The Troll
Horve stroked the artifact hanging from his neck with a hand like a withered stick of firewood.
"Aaaargh!"
At the sudden scream, he looked toward the hill across the village. The troll that had charged out in a single burst was batting soldiers aside, sending them flying.
It's working. It's following my orders!
Thanks to a proper artifact, the troll was obeying Horve's commands faithfully — unlike the others. His gaze then shifted to the cluster of humans facing the creature down.
The suspicious ones who'd been watching Malešov all winter. They were Count Valois's soldiers, no question.
Horve ground his teeth.
"Y-you bastard! W-what's so s-safe about this?!"
He spat the curse thinking of Viscount Doerre, the man who'd sent him that lying message.
This is why you can't trust nobles...!
He swore that once this job was finished and he was back in the territory, he would squeeze extra payment out of the man no matter what.
"The war is dragging on. Even if something happens in the territory, there won't be anyone left to deal with it."
Of course Viscount Doerre was no prophet. There was no way he could have predicted every variable. But Horve had no time, and cursing the man was the only thing left to him.
A massive burst of flame erupted from the troll's body. The creature howled, shaking the fire from its hide.
Fire...?
Horve frowned as he watched the flames scatter.
Fire. It was always fire that got in his way.
It had been the same in the north. When Horve had tried to prove himself in the war, the Fire Mage had stood in his path — magic on a completely different level, the kind that incinerated demonic beasts in an instant. Because of that bastard, Horve had become a third-rate mage who'd fallen out of the Count's favor.
"Damn it..."
He rummaged through his robes and pulled out a worn leather pouch. Inside were several pendants, similar in shape to the one hanging from his own neck. Horve checked the gems set in the center of each one. A dark energy was clumped together at the heart of every stone.
Unrefined mana. Demonic energy.
He threw them to the ground and stabbed them with his staff. The gems flared with light all at once, and the demonic energy contained within them surged up the staff and poured into his body.
"Guh—!"
The demonic energy raced through him in an instant. It swallowed a portion of his mana, then surged all the way to his head. A pain like something boring through the crown of his skull hit him, and he felt his consciousness link with something else.
These crude-looking pendants were a new form of magic he'd chosen in order to surpass the Fire Mage. The spell used artifacts as a medium, linking his mind to demonic beasts so he could control them. The more perfect the artifact, the more painlessly it could be used — but when it wasn't, he had to endure the agony, just like now.
Of course there was a major drawback. The demonic energy entered the body unchecked and gnawed away at the mage from the inside. Horve figured he could live with that much.
"Hah— hah..."
He gasped for breath. Cold sweat soaked his entire body, but he was already past the point of feeling anything. With half-lidded, unfocused eyes, he groped at the empty air, trembling.
Beast-like creatures began slinking in from the village and the forest. Wild dog demonic beasts and kobolds. These were Horve's current limit, excluding the troll. The beasts, like Horve himself, all had the vacant eyes of things whose souls had been drained away.
Horve squeezed the words out, and the beasts' breathing grew heavier. They began to snarl, then charged straight toward the hill.
Immediately after, the connection in his mind grew hazy, and a thick black fog seemed to unfurl inside his skull. Blood trickled from his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut, wiped it away, then used his staff to push himself up and lean back against the wall.
"Below! More of them coming from below!"
A soldier who'd been driven up the hill by the troll shouted again.
"What now?!"
Auger yelled. He was already losing his mind over the monster that had come out of nowhere — and now there was more?
"Demonic beasts! Wild dogs — and kobolds too!"
The soldier was in a panic, words tumbling out in a jumble. Even so, the situation was immediately clear. A pack of demonic beasts was coming straight for them.
Auger bit down on his lip. He'd known something was wrong in Malešov — but he hadn't expected them to be attacked the moment they arrived, as if the enemy had been waiting. And because of that monstrous thing, the plan had fallen apart before they could even put it into motion.
The troll bellowed and swept its enormous arm. The conscript soldiers heaved their shields up with everything they had, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop that kind of strength. One of them was split clean in two along with his shield and sent flying backward. In the impact, the soldier's blood and guts sprayed over the heads of the others.
"Hiiik—!"
The corpse tumbled, and the soldiers recoiled in horror, dropping to the ground. That was when the wild dog beasts slammed into the conscripts' flank, claws bared, lunging for their throats. The kobolds went for their ankles. They were small, but that made them fast, and their teeth and claws were more than sharp enough to kill.
A giant troll, swift wild dogs, and kobolds besides. The fight collapsed into a melee in an instant. A soldier went flying from a sweep of the troll's arm, and the beasts piled onto whoever hit the ground. The troll itself came crashing down on the tangled mass of men and monsters, and the whole knot of bodies burst apart in a spray of blood.
"S-somebody help me!"
Terrified soldiers began throwing down their weapons and scattering.
"Don't drop your weapons! You'll die anyway if you run!"
Auger shouted desperately — but he was just as frightened as they were. He and his retainers had faced the demonic bear in the north, but that hadn't been with half-trained soldiers like these. Castle troops in proper armor and shields had held the front, and the Church's priests had healed the wounded as fast as they fell. Above all, there had been only one beast — and Joseph the mage had poured out insane amounts of firepower.
This was nothing like that. A monster as strong as the northern bear, or close to it, had come bursting out of nowhere with no warning. The men who should have been a wall were too terrified to hold formation, and the ones still trying to stand their ground were being smashed apart in a single blow. And the mage who should have been laying down overwhelming firepower...
"Fuck!"
...was too busy dodging the beasts that kept coming at him to think about anything else.
The moment Horve had given the order, the troll had started charging mindlessly at Joseph and Joseph alone. It battered conscripts and soldiers out of the way, ignored even Joseph's own retainers, and came straight for him.
What the hell is this all of a sudden?!
He hit the ground and rolled as the left arm whooshed over him. Using the rebound, the troll drew its right arm back and high. Joseph reflexively pulled out a Mana Orb and chanted.
"Return!"
⟨ Return ⟩
In the same instant, the troll's right arm cracked through the air like a whip and slammed into the white wall. The barrier exploded with a thunderous roar, and the corner of Joseph's mouth twitched upward.
Got it—
"What?"
The troll didn't even flinch. It swung its left arm again as if nothing had happened. Joseph hit the dirt and rolled with no time to think. The arm grazed over his head, and a blast of wind slapped him in the face behind it.
It's not taking any damage?!
He stared at the troll in disbelief. Return hadn't even slowed it down. The hide on its right arm was a little torn, and a wisp of smoke was rising from the divinity in the spell — but otherwise the thing looked completely fine.
You've got to be kidding me.
This was the same spell that had bounced the northern bear's charge. So why was this thing's arm still intact?
Did it exceed what the spell can take?
Every spell had its limits. Return could only hold for a fraction of a second, but the amount of force it could reflect had always been considerable. The troll's swings seemed to be over that threshold.
The creature raised its right arm again. Joseph ran backward, teeth clenched.
Fuck, it won't even give me time to think!
"Hold it! We need to buy him time to cast!"
Auger and a handful of soldiers charged the troll. While it had been so fixated on Joseph, they'd managed to get their heads back on. Joseph's retainers were among them.
"No! Stay back!"
The shout came out of him on reflex. This thing tore people apart in a single hit. This wasn't the bear. There was no one here who could heal, and Joseph couldn't afford to spray magic the way he had then. If they died, there was nothing he could do for them.
Blades and axes punched into the troll's thigh in a cluster, and the creature staggered. It looked down at its own feet, then lifted one leg.
"Get out of the way!"
Someone shouted from behind — but the soldiers had already committed everything to the charge, and their stances were broken. Joseph saw the troll's leg coming down on them, aimed squarely at Derik in the middle of the pack.
"Damn it!"
He swept his staff and fired a Mana Orb — but it was obvious Derik would be crushed before it ever landed. Derik had gone rigid with terror, breath caught in his throat, staring at the troll's foot as it filled his vision and came down toward his face.
Someone burst out from behind the troll and drove a sword into the back of its knee.
It was Manir — who'd been rummaging through the wagon for his sword this whole time.
"Raaaagh!!"
Manir threw everything he had into it, jamming himself against the hamstring and twisting the blade as he wrenched it back. The troll screamed and thrashed its leg, sending Manir flying. He hit the ground hard — but the troll lost its balance in the same instant and went down with a heavy crash. The soldiers finally snapped out of it and scattered.
Manir shoved himself up and shouted.
"The legs are the weak point! Go for the legs!"
He spat once on the ground and charged the fallen troll. The creature saw him coming, twisted its body without getting up, and swept an arm. Manir rolled under it.
"Sir Auger! Together—!"
The words died in his throat.
What the hell is that?
Auger, who'd gotten clear of the troll, was struggling to fend off a single charging wild dog.
"Fuck..."
Only then did Manir realize how far below him Auger actually was. He'd been wary of this guy? Irritation flared — but this was no time for that. While he'd taken his eyes off the troll to look at Auger, the creature had gotten back on its feet.
Manir let out a breath. He'd been trying to cut the tendon with that ambush, but the hide had been too thick. He stepped in front of the troll again, and the creature went still for a moment, staring him down. After that last attack, it was clearly being careful of him.
...Bought us some time, at least.
Joseph watched from a distance. Right now, Manir looked like the only one who could stall the troll — and fortunately, he didn't seem interested in running from it.
Joseph ran through the situation fast. When the troll had first come bursting out, he'd fired Flame Bite on reflex. It had singed the fur and done little else. Flame Bite, Iceberg — nothing like that was going to put a meaningful dent in this thing. And with no way to recover mana, he couldn't spam Mana Orbs the way he used to. Using Return offensively wasn't realistic either. Going for the legs to break its stance looked possible, but that was stalling, nothing more. His mana would run dry long before he finished the thing off.
Wait a second...
Joseph lifted his head and looked at Manir fighting the troll. Manir weaved between the swinging arms, carving shallow cuts into the creature's hide.