Troll Hunting

The nigh in unison clopping of the horses we were riding entered my ears as I was thinking about what was about to happen while trying to remember the so-called fairy tales I'd read in the Maesters personal library.

Trolls.

They came in all shapes and sizes and kinds. You had humanoid Trolls with athletic figures and slightly below average height - these were Forest Trolls. Then you had somewhat humanoid Trolls with fat and overweight physiques, with massively above human average height - these were Hill Trolls. There were a few more but those were rare types, like Sea Trolls and Cave Trolls. The chances of me meeting them above ground were close to nil.

I'd asked Jaime about which type we were hunting and he smiled as he answered 'You'll find out soon enough, nephew~' - I wasn't very receptive of such an answer and nearly gut punched him.

But, I held myself back, and just moved my attention to other things. Trying to get information from my uncle when he enters that type of mood is damn near impossible and without actual torture, I'm pretty sure his lips would stay sealed.

What I thought about instead were the strengths and weaknesses of the two most common Trolls.

Forest Trolls were quick and primarily used bows and long range weapons. The only problem with this strategy was how bad of a match-up they were for Westerosi Knights. A Knights heavy metal armor was something the primitive arrows and bows were unable to penetrate, let alone the wooden spears and javelins sometimes thrown. Only the odd lucky shot would find a gap. So, strength: Quick. And weakness: Weapons unable to get through Knight-level armor.

Hill Trolls, however, were the opposite. They were slow but incredibly strong and despite being a few feet shorter than Giants, they were equally as strong due to their naturally muscular builds. They usually used clubs made from thick tree branches or smaller tree trunks. So, strengths: incredibly high strength, good at close quarters combat and hard to injure due to their innate durability. Weaknesses: Slow and dumb - they're easy to trick or scare off if you use superior numbers and fire.

If we encounter Forest Trolls, we'll probably run them down on our horses or get off our mounts and run them down on foot. Once we've rushed them and gotten close enough, a one-sided slaughter would begin.

With Hill Trolls, however, two thirds of us would probably get off our horses and enter a formation while the last third of the Kingsguard would stay on their horses. The people on the ground would keep whittling away at it while the ones on horses would ride around and throw pieces of wood set on fire at it to keep it distracted. Even with that strategy and only occasionally stepping in to attack, we'd most likely lose half the men here to take down a single Hill Troll. Good thing they live solitary lives, I guess.

As you can see, the more forgiving opponent would be Forest Trolls. Despite living in tribes, they're much easier to take on than a singular Hill Troll.

And, from the well-wooded area we were beginning to enter, I was putting my money on us subjugating a Forest Troll tribe. I wasn't exactly excited about the prospect of slaughter...but that was the way of this world. The weak get culled by the strong - a sad but universal truth in this cruel place called Westeros.

"Got the pre-battle jitters, nephew?" I heard Jaime's muffled voice coming from behind his Lion-like helmet and I could easily imagine the cat-like smirk he must be wearing underneath the gold colored helmet.

Shaking my head, I answered through my own helmet, "No. Just thinking about what type of Troll we're going up against. Though, please forgive me, I didn't even know Trolls existed until you brought them up, uncle."

"Really?" he questioned, seeming genuinely surprised, "Why? There are innumerable stories in the Maester's library."

...You realize what you just said, right? 'Stories'. Not 'books' or 'informative literature' but instead 'stories'. How was I supposed to know they were real and not just fairy tales, which they were bloody styled after?!

Instead of voicing my real opinion, I just shrugged under the stylized metal armor I was wearing, "I must've not seen them when I was studying something more useful, like medicine and the healing arts," I joked, smirking underneath my helmet as I glanced over at Jaime who was riding a few feet away from me.

"Listen here, nephew," Jaime spoke with a rare serious tone, "There's nothing more important in this world than learning how to deal with monsters. Whether they're Trolls, Giants or Humans. Remember that, for it will serve you greatly in a world like ours," he said, giving some actually decent advice. So decent, in fact, I resolved myself to tackle the Maester's library once more when I returned from this subjugation. Instead of looking at those books as stories, I'd learn from them.

I was looking my memory was pretty good otherwise I wouldn't even know the basics about Trolls.

"Thank you for the advice, uncle," I nodded in his direction and he waved a gauntleted hand at me in reply, as if to say 'Don't mind it'.

Dropping his hand back down to the reins of his white horse, his muffled voice spoke up once more, "Have you figured out what type of Troll we're here for then, nephew?" he asked, obviously just trying to pass the time.

"Most likely Forest Trolls--" I was cut off by my own actions.

As I said 'Forest Trolls', I saw a blur coming from the corner of my vision. My hand came up and grabbed the blur, crunching down on it with inhuman force, splintering it and stopping it at the same time.

It was a sharpened wooden javelin.

Everything had gone quiet for a few seconds and then everyone exploded into action, "Forest Trolls to the left! Charge them!" Jaime roared, his lion helmet doing nothing to muffle his voice anymore.

The dozen of so guards around me disembarked their horses as more javelins began to fly at us alongside arrows and small rocks flung by slings, most likely. Each of these things hit center mass of most Knights and bounced off the sturdy armor they were wearing. Meanwhile, I felt a pool of cold sweat collecting on my back as I realized where that first javelin had been traveling - it was heading straight for the opening in my armor around my neck.

If it hadn't been for my enhanced reflexes...I'd be dead. Or at the very least incredibly injured. Maybe even crippled depending on where the javelin hit - if it sliced over the front, I might've been turned into a mute.

My worries, however, were fleeting as I burst into action.

I swung my leg over my horses head and jumped off the saddle, turning only briefly to tear my warhammer from the back of the saddle. With my weapon in hand, I shot off in a sprint.

Despite the Knights having a head-start on me and having longer strides, my explosive power and overall athleticism allowed me to easily catch up to them and even surpass a few of them. The only one keeping pace with me being Jaime. We broke through the tree line and instantly we saw two dozen purple humanoids.

They were about my height, so around 1.7m tall and there seemed to be no deviation in terms of height across all 24 of them. They were all the exact same height.

The only difference between all of them was hair length, whether they had a beard or not and some of them were tattooed in blue tribal tattoos. Their arms also seemed to be a differing aspect between themselves - each of them had different lengths of arms. Some had arms only slightly longer than a human the same size as them, while others had arms that easily reached their knee area.

Alas, such thoughts were put to rest as the Forest Trolls turned and ran, some of them even dropping their weapons as they turned tail and bolted away.

They were quick, and if they'd ran earlier, we'd have no chance of catching up to them. But our momentum and the fact we were already running at the peak of our sprint meant by the time they'd really gotten into a run, the line of Knights had already lifted their weapons and hacked down with them.

Instantly, around six of the Forest Trolls were cleaved in two or severely injured. I hesitated for a second, feeling a bit off with killing another human-like being...but I steeled myself and one-handed my heavy maul into the back of a Trolls head.

A wet squelch echoed into my ears as the purple skin gave way to blue blood, bone and brain tissue. The flesh exploded outward as I drove the hammer even deeper. The entire head was practically exploded by the size of the hammer head which was nearly bigger than the Troll's head. The result was a squashed Troll head and my upper armor being covered in blue blood.

My blood began to rush through my ears and my body worked on muscle memory alone - all the training I'd done against those practice dummies. All the drills I'd performed per Jaime's and the other instructor's instructions.

All of it was being put to use as I took another step forward, pulling my hammer from the Troll corpse and lifting it to push away a weak stab by one of the Trolls that had stayed behind. The wooden spear screeched across one of my pauldrons in a glancing blow but I ignored it and brought the metal bottom of my maul round and slammed it into the Trolls face. The Troll recoiled and I slammed a second strike into it's center mass, the dense hammer head cracking bone and mauling flesh as the Troll flew back a few feet, dead.

I could only hear the sound of my blood rushing through my veins and the sound of my heart as I blocked a wooden club with the pole of my maul. I didn't even need to counter attack as a longsword flicked out and cut the Troll's head clean off.

I saw a flicker of gold from the corner of my eye, and that told me all I needed to know - my uncle was the owner of that longsword.

The Knights, my uncle and I cut through the Forest Trolls like a hot knife through butter - and the Trolls could see this deadly efficiency.

Which is why the remaining nine all put their everything into running.

"Follow the little Troll bastards!" Jaime roared, the Knights following with shouts of their own as they picked up speed into running once more. I followed suit and began to run as well, my heavy breaths echoing inside my own helmet. Though not from exhaustion - they were from the adrenaline flooding through my body and inciting some kind of reaction inside me. It was like my body was rearing up for combat by trying to get as much oxygen inside of me as possible.

Far from exhausted, I felt like my limbs were exploding with energy. My maul seemed weightless, as did my armor. As such, I shot forward with explosive speed. Even with my shorter strides, I was at the front of the pack, my Uncle and two other Knights following closely behind.

This time, however, the speed of the Forest Trolls was showing. They'd already been running, so their speed at already peaked whilst ours was still climbing.

Which meant they were outpacing us.

Yet we didn't lose sight of them and around 50 or so feet, they stopped. Our speed slowed also as we settled into a formation. I narrowed my eyes at them stopping - they hadn't run out of breath, nor were there any visible reinforcements where they had stopped. For what reason had they stopped?

Just the thought of it inspired an ominous feeling inside my gut. My body filled with tension, and it was the same for every single other Knight with me.

The line of Knights in front of me, led by Jaime, slowly stepped forward, weapons at the ready.

And that's when I saw it.

3m tall, a pot belly, arms thicker than my torso and heavily corded in muscle. It looked like a hairless Gorilla, except it's nose was bulbous and covered in pock marks and a face that was covered in warts. It's beady eyes looked right at the formation from the side, it's brown and green body being perfectly merged with the surrounding trees. It's crooked teeth were spread in a vicious smile and it quickly began to charge.

The shield bearers at the front of the formation didn't even see it coming.

"HILL TROLL TO THE LEFT!" I yelled, calling attention from all the other Knights as the pivoted to the left. The ones nearest to it, however...they only saw it's club-like fist before they were killed.

Their metal armor was instantly crushed into them and whatever openings were in their armor began to pour with blood. It was a gruesome sight, but one the other Knights seemed to have seen before as they only hesitated for a moment before they retreated backward into a different formation that was a half-circle that surrounding the approaching Hill Troll.

"Get the fire ready!" Jaime shouted, two of the outermost shield bearers breaking off from the semi-circle as they began picking up sticks and covering them in cloth they pulled from the pouches at their sides before covering them further in a tar-like sludge. While they did this, Jaime and the others weren't just standing still, "Remember! Only half-arse the cuts and keep it from running! Surround it!"

The semi-circle began to spread out around the Hill Troll as it's walnut-sized brain began to overheat as it spun around on it's feet, trying to keep it's eyes on all the Knights.

With it's back turned, one of the Knights behind it took his longsword and sliced it across the back of it's legs. Like Jaime had said, he didn't full commit to the attack and just did enough to get it's attention. The Troll spun around and tried to hit the Knight but said Knight moved with experienced movements as he stepped just out of range of the Troll's club fist.

And that's how it began - the Knights behind the Hill Troll would cut into it, with the Knights to it's sides sometimes stepping in to deliver their own strikes whenever it seemed to be understanding the pattern.

Of course all of these cuts were superficial and only served to piss off the giant Troll but that's what they wanted. Pissing it off kept it there, in their formation. If they really scared it, it'd just charge off and there'd be nothing they could do.

I was just staying out of the way and watching. If I stepped in right now, I'd no doubt fuck up their teamwork. It'd lead to someone's death - and for what? The glory of fighting a Hill Troll?

I'd rather wait for my chance.

I did turn to see what the Forest Trolls were doing but they'd already scuttled off after leading us into their trap. Whether they had a deal with the Hill Troll or whether they just led us into it's territory it didn't matter. Forest Trolls were known cowardly beings - they wouldn't be found around this area until their stupidity allowed them to forget what happened to the ones who died. Which meant a successful subjugation of those Trolls.

Leaving us with one last task: Taking out the Hill Troll. They were dumb but insanely territorial. If we left it here, it'd kill any human it saw that entered it's territory - which is especially bad seeing as this place is quite close to one of the main roads around King's Landing.

Translation? A lot of death could happen if we leave it here.

""Ready!"" Two shouts came from the Knights covering the sticks in cloth and some kind of (presumably) flammable sludge. They hoisted up their first covered stick and clicked some sort of fire starter box right next to the sludge which burst into flames when the sparks landed on the reddish black sludge.

Jaime, having just slashed into the Hill Troll's back, leaving a particular bloody gash that bled red blood like that of a human's, turned and gave a single with his free hand.

With that signal, the two Knights threw the sticks that were now on fire at the Troll.

Said Troll saw the fire and the angry snarl on it's face quickly faded and turned into a fearful look as it tried to slap the incoming projectiles away. It missed. Which meant the sticks continued flying until they hit the Troll's skin, where a weird thing happened - the skin instantly ignited. Like it was incredibly flammable or something.

The Troll screamed a roar through it's throat, slapping it's massive hand against it's body, trying to put out the fire.

It couldn't.

The fire spread across it's upper body and it's screams picked up in intensity as it flailed it's arms around, partly trying to suffocate the fire on it's body and partly trying to hit the Knights that were beginning to really start slashing into it.

Except I quickly saw a problem with what they were doing - they weren't doing any meaningful damage. All they were doing is cutting up it's legs and lower torso. The fact it's surviving despite being covered in flames and still has the energy to flail about speaks volumes about it's vitality.

The smell of roasting flesh filled the air and I looked over to Jaime who'd pulled back and let the other Knights handle the Troll. I walked over to him and shouted over the sound of the nearby Troll roaring, "Uncle, this is taking too long. Pull the Knights back and I can give you an opening to take out the Troll with a single slash."

He froze before looking to me. He flicked up his helmet's visor and looked at me with oddly serious green eyes, "And your sure you can do that?"

"Can I do it?" I questioned before slapping my chest, "Brute strength is my best aspect. Besides, I have my hammer with me, so it'll hardly be the same as what happened with the ironwood dummies, uncle," I replied and the man kept his eye on me before he sighed.

"...Just play it safe, nephew. If the opening doesn't arrive, we can still whittle down the Troll," he shook his head, "The Gods know your mother will skin me alive if you die under my watch."

Chuckling at his worries, I held my maul, the head covered in drying blue blood and gore as I got ready to charge.

I was confident I could do it. That wasn't arrogance or hubris speaking either. It was one thing to make a shitty bet and lose it - it was another thing to overhype your own abilities and get killed because of it. I'm a thrill-seeker but I was never dumb about it. I push myself to my limits, sure, but I never try and do things I know I can't do. Besides making stupid bets. Fortunately, this wasn't a bet. It was a fight.

And I'm pretty confident in what I can do when I fully let loose.

"Make space! Pull back and get more fire ready!" Jaime bellowed his new orders and despite seeming somewhat confused by the orders, the Knights pulled back and made space for me. I didn't need to be told twice when my uncle nodded towards my direction.

I burst into action, my foot digging into the ground and kicking up dirt as I blurred across the ground, eating up the space between me and the Troll.

I paused my running for a brief second, a club-like hand passing by the space right in front of my face. The air burst through the slit visor for my helmet and battered against my eyes but I refused to blink as I pushed my focus to the max.

The world seemed to slow down and I only seemed to pick up in speed as I stepped into my hammers range. I put my leading foot forward, slamming it into the ground and slowing my momentum. I took the remaining momentum and pulled back my hammer and flexed my muscles to their maximum.

Muscles eight times denser than the norm. The ability to use said muscles to 100% of their capabilities. Do you know what you get when you put those two things together?

A thunderous blow. One that no humans should be capable of making.

But I could.

I swung forward and the heavy maul's head blurred through the air, nothing but a shiny metal blur with a hint of blue that was flying off of it due to air resistance. The hammer head struck through the air like an actual lightning bolt and when it hit the Troll's knee, the sound was exactly like that of a thunderclap, except said thunderclap was followed by the crunch of breaking bone and the squelching of flesh being crushed.

The Troll fell to it's knee, it's pain-filled roar picking up in intensity even further. I, with the leftover momentum, pivoted around the Troll and came to a stop facing the Troll just in time to see Jaime slice through the Troll's neck that was just in reach for him now that it was kneeling.

The pain-filled roars stopped. What remained was a choked gurgling.

And then the Troll fell to the side, dead.

...Damn, that was actually pretty fun. I should get Jaime to take me on these subjugations more often!