We followed the river troll, and a village came into view.

It was more of a ruin, but there were still traces that it had been a village.

“Benjamin! Come out!”

At the thunderous shout, someone came out, staggering.

It wasn't a river troll.

By size, he was close to a human, but to be human there were many problems.

His shaggy hair was covered in moss, and the skin that was visible was full of mold.

Among them, his strangely oversized right arm was the most unusual.

“Your family is here.”

At the river troll's words, the one called Benjamin staggered closer.

As he got closer, it became clear that he was human.

And also that his right arm was turning into something that wasn't human.

“Brother?”

Regina said in a low voice.

I took a step back and spoke softly so only Ede and Noah could hear.

“If the situation goes south, we will secure the target and escape.”

“I don’t think those witches will just let us go.”

“That's why I'm telling you to be prepared.”

Regina carefully approached the wretched man.

Benjamin flinched and backed away when she reached out to him, but she grabbed his shoulder tightly.

“It's me, Regina.”

“Re-Regina.”

“Do you remember me?”

Benjamin, who was looking at Regina through his seaweed-like hair, nodded his head.

The moss on his body fell off in clumps, which was not a pleasant sight.

“Did, did you come to kill me? Did Father tell you to kill me?”

“No. It's not like that, so don’t worry.”

The conversation continued with stutters.

After they asked about each other's well-being, the interrogation began.

“How did you end up like this?”

“Th-this was the only way to s-survive.”

“Why?”

After a moment of hesitation, Benjamin unexpectedly said a name.

“Count V-Valheit, I had to get away, get away from him.”

“From the Count?”

Regina looked at me with a surprised expression.

That was a mistake.

The moment she turned her gaze away, Benjamin also looked in this direction.

“U-Ugh!”

Benjamin, who saw my face, buried his face in the swamp.

His voice, which had sounded foolish but human just a moment ago, was now torn.

“Kill him! Kill that guy and eat him! Boil him down to the bone and eat him!”

I understood that much.

That alone made it clear what I had to do.

“Secure him and get out of here. As fast as possible.”

Before I could finish my sentence, the river troll’s swinging tree came flying toward my head.

While I barely blocked it with Mana Grasp, Ede and Noah approached the struggling Benjamin and the dazed Regina.

“You can’t take him. Benjamin is our chef.”

“Go find a new one.”

The black grasp scraped down the river troll’s skin.

A little blood flowed from the cut, but it stopped almost immediately.

‘Tch, it didn’t even make a scratch.’

As is common for fantasy trolls, the trolls in this world also had hard skin and amazing regenerative abilities.

Physical attacks were useless.

The troll, which had taken a few steps back, opened its mouth wide and let out a roar.

It was a sound so loud it couldn't be compared to the burp it had made the first time we saw it.

‘Is it calling for its companions?’

I activated Detection and expanded the range to the entire swamp.

The accuracy decreased as the range increased, but there was no problem in figuring out the number of enemies.

What do you mean, ten?

There are at least twenty.

I could feel the hostility of the river trolls scattered throughout the swamp.

As if in response to the roar of the troll in front of me, roars echoed from all over the place.

“We’ve secured him. What do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? We run!”

Ede and Noah, who were carrying Regina and Benjamin on their backs, shouted as they dodged the swarming bugs.

“Let’s run.”

“We already are!”

The river troll swung its staff, and even more bugs popped out of the swamp.

“You said that the guys who would one day kill you would come to find you. I never thought your sister would be the one to kill you.”

“I think you’ve got it all wrong.”

I smiled wryly, discharging electricity to electrocute the swarming bugs.

As hundreds of them fell to the ground, hundreds more flew in from somewhere else.

The river troll looked at me struggling and laughed heartily.

“You guys are the ones who were eating and sleeping on the outskirts of the swamp, right? Some of you were plump, so this worked out well.”

‘Damn it.’

I reduced the range of my Detection to find out the movements of the other river trolls.

All the ones caught in the range were heading to the camp, not here.

“How long have you known?”

“We’re not called the witches of the swamp for nothing. We can know everything that happens in the swamp.”

“That’s quite impressive.”

I slowly backed away, dodging the strange, monstrously screaming, swinging tree and the swarming bugs.

The river troll stomped closer as if it wouldn't let me go.

Snap!

Sparks flew from a puddle, and the river troll staggered before regaining its footing.

I had poured mana that would have turned an ordinary human into cooked meat, but it only made it stop for a moment.

That was enough.

While it was regaining its footing, I gathered the Mana Grasp into a sharp point.

I needed to get closer to pierce the troll’s skin.

The river troll, seeing me rushing in, opened its mouth and spewed out a yellowish stomach acid.

The bugs, who couldn't predict their master's actions, were swept away by the acid and instantly dissolved.

I managed to twist my body to avoid it, but some of the acid on the ground splattered onto my arm.

My clothes melted and stuck to my skin.

The pain of my flesh melting was more excruciating than I had imagined.

But I couldn't stop here.

The Mana Grasp shot forward like a bullet and was lodged into the troll’s skin.

The black grasp only managed to penetrate the surface a little before it stopped.

“How funny that you came here to die.”

As the river troll laughed, the small wound I had made started to heal.

Instead, the lodged grasp was unable to move.

“Don’t worry. I’ll catch your companions too, and boil all of you in a pot.”

“Before you do that, I have one request.”

“What?”

“Shut your mouth, please.”

Before the witch could answer, I spread the grasp that I had gathered into a single point.

I could feel the fingers made of mana digging into the sticky flesh.

I extended the fingers longer and longer, stirring the soft organs and tearing the muscles.

Thump.

The witch dropped her staff.

Thick blood flowed from between her grotesque teeth.

“How dare a human.”

“I'm sorry, but I'm not human.”

When I pulled out the Mana Grasp, clumps of flesh fell from the hole.

The hole made by the grasp soon healed, but the river troll didn't move again.

I examined my arm, where the muscles were exposed from the melted skin.

It was a wound that shouldn’t have allowed me to move, but my arm was moving just fine.

‘Is it because it's Valheit’s body?’

My admiration for its durability was brief.

Loud roars could be heard from all directions.

There was no time to dawdle.

No matter how fast we moved, it would take at least twenty minutes to get out of this swamp.

How many of us would survive until then?

***

Ede bit his lip as he looked at his chipped sword.

It was a pretty expensive sword, too.

“What’s the point of swinging a sword at a troll?”

“We can’t just do nothing.”

While Ede was grumbling, Noah reached out his hands to the stomping river trolls and the bugs.

“Mana Drain.”

The swarming bugs turned to dust, and the river trolls covered their faces as if in pain.

The brief moment of superiority passed, and the blood vessels in Noah’s arms began to burst.

He struggled, dripping blood, but eventually, he had to retract his arm.

“Damn it. They have an insane amount of mana.”

“What do we do now?”

“If we get pushed back here, it’s obvious that they’ll swarm our base. It's one thing if it was one or two of them, but we can't let all these guys go there.”

Noah gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword.

It would be useful if he covered it with the mana he just absorbed, but he didn’t know if he could cut through that thick skin.

“The sky?”

The bright weather, as if there were clouds, became dark.

Ede looked up at the sky and realized what it was.

“Ravens?”

Thousands of ravens were covering the sky.

Noah was also overwhelmed by the sight and just stared at the sky.

Caw!

At first, one or two started to cry, and then all the ravens started crying and crashed into the river trolls.

Of course, there wasn’t much damage, but with so many of them, even the trolls staggered.

“That bought us some time.”

“Did Ms. Regina call them?”

“Yes, this is all I can do, though. At most, it will only hold them back for about ten minutes.”

Regina said, panting.

“Then we have to run as fast as we can. Can you run?”

“Yes.”

Ede started running again with the incoherent Benjamin on his back, and Noah, whose one arm was broken, and the panting Regina followed him.

The investigation base was already in chaos.

A few trolls had already arrived and were breaking everything, and a few people were fighting them.

“Noah? What did you do to make these trolls so angry?”

“I don’t know! Just keep shooting, Hillia!”

“I already am!”

Seeing a troll walking with dozens of arrows stuck in its face, I knew Hillia wasn’t just saying that.

“Damn it, where’s the Count?”

“Even if he comes as fast as he can, it’ll take at least twenty minutes, right?”

“That’s great news!”

It was a struggle to hold on for even one minute, so holding on for another twenty was absurd.

Noah gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

It made a small wound with mana, but it healed right away.

At this rate, it would just be a stalemate.

He had to find another way…

“Noah, watch out!”

By the time he reacted to Ede’s voice, it was already too late.

The tree the troll was swinging was right in front of him.

Thud!

Noah felt his body get hit by the tree, fly up, and then slam into the ground.

It felt like a few of his ribs were broken.

His body had been sturdy and held up well so far, but this time, it seemed it was too much.

He saw the troll lift the tree high and charge at him.

A few arrows were stuck in its back, but they were not enough to stop the troll.

“Damn it…”

Noah, with his eyes tightly shut, raised his arms, imagining the tree that was about to hit him.

Thump.

A heavy sound was heard, but his arms were perfectly fine.

Instead, a hot liquid splattered all over his body.

He slightly opened his eyes, and a giant troll was lying on the ground in front of him, spewing out blood.

He lifted his head a little more and saw a gray-haired man pulling a black hand out of the troll's head.

“You’re in a mess.”

Valheit jumped off the troll's head, chuckling in a way that didn’t fit the atmosphere.

His clean clothes were covered in flesh, blood, and an unknown liquid.

“There’s no time to be dramatic. We have to get out of here right now.”

“Ptooey. More of them are coming, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Well, I did get rid of about eight of them on my way here, but there are still about ten left.”

Valheit said with a tune, as if it was no big deal, but his arm, which had melted from the troll’s stomach acid, showed how fierce the fight was.

“Oh, right. Did you bring Benjamin safely?”

“Yes, Count! He’s right here!”

Benjamin, who was being carried on Ede's back, drooled and avoided Valheit’s gaze.

Valheit saw his state and his face twisted.

“This is great. I have a mountain of things I want to ask him.”

Looking at the face that was hard to tell whether he was smiling or angry, Noah gulped.

‘Thank god he’s not an enemy.’

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