It was the next morning, and in the main hall of Elgon's castle, Argo was enjoying his swift and supreme victory. The orb of Adaruat had given him the power to command the ogre horde, and he had ordered three dozen of the colossal brutes to break down the gate of the city and to slay anyone who resisted, which the ogres mostly did in one of two ways – stomping and eating. He hadn't allowed them to kill too many people, though – this was the first stage of an invasion, an attempt to subdue the realm of Vandan and bring it under his control, and he still wanted a large number of new subjects once he was lord of this land. So far, he couldn't believe how fortunate things had gone for him. It had all began that one morning when he managed to 'arrange' his father's death and make it look like a natural accident. And now, here he was, on the way to subduing the land he considered his greatest enemy and having his revenge on the giant princess who had humiliated him several years ago.

He had ordered his soldiers to raid the treasuries of Elgon and bring everything of great value to the castle, from where he would select everything he wanted for himself and have it sent back to Solis. The rest he would give to his men as a reward for their loyalty. The soldiers, indeed, had barely been necessary in the capture of Elgon, since the ogres had managed to make short work of any resistance. They were necessary now, however, in keeping everyone in order and making sure that the citizens of Elgon obeyed their new master. Anyone who didn't subdue to him would be jailed or executed. He would then leave behind one or two thousand of his best soldiers and move on to the next town, where he would command the ogres to do the same thing, until they reached Rismark.

Right now, however, he was still watching his men fill the great hall with chests of coin, weapons, artworks, and anything else found in the city that looked valuable. He had also ordered some of his soldiers to go out into the city and bring back any attractive young women they could find, for him to do with as he pleased – payback, he thought, for the way he had been treated by his supposed bride-to-be Princess Belena. He couldn't wait to see her again, but first he would let his ogres beat her up a bit, make her suffer. Then he would enjoy humiliating her in front of her own family and people, before hurting her in a gruesome way. Perhaps stabbing her eyes out and pulling out her nails would be the best thing to do...

"Supreme Lord Argo!"

He was roused from his daydreaming by the cry of a young captain of his bodyguards. The man came running from the door which led to the castle's highest tower. In his hand he held a spyglass, which he gave to Argo.

"Sire...they have come...the giants!"

"Giants? What giants? What are you talking about, Captain Rialt?"

"Please, come and see...they have come!"

They both ran up to the top of the tower, and the captain pointed Argo towards the east, where the forest lay. He gazed through the spyglass and realized at once that he would have to alter his plans. Standing at the edge of the trees were two gigantic figures, one of which he loathingly recognized as Princess Belena. He didn't recognize the blonde giant girl standing next to her, but he knew it could only be her sister, Princess Sylvie. They were both arrayed as if for battle, but they didn't look like they were advancing at the moment. Strangely, there was no sign of their mother, the queen, or of any additional soldiers or military forces.

"Well, well, well...it looks like I'll get to have my revenge sooner than I'd planned," he said to himself, smirking. "The stupid girl thinks she's come to save her people, no doubt. Well, she's in for quite a surprise!"

"Shall we evacuate the city, Sire?" Captain Rialt asked. He was clearly less excited about the prospect of facing two giantesses in battle than Argo was.

"Evacuate? When I have my own force of giant ogres to send against those girls? I never knew you were such a coward, Rialt!"

"I'm sorry, I..."

"Silence! Send someone to bring me the orb, at once! Then you can stay and watch – I'm sure you'll enjoy the spectacle as much as I will."

A couple of miles away, Belena and Sylvie stood at the edge of the forest, facing the grassy plain that lay between them and the city. They had walked through the night, as quickly as they could – but not too quickly, or they would be too tired to deal with whatever lay waiting for them at Elgon. They were both wearing steel plate armour and swords, and Belena had brought a bow as well. Despite being tired from the long walk and lack of sleep, she was actually feeling rather confident about winning back Elgon, since she couldn't see any enemies from here. Sylvie was less optimistic – unlike Belena, she had actually had to fight against a giant monster before, and she was not eager to do so again. She suddenly wished she hadn't volunteered to come along. Belena, meanwhile, was thinking mostly about her husband and her brother, to whom she had said goodbye to the previous night. It had been an emotional moment for all of them, but it now seemed so distant, and she now wished they had accompanied her, despite her telling them to stay behind. (Of course, she didn't know about Valdan's secret plan.)

"Come on, sis," Sylvie said, drawing her sword. "Let's get this over with. I'm sure it won't be that bad." Her tone was light and casual, but inside she was starting to feel very scared.

"Yes, let's go," Belena said. "Remember, try not to hurt any of the enemy soldiers. We only need to persuade them to surrender, and I would really, really prefer not to have to...kill anyone."

"Me neither...just thinking about it makes me feel bad. It's fine to kill the ogres though, right?"

"I...I don't know, and I don't really want to think about it now. I don't think the ogres will give up without a fight. I mean, I've only read stories about them, mostly, but they're always shown as these big, brutish, cruel monsters."

As soon as she had mentioned them, they both saw a large group of giant grey figures in the distance, coming slowly closer. Even though they were still pretty far, they could easily be recognized. It was them, the monstrosities that they had heard about, the giant ogres that the fiendish Argo had somehow managed to gain control of. There were at least thirty of them, and most of them were carrying wooden or bone clubs, which they swung above their heads aggressively. Belena fitted an arrow into her bow and drew the string back as far as she could. She fired, and though the arrow went the distance, it flew over the head of the ogre she'd aimed for. Without pausing, she drew the bow and fired again. This time she hit one of the beasts, but it wasn't dead. It just kept advancing, though more slowly than the others. The arrow must have wounded it only.

"Come on, come on! Shoot them again! Quick!" Sylvie yelled.

Belena did so, and her third shot hit its target. One of the creatures fell down, with her arrow still sticking from its chest. The other ogres halted, startled by the loss of one of their number, but they soon began advancing towards the girls again.

"Hooray! You got one!" Sylvie cried. "But...umm...Belena...they're getting really close now. What do we do?"

"Stand beside me, Sylvie, with your back facing mine. Then they won't be able to attack us from behind. We mustn't get separated, all right?"

"Uh-huh, I got it. Gosh, there are so many of them. We should've worn helmets, like I said we should. I mean, look at the claws on that one!"

Belena had decided against wearing helmets, since the armour was heavy enough already and she didn't like not being able to see clearly. But, then again, what would she know? She had never been on a battlefield before, and had only had some training with swords and bows. Sylvie wasn't much more experienced, either. The young princess loved to boast about how she had killed a wyvern once, but in fact she had almost been slain by that monster, and had only been fighting it because she'd thought it had killed her brother Valdan. This was an entirely different situation.

The crowd of ogres came closer and stopped at about 200 yards from the giantesses. They roared and growled and waved their clubs and stone axes in the direction of the girls. Clearly this was a new experience for them as well, as none of them had ever encountered an opponent who exceeded them in size before. One or two of them stepped forward, as if meaning to attack, but they quickly stepped back again. Sylvie laughed nervously.

"It looks like they're scared...of us," she said. Then she yelled at the horde of behemoths: "Come on, what are you freaks waiting for? Attack already!"

"Be quiet!" Belena said. "Don't provoke them. Maybe we can frighten them away if we..."

She didn't have time to complete her sentence. Four of the biggest ogres, about the height of the giantesses' waists, came rushing forward, making a fearful noise and brandishing their weapons. One threw its club at Belena, who only just managed to duck out of the way. Then two of them jumped at Sylvie and she screamed. She swung her sword around wildly, slicing one ogre across the chest, while the other grabbed hold of her arm and went for her neck with its teeth. It might have turned out badly for Sylvie, but her sister came to her rescue. Belena stabbed the ogre from behind in its stomach and it fell down, dead.

Then the girls turned to the two remaining ogres. The one who had thrown its club went for the smaller target (Sylvie, that is), but she still had her weapon and she swung it forcefully at the ogre's outstretched arms, cutting off both its hands. It howled in pain and rage, but its misery was short-lived, as Sylvie quickly proceeded to cut off its head. The last ogre attacked Belena with its axe and she tried to block it with her sword. However, the force of the ogre's blow knocked the sword out of her hand and caused her to stumble backwards. The monster raised its axe again and swung it down against her chest. It hit her breastplate and she cried out in pain, but the armour had saved her life. She shifted her hands around on the ground until she found her sword, then quickly grabbed it and lifted it, stabbing the ogre who stood above her before it could wield its axe again. It grunted and fell on top of her, and she struggled to get its corpse off of her.

"Sylvie...a little help, please!" she cried.

Sylvie, who had just finished her own duel with her opponent, ran over to her sister, and together they managed to free Belena. Both girls were feeling exhausted – but, at the same time, the fact that they had killed five ogres so far made them feel a lot braver than they had before. The rest of their enemies still stood where they were, until a dozen of them turned around and ran back to the city. The rest seemed rooted to the spot where they stood. In fact, it almost appeared to Belena as if the ogres were being controlled by someone else, since they behaved so unnaturally.

"It must be Argo's doing," she thought. "But how is he controlling them, and why is he sending half of them back?"

"What do we do now?" Sylvie asked. "Do we wait for them to attack again? Maybe they're scared of us now, after what we just did."

"I don't know. They don't look scared."

She was right. No sooner had she spoken, than they charged again – and this time and it wasn't just three or four of them. They all came at once, roaring loudly and waving their weapons around recklessly. Belena and Sylvie quickly stood back-to-back again and held their swords ready. They were outnumbered, but they were bigger and stronger than these ogres, and they would not go down without a fight.