The One Above the Runner
Joren was genuinely glad to hear Daliha’s voice again, instead of that mysterious sound that had been ringing in his head.
“Heave-ho!”
He hoisted the fallen holy knight Bray onto his back and ran toward the waiting horse. In his haste, he even forgot to give it a remote command.
“Take Bray over there, under that tree, quickly!”
- Puhihing!
The warhorse dashed off carefully, making sure Bray didn’t slip from its back.
What’s the situation? How’s the battle going?
Only after his breathing had steadied a little could he turn and look back.
By then, all the trolls had been cut down, and aside from being utterly exhausted, their side had suffered no real losses.
“I apologize for doubting you so rashly. And thank you—truly—for saving Sir Bray.”
The holy knights bowed their heads, offering both apology and gratitude.
“It’s fine. More importantly, keep your distance. Don’t get near that black fog!”
Seeing Bray’s condition, they hurriedly backed away from the dark sphere.
8 Squatrolls will be summoned in 30 seconds. About 10 minutes after that, 5 Elitrolls will be summoned. The summon location of the Elitrolls will be revealed after all Squatrolls have been eliminated.
“The variant troll that’s about to appear is extremely fast. If you can catch it, do so—but if it gets away, don’t force the chase. Another batch of variant trolls will be summoned here in four minutes.”
Squatrolls were a variant specialized in mobility. In the game, they were notorious for vaulting over obstacles and units like kangaroos.
Let’s go for a spawn kill if we can.
The most effective way to deal with Squatrolls was to kill them the moment they spawned.
“We’ll wait, and the instant they pop out, we strike. But be careful not to touch that pitch-black aura!”
“Understood! But…from which direction will they be summoned? The direction we’re facing?”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, which side is the front and which is the back? Wait—could they pop out from the side?”
What was maddening was that there was no way to know exactly where in the dimensional rift they would emerge. Foghog had been huge, so its outline had been easy to read, but the Squatrolls were smaller than the average troll, making them hard to gauge.
“Damn it. What is this, some kind of odd-even gamble? Do I just have to guess? There’s no way to tell?” He glanced at the holy knights. “Sir knights, you can’t sense evil energy or anything like that?”
Unfortunately, Demis shook his head.
“I’m afraid we don’t possess such a power.”
“Hmm. We don’t have nearly enough troops to surround both sides, and if we call in the station soldiers, we’ll leave the other side empty.”
At present, there were only seven combatants here, including Ho-yeong. Even assigning one to each of the eight Squatrolls would be insufficient.
“Could it be that you, in fact, possess prophetic sight? You correctly predicted where and how many trolls would appear, and even the spawn locations of the variant trolls. I had no idea the rumors were true.”
“Prophetic sight….”
Demis’s words jogged something in his mind. Prediction stat.
Ho-yeong asked Daliha about the connection between his prediction stat and his ability to guess spawn locations.
Your deduction is correct, Guardian. If you make use of your prediction ability, you can discern the summoning point of monsters. The higher your prediction stat, the more accurate the coordinates become.
His guess had been right, and for a moment hope flared in him—until Daliha added one more line and his spirits sank again.
With your current prediction stat, you can only discern it when the stat is at its maximum value.
In other words, everything depended on the luck of the dice.
“Fine, screw it. Let’s all cluster in one direction for now. At least two or three of them should show up there! Even on tests, it’s better to pile everything onto one answer than spread your guesses around!”
After everyone had gripped their weapons tightly and waited a short while—
- Pop.
The place where the Squatrolls were summoned was neither in front, nor behind, nor to the side.
“In the air?!”
Above.
- Squat!
The Squatrolls surged into existence and bounded cleanly over their heads.
- Squatsquat!
They landed in the direction of the station.
Damn it, they got me. How did I miss that? Bang Ho-yeong, you idiot. You just used aerial combat not long ago and still didn’t catch on?
It looked like his prediction dice roll for this one had been a solid zero.
- Minoho!
Minoho, who had been standing closest to them, charged forward with a powerful swing of his arm.
- Squatthu.
The Squatroll crouched low in its squat posture, then leaped forward the instant before the attack could land.
- Minoho? (Huh?)
The clothesline sliced through empty air.
“Don’t chase them! You won’t catch them anyway.”
The Squatrolls kept crossing the grassland, repeating squat-jump after squat-jump.
“Trust the troops at the station and leave that side to them! You lot, over here.”
Ho-yeong set down his sword and shield and issued orders to the minotaurs.
“Minoho, throw that boulder over there as high as you can! Eollugi, throw me! Holy knights, heal Bray!”
- Minoho! (Understood!)
As ordered, Minoho hurled a huge rock toward the Squatrolls.
- Minooom!
Eollugi, a beat later, tossed Ho-yeong into the air.
“What are you planning to do?!”
“Is he going to throw the boulder and hit them? But it doesn’t look like it’ll reach those things.”
The holy knights stared, forgetting even their healing prayers.
- Squatsquat!
Seeing the massive rock hurtling toward them, the Squatrolls lowered their stances and sprang.
“Haaaah!”
Ho-yeong twisted his body in midair and unleashed taekwondo’s most powerful technique: an aerial spinning back kick.
- Crash.
The sabatons made of dandanum, along with the aura concentrated into his heel, shattered the boulder like it was a piece of candy. The fragments sprayed outward toward the Squatrolls.
- Squat?!
The Squatrolls had already leaped, and panic flashed across their faces. While suspended in the air, they had no way to dodge.
- Squawack!
Two of them were struck by the stone shards and toppled over.
“You think you’re the only ones who can jump? I’m a fourth-dan in taekwondo!”
Landing lightly, Ho-yeong didn’t waste a second and lunged forward. Squatrolls had sturdy lower bodies, but weak upper bodies and poor regeneration.
“Nice to meet you, you weaklings with nothing but hopping tricks!”
He used the stones that had hit them to pick them off one by one with headshots.
Squatroll #002 and #004 have been eliminated. You have obtained 6 KP.
“It’s a shame I only shot down two of them, but…at least the numbers are down.”
Seeing one of their companions get slaughtered, the remaining Squatrolls jumped even more frantically.
“W-what are those things?!”
“Are those really trolls?”
It was the holy knights’ first time seeing a variant troll, so it was only natural that the soldiers were shocked.
“Everyone stay calm! Don’t leave your positions! Raise your spears high!”
The tense soldiers lifted their spears as Ho-yeong commanded.
- Squatsquat!
As if mocking them, the Squatrolls launched themselves with all their strength, vaulting over the barricade. But where they landed was a mana-soil magic circle, laid out in a dense grid.
“Bind them!”
As the two sons of the Marquis of Iolid chanted together, the grid blazed to life.
- Squat?!
Mana spread outward in the shape of a net, trapping the Squatrolls.
“Finish them!”
With Rio’s command, the guards rushed in and thrust their halberds.
- Squaack!
The mana-hardened net couldn’t be cut, even by blade tips.
Much less by something as pathetic as a Squatroll’s teeth.
“Phew. That settles the first wave, at least.”
Ho-yeong checked the location where the next variant troll, the Elitroll, would appear.
Coincidentally, it was right in front of the barricade the Squatrolls had just tried to breach. The magic circle had already been activated, so it couldn’t be used again.
Is that a coincidence? Or is the bastard summoning the monsters doing this on purpose?
It was too suspicious a placement to dismiss as mere chance.
Looks like I have to assume the hostile NPCs are reading this battlefield. And if that’s the case…Elitrolls, huh. If five of them appear right in front of the beacon tower, that could get dangerous. How should I handle this?
As their name suggested, Elitrolls were superior to ordinary trolls in every respect. Even so, with the holy knights and minotaurs here, they could be handled head-on if necessary—but…
Everyone’s already spent. The last wave really wore them down.
Bray, in particular, still hadn’t fully recovered from the mental shock, and the other holy knights had also spent divine power on healing.
Since I don’t know what the final type is, I need to preserve as much combat strength as possible.
The variant trolls after the Elitrolls were the final summons, but the fact that the last one was marked ??? bothered him.
Ho-yeong stationed the holy knights around the area where the Elitrolls were scheduled to appear, then called over the Marquis of Iolid to discuss their plan.
“This time, I’d like to borrow Your Lordship’s power.”
“That’s fine, but…didn’t you tell me earlier to serve as your final line of defense? And from what I saw of the holy knights and minotaurs fighting, they were practically one-man armies.”
“They’re all exhausted right now. If we try to fight Elitrolls honestly in this condition, I can’t say we’ll win cleanly. So I’m planning to wipe them out with Your Lordship’s magic.”
Since they had the rare support of a powerful mage, he intended to use that strength properly.
“And, frankly, something smells off. It feels like the troll summoner—our enemy—is watching our tactics and responding to them.”
There was more than one suspicious point.
“First, they boldly summoned Squatrolls into the melee to create damage through the dimensional rift, and then the ordinary trolls seemed like they were going to rush the station—only to suddenly try to surround our side instead.”
It felt less like the effect of the Totem of Unity and more like someone was actively controlling the trolls.
“Do you sense any detection magic or other suspicious spellwork around here?”
“Hmm…no such sign.”
The marquis closed his eyes and concentrated, but apparently he didn’t detect anything unusual.
“Still, as you say, Tamer, something does seem off. When you deal with those Elitrolls, it would be best not to use a magic circle.”
“May I ask why?”
“As we saw with the dimensional rift earlier, it distorted the flow of mana in the surrounding area. So if you set up a magic circle near the summoning point, it may not function properly—or the circle itself may be ruined.”
The explanation had the depth of a man who hadn’t become the lord of the tower by posing for the title.
“Then we can just strike the trolls directly. With something like Fireball…no, since this is a grassland, maybe that’s a bad idea. Magic Missile, perhaps?”
“No, projectile spells like that won’t be very effective.”
The marquis shook his head firmly.
“Why not?”
“I told you earlier, didn’t I? In the process of a wormhole forming, the surrounding flow of mana becomes distorted. So if you send a magical attack that way, it may be weakened by the distorted current—or drift off toward some entirely different place.”
Christian, the marquis’s eldest son, who had been listening quietly, carefully entered the conversation.
“Father, what if we lured the trolls elsewhere?”
“Young Marquis, that would be difficult. You saw their group behavior in the previous battle, didn’t you? It’s fair to say the summoner is controlling their actions. Besides, their target from the start is that beacon tower, so they won’t be easily baited away.”
Ho-yeong sighed and explained.
“And look at the position we’re in. The beacon tower is right in front of us. If we leave our posts just to lure them away, we might as well hand them a free pass.”
“I see. Ahem, my thinking was too shallow.”
Apparently, the sons’ magical talent and experience still fell well short of their father’s.
Their tactical sense is a total zero. Still, they’re noble-born mages, so their intelligence and mana stats are high…but in terms of combat, Pierre from the JWP party would have been far better.
As an experienced dungeon adventurer, Pierre had both good judgment and excellent magical control.
No, I don’t even need to compare them to nobles. Even Sicoop and Meyril, both commoners, make me feel bad comparing them to these guys. So what if their mana stats are high? Hah. Wait. Mana stats…
Ho-yeong came up with a good idea.
“Then what about targeting magic? Spells that directly aim at the trolls. If it’s that, wouldn’t we not need to care about the surrounding mana flow and all that? Couldn’t we just use the trolls’ own mana as a medium?”
“An interesting thought, but trolls don’t possess mana within their bodies. The case may be different with variant trolls, perhaps…but still….”
“Yes, I know that too. And I doubt variant trolls are any different. Those Squatrolls had zero mana as well, so the Elitrolls will probably be the same.”
“Hmm? If you know that, why say such a thing?”
To the marquis’s puzzled look, Ho-yeong answered calmly.
“Didn’t I tell you? I have the power to infuse mana.”