As Jack watched Carus suplex the giant into the ground without any hesitation, he could only sigh while the soul drake dealt with the rest of the giants heading their way. Technically it was an intermediate V before it died, so no shit it was overpowered, but wasn''t he supposed to be laced with bad luck in general… Finding that Drake could be considered considerably lucky; well, it''s not like he was the one who found it. It still felt a bit too convenient to him.


    The situation seemed in control for his group at least; he could see the drake dig its teeth directly into the arm of a red giant and tear it off completely. He covered Izen''s eyes as he watched, knowing this much bloodshed wasn''t good for a little girl her age. As Jack was about to move forward to finish off the injured giants to add to his own army, he suddenly felt the ground shaking…


    He hardly it, a battle cry coming from high above as he turned his eyes to look up at a giant red blazing man with literal flames erupting from his body falling towards the ground. He had a belt made out of skulls; his face had a dense beard along with a burn mark all over his face. The mark made him look more fierce as he roared, falling down with a giant hammer in his arms. He swung the hammer directly at the soul drake as he crashed down.


    As soon as the man made contact with the drake, the impact blew dust in every direction, and before Jack could even understand what happened, the drake was gone, dissipated into white light particles. Along with the drake, some of the red giant fighters under him were also squished to mush, but the giant''s face showed no regret as he stood back up holding his hammer, putting it over his shoulder as his gaze turned to Carus, who had finished fighting the red giant with the axe.


    Carus put his hands up, ready for battle, but the man put down the hammer and then looked in Jack''s direction, ignoring Carus completely as he spoke, his voice grumpy yet booming through the rather quiet battlefield now…


    "Little human, who are you, and tell me how you dare attack the red giant''s village? Do you not even fear the gods?"


    While speaking the last part, the man made sure to take a glance towards Carus as if reminding him that the red giants were the ones chosen by Radus, so by doing this they were just disrespecting their own god and going against his words. Carus couldn''t help but look away.


    "The fuck you mean attack? We just got here, and that idiot and his men jumped at us. This was self-defense."


    Jack said in a rather annoyed tone as he pointed towards the guy with an axe who was being held down by Carus.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Still, Jack sighed and told Carus to let the man go. As he did so, the red giant let out an annoyed grunt before walking towards the flaming red giant''s side. The old giant sighed and spoke.


    "I see…but my son cannot be blamed for his acts. The greens were long ago exiled from this area, and it has to stay that way. You have trespassed into our territory, so his decision was not wrong," said the old giant with a look in his eyes that said he was ready to kill.


    "Except that we didn''t trespass into shit; I swear to God none of you can listen," Jack said, holding his head for a second before he took a deep breath and walked towards the flaming red giant.


    "I am here to issue a challenge for the battle of conquest from the nation of Ichor."


    Suddenly the already tense moment got somehow more tense than before. While all other giants looked at each other, the old red giant stayed quiet; his emotions, however, weren''t as quiet as well, because of the flames around his body blazing to heights that made Jack''s face turn into a small smile as he drew out his sword.


    "YOU DARE!" The younger red giant with the axe was about to retort, but the old giant raised his hand and stopped him. The young, hot-blooded giant could only press his own lips together, doing his best to stay quiet for now as he looked away. "Sorry."


    With that dealt with, Carus walked over to behind Jack and picked up little Elen, putting her on his shoulder; meanwhile, Jack stood his own ground in front of the blazing red giant as both stood in a standstill for a while, neither speaking at all.


    Meanwhile, as this was taking place in the red hammer mountain, near the southern seaside, the situation was rather different. Ikami currently sat in a seat inside a giant house; her seat had to be placed on the table since she was much smaller compared to everyone and represented the forest giants, so they had to put her in an equal place.


    She had shown her strength already at the gates, and the Viking giants only respected strength; that''s why respect naturally came for the team of Ichor now. Ikami sat in her chair; meanwhile, Tumo and Hyeon stood on either side of her. Tumo looked rather nervous; he was one who was not used to these kinds of situations or the pressure of diplomacy, while Hyeon only looked sad, which was rather normal for him.


    The only one missing would be Elio; where was he, you might ask? Well, he was actually outside near the giant hospital helping heal people. He asked for nothing in return; he already felt bad for what happened at the gate. Ikami did not regret it at all, but he was a person with a rather soft heart; he was currently using his skills to heal the giants inside the hospital, which they were rather grateful for.


    On the opposite side sat Athena, the current ruler of the Viking giants; she was what you would expect a Viking to be. Her blue skin was covered in a metal plate of armor, and two guards were standing behind her holding spears while her helmet, which was as big as Ikami, sat on the table in front of her.


    "Since you have issued the challenge, you must know how this works. We will issue the conditions for the challenge, and if you can fulfill it, we will submit and join your nation. If you cannot, you will be executed on the spot," Athena spoke, her tone heavily making the risks of what they were doing very clear. There was a bit of light in Hyeon''s eyes when the execution part was mentioned, but Ikami quietly nodded.


    "Alright then, here is our challenge. We need you to conquer the cyclops, Athena said without batting an eye.


    "Conquer What!?" Tumo said with a rather confused voice while Ikami chuckled, looking at Athena as the two women maintained eye contact.