"Mister, run."
I didn't delay for very long.
The moment I turned around and began sprinting, the building sized ogre let out a deafening roar and ran towards Aqua, each thundering step sending shockwaves powerful enough to numb my legs.
"Shit!! There's no fucking way!!"
Monster Magnet. Unfortunately, the name was extremely intuitive.
It could only be something like increasing the chances of running into monsters.
[Ding! Curse description unlocked!]
"Not the time for that!!"
*Bang Bang!*
Gun shots rang out behind me.
"Aqua!"
I know she took out those weapons for a reason, but is she really gonna fight something that huge?
Curiosity got the best of me. When I thought I gained enough distance, I turned around just in time to see her dodge a fist the size of a car.
*BOOM*
The ogres fist hit the ground with a devastating sound, and the resulting shockwave knocked me off my feet.
-[Cant Stay Down] Activated!-
A sense of weightlessness overcame me, until I landed squarely on my head.
"Kuh...! Fuck..!"
I struggled to sit up, fighting off the urge to pass out, before looking over to where Aqua was.
"Hup!"
She had dodged the ogres fist and quickly dashed back in. Before the massive green-skin could fully retract its arm, Aqua leaped up, imbueing her golden knife with with a mystical energy, before slashing and severing the artery in its wrist.
*Pfshh*
The gleaming golden afterimage cleaved open the ogres hand, letting out vast amounts of steaming hot blood, as though bursting a dam.
Despite that, Aqua didn't let a drop of it touch her. The moment she landed, she dashed towards the ogres legs, firing empowered deagle shots along its arm.
These bullets didn't penetrate very deep despite having mana in them. Perhaps because the enemy was an ogre, their hide was incredibly thick.
Regardless, it seems that something sharp can get through, so the moment the ogre seemed distracted by the cut on its wrist, aqua took advantage and quickly darted underneath its legs and powered up another strike.
*SCHWING*
Like an assasin, she dismantled the ogres focus, before inflicting a major wound. The golden knife glittered for a brief moment before biting into the ogres Achilles, severing it completely.
"GWAAHHHH!!!"
With a pained roar, the ogre raised its foot and stomped down on the bug that dared to injure it, causing aqua to swiftly retreat.
The beast attempted pursuit, but due to its severed achilles, it couldn't even take a step before collapsing to its knees in agony.
Aqua seemed to take this as an opportunity, and began concentrating energy into her Deagle.
*BANG*
A streak of light flew into the ogres eye, bursting it instantly.
The monster screeched, it's vocalized pain and wrath shook the air as pure energy tore from its throat.
It desperately clawed at its eye, as though trying to rip out the pain, and stomped it's foot like a child. Thrashing about here and there, it completely ignored the human that caused the injury in favor of nursing itself.
It was a choice that would prove to be a fatal mistake.
While it was throwing it's tantrum, Aqua steadily charged up her knife, accumulating power within the blade.
The glow brightens, intensity increasing, until the golden knifes hue began to change, from yellow, to green, to pastel blue.
When the ogre finally noticed something was wrong, aqua had already climbed up to its head.
Deliberately weakening the enemy by targeting its wrist.
Debilitating them by cutting its Achilles.
And finally, disabling them by targeting the eyes.
From start to finish, the ogre was systematically dismantled, with no opportunity for a counter attack.
It's end was frighteningly pitiful.
*SCHWING*
And with that, the ogres throat was severed.
It fell to the floor with a *THUD*, it's head only hanging on by the spine.
Aqua landed next to it with a grace completely unbefitting of her, and looked toward me with a calm expression.
"Woah..."
That was sick as shit.
No, really, that was fucking awesome!!
The knife? The gunplay? The assassination at the end!? Just what hell did I just see!?
Aqua didn't seem to react, as though it were just another day in the office. She simply walked away from the ogre corpse without looking back.
Of course, I could tell she was just aurafarming. Her twitching face, desperately trying not to smile, gave her away.
"I'm so fucking jealous..."
Regardless, I was extremely jealous.
If I had the ability to use mana, could I do that too? Damn it, I want it!! Dad, I want to use mana when I grow up!!
Dad...? Oh, right. They died a long time ago.
I looked at the ogres smoking body with a sense of longing, I wanted to get a few hits in too-
Wait, smoking body?
"Huh...?"
Hm.
Y'know, I thought it was a little strange.
This ogre, despite being tall as fuck and green as shit, was a little on the thinner side from what I expected from a fantasy ogre.
Instead of being covered in fat and blubber, it was leaner, and had scales along parts of its body.
Not to mention, the fact that it had hair on its head. I thought ogres in fantasy were all bald.
Of course, there's the possibility that my preconceived notions of what an ogre is may differ from this worlds standards.
But looking at all the signs before me, this creature didn't seem like an ogre at all.
'And one more thing.'
I looked again just to confirm, and indeed, the body was smoking.
Specifically, in the places where Aqua attacked it.
Now, I can't claim to have the best vision, but I'm definitely not blind.
So unless my eyes are lying to me...
It's wounds are healing.
"A Troll...?"
At that moment, the presumed dead troll pushed itself off the ground and lunged towards Aqua with its fist cocked back.
Although Aqua had made a decent amount of distance already, the trolls massive physique allowed it to cross such a gap in less than a second.
Aqua, no matter how juiced up on mana she was, couldn't possibly react to such a threat while her guard was down.
She was going to die.
She was going to die.
She was going to die.
-First Blessing, [Death Instinct] activated!-
I can stop it.
Following the guidance of my instinct, I reached for my sunglasses.
===================
Pov: Third person
Aqua approached the mister with light steps and barely restrained joy.
All this time, it was only her being helped by others, but for the first time in a while, she got to show her cool side to someone she knows. How could she not be happy?
With the ogre completely dead, she walked onwards, completely oblivious to the steam rising from the corpse.
Locking her gaze onto the Oji-san who believed in her, she thought about what she should say so that he'll praise her.
*Menacing....*
"Huh?"
A sinister aura arose from behind her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
She found it strange, since there was supposed to be nothing alive in the vicinity besides her and the old man.
And it couldn't be the ogre, as those beasts, no matter how hardy, couldn't survive partial decapitation.
But suddenly, a thought occurred to aqua.
'What if it's not an ogre?'
*BOOM BOOM BOOM*
Familiar thundering steps echoed from behind as a large mass could be felt rapidly approaching.
Feeling a sense of crisis, she quickly looked back.
And saw nothing.
Right, of course she would.
How much could she see when a fist the size of a car was pressed right up against her face?
Aqua, being a superhuman thanks to mana, took very little time to recognize the situation.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, for just because you see something, doesn't mean you can change it.
Her body, even when strengthened by enhancement magic, was still ages behind her mind sharpened by the fear of death.
As a result, she could not avoid this attack.
Her current state was no different from a sailor trapped on a sinking ship, a mind trapped in a walking coffin.
'Is this... The end...?' She thought.
Her life flashed before her eyes, and a deep disappointment reverberated through her psyche.
She didn't want to die like this. Such a meaningless death was too unfair.
However, when she recalled her past, she couldn't bring herself to complain more than that.
'Right, I guess this is karma...'
So many deaths, so much blood staining her hands. It's no surprise that karma would come collecting in such a brutal way.
And honestly, she was glad.
After all, in a way, it meant that the world did punish bad people.
If there was one thing to express disatisfaction about, it was that the old man would face his death soon after her.
Once again, her awful luck, brought about by her terrible karma, would hurt someone she cares about.
With that final thought, aqua closed her eyes.
...
...
...
"Eh?"
Aqua didn't experience the pain she had expected. Did she happen to die instantly?
Bewildered, she opened her eyes, and saw the same fist mere inches away from her face.
"Eh?!"
She leaped back in shock, why did it stop?
Thoroughly confused by her second chance at life, she observing the ogre carefully and noticed something she had overlooked in her stupor.
It's fist was shaking.
"Why...?"
Not just that, other parts of its body were giving various signals.
Dilating pupils.
Quivering lower lip.
Even hyperventilating, if it's rising and lowering chest was any indication.
The creature looked like a deer in headlights.
It was scared.
Thanks to her former profession, she only took 2 seconds to read the body language and come to a conclusion.
Aqua, even if lacking in social skills, could tell from experience that this ogre was absolutely terrified. But that still begged the question.
"Terrified of what?"
It was then that she realized its eyes were locked on something behind her, as if it had no longer considered her the greatest threat.
When aqua recalled what was behind her, her head whipped around, and she called for the old man.
"Mister!!"
"DON'T LOOK!!!"
"Eep!?"
Aqua turned back around to face the ogre, her body following the man's voice without thinking twice.
"If you look back here, I'm fucked!!"
"??? Ah!!"
Aqua recalled something that had happened earlier today. A scuffle with Subaru that nearly killed him.
"Are you using your curse!?"
"Yeah!! So kill it already!!!"
The Misters eyes were glowing bright red, sending shimmering waves of violence into the surroundings as he used his curse offensively for the first time.
"!!! I understand!"
The ogre, slowly recovering from its immense fear, finally began feeling the the primary effect of the curse.
It's muscles bulged and its eyes radiated violence. It looked at the old man with an unbearable, almost desperate urge to kill.
Aqua, seeing this began her preparations.
Pastel blue and pink energy flowed from her chest into her desert eagle as she closed her eyes to concentrate.
Little by little, the ogre regained control of its body as the barrel of the gun filled with prismatic light.
"Aqua, a little faster please!! It looks like it wants to tear me to shreds!!"
No response came. Instead, the light swirled inside the barrel even more violently, until it merged into one white glow.
*THUD*
The troll took a heavy step forward, and the glow intensified.
*THUD*
Another step, and the barrel of Aqua's gun has become white hot with energy.
*THUD*
The ogre regains full control of itself and stares down the old man while frothing at the mouth.
"Uh... Hey...?"
It charges forward with more fervor than ever, tearing up the ground in its wake.
It passes by aqua, who still has her eyes closed as her gun literally trembles like it's about to explode.
"Aqua, do something!!!!"
"This is enough."
Turning around, she explicitly avoids eye contact with the mister like she always does, and aims the improvised explosive device at the troll.
"This is gonna break my gun... Even though I won a tournament to get it... Sigh..."
"AQUA!!!!"
The troll cocks back its fist, it's towering form shadowing the old man's.
*Whoosh*
A massive beam erupted from Aqua's Deagle, shattering it to pieces.
The light was so intense, it briefly blotted out the sun.
"Gah, fuck, my eyes!"
The old man's retina's were seared by the intensity, and when he recovered enough, he saw the ogre that was standing over him with its upper torso missing.
The green-skins arms fell to the floor with a THUD, and the body followed soon after, conveniently landing right on top of the mister.
Thankfully, he was standing right where the monsters head would have been, so he was unharmed.
Kind of.
Still bleary eyed from the laser beam, the man looked at the 100% dead troll and breathed a sigh of relief.
Putting his glasses back on, he looked at aqua and smiled.
Before falling over, unconscious.
"Eh!?! Mister!? Are you okay!?"
Turns out, landing on the back of his head earlier wasn't completely fine.
Now that the action is over, the blunt force trauma decided to assert itself, starting with a concussion.
"God damnit..."
Vision fading, he cursed his circumstances while Aqua fussed over him with tears in her eyes.
================
Pov: First Person
I awoke with a start.
I looked around with frantic eyes, but soon calmed down when I realized I was in the hospital.
"Sigh... What the hell man."
I don't even know what to say besides "wow". It was such an eventful day that I couldn't even begin to describe how I felt.
Traps, assasins and trolls. Where do you find someone who has experienced these things all in one day?
"Well, I'm alive, so that's that."
Not much else was important than getting away with my life.
I don't even have the energy to get mad, it's simply that absurd.
I layed back down in my bed and decided to rest.
...
...
"Oh fuck, I'm on the clock!!!"
I sat up immediately, and regretted it just as fast, as a migraine of epic proportions hit me like a small truck.
"Ogghh fffuck..."
I collapsed to bed like a doll with its strings cut.
"... Am I gonna have to take the day off?"
I didn't want to use one of my sick days already, as it might give my boss a bad impression, so stubbornly, I checked the time and date on my phone.
"... Huh?"
It's only been around 2 hours since I blacked out.
Obviously, I couldn't check the time while I was losing consciousness, but taking into account the time I saw just before the troll attack, it hasn't been long at all.
Wait, so that means-
*Click*
The door to my room opened, and A-chan stepped in before stopping in shock.
"... You're supposed to be unconscious."
"Is that what you have to say to your employee who nearly died?"
"The doctor just came in and said you'd be in a coma for at least 2 weeks."
"Hmm. That guy must have used chatGPT to get through med school, cause I'm wide awake."
"Are you seriously cracking jokes right now?"
A-chan looked at me incredulously, before sighing.
"Y'know, I thought you were just a boringly ordinary guy. But it turns out you're not normal either."
"Says the person who works at the hotel of their own free will."
We stared at each other for a second before bursting out laughing.
"Pfft, I guess I can't deny that."
"Right? Anyway, what did you come here for?"
"I came to give you flowers."
It was then that I noticed the vase with flowers in her hands.
"Well, that was the plan at least. But since it seems like you'll be clocking in tomorrow, maybe I should just keep them?"
A-chan chuckled while setting the vase down on the table next to me.
... Flowers huh? When was the last time I received flowers?
Maybe it was when I graduated elementary school? Maybe when I earned first prize in the school spelling bee?
Or maybe... After I was hospitalized after the incident.
The incident that took my parents.
The incident I can't recall no matter what I do.
And the flowers... I don't know who they were from or how I received them. All I remember is that there was something deeply wrong with them.
Something maddening.
Something chaotic.
"Mister?"
"Yeah?"
"You seemed a little out of it there."
I feigned pain and put my hand to my forehead.
"Oh, uh, it's nothing. Just a little migraine."
That's a lie. Strangely enough, the migraine disappeared.
"Hum. Well, that's normal. It'd be stranger to not feel any pain at all when you crack your skull open like you did."
"True that."
"In that case, I'll go ahead and leave. All this talking is driving you crazy, right? I've had too many migraines to not understand how you feel."
"Why are you pretending to be magnanimous? Knowing you, you're probably leaving so you can go do more paperwork."
"Tch."
A-chans benevolent expression dropped immediately.
"Fine then, I'll just leave."
She stood up and walked toward the door.
But before opening it, she looked back at me and spoke.
"Hey, thanks for today."
"Huh? For what?"
"For helping Aqua. I don't know what you did, but for the first time, she walked into my office with her back straight."
A-chans hand clenched the door know tightly.
"She even spoke without stuttering as she gave a report on what happened. That's never happened before."
A-chan looked at the door so I wouldn't see her face, but the emotion was leaking into her voice.
"In a single day, you helped her grow more as a person than I ever did."
Her shoulders dropped as she said this, perhaps disappointed she couldn't do what I did.
"So just know, I'm really grateful for your arrival, more than you think."
With that, she left the room without waiting for a response.
"Heh..."
It seems like I've found myself a wonderful boss.
===================
A/N:
Sorry for the long absence. I just had a lot to think about regarding the future of the series. At the rate I'm going, I'll be slogging through the rest of the arcs I have prepared, and I don't plan to continue the novel for 500 chapters. So, for the sake of my mental health, I had to do some reorganizing.
Not only did that take forever, but I also got addicted to Trickcal: Chibi Go, and the story is so good it completely dominated my mind. I couldn't even think about this novel, I could only come up with ideas about Trickcal 😭
So I had to wrestle with the idea of putting this fanfic on hiatus while I wrote the Trickcal one, just so I could get the ideas out of my head.
That said, I did come to a conclusion: I will be continuing this novel, but only until the arc after this one, at which point I will switch to Trickcal and do my thing for a while.
That doesn't mean this is getting dropped. I just want to do what I want to do, so I'm making time for it.
Sorry again for the wait, I'll make sure not to miss any uploads from here on.
Of course, there will be times when I don't wanna write. I'm human after all✌️. But I'll try not to make it an every week thing.
See you next week for the semifinale(?) of this arc.