Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 56

Chapter 56
The first to notice the signs was Hamel, a former ranger now mercenary for Steel Claw. Though long retired, the experience etched into his body and soul hadn’t faded.
The forest was cloaked in darkness. In a setting where visibility didn’t even reach twenty meters, his sharp eyes caught the shapes that were shifting irregularly.
“Ambush incoming!” Hamel shouted as he swiftly pulled the bow from his back.
His body moved faster than he could think. He instinctively knew the best course of action. Before the monsters closed in, he needed to buy time for the escort formation to set up.
Years of ranger training guided his fingers. The figures in the dark were small and numerous. Rather than pinpoint sniping, he needed a way to suppress a wide area if he wanted to break their momentum.
“
Tch
. Bit of a waste for these rats.”
Clicking his tongue, Hamel drew a single arrow. It wasn’t cheap enough to spend on low-tier monsters.
Still, he didn’t hesitate to nock and draw. Sometimes, taking a small loss for a greater win was inevitable.
With a
twang,
a red beam shot forth. It was Hamel’s Fire Aura Arrow. Wind tore through its trajectory with a howl, briefly parting the darkness and revealing the enemy: goblins.
Small, grotesque creatures wielding rusty daggers and wind-blasters were charging in. Hamel quickly estimated their numbers to be dozens, possibly over a hundred, and timed his next move.
As the arrow, having pierced through a few goblins, began to slow and drop—
“
Kaboom
,” he murmured the word, and the Aura Arrow exploded.
Packed with gunpowder and iron shards, the arrow tore through the front ranks, shredding goblins in a brutal burst. Even if they didn’t die, the wounded would slow the rest.
Calmly nocking another arrow, Hamel shouted, “Eighty meters until contact! Fifteen seconds!”
He fired several shots in a single breath. The piles of goblin corpses left in his wake slowed the charging horde. That was enough.
As Hamel, now depleted of nearly half his Aura, stepped back, the mercenaries—now fully assembled into formation—stepped forward.
“Nice work, Hamel! Our turn now!”
With Gustav at the lead, the warriors surged to the front. They left forces guarding the rear and flanks, but the main battle was sure to happen in the direction of travel. Leon was among that forward group.
Huh. I’ve never fought like this before,
Leon mused.
Whether before or after becoming an adventurer, Leon had always fought alone. Coordinated team combat was a foreign concept to him.
There had been that infiltration with Caesare, and the time he partnered with Karen against the exolaw wielders, but those were highly specific circumstances. Plus, most of the coordination in those cases had been others adapting to him.
Well, he had no time to dwell on it.
“Come on, you filthy rats!”
Gustav smashed through a few goblins with a thunderous blow, and the other mercenaries followed with a charge. The best defense is to push the front line forward. They knew that truth from experience.
Whatever. Let’s just do this!
Determined not to fall behind, Leon raised his sword and followed. He cleaved through a goblin’s neck. The cut came far easier than it had on the road to Blaine, attesting to his growth.
It was just the beginning. As he immersed himself in the fight, his sword glowed with golden Aura, and in five steps he had felled more than ten goblins, painting the battlefield in their blood.
And it wasn’t just Leon. The whole battle was one-sided. Even the C-rank mercenaries who weren’t part of Steal Claw weren’t weak enough to struggle against mere goblins.
Several squad leaders shouted out orders.
“Hold the line! Just make sure you don’t get hit in the face by the poison darts!”
“Archers! Take out the bastards sniping from the trees first!”
“Enemies from the rear are already dealt with!”
The mercenaries, unflinching, relayed information while slaughtering the goblins. Their cohesive movements left no room for the monsters’ trickery. Hundreds of goblin corpses piled up, and the air in the forest became heavy with blood.
No combatant was more dominant than Gustav. With a swing of his massive sword, he smashed goblins and trees alike. The air changed direction with each strike, scattering the scent of blood.
The Smasher was a fitting title for someone who truly embodied destruction.
To swing that monster of a blade naturally in a dense forest...!
But what amazed Leon more than Gustav’s power was his swordsmanship. It was common knowledge that larger weapons like polearms and zweihander couldn’t show their full potential in tight spaces, but Gustav’s movements showed no signs of restriction.
This wasn’t just brute force. It was proof of an overwhelming spatial awareness, and it was different from Rodrick’s Vision.
“
Ah
, sorry about that.”
“No problem.”
When Leon bumped into an unfamiliar mercenary and apologized, the man simply shrugged and moved on. Feeling awkward, Leon absentmindedly fiddled with his sword hilt. This too was a sign of his inexperience.
Having never fought back-to-back with allies, he didn’t know how to maintain proper spacing. He’d already nearly collided with others several times.
Maybe I need to refine my Aura Sense—make it more precise and stable.
One real battle was better than a hundred theoretical lessons. This one experience was enough to set his next goal. With swordsmanship, he could mimic El-Cid’s demonstrations, but this kind of awareness could only come through firsthand experience.
Leon sharpened his Aura Sense, scanning his surroundings. He adjusted his positioning so as not to intrude on others’ space.
And with that, he grew just a little more.
Gustav’s booming voice came from the front lines.
“Alright! Looks like that’s the last of them! All goblins repelled! We don’t have any idiots who got hurt from that, right?”
The mercenaries and adventurers alike laughed. A swarm of goblins numbering in the hundreds might have posed a real threat in some backwater fiefdom, but against an escort unit made up of B- and C-rank fighters, they were nothing.
Not to mention, there was an A-rank adventurer in tow. Not even a thousand goblins would have stood a chance.
“Return to your wagons and take a break! Scouts, hang in there a bit longer—everyone else, dismissed!”
Following Gustav’s orders, the mercenaries and adventurers headed back to their wagons. Since goblin corpses didn’t yield anything of value, no one bothered with dismantling or looting them.
Leon lingered for a moment, practicing control over his Aura Sense, but quickly concluded it wasn’t something he could master in such a short time.
As he turned to head back to the wagon he shared with Karen, Gustav stopped him.
“Hold on a sec.”
“What is it?” Leon asked.
“The caravan leader’s requested you and your companion. I believe it’s about—”
“Troll hunting.”
Leon and Gustav both flinched at once. A presence had suddenly appeared behind them.
At this range, if it were an ambush, they’d already be dead. Understanding that, both froze.
Karen, the adventurer who had silently approached from behind, gave a slight smirk as she casually draped her arm over Leon’s shoulders.
“So your men want to hunt trolls?” she asked Gustav.
Gustav, a seasoned mercenary, quickly composed himself and responded as usual.
“
Ahem
, yes. We’ve already come to an agreement with the caravan leader. As you know, Forest Trolls behave very differently depending on whether they perceive someone as stronger or weaker. If you reveal your power, they’re likely to flee this area without a second thought.”
“So, you’re asking me not to get involved?”
Karen stared at him, her eyes flat and emotionless. There wasn’t a trace of killing intent yet facing her was still suffocating. That alone was proof of her presence as the Keeper.
Beads of sweat gathered on Gustav’s temple as he replied, “This is merely a suggestion. If you’re unwilling, we’ve agreed to forgo the hunt entirely.”
After a brief contemplation, Karen glanced at Leon and asked, “What do you think?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“It’s trolls. You’ve never fought one, right? If you’re curious, this might be a good chance.”
At her words, Leon felt a spark of interest. A mid-tier monster that dominated forested or swampy regions with its brute strength and regenerative powers, and a staple in nearly every adventurer’s tale.
They’re different from the weird monsters summoned by exolaw. I might actually learn something from fighting one.
Trolls weren’t just physically superior to humans—they also had special abilities. They were the kind of monsters immune to El-Cid’s special sacred spell. Leon had never fought one before.
“I want to fight one.”
“Knew you’d say that.”
With a grin, Karen looked back at Gustav.
“Let Leon face one of them alone. If you agree to that, I’ll help out with the troll hunt.”
“I’ll relay your request to the caravan leader.”
“
Oh
, and we’re taking the troll’s blood payout. Full market price.”
It was a fair and natural demand. Gustav nodded immediately.
***
Four days passed. The Storm Caravan had only just reached the inner forest, delayed by continuous attacks.
The initial goblin horde was nothing. Even after hundreds of goblins had been slaughtered, more kept coming, leaving another mountain of corpses. It was clearly abnormal behavior.
Even monsters knew fear. They weren’t berserkers who charged recklessly into hopeless battles.
“First and second days, goblins. Then gnolls and kobolds. Wonder what’s next,” Karen muttered as she idly flipped her dagger.
Leon found himself nodding unconsciously. She was right. The forest trolls’ influence seemed far greater than expected. The entire forest’s monsters were fixated on the caravan.
Of course, the threat wasn’t severe. That’s likely why Arnold, the caravan leader, hadn’t given up on the troll hunt.
“Isn’t there a chance they’ll just keep testing us and never attack?”
Leon was beginning to wonder if they were just wasting time. The forest trolls were astonishingly patient.
“Well, that’s possible.”
Karen didn’t deny it. Not all monsters behaved the same. Even among trolls, behavior varied by region.
Forest trolls were particularly tricky. In regions with stronger monsters, they moved in packs like hyenas, scavenging corpses. Some were even known to hunt by hurling stones and trees like humans performing drive hunts.
That cunning, not their strength, made trolls dangerous. If they decided a fight wasn’t winnable, they wouldn’t even show up. Their behavior changed drastically with the environment, so there was no fixed method for hunting them.
“
Ah
.”
Suddenly, Karen’s dagger slipped from her hand and sank deep into the wagon floor. Her eyes widened as she glanced outside.
A beat later, Leon sensed it too. Something incredibly heavy was barreling toward them.
This is—
There wasn’t even time to react. Just as both stood up from their seats, a massive boulder came crashing down on the wagon directly ahead of theirs.
The ground shook from the immense impact, along with a deafening crash. The boulder had obliterated the wagon and sent the horses tumbling.
The people inside didn’t stand a chance.
“They’re all dead...”
Leon, now outside, grimaced. Despite repeated ambushes, there hadn’t been a single fatality. Yet just one strike had killed three people.
He didn’t know their names, but their faces were familiar. Mercenaries he’d shared a drink with during the banquet.
In contrast, Karen remained calm.
“They’re here. Get ready.”
Without sparing even a glance at the dead, she watched the direction the boulder had come from. Death didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest.
In that moment, Leon was reminded that she was, at her core, an assassin. However, there was no time for reflection.
“More boulders incoming! Brace for impact!”
Gustav’s furious voice rang out. Leon looked up and saw four more massive stones hurtling through the air.
The Forest Trolls had finally decided to join the fun.