Trollhunters: welcome to the darklands

Chapter 16:CONSUMED BY REVENGE

"Jim snapped his whips at the Antramonstrum. But the sparking green lines just passed ineffectively through the two clouds as they converged toward him. Now officially out of options, Jim raised his arms protectively. The shield automatically fanned out of his gauntlet, covering his face, and the flaring red lines that shot through his armor went completely dark.
The Antramonstrum stopped mere inches in front of Jim. With his Eclipse Armor now all-black, Jim's camouflaged body blended seamlessly into the obsidian behind him. To the mindless Antramonstrum, it was as if the Trollhunter had simply disappeared into thin air. The confused death clouds backed away from the sheer volcanic glass, passing over the pile of Gumm-Gumms. Jim lowered his shield and opened one eye. The Antramonstrum were gone."

"This thing's full of surprises today!" Jim marveled at his Eclipse Armor as the red lines piped through it once again.
Jim was startled when Skarlagk, also unharmed, emerged from under what was now a pile of skeletons. The two survivors shared a silent nod before they heard a roar of voices build outside of the fortress. Just beyond the walls, Gumm-Gumms banged their war drums and repeated the same battle cry over and over again.
"GUNMAR! GUNMAR! GUNMAR!"
"He's coming!" said Skarlagk while reaching for her spears.
But her quiver was still empty, its spears lost within the rubble littering her ward. Skarlagk and Jim looked at each other as the Gumm-Gumm's chant grew louder and closer.
"The armory," Skarlagk said to Jim. "Follow me!"
She ran full-bore into her ruined fortress's keep, and Jim trailed after her. Along the way, he passed Rob, who the Antramonstrum had ignored. Jim flicked his whip, snared Rob's ankle, and dragged him into the fortress too.

"No sooner had they left the ward than the Gumm-Gumm army stormed into it. The vanguard of soldiers parted, allowing Gunmar the Warbringer into the castle he just conquered. Dictatious kept close behind his Dark Underlord, rubbing his four hands together in malice.
"Search the premises!" Gunmar barked at his forces. "Look under every broken shield, if you must, but do not stop until you bring me Skarlagk's head!"
• • •
Rob stirred and found Jim propping up his body with his armored shoulder as they hurried down a spiral staircase. The Trollhunter winced at the renewed heat coming off Rob, but still refused to leave him behind.
"My hero," Rob said dreamily to Jim. "If it's all right with you, I'd like to now sing the ballad from our hit soundtrack—'This Robot's Heart (Is Programmed for Love).' "
Jim threw Rob off his body and caught up with Skarlagk at the base of the steps. He tried to keep a mental map of their surround "surroundings as they went and guessed that they were at the very bottom of the fortress.
"In here," Skarlagk beckoned as she flung open a reinforced door with a resounding clang. Jim and Rob followed Skarlagk inside, their eyes bugging at the racks upon racks of barbaric rebel weapons around them. Skarlagk slid a heavy bolt across the door, locking it.
"Grab any weapon you like," she said while picking up a mace and a saw-toothed sword.
"Uh, I think I'm good," Jim replied, looking down at the fluorescent whips looped in his hands. "But does it really matter? Those Gumm-Gumms out there must outnumber us a thousand to one! How are we supposed to fight all of them and take on Gunmar?"
"And this time, it's personal," Rob added randomly.
"Once again, you misunderstand me, Trollhunter," said Skarlagk. "We aren't going to fight Gunmar."
She stomped her booted foot onto the stone floor—three stomps, this time—and the weapons began rattling in their racks. Without warning, a Nyarlagroth burst through the armory walls, heeding Skarlagk's call. Numer"

"Numerous Gumm-Gumm spears and arrows jutted from its sides like needles in a pincushion.
"I don't get it," Rob said while jerking a thumb at the Nyarlagroth. "Is this thing supposed to fight Gunmar? Because that's just ridiculous."
Skarlagk signaled the Nyarlagroth, and it obediently opened its jaws. Hauling back her leg, Skarlagk then punted Rob inside the eel's maw with a swift kick to Rob's rear.
"Catch you in the sequel!" Rob said before being swallowed in one giant gulp.
Jim looked from the slithering behemoth to Skarlagk in utter disbelief.
"What're you doing?!" Jim demanded, his whips now crackling with neon fury.
Skarlagk signaled the eel again and answered, "Saying farewell, Jim Lake Junior."
This Nyarlagroth's glowing tongue shot past its rows of teeth and slipknotted around Jim. His whips fizzled as he railed in futility against the glowing appendage. Jim could hear Gunmar's advance soldiers marching down the spiral staircase toward the armory.
"Skarlagk," Jim gasped. "You don't have to do this alone!"

"Find the nursery, Trollhunter," Skarlagk said.
As the tongue reeled Jim toward the Nyarlagroth, he watched Skarlagk. She removed her father's skull and fit it on top of her own head like a helmet of bone. Now done with the satchel, Skarlagk tossed it past Jim, and into the eel's waiting mouth.
"Rescue this 'Enrique' and the other babes within it," said Skarlagk. "Give them the childhood that Gunmar stole from me."
"Wait!" Jim shouted. "WAIT!"
The last thing he saw before the Nyarlagroth's drooling jaws shut around him was the Warrior Queen taking up her mace and sword once again. Now lodged in the cramped recesses of the throat, Jim couldn't see anything. But he could still hear just fine, even as the Nyarlagroth started to slither out of the fortress. Pressing his ear to the slippery membranes lining its insides, Jim listened to the Gumm-Gumms batter down the armory door.
"Skarlagk the Scorned," said a cruel voice.
Jim recognized it immediately. Even though it was muffled by the Nyarlagroth's body, the sound of Gunmar speaking sent chills down"

"Jim's spine—just as it had done when he first heard it months ago.
"Hiding in a corner, just as she did when I beheaded her father," Gunmar continued. "Perhaps I shall do the same now and make a matching set of their skulls."
Jim heard another distant voice laugh and compliment his Dark Underlord's wit. The Trollhunter writhed and kicked against the tongue, but it only tightened. Even in the dark, Jim felt his vision fade as he started to black out again.
"Or perhaps I shall use my Decimaar Blade to make her finally obey my every order," said Gunmar, his voice even farther away as the Nyarlagroth burrowed out of the armory.
"I would sooner die than serve you again," came Skarlagk's faint, but ever defiant, voice.
Jim barely heard Skarlagk grunt, then drop her mace and sword, before he succumbed to the darkness."