"You need to take a break," I stated after checking if we had gone far enough from them or not.
"It's fine, I just need some water. I lost a lot of blood—I can't pull any groundwater," Tom replied. His voice was weak; he could barely move. "My head is still ringing..."
"I'm surprised you haven't fainted yet. That surprise hit would've knocked anyone of the same rank unconscious, and you took that at point-blank... How the hell are you still walking?" I asked curiously, tapping his skull.
"Son of a Mahoon..." Tom cursed out loud, completely ignoring the pain in his head. "Wait, let's put that aside for a moment... What language were you speaking just now? Don't give me a simple answer—you sounded like a completely different person."
"I was talking to them in a professional manner. They've never seen me talk normally. It's good to hide your real self from others if you don't want to form actual bonds," I replied in a straightforward way. "As I said, I try to avoid violence whenever possible."
"But it seems you're a bad luck charm... Look up," Tom said, pointing toward the sky.
I followed his gaze—and froze. The outpost we had just cleared was floating high above us, suspended in the air by a thick slab of earth, like it had been ripped straight from the ground.
"Tobias... that's foolish of him to do that without fully mastering telekinesis. There are mana particles leaking from it. Such lousy work," I exclaimed, shaking my head. "Maybe he's planning to crush someone with it, but I doubt he's fast enough."
"Can you do that?"
"Easily. I perfected telekinesis before learning any other spells. It's the base of many spells and comes in handy when I feel too lazy to do any work."
"..." Tom glanced at me with a begrudging expression after hearing my answer. "Don't say that in front of a hunter—they'll kill you if they heard your words."
"You don't count yourself as a hunter?" I asked jokingly, but his expression turned even more ridiculous, so I stopped there.
The floating outpost drifted in the opposite direction from where we were headed. It was slow—almost painfully so.
Thud
"Huh?" I took my eyes off the floating outpost only to turn around and see Tom on the floor. He wasn't completely unconscious, but he didn't look like he'd last much longer.
Let's drop him in the river. Moriarty suggested upon noticing his condition was dire.
"I was thinking about it." I picked up Tom using telekinesis and ran toward the river, then threw him inside like a human javelin. "You dead?"
SPLASH
"No, but I'll make sure to kill you after this," Tom shouted from within the water, but I just laughed it off.
We rested for a few hours before setting off again. During that time, Tom tried to slash my neck with a karambit... I guess he wasn't joking. When I dodged, he just kept spinning it on his index finger instead of trying again.
Currently, we were soaring through the sky with my telekinesis since we couldn't find any trolls through normal means. Those creatures only came out to hunt at night before retreating to their caverns. The regenerative properties of trolls weaken during the day, just like vampires. It's one of the reasons they're considered nocturnal.
"You're two-handed as well?" Tom asked out of nowhere.
"I thought that was obvious? Dual wielding, perfectly straightened sleeves—I also remember using—" I tried to continue, but it seemed like Tom wasn't interested.
"Dude, you make it seem like I'm the detective. You say it so simply, but none of it makes sense otherwise," Tom replied.
There weren't any mutated birds flying in the sky anymore, so we didn't have to fly carefully.
There were a few when we arrived, but it seems like Tobias and Vincent had hunted them down with the flying outpost. I didn't expect them to carry baits around with them.
I wonder if that orc you saved is dead or not. Moriarty spoke with doubt.
He's most likely dead, but it doesn't matter. I can't save them all. I replied. Do you sense any spiritual energy?
Not yet. Moriarty replied back.
Similar to elves, trolls were protected by spirits who gave them strength through contracts. The art of using spiritual power was called sorcery, which was a bit different from using mana or aura.
However, unlike elves who used elemental spirits, trolls contracted with the souls of dead people who refused to move on with their reapers due to some earthly attachments.
"Oh look, your siblings!" Ryuk pointed at a spot that shimmered faintly with particles of spiritual energy while looking at me.
Ha ha, not funny. Moriarty sped toward the direction he was pointing at while dragging Tom with us.
"Can you throw me there?" Tom asked loudly, the wind brushing against our faces and thinning our voices.
"Like a hunter bomb? Great idea!" Moriarty shouted, charging up mana to boost the throw.
"What?! No—" Without waiting for Tom's reply, Moriarty hurled him straight toward the spiritual energy and released a burst of mana behind him to accelerate the impact.
BOOM
A deafening wave of sound rolled past us as a mushroom-shaped cloud of dust erupted from the ground. Trees shattered on impact, and the air itself shook—as if a miniature nuclear bomb had just gone off.
"Allons-y!" Moriarty launched himself right after, mana surging around him. Calstrum.
A shimmering barrier formed around his body as he slammed into the explosion zone, doubling the size of the dust cloud and sending a shockwave through the trees.
BOOM
As the dust finally cleared, the shape of a blue troll came into view—crushed into the center of a deep crater.
The troll's massive frame was half-buried in broken earth, limbs twisted at impossible angles. One arm was crushed completely under its own weight, and its chest had caved in from the impact, ribs snapped and poking through skin. The once-deep blue of its skin was faded, smeared with blood, dirt, and glowing mana burns.
Its jaw hung to the side, broken. One eye was swollen shut, the other open just enough to glare through the pain.
Rrrgghhhk
It let out a low, grotesque growl. Not loud. Not strong. Just enough to show it was still alive—even if barely.
Tom, barely hurt from the impact, got up from top of the shield he had taken out from his utility belt to lessen the impact. He picked up the shield from the ground, walked up to to the troll without a word and dropped it on his skull, ending it's miserable life in an instant.
"Almost feels like a gift," Tom grunted in anger, looking away from its corpse. "Dirty heretic."
"How many weapons do you have?" I walked up to him, coughing a bit due to the dust.
"Ten in my utility belt and a lot more smaller ones in my suit," Tom replied, his expression turned even more grim when he saw that it was just a single troll. "These guys normally travel in pairs... Stay on guard."
As soon as he said that we felt a shiver run down our spine as the surroundings started to get colder... We didn't know if we were hallucinating... But several humanoid silhouettes appeared within the cloud of dust.
None of them carried any life energy within them... They were hollow, made purely from spiritual energy.
Now I feel like meeting Moriarty was a blessing.