The Bigger They Are
After resuming our trek, it didn't take long before we were ambushed by another mixed squad of goblins and orcs.
Similar to the last encounter, they seemed to come in endless waves. However, this time Arthur was taking out many by himself. His attacks were fascinating to watch. He would be flying high above the battle, then suddenly dive with his wings folded back as he rolled over in midair. At the bottom of the dive, he would remove a weapon from his inventory, using the inertia accumulated in the dive to propel the weapon much faster. And the worst part was the enemy couldn't predict where an attack was coming from because he has several minions performing the same dives, only without weapons. By the time a goblin had realized a deadly weapon was hurtling towards them, it was already too late.
I was taking advantage of the chaos he created, weaving through the crowd, stabbing and slicing while letting loose with lightning magic. Occasionally, I would use a drain to keep my mana topped off. Very rarely, I would reposition myself if I was surrounded or otherwise trapped.
All in all, the battle seemed well in hand. We were both pacing ourselves well so far. So when another ogre appeared, there was no panic. We just went about our business. I let Arthur keep the small fry off my back while I focused on the big guy.
Now that I had a working strategy to take the ogres down, it was a simple matter of executing. In fact, with the change of my mana frequency, the tactic was even more effective. Large chunks of the creature flew off with each mana-fueled explosion.
As I registered the kill notification sound for the ogre, I caught sight of two more of the creatures entering the fray. However, Arthur kept almost all the other combatants away from my position, so I felt confident as the two hulking brutes arrived.
While the ogres were definitely tough and mean, they weren't particularly bright. With two of them both trying to hit a much smaller enemy, they ended up interfering with each other, if not outright hitting one another. Eventually, one of them lost patience with a club that accidentally hit him in the face because of my dodging and decided to attack the other ogre directly. In a moment, they were viciously beating and kicking each other, completely ignoring me. I used this opportunity to clean up a few orcs that had gotten too close for comfort.
The fight between the two monsters had become so fierce that most of the rest of the combatants were giving them a wide berth. In between dispatching the smaller enemies around me, I took the opportunity to toss their weapons high into the air.
"Arthur, catch!"
Arthur caught on to my intentions quickly. His summons snatched these weapons mid-air, using them for their own attacks, creating an even bigger headache for our opponents. The ravens were cackling madly with glee as they rained death from above. I almost felt bad for the goblins that died nearly as soon as they appeared on the battlefield. The pitiful creatures were no match for the crazy raven, even with their high agility.
I kept an eye on the evenly matched brawl between the ogres while I continued to dispatch orcs and fling weapons up to Arthur's summons. I found myself gradually moving further away from them, following the flow of the battle. The orcs and goblins wanted to be far away from those two, even more than they wanted to kill me. So, I had no choice but to fight where they were willing to engage.
While I was in the midst of fighting three notably strong orcs, I heard a strange rumbling crash. Then a second later, the same sound came again, like the deepest bass thud combined with cracking sounds of the falling of trees.
The sound continued, getting progressively louder. I caught a glimpse of something unbelievably huge towering over the distant treetops as I heard a panicked squawk from Arthur overhead.
"Ah, sir William. I believe we may be in a spot of trouble."
I grunted as I loped the head off the last of the three orcs I had been fighting. I turned to get a good look at what was coming, a bit worried about Arthur's anxious tone. What I saw was far beyond my expectations. An immense, roughly human-looking creature was rapidly moving in our direction. Goblins, and even orcs, were fleeing the battlefield as fast as their legs would carry them. I was able to identify the creature just as it burst into the clearing near the two ogres.
<Hill Giant>
I couldn't help but let a complaint slip out.
"What the actual fuck are you trying to do to me here, Cordie..."
The giant was easily twice the size of the already huge ogres. And while it seemed to be moving in slow motion, the distance its movement covered was massive. The deceptive speed was further displayed as he swung his club at the two now fleeing ogres, knocking the top halves off both of their bodies in one fell swoop. The vile odor of the giant assaulted me as the creature bent down, snatching up the remains of the two dead ogres and shoving them into his monstrous grinning maw.
I felt, as much as heard, the low-frequency grunts of pleasure the giant released as he chewed while his eyes scanned the battlefield for his next meal. Every other creature was running for its life, so that meant I was next on the menu.
Primal fear filled me for a moment as I contemplated the possibility of being eaten by this horror. However, a passing orc tried to take an opportunistic swipe at me as it fled the scene, which was enough to snap me out of my stupor. I was angry at myself for my display of weakness. But I took it out on the orc by blasting it with enough lightning to blow its arms and head off its torso, as I absentmindedly mumbled to myself.
"Come on, dumbass... snap out of it before you get yourself killed."
My brain was firing through multiple scenarios, trying to find a winning strategy. However, I had never fought something so big in any of the simulations. My usual tactics weren't going to work here. Judging by how easily it killed and ate the tough Ogres, the physical power of this creature was incomparable to anything I had seen before.
The Hill Giant began to stand up from its crouch, letting out a low-frequency grunt, as Arthur landed on my shoulder.
"I believe now would be an appropriate time to bugger off William."
Part of me wanted to agree with him. However, running for my life didn't really sit well with me either.
"Naw... I'm aiming to beat this here dungeon, and that ugly fuck over there is in my way."
My voice sounded calmer and braver than I actually felt, but the words seem to calm Arthur down.
"Indeed. That large fellow does seem rather intent upon the matter."
The giant had only taken the first step towards us and had already covered nearly half the distance. Something vaguely plan-shaped began to form in my mind.
"Keep your distance. Try to use your summons around the head to distract him. I'm going to try to take his legs out."
There was an old saying that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. It was my goal to make that a reality here.
Arthur flew into the air, gathering his full array of summons. And as the massive creature finished closing the distance, Arthur's troops began their assault. Despite their best efforts, they were little more than gnats in the perception of the giant. His attention was focused almost entirely on the more bite-sized me.
I ran, but the creature's misleading speed caught me off guard. His large club whistling through the air towards my body, leaving me with no choice but to use Relocate. This time I chose to instantly teleport rather than travel through time, to simply get closer to his feet.
As I reappeared, the smell of the beast was even more overpowering now that I was closer. He only wore a loincloth, which seemed to be the filthiest item of clothing I'd ever seen. His body odor made the goblins seem like pleasant company by comparison. I had to stifle a wretch as my eyes watered from the almost tangible foulness. As much as the thought repulsed me, I needed to touch its body to recuperate with a drain. Making contact as I gagged, I triggered Drain. Normally, even strong enemies would weaken somewhat from a Drain, but this creature showed nothing but maybe minor annoyance, more at me dodging it than the Drain.
It tried to kick me sideways, but I twirled away to take position behind it. I reached out to touch the back of his knee, which was at eye height for me, and forced mana into his body. There was an explosion, but it was far too shallow, not even making it all the way through the giant's thick hide. Although, it certainly enraged the beast, prompting it to begin hopping around in an attempt to stomp me to death as it grunted in frustration.
I danced back, away from those feet, keeping a wary eye out for the club. That plan was a failure. My strategy, which had worked so well on the ogres, wasn't even making it through the giant's thick hide. With no way to penetrate that defense, my sword was useless.
Arthur's summons were becoming far more aggressive in their attempt to distract the monster. The effort seemed futile until one of them flew up the giant's nose, prompting the monster to pause for an earth rattling sneeze. Summoning a replacement for the raven that was killed by the sneeze, Arthur began targeting the eyes, nose, and ears of the giant. Finally getting the creature's undivided attention, the giant began swatting at the summons and rubbing at his head, trying to crush the ravens that irritated his sensitive parts.
My brain was working furiously. I desperately wanted to bring the giant down to the ground where I could reach those more sensitive areas with my attacks too. I felt myself grinning maliciously once I realized the giant had similar anatomy to humans. Which meant there was a sensitive area within striking distance already.
I warily kept watching as the giant stumbled around swatting at the annoying summons. Once he was in the correct position, I charged up a lightning bolt and fired it directly at his crotch.
The bolt blasted through the loincloth, igniting it on fire, which released an even more putrid smell. However, the giant was more worried about cupping his damaged balls. He doubled over, roaring in pain and rage, and he sunk to his knees. I took that as my opportunity to attack his head.
Repositioning myself onto his shoulder, I grabbed his ear to Drain while simultaneously thrusting my sword deep into his ear canal with all my strength. However, my success was short-lived as he jerked hard in response to the sudden pain, causing me to tumble off his shoulder. I hit the ground, somehow managing to mostly break my fall. The monster was glaring at me, blood trickling out of his ear as it reached for me. In response, I used Reposition again, this time placing myself on his opposite shoulder. I appeared just in time to witness a summon flying full speed into the monster's bulging eye, carrying a filthy goblin dagger.
It seemed even a giant couldn't withstand getting poked in the eye with a sharp object. The massive creature groaned in pain, as it jerked its head down and cupped its injured eye. Unfortunately, that meant I was thrown to the ground again before having a chance to do anything. But I was feeling pretty good anyway. The giant was gradually taking damage. As long as we kept this up, I figured we could bring it down.
That momentary lapse in movement due to my overconfidence was all the giant needed. He lunged towards me, using his massive body as a battering ram. Too flustered at seeing his massive form bearing down on me, I momentarily forgot to use Reposition and instead tried to dodge. However, I was not quite fast enough. His shoulder clipped me, sending my body tumbling as it flew through the air. I bounced against the ground a few times before coming to an abrupt stop with the less than kind assistance of a painfully knobby tree trunk.
Everything hurt. I struggled to take in a breath while taking stock of my condition. Somehow, I had managed not to break anything but I still could imagine the nanites working overtime to fix the various scratches and bruises on my body. I could dimly hear Arthur's panicked voice calling out to me, but I couldn't get enough breath in my lungs to respond.
Then I felt the ground rumble. Looking up, I saw the giant, reaching towards me. Even with one eye painfully swollen shut, the monster still smiled gleefully as it snatched me up.
I Repositioned myself back in time three seconds. I needed the time to think. I had just used up most of my precious mana to buy time, and I was in no shape to run. My brain kept working furiously as the giant reached out for me. I needed to touch the creature to use my Drain otherwise, I had no way to fight. So I allowed myself to fall into the creature's hand again.
The huge filthy hand wrapped around me, crushing the life from my body. However, once we made contact, I starting draining as much as I could. The experience reminded me of my battle against the Mithril Slime as I sucked more and more of the monster's life. The hand holding me weakened, but my body also couldn't contain all of this mana. I needed to release it, or I would be the one exploding. But at the last second, I got a crazy idea.
I switched my mana frequency to match the pink of the dungeon, letting my mana rush into the hand attempting to crush me. However, I tried to maintain the link to that mana as it freely expanded into his arm. Like flipping a switch, I suddenly changed my mana frequency to the opposite color.
The results were spectacular. The giant's skin bubbled and burst in a wave, starting closest to my body but then rapidly making its way up to his arm. Then I heard a deep groaning and cracking of his bones before his hand, and most of his arm violently exploded.
I fell to the ground along with a pond of disgusting gore. The giant was howling in pain as he clutched at his now missing limb. The wound was extremely messy and gushing blood at an incredible rate. The monster's complexion turned deathly pale as he bled out, stumbling a few times before falling over.
I had lost my sword and was beat up enough that I was content for the time being to just watch as the giant's chest rose and fell. He breathed his last breaths in groaning gasps before letting out a sickeningly loud death rattle right as I heard the kill notification chime.
Collecting myself, I slowly trudged out of the now muddy pit of gore I was in as I saw Arthur flying towards me followed by an extremely satisfied looking Cordelia.
