I woke up next to Flora in the giant's hand.
A witch was carrying Flora's staff and cloak.
Mini status.
------------------
Energy : 10/1,090
Health : 1,200 /1,200
Stamina : 718/718
Extra energy : 0
------------------
Great I wasn't out too long, and I'm all healed up.
Too bad I'm out of energy and extra energy.
I looked over and saw that Flora was awake as well.
I was about to ask how she was doing, when she shook her head no.
She mouthed the word trump.
I guess finding out a lizardman can talk would be distracting.
She ain't panicking, so I'm not going to either.
Flora might be many things, but one without a plan isn't one of them.
I tried to find Eric with my malignity ability, but I couldn't.
Which means she's further away than ten miles.
I hope she's okay.
We entered a real witch town.
And I mean it. There's plenty of witches, and those curse beasts, but luckily no more giants.
The beasts were used for the menial tasks.
There's also children, and as far as I can tell, they're human.
They were carrying items, and doing other small tasks for the witches.
Most of the children were dirty, and had dried tear stains.
One girl accidentally dropped what she was carrying.
She gasped.
A witch stomped over.
"What happened?!"
The girl was shaking.
"I'm... I'm... I'm sorry! I dropped it. It was an accident!"
Both the little girl and boy next to her looked terrified of what was about to happen.
The witch raised her hand, the girl flinched, but the witch's slap landed on the boy.
He sprawled on the ground, dropping his item as well.
The witch then pinched the girl, twisting the skin.
"Ow!"
"You might both be slaves, but he is a male. They are only good for mating, nothing else! So, next time I ask what happened, the next words out of your grubby human lips better be he made me do it, got it?!"
The girl frantically nodded, hoping she'd stop hurting her.
The boy meanwhile was just trying to pick up what he spilled, obviously already used to this abuse.
When he finished picking up everything, she kicked him, laughed, then dragged the girl away.
I'll kill her, definitely.
I burned her mug in my perfect memory, before I leave I'd kill her!
No one fucks with kids!
No.
Because I trust in Flora, to be exact, I trust in her need for survival above all else.
She has a plan, I just don't know what it is.
The giant dropped us in front of a big stone hut.
Two curse beasts grabbed us, as the giant pressed on a talisman on her neck.
She shrunk in size until she was just seven feet.
The witch took Flora's stuff to a side hut.
And the beasts dragged us into the building, which is full of cages with people in them, and tossed us in different cells.
"Leave."
The giant said to the beasts, they left without fuss.
The cage I was in was nearest the ones that hold the humans transitioning into those curse beasts.
They're deformed, and thrashing about in agony.
"How can you do this?!"
A malnourished man in the cage beside Flora asked the giant.
"They're fucking witches! Monsters!"
The giant went and hit the cage bars, the force of which made the man fly back and hit his bum.
"I can't believe you'd ask a question as stupid as that.
Your kind almost made mine extinct! You're lucky that they need some of you alive to make those dumb animals, though it's an improvement as far as I'm concerned."
The man, obviously grasping at straws, sought to appeal to her better nature.
"That war was hundreds of years ago! Please, free us! They'll kill us!"
"Free you? Our numbers have barely went up in that time! We are a joke to the other species! Our lands given away, our place on the council a mere hollow placation, and we live as second class citizens in our own homeland!"
"Hahaha!"
The giant, man, and everyone except me was surprised by Flora's laughter.
"And you think that's our fault? The reason your numbers didn't go up in all of this time is because of your kinds rape biology. I mean, how stupid is it that a female giant can't get knocked up unless she gets physically knocked down, then knock up? And then your kind - the idiots that they were - decided to attack humans."
The giant banged on the bars once more.
Then went over to Flora's cell.
"Your kind fought without honor! We giants only killed the strong adults of your kind, but you... you people killed the strong and the weak! You pulled cubs out of their caves to kill them, you covered your weapons with shit and mud to spread disease, you blocked rivers, and set fires!"
"So, it boils down to your kind kicked a hornets nest, and then got pissed when they got stung.
Oh, and you should be thanking us for giving your kids a fast death, it's better than what your kind gave ours."
"I told you, we didn't kill the young!"
"And what do you think happened to those kids when their parents died?! They just magically grew up a okay! No! They got taken to distant relatives, but they couldn't afford to feed another mouth because of the famine caused by the fields dying because those who tilled them were murdered.
So, those kids got sold off to slavery, starved to death, or - if they were lucky - they just got killed.
So, yeah, your kind didn't do them the favor of killing them fast, they opted for a slow agonizing end for them.
The only thing a human should regret about that war, is that some idiot convinced them not to finish the fucking job. If you let vermin go, they do the same exact thing. They're too dumb not to."
The giant was gripping the bars so hard, that they were bending.
Flora took a few steps back, and put her hands behind her back.
"Basha!"
The two lead witches from before came in with an older looking witch.
She looked to be about thirty-eight.
The giant gave Flora one last glare before she let go of the bars.
Crumpled as they are.
"Leave."
Manny pointed towards the exit.
The giant started walking away.
"That's right bitch, listen to your owners. Your betters have to talk."
Basha turned back around with murder in her eyes.
"I.."
Manny grabbed her arm.
"Leave!"
She looked back and forth between Flora and the witches before leaving.
After she was gone, the witches turned their gaze to Flora.
"So, this is the thing y'all say took on two trines?"
The old crone asked.
"Not simultaneously, of course, just one after the other. High priestess."
"Are you sure? Did that beast help it?"
She pointed at me.
"No, it was busy fighting the beasts and Basha. High priestess."
"Alone?!"
"Yes, high priestess."
"If that's the case, I can see why both of you want to forgo transforming this one. She'd make excellent breeding stock!
It is a female, right? I know they're inferior to us, but normally they have some tits."
She had a smug look on her face, as if that was actually a good burn.
"Good one. High priestess!"
Flora frowned at that joke.
"I know dumb animals like y'all won't understand this, but some real men like a woman with small breasts. It's called having class, something you surely lack, ya jerky-faced hag."
"You dare insult the high priestess, you filthy gutter rat!"
Hiltrud screamed at Flora's smiling face.
"That's enough Hiltrud. It's behaviour proves it is indeed female.
No man could be smart or brave enough to speak back to me."
What's with this fucking kingdom?! The humans are misogynistic, and the witches are misandristic! They are the two worst sides of the coin!
"I'll reach out to the other high priestesses, and see if any of them has a male witch at breeding age. And if not, we can settle for one who is a strong mage. I think Annalise has one who just turned ten, it should be able to breed. I might have to trade her some of my stock."
These bitches are talking about forcing Flora to rape a kid!
Bang!
"Grrrrr."
I banged on the cell.
"This is its tame? It doesn't seem that tame."
"They probably botched the taming process, you know how incompetent humans are. High priestess."
"It was probably a man. Get Minthe in here as soon as possible.
Any monster capable of taking on a giant, I want as my pet!"
"Yes, high priestess. It will be done."
They bowed deeply.
The main honcho left.
Leaving us with the bitches who put us here in the first place.
"I'm surprised you didn't tell her what we are planning. She would never have believed you, but I thought you'd at least try."
Manny said.
Flora shrugged.
"I didn't see the point, you're all going to die, and the dead don't need to know nothing."
"Hahaha! You really are a retard! You really think you'll get out of here!"
"No, I know I will. And you will regret the day you tried to hold the great Flora Dreyas."
The witch smiled.
"You should be honored, few get to witness - or be apart of - history being made.
You stand before the next rulers of the known world."
Instead of answering, Flora just stood there smiling.
Obviously creeped out, both of them left after a few minutes of Flora being creepy.
"How can you smile at a time like this?! Don't you know what they'll do to you?!"
The man from before asked.
Ignoring him, Flora laid down to go to sleep.
As if she didn't have to worry at all.
I followed suit, and also decided to get some shut-eye.
I'll need my energy fully topped off when we bust out of here.
....
This is insane!
I'm with Eric after we escaped those... things.
Instead of trying to rescue the others, we are tracking down the witch hunters we met before.
Which is completely stupid!
"Why are we finding them again?"
I asked Eric.
"It's part of Flora's plan."
She answered without even slowing down.
"Yeah, but witch hunters are just as likely to not help us. Hexeia is not known for treating beastmen humanely."
And that's putting it mildly.
In other kingdoms we might be treated like animals, but if we buy our freedom we're free.
Here we no such sovereignty, if they see us, they will take us.
As we are abominations made from dark magic, they'd sooner see us dead than free.
"But aren't you human?"
My hand instinctively went to the ruby on my chest.
For now, but witch hunters are known for looking past deceptions such as this.
I'm a Mid-rank, but I felt the power coming off of that Kash woman.
She's no weakling, and I've only survived this long by knowing when not to poke the sleeping dragon.
"Yes, but they don't look kindly on women here either. Besides, why are you listening to her plan? Don't you hate her?"
She shrugged, which looks weird when you're stalking through the forest at speeds that'd put regular people to shame.
"Everyone hates Flora, she's a horrible person. She thinks she's smarter than everybody else, she couldn't care less if we died, she hurts everyone's feelings, and the list goes on.
But she is smart, not as smart as she thinks she is, but smart enough. As long as it's to save her own life, her plans almost always work."
That's true, she's like a rat on a sinking ship, she always finds away off.
"Okay, I'll trust you."
As we ran I noticed just how graceful she looks running through the forest.
I just trained her how to use mana to enhance her natural abilities, and she's already almost mastered it!
It took me until I was a Mid-rank to do what she is doing at Low-rank!
The weirdest thing however, is how she makes me feel.
I'm not against having sex with women - I've indulged in the act myself multiple times, and she's definitely at the age where she can fuck, but for some reason I don't want to.
It's like she's too innocent!
It's the way she acts and speaks, I just want to protect her!
What is this?! Is my body telling me it's time to have a baby, or something?
"We're nearing them."
I could tell as well - the scent of leather, magic, fire, and iron gets stronger every step we take, but being a 'human' means I can't smell that good.
"Oh, really? That's good then."
We slowed down.
One thing you don't want to do is run up to a predator, and that's exactly what they are.
We stealthily walked into their encampment, only to find it deserted.
"They should be here, the scent isn't stale yet."
Eric stated, while taking in deep breaths, letting the scents rest in her nostrils.
"They might have noticed..."
I stopped my response to catch a bolt out of the air, that was headed straight for Eric.
"Karl! I thought I told you to only fire when I gave the signal!"
The Kash woman came out of hiding.
When she did, the rest also stepped out.
A whole lot more than we had met before.
"I saw an opportunity, and I to... ow!"
A man slugged him.
"Learn to follow orders, idiot!"
He rubbed his cheek, and looked up at the man from the ground.
"It's just a beastman!"
It was Fayza who answered his idiocy.
"A beastman sent here, don't you think it would do us good to know why?"
"I..."
"Just shut up."
She turned to face me.
"You, I remember you from Holtzdorf. What are you doing here?"
Eric pulled a potion out of her capacity bag, and walked up to her.
"We were sent here to tell you where to find a group of witches."
"Wh..."
Before she could finish, Karl cut her off.
"Why would we need help finding witches, beast?! Ow!"
Fayza nodded, and Baldawin smacked the shit out of him.
"What type of potion is this?"
"Talium, and I have plenty more to give you, to help with the assault."
"Talium, and you'd give this away for free?"
"You'll need it, I'm not sure about exact numbers, but the witch scents I smelled on the curse beasts that attacked us was at least a few dozen differing scents."
"As if anyone cou..."
A withering look from Fayza shut Karl right up.
"Wolf beastmen have amazing sense of smell. So, if she says she smelled them, they are there."
"Also, when we went back to the scene of the skirmish, there were giant footprints."
"So, it's the ones who attacked Holtzdorf."
She thought about it for a few seconds, before letting loose at the top of her lungs.
"I WANT EVERYTHING PACKED AND READY TO GO IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! ANYONE NOT READY GETS DRAGGED BEHIND THE HORSES!"
The speed at which those men moved spoke volumes of the absolute fear of her that was drilled into them.
Everything was done in ten minutes, and they were all on their rides ready to set out.
Of course, she was ready in five.
"Ten minutes, I expect better."
Karl wilted under her gaze.
She then turned that gaze to Eric.
"Lead the way."
______________
What took me and Eric a day, took us - leading them - three days.
Their prisoner and war wagons are slow, and they're only human as well.
We tracked the witches all the way back to their hideout.
Turns out, Flora has been spritzing herself with a tincture that has a scent barely detectable by human - or anything else with similar olfactory sense - noses, but wolf beastmen can smell it just fine.
Her plan all along was to make sure that Eric got away, as she would be able to lead the witch hunters back to the witches.
This plan, of course, hinges on her keeping herself alive, and I don't see how she figured she'd be able to do that.
She's an asshole to people she can call friends, even at my worse I wasn't as bad as she is.
So, I can't fathom how she'd convince hostile witches to spare her.
"They're back."
Baldawin said to Karl, stopping the conversation they were having.
Karl snarled when he caught sight of Fayza and Eric.
"Why the fuck did she take that abomination with her to scout?! It's bad enough that we've got to follow a damn woman in the first place!"
I cut my eyes at him.
Why does she keep him around?
If I were in charge of these men, I'd have made an example of him.
"Shut up Karl! That woman has saved my ass more times than I care to admit.
Maybe Kash women are more capable than the broads up here?"
Another man said, semi defending her.
"Everyone shut up, and gather around!"
Fayza said.
She waited until everyone was at attention, before continuing.
"About a mile out that way is an entire coven, about twenty trine strong, and there's at least a hundred curse beasts.
We hit now before they can react."
She turned, mounted her bird, and left towards the coven.
None of the men questioned her tactics, not even that blow-hard Karl.
They all just got their gear, mounted up, and followed.
"Do we need to worry about scouts?"
Baldawin asked.
"No, all the scouts they had out are dealt with. She killed them all."
When she said that, they all subconsciously had to look at Eric in disbelief.
I know how they feel.
How can someone so innocent looking, be a blight upon all she fights? She's literally a killing golem!
We made our way to outskirts of the coven base, hidden behind the trees.
Karl scoffed.
"So, are just going to barge in there? They'd see us coming, and fling a dozen spells before we reached them."
Eric is the one who responded.
"I was told that once we got here, there would be a distraction."
"That has got to be the dumbest shit I've ever heard! How is a prisoner going to know you're here, never mind make a distraction big enough to allow us unfettered access to the coven! This is why..."
Boooooom!
"Aaaaaaargh!"
A giant burst through the roof of a building clutching her face in pain, and stomping her way through the coven.
Squashing any witch or beast unfortunate enough to be caught underfoot.
"Well, that will do. Attack!"
Fayza yelled as they burst out of the wood.
By the time the first witches noticed them it was too late, they were in their midst.
The hunters threw the Talium potions at the witches, temporarily disabling their use of magic.
Most cut down the witches and beasts from their mounts, and others jumped off to search the buildings and kill any others found.
Karl was off his horse in a flash, slashing with his fire enchanted iron sword, bashing them with his silver plated buckler, when a witch was about to fling a spell he threw his buckler into her eye, then ran up to her to slash her throat.
He wasn't even using the talium potions, he was just getting in close before they could cast any spells.
A beast came from behind him, only for Baldawin to shoot a bolt into its face.
Karl kicked up his buckler from the ground, caught it, and threw it into the throat of a witch behind Baldawin, Baldawin throw down his crossbow, took out a dagger, and thrust it into her brain through her eye.
He then threw Karl back his buckler, and took out his war-pick.
A curse beast swiped at me, I ducked, then uppercutted it with my katar straight into its throat.
It fell down dead.
Not all of the witches were being killed, some were knocked unconscious and or disabled somehow, probably to be tortured at a later time.
Most of the witches trying to teleport away, got dosed with talium.
Those who couldn't teleport - and were cowards - tried to escape to the forest.
They quickly found out that a small contingent of witch hunters travelled around the covens base with their horses, leaving a trail of oil poured out from saddlebags.
Oil that was then set ablaze, trapping the witches.
Another beast came at me, only to get an arrow impaled into its head.
Eric was letting arrow after arrow fly while running and jumping on the buildings.
A curse beast jumped up to kill her, she tossed her bow up, took out her dagger, slashed its throat, caught her bow, and kept shooting arrows.
And every shot of hers found a target, and those that didn't die from an arrow got killed by a witch hunter while they were down.
Talking about the witch hunters, they're something else!
A squad of thirty was not only holding their own against a group well over a hundred, but dominating them!
Karl was a whirlwind slashing threw throngs of enemies, moving so fast with such precision that none around him were standing after he past by.
Fayza just walked through the battle, killing those that was unlucky enough to get too close.
A demented smile plastered on her face, as she snapped bones like twigs.
Baldawin was bulldozing through the curse beasts, throwing them like ragdolls, squashing their skulls with his feet, stabbing them with his war-pick, and for one he punched its chest so hard that it caved in.
Just as he was about to kill another, he was kicked into a stone wall by the giant.
With a sickening squish sound he died.
"Fucking humaaaaan!"
Whatever was affecting the giant had worn off, and she was pissed.
A hunter on horseback pelted her with bolts from his crossbow.
She just let them bounce off, then she bent down to grab him off his horse.
His bones creaking as she lifted him up.
"Aaargh! Fuck you bi... Aaaaah!"
She threw him, and wherever he landed, he certainly wasn't alive anymore.
"Come humans! Your deaths will fertilize the earth, as I take back... "
Sploash!
A broken corpse thrown upside her face interrupted her monologue.
The witch remains fell off her face, and fell to the earth with a sickening plop.
Rooooooar!
A curse beast made its presence known.
The witches must have been tweaking their recipe on making curse beasts because this guy is huge, it wouldn't surprise me if he breaks ten feet tall and maybe half a ton in pure muscle.
His body covered in whip scars, broken shackles on his wrists and ankles, he held a witch in his hand, but the thing that struck out the most was the look in his eyes.
All four of them held bottomless hatred.
The witch in his grasp was hurling spell after spell at him, but he just ignored it has he looked around.
He must not have spotted who he wanted to see because he snarled, and then snapped the witch's neck with his thumb - the same way you'd snap a twig you picked up.
Then, he threw her body away like trash.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAR!!!!
That next roar spoke to my inner animal, my instincts yelling at me to run.
I was not the only one affected either.
All of the witches froze in fear, Eric tensed up, the hunters tightened their grip on their weapons, but the most drastic affect was to the other curse beasts.
They all ran, in any direction they escaped into the forest, running straight through the fire.
Some died from weapon fire, and well, fire, but most escaped.
He charged at the giant, knocking over any that got in his way.
He only hesitated in his mad dash to kill witches dumb enough not to run away faster.
When he made it to the giant he leapt onto her, and started biting and slashing her.
It didn't pierce her skin, but sure as hell annoyed her.
She swatted him away, he landed with a loud thump, got up and charged her again.
The force of his impact this time flung her backwards.
As she was getting up he ran up and backhanded her, blood spilled out of her nose.
The sight of her blood enraged her even further.
"Aaaargh!!!"
She punched him, sending him straight through a stone hut, he got back up and threw a chunk of mortared stonework at her.
She batted it out of the way, only to get a faceful of him.
Instead of slashing again, he started punching her.
She kept bashing him away, only for him to get back up again.
Bloody, but not broken, he charged again to give her an uppercut.
He must have some kind of constitution to take this kind of beating, and keep on fighting.
It's like watching a fight between a street cat and rat, you know the cat's gonna win, but the rat won't just give up.
And so the fight kept going until she finally had him pinned.
He was under her foot, and she kept pushing downwards, squishing him.
More blood was seeping out of his mouth, and his bones were groaning.
This was seemingly the end for him. Fayza then ran up while the giant was completely enraptured by killing him, and threw a clay pot right in her face.
The giant shot up in shock.
"What the fuck did you.. glug.. blug... glug."
She fell to her knees holding her throat.
Fayza walked up to her.
She knelt down in front of her.
"It's aquariarum, also known as fishermen's bane. It causes one to drown, even on dry land.
Invulnerabilty means nothing, if you can't breathe."
The giant tried to squash her, only to fall flat on her face when Fayza moved out of the way.
"And that would be the paralysis kicking in. Next all of your nerves will light up in pain, then finally you'll succumb to the poison."
She stood up, and started walking towards the captive witches.
"I'm told it is one of the worst ways to die, enjoy that."
She knelt down in front of the witches.
"Now, I'm going to ask..."
Spatooie!
A witch spit in her face.
"We won't answer anything for you, even if you kill us! You hunter bit... Aaaaah!"
A dagger flashed, and the witch lost one of her eyes.
"You won't die, you'll just wish you did. Karl."
"Um... yes?"
She pointed to one of the unconscious witches.
"When she thought she was going to die, she looked at that one."
"Okay, so...?"
"So, when she wakes up, rape her in front of her."
The witch besides the one with one less eye angrily spoke up.
"You fucking human!"
Fayza smiled.
"If you want to spare her from that fate, tell me where your high priestess is."
"She's gone."
(Jay)
I saw Jay walking towards us, covered head to toe in blood.
"She ran before I could kill her too."