Few minutes when Danzel left Shiro behind with Koji and Niyuki.
Shiro stared at the dark green mist leaving at a speed that her eye could barely follow.
She didn't expect that Danzel would simply leave her alone like this, in front of 3 ice troll corpses and a few bloody, eaten bodies of the natives of this village.
Shiro was also observant in her surroundings and came to the same conclusion that Danzel did, that those ice trolls probably invaded this village and their people.
In fact, it was pretty obvious all things consider.
Though she expected him to take her with him to the natives instead of leaving her here.
Though seeing how fast the mist moved, she somewhat calmed down, saying that he will be back in a few minutes.
"L-let's wait for Rue to return, Koji, Niyuki." Shiro said somewhat awkwardly at the two living armors, who nodded their "heads" at her.
To her, Koji and Niyuki looked quite cool and the idea of them being her personal guards also enchanted their presence to her. Though she found it frankly quite awkward that Danzel gifted them those 2 to her.
The idea of them following her every order felt off to her.
She named them mainly because calling them living armors was weird, more that when both of them looked sentient.
'Are they though?' She thought as she looked at the two behind her mask.
"Koji, Niyuki...are both of you sentient?" Shiro asked awkwardly.
It felt as if she were asking if someone had a brain or not.
Koji and Niyuki glared at each other, before glaring back at Shiro with their hollow gaze.
"Mhm... Rue did talk to you before so you should understand him. Maybe you two can't speak?" Shiro crossed her two hands together while thinking.
"Maybe this spell will work..." Shiro mumbled as she started weaving two threads of mana toward Koji and Niyuki.
The threads of mana were quite wobbly and moved extremely slowly, though they soon connected to the two.
'How about now?' She sent her thoughts to the many threads.
'Yes, Mistress'
'Yes, Mistress'
Koji and Niyuki spoke simultaneously with an ice-cold voices. Taking Shiro by surprise.
"Ohhhhh! You can speak!" Shiro yelled in surprise, before looking at the mana thread.
'Oh...rather you can think.' Shiro corrected herself, making the two nod at her.
Albeit both had the cold voice of undead, to her, Koji sounded much more refined with his words whereas Niyuki sounded a bit rougher.
Now that she knew that both of them were sentient, Shiro started throwing them her questions.
'Are you fine being my guards and not Rue's?'
'It is our lieges command.' Both of them answered without hesitation.
'Are you fine being named by me?' Shiro asked awkwardly.
'Our liege has acknowledged those names' They said.
Making Shiro look at them weirdly.
'Are you capable of... independent thinking.' She asked out of curiosity.
Making the two look at each other, and then back at her.
'We are, though our lieges and mistress command takes priority.' Koji was the one to speak for both of them, with his cold voice there was a hind of confusion too.
"I see?" Shiro said while tilting her head confused.
She wanted many more questions, but before she could, she suddenly felt a few trembles going through the ground.
Once she noticed them, Koji and Niyuki moved swiftly in front of her, making her turn her head around, only to see 4 blueish-skinned muscular beings.
"Here is the smell of our brethren's blood." One of the ice trolls said to the ice troll beside him.
The ice troll beside him was a good head taller than the other 3 and despite an ice troll's regenerations capabilities, that one troll had large scars on his body.
That one had a worn black spear that had multiple hook-like thigh needles on his back. Where the ice troll had a pair of axes that were connected with a large metal chain.
That one ice troll stepped forward with a frown on his face when he stared at the state of the ice troll corpses.
"Were you the ones that did it?" The ice troll with the chain axes said at Koji and Niyuki, who naturally didn't respond. As they couldn't.
Shiro who was behind the two started to become pale as she watched the massive ice trolls.
'Can Koji and Niyuki win against those 4? That one, in particular, seems way stronger than the other too...' Shiro stared at the 4 anxiously.
See saw that the two were easily able to 2 ice trolls, but now they were double at that with one of them being clearly much stronger.
"No, it doesn't matter if you killed them or not. As you are nothing but food." The ice troll with the axe chains said as he motioned the other 3 to face them.
"Those two smell off."
"They don't smell good."
"Though the small one smells delicious."
Once one of the 3 ice trolls said that their eyes went towards Shiro and made a smile with one of them liking his limps.
"Limps."
"Head."
"Body.
Hearing what the ice trolls were saying a chilling run through Shiro's body, making her step back from just imagining what their intent was.
She couldn't help but be reminded of Danzel butchering the wolf and the big-haired thing.
Though when she remembered that, she also remembered Danzel's words.
To not rely on him and the living armor.
To instead use her own magic.
Though she still remembered her blunder when she used magic and caused a whole avalanche.
Making her hesitate.
"Ahh..." She didn't what to do.
But the closer the ice trolls came to her with their killing intent, the more tears started to form in her eyes.
"Why..." She mumbled to herself.
The ice troll started running.
"Why is this happening to me!?" She yelled as she raised her hand towards the ice trolls.
And as if a switch was lifted, an incredible amount of mana was being released out of Shiro's body, which made her eyes glow with mana.
A tremendous amount of mana traveled through her arms, making blue veins start showing on her skin. Making a tinder of fire appears in front of her arm.
2 out of the 3 ice trolls sensed that the small food wearing a bone mask of a wolf was something extremely threatening, making them dash to the side.
The remaining one dashed forward without any fear.
Though the next moment, as if someone opened the door of a mana well, the mana of Shiro's arm was released in the form of a beam of dense flames.
The flames melted the ground with little to no resistance and the ice troll that was hit howled like a beast from pain.
Though even his screams were engulfed by the flames.
The beam out of flames quickly stopped, revealing the black skeleton with bits of the flesh of the ice troll laying on top of the molten ground.
"~agh~agh~."
What terrified the two other ice trolls that moved to the said was the low growls that the black skeleton was made with bits of flesh.
The ice troll with the axe chain frowned as he watched Shiro's powers.
"M-Monster...!" One of the ice trolls said as he stared at Shiro in fear.
Though Shiro moving her hands towards him, made the ice troll truly start to fear.
"N-No!" The ice troll runs sideways.
Glaring at the running ice troll, the blue veins of Shiro's body started to further spread through her body with some starting to beat like a pulse. And as Shiro gathered her mana in her other hand, her nails started to grow.
And in the next moment, a wave of lighting started to chase after the running ice troll. Cutting the ground like some water pressure while also melting the ground itself.
The lighting soon enough reached the running ice troll. And unlike lighting that spread through one's body, those lightings were as sharp as blades and cut through the limps of the running ice troll with ease while also electrocuting him.
That was when the vitality of an ice troll was indeed a curse.
Something that would kill someone instantly didn't kill a troll immediately.
While Shiro was still electrocuting one of the trolls, she pointed her other arm toward the other ice troll.
Which made the ice troll in question drop his mace and start to run away.
Shiro tilted her head towards the running ice troll as the horns of her head started to glow in mana, and grow, albeit very slowly.
The image of a little girl wearing a wolf mask that looked harmless before turned into something very scary from the ice troll's viewpoint.
And as the mana was guided to her slightly twisted arm, the mana was instantly moved around the running.
And in the next moment as if something hit the ice troll with a sledgehammer, the ice troll fell to the ground and was pressed to the ground.
And with each passing second, the ice troll felt the pressure growing and growing without any signs of stopping.
Even the ground around himself started to be pressed together as gravity around him became heavier.
"Agh-aghhh!
*Crack~Crack~Crack~Crack~crack~.
The ice troll's body just as the ground descended. Resulting in a small hole where the constant noise of bones breaking was to be heard.
And once Shiro stopped her magic, her eyes behind the bone mask landed on the ice troll with the axe chains.
"I will protect myself! And go back to grandpa!" She yelled as aimed her left hand at the remaining ice troll and channeled her mana for her next spell.
But as the spell was forming in front of her arms, the blue veins in her skin started to glow and around the veins, her skin started to turn red and she felt an incredible amount of pain coming from her head.
The pain was so intense that it made Shiro yell as loud as she possibly could into the air and fell to the ground in a fetal position.
"KYAAAAAAAGHHH!!!"
Her voice full of pain echoed through the village.
