A frustrated hero

Troll

We arrived at the city where we would do the mission. There were hundreds of adventurers everywhere. It was impossible to walk calmly.

Seeing the situation, Alfred did not hesitate to look for an alternative so as not to get lost among us.

-Let's buy something to identify ourselves.

We were all tired, we had traveled all night and we were in too uncomfortable positions, but we had to go on, we needed to do things fast.

My new companions were all human, except for our leader and one other person who apparently was new like me. Each one was wearing different armor and carrying different weapons, swords, knives, daggers. There were two young archers also their bows were quite large.

We walked on and on and stopped at the first store we saw. The elf bought some red cloth that he cut with a dagger and gave a piece to each of us.

-He said, "Put them on any part of your body, but make sure you can see that you are wearing them.

No one refused, everyone did, but in my case I put it on my hand, for comfort. The clothes I was wearing consisted of a pair of tights, a shirt and a vest. It seemed a little uncomfortable, and I thought it was the best place.

The rest of my companions put it on their arms and legs. When everyone had put on the cloth. Alfred spoke to us.

-Ready...I think we can go to the dungeon.

-Wait...you know we are tired?

-Yes...I know, but there are a lot of people. If they explore the whole dungeon we could be left with nothing. Would you prefer that?

The man did not hesitate to listen to Alfred's answer and remained silent.

Alfred did not hesitate to take us to the dungeon. And just as he had said there were many people everywhere, some hesitant to enter that place, but we did not stop to look, we just tried to enter there without asking anything. We entered through the main entrance which looked totally dark.

[...]

The floor and walls were made of rock, but there was a kind of dampness that was too dangerous.

The dungeon was completely dark, so Alfred, illuminated the whole place with his magic. We were in a kind of corridor with no end, luckily there were no monsters or anything like that, however I drew my sword to avoid any surprises.

Footsteps could be heard in several places, but no one was scared. Everyone was attentive to any strange movement. We started to notice some moisture on the wall that was causing some puddles. We didn't pay much attention to it, but as we moved forward we could see how the water began to gather and a small stream of water started to flow deep into the dungeon.

Alfred looked a bit anxious. We were all worried that there were dangerous animals or monsters in the water. We didn't know whether to continue walking or turn back towards another entrance, but one of my companions gave his opinion of what was going on.

-What are they afraid of? This is a dungeon. Thousands of traps and a reward. If you can't swim, don't continue. 

He began to walk in the water without hesitation. I was a little hesitant. I knew how to swim, but I was too afraid of running into something unwanted, but the rest of my companions followed him. Until I was the last of them all and I was forced to follow them.

[...]

We walked about 5 kilometers and the water got up to my hips and I started to feel a little dizzy. The place started to smell like seafood. So I was on the lookout, I knew something was going to show up at any moment.

Alfred's lighting wasn't the best, but at least we could see where we were walking, but we had been like this for a long time, several of my companions started to get annoyed and felt like going back, but to our bad luck. Something began to move in the water. 

One of the adventurers did not hesitate to stab the animal, but it was the worst thing he did.

Several creatures began to appear attracted by the smell of blood. 

We all tried to move away from that place and avoid being attacked by those creatures. However, several of them jumped on us. 

Alfred tried to do some kind of magic, but even he was wounded in one of his hands. From one moment to the next he lost his composure. His pointed ears twitched to both sides showing his annoyance. He impulsively decided to do something. He closed his eyes and swung his staff. Out of nowhere the water dried up and we could see what creatures were attacking us.

They were blue fish with quite sharp teeth. They seemed very aggressive, even though they were in a dry place they wanted to keep attacking us.

-Are they going to stay?" shouted the elf. Without hesitation, he continued walking as if nothing had happened.

I was the first to move forward, I did not give much importance to what had happened. I just wanted to finish that mission and buy things with the money I would earn.

I looked back and several of my companions looked annoyed. They didn't seem to want to continue and the oldest adventurer decided to speak up.

-Hey Alfred. I think we're leaving.

-You'll be in deepest darkness. So fare you well," said the elf.

He was obliged to follow them, but it was preferable to be with him than to be in a place where nothing could be seen.

They all reluctantly followed him from afar, they seemed to want to beat our leader, but they knew that as long as we were here, we depended on him. We depended on him.

I became very thoughtful and late to keep a little calmer, since we were not with our bodies in the water and we could move freely.

[...]

Time seemed to pass slowly and even I wanted to return from that place. There seemed to be nothing, the road we were traveling was eternal.

-Let's rest for a few minutes," said the elf.

-Are you tired already?" commented the same older adventurer.

-No, we arrived at the entrance of another strange place. It seems that there are some very intelligent living creatures. They can be dangerous, so let's rest for an hour here. 

-You know, several of us were wounded. It's going to be a little hard for us to fight.

-I know, but if I use my magic to heal them. I'll have trouble in the fight. Almost all of us suffered considerable injuries to our bodies. 

-Ok, we get it, well hopefully it's worth what's in this place.

While they were talking I sat down on the floor. I ended up lying down as if I wanted to sleep. I was a little sleepy from the trip and from all the walking we had to do in this place. I closed my eyes for a few minutes trying to get some rest, but unfortunately I fell asleep. I thought about what I would find in that place.

[...]

I woke up shortly after by the screams of my companions. A strange creature was attacking us.

It was a rather strange monster, it had the hands of a crab and the face of a human. Its pincers were hard to break. The swordsmen in my group were somewhat desperate at that moment. None of them knew what to do. They were attacking him with their weapons and he did not move, nor did he flinch in the face of our efforts.

I got up from the ground and took my sword. I didn't hesitate for a second to fight, but when I tried to hit him I felt a tingling in my hand at the moment of impact. I was a little scared. It was like a warning from my sword.

Probably that monster was too strong for someone like me. I felt very inferior to that monster. A strange coldness ran through my whole body.

Alfred, seeing that we were being humiliated by that creature, did something strange with his magic and disintegrated it.

He gave us a sample of his power and why he was so confident. 

-Will you stay here?" he said sarcastically, and made a gesture with his white hair.

His words were quite curious, he was inviting us to follow, even though he probably knew it would be like this for the rest of the dungeon.

One by one we all tried to calm down a bit. We were already a bit over what had happened to us. The situation we had experienced left us quite worried. Only Alfred had the level for this dungeon. The rest of us were just a hindrance. I totally regretted agreeing to join this group.

[...]

We continued to walk through the various paths of this dungeon. Until we came to a place that seemed to be the end. This was some kind of large cave where there were remains of monsters and humans everywhere. Most of us were a bit scared to be there. 

I moved a little closer to Alfred to feel calmer. It was too disturbing to be in such a place.

The elf started looking at the ceiling and began to speak.

-I think that up there is what we were looking for.

I looked up and saw that there were dozens of sparkling stones. They looked like diamonds.

-It's dangerous, the dungeon could collapse.

I know, but nobody wants to leave empty-handed. Everyone will be annoyed with me, I'm just going to go down a bit.

I moved a little bit away from there and Alfred moved his arm so that we all moved away from that area. Out of nowhere the roof started to fall down a little bit. Rocks and blue diamonds started falling on the floor. I was a little scared because it could collapse the whole structure and most likely we could not survive it, not even with the power of the elf.

There was a moment when the rocks from the ceiling started to fall too much, my fears were starting to come true, but luckily it stopped in a moment. However, to our bad luck, footsteps began to be heard from far away. 

All my companions looked fearfully at the tunnel through which we had passed. We were totally surprised when we saw a strange troll with a sledgehammer in his hand. It became clear to us who had killed the people we found in that place.

No one even dared to go towards him. Luckily we had archers and they attacked him without hesitation, but their arrows were useless, the skin of that creature was as hard as a rock, they did not even make a scratch.

I thought about drawing my sword, but I remembered what had happened to me earlier. I didn't have the level to face him, our only hope was our leader. I tried to look at him, but I remained cold. Alfred was much more terrified than we were, his hands were shaking and he looked like he was in shock.

I felt very disturbed. Again I was on edge, I didn't know if we would get out of here alive.

The troll did not hesitate to attack us when he saw us, he went to where we were and hit us with his mallet. We were seriously wounded. Several of my companions died from the impact. My hand was broken in two parts. I could not lift it. The only thing that saved me from dying was that I put my sword in front of me and it took the full impact.

I saw how that creature attacked the rest of my companions who ran away when they saw what was happening.

Alfred was still in shock not knowing what to do. 

I got up from the floor and spoke to him.

-Are you going to stay there?

-There is nothing to do against him, he is not a normal troll. Fire won't do anything to him, and his skin is hard to break.

-But his eyes are not...

-You think he's stupid enough to let us blind him," said the elf.

-Where is that confidence you showed for so long?

He looked too disturbed to answer me.

-I thought of collapsing the roof, but our comrades," he said. There is only one left alive. The others were already dead, no one else in the group was moving.

It was a very sad scene, some were too bad. Their heads were somewhat bruised and their limbs were mangled. There were only ten of them there, but there was only one alive. He had both legs broken. He was moaning in pain and couldn't seem to hold on.

Alfred with his magic healed both of us, but not completely, we were still in pain.

-Well... I guess you'll have to drag him.

He took off the green cloak he was wearing and handed it to us.

-It's not much, but help to get him out...get away from here...when the troll

 comes back and knocks the place down a bit...take some diamonds, we're not leaving here with nothing.

Me and my partner decided to listen to him and picked up from the ground some diamonds that had fallen, we tried to 

We tried to gather more than two dozen of them, but the creature didn't give us time. He came back completely bloody, it was not difficult to imagine what had happened. He killed the rest of my group. The sight of him was too terrifying.

The elf looked too scared, but he decided to collapse the whole structure including the area where he was without hesitation. All those rocks and diamonds fell on them. Everything went dark, my partner and I didn't know what to do. We were both completely lost.

We spent several minutes in a daze. Until the light came back again. Alfred got up from there and walked towards us.

-You're going to have to drag us both. I can't walk anymore. 

I can't do magic. I'm too hurt I can't concentrate.

He collapsed in front of us and didn't move anymore.

-Well, it's your turn to walk. Start now or we'll never get out of here," said my partner.

I was a bit annoyed, my arm still hurt and I had to drag two people all over this place.

My partner gave me some kind of leash so I could pull the cape more comfortably. I decided to accept my mission and took the leash and tried to get out of the place. When I tried to leave as fast as I could, I felt that both of them were very thoughtful, but I could handle them and I started to walk slowly through that tunnel, not knowing if I could get out of there with them.