get dressed, the others are waiting, we have still a long way to reach the volcano,” she said, tossing his shirt and pants at him.

He looked down, only then realizing that he was completely naked. As he grabbed his pants, he felt the urge to say something.

“…Zevna” he began, “What are we doing about this?”

She groaned “By the spirits, again?” she asked, a slightly annoyed expression in her voice “As I said, there is nothing more to it, it was just sex” She commented, even though she had begun to doubt the truthfulness of her words. “Not a big deal,” she said, more to remove those thoughts from her mind than to remark on her previous sentence.

“R-right, just sex.”

“Are you…starting to like me by any chance?”

He saw his face become the deepest shade of crimson she had ever seen.

“N-no,” he said. Maybe there was something, but she was obviously not sharing his sentiment, and he didn’t want her to have a bad impression of him.

She looked at him for a second. Much to her surprise, him spelling it out loud had stung a little.

“G-good” the orc replied, moving towards the sleeping form of Razor.

“Wake up girl,” she said, caressing the direwolf on her head.

“She stayed up all night to watch for us, poor thing” she clarified, looking at Daniel as the beast opened her eyes, staring at the knight for just a moment, before erupting in a heavy yawn as she rose.

“Good girl. I have a treat for you!” Zevna said, opening up her satchel, grabbing a large piece of dried meat, and offering it to the direwolf, who devoured it whole, the huge tongue soaking her hand completely.

“There you go!” she said, scratching the canine’s chin vigorously as the beast closed her eyes.

He couldn’t help but be amazed at the sight of the orc treating a beast that weighed probably well over a thousand pounds, with teeth the size of kitchen knives, as if it were a little pup.

She immediately noticed his astonished expression. “I’ve had her since she was a few weeks old. She’s one of my closest friends, I’ve never gone anywhere without her.”

“Oh, like me and Thunder,”

“I must say though, she is getting quite a hurdle to take care of…I hope she doesn’t grow that much bigger than this”

He froze, his face curved in an expression of complete bewilderment.

“She-she can get bigger?”

“Yes, wild direwolves are smaller because they are usually poorly fed, having to fight each other for scraps,” she explained “When domesticated, they can reach up to seven and a half feet in height”  she explained.

“A big girl,”

“Yep, like me” she laughed, as Razor turned towards him, her head starting to move towards the young knight slowly. He backed away instinctively, the sight of her large snout approaching while those pale-yellow eyes stared at him was making him really uncomfortable. Her nuzzle stopped mere inches from the knight, sniffing him slowly, as Daniel tried to remain as still as he could.
  “I think she’s starting to take a liking to you. Or maybe she smells my scent on you” Zevna said, smiling, moving towards them. “Come on, touch her!”

“Re-really?” he said, “Isn’t she gonna tear an arm off of me?”

“As long as you treat her well, no” she joked “Now be a fearless knight and come here!”

He approached the direwolf slowly, as he felt the weight of the beast’s gaze, the large yellow eyes staring at him as his hand began to extend towards her.
“E-easy” he muttered, as his glove-covered hand touched the canine’s shoulder, making contact with her thick fur. It didn’t feel different than patting a dog, he thought. A huge, ferocious dog, that he could see swallow a man whole, but still a dog.

“Very good,” the huntress said, as her hand traveled on the animal’s wide neck, until she felt the touch of his glove on top of it.

She felt her cheeks reddening slightly as she looked down at the noble, locking gaze with him.

As she stared into his green eyes, she realized that she was feeling something, something that she had never felt.

Before she could inquire on the nature of this sensation, they felt the direwolf under them shifting abruptly, turning towards a bush on the other side of the meadow they were in.

As they turned in that direction, they could see the leaves starting to move, branches rattling and shifting violently. As they went to grab their weapons, a familiar face suddenly appeared from the thicket, the face of a man sporting a trimmed, black beard.

“Oh, there you are! We were looking for you everywhere” Said Sir Andrew, his lips curled in a strange stiff smile. Daniel looked at him. He knew what that expression on your friend’s face meant.

“What happened, Andrew? ” he said in a serious tone.

“Well, is not something that happened, more like something that we found,”  he replied dryly. “Come, I’ll show you!”

They coasted the lake, rapidly surpassing the now-empty clearing where the other knights had made camp the night before, where the only creature visible was Thunder. After walking more than half a mile, they reached another area of the body of water, where the bank seemed to have partially sunk, creating somewhat of a gentle slide in the muddy terrain. There, a dozen feet from the bank, stood all his companions, forming a circle around something he couldn’t see. As they came closer, Daniel saw that Sir Roger was kneeling down, apparently inspecting something large on the ground.

His curiosity peaked as he caught a glimpse of what the older hunter was examining.

There was a wide indentation in the mud, like a small depression, a few feet deep, but shaped in the form of a central unit from where four branches departed, radially. He slowly approached, before the realization of what he was looking at made his blood freeze.

The ditch was at least three feet deep, nearing fifty feet in length from the base to the tip of the branches, and the central area was at least 25 feet wide. The branches themselves were relatively thin, still wide enough to probably fit a horse there, and around three horses in length. They had an odd shape, ending in a much thinner, tipped portion…

This was a footprint. An enormous, four-toed footprint, made by a creature of colossal size.

He instinctively backed away, scrambling to make as much distance between himself and the ditch as he could.

“The dra-dragon made this” Sir Daniel said, his voice trembling.

“These,” Said Sir Gregory, pointing to the right of him, where an equally massive footprint stood, and then another two, almost two hundred feet behind the others, well beyond where the lake clearing ended. Near those, he could also see a handful of uprooted trees, surely something that the massive appendages had to move out of the way to land.

“Shit,” he thought. The dragon had been there recently, almost right on top of them.

He saw Zevna immediately move to examine the right footprint.

“I’m not an expert in dragon’s footprints” admitted the huntress. “But considering that the mud remains on this one, which is far from the lake, are still a bit wet, I would say that the dragon came here not much before we arrived. Probably to drink.”

Daniel gulped audibly.

Man, how lucky had they been.

He saw Sir Roger rising up from his position, worry visible on his face.

“And that’s not the only bad news… I thought that the orcs were exaggerating, or that they had wrongly estimated its dimension, but now I think they were even a bit conservative. Judging by the size and deepness of these footprints, we are looking at a beast well above four hundred feet in length for several thousands of tons in  weight, probably nearing the 600 feet wingspan”

“But-but that’s more…”

“More than twice the size of an average dragon, yes. No wonder his hunting territory reaches outside of this kingdom,” said Sir Roger. “If we are to trust the signs of burnt wood and the smell of smoke of the other day, this would be a red dragon, the firebreathing variant. Now, red dragons are among the larger ones, but still…” he paused, scratching his head “We are looking at an extraordinary monster. I’ve never seen, or heard about, something like this. I’m sorry, Milord.” The confusion and doubt were visible in the veteran monster hunter’s face.

“Well, if that’s the case, I won’t stay there to witness it” intervened Sir Gregory, “I suggest you all pack your things and prepare to move, quickly, before this damned dragon decides to return while we are unprepared for it.”

The knights convened that that was a sound suggestion, and they started to make their way towards their camp. As they saddled their horses and began to move away from the lakeside, Sir Daniel and Zevna reconvened what they had found the night before, the hunted hare, an obvious sign that someone else was in this forest.

“Hmmm,” said Sir Gregory, “I didn’t see any signs of large parties or camps in the area. And truth be told, this isn’t the first place I would go out hunting, even if the scenery is pleasant.”

“I hope they have not anticipated us,” said Sir Daniel.

“Well, the dragon seems alive and kicking, so to speak, as far as the signs show” the older knight replied, “But I agree with our…guide,” he said, stopping for a second “Getting into contact with them could be wise.”

After riding for another mile or so, something caught the attention of Zevna’s sharp nose, a peculiar scent. That was not good, she thought.

“If they are still alive.” said the huntress in a grim tone, her curiosity making Razor turn toward the direction that the smell came from.

The other riders instinctively followed her, and it took them only a few seconds to start to notice it, a faint hint of something that they immediately recognized as burnt flesh and incinerated wood.

In a couple of minutes, they reached an area where the trees were again sparse, something that resembled a clearing, if not by the fact that the area had been cleared by what looked like a stampede of cows or boars: several trees laid down uprooted, others smashed or broken in half, their branches scattered around or floating in the nearby creek. They could also see the same deep four-toed footprints, one of which was half covered by the two halves of a snapped tree trunk, that continued ahead of them, following a path of similarly destroyed vegetation.

For whatever reason, they decided to follow that path, and as they did, Sir Roger realized that something odd about those tracks. The distance between one set of footprints and the other was larger than what he calculated the step of the dragon would be, as if it wasn’t standing on all fours, but instead on its hind legs.

Before he could voice his doubts to the group, they reached the source of the smell:  

the remains of several burned trees dotted a pretty large clearing, alongside the remains of what looked like a human camp, fragments of torn and burnt tent cloths scattered around, along with at least a couple of dozens of axes, swords and pikes, many of their handles and blades blackened and charred. Looking around, they saw a number of arrows and crossbow bolts sticking out of the nearby trees and the soft ground. They looked like they were of human-making, but Daniel couldn’t recognize the heraldry nor the workmanship of the weapons.

“You were right,” said Daniel to Zevna “Someone other than us was looking to hunt the dragon.”

Zevna’s only answer was a worried glance and a loud gulp.

Whoever they were, there was little doubt about the success of their endeavor: Half a dozen men laid strewn around the clearing, their armor blackened, numerous burns on their flesh, deep, heavy claw marks on the metal and on the unprotected parts of their body, claws that had torn through the skin and meat, leaving the bone exposed.

“But where are the other knights?” asked Sir Geralt. “This many weapons, for six men?”There are much less corpses than weapons here.”

“They probably fled,” answered Sir Daniel. He couldn’t say he blamed them.

His own doubts about this whole endeavor had started to creep up again, he seriously started to think that they weren’t equipped to deal with it.

He looked at his knights: Despite how they were forcing themselves to keep a calm, confident appearance,  he could see how the realization of the true danger that this beast posed had affected them, how wary they were in their motions, their eyes constantly looking at the sky.

He turned towards Zevna. In these weeks, she had seen her maintain her composure, even after she had revealed to him her worries about this mission and her family. In a way, she had become sort of the model for them all, with her determination and level-headedness. This was the first time since she had joined their expedition that Daniel had seen her genuinely afraid, her eyes wide, her grip on her direwolf reins so tight that her fingers had become white.

His eyes moved to Sir Henryk: the poor boy was the most scared of the bunch, constantly looking around with his crossbow at the ready, aiming it in the direction of every rustling he heard, shaking like a leaf.

He was so young, Daniel considered, not even twenty winters old. He didn’t deserve to die here.

Enough, he decided. Next time they camped, he would consult Sir Gregory and Zevna privately, and if they agreed, they would return home. These mountains were dangerous enough even without that hellish spawn, he couldn’t risk the life of his men for his foolhardyness. They will come back, with more manpower, better supplied, more prepared. He would study the books and the reports to obtain more informations on the beasts, and the arcane tomes to try and better understand how to kill such a foe.

He knew that his father wouldn’t let him hear the end of it, but it was the best decision.

He didn’t want to be responsible for these men’s deaths. To leave Andrew’s son without a father. To leave Kendar without a sister. 

Especially now.

In the next two hours, as he thought about the next course of action, they managed to make their way out of the forest, and as they emerged, they saw a large, rocky field, delimited by a series of cliffs, emerging in front of them. In front of them, the Ashen Peak loomed, looking relatively close, the ash-covered highlands at his base clearly visible, although they couldn’t see a way up the mountain.

“Looks like we’re nearing our destination,” commented Sir Gregory “Maybe tomorrow afternoon, we will get to the base of the volcano.”

“It looks like there’s no way to climb that mountain on horseback” intervened Sir Geralt “We need to find a way up”

“We will think about it when we’re there,” said Sir Daniel, his heart heavy. “I think that for the moment, it’s best to find a place to make camp, somewhere out of sight.”

“What do you think of that?” said Sir Henryk, gesturing to a large cliff in the distance, that loomed above the plains, covering a large area under its shadow.

Sir Gregory eyed the ridge.

 “Will do, it looks only a few hours away,” he concurred, “let’s go.”

An hour later, whilst they were crossing a somewhat open ravine, surrounded by large rocks and small ridges, Sir Andrew made his way towards Daniel.

“I know that face,” said the black-haired knight “You’re rethinking this whole endeavor”

Daniel looked at him, a confident smile on Andrew’s face

“I…” he stopped “I can’t lie to you, that’s what I was thinking,”

Andrew crossed his arms over the pommel of his saddle.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not so sure myself. I don’t know what the whole deal of that other hunting party was, how trained and equipped they were, but what we saw is concerning for sure.”

“Yes, it is. As you said the other day, we could be recklessly waltzing to our deaths” replied Daniel

“I must say, there is something that doesn’t sit right with me in this whole thing” commented Sir Andrew “So whatever you decide, I’m with you, and I’ll do my best to convince the others. Bernard and Sir Geralt could be hard to wrestle away from  this quest.”

“Thanks.” said Daniel “I’ve really got to earn their respect in some way.”

“I can understand where they are coming from.” said Andrew “Bernard grew up with the stories of great deeds that his grandfather and uncle did in the Great War, while Geralt is just a landless man-at-arms who has had the luck to marry one of the richest widows of Vernesse. I can see why both of them feel the need to prove themselves and to finally put some meat behind the bullshit that they go around telling to the tavern maidens,” he said, both knights sharing a laugh at his last sentence.

“Speaking of maidens,” he said, changing subject, eyeing Daniel knowingly.

He instinctively backed away from his eyes “Wha-what?”
“So, yesterday you disappeared after dinner, saying that you were looking for “traces”. Then I find you and your guide together, her hand on top of yours,” he said “What should I conclude from this?” he asked, smiling amusingly.

Daniel sighed “Yes, we did…have sex.”

Andrew gave him a pan on the shoulder, laughing heartily.

“Good for you, my friend! I see you haven’t lost your touch!... And it ended there, I presume?”

“Ye-yes, it did. Why do you a-ask?” he answered, trying his best to keep his cool.

“Nothing in particular…just checking…” he chuckled a little “I would love to see the face of your father if you come from this mission hand in hand with her.”

“I said it was nothing”

Andrew looked at him, not fully convinced.

“Whatever is the case…I’m glad you two are finding ways to keep yourself entertained even in this grim scenario. She’s a bit rough around the edges, but she’s certainly better than some of Ann’s friends.”

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by a heavy rumbling sound. As they looked in front of them, they saw a large rock rolling off a ridge, towards the base of the field.

“That’s fine, men,” said Sir Gregory, who was standing a little ways away from the two friends, in front of the column “It’s only a…” BOOOM, another boulder, much closer than the previous one, crashed in front of the old warrior, startling his horse, who pranced violently. Before they could understand what the source of that was, a third rock smashed on the left side of the column, inches from Sir Bernard’s horse, who threw off its rider from its back, making him crash audibly on the rocky terrain.

“AMBUUUSH!” shouted Sir Roger, as they saw various large shapes reveal themselves from their hiding position on the cliffs “GET READY, EVERYONE!” he added, unsheathing his sword.

Rapidly the 8 or so large figures charged down the ridges towards the back of the party, crudely-made clubs in hand: All at least 11 feet tall, grey-skinned, covered in spotted white and grey fur, black, rocky-looking excrescences growing from various parts of their bodies. As they approached them, they could see their large, four-fanged mouths, each of those overgrown canines almost one foot long, and the two thick, twisted black horns growing from their head.

“Rock trolls!” Shouted Sir Roger. Great, thought Daniel, the only kind of troll whose regeneration wasn’t harmed by fire.

As he mentally reviewed his spells for something that could help deal with them, the knights saw a black arrow flying directly over their head, hitting one of the larger trolls squarely in the chest, followed by another one, that planted itself on the beast’s thigh. Turning around, Daviel saw Zevna, bow in hand, who gave him a nod as she nocked a third arrow on her bow, while her mount gained the front of the line swiftly, her fangs bared.

While true, her shots weren’t enough to slow down the charge, and the brutish creatures impacted their column with the force of a battering ram, swinging wildly with their weapons, rapidly putting their line in disarray. Daniel saw that a couple of the horses had been hit particularly hard, knocking down Sir Bernard and Sir Henryk of their saddle

“REGROUP” shouted Sir Gregory, as Sir Bernard stood up, drawing his crossbow and loading a bolt.

 “QUICKLY, THE FROST VIALS!” suggested the young knight, quickly regaining his footing before grabbing a bluish vial from his pouch, throwing it on the side of the closest troll, who yelled in pain as a large frost burn appeared on its skin, ice coalescing around it.  “Target the frozen parts!” intervened Sir Roger.

Daniel quickly rode towards the creature, sword in hand, stabbing and slashing the spot, dark reddish liquid pouring from the wound.

He glanced around. Despite the violence of the first impact, it had only taken a couple of moments for his knights to recover from the surprise assault, and now they were charging the trolls, sword in hand. He could see how deftly the experienced warrior, most still on horseback, managed to dodge the big, lumbering hits from the behemoths, spraying the alchemical vials on the creature’s skin before slicing the affected areas, dashing away their barrel-sized clubs. In the midst of them was the grey form of Razor, darting from one troll to the other, trying her best to bite and knock down the monsters while Zevna unleashed arrow after arrow from the back of the animal.

However, giantkins were known to be formidable melee fighters, and having to take them basically one in one was anything but easy. He quickly noticed how the wounds made in areas unaffected by the frost rapidly regenerated, and their alchemist’s frost reserves were dwindling.

After a few minutes of intense fight, Sir Daniel could see how exhaustion was beginning to show on his companion, their armor battered and bent inward from the few club strikes that had hit, and blood pouring from the mouths of Andrew and Geralt. After a heavy hit on the shoulder, the direwolf had thrown Zevna off, and he noticed the canine limping on its left front leg, while two of the giants cornered her and her rider against an enormous boulder.

The only one that was giving the creatures a run for their money was Sir Roger, having almost bested one troll, but he could see how another troll, having knocked Bernard unconscious, was making its way towards him.

As he went to shout “RETREAT!”, the keg-sized head of a club hit Thunder right in the shoulder, knocking him down and making Daniel fall right on his feet, his sword knocked out of his hand. He turned around just in time to see the largest of the trolls, almost as tall as a two-story building, made his way towards him, raising its club above its head, preparing to smash the young knight into a pulp.

As he saw his life flashing before his eyes, every escape cut off from him, he heard a loud yell coming from its left, followed by a whistle:

“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Shouted Zevna, as an arrow hit the troll squarely on its upper lip, making him yell in pain and smash the club on the ground blindly, missing Daniel only by a couple of inches. Before the colossus could regain his footing, a large grey mass of fur jumped upon its right arm, clawing and biting at the troll’s skin, in an attempt to damage the troll and make it drop its weapon, while the orc dropped her bow on the ground, grabbing two jagged handaxes.

However, as much as Razor tried, the thick, stone-like hide of the troll was impossible to penetrate for her teeth, and the giantkin, after the initial surprise,  simply shoved the direwolf off of it with a mighty push, before grabbing the animal in mid-air, sinking its long, hooked canines in the animal’s thigh, tearing off a large chunk of flesh.
Daniel, who had taken advantage of the momentary distraction to slip away and recover his sword, heard a pained yowl as Razor was thrown on a rock violently, falling unconscious as she hit the ground. He himself was just recovering his footing when a large meaty head grabbed him by the ankle, lifting him effortlessly, as he found himself looking at the face of the troll, its blood-stained mouth opening in a menacing growl.

His eyes darted around nervously, seeing in the corner of his eye how the other four trolls surrounded his companions, Zevna standing right in front of her mount, screaming bloody murder as tears ran down her face.

The troll threw his captive on the ground violently, a shard of jagged rock penetrating deep into its abdomen; He closed his eyes, Daniel prayed to the gods, prayed that his companion would forgive him, prayed that Zevna would, until they all heard something, a thunderous roar reverberating through the field.
Mustering his last remaining forces, he looked up, as a huge, impossibly large shadow blotted out the sun.

“Shit.” was the only thought which crossed the knight’s mind, as consciousness left him.