Chapter 100: Garos's Fear

Night enveloped the territory of the Chewing Bone Clan as the adult stone giant, Targon, approached with heavy steps.

With every step, the ground trembled slightly.

Standing about ten meters tall with a thick, heavy build, its body was formed of gray-white granite, with ancient-looking copper rings embedded at some joints that emitted a low metallic grinding sound as it moved.

A powerful ogre before an adult giant

was like an ungrown child.

Even the size of the Gluttonous Demon, Karu, paled in comparison.

The Gluttonous Demon is a high-level ogre variant that can reach Legend with sufficient food, but giants themselves are powerful beings comparable to dragons, with a high probability of reaching Legend as they age, and would not be inferior to a Gluttonous Demon.

Targon looked down, surveying the ogre camp before it.

Dried beast bones hung on the crooked walls; multiple sorcerers were visible within the territory; herds of ogre warriors, fat and strong with fine equipment, included many elites over four meters tall who sat around a bonfire tearing at the raw meat of some large wild beast, grease dripping into the fire with a sizzling sound.

"You are the leader?"

Targon's voice sounded like two rocks rubbing together, humming with resonance.

It stared at the Gluttonous Demon before it, which was taller than other ogres, with a strange and unique appearance, its eyes showing a peculiar light.

At first glance, the stone giant recognized the Gluttonous Demon.

It could not help but feel joy.

An ogre clan containing a Gluttonous Demon possessed potential incomparable to ordinary ogre clans; bringing it under its banner would cause the Stone Heart Clan's retinue to expand rapidly, making it no problem to establish a foothold here.

Establish a foothold, accumulate strength, and return to the homeland.

This was the stone giant's hope.

As for the possibility of failure,

the stone giant Targon had not thought of it.

Under normal circumstances, if both a dragon and a giant were placed before an ogre and the ogre was asked to choose one to pledge loyalty to, the ogre would most likely choose the giant rather than the dragon.

The reason was simple.

Ogres possessed extraordinary size; in fact, giant bloodlines existed within their bodies, giving them a certain connection to the giant race, and the God of Ogres was a lesser deity belonging to the giant pantheon, just as the Kobold God belonged to the dragon pantheon.

However,

what the stone giant Targon did not know was that it had arrived too late.

The Gluttonous Demon had already submitted to a more powerful dragon.

Ordinary ogres might revere giants, but the potential of a Gluttonous Demon was not inferior to that of a giant; a Gluttonous Demon that had not been crushed by a stone giant had no thought of revering one.

Karu wiped the meat scraps from the corner of its mouth and slowly stood up.

It stood about six meters tall, its body appearing more compact and solid.

Although several sizes smaller than the stone giant, with its head not even reaching the stone giant's chest, the Gluttonous Demon Karu felt no fear; it strode forward confidently, looked up at the stone giant, and said, "I am Karu, King of the Chewing Bone Clan."

As it spoke,

it seemed to feel its height was insufficient and that the posture of looking up at the stone giant was uncomfortable.

Karu beckoned two elite ogre warriors over, ordered them to carry its left and right legs respectively, and exerted themselves to lift it, finally raising Karu's head a fraction higher than the stone giant's.

The Gluttonous Demon nodded in satisfaction.

It licked the meat threads from between its teeth with its tongue and said to the stone giant in a rough voice, "Big guy, what are you doing on my land?"

A crack resembling a smile appeared on Targon's rocky face.

"I come from the Western Cliff Strait."

It raised an arm and pointed west: "The land there is ten times more spacious than here, and the prey is so fat it oozes oil."

Hearing the word "prey," several young ogre warriors immediately perked up their ears.

Targon noticed this detail and continued, "My people are forming a powerful army; brave warriors like you should stand on the side of the victor. By then, countless prey will be available for you to eat, until your bellies are round."

The stone giant was undoubtedly a sentient being.

It knew how to tempt based on the nature of ogres.

Karu blinked its eyes, took the raw liver handed over by a nearby sorcerer using a floating spell, and took a rough bite: "Sounds good, but the Chewing Bone Clan is doing quite well now."

It licked its blood-stained fangs: "Why should I listen to you? Just on the strength of your empty promises?"

"At the very least, you must directly provide food, equipment, or other resources before I consider pledging loyalty."

Karu seemed rough and reckless, but its mind was more subtle than other ogres.

Its overall character was rough yet detailed.

This was evident from the very beginning when it encountered Garos and attempted to deceive Garos into landing.

Targon's rocky eyebrows (actually two protruding stone ridges) furrowed; it had expected these simple-minded ogres to submit immediately before it, but it did not expect this Gluttonous Demon to be more cunning than anticipated.

Stone giants feed on minerals.

The creatures obtained from hunting could be given to the ogre clan.

However, they themselves possessed little in the way of equipment and other resources, so naturally they could not provide them to the ogre clan.

Gathering retainers is to have them support oneself; there is no logic in consuming one's own reserves to support the retainers.

Without waiting for the stone giant to answer,

Karu remembered Garos's instructions, hid its true purpose behind a simple-minded expression, took a bite of the raw liver, and then asked as if curious and casual, "Hmm, the western strait must be very far from here; why would you abandon your fertile territory to come here? This leaves me puzzled and confused."

The stone giant fell silent for two seconds.

Tell the truth?

Tell the Gluttonous Demon before it that their clan had been defeated by a blue dragon, and to avoid annihilation, they had no choice but to abandon their territory and flee in disgrace, enduring six years of wandering with some twists and turns along the way, finally arriving here hoping to stabilize themselves.

The stone giant's expression remained calm as it said, "To expand our territory."

It continued in a dull voice: "We are not satisfied with a single western territory, so we dispatched part of our clan to this place, preparing to occupy it and turn it into a stronghold, and then use this as a base to gradually expand the clan's domain."

Its facial lines were rigid, formed of stone, with very few changes in expression, appearing somewhat stiff and numb.

This also left Garos, observing from the shadows, unable to judge the truth of these words.

"A clan of Stone Giants seeking to expand its territory."

"Judging by its words, it has other kin traveling with it; it is not a lone wanderer."

"More giants may arrive later."

Garos habitually considered the worst consequences first, so he provisionally accepted the Stone Giant's words as true.

"Why does someone always come to disrupt my peaceful life?"

Thinking of the possible arrival of a massive force of giants, Garos felt fear—fear of being discovered and killed.

This set off alarm bells in his heart, filling him with a thick sense of danger and threat, far more intense than the danger he had felt from the Black Rock Dwarves.

Dragons and giants are absolute mortal enemies, bound by an ancient feud inherited from distant eras, rooted in the bloodlines of both sides.

An encounter in the wild would not end kindly.

The moment Garos saw the Stone Giant, he felt a deep, instinctive loathing and hatred, an urge to rush out and kill it.

He suppressed this innate instinct with his extraordinary willpower.

Garos disliked being controlled by instinctual desires, such as the innate hatred toward giants, as it would bring him unnecessary trouble and conflict.

If possible, Garos would actually be willing to coexist peacefully with giants.

But.

The other party would most likely not share the same sentiment.

(End of this chapter)