ARRRGH!!!, as if in apology, leapt and caught Gunmar’s head between two crushing paws. Gunmar’s tongue whipped across her face, leaving pink stripes of acid burn, then he opened his cavernous mouth to bite off some of her face. But one of his teeth struck down upon ARRRGH!!!’s new metal braces and snapped in two. Gunmar wailed—his first sign of pain. ARRRGH!!! clawed at Gunmar’s remaining eye in hopes of blinding him for good, while Blinky slithered his tentacles into new formations, grabbing hold of individual quills and pulling Gunmar backward.

Jack looked at me through his goggles and held up a fist. I nodded and withdrew my swords, and with the screams of the crowd as our battle hymn, we charged. Gunmar’s lowest arm lashed out as if it had eyes of its own, and though Jack ducked beneath it, I was not as quick and had to meet it with Claireblade. The top half of a yellowed claw, as big as a skateboard, was severed and embedded in the field. The damaged red hand curled its fingers into a fist and hurled itself at me like a boulder. I dodged to the left and swung downward with Cat #6, cutting the thumb all the way to the bone.

The fingers went rigid, striking me hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I landed spread-eagle upon the turf, and as I gasped for air I saw Jack rise to a crouch directly beneath Gunmar. Dodging the troll’s shambling legs, he unsheathed Doctor X and held it with both fists below Gunmar’s stomach. My heartbeat quickened. If Jack’s aim was true, it could be an injury that changed everything.

Everything did change, but not for the better.

Jack drove his blade into the right side of Gunmar’s gut and then dragged it left, opening a huge gash. Gunmar howled and twisted with such force that both ARRRGH!!! and Blinky were thrown aside. A hard spray of scarlet blood and yellow liquid blasted Jack, but that was expected, and he wiped it from his goggles with the back of his glove.

What was not expected were the dozens—no, hundreds—of tiny trolls that fell from the opened cavity. The first few thumped off Jack’s helmet, wiggling and mewling, and Jack just stood there, shocked stupid. But as they continued to pour, Jack backed away, picking the parasites off his armor and flinging them to the ground in disgust. In seconds, the little trolls were everywhere, writhing in the grass, blinking tiny new eyes at the strange world around them.

“The rest of the Gumm-Gumms,” Jack rasped. “This is where they were hiding!”