Chapter 25
The price of stepping carelessly into the troll's territory was horrific.
"Aaaaaaah!"
The scream echoed through the forest.
The troll's massive hand gripped Daryl around the waist and lifted her into the air. Compared to the troll's strength, a human woman's body was light as a mere toy.
Daryl thrashed and kicked in midair.
"L-let go of me! Let go right now! I said let go!"
The troll let out a grotesque laugh. It licked its glistening lips with its tongue, then tore at Daryl's uniform with its remaining hand.
Riiip!
The tough fabric tore away like paper. Her bare flesh was exposed in full to the damp air of the forest.
"This can't be happening! It can't! I-I... I won't lose to some mere troll...!"
Daryl had regarded subjugating a troll as little more than child's play.
She had mistakenly believed that once they had the right equipment, a B-rank monster would meekly take the hits.
Even B-rank monsters could be taken down by novice adventurers if they were properly prepared, and that had been Darko's plan as well.
But reality was different.
Trolls, too, were creatures that thought and learned in order to survive.
The troll had anticipated what countermeasures humans might prepare and how they might respond, and the moment it sensed human presence approaching, it lay in ambush.
Daryl's party had made no attempt to conceal their presence even after entering the forest, allowing the troll to ambush them.
The troll tightened its grip slightly around Daryl's waist as she resisted.
Daryl struggled to breathe, as though her organs would burst.
"Ghk...! H-help..."
The troll pulled out something rough and knobbly.
When Daryl felt it brush her toes, thighs, and skin, her complexion changed in shock and turned deathly pale.
"N-no. I don't want this... I said I don't want it... Where... where is everyone... Where is everyone?!"
Her tear-filled eyes searched for her party members.
But the clan adventurers apart from her had all been torn apart and scattered beyond recognition by the tendril whip the troll had lashed out with, leaving only her alive.
Something covered in rough hide was fitted between Daryl's legs.
"Eek."
The clan's haughty party leader had been reduced to a breeding female for the troll.
There were people watching the scene.
Four people crouched behind the bushes.
They were Elena and her party members.
Hans had gone pale, both hands clamped over his mouth. Duke, too, trembled as he gripped his weapon and looked away.
But Elena was different.
She stared straight at the horrific sight Daryl was enduring without looking away.
Her hand rested on her sword hilt as she waited for the right moment.
Daryl's moan mingled with screams.
The troll was engrossed in mating.
It was a horrific sight, too terrible to watch, but adventurers would see scenes like it often from then on. They had already seen it with the orcs, hadn't they?
Mira had already nocked an arrow, as though accustomed to this, and waited for instructions.
Even if a troll's ambush succeeded, its exceptional regenerative power meant it would recover quickly.
If they were going to ambush it, they had to finish it decisively.
Elena gave a hand signal.
Mira drew her bowstring taut.
Hans and Duke lowered their bodies as well.
Bracing their legs, they finished preparing to follow Elena.
At the moment the troll exhaled roughly and thrust its hips deep into Daryl's body.
"Hwaaang!"
Daryl's cry of pleasure spread through the forest.
At that sound, Elena burst out from the bushes.
At the instant the troll, oblivious to everything, was buried in Daryl's body.
Schk!
Elena's sword pierced the back of the troll's neck.
"Kroaaaargh!"
Troll blood sprayed like a fountain, spattering Elena's cheek.
The troll, writhing in pain, flung Daryl to the ground.
As the troll's two arms flailed in the air to catch the insect that had stabbed its neck, Elena pulled out her sword and kicked its shoulder.
Using the recoil, she leaped far backward to widen the distance.
"Begin!"
No sooner had her feet touched the ground than Elena shouted.
At her command, the party members waiting in the bushes moved as one.
Duke was the first to burst out.
Though Duke's body had become smaller after transforming into a woman, Duke thrust the heavy shield forward and smashed it into the troll's face to draw its attention.
"Over here, you monster!"
"Kroaaak!!"
Kang!
The troll's fist slammed into the shield.
Duke's small body was pushed back, scraping across the dirt, but Duke held firm without falling. Duke's training as a tank had not changed even though the body had.
Hans seized the opening and slipped in from the side.
Putting his weight behind the blow, he aimed precisely at the troll's knee joint.
The troll's leg buckled.
The massive body lost its balance and staggered down onto one knee.
"Mira!"
At Elena's signal, a sharp whoosh cut across the forest.
The arrow leaving Mira's bow struck the troll between the brows.
The troll's head dropped sharply.
A small glass bottle filled with fire oil was attached to the arrow shaft.
Crash!
The bottle shattered, drenching the troll's torso in sticky oil.
A second arrow followed.
A flame flickered on the arrow that followed immediately.
When the flaming arrow touched the oil, fierce flames wrapped around the troll's body.
"Kueeeek!"
Startled awake by the searing pain, the troll rolled on the ground desperately trying to put out the fire.
A vile stench filled the air.
Even as that arrow flew, the wounds Elena had carved with her sword began to heal, only to be engulfed in flames and twist grotesquely.
The troll's tendons, severed at its elbows, thighs, and flank, roasted in place.
'It can't do a thing when I do what Uncle told me?'
Elena adjusted her grip and reflected on Uncle's advice.
Trolls with exceptional regenerative power are defenseless because they charge in relying on that regeneration. To subdue one, target its limbs rather than vital points.
If you want to kill it, wait for an opening to land a lethal blow.
"Krrk! Kroaaak!"
A green, powder-like force spread from the troll's hand. Grass sprang up from the ground in an instant and smothered the flames clinging to its body.
Once the fire was subdued, mottled burn marks all over the troll's body swelled, then shrank as they regenerated.
Its two eyes flashed crimson.
Sensing a threat to its survival, the troll kicked at Duke, who was hovering in front of it, with bloodshot eyes.
Duke raised the shield to avoid a direct collision.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
But the ground shook violently, and vines rose like snakes from beneath Duke's feet, coiling around the calves.
Green magic.
The power of the green magic wielded by the troll was unleashed against Duke.
The troll kicked Duke hard, shield and all, sending Duke flying.
Echoes of green magic lingered around the troll's foot.
The ground at the troll's feet crackled. Vines imbued with green magic raced out from beneath the earth, targeting the party members' ankles.
"Fall back!"
Elena shouted and pushed off the ground.
One vine grazed Elena's calf, but the magic resistance of her ogre-hide light armor dispelled the green magic's force.
The vine lost its strength and failed to bind her.
Elena did not flee.
Instead, she charged.
A bluish aura flowed through Elena's sword.
'One big move, all at once!'
Elena's eyes shone fiercely.
She gripped the sword tightly with both hands.
The troll, unable to steady itself from the pain of its burns, staggered awkwardly.
It sensed the presence of condensed mana and noticed Elena approaching, but reacted a beat too late.
The arm it swung belatedly was clumsy, and Elena ducked beneath it and drove the mana-condensed blade deep into the troll's torso.
Ripples of mana burst from its back.
"Krrk... Krgh..."
The troll's eyes rolled back, losing focus, and its massive body soon crashed to the ground.
Elena panted heavily and shook troll blood from her sword.
Hans shouted.
"W-we did it... We really did it!"
"It's overrr—"
He jumped and cheered.
Duke also lowered the shield and let out a ragged breath.
"Though Elena did almost all of it by herself."
Only Mira assessed the kill dispassionately, sounding deflated despite her happiness.
"Who cares! If we helped even a little, it's our victory!"
"Hans is right. If we hadn't drawn its attention, Elena couldn't have landed the final blow, and we'd only have dragged things out."
"If the party leader says so, I suppose."
With Elena chiming in too, Mira looked awkward but accepted it.
"No one hurt, right?"
Elena looked around at her party members and checked.
No one appeared injured.
Duke, who had been kicked away, was tough.
But a rustling sound came from one corner of the bushes.
"Sniff... Ngh..."
Daryl, who had barely escaped from the troll, had not made it far.
She probably couldn't have returned alone in the first place.
With bare skin exposed through her torn uniform, she stared at Elena with frightened eyes.
Between her legs, the signs of having been violated by the troll were unmistakable. The slick fluid she'd secreted in her desperation to survive glistened transparently, as though she'd fallen into water.
Curled into a ball and trembling, she looked pitiful. The Daryl who had mocked Elena's party and acted arrogantly moments earlier was nowhere to be seen.
All that remained was a defeated woman crawling across the ground, consumed by fear.
Her other party members... were gone.
They were all dead.
The troll's green magic had left not a single man alive.
Elena held out a hand to Daryl.
Daryl flinched, scraping frantically at the dirt as she backed away.
"D-don't come... Don't come any closer!"
Without a word, Elena took off the short cloak she was wearing and draped it over Daryl's shoulders.
She felt sorry for her, but Uncle had said so.
An adventurer is responsible for everything that happens to them.
Daryl's party had also brought this upon themselves by being overconfident in the troll's territory.
That helped Elena understand a little more of what Uncle meant by personal responsibility. If you didn't take responsibility for yourself, you were the one who ended up dead.
So she did not pity Daryl.
She looked down at Daryl with an impassive gaze.
"I can help you get back to the city, but how much will you pay me?"
"...Huh?"
Elena calmly haggled over the price.
Daryl only moved her lips, and no answer came.
"Let's settle on one gold coin."
"Th-that's too expensive."
"If you don't like it, you can go back by yourself. I hope you don't run into any monsters on the way. We're few in number and poorly prepared, so even if goblins or orcs capture you, we won't be able to save you. But at least we'll inform your clan."
"...."
Daryl's knees went weak.
Her legs, which had taken the troll's member, could no longer support her; as her strength gave out, the dirt between her legs grew darkly stained.
She had no time to feel ashamed of it.
"I-I'll pay."
"Deal. Yes. I'll help you get back to the city."
Elena and her party gathered the loot.
Troll hide and bones, entrails, and blood.
They packed them into the material-storage bags they had brought.
They also carefully collected the equipment carried by the clan adventurers.
The value of what they had gained from this hunt was obvious at a glance.
A faint arc appeared at the corner of Elena's mouth.