Harry Potter: The Arcane Thief (Litrpg)

Chapter 25: Axel vs Troll

Waking up to the sight of a freakin' mountain troll barging into your room isn't an experience Axel would recommend to others.

It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet.

And worst of all, the smell coming from it was downright revolting.

It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.

Though Axel was also one mad dude. He ignored all this when he saw the Trolls mouth dripping with saliva as it stared Hungrily at the supplements he ordered.

'Oh…nonononono. NO! You muthefuckah, don't you even think about touching that!'

It was the precious ingredients he had ordered after spending all his money! And, he'll be damned if he lets a troll eat it.

Axel quickly grabbed a bunch of strings that were lying beside him and pulled them all in one go.

Immediately, a shower of white, red, and green powdered substances fell on the creature from above and a bunch of nails also fell on the troll's path.

These were just some traps Axel had designed for the intruders. As a paranoid person, he wouldn't stay here without assurance.

So, he had tried setting up some traps and did some research on the subject as well. To his surprise, he had even gotten the Arcane Theif Skill: Trap Designing.

The powdered substances were what he had got from his Herbology class. Unlike others, he had paid attention in that class from day one since he had realized its potential.

Of the substances, one was supposed to cause intense itching, one would make a person disoriented and nauseous, and one was simply a very powerful chilly powder, intended for eyes,

Unfortunately, due to having some common sense, he had designed the traps taking human intruders into consideration. The powdered substances were hanging just above the door so that the intruder doesn't have much time to protect himself. But, Troll's body was even taller than the huge door frame and it had already entered while Axel was still disoriented from his dream.

So, the powders fell on its shoulder, and the chilly powder didn't reach its eyes. As for the powder that was supposed to cause disorientation and nausea, and the itching powder, that did seem to have a little effect on the troll's thick skin, but not to the degree it should.

Axel didn't even have the time to think much before lunging for his food and starting stuffing it all in his backpack. But, by doing this, Axel had exposed himself since his skills didn't grant him actual invisibility. And sure enough, seeing the very mouth-watering food for which it had come all the way to this part of the castle disappearing right in front of its eyes, being stolen by a small creature, the Troll, who was distracted due to the itching, grew enraged!

It let out a mighty roar as it charged ferociously at Axel while ignoring all the puny nails that pinched its feet.

"Fuckfuckfuck!" Seeing the traps he had designed not working, Axel cursed under his breath while trying to make his crippled hands work fast. When he gets out of this situation alive– correction– 'if' he gets out of this situation alive, the first thing he's doing is to learn a spell that can quickly collect his things and put them in his bag!

boom* *boom* *boom*

The troll got closer with each step while Axel collected the ingredients worth hundreds of galleons.

Damn it! He should have always been in a ready-to-flee state! It seems he had gotten careless after two months of safety. Even the traps were set up in the beginning when he was still careful. But after two months, his paranoid nature had calmed down a lot, and it seems that was a mistake.

It was only seconds before the troll was onto Axel, and was bringing his club down on Axel who couldn't make quick movements due to his body.

While the club was being brought down on him, Axel looked up at it without flinching while raising his wand– and pointing it at himself.

"Flipendo!"

With almost all the ingredients safely stuffed in the bag that was clutched in his hand, Axel's body was knocked sideways due to his own spell, out of the way from the incoming huge club.

BOOM*

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The club descended with great momentum and landed with huge impact, destroying the floor and raising dust everywhere.

cough* *cough*

"Damn..."

Axel slowly stood up and dusted off his clothes as he coughed due to dust. He looked at the little amount of ingredients left on the ground that he couldn't pick up as he swung his backpack over his shoulders.

They were totally ruined.

For a moment, both Axel and the troll just looked at the ruined ingredients mixed up with a pile of dust and debris on the floor. Then, as if in sync, both turned their gazes on each other.

"...You–stupid–animal!"

ROAR*

Then, both instantly blamed each other for it.

At first, Axel had thought that he'd just run away but now–

"You've made this personal, you bastard," he muttered as he took out another wand from his bag, now standing with one wand in each hand. One, his own, and one he got from Cyrus Greengrass

Right now, while an average person in his place might be freaking out, Axel was thinking something else,

'This guy doesn't look like much,' was what he was thinking as he checked out the key information he had from the system.

From what he can tell after looking through the information and from what he had seen this guy do so far, it seems like it wouldn't be as difficult as he thought.

He's big? So were all the others whom Axel had faced. When it comes to a fight, bigger is not always better.

Fast? Not much.

Magic resistant? We'll see.

With a loud roar, the Troll charged at him once again. And this time, he shot several spells, none of which hit the troll. They all landed on the ground between them.

SLICK* *THUD*

And the troll, who was charging at Axel, fell forward on his face with a resounding thud.

"Haha! Taste that, you bastard!"

The spell Axel had used was one of the first spells he had learned. It was 'Lubricous Nitorem', the spell that temporarily makes any surface very smooth and slick by covering it up with magic.

Axel had fired several of them one after another, so that all the ground in front of them would be slippery in case he missed the spot due to his bad aim.

Even after the troll had fallen, Axel didn't stop chanting. Spell after spell landed on the ground all around the troll as he circled it, stacking up the effect and making it even more slippery so that the Troll slipped every time it tried to stand. Axel also emptied his stack of chilly powder, itching power, and the green poisonous powder that causes disorientation.

"Electrica Impulsa...Electrica Impulsa...Electrica Impulsa…"

Meanwhile, the wand in his other hand was starting to light up slowly with each alternate spell.

Though at this moment, the Troll let out a loud, desperate cry. It pulled back its large club, about to throw it at Axel.

It was such a move that Axel—

—wanted to yawn.

'So predictable,'

BUT...

BOOM*

SPLAT*

But...before the poor troll could even throw it and before Axel could apply his countermeasure, a bright purple beam of light came and blew the troll's head off!

"What...What the fuck?" Axel turned his head to look at the kill stealer.

A While Earlier:

Martina Valentino sat in the great hall, attending her third Halloween party here.

In the past two years, nothing had gone wrong on this day, making her quite used to the quiet.

But, this was the year when the plot officially starts and events start happening every year.

Or so it was supposed to be...

But this world is so freaking A.U. that she wants to kick the creator's balls.

A Harry Potter World with no Harry in it. And if that wasn't enough, many other things have also changed, and many new things which were never mentioned in those small seven books are also in this world.

So, now she doesn't know what the heck she's supposed to do today. From what she knew, a Troll was released into the castle last time so that Quirrell could steal the Philosopher's Stone, and Hermione was almost killed (due to Ron)

But in this world, Quirrell is still peacefully sitting in his seat and Hermione is sitting right beside her on the Ravenclaw table and Umbridge is also here. So. now she was left sitting here, doing absolutely nothing with her nerves feeling all jittery.

"Hmm?"

Though at this moment, her familiar Rowlet contacted her through their bond! She had asked her to keep an eye out for any signs of abnormal activities today.

Just as Martina stood up, the door to the great hall was also opened and the Head Boy, Alaric Malcolm rushed in.

"THERE'S A TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON!"

Martina didn't even listen to Alaric's words before she ducked down the table, turned herself invisible, and left the great hall while everyone was still panicking. With such a big and diverse student population, there were many students who were currently out of Great Hall. Martina would feel guilty if she let innocent students die for no reason.

She rushed to the Location that her familiar had told her of. This was one of the more remote and desolate parts of the Castle.

Even Martina doesn't like to come here at night since she finds it a bit scary. She was already scared of ghosts and other things in her previous life, and in this life, they all actually exist so she usually tries to steer clear of such places.

Though, there was one benefit.

'No one's at risk here,' she thought with a sigh of relief.

She couldn't imagine any students wandering around here at this time of night.

boom*... *roar*

Though… just at this moment, she heard a distant noise, making her frown. This must be the troll. But… Why would a troll make noise? Unless…

Once again, Martina was rushing forward, right in the direction where the sound came from.

Boom* *Boom*

As she got closer, the noise grew louder, the smell grew worse and,

"Lubricous Nitrorem!" She heard another voice as well.

She found a destroyed door, peering through which she came across the scene of a Troll charging at a boy!

Martina had her wand out in a second, ready to blast the troll off, but before she could do that, she saw the Troll falling face-first to the ground.

After that, it seemed that the boy had everything under control for a while as he kept changing positions, throwing out spells and some powders at the troll from all directions."

'What?!' As the boy moved around the troll, she finally got to see his face, and she recognized it instantly!

'Axel Hunt!' She recalled his name due to his viral video.

This is the same guy who had made her fall that night and the same guy whose memories she had seen the next day. And what horrible memories! Martina has tears in her eyes every time she remembers them.

She has wanted to meet this guy again ever since, to talk to him and try to help him out in some way. But, she hasn't seen him much ever since.

And, she also hesitates to approach him. She doesn't even know what she's supposed to say once she did talk to him.

'Hey, I looked into your mind without your permission and now I want to help you out in some way,' yeah, her awkward otaku shut-in nature doesn't seem to have improved even after reincarnation.

ROAR*

She was brought out of her thoughts when the troll suddenly let out a deafening cry as it prepared to throw its weapon.

Panicked, Martina didn't even think twice before she unleashed one of her full-powered attacks on the Troll, causing its head to be blown up into pieces.

'What?!' Even Martina herself was surprised. She had read the trolls were magic resistant so she had put in some extra power.

But she quickly turned her attention to the more pressing topic.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt?" She asked Axel urgently while approaching him quickly.

He was up against a damn troll! He might have been in need of medical attention.

The boy looked at her with an unreadable expression.

"I'm fine," he said as his gaze went lower, towards her legs.

Martina, who was still approaching realized a moment too late why he was glancing at the floor as her foot suddenly slipped due to stepping on an extremely slippery surface and she found herself falling back.

Thump*

The floor she had stepped on was quite slippery and she fell back on her butt with her skirt riding up and her spread open in M shape.

"..."

"..."

All Martina could think at the moment was:

'Again?! Are you kidding me?!'

What Axel was thinking:

'Hm...She seems to like purple a lot.'