Chapter 16: Fire Giants

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! 

The knights jumped off of the mountain, leaving cracks on the mountain and since there were hundreds of them, the mountain collapsed completely. The giant's attention was caught so they checked to see what the commotion was about. The adult giants felt that something was wrong, their blood told them so. 

One of the giant's who was working on the farm felt danger approaching from the sky at quick speed and used the shovel to block whatever was coming for him. 

CLAANG!!!

The sound of metals colliding sounded out, alerting the rest of the giants and they quickly armed themselves with farm tools.

DOOOOOON!!!

A warhorn sound resounded throughout the entire Ash Valley. It was the sound of war against Fire City intruders. The giant children quickly rushed to the shelter that the giants had created in case something like this happened. 

"We've come under the orders of City Lord Mazal! His Grace has given you only two options, Surrender or Die!" shouted the knight leader while pointing his sword at the giants. The giants didn't respond with words but with actions, they immediately attacked the group of knights with their weapons.

"As expected of boorish creatures! Always want to fight! Men! Kill them all, leave none alive!"

Like that, a fight immediately broke out with both parties yet to go all out but instead probing each other. The giants were about ten metres tall with muscular bodies that boosted great defensive capabilities and terrifying strength and vitality. Every giant had birthmarks, crimson coloured and looked like tattoos. These birthmarks only appeared on the giant's torso.

[Mountain Crushing Fists!]

The leader of the knights threw away his sword as his weapon of choice was his fists. The fist collided with the giant's shovel and sent it flying while also leaving a dent on the shovel. He then ran after the giant, he had great speed as he quickly covered the distance between the two in seconds. 

[Mountain Destroying Fists!]

The giant's head exploded after being hit by the knight leader's skill. It hadn't even been a minute but one of the giant's was already dead. The morale of the other knights soured when they saw their leader take down one of the giant's like it was nothing. 

"As expected of Sir Jeremy!"

"So powerful!"

"Sir Jeremy's strength is terrifying!"

"With Sir Jeremy with us, we'll quickly defeat them!"

…

The crowd of knights cheered but being distracted in battle could lead to one's death, fortunately the other giants were also watching the fight so they lost the opportunity to ambush their enemies. 

Jeremy was about to look for another opponent when a shadow appeared above him. His instincts kicked in as he placed his hands above his head to block whatever was coming. 

BOOOOOM!!!

The force of the collision created a huge crater on the ground and Jeremy was forced to bend one knee because whatever had attacked, was very heavy. His armour had also been destroyed so he was currently naked, not that he minded. 

[Since when did my territory become your playground?! You shall all be buried here as fertilisers for my farm!] 

A giant had suddenly entered the battlefield and could even speak Jeremy's language. The giant looked like an old man with a white beard and bald head. He was holding two massive battle axes, his chest was bare with the beast skin he was wearing only covering his most private parts.

Unlike the others, this giant's birthmarks squirmed like a snake coiling around its prey. The birthmarks were also glowing in a crimson light as though indicating the bloodthirsty hidden inside them. 

[Splitting Mountains and Rivers!]

The old giant swung his battle axes and left fissures on the earth, not just that, his attack carried with them extreme heat. Jeremy didn't dare to block both attacks with his bare hands, he instead dodged and retreated, creating some distance between the two.

His diamond skin shone with a beautiful light in this extremely hot territory. And if one looked closely, they'd see a layer of membrane that covered the skin and protected it from the heat. The two sides had recently stopped fighting while more and more giants entered the fray.

"So you're the leader of the Fire Giants. Although you've attacked Fire City many times in the past, Lord Mazal is willing to overlook this transgression only if you submit to him. Quickly make your decision. If you refuse, we shall bury your corpses deep in the earth!" said Jeremy. 

[So the rumours of the Diamond-skin race being arrogant seem to be true. By the way, we're not True Fire Giants and don't dare to claim to be True Fire Giants so please don't address us as so. Also, we only bend the knee to those stronger than us!]

[Mountain Splitter!]

Two horizontal axe attacks approached Jeremy at great speed, this time even faster so he could only face them head on. He blocked the attack with both hands on his chest. 

[Unbreakable Diamond!]

He was sent flying and the old giant chased after him. With the old giant's attack, it also acted as the signal for the battle to continue. The two sides rushed towards each other, weapons collided and blood was spilled, dying the earth red. 

But the strangest thing was that while all of this was happening, Ignis was nowhere to be seen and none of the knight's asked about him which indicated that there was some sort of conspiracy going on. 

[Mountain Splitting Sword!]

[Mountain Severing Sword!]

The knights either used the two skills Sir Jeremy had used or used these two sword skills. All knights learned the same skills in the army with the only difference being one's weapon of choice which would slightly change the skill's name. Mages weren't part of this expedition because they would be useless for this expedition. 

Magic couldn't work here because whatever spell was cast, it would be destroyed by the environment of this place before it even reached the target. The only spells that worked here were Fire Spells but these giants had great resistance towards fire so Fire Spells wouldn't do anything to them. Only physical attacks worked on these giants but not vice versa. 

[Meteoric Fists!]

One of the giant's activated their skill and their fists became rock solid and covered in flames. The giant then punched the knight, causing massive injuries to the knight as he quickly pulled out a healing potion and threw it in his mouth. Yes, he didn't open the lid to drink the potion but just ate everything. 

After that, he took more Ice Liquid and poured it all over his body till the container was empty. The giant had already covered the distance between the two of them by this point. 

"Fuck!" The knight couldn't help but curse while activating his defensive ability. 

[Unbreakable Diamond!]

Bam! 

The battlefield was very chaotic as the giants held an advantage over the knights. The giants held an advantage not just in skills but also the environment. The knights had to constantly use the Ice Liquid to not be burned to ashes by the sun.

"What's fucking taking Ignis so long?! Everything in this place is big so finding it shouldn't be that difficult right?!"