Victor was having a crappy day, not only had his boss chewed him out at work for helping a few of the new employees instead of attending one of his pointless meetings. He’d also had the terrible luck of getting a flat tire while driving to his parent’s house for his little sister’s birthday and the cherry on top of it all his battery died so now, he was waiting for his tow truck in the cold.
Despite everything he smiled when he thought of the ribbing he’d get from his sister, despite him being 24 and her 16 they had always been close growing up and had stayed in touch despite him having to move to the next province over for work. He was excited to see the look on her face when he gave her the tickets he’d managed to get for her favorite band, it wouldn’t be till the spring, but he would sweeten the pot by promising to chaperone her and her friends.
Victor let out a loud sneeze that he felt in his bones. “Where is that damn truck?” He muttered. “It’s almost been an hour.”
As he began to curse the very concept of Winter, Victor heard a snapping sound. Slowly, he turned around and saw a dark shape staring at him from the tree line a few feet away. He squinted and tried to get a better view of it. Was it a moose or something? A moment later, the figure stepped into the dim light, and Victor’s heart nearly stopped. His breathing quickened as he scrambled to open the opposite door of his car.
When he scrambled out of his car, he heard a crash as what he could only describe as a troll from folklore stomped down on his Honda Civic and crushed it like a tin can. The creature was at least six meters tall, thick with muscles, covered in dirt and leaves, and looked toward him like a tasty snack. Victor ran across the road as fast as he could without slipping on any errant patch of ice.
He heard a guttural roar from behind him as the creature stomped forward to give chase, and with its size, he had a hunch it would catch up sooner than later. His eyes darted around the forest floor as he ran, maybe there was someplace he could hide or…
Then he caught himself on a tree as he nearly ran off the edge of a steep hill, which would no doubt break his neck if he tried to run down it. Another gut-clenching roar resounded from behind him as he turned to see the troll had caught up to him. Despite his fear, Victor had a small kernel of wonder at seeing a creature pulled straight from an RPG standing before him. Though he was less enthused about the prospect of getting eaten by it.
His mind raced to find something he could use to defend himself, but besides a couple of fallen branches, he didn’t see much. Wait, he looked over to his left and saw in the trolls stomping that something had been uncovered. What looked to be an honest-to-goodness bear trap lay on the ground, rusted and worn but it still seemed serviceable, at least he hoped.
Gathering his courage Victor stared the troll down, he didn’t know if it could understand him, but he took a deep breath and shouted “Hey!” The troll tilted its head slightly. “Yeah, you big, green and ugly! Come and get me if you can!” A roar resounded as the troll barreled towards Victor, he darted to the left and prayed his gambit would work.
Another roar was let loose but this time it held an unmistakable note of pain as he stopped to turn back and see the troll fallen on its back. It was attempting to pry the bear trap off its now mangled leg but as he had hoped the mechanism was lodged tight. He shook himself; he didn’t know how long that would keep the creature occupied, he needed to get out of here. As he turned back around to head towards the nearest gas station, he hit what felt like a brick wall and fell to the ground in pain. Rubbing his now broken nose he looked up to see a tall figure cloaked in a long billowing robe.
“Holy hell!” Victor stammered. “Who are you?! Wait it doesn’t matter, we gotta run that thing isn’t going to stay down lon…”
Victor’s words were cut short as a sharp pain coursed through his abdomen; he looked down to see a medieval fucking spear stuck through his guts. He let out a cry of pain, he tried to grab the haft of the weapon and throw the figure off him, but it felt like the weapon was held in place by an intractable force. As he felt a cold sweat come upon him Victor looked up to see the figure staring down at him, two piercing amber eyes meeting his own.
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A voice that made his blood run cold spoke. “This was the one fated to bring me low?” The figure let out a mocking laugh. “A mortal from a low-tier rock like this? Ha! The oracles must be losing their touch.” Victor’s consciousness was fading, he felt the spear drawing something vital from him and he knew he didn’t have long.
He gritted his teeth and barked out through bloodied lips. “Fuck you!” spitting a glob of blood and flehm that spattered on the figure's cloak.
The figure seemed unfazed but leaned down slightly, Victor could make out an androgynous-looking face that at first glance appeared human until you noticed their eyes were slitted like a cat’s. His murderer spoke again. “Well, I suppose you have some will, alas I can’t allow you to live even if there is but the slightest chance you could halt my plans.” They grasped the spear as to give the killing stroke when a voice boomed in Victor's ears.
Victor blinked up after the jarring words to see the spear wielder frozen in place, he saw a small transparent screen displaying a countdown.
Okay now he was truly questioning his sanity, was he suffering from a frostbite-induced hallucination? Not everything that had happened so far was too real and painful to be a figment of his imagination. So, either he accepted this offer or let this evil fuck kill him. Dammit. God Damnit!!!
Victor’s mind spun, trying to think of any possible way he could escape this situation without presumably being flung across the universe by some godlike being. But there wasn’t a choice, he couldn’t escape from this monster. His only chance was to hope whatever this thing was, it wanted him alive.
Was this the right choice?
What about his family?
Would they be safe?
He needed to protect them and get stronger.
And kick this fucker’s ass!
