The second crash was even louder than the first.
This time, something broke downstairs.
Monkar was the first to reach the door. He didn’t look particularly worried. He simply lifted his enormous shield, strapped it to his arm, and stepped into the hallway as if whatever had shaken the building was just another inconvenience.
Elizabeth passed him with her spear already in hand.
“If this is another cart crashing into the guild, I’m sitting back down.”
“Carts usually don’t make the walls shake,” Sogard said as he checked the string of his bow.
Blazer grabbed his sword.
“Unless it was a very motivated cart.”
I stood up with considerably less enthusiasm.
I had other plans for that afternoon.
Plans involving wine, red lingerie, and, with any luck, a very flustered Demon Queen.
A third impact shook the building.
I sighed and grabbed my staff.
“This had better be important.”
We headed downstairs with several other adventurers. The main hall was full of people trying to figure out what was happening, but the answer arrived before we could ask.
A man burst through the guild doors.
“Troll! There’s a troll inside the city!”
Blazer frowned.
“Inside?”
That was unusual.
Trolls didn’t exactly wander into cities for sightseeing.
We stepped outside.
We didn’t have to search for it.
The creature stood at the far end of the avenue, easily four times taller than an ordinary person. It had massive arms, grayish skin, and an entire tree trunk clutched between its hands. Around it were overturned carts, shattered stalls, and civilians running in the opposite direction.
The troll roared and smashed the trunk into the side of a building.
That explained the noise.
“It’s big,” Elizabeth said.
Sogard nocked an arrow.
“Excellent observation.”
Elizabeth glanced at him.
“Want to compete?”
“No.”
“Coward.”
“Smart.”
Monkar walked forward until he stood in front of us.
“You can argue later.”
His voice was calm.
Far too calm for someone staring at a creature using a tree as a club.
The troll noticed us.
Then it charged.
“Monkar,” Blazer said.
“I see it.”
Monkar planted one foot behind him and raised his shield.
The trunk came down.
The impact echoed through the entire street.
A blast of air hit my face, and cracks spread through the ground beneath Monkar’s boots, but he barely moved.
Half a step.
That was all.
He looked over the top of his shield.
“That was unnecessary.”
The troll looked almost as confused as I felt.
Elizabeth didn’t waste the opportunity.
She sprinted past Monkar, planted one foot against his shield, and used it to launch herself upward.
“A little to the right!”
Monkar tilted the shield.
Elizabeth shot into the air.
Her spear pierced the troll’s shoulder.
The creature roared and swung at her, but she had already pulled the weapon free and landed several yards away.
“One,” she said with a grin.
An arrow flew past her head.
It buried itself in the troll’s left eye.
Sogard lowered his bow slightly.
“One.”
Elizabeth turned toward him.
“An eye isn’t worth the same as a shoulder.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to your rules.”
“That sounds like something someone losing would say.”
Another arrow was already in his hand.
He didn’t seem particularly concerned about the argument.
That probably irritated Elizabeth more than any response could have.
The troll ripped the arrow from its eye.
The wound began closing.
“Regeneration,” I said.
Blazer watched the flesh knit itself back together.
“Fast.”
The hole Elizabeth had made in its shoulder was already shrinking too.
Wonderful.
Exactly what I needed.
A monster that didn’t know when to give up.
Although I probably wasn’t the right person to criticize that particular quality.
“We need to hurt it faster than it can heal,” Blazer said.
Elizabeth spun her spear once.
“I can do that.”
“Not alone.”
“I never said alone.”
The troll charged again.
Monkar moved to intercept it, but this time Blazer ran beside him.
He waited until the last possible moment.
Monkar blocked the strike.
Blazer vanished behind the shield.
A second later, he shot out from the side and his sword carved cleanly through the troll’s arm.
The creature staggered back with a roar.
“Now,” Blazer said.
Elizabeth struck one leg.
Sogard fired at the other.
Both attacks landed almost simultaneously.
The troll dropped to one knee.
I watched them for a moment.
It had been a long time since all five of us had fought together.
Sometimes I forgot why people called us legendary heroes.
Monkar could stop something that would have turned an ordinary adventurer into a stain on the pavement.
Elizabeth moved so quickly that trying to follow the tip of her spear made my eyes hurt.
Sogard barely wasted a single movement.
And Blazer...
Well.
Blazer was Blazer.
He could spend an entire afternoon arguing about fighting games with a short, exhausted demon secretary, but the moment he drew that sword, it became very easy to remember why he had earned his title.
“Nellie,” he called.
I blinked.
“Yes?”
“Are you planning to help?”
Right.
I was here too.
The troll forced itself back onto its feet while its wounds began closing again.
I looked at it.
Then I briefly looked in the direction of Morgause’s castle.
There was an extremely attractive woman over there who still hadn’t seen my new lingerie.
The troll roared.
I gripped my staff with both hands.
“You picked a terrible day to ruin my afternoon.”
Mana gathered around me.
Sogard glanced over.
“That looks excessive.”
“I’m in a hurry.”
“Nellie,” Blazer warned, “we’re inside the city.”
“I know.”
“The last time you said that, a wall disappeared.”
“It was an old wall.”
“It was three years old.”
I reduced the amount of mana.
A little.
The troll charged.
I pointed my staff forward.
A magic circle appeared in front of me, and several chains of light erupted from the ground, wrapping around the troll’s arms and legs.
The creature stopped dead.
Monkar raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you were going to blow it up.”
“So did I.”
Blazer looked relieved.
“You’re maturing.”
“No. I just remembered I have expensive things waiting at home, and I don’t want to pay for city repairs again.”
That made much more sense.
The chains held the troll in place as it struggled to break free.
“They won’t last long,” I said. “So if anyone wants to show off, now would be an excellent time.”
Elizabeth smiled.
“Gladly.”
She and Blazer moved at the same time.
Elizabeth drove her spear through one knee while Blazer cut across its torso. Sogard fired two arrows into the openings they created before the troll could recover.
Its wounds started regenerating.
Not fast enough.
Monkar finally stepped forward, raised his shield with both hands, and slammed it directly into the troll’s chest.
I had never completely understood how a man managed to use a shield like that.
I wasn’t about to complain.
The troll flew backward and crashed into the street hard enough to shake the ground.
This time, it didn’t get back up.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
Elizabeth rested her spear against one shoulder.
“I won.”
Sogard lowered his bow.
“What exactly did you win?”
“I did more damage.”
“That isn’t measurable.”
“Because you know I did more.”
Sogard calmly returned an arrow to his quiver.
“If that helps you sleep.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth.
Blazer walked between them before another fight could begin.
“Later.”
Monkar looked at the motionless troll.
“Anyone know what that thing was doing here?”
No one answered.
Before any of us could think about it for long, hurried footsteps came from behind us.
“Heroes!”
A guild employee was running toward us with several documents tucked under one arm.
Blazer turned.
“Was this why we were summoned?”
“The troll?” The man blinked. “No. The meeting hasn’t even started yet.”
I stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“I was actually coming to get you when the attack happened.”
My afternoon.
Morgause.
The wine.
The red lingerie.
All of it drifted a little farther away.
“Is it really necessary for all five of us to be there?” I asked.
“Very.”
Blazer glanced at me.
“Looks like your plans for this afternoon will have to wait.”
I glared at him.
He knew exactly which plans.
Fortunately, the guild employee had no reason to.
“In fact,” the man continued, “the Demon Queen has quite a lot to do with why you were summoned.”
I froze.
The amusement disappeared from Blazer’s face too.
“Morgause?” I asked.
“A message arrived from her castle this morning.”
All my frustration vanished.
A message from Morgause.
Well, technically from her castle.
But this wasn’t the time to obsess over minor details.
“For whom?” Elizabeth asked.
“The Five Summoned Heroes.”
Oh.
All five of us.
Not just me.
A little disappointing.
Still, Morgause had been involved in sending a message that would eventually end up in front of me.
I could work with that.
“What does it say?” Blazer asked.
The man tightened his grip on the documents.
“That’s exactly what the Guild Master wants to discuss with you.”
I looked back toward the guild building.
Suddenly, the meeting didn’t feel like such a waste of time.
Morgause had sent a message.
And I needed to know why.