I reached Flogga’s hut and slowed to a stop, a breath leaving me before I even realized it, my eyes taking in the state of the place.

This... was what Zarah had called small.

How the hell was this small? 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The damage was contained, sure—but it wasn’t minor. The blast had punched a clean hole through the side of the hut, roughly my size, the edges jagged and darkened where the heat had eaten into the material. It hadn’t stopped there either; the force must have carried through, because the adjacent structure showed signs of burning along one side, the surface scorched and uneven where the flames had licked across it before dying out.

Blackened streaks spread outward from the point of impact, climbing up the wall in uneven patterns, as if the explosion had tried to crawl its way upward before losing momentum. The air still carried a faint, acrid scent—burnt materials mixed with something sharper, chemical.

One of Bundi’s goblins was already at work, repairing the damage. He moved with steady focus, layering bricks into place and pressing some kind of cement-like paste between them, sealing the gaps with practiced efficiency. It looked like this wasn’t the first time he’d had to fix something like this.

I let out a quiet sigh and stepped inside.

The interior was intact for the most part, though the air felt heavier, lingering with the same burnt scent. Shelves had been shifted slightly out of place, and a few items were missing from where they should have been, likely moved during the aftermath.

Granny Flogga wasn’t there.

Instead, I found her apprentice.

Maya stood near one of the work tables, carefully sorting through potions and placing them into a storage box, her movements deliberate, like she was trying not to disturb anything further.

She noticed me almost immediately.

She paused, straightened slightly, and greeted, "Chief."

I nodded in response.

"Where is Granny Flogga?"

Maya lifted her head slightly before answering. "She just left to see you. Something about a meeting."

Right. I had told Narg to gather everyone. And since I warped here instead of walking through the base, I must have missed her on the way.

My gaze drifted back to the hole in the wall, lingering on the charred edges for a moment before I spoke again.

"I heard there was an explosion. Did she get hurt?"

"No..." Maya hesitated briefly, as if recalling it. "I thought she must have been dead for sure. But she came out unscathed."

I frowned slightly.

"Really... I knew Flogga was tough, but to walk out of something like this without a scratch?"

For a second, I reconsidered Zarah’s words.

Maybe, to them, this really was "small."

Or maybe Flogga was just built differently.

I shifted my attention back to Maya, who still stood there, a bit stiff, like she wasn’t sure if she was dismissed or not.

"And you?" I asked. "You’re alright?"

"I’m alright, Chief," she replied, lowering her head.

"Good. Keep up the good work then," I said, giving a small nod before stepping out of the shed and making my way toward my quarters.

I hadn’t gone far when a noise reached me—a ruckus, loud and uneven, carrying the kind of tension that didn’t belong to normal activity, rising from the direction of the gates sharp enough that my first instinct kicked in before I could think.

An invasion?

My pace shifted immediately, my body already adjusting as I cut through the base with a more direct path, but the closer I got, the more the details began to change. The noise wasn’t panicked like I expected—it was... reactive. Voices rose and fell in uneven bursts, some shouting, some laughing, others jeering, and as that pattern settled in, it clicked.

Not an attack.

Infighting.

I slowed slightly as the scene came into view, my focus narrowing as I picked out the figures at the center of it.

Dribb.

He was in the middle of it, exchanging blows with a tall figure that stood well above him, and for a brief second, I couldn’t place who—or what—it was, until the memory surfaced.

Wait.

Wasn’t that the troll from before—the one I saved when I pulled Zarah out from that Moon Cat situation?

He looked nothing like he did back then.

He had grown—significantly. His frame had stretched and filled out, his height now easily two or three times mine, his limbs longer and thicker, carrying a weight that wasn’t just size, but strength behind it. And right now, that same troll was locked in a fight with Dribb—something that, at first glance, didn’t quite make sense.

I let my gaze shift across the rest of the scene, taking in the reactions of those gathered around them, and the answer came together quickly. There was no urgency in their movements, no one stepping in to break it up, just noise, scattered reactions, and a level of interest that didn’t match a real threat. They were watching, some cheering, others mocking, all of them engaged in a way that made it clear this wasn’t anything serious.

A spar.

That conclusion settled in as I turned my focus back to the two of them, observing more closely now. Dribb wasn’t using his ability, which was a good sign. If he activated [Hellbrand], this would stop being controlled almost immediately. Trolls didn’t handle fire well, and [Hellbrand] wasn’t something you could casually restrain—it didn’t just produce flames, it turned the user into one, and that kind of output would end this far too quickly, and not in a good way.

So instead, they kept it physical.

Or at least, that seemed to be the idea going in.

In practice, though, it wasn’t playing out evenly.

Dribb was getting overwhelmed.

The troll’s reach gave him the advantage, his longer arms and wider swings forcing Dribb to hover just outside effective distance, never quite able to settle into his own rhythm. Every time Dribb tried to step in, another flurry came down—not wild or desperate, but measured enough to keep him out, disrupting his approach and forcing him to reset before he could build any real momentum.

Still, Dribb’s guard held—stubborn, deliberate, and far more calculated than it looked at first glance.

He wasn’t trying to match the troll head-on, not yet, and the way he moved, keeping just enough distance while still engaging, made his intent clear.

He was dragging the fight out, stretching it longer than necessary, letting the troll burn through its energy while he absorbed and endured.

And that approach began to pay off.

The troll’s earlier flurry, while still heavy, had...