Only when debris from the smashed wagon scattered across his back did Tang Qi pinch his thigh hard, using the brief pain to drive away his terror, then hurriedly roll aside.
A figure suddenly burst out of the dust rising from the wagon's wreckage.
Black Snake leaped in front of Tang Qi, with no time to explain anything else:
"Give me the chisel!"
Tang Qi noticed that the long cangue on Black Snake's shoulders was already shattered.
With a shrug, he shook the broken boards onto the ground—
The instant the spiked club struck the wagon, Black Snake had dodged aside and used the gale whipped up by its swing to smash the cangue on his shoulders.
Although his hands were still tightly cuffed, he was far more agile than before.
Tang Qi hastily dug the chisel out of his bag and tossed it over. Black Snake caught it and immediately drove it through his own shackles.
With a clack, he planted the chisel against the shackles' connecting joint and forcibly snapped the chain between them.
After repeating the trick to knock off Tang Qi's and Kuru's shackles, he issued an order:
"Go find the handcuff keys and my damn blade!"
"Roar!"
Just as Black Snake finished speaking, the cloud of flour finally began to clear.
Before the troll, the silhouettes of two tall figures and one short one became visible.
Its roar thundered.
But before it could charge over, arrows shot from behind it, parting the powder and streaking toward them in silvery arcs.
They carried considerable force and were swift enough, but not faster than Black Snake now that his ankles were free.
The moment he spotted their trajectory, he twisted at the waist and flipped aside, narrowly avoiding them.
Alarm bells rang in Tang Qi's mind.
But he lacked Black Snake's agility. He could only grab the edge of the kobold's cangue and pull him bodily in front of himself:
"Rua!?"
Although the kobold was small, the wooden board enclosing most of his body made an excellent shield.
Thanks to Tang Qi's [Alertness], the arrows seemed to trace fixed paths through his mind, allowing him to predict their approach.
Several incoming barbed arrows struck the board with heavy thunks, mere inches from Kuru's skin.
Terrified, Kuru's eyes filled with tears as he complained incessantly:
"Human, bad!"
"Don't dawdle! An iron chisel won't pierce its hide!"
Black Snake tossed out the warning, bent low, and sprinted.
He moved so swiftly that he left little more than an afterimage in the white haze.
Though his hands were bound, that did not stop him from gripping an iron chisel.
The spiked club in the troll's hand swept past with a howl. The wind pressure it generated carved a visible trail through the white haze, roaring past Black Snake's ear and rattling his eardrum.
Unfazed, he dropped low and slid between the troll's legs.
Holding his breath, he ignored the stench of rot and blood on its body. He planted his toes, sprang into the air, and landed on its shoulder, driving the iron chisel straight into the back of its head—
Squelch!
The strike punched clean through its skull. As he pulled away, thick blood splashed into his nostrils.
Had his opponent been an ordinary human, that would have been enough to kill them.
But the troll merely roared wildly. As though completely unaffected, it swept its club behind itself and drove the flea on its shoulder back to the ground.
Before it could turn around, Black Snake landed lightly. Glancing at the bloody hole in the back of its head, he saw the flesh inside the wound beginning to squirm inward. He spat under his breath:
"Came here on a full stomach, did you?"
Trolls had enormous appetites. They could easily devour a four-hundred-kilogram boar in a single meal.
All that food gave them more than bloated stomachs. It also granted them regenerative abilities that made them nearly unkillable.
The second head on this troll had probably grown back after its original head had been cut off—
Only burning or corroding their wounds could stop their flesh from healing.
As Tang Qi fled toward the camp, he saw Explosive Wolf slice off a troll's arm. Yellow-green lumps of flesh immediately began to writhe at the stump.
He also understood that regeneration consumed energy. The faster they healed, the fuller their stomachs had to be.
Trolls only willingly went out to forage when they were hungry.
Clicking his tongue, Tang Qi quickened his pace:
"Could someone else be behind them!?"
The mercenaries under Explosive Wolf were well trained, and New Star was keeping the situation under control.
As a result, aside from scattered volleys of arrows, nothing had threatened the camp's interior yet.
Relying on [Alertness] to avoid danger and dodge the arrows, Tang Qi charged straight into the most luxurious tent in the camp—
"Who goes there!?"
The moment Hus realized Tang Qi had barged in, he drew a rapier from his waist and stood ready, one hand held behind his back.
Though he was not of noble birth, he had followed in his father's footsteps and loyally served Mel's family, receiving the finest education in return.
With his back perfectly straight, he clearly possessed fine courtly swordsmanship.
Unwilling to clash with him, Tang Qi immediately explained what he needed:
"I'm sorry to disturb you, my lords, but the situation outside is urgent. I need Blazing Fire Glue, the handcuff keys, and Black Snake's curved blade."
Hus frowned deeply and stepped in front of Melard:
"How did you break free of your shackles!? And what do you want weapons for?"
He had heard the trolls roaring, but did not believe they posed a problem the mercenaries outside could not handle.
Thus, he remained relatively calm and instinctively refused Tang Qi's request.
Understanding his attitude, Tang Qi patiently explained:
"Someone is directing those trolls. They might even be only an advance force..."
"Impossible! Twilight Forest is shrouded in mist. How could a large force move through it without seeing through the illusions?
"Do you think this is the southern battlefield?
"They're clearly just hungry trolls out foraging. They're no match for the mercenaries."
Tang Qi lacked enough evidence to convince him.
Unwilling to waste time, he said bluntly:
"Save your bullshit until this is all over."
"Bastard, watch your tongue!"
Strum, strum—
Without warning, he struck two fierce chords on the lute in his hands, then sang:
"Fuck you, you moron! You don't get to decide what I do!
"Nobody's going to pay the price for your stubbornness. Now answer my question—
"Tell me where the keys and weapons are!"
"You!"
Tang Qi's "lyrics" were utterly crude. Having been brought up in an atmosphere of noble refinement, how could Hus tolerate such abuse?
He was about to raise his rapier.
Yet when his eyes met those of the poet before him, he suddenly felt an odd familiarity, as though this poet were an old friend from his youth.
In the blink of an eye, he seemed to return to his childhood.
Back then, he had been a mischievous student learning the most basic etiquette for serving nobles under an elderly butler.
He had been sternly reprimanded by his kindly mentor for failing to arrange the knives and forks correctly.
When he realized what he had done wrong, he had been mortified.
Now, that same guilt rose in his heart once more.
So much so that Tang Qi's abuse no longer seemed crude or grating.
Perhaps this was what the old butler had meant when he said that honest advice was hard to hear:
"You! You—"
Hus stammered, lowered his rapier, and tossed Tang Qi a ring of keys.
"My friend, that was a fine scolding. You've brought me to my senses.
"I can't risk the young master getting hurt by going outside to ascertain the truth.
"But I can see that you, too, have his safety in mind—
"That prisoner's curved blade should still be in the mage's tent."
Kuru blinked in bewilderment.
He knew what "moron" meant.
So if you called nobles morons, they would obediently do as they were told?
Humans were so strange...
Hus did not actually know what was happening outside.
As a result, Tang Qi's [Art of Making Friends] influenced his judgment and made him recognize the urgency of the situation.
Tang Qi did not care whether the steward held a grudge afterward:
"Which direction?"
"The one farthest from the bonfire. He said he needed somewhere quiet to study his books."
"And the Blazing Fire Glue?"
"In the crate beside the bonfire."
Tang Qi got a rough sense of the directions while using the keys to unlock Kuru's handcuffs:
"Kuru, I'll get the Blazing Fire Glue.
"You can't find your way through this mist, so don't even think about slipping away. Hurry and fetch Black Snake's blade.
"Then we'll leave this damned place together!"
Before you continue