“Why do all these weirdos keep showing up out of nowhere?” Alice grumbled, completely unfazed by his size.
He simply grinned and began advancing.
Each heavy step made the riverbank tremble beneath his weight.
“Stay back, Sam,” Alice warned.
She stepped in front of him, her fists clenching as a torrent of bright, aggressive flames erupted over her hands, hissing against the damp air.
Realising she was a magic-user preparing to attack, the giant lunged forward, charging like a rogue boulder.
He brought his club down in a savage arc, but Alice swiftly darted to the side.
The weapon slammed into the earth with a deafening crack, shattering the soil and tearing a massive crater into the riverbank.
Taking advantage of the opening, Alice retaliated instantly, launching a blazing fireball dead at his chest.
Despite his immense bulk, the giant lunged out of the way, narrowly avoiding a head-on impact.
Still, he wasn’t fast enough to escape the radius entirely.
The roaring flames grazed his right side, instantly searing him and leaving a severe, blistering burn across his shoulder.
“Well, this could be a lot riskier than I initially expected,” the giant muttered, his smile twisting into a manic grin.
He didn’t back down.
Instead, he pressed the offensive, unleashing a furious barrage of swings with his heavy club.
Alice danced backward, her reflexes sharp as she narrowly evaded every single crushing blow.
Sensing another opening, she retaliated by launching another blazing fireball, but the giant slammed his massive shield forward, catching the blast on it.
The fireball burst harmlessly against the shield, leaving the giant completely unscathed.
Before she had a chance to recover her footing, the giant lunged forward and slammed the flat of his heavy shield right into her flank.
The impact launched Alice off her feet, sending her flying backward through the air before she crashed with a heavy splash into the deep center of the river.
She sank instantly to the bottom, the churning, dark water closing over her.
The ripples slowly faded.
She didn’t resurface.
“So,” the giant rumbled, turning his massive frame around.
His gaze locked onto Sam, a terrifyingly casual smile on his face.
“What can you do?”
“I guess there’s no room for discussion here,” Sam said, a tense, nervous grin plastered across his face.
The giant didn’t bother to reply.
Sam’s instincts screamed, and he threw himself to the side, the weapon missing him by mere inches as it pulverised the dirt.
Scrambling back to his feet, Sam did what he did best.
He ran.
He didn’t have a plan, a destination, or a strategy.
He just picked a direction away from the giant and sprinted for his life.
“Come back here!” the giant bellowed.
He charged after him, each step sending thunderous, rhythmic vibrations through the earth.
Desperate to escape, Sam pushed his legs to their limit—until his boot caught a stray root.
He tripped, crashing hard onto his stomach and knocking the wind from his lungs.
“How disappointing,” the giant rumbled, casting a massive shadow as he stood directly over him and raised his heavy wooden club.
But before the killing blow could fall, Sam rolled onto his back.
Scooping up a fistful of loose soil, he flung the dirt straight into the giant’s face.
The soil blasted into his eyes, making him stumble back with a roar.
“You little…” the giant snarled, furiously blinking and rubbing the stinging dirt from his eyes.
“Where did you go?!”
Sam was gone, completely vanishing from his immediate line of sight.
The giant swung his head wildly, frantically searching the surrounding trees—until a distant voice echoed from above.
“Up here, big guy!”
He snapped his head upward.
Soaring high in the sky was the very girl he had just slammed into the river.
She was completely soaked, her eyes burning with fury, as she was held securely in Mira’s arms.
Pressing both palms forward, she unleashed a continuous, roaring torrent of fire that rained down like a military-grade flamethrower.
The giant reacted instantly, raising his heavy shield overhead to intercept the drop.
But this wasn’t just a simple fireball.
The continuous blast hit with overwhelming force, driving his boots across the earth despite his immense weight.
Worse for him, the heat was on an entirely different level.
The air shimmered and hissed with distortion as the blistering temperature cooked the air around them.
Within seconds, the giant’s metal-rimmed shield began to glow a violent, brilliant orange—and then, it started to melt.
Unable to bear the agonizing heat searing through the handle, the giant cried out and dropped the liquefying shield.
His last line of defence was gone.
“Hahaha…” a low, breathless laugh escaped his lips, his eyes locked onto Alice’s with a mixture of awe and madness. The source of this chapter is g.com.
With nothing left to block the torrent, Alice’s unrelenting flames engulfed his massive body.
He screamed in pure agony, a horrific sound that echoed through the riverbank as the inferno consumed him.
Within moments, the screaming abruptly stopped.
The giant collapsed heavily into the dirt, leaving nothing behind but a smoking corpse.
Mira drifted downward, her wings fluttering softly as she safely placed Alice back onto the grass.
“He… he’s dead, right?” Mira whispered, her face pale as she slowly backed away from the smouldering remains.
Alice glanced at the charred silhouette, completely unfazed.
“Does he really look like he could be alive?”
Mira didn’t respond, her wide, trembling eyes still glued to the ash.
“Thanks for the save, guys,” Sam said, breaking the heavy silence as he approached them.
He tried to focus on his teammates, but his gaze was magnetically drawn back to the charred remains.
A sudden, cold chill washed over him.
The memories came rushing back—vivid, haunting images of the elf he had killed on their very first day.
The phantom smell of blood filled his nose, reminding him that the body before them wasn’t just an obstacle removed.
It was a person.
“Don’t worry about it,” Alice said quickly.
She stepped into his line of sight, firmly grabbing Sam’s shoulder and steering him away from the gruesome scene.
She offered him a small, knowing look before turning her attention to the angel.
“And thanks for helping me out back there too, Mira.”
“Oh… you’re welcome,” Mira murmured, a soft blush creeping onto her cheeks as she twirled a strand of hair.
“Anyways!” Alice announced, shaking off the tension and raising a triumphant fist in the air.
“Now that that’s been sorted, I think it’s time we finally dug in!”
Splash.
Everyone froze.
All three of them turned toward the water.
The massive fish Alice had spent so much energy catching had used the chaos to flop right off the bank and back into the current.
“Oh no you don’t!” Alice shrieked.
Abandoning all dignity, she lunged forward and dove headfirst into the rushing water after it.