Max peeked through some dense bushes and spotted the giant in the distance. It's right where you said it was, he mentally sent to Lavinia.

Of course, the ghost girl replied. How are you going to do this?

Same as the last one, Max said as he readied himself. All of his gear was where he needed it, and he felt prepared for the future fight. This wouldn't be the first giant he'd killed, but none of them had been easy. He’s grossly underestimated how dangerous they were when he’d first entered the dungeon. Now that he had experience fighting them, he knew one wrong step could mean he would be turned into pulp.

One of the tricky parts about fighting the giants was that they would come to each other's aid, and they’d call for it if they were close to death or feared death. If given enough time, they bellowed for help. On top of that, it seemed like all the giants in the area had learned that Max was after them. So, they were much more wary now than they had been for Max's first or second kill. He narrowed his eyes, studying his target.

This giant had thinner horns than most of its brethren, but they were longer. Like all the giants, it was shaggy, humanoid, and sort of looked like a goat man with bandy legs. The giant’s torso was disproportionately large for its body, and the creatures massive arms made its strength obvious.

In some ways, the giants all looked like huge, primordial versions of the feral fauns that Max had wiped out.

He kept watching, staying still as the giant idly scratched an armpit and sniffed it. At least fifteen feet tall, the monster would easily be able to rip Max in half if it got a hold of him. Max was patient, just kept watching until he knew he was ready. Something clicked, a signal he couldn’t explain. He just knew it was time to act.

Max ran forward at the squatting giant as it was doing something with an uprooted tree. He reared back to throw one of his explosive beads, aimed as best he could at the giant's head, but the moment the bead left his hand, he knew something was wrong. The giant turned and swung the tree in its hand like a club. It had been waiting for him.

The bead barely flew over the improvised club right before Max managed to leap over it with a burst of power from Slick. A half second later, the bead impacted the giant's shoulder and the force of the explosion pushed Max to one side, making him land awkwardly, his landing turned into a roll.

Shit! He would be completely vulnerable if he kept rolling. Slick! Max called. The little spirit’s power inserted itself between his body and the ground.

He slid forward with enough speed that the club missed him as it crashed down. Max flipped up to his feet and ran quickly enough to avoid getting nailed by the entire tree thrown at him. The impact of the unlikely missile hitting other trees made cracking sounds as loud as gunshots.

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Okay, everyone, Max thought to all of his spirits. Things are a little FUBAR, but let's end this the way we usually do. He got sub vocal acknowledgement from all three of his contracted spirits and felt some old, familiar excitement mixed with fear as the ground trembled from the giant's chasing steps. Despite Max's speed, the giant was so large it was gaining on him.

When Max figured the time was right, about when the giant slowed to pick up some rocks to throw, he quickly extended a line of ectoplasmic rope from one hand. The ground thumped as the giant's foot came down a moment before it threw the shotgun blast of rocks and Max threw one arm out, letting the ectoplasm wrap around a tree he was about to pass. Then he let his momentum from his superhuman running speed slingshot him around the trunk until he was facing the giant again.

Stones the creature had just thrown whizzed past him. Wasting no time, he ran directly back towards the surprised giant. He threw himself forward in a dive, mentally activating Slick's ability again. Almost like he was on some crazy invisible water slide, Max shot forward near one of the giant's massive feet. He ended Slick's ability at the same moment he put his hands down and pushed himself into a forward flip, ending his forward motion.

Then, as the giant slowly turned, Max threw a powerful bead, one that was only possible for him to create after learning all the secrets of the mana vault. The bead hit the giant's leg and suddenly, as the huge monster turned, its limb just didn't work right anymore. With a huge crash, the giant fell.

The bolo bead always works great!

A heartbeat later Max was next to the enormous monster, holding his hand on the giant's ankle. In less tan a heartbeat, Max borrowed Saliron’s power, unleashing it. All of the bones in the giant's ankle exploded at nearly the same time, detonating like a string of firecrackers. The destruction was violent enough that little pieces of bone actually flew out of the creature's thick skin.

Max’s ears rang as the giant bellowed in pain and rage. He danced out of the way before a huge palm left a two-foot dent in the ground where he'd just been standing. That was close!

He knew from experience that the giants healed abnormally fast and due to their size, it was incredibly difficult to actually reach an Achilles tendon. But destroying bones like this meant that the creature's mobility was ruined long enough for Max to kill it. He danced out of the way from another attack and destroyed the bones in the giant's other ankle before the beast thought to try kicking at him. Instead of hitting Max, the giant's foot hit a large tree, making the creature scream even louder in pain.

At that moment, as the giant was distracted, Max used the full power of his two-star mana body to systematically cut it where it would bleed most. Armpit. Back of the joints. Bottom of the legs and arms. Sides of the body.

The giant already began to slow. It weakly tried to grab Max, but he was far too fast now. He jumped up on the giant’s body, vaulting upward to its head. His blade flicked out twice, taking a massive eyeball each time. And then, as the beast roared and thrashed, Max made the finishing move, tossing a hemophilia bead into the monster's mouth. It wasn't poison, but with the giant bleeding from so many places, it might as well have been.

One last full power cut to the throat, and it was time to go.

Max danced back, then turned and ran. The bead wouldn’t last too long, but it would be more than enough time for the giant to expire. Other giants didn’t have the means to save their brethren, so if any giant came to help this one, the most they’d be able to do was just stand and watch it die.

Maybe the survivors would fear him. They probably should. He was going to take them down one at a time.