The Merchant Guild's Mage
The beast let out a blood-curdling roar aimed straight at Joseph and the mercenaries. Every hair on Joseph's body stood on end. Then the creature started thundering down the slope toward them, each footfall shaking the ground.
"Wh... what?"
It showed no intention of stopping, even at the sight of the mercenaries bunched together in a knot.
"What the hell? I thought this was supposed to scare it off!"
Someone shouted it, and Joseph had been thinking the same thing. He looked to the mercenary captain at the front of the group. The man was just as panicked as the rest of them.
"This... fuck!"
"Hey! Rom! Wait!"
A young mercenary broke from the pack and bolted for the trees. The charging ogre veered after him at once.
"D-don't come! Stay away!"
The young man ran for his life, but there was no outpacing a monster barreling downhill at that speed. The ogre's fist slammed into the small of his back with a sickening crunch. His spine folded the wrong way as he flew an impossible distance and smashed headfirst into the dirt. He lay in a grotesque heap and did not move again.
For a moment, no one could speak. The man had been wearing armor—cheap as it was—and it had been crushed in a single blow. The ogre didn't even glance at the corpse. It simply turned and came pounding toward Joseph.
"Scatter! Scatter, now!"
Joseph's voice cut through the shock. Hesitate and you die. That single thought circled through his mind. It's not scared at all. Stay bunched up and we'll just get slaughtered in a heap.
The clustered mercenaries scrambled apart. Wanting to live was something they all shared. But if they all run their own way... I'm dead. Guaranteed.
He was the slowest one here. The robe Seymo had given him made running even harder, and his stamina and reflexes were nowhere near the mercenaries' to begin with. I can't let them run.
Joseph drew up his Mana at once and produced an orb. Mana hissed as it took shape. He poured twice the usual amount into it and launched it at the creature's face. The Mana Orb cracked against the ogre's head with a heavy thud—and the thing didn't even flinch.
Fuck. Tougher than I thought.
The sudden attack seemed to startle it, at least; it checked its stride. Then it plucked the orb off its face the way a man might pinch off a bug. The sphere crushed in its grip and scattered into empty air.
That thing's a real monster...
"M-magic doesn't work on it!"
Someone had seen the orb he'd thrown to stop the ogre and jumped to the worst conclusion.
"Wrong, you idiot!"
Joseph snapped it out on reflex and swept his eyes over the mercenaries.
"I was just drawing its attention! Everyone stay calm!"
The ones who'd frozen were glancing around, taking each other's measure. They were hired swords, not drilled soldiers. There was no cohesion in them. They were still on their feet, still hesitating—but it was only a matter of time before someone broke and ran.
Fuck. I'm actually going to die at this rate.
If they started running, the odds of him getting caught were high. And he could not beat that thing alone. Not a chance. Close combat was the last place he wanted to be; if the ogre got its hands on him, he'd be crushed the same way that boy had been. Left by myself, this is worse than fighting a pack of beasts.
His mind raced. The best chance of walking away alive was killing the monster together with these men. The other option was using them as bait and running on his own. He shouted to the whole clearing.
In any era, for anyone, a livelihood mattered. With the Roph Merchant Guild's name on the line, running now meant never working as a mercenary in this territory again. The men who'd been edging away scowled and stopped.
"Everything we take off that thing is yours! Whatever it is—all of it! And there'll be extra pay when we get back!"
He kept shouting whatever came to mind. As for the rewards if they actually made it back alive, Seymo could sort that out. From Seymo's perspective, it's cheaper than me dying anyway.
A few of the mercenaries' eyes lit up. Seeing it, the captain picked up the cry.
"You hear that, you bastards? The mage says if we kill it, we get everything! Take that thing down and we'll eat and drink for months! Buy us time!"
He looked at Joseph as he finished. Joseph nodded. The man had enough experience to have been thinking along the same lines. Earning enough to loaf through a whole season wasn't easy—there was a reason people risked their lives on a battlefield. A few of the mercenaries swallowed, seeming to understand.
The captain shouted again.
"Surround it! Don't even think about blocking its fists! Its arms are long, but not so long you can't dodge—watch and get out of the way!"
Only then did the mercenaries slowly close a ring around the beast. As they drew in, the ogre looked about in confusion for a moment, then lunged at the nearest man.
A brief window, thanks to the captain. Joseph ran the numbers fast. He'd just put two portions of mana into an orb and thrown it, and anyone could see the power hadn't been enough. I can't kill it myself.
He had no proper offensive magic. Fire lacked the force, and Return was a defensive spell. It was supposed to send an impact back at the attacker, but whether it could even handle a blow that monstrous was an open question. Which meant the mercenaries would have to be the ones to finish it.
"Captain?"
"It's Marf."
"Marf. How tough is that thing's hide?"
"Even if you put everything you've got into a cut, you only leave a light scratch."
Marf's answer was flat and certain.
"What if you stab instead of slash?"
"If you can pierce the hide, the blade will go in. The problem is you never get a chance to drive it in deep."
It was true. While one mercenary darted around drawing the ogre's eye, the others were landing the occasional shallow thrust. Dancing on thin ice, nothing more. Their stamina didn't look any better than the ogre's. The man dodging its fists already had a face running with sweat. Give it a little longer and heads would start getting crushed one by one.
So if they can just drive a sword in, they can kill it... Marf had said there was no opportunity to bury a blade deep. Which, turned around, meant that if they got the chance, they could end it.
"Agh!"
While Joseph was still thinking, a mercenary caught a fist and went flying. His skull hadn't burst, at least, but he wouldn't last much longer. No time.
Joseph spoke to Marf, who was watching the scene with a sick look on his face.
"I'll pin its legs. Get in close and drive your sword in."
"How are you going to pin its legs?"
Marf stared at him as if he couldn't have heard that right. And get in close, no less. That was as good as telling the man to throw his life away.
"What do you take me for?"
He couldn't exactly admit he had no offensive magic, and there was no time to talk anyone into anything. So Joseph said nothing more and pushed. He formed two orbs and looked Marf in the eye. The look was enough of a threat on its own.
"...Understood."
Marf started to argue, then shut his mouth and nodded. If he was going to run, he should already have been racing down the mountain. At this point, trusting Joseph was the best option he had. And it was a mage talking—there had to be some method that would work.
"Aaaagh!"
A mercenary dodging a punch lost his footing and went over backward. The ogre was on him in a heartbeat. Joseph didn't have time to think. He launched an orb in front of the fallen man and shouted.
"Return!"
⟨ Return ⟩
In an instant the orb unfolded into a wall of white. The ogre's fist struck it with a heavy thud and bounced. The wall burst apart in the same breath—it hadn't been able to take the force, as expected. It works from a distance. He could throw a Mana Orb and convert it into Return on the fly. The whole thing had been a split-second decision.
The shock Return had thrown back wasn't complete; he must have been short on mana. But it was enough to check the ogre for a heartbeat. In that gap, Joseph sent the other orb at the creature's face—straight at the eye. Mana hissed as he poured more into it, swelling the sphere. The ogre swatted at it the way it had before, as if batting away an insect. Joseph's incantation was faster.
"Fire!"
⟨ Fire ⟩
The orb erupted into searing flame right against the creature's eye. The hide's tough. The eyeball isn't.
The ogre screamed and thrashed, clawing at its own face. A few of the nearby mercenaries caught a flailing arm and went rolling. The wild thrashing cost Marf a step as well.
"Don't stop! It can't see!"
Joseph wrung the last of his mana into one final orb. Dizziness hit him as it left him, and cold sweat ran down his back. He gritted his teeth and sent the sphere flying to a point just in front of the writhing ogre's legs.
"Return!"
⟨ Return ⟩
The thrashing creature's leg struck the barrier that bloomed under its foot. The limb snapped up over its own head. It lost its balance and toppled backward.
"Now!"
Marf was already moving. He threw himself at the fallen ogre and put his full weight behind a thrust, driving the blade up under its jaw. The sound of steel parting flesh was strangely, vividly clear. The creature began to shudder as the sword went in. Under the jaw—it wouldn't have been strange if the point had reached the brain. Joseph still didn't relax.
"Everyone, pile on!"
"RAAAAAAH!"
The mercenaries who'd been staring blankly roared and charged, ramming their swords into the ogre's neck and face. With its throat opened in an instant, the thing couldn't even scream—just a string of wet, choking gasps. Its struggling slowed until it was no threat at all. It thrashed a little longer, then went slack, as if every bit of strength had drained out of it.
A moment later, Marf pulled himself out of the ogre's bulk and slowly stood. He was soaked from head to foot in the blood that had poured from its neck.
"Is it done?"
"I-it's dead."
Joseph watched from a short distance and only approached once he was sure the body wasn't moving. ...We got it. He let the breath out at last. They'd ridden the momentum and made it work, but he didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if anything had gone wrong even once. Fuck. What kind of monster is that.
With it over, the mercenaries collapsed where they stood. The one who'd drawn the ogre's attention for so long was flat on his back, just trying to breathe. Marf stared down at the corpse as if he still couldn't believe it, then turned his head toward Joseph.
"M-mage."
"...Get some rest."
Marf closed his mouth. This is exhausting as hell. Joseph had wrung every last drop of mana out of his body. There was nothing left. Everyone was too spent to do anything more. He sat with his back against a nearby tree and replayed the fight in his head.
Next time, I absolutely have to learn combat magic.
He felt it every time a fight broke out. He was a half-baked mage, or worse. There was far too much he lacked to call himself one with any confidence. Even if it isn't magic, I need some other means.
He looked at the mercenaries, collapsed as if they'd simply fallen over. If they hadn't listened to him, this would never have gone so well. The value of a vanguard settled into him all over again. When it's time to leave the guild, I should think about taking some mercenaries with me.
Or get strong enough that he'd be fine on his own.