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Veryadan could see he’d gotten a number of good blows in at the Troll. The creature was bleeding both from the cuts from his blade and from the places where the arrows had imbedded. Only one of the Troll’s hammer blows had come near him. It had glanced off his left arm as he’d jumped away from it, leaving the arm numb from the elbow down, but still intact – no bones broken.
He saw the horses running wildly away from the second Troll and heard the loud sickening thuds and the scream as one of them plunged over the side. The Trolls had joined forces, then, their new objective seeming to be Aidwain. Veryadan turned, intending to stand together with his companion. Running quickly round the horse marauding Troll, he aimed a blow at the back of the creature’s knee. As the Troll raised his arm to deliver a blow with his club, Veryadan brought the point of his blade up, intending to bury it in the vulnerable area between the scales that protected the creature’s armpit. He dodged in quickly toward the Troll, the tip of his blade pushing in against the tough hide.
The searing pain came as a surprise. Veryadan’s breath came in gasps as he sought to master it. The lone Orc had circled round him, and arcing his jagged blade in a two handed grip cut the Ranger deeply on his flank. Aidwain had by this time brought down the Orc with a deeply driven arrow. Veryadan’s sword slipped from his grasp as he clutched his bleeding side. He staggered back from the Troll whose leering face now looked down on him with a sort of feral glee. The foul creature swept his club round about, catching Veryadan hard on his upper arm. The force of the brutal blow threw the Ranger a short ways away, his body landing in a crumpled, bloodied heap on the rock strewn ground.
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