“Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself?” Arad looked at her as she bled, “You should check with Lydia and see if she can fix you up,” He sighed, looking back, and started walking.

“I’m going after the giant who escaped from Lydia,” Arad replied, running into the forest.

“STOP!” Isdis shouted, “There is no need to chase a running monster!”

Thud! Aella grabbed her by the shoulder, “Let him be,”

***

Thud! Thud! Thud! Arad ran into the forest as fast as he could. His skin turned black as scales covered his body. BAM! He transformed into his draconic form and started running between the trees like a big cat.

The lines of magic left by Lydia’s holy smite trailed ahead of his, leaving a trail to find the giant.

Probably it’s best not to leave trails. Isdis might help in the quest later, and it will be confusing to see dragon claws everywhere.

Arad stopped. ^You’re right. That giant won’t run that far.^ He turned around and closed his eyes, following Mom’s instruction on how to hide his claw marks.

First, use Gravity Magic to decrease his weight and not push too hard on the ground. And then Run on the relatively soft inside of his paws, and relax his joins Four knees to absorb the impact of his weight.

With all of this, and adding the fact it’s pitch-black in the middle of the night, god help the poor creatures he’s hunting.

After covering his previous tracks, Arad looked for the magic traces and found they disappeared. “He ran away,” He sighed.

You can use your nose. Remember Alcott in the werewolf quest?

Arad smiled, going to a spot where he saw the giant running before, and started sniffing the plants and ground.

“I got the smell,” Arad lifted his head and started running. He silently ran between the trees.

CREEK! He stopped.

The wind shifted direction as Arad looked around, sniffing the ground, “There are more of his kind around. I smell a couple more.” Arad mumbled, thinking.

^Should I go after the other giants or follow the one who attacked us,^

Go after the other giants. They will offer more experience, and you will eliminate danger to the area in one go. Mom suggested.

Arad nodded this wasn’t his territory where he would try to recruit monsters. There is no way for him to bring them home even if he wanted, so the only choice is to kill for the experience.

Arad ran into the forest and jumped from a small cliff, stopping by a large cave entrance, “Their stench fills the place. Giants live inside,”

Like goblins, most wild monsters like those take shelter inside caves.

Arad crawled inside. The cave could fit his draconic form in, at least in the entrance.

BAM! A giant could feel the air stop flowing from the entrance as Arad’s massive body walked in so he rushed outside, seeing the dragon glaring at him.

“Lizard king!” The giant shouted his lungs out, lifting a large long and swinging it at Arad.

CRACK! Arad caught the log in his jaw, clenching his fangs.

“Damn it!” The giant got stuck, trying to pull it from Arad’s mouth. “Let go!”

Arad swung his neck up, lifting the giant and smashing his body on the ceiling, causing the stalactite.

BLAH! The giant puked blood, falling on the ground and bleeding to death. Thud! Arad put his claw on the giant’s back and absorbed it into his stomach.

SWOSH! Arad shifted back into his human form and pulled his sword out, “Time to test all that I learned.” He could see three giants rushing out.

CLING! Arad grabbed his sword hilt and took a deep breath, bending forward as the veins on his arms and legs bulged.

Void dragon fang BAM! He lunged forward, and the first giant swung his club.

Arad ducked beneath the attack and swung his sword up, cutting the giant’s arm on the elbow.

The giant growled, grabbing his bleeding arm and stumbling back.

Arad swung his sword down as he lunged forward, passing between the giant’s legs as he slashed him from the ground to the shoulder.

BAM! The giant corpse fell to the ground, and the other two giants swung their clubs at Arad.

CLAP! Arad’s wings expanded, blocking the attacks with ease, but he could feel a stinging burning sensation on them. He bent his wings and dropped the strikes to the ground.

Arad turned toward the giant at his left and swung his sword, cutting its head.

Thud! The other giant grabbed Arad’s from the back, lifting him up and squeezing his shoulders. “I caught him! Call reinforcements and bring everyone,” He shouted. .𝘯𝘵

STAB! Blugh! The giant puked blood as he felt a large thing penetrate his stomach. He looked down, seeing a large black tail extending from Arad’s lower back and into piercing his torso.

“You monster!” The giant growled as Arad looked back at him.

SWOSH! Arad transformed back into his dragon form and bite the giant torso, cutting him in half. “I’m bigger than you, by almost twice the size.” Arad absorbed the corpse into his stomach.

“It’s the same way an adult human can’t catch a cow with his bare hands, you can’t hold me down.” Arad looked back and saw more giants rushing in, and he smiled, ^More exp and souls are coming,^

The giants stopped, shaking in their place as they saw a dragon in the middle of their cave.

In the monster world, there were three monsters that everyone knew that messing with them is a bad idea. Other monsters have evolved with an instinct to avoid them at all costs.

Those three are Dragons, devils, and anything with high divine magic like angels.

People think that since high-level paladins are good people blessed by the gods, they face fewer monsters when traveling. Be religious and god will protect you, there was some truth to that as monsters can easily mistake a high-level paladin or a pope for an angel.

The giants inside the cave clenched their teeth, staring at Arad.

“OH! Great Lizard king, may we have a word,” One of the giants approached Arad slowly, dropping his club.

Arad looked at the Giant, “GOKSOOO DIN? (What do you need?)” He growled in the dragon’s tongue.

“We want you to stop attacking our lair,” The giant growled, bowing slightly.

Arad nodded, “Big words for someone whose men are trying to circle behind in the cave.” He could feel them crawling in the small tunnels behind the walls, trying to sneak behind him.

^Mira’s tremor sense. It’s really amazing. As long as I have my claws on the ground, and I’m able to focus, I can feel them moving.^

“Tch!” The giant growled, extending his palm forward, trying to cast a spell.

Arad opened his jaw, and a spark emerged in his throat.

“What the…” The giant cried as he got roasted alive with everyone behind him.

****

The giant ran away as fast as he could, growling. “Damn it! Damn it! Gonga is dead, absolutely dead. That human wasn’t human. Those are the gazes of the kings of the lizards,”

Thud! He jumped over a large boulder and rolled into a lower section of the forest. “That woman, the one with the glowing golden sword. What’s her deal? She hits like one of our kind.” He crawled between the thick foliage and rubbed his body all over the crushed plants to mask his smell.

After running for a few minutes, he stopped, panting at a small cave. And he walked inside, “ZAHINA! We need to warn Dova. Another lizard king appeared.” He sighed, walking inside the cave and turning around the corner.

He froze in place, seeing a large black lizard sitting inside, munching on a giant corpse.

“Zahina?” The giant gasped, staring in shock at his dead wife.

“ZOHO RINDA! (You came!)” Arad turned his head growling, “ZASHIN GA RUUU. (Who commanded you to attack?).”

“How did you find us!” The giant shouted, swinging his fist at Arad’s back. BAM! The fist landed but did almost no damage.

“ISK KOJNN GA JOOO. SOOK GJAS NOOR. (I lost your tracks. So I followed the giant’s smell.).” Arad replied. The divine magic that remained on the giant after Lydia’s strike faded faster than he expected, so he started trying to find a giant with smell and ended up here.

“Everyone! Help!” The giant screamed.

“GODSKO! GOKS EWARD! (Useless! They are dead!).” Arad’s voice boomed across the cave. Everyone inside was dead he killed all the giants he found and ate them.

^Well, I was out for goblins and found giants. They are better dead than endangering anyone else on the road.^ Arad stood, sucking Zahina’s corpse into his stomach and staring at the giant.

The giant tried to run away, but Arad bite the back of his head, killing him.

Level 14=> Level 15

Available stat points: 1

20 years => 29 years.

^Ho! Another level up. I guess giants are stronger than the regular monsters I find in the forest. But what with the aging, it spiked.^

Most monsters have a few years lifespan, barely hitting triple digits. Goblins, for example, won’t live past eleven years. Giants can live several hundred years, so they grant more.

Arad looked deeper into the cave, “Well, I killed over thirty of them inside.”