Adrin turned off his [Immolation] as he didn’t think it would work with the new arrival. It was also consuming too much mana too fast for him.

But when in the nine hells would anyone tell him about giant monsters roaming this world? His brain could have prepared something for an undead version of it. The thing’s height was more than three stories high, and how the hell did its bones hold up to its weight? Some kind of magic mambo jumbo?

Adrin grumbled. He didn’t recall anyone talking about giant creatures when he was still a boy, but then again, he had no one but himself. He lived alone, secluded even from people of the same village.

Emilia was there, of course, but she was just a kid too. She might have heard of this and a village kid’s biggest concern wasn’t giant trolls roaming the deep wilderness. It might have gone over her head without her even noticing it. The girl was the type who liked to enjoy the moment rather than worry about things she couldn’t comprehend.

The ground trembled under my feet as the huge undead monster took one step after another. It looked like a kaiju marching in the night from his perspective.

And why did he have to taunt the undead woman? He could just end it all in an instant.

How did she even get a giant troll undead? How would anyone remove that kind of threat? Bring the might of a whole army of mages?

Adrin sighed inside. Should he use his triumph card here? Should he blast her off the planet using [MagniFlux]?

No. He just needed to take one step at a time. Safety first. To achieve that he re-anchored the [Diamond Dome] spell to Emilia. They would need the area to be clear of potential victims.

“Emi, get everyone out of here, I’ve made you the center of the [Shell].”

“Then what about you!?” The girl almost shouted. “You are coming with us, right?”

“That thing wanted me dead, not you or everyone else. Running away with you will only endanger you and Nerina.”

“But-” the other girl’s turn to question his decision.

“I’ll be fine, Nerina,” he cut her off. “You should know this better than others. Now please, for my sake, get further away from here,” Adrin gave her the most assuring look he could fake.

The truth was, it felt like his insides were tightened to a knot, but the girls didn’t need to know that. He was just an old, retired, underpaid mechatronics engineer reborn here as a kid. He didn’t even know if he would get out of this unharmed, not without revealing his guarded secret.

But what had he ever done to get such hate? He didn't try to correct anything wrong in this world. He had never had any of such lofty, heroic naive dreams. He just wanted to live quietly while building robots, for god’s sake.

Time stretched and it felt like forever before Nerina finally nodded. Adrin breathed in relief as she began to drag her friend away.

She should know the extent of his capabilities better than Emi after what she saw during the rescue. The helpless youths, including the princess, followed the two when they noticed the [Diamond Dome] was moving with them.

Adrin looked at the retreating group while already regretting his decision. A part of him wished that he could stay with them and become their center of attention. A tiny voice inside of his head kept telling him to just run away. Fly away and leave this problem far behind.

But he couldn’t do that. He just couldn’t.

He had to do something about it but he had no idea what. Almost half of his mana was already used for the [Shells], and the wide-area around him was already starved of mana. This was all thanks to the more experienced overpowered mages around him sucking it all dry. He couldn’t even complain about it because the same people had been keeping undead things occupied.

He had to take out his precious emergency supplies of mana marbles for this and he hated to waste consumables. The only positive here was his [Shell] did cost as much because of the affinities and the nature of the spell.

The giant troll let out a deafening unholy roar as its massive body was lighted up by bright focused lights. Some of them shone into its single eye and it irritated the huge monster. That had bought some precious seconds for everyone.

He was surprised when multiple floodlights began to focus on the monster. It came from on top of the walls. He had no idea how his invention of his was implemented so fast. Maybe this was the pro to having a single man to make the important decisions.

“Adrin, watch out!” yelled someone.

Two giant fists rushed toward him when he looked up. The [Roller Shell] spun sideways around him and he was barely able to dodge the attack.

A loud crack echoed in the air.

A few people screamed as the massive fists met the ground. The solid stones exploded on contact, sending countless stone shards to the surrounding.

Adrin was thrown away and a few of the stone shards impacted his heavily modified [Shell] but it looked like none was able to pierce it. He breathed in relief once again when all his limbs were still intact. The remaining ones, at least.

The monster’s long monkey hand swung sideways towards him again. Adrin’s [Shell] spun and sped away like a ball on the ground. The thick monster fist clipped his [Shell] and he was thrown spinning away from his intended direction.

Now he was directly under the giant troll’s feet.

“He's over there!” yelled someone before a floodlight focused on his movements.

Adrin cursed inside. He wished that no one had done that.

The ground vibrated as the giant undead troll tried to stomp him. The [Shell] swiftly moved away. The troll once again failed to land a solid hit but it was enough to make Adrin almost shit himself from the scare.

A few people fell on their feet as the giant troll continued to stomp repeatedly. Standing more than two stories tall, and with limbs thicker than two human bodies, every sudden movement the monster made would shake the ground around it.

A huge blue [Fireball] hit its back and the monster stumbled forward. The flame burned for a few seconds before a [Ice] sheet put the fire out. The banshee was floating around, defying gravity as if it was a joke while assisting her giant undead pet.

Asking for an undying black flame would be too much, he guessed.

It was at that moment that Adrin had an idea. He took a wide spin around before turning back and ramming the back of the monster’s legs.

It worked as the blunt force sent the leg forward uncontrollably.

The giant troll tried to recover but its feet slipped and the monster fell to its back. A ghostly scream followed the fall before the ground vibrated from the giant monsters hitting the ground.

Adrin moved and drifted to a stop just in front of the lighting grandpa and the Matriarch.

“Got any great plans?” he asked out loud as the undead troll pushed himself up.

“You have to show me how to do the blue lightning!” demanded the grandpa.

“How are you moving around like that?” asked the academy representative. She had introduced herself but Adrin had already forgotten what her name was.

“Are you alright?” asked the Matriarch. Real concern on her face confused Adrin for a moment before he shook his head.

“I guess no plans,” Adrin muttered and returned his attention to the troll.

It was time to increase the bet.

His pointy and sharp [Grinder] made its second sudden appearance on command. This time he focused on forwarding deep cuts rather than defensive ones. The sharp spikes appeared like mohawk hair around the center of the spherical [Shell].

“How do you do that!?” asked them almost at the same time.

“Math, good old math,” he said before he sped towards the down giant.

Iced spikes punched out from the ground and hit his side halfway toward his target. The world spun around him as he was again sent spinning and tumbling to the ground.

It took him some time to regain control of the [Shell] as it smashed and bounced off a large tree. The tree fell from the collision and the beautiful flower garden around was all destroyed, thanks to that.

He was too naive to think the same trick would work twice. Adrin wasn’t bleeding anywhere but it had given him a good amount of headache to deal with.

He couldn’t even stand on his feet for a moment. His hand was clenching the ground while the [Shell] was blinking in and out of existence. Adrin knew that he should be grateful as, without the [Shell], the Ice spikes should have turned him into meat paste.

Thankfully, the older mages didn’t stand idle. All kinds of spells flew towards the giant undead as Adrin gathered pathetic himself. Should he change tactics? Pelting the troll from afar sounds fun, but the embarrassing amount of mana he had would run out within seconds.

Adrin looked at the metal arm supporting his body. If only he had more time.

How had his life turned into this? Fighting giant undead instead of enjoying himself building mechanical monsters.

Giant undead monsters were simply not fair.

It came without any warning but a sharp whistle in the air.

When he turned around, all he could see was a swung giant trunk of a tree right in front of his face.

Adrin had milliseconds to react as he pushed all his mana into his metallic arm.

The metal arm crumbled when it met the thick wood. Adrin was sent flying like a world record home run hit with a loud bang. Blood burst out of his mouth as his lungs collapsed from pure air pressure alone.

The world spun until his [Magni Flux] reacted to his instinct. The skill dampened all the inertia from the hit with the cost of two whole mana marbles. That’s almost the same cost as five large blue fireballs.

Adrin found himself levitated by the skill upside down in the air far away from the mansion. His metal hand was deformed beyond recognition by the sheer force of the swung tree trunk.

“Freaking overpowered,” he muttered while realigning himself.

He still could see the giant troll rampaging with its makeshift club but it looked like a swiftly moving puppet from this far away. He couldn’t believe where he was. The other side of the inner walls was just below him. Anyone else would have turned into meat paste from that hit.

Adrin spat the blood gathered in his mouth.

It was time for payback.

Electric jolts arced around his body as he charged up his second favorite skill. In the meantime, [Metallurgy] was working on the mangled metal arm, turning it into a huge bullet.

Adrin knew that he could just fly away and disappear right then, but he couldn’t just let someone else clean up his mess. He didn’t want to owe anyone anything if he could help it.

Besides, the troll and its master still owe him a lot. His mana resources would deplete after this, but it was a huge opportunity to end this whole undead mockery.

A high-pitched sound echoed in the air as the massive metal slab spun in the air. Much thicker lightning jolts jumped around as his inner capacitor reached its limit. Adrin also made sure the [Aim Assist] adjusted to the wind and the range of the target.

He got only one chance to do this.

The air cracked and exploded as the railgun released its charge.

The hollow point bullet broke the sound barrier as it sped towards its target. The air resistance should not matter because of this, but Adrin had forgotten about one little thing.

Well, not until it was too late.

Adrin found himself tumbling in the air as if he was hit by something again. The ground and the night sky switched places so quickly that it felt like his head wanted to explode. The momentum carrying him was much worse than before and this time he had no sure way to save himself.

A solid thick wall of the second layer stopped his descent. The wall crumbled as the last of his personal [Shell] faded away.

Adrin groaned. “Fucking recoil,” he mumbled just before his body started to lean over and fall.

Almost thankfully, everything went dark just before he fell. Adrin bounced off the roof of a house and rag-dolled on the ground along with the eerie cracks of broken bones. He didn’t have to suffer through those at the very least.

Further away, things went pretty much as Adrin had expected.

The top half of the giant troll exploded into a mess of smoking blood and cooked flesh in a sudden ear-deafening pop. The cylindrical bullet flew right through its target faster than a blink of an eye, and no one even noticed its involvement. The projectile was just too fast for a human eye to see before it disappeared to the horizon.

The stunned crowd only stirred awake when what was left of the giant undead body fell and shook the ground one last time. Not a single soul was sure what had even happened.