In a half daze, I had a thought: If I were actually what people called gifted, maybe my life would’ve turned out differently.
I know, it’s a frivolous thing to contemplate while I’m on the job, but that’s what happens when you get too comfortable at your workplace. You get cocky and apathetic. Even if your “workplace” is a battlefield where Fire, Ice, and every type of spell under the sun is hurling at you left and right—the principle still applies.
An orb of fire was coming right at me. I ducked away in the nick of time only to become the target of some icy thorns. Then I tumbled out of their path and landed right beneath the trajectory of a lightning arrow. I staggered to my feet and took off running. There was a soldier clad in fancy armor up ahead. When he saw me headed his way, his face twisted with terror.
I thought nothing of the sight—I saw it every day—as I slashed my sword at the soldier’s neck. Barely a second later, his neck ripped. Fresh blood spurted from the wound—I jumped away to avoid getting bloody and turned my attention to my next opponent.
“H-he’s coming right at us!” a soldier screamed in distress.
“Stop him! Somebody stop him!” A stout, well-dressed man barked an order. He pressed his palms together, and a bunch of different types of elemental magic swirled inside: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Rock. Then he shot them from his hands.
Sorry, buddy. That was a bad move.
I crouched down low, digging my feet into the earth and putting as much distance between us as I could while I deflected the spell.
“Impossible… He blocked it?!”
“Th-the spell! It’s coming right at us! Aaaggghhh!”
The spell meant for me shot back up at an angle toward the soldiers. It only managed to hit about half of them, but at least it made a dent. Their ranks descended into chaos.
“Agh!”
“Guh?!”
I wove my way through the troops, slaughtering them as I passed. The air filled with death rattles and fountains of blood. This bred further chaos—and all hell broke loose.
“D-disgraceful! To think Eltania’s honorable Order of Holy Knights would be defeated—”
“By a filthy mercenary…who can’t even use magi—ack! Augh!”
I thrust my blade into the whining soldier and wiped his blood off my cheek.
Just another day on the job. I kill whichever monsters or humans I’m paid to. That’s it. And it’s a fucking drag.
The only company I ever have is my enemies. And the pay is shit, considering I put my life on the line day in and day out. People don’t tend to last long in this career.
But that’s what it means to be a mercenary. I’ve got no education, no connections, no friends. And most of all—
“Come on! He’s just one sellsword, and he can’t use magic! Just kill him, you good-for-nothing shits!”
That’s right, I don’t have an ounce of magic—that thing everyone needs to survive in this world. So this was the one choice that was left for me.
“B-but, sir—”
“No buts! How dare you force me to stoop so low as to cross swords with a lowly plebeian!” The commanding officer nipped his underling’s protest in the bud.
Dang… I’ve always thought being a hired soldier is a shitty line of work, but in a kingdom at war, maybe good workplaces don’t exist.
Some cocky guy strutted out and pointed his sword at me. “You! Plebeian! Prostrate yourself in fear! I, the great Gordon Raqulet of the esteemed Sixth Order of the Holy Knights of Eltania shall do you the honor of fighting you personally!”
“Huh?”
…The fuck is this swine babbling about?
As I glared coldly at Gordon or whoever, a group of my mercenary buddies ambled in behind me.
“Phew, terrifying as ever today, aren’t we, Envil? I mean who kills sixteen guys all by himself…?”
“What’s left, a common soldier and a fat pig? Piece of cake. They don’t call ya Savage Fang for nothin’.”
The commander took one look at the row of rough men in front of him, and the blood just drained from his fat face. And I don’t blame him. No soldier stood a chance against a platoon, even one composed of lowly mercenaries.
I burst into a swarm of enemies to stir up chaos. It’s just easier to do that job solo—in the end, all I do is cut a chink in their defenses and get the ball rolling.
The Gordon guy was sputtering for breath. His face went from blue to red in a millisecond.
“C-come on! Hold your swords, mercenaries! I am doing you the favor of dueling this pleb in one-on-one combat! You should be honored!”
Aha… So that’s his game.
Seeing that he couldn’t win against a small army, he was trying to pass the whole thing off as a one-on-one duel. Snickers erupted among my mercenary buddies, and the commander turned bright red at the sound of it. I guess even he had the brains to be embarrassed by his lame excuse.
Still, I had no obligation to go along with his batshit suggestion. I just wanted to kill him and hit the hay.
“C’mon, Envil, give the guy what he wants.”
“Pig like him ain’t even a challenge, right?”
“Yeah, I second it. C’mon, don’t be a little bitch now. I’ll give ya a bigger cut and all the best food at the party tonight if you take him on. Whaddaya say?”
“Hehhh? Shit… Why ya gotta make me do all the hard work?”
But my mercenary buddies kept egging me on. I couldn’t imagine a task lamer than this… But the prospect of paying my respects to a guy who’d made a fool out of me was a bit tempting.
I took a couple steps away from my mercenary buddies and drew my sword.
A twisted smile came to the pig’s face as he declared, “I am Scorched Earth Gordon! Commander of the honorable Sixth Order of the Holy Knights of Eltania! Prepare to die, peasant scum!”
And after his grand little speech, the man raised his sword. Magic swirled in his blade. It was probably…a Fire spell.
I couldn’t use magic. Not in the slightest. But my deficiency only made me all the more sensitive to the presence of the stuff.
I took a quiet breath and focused. And just before the man swung his sword at me…I kicked off the dirt.
When the man swung his blade, his wave of fire crashed down on the spot where I was standing only a second earlier.
“What?! You dodged my attack?!” The commander could not hide his astonishment.
Still, he was definitely a platoon leader. That explained why he could cast his spell so quickly and at such a wide range. Not too shabby in the power department, either. If it hit a magicless guy like me, I’d be toast.