Chapter Twenty-Three: Taylor. An Old Enemy Makes A Mess



Here is Chapter Twenty-Three of Evils: The Other Four.

An Old Enemy Makes A Mess
"Akai kami ya aoi kami?" a voice asked. "Red paper or blue paper?"

"I don't want any toilet paper!" I yelled. "... but that troll over there wants some red paper."

The Japanese Aka Manto grinned and started slashing at the nearest troll before vanishing. I knew in my gut that the Aka Manto was still alive, but we wouldn't be seeing it any time soon.

"Noolev leero!" another troll shouted. "Killed once, not more!"

Somehow I understood what he was saying. This was the same troll that I had killed way back when I first met Layla. The Ouroboros and its Merge had sped up the troll's recovery and let it come back.

I swung with Falinn Verkfall and nicked the troll's arm. I'd already forgotten: the Merge makes all monsters more competent.

"Taylor!" Hailley called. "The kappas are all safe, and Gary sealed the Khaos vortex! We can get out now."

"But... the trolls..." I said before I remembered our mission. As a warrior of Tyr, I couldn't forget that in war, you don't keep fighting after you've already won.

"We'll meet again," I said earnestly. The troll grunted.

"Do you have another drachma to call Rain?" Sabina asked.

"No, I only had the one," Hailley said.

"Kappas are river monsters," Gary pointed out. "With all of these kappas we can just cross the ocean, get to Norway, meet up with Rain and the others, then wing it from there."

"Genius," I said.

And that's when the old troll knocked Kyūri over.

"Kyūri!" Gary shouted, rushing to his friend's side. "The water in his head poured out... kappas lose their power when the water in their head falls out!"

"Let's get to the shore!" I ordered. "The kappa idea was a good one, and we can restore Kyūri's power with the seawater there."

Gary and Hailley led the kappas to the shore we'd arrived from. From there, we started to move, headed straight for Norway.