A Warlock's Ascent

With a group consisting of 6 people, including himself, Igor set off towards the back bridge, he and his men were riding horses, thus it took them around 2 hours to reach their destination. After reaching their destination, they tied the horses to nearby trees and then started getting to work.

Igor then turned towards Alisha, a brown skin Indo-American woman in her 20s. "Alisha, you are up," Igor commanded. She instantly sat down and used her skill Owl familiar to check the surrounding.

While Brook, a white skin man in his 30s handed started handing everyone, 'smell me not powder', a special alchemic powder that suppresses body odor, as the trolls have a very good sense of smell, they would be able to avoid being detected by this powder.

Everyone started rubbing powder on them, Ali, a very young hulking man, turned towards Igor. "So how is the city lord manor treating you nowadays?"

Igor shrugged. "It is fine. I mean it has its perks, but still, it is a drag. Always being careful is getting on my nerves these days."

Brook, couldn't help but make a face at his words, with his fake British accent, he snarled at Igor."Oh really? How frustrating is it, your majesty? Do lamington and tea doesn't suit your sensitives taste buds?"

Igor raised his eyebrow. "Lamingtons?."

Dropping the accent Brook nodded his head, seeing the clueless face of Igor, he added "Yeah, lamington… Do you not know what they are? They are pretty famous back in the U.K"

"I am not from the U.K," Igor said while patting his shoulders.

Till then Alisha have scouted the perimeter, she stood up and everyone started eagerly waiting for her answer. "There are 8 trolls, lazing around the back bridge. No other monster in the vicinity, and there is a massacre around 400 m due south from here, so the trolls are well fed."

Igor nodded his head. "Good job, Alisha," he said, then put his hand on her bare shoulder and started rubbing while staring into her eyes.

His hands lingered on her shoulders for some time, while she on the other hand smirked at his advances, everyone noticed it, but no one pointed it out. Igor was a man with a certain taste, they have all known his nature, but they didn't obstruct him from doing anything, after all, he was their boss.

"Let's get going then," Adaku, caramel color beauty in her late 20s, chimed in, and deliberately came between Alisha and Igor. As the only other female member of their group, she could not let Alisha steal her spotlight, so as she came to Igor, she grabbed his hand and squished it between her ample bosom, and dragged him away.

Both Alisha and Adaku were pretty women, the men of the group were jealous of Igor who had tasted their bodies, but they didn't dare to ogle, they Igor's playthings, and he was very sensitive about his playthings…

After everyone was ready, they started moving in. Igor was the magician of the group, so he stayed way behind, while the rest of them started moving toward their first targets. Their plan was simple, Igor would create an opportunity for them, and then they will finish the job.

They started with the troll which was furthest away from the main herd, Igor had already a Silence spell on his teammates, because of which the troll never heard them coming towards it. As everyone was in position he casted a 'trance spell' on the monster.

The spell worked its wonders, the troll got into a trance, and because of the spell, the eyes of the trolls were covered in darkness. Its body became numb with its senses. It is then the heavy hitter of their group, Ali, and his twin brother Jamal, threw spears at the troll, the poor thing fell on the floor, bellowing from pain, while Alisha and Brook maintained a barrier around the troll, which didn't let his screams to be heard by the other members of its herd.

Adaku, who was proficient with a bow and arrow shot a few arrows at the mouth of the troll, they exploded after being stuck there for a few moments. The head of the troll exploded and thus killed it permanently.

After they were done, Alisha and Brook maintained their position, while others went to its corpse and started spraying some 'smell me not powder' around, trying to suppress the smell of the blood of the dead troll.

After they were done, they moved on to the next, killing it as well with the same proficiency as the first one. It is only after killing 3 of the trolls, they faced the first hurdle in their hunt. Five of the remaining trolls were hurdled around one another, with no intention of moving around.

They cannot take on 5 trolls head-on, so they started devising a plan to split them, but that would be particularly hard. Trolls are not that stupid creatures, they have some amount of intelligence, so it would not be easy to split them apart without getting other trolls to put their guard up…

"We can cause an explosion, far away from here, that would get the trolls going," Brook suggested.

"If we do that, then who would go? Trolls are faster, we would need someone who could at least outrun them." Alisha added.

"That means all the magicians of the group are out," Igor mumbled.

He then started thinking about what to do, if they were to follow this plan, then Alisha, Brook and he were out, they were the magicians of the group with no physical advantage. They cannot use Ali and Jamal, because they are the main physical damage dealer.

That only leaves Adaku, she may be a good archer with good skills, but she was fast enough to outrun the trolls. Also, he had invested a lot of skills from the city lord's manor treasury on her, so he could not send her at such a risky operation like that, at least not till he had played enough with her.

As he faced this dilemma, he didn't know what else to do, while their group debated on what to do or what not to do, they noticed that one of the 5 trolls have wandered around the forest and had come across the dead carcass of its friends.