Ciel drew both of her daggers as she descended from the tree and landed lightly on the forest floor. As expected, the troll didn’t turn around to face the unfamiliar sound. She looked at her daggers and nodded to herself. These should be plenty for this brute.

  She slung her pack down from her back and against a tree. It and the alchemical fire inside would have to wait until later in the fight, as she was sure that it would be wasted if she used it too soon. The troll would just shrug it off, and she would be left without a way to kill it. It’s a bit of a risk to leave it here, but I can’t take it with me… This is the moment when a team would be useful.

  Feeling the comfortable horn grip of her two nearly identical daggers, she breathed out. “It’s now or never…”

  “Shadow Step.”

  The dimly lit forest around the woman disappeared, and she was met with suffocating darkness. Ciel immersed herself in the comforting shadows, and moved.

  A shadowy blur moved through the forest floor and up the troll’s back, unseen and unfelt by the thick-skinned beast. After only a brief second spent lingering behind its neck, the darkness melted away, revealing Ciel’s pale form. While the troll hadn’t felt the weightless shadow, the dumb brute sensed that something was wrong when the woman’s weight landed on its neck. That realization came too late to do anything about her descending daggers, however.

  A ferocious grin spread on Ciel’s face as she felt her blades pierce through the troll’s thick green skin. They sank deep, piercing the troll’s windpipe and causing blood to spurt on her face.

  Against a bronze rank human opponent, the fight would’ve ended right then and there. Her foe’s ability to breathe had been entirely cut off, and its brain had just stopped receiving blood. Against a troll, that was just the opening blow.

  The beast’s hand reached back as if to scratch its own neck, and Ciel cursed.

  The rogue ripped her daggers free, twisting them painfully through the thick neck as she pulled. Her blades were way too small to actually sever the troll’s tree trunk of a neck, but at least she had managed to do quite a bit of damage. Jumping off just before the beast’s hand reached its neck, Ciel passed under its massive hand, landing smoothly on the forest floor.

  “Oh, this’ll be a fun fight alright…”

  That was when the troll’s second hand whipped towards her.

  “Shit!” she shouted, leaping back in a panicked rush.

  The head-sized fist of the troll impacted scarily close to where she had just been standing and kicked up the dirt around it. When the troll raised its arm back up, a small crater was left in its wake. Not as strong as a behemoth ursa, but certainly stronger than anything I’ve ever faced before. I can’t afford to take a single hit…

  A nervous gulp ran down Ciel’s throat as the beast turned to look at its foe. Its beady eyes stared her down like a vengeful god, and she felt herself shivering.

  The troll was certainly a large beast. Its hunched form was almost four meters tall, and its striated muscles bulged like thick cords under its green skin. The simple beast was wearing a makeshift loincloth, showing that it at least had the intelligence to fashion itself clothing. Based on what it looked like, the cloth itself was the cloak of a fallen adventurer.

  Trolls were curious beings. They were certainly dumb, but the freakish brutes tended to adapt to their surroundings much like the sapient races. In some ways, they were bigger, much stronger, humans with a low level of intelligence and a frightening ability to regenerate from almost all wounds. This troll in particular had probably seen adventurers covering their privates, which had led to its own decision to remain ‘decent’. Regardless of the attempt, the flimsy cloak hanging around its crotch was not enough to accomplish its purpose…

  The main threats Ciel would have to be careful of were the troll’s hands, feet and tusks. The beast’s hands and feet were an obvious threat considering its strength, but its tusks were the real concern. Getting hit by a glancing blow of the troll’s fist would probably force the rogue to retreat, drink an expensive healing potion and give up, but getting hit by one of its tusks point first… I would just straight up die.

  Coincidentally, the troll’s tusks were also its most valuable body part. Its life affinity core aside, the other parts of the beast were dispensable tissue that it could heal back in a jiffy. She’d heard that some alchemists had uses for its blood, but considering the method she had planned for the beast’s demise, getting any would be a surprising bonus.

  When the beast opened its maw to bellow out its challenge, Ciel expected it to be a soundless one. She had cut its windpipe only a few seconds ago; surely the troll couldn’t heal-.

  “RRRRRAAAGGHHH!!!”

  Okay, it can heal that fast!

  Without further ado, Ciel sprinted towards the troll’s side. In order to do any reliable damage, she needed to keep herself far from its tusks.

  Despite its apparent stupidity, her foe wasn’t simple enough to just let her get to its back. When the troll’s left fist flew towards her, she activated Umbral Shift and slid along the ground, avoiding the massive hand by a hair’s breadth. Staying in the shadowy space, she jumped back to her feet.

  The next thing to aim for her was predictably the beast’s tusk. Way too afraid of the consequences of even a small slip-up, Ciel dodged by a much wider margin. It would do her no good to act a hero when being cautious left her with ample time to achieve her goals. Besides, the wider dodge left her with more time to avoid the troll’s right fist.

  Fuck! The damn brute is turning with me by accident!

  She needed to think fast. Racking her brain for a reasonable solution, she ended up defaulting to a common tactic: Sliding between the beast’s legs.

  Deactivating Umbral Shift, Ciel cast a quick Shadow Step, turning into a blur of darkness once again. The dumb troll didn’t manage to react in time, but the tremor caused by its stomp provoked a shiver out of the dark mage. Getting stomped like that would’ve definitely been her end. Ciel was not built for durability…

  Taking that risk proved to be a good choice, however. Sliding between the beast’s legs, she managed to slash at both of its ankles. The troll lost its footing, crashing down its knees with an infuriated roar. That gave Ciel enough time to get back to its neck.

  The rogue’s main goal in the fight was pretty simple, all things considered. Killing the troll was a task consisting of two clear steps: Disable and burn.

  Their execution was the issue, however. Larger teams could have disabled the troll in various ways. Cutting its tendons, freezing it in place, covering it with stone using earth magic and other options were all valid for different teams, but Ciel was alone.

  Her dark magic offered a somewhat good option with the Sleep spell, but she didn’t want to try it against the troll. The reason? She would need to be in front of its face to cast it. And that was where the beast’s tusks were…

  That realization had left the rogue with only one good option: Ciel needed to sever the beast’s head. For a normal adventuring team, this was quite frankly the worst possible option.

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  Bloody trolls and their regeneration…

  Sure, the troll would lose all function of its body for half a minute or so. That was excellent, as it would give Ciel enough time to try and kill it for good. It wasn’t all good, though.

  The riskiness of the move would become clear when the troll finally regenerated enough of its head—which was surprisingly little—to regain its senses. If she failed to kill the beast before that, its ensuing blind rage would make finishing the fight essentially impossible for a fellow bronze ranker. If that happens, not even my escape will be guaranteed…

  Ciel attempted to go for the beast’s neck once again but was forced to dodge as the troll swung its body around. One of the troll’s tusks still reached her, so she attempted a quick parry.

  That simple move could have very well saved her life.

  She felt the tusk impact her dagger, and it felt like a boulder had hit her. The troll’s bulk was like a mountain compared to her relatively slender frame. That meant that when she parried, keeping her arm stiff against the swinging maul made of bone, her body left the ground like it was as light as a feather.

  Ciel groaned in pain mid-flight, feeling her muscles aching and bones creaking. Her wrist nearly broke from the impact alone, and she let out a scream of pain. The pale woman flew for a couple of meters, landing on the forest floor with a clumsy roll. The small stones, dry sticks and other random plant matter poked against her skin as she got up.

  The pale woman looked even paler than normally, and her normally pristine black hair was disheveled. She spat a globule of blood to the ground, grinning with reddened teeth. “That did a lot more than I thought, you brute! You want some? YOU WANT SOME?”

  The roar she got back in response was deafening.

  The troll lumbered to a young tree and ripped it from the ground, roots and all. When it took it in hand like a freakish club, Ciel knew she was dealing with a problematic individual.

  Contrary to popular opinion, every beast of the same race wasn’t made equal. Even in a pack of lycans, some dogs always outshone the others—be it with brain or brawn. Those kinds of deviancies were often a result of the environment the beast grew up in, or even natural treasures or magical plants. As for this troll… It was actually somewhat smart.

  This is a problem… This is a fucking huge problem!

  Ciel leaped to her side, dodging a wild swing of the troll’s new weapon. I should’ve assumed that something was wrong when I noticed its loincloth! But what can I do now? What are my options?

  First of all, she could run. Despite its newfound reach, the troll wouldn’t be able to catch her if she used Umbral Shift and Shadow Step to escape. She could be out of its sight and mind in only a few seconds. The problem with this option was that she had taken the contract under Rodrick’s and her team’s name. Everybody would be furious to hear that she had failed a contract for them, especially before such a significant expedition. No, that’s the last resort.

  Secondly, she could drag the fight out. Even though the troll could regenerate, it was by no means an untiring beast. Its swings would slow down eventually, as long as it didn’t get anything new to kill. This option was probably the smart one to take, but it was risky as well. I’m not untiring either. If this brute fucks up a little, it will just regenerate, whereas I will undoubtedly die if I tire. No, I need something more.

  And that brought her to the third and most stupid option of them all.

  There’s no-one close by. All my teammates are spending their days within the city and the guards don’t patrol this far. There are no adventurer contracts near this spot either.

  Could I just… let loose?

  Ciel didn’t like to talk about her upbringing with others. Besides the obvious concerns dealing with her homeland, she didn’t have a lot of good memories to talk about in general. In that regard, she was similar to their newest member, Valar. Unlike him, however, she did have one memory to cherish.

  The day when her father had taught her how to cast Abyssal Drive.

  She hadn’t even been awakened yet at that time, but her old man had clearly known that she would be leaving their home soon. Ciel had feared the worst.

  Possibilities like tracking magic, bodyguards or even imprisonment had popped up into her mind, but for once in her short life, her father had strayed from the norm.

  “You cannot even cast spells yet, daughter,” he had started, grinning like always. “But I know that you wish to leave this dreary place.”

  When he had seen her panicked expression, he had chuckled. “Don’t worry, little princess. I won’t stop you. If you want to go out and explore, I wish you all the luck with it. Your aunts and uncles will of course disagree with this, but frankly, I don’t care. What I care about is that when you awaken to your affinity, you can use your magic properly.”

  “But father…” she had said. “You said that you cannot teach me magic before my awakening, right?”

  “That I did… But what I’m trying to teach you isn’t a question of runes and visualizations, but of heart. Know this, Ciel: When you speak, the darkness listens.”

  A single tear ran down Ciel’s dirt-covered cheek, provoking a small giggle from the young woman. “The darkness listens… What an edgelord of a father!”

  Her smile turned upside down, and she shook her head. “I always hated it when he was right…”

  “Abyssal Drive.”

  All light melted away from Ciel’s being, pushed out by a flood of dark mana flowing through her. Her skin slowly turned to an ashy grey, her mouth became a black maw of nothingness, and her eyes… They were not purple anymore. That was not the colour of true darkness; it was pitch black.

  The woman breathed out a slow, exalting breath. She didn’t see a forest in different shades of green and brown anymore, replaced by shades of grey and black.

  Ciel turned her eyes to her foe, and grinned. “You’re dead.”

  When she next moved, the slow troll had no time to react. One moment, the grey-skinned rogue was standing still, the next, her dagger was reaching for its eye. The following roar of pain was like the most beautiful song to her, and the giggling started.

  First, the ankles, then, the knees. Wrists, elbows, the spine, the neck… Every single part of the beast was slashed open, pushing the troll into a heap of regenerating flesh. It laid on its back, roaring in pain as a grey-skinned fiend went and got her pack. The head didn't need to be severed if she did things this way. Why should she care if the beast was aware when it couldn't move an inch?

  When Ciel’s dagger failed to pierce the beast’s ribcage, she clicked her tongue in annoyance. “I’ll have to bathe in a river before returning to the city…”

  The following manic giggling would’ve made even the most veteran adventurer soil their pants in fright.

  She looked at her blackened nails, grinning down at the torn chest of the troll. Then, she plunged her hand down.

  The lucid and very angry troll roared in pain, but it could do nothing to fight its fate. Regenerating enough to actually move all of its limbs was taking too long, and it could only swing its head around aimlessly. The beast’s tusk almost hit Ciel a few times, but she continued her gruesome work.

  “This should be enough…” she muttered after a short while of breaking ribs and tearing flesh. “Its heart is visible, at least.”

  Ciel took one of the bottles of alchemical fire from her pack and poured it into the gruesome cavity. The beating heart of the forest troll was drenched in a viscous liquid, but nothing worse happened just yet. Ciel poured the second bottle in to seal the deal, then grinned down at the troll.

  She waved one of her daggers at the beast. “Bye!”

  Then, she struck her two daggers together. A screech of metal could be heard, and a shower of sparks dropped down towards the heart of the troll. Ciel bolted away at full speed, not daring to look back before the inevitable explosion.

  And boy was there an explosion…

  A deafening boom rang out in the forest, and she could feel a soft wave of pressure hitting her back even though she was almost ten meters away. The strategy recommended by her old teammate had actually worked!

  “That… that was maybe the most fun fight ever since coming here!” she spoke to herself as she turned around to look at the site of carnage. “Shame that it ruins the blood, though.”

  When Abyssal Drive finally ended and she felt a wave of weakness roll over her body, she could finally see in colour once more. The once green and brown forest had gained a red sheen, and the troll’s corpse was practically gone. The only things that were left alongside the bits and pieces of flesh were two ivory tusks, planted into a tree and the ground by their points.

  Ciel collapsed against a tree and breathed out a relieved sigh. Then, she giggled. “I just killed a troll, didn’t I?”

  Rodrick and the others wouldn’t believe what she had just done.

  It had been a nice solo hunt.