Howling
Lawrence checked the gnoll force together with Sing.
Along the road bordering the forest, a seemingly endless pack of gnolls had set up camp on the path the caravan needed to take. Even a rough look suggested there were several dozen of them. Because the gnolls moved in and out of the woods, though, it was impossible to count them precisely.
Among them were five especially large Gnoll Warriors, at the very least.
Fighting that many head-on would be stupidity.
“Better to lure them out,” Lawrence said.
“I was planning to use fire.”
Sing nodded as though that matched his own thoughts.
Gnolls were notoriously drawn to fire. There was no reason not to exploit that weakness.
“Did the caravan happen to provide any oil?”
“What caravan would hand over something they could sell?”
“The Black Rose Caravan supplied it, though.”
“……”
An awkward silence settled between them.
“Let’s gather anything that’ll burn first.”
“I already sent men for it. They should be arriving about now.”
The mercenaries were busily hauling bundles of brushwood into place.
They had prepared three separate piles of fuel. Lawrence checked the dead leaves they had stacked on top. The moment he pressed his fingers into them, they crumbled to dust. The brushwood was no different. Dry, brittle tinder—perfect for the weather.
At this rate, they probably wouldn’t even need to pour oil over it.
“There are really that many gnolls?”
Sidra, who arrived shortly after, looked almost excited.
“I can’t say for sure how many. If you include the ones moving through the forest, I’d guess there are well over a hundred.”
“A hundred gnolls, huh… And there are Gnoll Warriors too?”
“At least five.”
“If howling starts, there’ll be dozens more pouring in.”
Sing nodded.
“If there’s a nest in the forest, there could be even more than that.”
“Then even luring them out won’t solve this easily.”
Lawrence finished checking the brushwood piles and spoke up.
“If you can draw them into a trap, I can use magic.”
“What kind of magic?”
“Enough to take out at least several dozen, I think.”
“That strong? Don’t tell me it’s Fireball?”
Sidra asked, startled.
Fireball was a spell he’d heard about from Wina. Supposedly, mages used it as a main offensive spell in territory wars. Even Sidra, a Silver Plate mercenary, seemed to know about it.
“It’s not Fireball. Honestly, it’s probably not a spell you’d know by name even if I told you.”
The magic Lawrence had in mind was Shadow Trap. In sheer destructive power, it was the strongest spell he could currently use. The problem was that it was a set-piece spell, which came with a few limitations.
“What the spell is doesn’t matter. If the power’s real, that’s all that counts. If it can kill a few dozen gnolls, there’s no reason not to use it.”
“I never said I was against it. If the mage is willing to use magic for once, I’m all for it. I just wondered if I’d get to see Fireball in action.”
Sidra shrugged, as if to say he wasn’t trying to cause a misunderstanding.
“This spell takes time to prepare. I’ll set one at each brush pile. It’ll activate if anyone steps on it, so please make sure the mercenaries don’t get close.”
“Ah. So it’s a trap of sorts.”
“That’s the simplest way to put it.”
There was no need to combine it with any other spell. Gnolls weren’t neighbors from the Spirit World like Bodjanoy. If all the Shadow Traps he’d placed went off, the damage would be more than enough.
“Don’t go near them until the spell activates. Stay hidden as long as you can, then hit the gnolls from behind once they’re thrown into chaos. If this goes the way I expect, we should be able to keep casualties to a minimum.”
Lawrence was confident of that.
This wasn’t his first time fighting gnolls. They might be numerous, but they weren’t clever monsters. Just like a horn boar was helpless before the color red, gnolls had a fatal weakness of their own: fire.
“Then I suppose there’s nothing for us to do here.”
“Mage. I’ll trust you and get the mercenaries ready.”
Sing and Sidra scattered to their respective groups.
Left alone, Lawrence moved around the brushwood piles, preparing his spell.
“Shadow Trap.”
Shadows wove together like thread.
It was a spell that demanded time and care to construct. Even though he’d practiced in the workshop’s basement, he couldn’t afford to relax. He could count the times he’d used it in real combat on one hand.
His concentration sharpened like the edge of a blade.
Still, once he’d prepared one, the rest went more smoothly. By the time he had finished the third Shadow Trap, a faint headache had started to throb behind his eyes.
Lawrence sat down in place and steadied his breathing.
There was no need to rush. The gnolls weren’t about to come charging at him this instant, and the hilt of the sword was, for now, in his companions’ hands.
Soon, the mercenaries finished their battle preparations.
At Lawrence’s signal, he cast Fire in a way that would keep the Shadow Traps from triggering prematurely. A moment later, a beacon of fire rose from the brushwood, announcing the start of the hunt.
* * *
The mercenaries waited in three broad groups.
The men assigned to the front line stood on the left with Sing. Those who had been assigned to the rear took position on the right with Sidra. And Lawrence, who had been shifting between front and rear, waited at the back.
Of them all, he was the only one holding his position alone.
They didn’t need a bait runner.
Things were a little different from the Black Rose Caravan incident. They were farther from the wagon train, but much closer to the gnoll pack. The beasts caught the smell of fire quickly.
From beyond the horizon, gnolls began to shamble into view.
They looked different from the ones Lawrence had seen near Mistra. Their hides were a pale, almost snow-white color, and they kept wary eyes on their surroundings.
But that lasted only a moment.
Even monsters, in the end, sought warmth when trying to escape the cold.
Soon enough, unable to resist their instincts, the gnolls began moving toward the campfires.
At first, with only a few of them, things remained calm. But more and more gnolls gathered around the flames, and those who lost the struggle for space were pushed back from the warmth one by one.
Of course, there was no way gnolls would simply give up.
The atmosphere grew so tense it seemed as if a single poke would make it burst. In the end, fighting broke out over the fires. They didn’t stop at threats; they threw themselves at one another, trading blows for the better spots.
Grrruuuh!
It was a Gnoll Warrior who brought order to the blood-splattered scene. At the threatening howl, the others tucked their tails and backed off.
Once the area quieted down, the Gnoll Warrior approached the campfire.
It was making a path for itself.
This beast was nothing like the gnolls cautiously warming themselves around the fire. Striding forward, the Gnoll Warrior reached toward the blaze without hesitation, never knowing it was walking toward death.
BOOM!
Flames and thunder answered it.
The Shadow Trap detonated, and the campfire exploded.
A ringing roar filled the air. This wasn’t the same scale as Shadow Spear. The blaze didn’t just swallow the Gnoll Warrior—the gnolls gathered nearby had no way to escape the blast either.
The sound did not end there.
As though a tower built with painstaking care had suddenly collapsed, the other campfires began to explode in turn.
Fire surged upward.
The gnolls’ pained howls went on and on.
The Gnoll Warrior at the center of the Shadow Trap was killed instantly.
And those that survived were no better off. The gnolls that caught fire burned alive where they stood.
Yip!
With flesh searing and blackening, shrieks tore through the air.
And the fire game wasn’t over yet. The gnolls, thrown into confusion, collided with one another and spread the flames farther still.
The effect was far greater than Lawrence had expected.
But the expression on his face remained dark.
The sound had only gone off twice.
The Shadow Trap set in the third campfire hadn’t activated.
He’d made a mistake.
The Shadow Trap had been planted inside the campfire itself. At this rate, the last one wasn’t going to detonate at all.
His caution had backfired.
He’d thought he needed to let the gnolls draw in enough before triggering it.
But although the gnolls were still milling about in confusion, they weren’t close enough to trip the spell.
There was no time to keep watching.
He had to trigger the Shadow Trap before the mercenaries moved in.
Fire wouldn’t reach that far.
Not even Fire Tail had the range for it.
There were only two spells he could use at this distance.
One was his specialty, Shadow Spear.
The other was Water Ball, which he had learned recently.
Using Shadow Spear was a bad idea.
Its power was beyond reproach, of course. The Shadow Spear he’d used beneath Shadow Light had been enough to wound that Bodjanoy. Even without raising Shadow Light, it would surely still have produced meaningful results.
But there was no need to use a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken.
He had already cast Shadow Trap three times. Using Shadow Spear as well felt excessive no matter how he looked at it.
Besides, he was curious what effect the Shadow Trap would show when triggered by Water Ball.
He didn’t often get the chance to test that in real combat.
Having rationalized it to himself, Lawrence stood.
“Water Ball.”
A sphere of water took shape.
There was no need to accelerate it. The Water Ball, once it left his hand, struck the Shadow Trap.
Explosion?
No.
The promised roar never came. Instead, the Shadow Trap struck by Water Ball overflowed with shadow.
The flames were snuffed out, and in their place came a fierce rushing current.
What had been a trap of shadow transformed into a wave and swallowed the confused gnolls whole.
They looked exactly like rats that had fallen into water.
The gnolls were stained black, as if they’d been doused in oil.
They didn’t seem to have suffered any particular damage. On the contrary, the gnolls who had been burning survived because they were soaked through.
Still, only part of them had been soaked by the Water Ball-activated Shadow Trap.
An arrowstorm rained down on the confused pack.
“Kill them!”
“Time to go make money!”
The Water Ball was the signal that opened the battle.
The mercenaries, who had been waiting for the right moment, charged.
Gnolls and mercenaries crashed into one another, and a chaotic melee erupted.
The result of the Water Ball-triggered Shadow Trap had been unexpected, but the spell had already fulfilled its purpose.
As the mercenaries surged forward, the gnoll formation collapsed almost at once.
Sing and Sidra both targeted the Gnoll Warriors.
Ignoring the lesser gnolls as they drove in, the two mercenaries took the monsters’ heads.
What happened next was the part no one had expected.
“What’s going on? Aren’t these things slow?”
“Well, what did you expect after getting hit by magic?”
For some reason, the gnolls’ reactions were sluggish. Even the motions of lifting their weapons, even the act of shifting their feet, looked as though someone were holding their bodies back and dragging them down.
Lawrence realized the reason quickly.
It was the effect of the Shadow Trap triggered by Water Ball.
The slowed gnolls were cut down far too easily.
“Giel!”
“Don’t shout my name like that, you idiot!”
“What, are you trying to kill somebody? Why the hell are you shooting at me!?”
“It wasn’t me!”
“You little—”
Their voices carried an unmistakable ease.
More and more gnolls went down beneath the mercenaries’ assault.
With the battle in full melee, Lawrence couldn’t use Shadow Spear. Instead, he kept his distance and cast Water Ball again. There was no need to kill them outright. It was enough to make the gnolls’ bodies reel when the spell struck. The mercenaries seized those tiny openings without missing a beat.
“That’s a shadow mage for you!”
“I could kiss you I’m so grateful!”
Even the last remaining Gnoll Warrior was brought down by Sidra.
After that, the rest was swift and one-sided.
Everyone valued their own life. Even if they were nothing more than monsters.
The gnolls that had held the front line up to now turned and fled.
At first, only a handful broke.
So few that it was barely noticeable.
But it was only because the first step was the hardest.
Once the others saw their kin fleeing, they pulled back from the battlefield in an instant.
One became several. Several became a pack. And so the gnolls fled into the forest, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.
“Figures, the little bastards run with their tails between their legs.”
“This is what happens when you go against mercenaries, you morons!”
“Who’d have the nerve to stand up to us when they’re gnolls?”
The mercenaries cheered.
Right now, even the blood-soaked wounds didn’t hurt.
They had every right to be drunk on victory.
* * *
“The losses are... only five wounded?”
“One of them even says he won’t need a potion. I didn’t think things would go this smoothly.”
Sing and Sidra looked at Lawrence.
The two of them had seen the power of Shadow Trap with their own eyes. If they’d simply lured the gnolls toward the fire and left it at that, their own casualties would likely have been severe.
“Taking down the Gnoll Warriors quickly was the key.”
There had been five Gnoll Warriors in all.
Two of them had been caught in the Shadow Trap explosions.
The remaining three had been handled by Sing and Sidra.
Thanks to that, the confused gnolls never managed to rally as a group before the battle was over.
“If there aren’t any Gnoll Warriors, gnolls are just a rabble.”
“Stopping the howling helped too.”
With the forest so close by, if a howl had gone up, dozens more gnolls might have come pouring out.
“Magic really is incredible. It’s nothing like what I saw at Spider Forest. Honestly, I thought at least five or six people would die, never mind just a few wounded.”
At Sidra’s words, Sing nodded as if he agreed.
“Mage. Today’s victory belongs to you.”
“No, Sir Sing. It was all of ours.”
Lawrence corrected him.
“Hah. Sure, sure. The only problem is the gnoll hides are in bad shape.”
“You can’t catch two rabbits at once.”
The hides exposed to Shadow Trap had been badly damaged. The same was true for the one triggered by Water Ball. Black water had clung to the pelts, and even the merchant delegation shook their heads at the sight.
“Sounds like you don’t know who kept your losses to a minimum.”
“What can I say? Mercenaries are all like this. As long as they’ve still got their lives, they want money. Booze, gambling, and women. The more cash, the better. If you think about it that way, maybe money is what makes a mercenary a mercenary.”
Sidra wore a thin, crooked smile.
At his belt hung a money pouch, payment for the Gnoll Warrior’s axe he’d turned over to the merchant.
“Still, this is odd. Judging by the color of their hides, these are gnolls from the north.”
Sing wore a faintly troubled expression.
“What’s odd about that? We’re the ones who climbed this far north.”
“The snowfield hasn’t even shown itself yet. No matter how much gnolls love to hide, they shouldn’t need to come all the way down into a forest like this.”
“So you’re saying there’s a reason?”
“Monsters aren’t fools. If they abandoned their nest and came down here, there has to be a reason.”
“You really do make life sound exhausting. We’re mercenaries. Whatever the problem is, we just work according to the pay, right?”
Even after Sidra brushed it off, Lawrence couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. If Sing was right, then the gnolls had come down farther than usual. But why?
He couldn’t help wondering.