Bloodlust Read Online Free Page B

goliath hadn't summoned it, but as soon as her sword clanged against the troll's mace, Bloodlust overtook her, controlling her limbs. With a heavy swing of her sword, she chopped of his hand. His weapon flew through the air, and her blade cut his in thirds before making its way to his helmet, and through it, to his brain. Not even a grunt passed his lips as he sank to the ground.
    Her eyes unseeing, she attacked the next person, moving solely on instinct. Every other sense was heightened: the stench of sweat and blood; the sounds of grunts, whistles of weapons cutting through the air, and the wails of the wounded; the touch of the hilt in her hand. Two hilts, she had acquired another weapon. Perhaps the goliath's morning star.
    Soon, the grunts and wails all ceased, and no other weapon stirred the air but her own. As quickly as it came, the Bloodlust ended. Her breathing normalized as her vision returned to see a heap of trolls, some of their limbs on top of the pile.
    To her surprise, the goliath stood beside the mound. Not only still alive, but unblemished. Sweat dripped down his nose, along the line of slightly darker green.
    "Not bad," he commented.
    She blinked a few times. How had she not heard his heartbeat? The Bloodlust should have ensured she kept killing until no one else survived. Some of the reason why barbarians did not send many warriors into battle. One, they did not need to. A single barbarian in Bloodlust mood could take down a force far greater than this. And two, once in Bloodlust, barbarians killed everyone, even other barbarians.
    "I took down two," he continued.
    Why was he still speaking? The grip on her sword tightened.
    "Which means I handled three," she returned in a tone that suggested him to be, by far, inferior to her.
    "Ah, but one of the ones I killed had been ready to end you."
    "Impossible." Once again, she brought up her sword to start their own battle anew when the caw of a vulture had her dropping her blade and shooting an arrow as soon as the bird appeared in her sights above the trees.
    She raced back into the Forest to the body and opened the bird's stomach. Similar marks to the other coded message marred the scroll.
    Ivy straightened and smoothed the folds in her armored dress. Half of the once white skirt was now stained with blood, none of it hers.
    "Interesting."
    The damned goliath. Why was she still suffering his presence?
    Her sword ready to strike, the message crinkling against the hilt, she whirled around, ready to end her time with him.
    Only he had scaled a tree, high up, out of reach. By the time she secured her silverbow, he had jumped out of the tree, tumbled into her, knocking her off balance. Their hands brushed first against her shield as she retrieved it — just why did he want it so badly? — and then against the wrinkled message.
    Merely because the last remnants of her Bloodlust had already dissipated was he able to pilfer it from her. He examined it, his full lips twisting, his bushy brows forming a "V."
    "Do you know what it means?"
    His green eyes flickered above the blood-stained message toward her. "You're asking for a goliath for help, Oh Barbarian-Princess?"
    His mocking tone grated on her nerves, and she especially did not care for his knowing who she was, although only the barbarian-princess' armored dress bore the crest of her people.
    She snatched the paper back. "Go on your way and I will spare you."
    He snorted. "I know not why you're out here, beyond your lands—"
    "I could say the same for you." She itched to go, but her legs remained immobile.
    "I propose an agreement."
    Now she was the one to snort. What could a goliath possibly offer to her that she might even be tempted to want? Again, she eyed his tunic, the barbarian one overlaying it flapping in the breeze. A wide belt sported a metal plate of a monstrous wolf head. Tan pants stretched to accommodate his thick tree trunk-sized muscular legs. She brought her gaze back up to his face. The