He scrunched his nose at the rank stench permeating the cave. It reeked of something foul and rancid, like roadkill left out to rot in the summer sun.

With an ear-splitting screech, A goblin lunged at him from behind a heavy rock, stabbing its primitive knife at his chest.

Immediately, Thomel grabbed the goblin and grappled it to the ground, slamming its head repeatedly onto the harsh, rocky floor.

Spotting a small stalagmite jutting out of the ground, he dragged the semi-unconscious goblin over to it and forcefully tore the goblin’s throat over the blunted peak of the stone.

Sawing through its neck was a gruesome and bloody affair which left him and the surrounding area drenched in pale-green blood.

Quickly, he let go of the mutilated body and rushed to pick up his rifle. Drawing it up to his shoulder, he stood his ground, preparing for a horde to come rushing at him.

Against his expectations though, only a single goblin came running into the cavern, eyes ablaze with indignation and hatred.

He tried to put a bullet between its eyes but it tripped over a stone and sprawled onto the ground, causing his shot to go wide.

Before it could scramble up, he fired again and this time he hit his mark, obliterating its bulbous head.

Standing still, he waited patiently and, after nearly a minute, he felt a slight tremble in the ground and heard a thumping sound, which was slowly getting closer.

Gulping, he moved slightly to the side so more light from the entrance could shine into the cavern.

Licking his dry lips, he braced the rifle against his shoulder and aimed at the barely illuminated depths of the natural tunnel.

The moment he spotted the reflective glint of a pair of large, orb-like eyes, he opened fire.

The troll roared in defiance and emerged from the shadows, ribbons of flesh flying in every direction from the volley of bullets impacting its face.

From behind the stunned troll, several goblins ran out and charged towards him. Left with no other choice, he switched targets and kneeled down, ready to blast apart the small horde.

With full auto still on, blunting the charge was a simple affair, but it did mean he was quickly out of bullets.

Backing up, he threw the empty magazine to the side and loaded the last full one into the gun.

The troll was covering its face, busy regenerating the damage he’d done to its head.

He immediately knew this was a lost cause and targeted the creature's ankles, fracturing bone and making them snap like twigs.

With the remaining few bullets left, he fired a burst into the beast's gut, and then ran for the exit without any hesitation.

Bursting out of the caves in a full sprint, he rushed for the sanctuary of the woods, smashing aside vines and stomping through small plants in a bid to get away.

Even when he ran out of breath he kept running, only stopping when his lungs were burning and he couldn’t feel his legs.

“Wha-” He spat out, throwing up a little from the exertion.

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How was that a troll!?

It was the size of an elephant! Trolls weren’t meant to be elephant-sized!

He had to have shot it at least ten times in the face as well! and all that did was destroy the troll's eyes and nose.

How was he meant to kill something like that?

He couldn’t go back to the corporation without its corpse, could he?

No, of course he couldn’t, the Lonel Corp would give him a far more gruesome and horrific death than anything the troll could do.

Maybe other corporations would listen to reason and logic but not the Lonel managers, given the rumours he wouldn’t be surprised if the managers actually had a torture and kill quota they had to fill.

So what was he going to do about this?

He racked his mind for answers and, after straining himself so hard he was starting to get an aching headache, he came up with one.

The Cosco bullets were filled with some sort of magical powder, that’s what made them go boom.

Maybe if he scraped it out and put all of it into one bullet, he would have a chance at killing the troll?

There just wasn’t any other option he could think of; the bullets were good, but they weren’t good enough. They were anti-personnel, and what he needed was anti-armour.

Yanking out the final magazine he had, he spilt the remaining bullets onto a nearby dead tree.

Then he counted them. Eleven bullets in total; that’s how many he had left.

Now how was he going to open them up and create this super bullet?

He didn’t have time to take it slow. He was on a timer here. Sooner or later the troll would fully regenerate from its wounds and come for him.

Maybe he could use that to his advantage and create some sort of trap, but that would take time, and probably prove ineffective.

Nothing short of a landslide could kill that thing and if he wanted to bury it,he would have done so back in the cave.

He idly moved the bullets about while trying to figure out how to crack them open. They felt rather soft, which gave him a foolhardy idea.

Praying that what he was about to do wouldn’t kill him, he opened his mouth and stuck a bullet inside, gnawing down on the malleable metal.

With a slight pop, it cracked open and he hurriedly spat it out into his hand. spending the next few minutes carefully unwarping it and dissecting the contents.

It was designed a bit like a building, with tiny, sturdy support beams and a firm base. Whenever he fired his gun, all the shock went through the base and got transmitted through the support beams to the tiny needle-like point at the front.

The inside was rather unsophisticated, consisting of a vibrant blue powder and a few plastic balls filled with a weird liquid.

He’d originally figured the needlepoint served as an igniter and something in it reacted to the powder, which set off the explosions.

But now he was wondering if maybe it was the plastic balls. There was limited space in a bullet, so he had to fill it up either with a lot of the balls or the powder.

He had to determine which of them was the igniter and which was the explosive powder.

It was difficult work, but he gingerly scooped some of the powder and balls onto a leaf and then placed it gently on the ground.

Then he walked back a couple of steps and hurled a handful of sticks he’d collected at it.

With a pop, the whole leaf and the offending twigs evaporated, and a miniature explosion lit up the darkening forest.

With that test done, he grabbed another leaf and put nearly double the amount of plastic balls and an equal amount of powder on it.

Then he repeated what he did last time. There didn’t seem to be a change in the explosion at all; it was just as destructive as before.

Just in case the explosion depended on the volume of both ingredients, he put all of the remaining powder and a few balls on one more leaf and set it onto the ground.

He was out of sticks now and rather than spend time gathering new ones, he decided to use one of his empty water bottles.

With a loud bang, everything went white for a few seconds and he blinked furiously to clear his vision.

Once he got his eyesight back and could hear again, he let out a loud cheer. He’d done it!

Now he just had to make the super bullet.