UnfortunateHobbyist

Took me a while to actually write about the summoned hero's antics, but this'll  be a start! The heat's been murder, let me tell you.

Again, I commissioned an illustration on Pixiv! The artist is Tsuyuhari Nui on Pixiv!

I look at the night sky. It still feels weird seeing the stars like this. Not that I ever really bothered to look up back home anyway. Too busy with other things. Always being in my father’s shadow… At least that’s not something I have to worry about anymore.

How many years has it been? Three? Five?

I forget. It’s been a while.

It doesn’t even matter. This place is so much more interesting. It’s like a game. It just doesn’t feel like real life. Even if it’s beyond any virtual reality. And I have to eat, drink and sleep.

Not sure what’d happen if I died here. Would I get resurrected or just die? Getting hit still hurts.

Not that I’ve run into anything that has come close in a long time.

I’m alone in this clearing with only the dead and dying beasts to accompany me.

It never stops surprising me how well I can see in the dark without any spells. It’s almost like some sort of night vision.

Ah. More are coming. I heft up my sword. I think I’ll use it two-handed this time, too. No need for the shield.

Ah, these are less human than the earlier ones. Just a dozen more, not even wearing proper equipment. Must’ve run to help their friends as fast as they could. And is that a werewolf?

Cool. I think one of my local quests tasked me with killing a werewolf, too. This one seems to match the description pretty well. I guess this counts as a quest boss fight?

Thing about quest bosses.

They’re not very threatening once you’ve reached my level.

Time to recast my buffs. I cycle through a number from physical resistances to magical ones. Oh, and some skill and attribute enhancing ones for good measure.

Who doesn’t like a good overkill?

“You… You monster!” Its voice is closer to a growling wolf than a person. But I can still understand it. The curse of being a summoned hero. I wish I didn’t have to understand the inane yapping of animal men.

Its words are ironic, coming from the mouth of one of these things.

I smirk. “If you want to avenge your dead, you’ll have to kill me.”

It’s been at least two years since I started to fight the beastfolk. It’s hard to believe there’s still any left, but more seem to always appear from the woods to raid the good people of the land.

Two of the weaker ones lose their temper and run at me. But they’re too far and too slow, giving me lots of time to react.

“No!,” screeches the werewolf, “Stop! Don’t fall for his taunts!”

It has no control over its underlings, does it?

Typical.

I lean my sword against my shoulder, leaving my left hand open.

I think I’ll just go with basic fireballs here.

A ball of fire appear above my left hand, illuminating the surroundings.

I’m fine. With the right precautions, I won’t blind myself with my own spells. The two beasts running for me, though, aren’t as lucky.

Forced to cover your eyes. Heh.

Honestly, being this good at magic and melee shouldn’t be okay. Being a summoned hero is like being all MMO classes at once!

With a flick of my wrist, the fireball starts flying towards one of the attacking creatures.

As the fireball leaves my hand, I cast another. And another. And another.

Have to give them all something to remember me by.

That’s a dozen fireballs in total.

The two I provoked burn to a crisp. They had no time to react. The ten others, though? Looks like none of them died. A few got hurt, but the werewolf looks fine. And none of them are backing down.

That would’ve made things too easy. I still have plenty of MP left.

“You’re making this too easy for me.”

The werewolf snarls.

“Entangling roots!” A high pitched voice comes from behind it.

Oh, they had a caster with them?

Roots burst out from the ground, trying to trap me.

All it takes is a jump backwards and a couple of solid slashes with my sword to take care of it.

Ah, damn. Such a basic feint. All the others took that as their cue to run at me.

Not like it’s actually enough to defeat me, but it’s something.

That caster seems like a nature type. A shaman, right? Could probably have heals, too. It could get annoying if it kept healing them.

I cycle through the menu.

Here it is.

Shadow Teleport. A bit of an edgy name, but it does its job. And costs very little to cast. Sure, it has counters and it’s easy to notice, but they don’t seem too sharp.

Just as they’re about to reach me, I activate the spell and appear behind the shaman.

I strike it in the head with my sword’s crossguard, making it fall over, bleeding.

Another taken out.

The nine beasts almost run into each other, managing to stop their momentum at the last moment.

I can’t stop myself from laughing.

The werewolf’s eyes widen as much as they can. Oddly human behavior for one so animalistic. “What… How?!”

It never stops to amaze me how little the different groups of these things seem to share information between each other. I’ve done this before with others of its kind. Surely it should’ve known.

Oh. Right. I usually kill them all. Can’t glean much information from the dead.

“You’re fighting me and you don’t even know what I’m capable of?”

It snarls at me again. I guess it doesn’t want to talk with me anymore.

I give their shaman a good kick.

Oh. Looks like they’re trying to surround me this time.

They’re giving me all the time I need to thin their numbers.

Yes, this’ll do.

They’ve surrounded me. There’s just nine of them. What good do they think this’ll do? They already saw me teleport. This won’t do you any good.

Seems like they’re ready. The werewolf has positioned itself in front of me.

The entire group starts to sprint towards me.

I crouch down and slam my left hand into the dirt.

The ground cracks and spikes appear all around me, extending outward from my position. I don’t get to use earth spikes very often.

I hear satisfying screams all around me. Seems like it was very effective.

As I raise my hand off the dirt and stand up, the spikes crumble. Looks like I got all of them.

Well, all, except one. The werewolf managed to get away. I didn’t expect it to die that easily.

“You coward!,” it yells with its growling voice, “Fight me like a man!”

Oh, without offensive magic? Might as well. It gets a bit boring blasting everything away with spells anyway.

“Alright,” I say as I grab my sword with both of my hands, “Give me your best shot.”

It lunges at me, claws first.

Parry the right, dodge the left and its body.

I quickly turn around and strike it in its back. I feel my sword making contact with bone and sinew. It yelps in surprise. I guess it hasn’t been hurt all that much in its time.

“Is that the best you can do?”

It growls in response.

“My turn.”

I leap towards it with my sword pointed at it. It does a feeble attempt at blocking my attack, but it can’t keep its arms up.

In that moment, it seems to realize what I’ve done. But it’s too late.

My sword strikes its right shoulder, making its arm go limp. It whimpers, and falls to its knees.

Seems like the poison is working. Who would’ve thought paralyzing it would be this effective.

I punch it in the face, making it fall over to its back.

I step on its stomach.

“Looks like I’ve won.” A smirk spreads on my face. “I can’t believe you thought you could win against me.”

“Wh… who are you?”

“You fought me without knowing?”

I drive my sword into its stomach. It whimpers, unable to fight back.

“Know that you die by the sword of a hero, brought here to lay all of your kind low.”

“… A… a hero? No... The doom knight, here?! No, it can’t be!”

“Ah, yes, that’s what you things call me.”

For the first time, I see actual fear in its eyes. Seems like it finally realized its mistake.

I guess it was an understandable one. I’m not known to roam the wilderness alone these days.

Funny. So that’s why they didn’t take me very seriously.

I need proof of having killed this thing. I pull my sword out of its belly.

Now, which part should I take?

Let’s go for the obvious one.

“No…!”

My sword bursts into flames and I lop off the werewolf’s head.

Finally, silence.

I grab the head and put it in my inventory. Quest bosses sure are easy pickings these days. I remember when they at least were a bit more of a challenge.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to these simpler times. Why can’t people just do what they’re told?

I stand up and look at the sky again.

It sure feels weird seeing the stars like this.