A Troll appearing on a plateau. It was a situation that couldn't be explained by common sense, but there was no time to be lost in thought.
Thud, thud, thud.
The monster closed in at tremendous speed. It seemed to have clearly spotted us.
"Oh, fuck!"
"R-Run!"
The very first to bolt were the porters. Because they weren't in a position with any real sense of responsibility, they fled without a second thought.
However, I knew all too well that wasn't a very wise call.
"Don't run!"
I shouted urgently. Terrified, however, the porters didn't listen to me.
"GRAAAH!"
Turning your back and running was an act that provoked a monster's hunting instincts. If you couldn't outrun a Troll closing in with strides several times longer than a grown man's in the first place, fleeing was suicide.
What's more, this was an open plateau with nowhere to hide.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
In the blink of an eye, the monster blew past us. The fleeing porters, who had become the Troll's first targets, were trampled underfoot or snatched up in its hands one by one.
Because the porters hadn't listened to me and scattered in every direction, aiming at the Troll as it darted back and forth at high speed wasn't easy.
"We never should've come up to the plateau to begin with...!"
"Damn it. Shut up and raise your weapons!"
Seeing that sight, the mercenaries spat curses even as they readied themselves for battle.
Perhaps because of the strict contracts bound between the guild and the brokerage, they didn't throw everything down and flee like the porters.
Though realizing there was no point in running away now probably played a bigger part.
"Fuck, let's do this!"
The mercenaries muttered in trembling voices. Up ahead, the Troll was tearing the porters to shreds.
Overwhelming strength and speed.
Reminding themselves that standing and fighting gave them even a slightly higher chance of survival, the mercenaries raised their respective weapons.
Of course, the situation was desperate.
A Troll was a monster powerful enough that only mercenaries of at least Silver-Plate rank should set out to hunt it after thorough preparation.
I knew that very well myself.
What you needed for a Troll hunt were blades heated red-hot to hinder its wound regeneration, sturdy iron nets, or traps dug in advance.
Right now, however, none of those were prepared.
"Master Kael!"
Mercenary Captain Jackson looked back at me urgently and shouted.
"Fire—please prepare fire magic!"
We had no iron nets or traps, but with a mage present, intense heat and firepower in a short span of time were well within expectation.
Provided I were an ordinary mage, that is.
"Can you use spells like Fireball or Flame Strike?!"
Perhaps because he was a Silver-Plate Mercenary Captain, he seemed to know a fair bit about low-tier spells. He had probably partied up with a mage once or twice before, too.
Unfortunately, however, the only spell I could use was Energy Bolt.
With a battle right in front of us, there was no reason to bluff or lie. Looking at Jackson, I shook my head.
Seeing my honest reaction, panic colored Jackson's face. He didn't seem to have expected that I, their only real hope to lean on, didn't know any fire-type magic that would work on a Troll.
"...!"
Despair washed over his face. Instead of spitting a curse, he tightened his grip on his sword and turned away from me.
"...Fuck, looks like we're all gonna die."
"Sh-Should we run even now? If we all split up in different directions, a few of us might survive."
The mercenaries muttered in trembling voices. Though they had each picked up their weapons, they couldn't bring themselves to charge rashly at the Troll.
Walking past them, I stepped forward. Then I drew up my mana.
"...?"
"Master Mage?"
Puzzled gazes flew toward me.
While each of a mage's attacks was powerful, they took a long time to cast, so mages usually stood at the rear of the formation.
But I wasn't an ordinary mage.
Infinite mana. Along with a casting time that was practically nonexistent.
It more than made up for the drawback of knowing only a single spell so far.
GRAAAH. Just about to swing its arm at another porter, the Troll whipped its body around toward me as if sensing something.
"...!"
Overwhelmed by the Troll's momentum, the mercenaries faltered.
Stepping right to the very front of the formation without hesitation, however, I took a small breath.
Then I raised my hand toward the monster letting out a ferocious roar.
—!
At the same time, blue light wrapped around my arm. As the small rune pattern engraved on the inside of my forearm flashed, bullet-shaped spheres packed with pure mana rose into the air.
One, two, three, four...
"Good grief, Multi-Chant!"
Seeing spells of the same type rise almost simultaneously, Mercenary Captain Jackson gasped in shock.
On top of that, now that the Troll had finally locked onto me as its target, its movements were fixed in a straight line, making it easy to aim.
The next moment, a full twenty bullets shot toward the Troll's head.
Magic cast without the slightest gap. Slamming into the exact same spot, the spells created a powerful explosion.
KABOOM!
No matter how powerful a Troll's regenerative ability might be, there was no way it could survive taking twenty Energy Bolts to a single point between its eyebrows.
Pierced through by magic bullets that flew like rapid fire, the Troll's head was blown to pieces outright.
It happened in a flash. The Troll didn't even have a moment to let out a howl.
THUUUD—
The monster collapsed. Across the desolate ground of the plateau, the massive body of the Troll crashed down.
Silence followed.
"Uh..."
"What is this...?"
Voices drifted from behind me. Looking back, I saw the mercenaries, every last one of them looking dumbstruck, staring back and forth between me and the Troll.
Smirking at Mercenary Captain Jackson, who looked especially stunned, I spoke.
"Figured this would be a lot simpler than fire magic."
Hearing my words, the mercenaries seemed to snap back to their senses. Only then did it seem to sink in that the battle was over.
"I-It's dead! The Troll croaked!"
"...I'd only heard rumors, but mages really are monsters."
"D-Damn it. We're alive."
Relief and elation. Several mercenaries even put down their weapons and plopped right down onto the ground.
Mercenary Captain Jackson, however, still looked lost in shock. Unable to take his eyes off me as I casually brushed off my hands, he shook his head and spoke.
"Good heavens. I've never seen anything like this in my life. Just what are you?"
Having apparently worked alongside low-tier mages a few times before, he seemed to vaguely sense that the overwhelming display I had just put on was anything but ordinary.
Smirking, I answered Jackson.
"What do you mean, what am I? Just a poor mage hired onto a caravan."
Drawing my gaze away from the mercenary captain shaking his head in disbelief, I looked toward one side of the wagons.
There stood the merchant Bernard, who had hidden himself between the sacks in terror upon hearing the Troll's roar a moment ago.
"G-Good heavens..."
He seemed to have witnessed the battle just now, too. Walking up to him, where he was a mess of grain flour and dust, I patted his shoulder to brush the dust off and spoke.
"You haven't forgotten what you said about giving fifteen gold coins to whoever slays the Troll, right?"
"..."
With a blank look on his face, Bernard nodded.
Sensing that the threat was over, the horses snorted, the sound echoing faintly across the plateau.
***
We didn't set off right away.
Since several porters had lost their lives, we needed time to regroup.
Ironically, there were no wounded.
Because everyone caught and torn apart by the Troll had died on the spot.
Truth be told, even if there had been wounded, treating them would have been difficult. In a caravan put together in a rush purely for speed, bandages and crude medicinal herbs were all we had.
Fortunately, all the horses were unharmed. Since all the mercenaries were fine too, traveling itself didn't seem like it would pose any particular difficulty.
Though the mercenaries would have to handle the odd jobs in place of the porters now.
"Man, that thing is huge."
The most important task still remained.
Namely, dealing with the Troll's carcass. With admiration mixed into their expressions, the mercenaries were looking down at the dead Troll.
A foul stench was wafting off it, yet not a single mercenary stayed far back.
That was because low-ranking mercenaries rarely got a chance to examine a Troll's corpse this up close.
Naturally, they hadn't gathered just to gawk, either.
"All right, let's get started quickly!"
Trolls were fairly valuable monsters.
Because the creature's blood was one of the base ingredients for potions, workshops and the Magic Tower were always looking for it, and things like its molars and tendons were byproducts that fetched a decent price in their own right.
And needless to say, all the byproducts were mine.
No mercenary was crazy enough to object to that. The same went for the merchant Bernard, of course.
After I had saved everyone's lives, helping butcher the carcass was something they were more than happy to do. Standing a few steps away, I watched the mercenaries hard at work dismantling it.
'...The stench is unreal.'
On a monitor, a few flies buzzing beside it was the extent of the presentation, but in real life, it was foul enough to make me hold my breath without thinking.
Used to roughing it in filthy camps, the mercenaries seemed to tolerate it well enough, though.
'Roughly fourteen shots, was it?'
I briefly reviewed the battle that had taken place a moment ago.
Just to be safe, I had fired off twenty Energy Bolts, but around fourteen had been enough to smash the Troll's head apart.
The remaining six shots had flown straight through the hole already punched open and out the back of the Troll's head.
An ordinary mage would have collapsed gasping from mana exhaustion, yet my current condition was no different from before the battle began.
'More importantly...'
With an uneasy look on my face, I stared at the Troll's carcass.
Only one question remained on my mind.
Why a Troll had shown up out of nowhere on this damned plateau.
Just as the mercenaries said, Trolls were monsters that lived inside deep forests or damp caves. They didn't belong on a desolate plateau like this.
Granted, it wasn't completely incomprehensible.
'...Damn Hell Mode.'
Hadn't I already gone through an unexpected turn of events back at the execution platform?
What kept me lost in thought, however, was the cause behind it.
This was a real world where countless interactions took place. Just as the lord of Pelhart had spent money repairing the square and left the rear rampart sturdy, there had to be a valid reason why a cave-dwelling Troll had come all the way out here.
There were a few possible causes I could think of.
Among the major stories and quests connected to the Kingdom of Antalic where I currently was, there were shamans who controlled monsters and cruel experimental groups, too.
After calling to mind a few possible causes, I shook my head. I didn't know which one it was right now, but I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
'...Before going to look for the next rune, I'd better stop by a magic shop in the big city first.'
Having reminded myself of a way to bolster my immediate firepower, I wrapped up my thoughts. Right then, a voice called out.
"Master Mage! The work is all done! Please come take a look!"
Hearing the mercenary's shout, which had grown even more polite than before, I headed toward the Troll's carcass.
Holding my breath through my nose in preparation for the Troll's stench, which had grown even fouler than earlier, of course.