Lord Werner was somewhat confident.
Although the youthful vigor and strength he once possessed had worn away with age, in its place, the experience and skill honed over the years had firmly taken root.
He had thought that, as long as there were only two stone trolls like last time, their current strength, with mercenaries and a mage, would not be at a disadvantage.
However, when the stone trolls emerged from the cave, there were three in total.
‘Was there one more hiding?’
Lord Werner had not anticipated a third, since the stone trolls had not even dared to enter the cave before.
In the midst of the unexpected situation, Lord Werner, trying to remain calm, was about to issue orders to the mercenaries when—
Boom!
A tremendous noise echoed from the location of the stone trolls.
Only then did Lord Werner realize that Keldric, who had been standing next to him, was now gone.
Turning toward the sound, he saw—
“Lord Keldric is moving!”
“Keldric!”
There, Keldric was striking one of the stone trolls’ legs with a mace.
“What… what is this?”
Lord Werner’s expression became dazed.
Normally, stone trolls were not beasts that could be subdued by simply breaking their skin.
Soldiers armed with spears would surround them, and a few knights would charge in to subdue them.
Then, archers and spear-armed soldiers would pierce through the gaps in the stone skin
This traditional hunting method was now shattering before Lord Werner’s eyes.
And shattering just as much was the stone troll’s rocky hide.
Keldric, who had been hammering at the stone troll’s leg, finally climbed on top of it when it fell to its knees.
Without hesitation, he began to strike its skin with his mace, forcing his hand into the cracks.
“Hah!”
Crack!
With Keldric’s battle cry, the stone troll’s rocky skin began to peel off with a horrifying sound.
“Rrraaa!!”
In such a brutal scene, it was impossible for the stone troll not to scream in pain.
Lord Werner and the mercenaries watched in stunned silence.
It was as if Keldric were peeling the skin off a living animal with his bare hands.
No, considering the stone skin that had fused with the flesh, it was even worse.
“What are you all doing?!”
Keldric shouted with a strained voice.
Behind him, the two remaining stone trolls, their vision nearly recovered, seemed ready to attack.
The first to regain his composure was Lord Werner.
“Mercenaries of the Gnomes, ready your spears! Aim for the weak skin!”
With a rush, mercenaries including Jorgen raised their spears and charged at the stone trolls.
Meanwhile, Alissa, having set up a campfire around her, was muttering something to herself.
After confirming this, Lord Werner immediately joined Keldric.
Despite Keldric’s incredible strength, peeling off the skin that was nearly fused with the flesh was no easy task.
“My lord! Let me help!”
“Behind you! Behind!”
Meanwhile, the two stone trolls had regained their full sight and were now glaring at Keldric.
Keldric urgently shouted, and Lord Werner hastily raised his shield, gripping his axe tightly.
“I’ll hold them off! Hurry and deal with it!”
It was uncertain how long Lord Werner could hold out.
He was a seasoned knight but an aging one, and even seasoned fighters couldn’t escape the limitations of their aging bodies.
Keldric, having made up his mind, decided to end this quickly.
He knew that even though he had the strength, it was crucial to finish one of them.
With his mace in hand, Keldric swung with all his might at the stone troll’s back.
Bang! Bang!
“Graaaa!”
With each thunderous strike, the fallen stone troll howled in pain and struggled.
Keldric had already nearly stripped off the rocky skin from its back.
The exposed flesh beneath was now red and vulnerable.
The sickening sounds of muscle and blood being torn apart echoed as Keldric continued his assault.
Blood splattered across Keldric’s helmet, but he did not stop.
His strikes only became more rapid.
“Jorgen!”
When Keldric shouted, Jorgen quickly threw him his sword.
Keldric caught it and, without hesitation, plunged it into the stone troll’s back.
It was not like the usual sensation of cleaving through its head, but Keldric ignored the minor resistance and drove the sword in deep.
“Pierce it!”
With Jorgen’s shout, the mercenaries thrust their spears at the fallen stone troll.
Though Keldric had cracked open its flesh, few could pierce the gaps in the rocky skin.
The troll’s desperate struggles caused many spears to bounce off.
Even with the sword lodged deep in its back, the stone troll remained alive and struggled fiercely.
Keldric reconsidered his approach.
This was no simple beast that could be slain by mere strikes or thrusts.
The sword was slowly pulled out from the stone troll’s back, releasing a pained cry.
Keldric aimed his sword, targeting the heart.
He believed that all living creatures had similar weak spots, and the heart was usually in the same place.
Keldric aimed at the spot below the stone troll’s left shoulder, where a human heart would be.
With a sharp shout, he plunged the sword into the tender flesh.
The stone troll shuddered and stopped screaming, convulsing as it died.
Keldric could feel something firm as his sword hit its target.
Blood surged from the wound as steam rose from the fresh wound.
“Keldric!”
Keldric wiped the blood from his helmet and, only then, realized that Lord Werner was still fighting two more trolls on his own.
Lord Werner was struggling to deflect the trolls’ blows with his shield, which was creaking under the pressure, as if about to break.
Despite the shield’s strain, his axe occasionally struck the trolls’ wrists, but most of the blows bounced off their thick skin.
“Help me!”
Without further words, Keldric rushed to assist Lord Werner, followed closely by the mercenaries.
As he ran toward Lord Werner, he glanced back at Alissa, who was standing by the campfire, her flames flickering wildly.
‘What is she up to?’
Keldric was a stranger to magic.
However, there was no time to consider what kind of magic Alissa was trying to cast.
Keldric threw himself toward the stone troll that was swinging its fist at Lord Werner.
From the stone troll’s perspective, there was only one knight charging toward it, but it didn’t see this as much of a threat.
Instead, just as it was filled with rage at seeing one of its kind viciously killed by the knight, the opportunity to attack a fresh meal coming toward it seemed like a good turn of events.
“Kwwoooaar?!”
However, that thought didn’t last long.
The stone troll staggered, flailing its arms in confusion, as Keldric leaped toward it and grabbed its waist.
Lord Werner, who had been watching, widened his eyes in shock.
‘Wrestling… with a stone troll??’
Engaging in wrestling with a stone troll was a foolish act that no ordinary person would ever consider.
Even as a knight, the difference in strength due to their different species was a gap that couldn’t easily be closed.
However, Keldric was unscathed.
In fact, he managed to push the stone troll back several steps before, in a triumphant manner, he swept its iron-like legs out from under it.
Thud.
Thud.
Boom!
The stone troll fell headfirst, unable to recover immediately.
Despite its rocky skin, the impact shook its skull deeply, and it couldn’t recover quickly from the blow.
In battle, even a momentary hesitation could lead to defeat, and it was something that should never happen.
Meanwhile, Keldric, having pulled a mace into his right hand, raised his arm.
Although the skin on its chest was harder than that on its back, Keldric didn’t hesitate and struck with the mace.
Crash! Bang!
With each strike, pieces of stone flew from the troll’s body, while Alissa, preparing magic from behind, shouted toward Lord Werner.
“Lord Werner! Get back!”
Lord Werner quickly rolled away from the ground.
Although it wasn’t pleasant to watch, it was necessary.
Immediately, intense flames engulfed the stone troll’s body.
“Kurgh! Kwoooar!”
Despite its rocky exterior, the troll couldn’t withstand the fire raging from within.
The flames, fueled by the fragile flesh beneath, spread quickly inside.
The disgusting stench of burning flesh filled the air as the stone troll screamed in agony, rolling through the snow, but Alissa, with eyes narrowed, kept the fire burning.
The stone skin, now melting from the inner flesh, began to crack and fall away.
“Now! Stab it!”
Jorgen and the goat-headed mercenaries didn’t miss their chance.
With Jorgen’s shout, the mercenaries quickly closed in, throwing sharp spears at the weakened stone troll.
Unlike before, when its body was covered with rocks, the exposed skin was soft, oozing fluid, and offered no resistance to the weapons.
Although the fire was dying down, the stone troll, now without its rock-like skin, could not withstand the mercenaries’ spears.
The troll, in agony, was no longer able to heal as it normally would with its species’ rapid recovery ability, now unable to cope with being roasted by the flames.
Meanwhile, Alissa, having finished her spell, caught her breath and closed her trembling eyes.
Though she hadn’t used magic in the worst possible conditions, her state was still better than before.
However, that wasn’t the issue.
Every time she tried to control the fire, the fiercely bright flames submitted without hesitation to her command.
That was what made Alissa uneasy.
It felt contradictory to rise again with fire after having lost everything to it.
Bang!
Startled by the loud sound, Alissa looked around, surprised, and turned her gaze toward the source.
“What…”
There, Keldric was standing on top of the mutilated stone troll, its bloodied corpse beneath him.
Keldric wasn’t thinking at all.
He only knew that the stone troll in front of him had to be killed, and this thought reached its limit when the stone troll instinctively grabbed his arm.
The stone troll’s strength was beyond imagination.
Keldric grimaced as the pressure on his arm increased.
The troll’s thick fingers gripped Keldric’s arm, and Keldric carefully pried them off, one by one.
A few fingers broke in the process, but Keldric didn’t care.
‘Its vitality is tough.’
Being a member of the troll species, this stone troll refused to die easily.
Even wounds that would normally cause bleeding quickly stopped, and its hard skin made it difficult to inflict damage.
Moreover, the mace in Keldric’s hand had already lost its head, leaving only the handle.
Though Keldric had crushed the troll’s chest horribly, it hadn’t been enough to stop its breathing.
“Kurgh…”
The stone troll, making a struggling noise, immediately grabbed Keldric’s right arm.
Just as Keldric realized the mace was broken, it was the hand that now held his sword.
With his sword hand trapped, Keldric stopped trying to pry the stone troll’s grip away and instead clenched his fist.
The broken mace handle in his left hand was near destruction from his grip.
Bang!
A single punch landed on the stone troll’s chest.
The troll screamed in agony, but Keldric didn’t stop.
He continued to strike mechanically, gradually crushing the stone troll’s chest further and further.
If he couldn’t use a weapon, he’d use his fists.
This was Keldric’s fighting style.
Bang!
Keldric was in a state of mindless fury.
Without thought, he continued to punch the fallen stone troll, determined to kill it.
He heard the sound of its chest caving in, ribs breaking, and something inside bursting with a sudden snap.
Thick blood splattered out.
Finally, Keldric’s punches slowed.
“Ke, Keldric!”
At the sound of his name being called, Keldric turned his blood-covered helmet toward the voice.
There stood Lord Werner, looking quite flustered.
“Lord Werner? Why are you calling me?”
“No, well.”
Keldric, realizing what had happened, took a moment to look around.
Behind him, a stone troll’s back was crushed, another had been turned into a pincushion, and the last one’s chest was torn apart.
“…Ah.”
Keldric, staring blankly at the scene, finally threw off his dented left gauntlet.
The red-covered gauntlet rolled through the snow.
“Uh, hmm. Looks like it’s all over.”
Keldric awkwardly said, but no one responded.
Steam rose from the blood-splattered bodies as they began to cool.