I had believed nothing could go wrong. I had placed my faith in Avarra’s past troll hunts and assumed there would be nothing to worry about. Never has anyone in existence ever been so wrong.

The mountain troll released its grip on my left leg, dropping me down to its mouth.

At least I got to die while looking at such beautiful scenery. We were quite high in the mountains of some distant kingdom. I didn’t know the name of the place since Avarra kept ignoring me whenever I asked, but thanks to this unknown land, I got to witness a picturesque view.

Far below the mountain path Avarra, Daisy, and I fought the troll on, the winding rockface met with the land. A forest sat beneath a glimmering lake, and the rolling hills beyond were dotted with animals that grazed and galloped across them. On the horizon wherever I looked there were hazy mountain peaks both snowy and barren.

Of course, the view that trumped that entire description was the gargantuan mouth of this 7-foot troll drawing closer and closer. Its tongue was bumpy, and if you have ever wondered if trolls brushed their teeth—although, you’d be quite weird to wonder about that—I can assure you that they don’t because I saw the troll’s breakfast still stuck between its two front teeth.

A salute for my fallen comrade, everyone. I had no clue who or what was stuck between those pointed canines, but I knew I’d be joining them soon enough. We were comrades-in-arms. Not the greatest experience to have in common….

Just as I came close enough to smell the beast's breath, Daisy—in her human form—rammed the troll with her shoulder, causing it to stumble into the wall.

Let’s go, Daisy! Now just catch me before I hit the—

“Bugh!”

I let out a strange sound as I slammed against the dirt path.

“Up! Up! Get up! It’s going to come again,” Avarra called from the side.

She hadn’t moved once during the entire encounter. While Avarra watched from her safe position, Daisy and I had ducked and dodged the troll’s attacks until I, unfortunately, got caught pushing Daisy out of the way.

“Next time, don’t charge in headfirst shouting about the start of your legend or whatever. You were basically asking to get killed. You didn’t even last 10 seconds in there….hehe.”

“At least let me lie in my own monologue! Goddammit!” I said as I stood up and brushed my knees.

I was finally dressed in proper clothing. A brown green tunic and brown pants with leather hunting boots—courtesy of Avarra. It wasn’t anything fancy, but oh my was it an upgrade from my usual wear.

“We were unlucky to run into one on a side path. One wrong move and you could be sent off the edge, tumbling to your death,” she said again.

….

“Well, do your best!”

“How bout you do your best! Stop watching from the sidelines and get in there!”

Avarra clutched the straps of her backpack and shook her head. She was quite overdressed in that thick parka.

“I'm an Undead! You saw what happened when your magic hit me; my body is extremely frail. Also, the only magic I learned during my time alive was healing magic, so I won’t be of much help during combat. I can hopefully keep you from dying though! Just don’t get eaten….ok?”

Should I just throw her off the cliff? She wouldn’t die….so really there was nothing wrong with it.

She just ticks me off so, damn, much!

My attention was pulled back to the troll as Daisy let out a grunt. That was all she did, by the way; grunt. I haven’t heard her say a single word once during our few hours together.

Not that the grunting was bad or anything. But, hey, hey. Mind out of the gutter.

The troll had swiped at Daisy’s shoulder and drawn blood. It trickled down her torn parka sleeve—again, a little too overdressed here—and dripped from her fingertips.

Just then, something clicked in my head.

“If you’re a healer and can’t fight, how were you capable of gathering your own troll fat before?” I asked.

Avarra put her hands on her hips and smiled triumphantly.

“My pack mule! I sent Viodel to go and hunt some trolls and bring them back to me. I ran out because I haven’t seen him lately….it’s almost as if he’s avoiding me. He wouldn’t do that though, he loves me!”

No, he’s definitely avoiding you….

But I see.

My blind faith in her was meaningless. I should’ve asked more questions about this whole thing beforehand. Now we had to take down some magical ape with just Daisy and me, and I don’t know about you, but that didn’t seem very likely.

Do you think trolls are stronger than slimes? I’ve almost been killed by both of them, so I can’t say much.

Regardless, we had to do something. I’m sure we could turn tail and run, but what if we encountered another troll as we fled? We’d be caged in on both sides with a sheer drop to our deaths just a couple of feet away.

“Why can't I ever catch a break?” I mumbled and activated my spell.

[Dissolve]

I coated my right arm in the misty blue aura—I tried focusing solely on my fist to have it gather there, but it wouldn’t budge from my elbow.

I suppose the most I could condense it was the distance from my elbow to fingertips. That was enough to punch a hole through a wooden table. If I forced it hard enough against the troll's body, I should be able to do some damage.

“Daisy!” I shouted.

The red-haired assistant looked at me, still clutching her wounded arm. Her green eyes were calm, causing some of my nerves to settle as I came to stand next to her.

“I need you to draw its attention for me. Have it swing its arms at you or something; just make an opening for me to slip in unnoticed and strike it, okay?” I said.

Daisy nodded.

It was so much easier conversing with a sane person. She wasn’t mindless like the other Lesser Demons I had met; she seemed so much more competent. Maybe not all of them were bumbling buffoons like big red. Or maybe this was a personality trait unique to Daisy. Whatever the reasoning was, I was thankful to have her at my side.

The troll let out a roar. Its seven eyes darted back and forth between the three of us—although it could’ve ignored Avarra, she just twiddled her thumbs in the corner—and it slammed its large fists down against the ground.

The last thing we wanted was for it to cause a commotion and draw others of its kind over here.

Daisy seemed to feel the same as she dashed at the troll soon after. She removed her parka and threw it at the approaching beast. The fur jacket landed on its head but was soon yanked off and torn apart in rage.

That was all the time she needed.

The troll was angered by its loss of vision and placed its focus, albeit a small amount, on tearing the jacket in half. That small window of frustration wasn’t left to waste as Daisy delivered a punch to the troll's jaw just as it turned to look at us.

It stumbled back, discombobulated, and Daisy continued her attack. She kicked sideways and drove her shin into its rib cage, knocking it back once again.

Despite her one-sided attack on the beast, it didn’t seem like she was winning. The troll was simply getting knocked back; it didn’t look as if it felt pain from her attacks.

They were just punches and kicks, after all. No matter how strong Daisy was, it didn’t seem likely for her to take it down that way.

Not without the help of yours truly!

One punch to its gut with my corrosive fist would wrap this up nicely. And it seemed my time to shine was on the horizon.

The troll was enraged and entirely focused on Daisy. She put some distance between us, and the troll followed after her, turning its back to Avarra and me.

You’ve done great, Daisy. Now just keep it distracted for a little longer.

I began running towards them as Daisy hopped towards the wall, basically closing off her escape routes. She was giving me an opening; a free shot at its rib cage. There was no way I would let this go to waste.

I tightened my focus on my arm, hoping I could condense my aura further. Nothing changed, but that was fine—this would do.

The troll lifted both its arms up in the air, preparing to slam down at Daisy but also revealing its torso to me.

Coming to a sliding halt, I drew my right arm down and took aim. The troll noticed me then, but it was far too late.

“It’s been fun, you overgrown ape,” I said as I threw my fist as powerfully as I could. My fist connected with its rib cage with a loud crack.

I felt bones break upon impact and heard a slight sizzle followed by a streaking pain.

My knuckles shattered as they made contact with its stomach, and my aura dissipated into the air, fizzling out like a firecracker.

Eh~?

What just happened? Did my magic just get canceled out? Why!?

Holy crap! Look at my fingers! They were all folded in different directions! Oh god, oh god, I think I’m gonna faint….

Shut up, who cares if I was acting cool!? This hurts like hell!

“A troll’s stomach is quite tough, you know! Also, why would you use magic against it? I told you they absorb magic with their fat! You hit it in the fattiest place!” Avarra shouted from a distance.

“What?! You didn’t tell me anything! You didn’t say they could absorb a spell used against them! That wasn’t part of your spe—”

Avarra cut me off with, “LOOK OUT!” but was far too late. The troll returned my right hook with a left hook of its own, smashing into my shoulder and sending me flying towards the edge of the path.

My body landed on the ground in a mangled mess, and I felt blood leak from my mouth.

Regardless of how I struggled, I couldn’t move an inch of my body. It was as though I was paralyzed. All I could do was gaze off at the afternoon sun in the distance.

Wait, wait, wait. This was a joke, right? My body wouldn’t budge even a little. Am….am I going to be stuck like this? This wasn’t funny! Why reincarnate me if I was just going to end up getting tossed around time and time again? I was better off floating through that void without ever returning to the land of the living.

As I thought those words, I felt a pain in my head. It was different from the concussion I surely suffered from; it was more like regret or guilt, but I couldn’t fathom why I would feel such emotions.

I felt empty, and I swore I heard a voice speaking to me. It was muffled, so I couldn’t make it out properly, but it was there. I was sure of it.

“Look at you. You’re just a human so you shouldn’t be so reckless. Gosh….do you know how much magic I’m going to expend trying to fix you?” I heard Avarra say.

I couldn’t turn my head, but I felt her place her hands on my back. No, it wasn’t her voice I had hear; whose was it?

“[Greater Healing],” Avarra said again.

My body immediately grew warm as waves of magic flowed through me. I immediately forgot about the voice.

Avarra’s hands trembled as she let out short, strained breaths.

Did this cause her pain?

I knew so little about magic and the world around me. I didn’t know, yet I did. Everything was so familiar, yet so foreign.

Her shaking grew, although she struggled to keep it hidden.

In the distance, the troll roared, Daisy shouted, and rock shattered.

While I fought with my ineptitude, Daisy with the troll, and Avarra with the pain she surely felt from her draining magic, my body began repairing.

My fingers twisted back into place, and my shoulder relocated itself. If it was possible, the trickling blood that had been flowing out of my mouth would have receded back into me; as this was not possible, it simply stopped instead.

When all my pain had subsided, Avarra nearly collapsed down beside me. I grabbed her frail body to keep her from doing so and looked her in the eyes.

Her brown pupils weakly surveyed my face, and her lips spread into a faint smile.

“We should’ve just run away after Daisy freed you. There’s no way we can beat this thing,” she said.

“If we ran, we would’ve risked running into another troll,” I said. “It’s better we stand and fight here than be left with nowhere to run.”

Avarra’s skin was even paler than usual. There must be a magic sickness of sorts; like when someone exerts too much energy during physical activity and their body aches from the strain.

She caused herself such pain for my sake….

She chuckled. “Trolls are territorial. There won’t be another one for a good mile or so from here. What made you—”

And I dropped her. I released my grip on her and let her collapse onto the ground.

Yes, yes. It was entirely my fault that I had assumed there could be another troll on the pathway, but was I supposed to take my anger out on myself? No!

I should be nice to her because she just saved my life? Kind of true.

But maybe if she spoke up a little and was like ‘Hey guys, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to beat this thing any time soon. We should run away now’ then she wouldn’t have had to save me in the first place.

“Why the heck did you drop me?!” Avarra shouted from her unmoving position.

“Because! I got annoyed and didn’t want to hold you anymore. Maybe next time, you should speak up or something, and this….”

I simply trailed off and mumbled inaudibly.

Daisy had been keeping the troll preoccupied the entire time, drawing its attention away from us.

Kneeling, I watched as her exhaustion grew alongside the trolls. If I were to guess who’d give out first, my money would be on our lovely assistant. Not a favourable bet for us.

We had the option to run now, but with Avarra out of commission, I’d have to carry her—as Daisy would be far too tired to—which would slow us down; the troll would catch us.

Think, think, think!

How do we beat it?

I gazed at my sword that hung from Avarra’s backpack.

Even if we gave it to Daisy, the strongest out of us, she most likely wouldn’t be able to drive the blade through the beast's stomach or chest in time.

But what if I coated it in my dissolve? If that was possible, wouldn’t that add to its penetrative capabilities?

Damn, the trolls fat negated magic. We’d have to rely on strength alone which we didn’t have time for. Goddammit! There had to be a way! If only Daisy had ample time to pierce its stomach.

But that wasn’t….

It then clicked.

A thought shot into my mind, and I felt shivers rattle through my entire body.

Was I insane? Probably. But in a situation like this, insanity was our best bet.