It's been a little while since I used the poisons I got from the Chuuls. That combined with the Hag's sleep magic I never use made it easy to kidnap the Remorhaz and the twin-headed Frost Giant. I then dropped them both on the walls of the fortress and let them distract all the giants. I probably won't be able to do this again unless I find something powerful enough to survive the fall.

Both of the Kaiju tear into the approaching Fire Giants while I fly down the tower. It was incredible. Lava flowed down channels that either disappeared into walls or pooled into furnaces. Near the bottom a cavern opened up and now I am looking at a mining complex filled with people. Humans, dwarves, elves, and more were swinging pickaxes at stone. Others were moving mining carts filled with ore to crushers. A few Fire Giants seemed to be acting as guards/slave drivers.

I knew they took slaves but I thought being so far away from everything they might have left the people of Uthodurn alone. I guess not. There have to be around 200 people here. Okay, I guess no treasure and dragon. This has turned into a rescue operation. How in the Nine Hells am I going to do this? I look around the room and back up the tower. Blocking this mining area to the tower up was a heavy metal gate guarded by two Fire Giants. Past the gate, there was a path up the tower that could be followed. No doubt that path was trapped in some way to prevent escape. If I was an evil bastard I would have secret vents that could cover the path in lava. I would need to kill any Fire Giants that would block the path.

A loud crashing sound came from above as the dead body of the Remorhaz crashed down a few layers. I didn’t have time to plan this right now. Fuck it we are gonna improvise. I created my Fire Giant Spartan form. Choosing to leverage my increased strength I create massive knuckles with my vestige. I leaped off this balcony onto one of the guards protecting the gate. I smash his head to the ground with my feet. His friend looked screamed in shock but my fist caved in his face.

Giants had the Constitution to back up their massive frames so I kept hammering my fist into his face. The other Giants dropped what they were doing and ran towards me and the other giant I landed on stumbled up. I released my grip on the giant whose head was now half the size and I faced the approaching giants. It was 1v5 against these guys bastards. The muscles and bone mass I had added made me about 4 feet taller than these guys. I looked down at them and laughed.

“I didn’t have time to learn the giant language so I hope you lot understand common,” I said.

“You will die freak. I don’t know what bitch spit you from her legs but she dishonored all giants by not killing you,” one of them said.

“You're going to die last. It will be painful,” I said and unleashed a frost breath. My attack was weakened in this environment but on the bright side, it created a massive amount of steam that obscured their vision. I moved my vestige to only my right arm while my left turned into the Sea Serpent.

………..

My name is Roman and I hate the fucking heat of this volcano. My poor fur doesn’t let me vent this much heat too well. I am only fucking 3 feet tall and these damn Fire Giants have no appreciation for conjured stonework if it isn’t their size. I mean I can conjure a tower in under a minute but they are too picky. They don’t like magic stone walls either. Fuckers. So they decided to make me work in the mines. My poor little rabbit feet don’t like physical labor.

I had been planning my escape for a few days now. I mean this place is nothing compared to the last prison I had to get out of. The giants made piss-poor guards. They hadn’t even figured out I could still cast spells without my components. Most of the other prisoners were grateful for my spellcraft helping with meals and with mining.

I had also gathered a bunch of the others to try and form an escape. The crazy old man, his son, that weird rogue dude, the polite kobold, and I had formed a plan on how we might escape this sweatbox. But that might change right now. This new giant is doing a fine job of throwing these giants around.

“Hey everyone! Why are you standing around? ATTACK!” I screamed and lifted a minecart with a large arcane hand then threw it at a giant. The others cheered and the revolt began. Viva la revolution.

…………..

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Fighting five giants wasn’t easy but I was managing. Unlike most people, I had zero blindspots and multiple brains that made focusing on several targets at once easy. An attack from my side was met with a punch or bite from something on my arm. Try and grab me from behind and you had to deal with a few hydra heads. Stand in front of me and you got blasted with frost. All these battles and the training have paid off. I can finally find the rhythm of combat. An attack misses, and I strike back. I get hit, and I hold onto the weapon that did it and pull them closer. Arrows or spellwork tear my flesh but then I simply heal it. Mundane combat was becoming fun.

The slaves revolting only made this fight a bit easier. Minecarts full of ore flew into the backs of giants. An elephant man rushed and tripped a giant. The others started to swing away at the fallen foe. The spellcasters amongst them melted the others or fried them with lightning. I took the opportunity and bite off the head of another giant. That was 3 down with 2 left. Not liking their odds they pushed past me and smacked the gate open. I didn’t know what was happening at the top of the tower but I will soon find out.

“TO ME!” I heard a loud voice cry from a small little rabbitfolk. He was white-furred and wearing rags like others. He had an aura of some weird magic that I couldn’t place. It looked to be abjuration but also transmutative. Like it was trying to correct all the things around it and place them in nice and neat forms.

“We need to gather our belongings. The Giants have taken our wealth to their vault but not everything,” the rabbit yelled.

“I saw them take my supplies to that building over there,” said a gnome.

“Go! Spellcasters, find your components and spell focuses. Healers identify themselves so we coordinate. Everyone else needs to gather weapons,” the Rabbitfolk commanded. He seemed charismatic and able to command others.

“Good work small friend. I came here to steal the giant's treasure but that can wait. These people need help first,” I said.

“We can handle that. If you could clear the way to the exit that would be great,” he said.

“I can do that,” I replied. The treasure was probably not going anywhere and most of the fire giants ran to the fortress walls to deal with monsters I threw at them. The rabbitfolk hopped off his platform and coordinated with his group. They seemed wild but that is what you need to be to survive out here.

I turned to the gate and ran up the tower. The path was steep climbing over 400 feet. If I didn’t have the stamina I might bitch about leg day. Arrows from who the fuck knows were fired down at me. Fire Giants around 200 feet up had lined up with these massive longbows. Shit that was Anor Londo all over again. I couldn’t just time their fire pattern so I had to actively watch the arrows and dodge as they were fired. It was fucking hard and I failed twice getting pierced by 7-foot-long poles that had barbs along the shaft. Do they hunt with these things? That was animal cruelty, you bastards.

All right fuck walking. I leaped off the path and turned into a raven. I didn’t have enough room for my Roc form here so I flew upward. Hot air rose from the mines below giving me a massive updraft which I used to fly right at the archer motherfuckers. I transformed back into Fire Giant Spartan and slammed into one of them.

“Hi everyone. Do you know what happens when a goldfish hits terminal velocity?” I said.

“No?” One of them said confused.

“It forgets about fall damage,” I said and exploded out a mass of flesh, bones, feathers, and more filling the entire ledge and pushing these giants off to fall bellow. Hopefully, they will learn the valuable lesson Marisha Ray did about fall damage.

I undid all the horrifying mess and looked to the top of the tower. The sound of battle still raged on. I guess the frost giant gave them more trouble than I thought it would. Or so I thought. I could see its body lying on the fortress wall above me. Then what were they fighting? I wasn’t sure but the enemy of my enemy and all that.

The top of the tower had been destroyed as the rubble of destroyed battlements and guard towers was everywhere. I saw a rather impressive Fire Giant in full plate duel wielding shields battling a pale giant of greater stature. Each giant was big but they weren’t all the same. Storm Giants were the biggest followed by cloud and then frost. Fire Giants were in the middle but this pale deathly woman was probably as big as a Cloud Giant. She was wearing dark armor. Not black iron like the others but a greyish black. In her hand was a staff with a glowing blade that made it more like a scythe. There was another of these pale women but where the other one was eerily beautiful, this was looked like she had walked out of a grave. She also carried a similar weapon but was casting spells that pulled the life from her foes. These guys screamed necromancy but I wasn’t going to say no to some help. We could fight later if it came to it.

There were only five Fire Giants left on the wall. One was the shieldwarrior and the other 4 were working on a massive ballista they shot me with yesterday. I didn't like that at all. Now that I was in the open I transformed into my Roc form and flew right at the ballista. The Giants working on it screamed and tried to quickly turn it to fire at me. I reached it first and using my talons I ripped it from the wall and flew away with it. I dropped it about 400 feet away and turned back to make a second run at the Giants.

The pale knight disappeared into a swarm of shadows and reappeared behind the shieldwarrior. Her ethereal scythe passed through the heavily armored giant and struck a fatal blow as they fell off the wall. The corpse-like giant raised her hand and spectral figures swirled around it.

“Feel the pain those you have taken. Their restless spirits,” she said and fired a ball of necrotic energy that exploded out withering all life and cracking the stonework on top of the tower.

I think that was a circle of death. Damn, that's a powerful spell and she caught both her and her companion in the blast. They seem fine so they must be a type of giant immune to necrotic damage. Are they undead? She certainly looks almost undead. I land on the other wall away from them. I wasn’t changing out of my Roc form just yet. It was still one of my stronger forms.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“We serve the matron young one,” the older one said.

“The Matron? Like as in the Matron of Ravens?” I asked.

“Yes. We have been sent to find you. Your presence has been requested at Vasselheim,” she said.

“My presence? Why does the Matron want me to visit the oldest city?” I asked.

“I do now know the reason why but I can guess. I know of your power. It is whispered in the halls of the divine and infernal. Many desire something from you and danger is approaching. The Matron wants to take your measure. To make sure you are worthy of help and are not a threat to this world. Come to Vasselheim,” she said.