Loret was running through the forest in his beast form. Fear and panic are visible in his step even though he lacked a proper face to express them.

“What kind of monster was that!!” He shouted in his mind while blitzing through the forest.

He was lazily exploring the ancient forest when out of nowhere there was a rumbling and the sky ripped itself apart. Out of this tear fell out a gigantic being, at first he thought it was a monster by how loud it screamed, but then he noticed that it looked like a person.

That made him believe whatever this thing was, was related to giants just by size alone, but on further inspection he came to the conclusion that this wasn´t the case.

What made him doubt is that this “giant” was gigantic even among giants, normally, only the biggest of their kind could barely reached the tree tops of the ancient forest, but this one was head and shoulders above the tallest tree. Another thing that made him doubt was the fact that he was both completely clothed and that his proportions were all wrong.

Giants rarely clothed themselves outside of loincloths and using beast hides in the winter, but this one was covered from head to toe.

And he was lanky, normally they had short legs, long arms and a very round bodies, couple that with their less than stellar dexterity, and an almost animalistic intelligence and you get one of the most clumsy/brutish races out there, but this one was both skinny and had a certain elegance when he moved that normal giants never possessed, it almost made him look like a normal person, only bigger.

While he was lost inside his head trying to understand what was in front of him, he noticed the being was walking in his direction. Panicking, he darted out of view and into the forest.

“Dammit, i don't even know if it's aggressive and what do i do? I stand there in plain view like a novice hunter!” He cursed himself while running away.

Once he put enough distance between himself and the giant, or whatever that thing was, he stopped to regain his breath.

Even though he was running for a while, he could still feel the rumbling that the giant made while walking. And then he started to hear something that shouldn't be possible.

The giant was tearing down trees.

Normally this would not be such a big deal, but these weren't normal trees, these were Adamantite Bark trees, and as the name implies, they are the toughest, most durable, and ancient type of tree he had knowledge of.

And this monster was tearing them down like it was nothing, even though he couldn't see how it was doing it, the mere fact that he could was enough to know that it was dangerous, it either had stellar body enhancing magic, or a tool capable of cutting them down.

Neither was good news for him and his village, maybe the gods were angry and sent this monster as punishment. But what could anger the gods to the point of sending such a being as their messenger?

He couldn't stand idle anymore, ignoring his previous exhaustion, he started running again, faster than he ever did while in this form.

“I have to warn everyone!”

--------------------------

It was a quiet day in Read Peak village.

Everyone was going about their day and doing what they usually do. Tending the fields, feeding the cattle, working on various kinds of jobs like the local smith, bakery, the multiple tailors and the few inns that housed the few travelers that visited this far away place.

And Darl was quietly appreciating his small and quaint village from the balcony found at the top of the town hall.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That was until a massive black figure appeared on the horizon, running at full speed towards the town.

His immediate reaction was to sound the alarms and alert the local guard.

Twenty decently trained soldiers started running to the gates, arming the few ballistas they had and prepared themselves defend their home.

As the black beast started to get closer and closer all of them sighed in relief, because they recognized who it was, It wasn't a beast, it was loret in his ancestral form.

Once he reached the gate all of the guards where more relaxed thanking the gods it was only a false alarm.

“Dammit Loret, don't scare us like that!!” One of the guards shouted from the walls.

“Sorry if I scared you but I have something urgent to tell the mayor!!” he said in a frantic tone that coupled with the way his beast form gave him a deeper voice it sounded more menacing than what he wanted to.

“R-right! You can go through then!” Said one of the guards.

Not even stopping to notice the effect this form had on the guards and the villager that saw a gigantic wolf like creature run through their village, he dashed once again, only this time his destination was the town hall.

Once he reached it he turned back to his humanoid form, and promptly falling to his knees thanks to the immense strain he subjected himself to get back as quick as possible.

Seeing the young man collapse outside of his home the Darl quickly went down to see what has happened to him.

“Loret!?!” He screamed nervously while running down the steps and helping the man to his feet. “What happened?!?”

Loret took a moment to regain his breath before answering his question.

“There is a huge monster half a day from the village, I came here as quick as I could to warn you” His voice barely above a whisper.

“A monster? Of what kind? And how dangerous should a monster be for you to run for hours on end, even hurting yourself while doing it?!”

Taking the exhausted man inside and setting him on a couch so he could recuperate properly, he made his question once again, since Loret was too out of it to even notice that he was being talked to.

“It was a giant” Darl raised his eyebrows at these revelation “I know how it sounds, but this wasn't a normal giant” He said calmly before continuing.

“It didn't really looked like a giant, it was more lanky and somehow even taller than the norm, being at least a head and a half taller” He paused before adding.

“But the weirdest thing is that he fell out of the sky” At that the mayor had to interrupt.

“He fell out of the sky?” He asked confused.

“Yes, the sky was torn apart and from there the giant fell, before the sky repaired itself like nothing had happened” He took a breath and continued.

“But even then, that's not what prompted me to come here as quick as possible”

The mayor tilted his head and asked with nervously ”Then, what made you?”

Loret was quiet for a moment before answering with a trembling voice.

“... T-that thing destroyed Adamantite trees like it was nothing”

When Loret said those words Darl’s heart stopped for a second.

Putting a hand in his chest the mayor started to hyperventilate.

“P-p-please Loret, don't play with this old man's heart like that, t-those trees were blessed by the god themselves, only dragons and royal mages were able to destroy those trees” He said, shaking while looking at the hunter.

“I'm telling you that's what I hea-” Loret couldn't finish his sentence before the sounds of alarms rang through the village once again.

Both men looked at each other with dread in their eyes.

Since Loret wasn't able to walk on his own for now, the Darl had to check what was happening

Running down the streets, he reached the gate out of breath.

“Captain” He called to the guards, until one man with a slightly better armor appeared in front of him “what happened that you had to sound the alarms”

However the man didn't answer, instead he pointed towards the forest from which Loret came.

There in the distance, an orange glow could be seen peeking above the trees.

“...That's a flame!” Said one of the guards looking through a spyglass.

The guards simply thought this was a forest fire, but Darl had a suspicion that a certain monster was the culprit behind such mighty flame.