Juliette. . . .
My first time seeing her.
She was "impressive" to say the least. Easily the biggest giant I had ever seen. The thing about giants is, they grow in proportion. So while there were definitely giants with heavier set frames, all of her body would be bigger than a man or woman of the same build but shorter height. At the same time, a giant could be fatter but would still weigh less than any giant taller than them. The density was odd with their race. It was one of the world's mysteries.
But her size wasn't the only thing about her. . . . Her appearance was next level as well. She appeared to be about my age, maybe a little younger. Early 20's in human years. Genuinely one of the most beautiful women I had ever layed eyes on. It was a beauty reserved for inside the walls of the kings castle. Her golden blonde hair was twisted into two long braids that hung down to her chest. . . . . Her ample chest.
The sweat glistened off of her breasts in the early morning sunlight. It appeared as if she had been running or something. They jiggled and swayed as she walked down through the clearing on the edge of the village and it looked as though her top could barely contain the weight. And what an odd top it was. . .
Juliette wore a perfectly white dress that reached just down to her thighs and had brown leather laces down the front, holding it together. On her hands were the only sign that she was a warrior of any kind. She wore leather gauntlets with only the tips of her fingers poking through and iron studs on the knuckles. Her whole attire was reminiscent of depictions of the goddesses. All the way down to her sandals.
The sandals were strange as well. Most women human or giant usually wore boots due to the amount of rain and mud we have in this region, but here she was with open toed sandals that wrapped around her calves and had iron plates that would protect the top of her feet from attacks. Sandals that pounded the ground with a weight I knew I couldn't survive. .
Is this how humans felt all the time?. . . . Some level of helplessness.
But. . . . . Her appearance wasn't the most striking feature about her. That was her sword.
It was massive!
Beyond massive in the obvious sense of it being a giant's weapon, but massive in proportion to her own body. Comically so even. The blade was just as wide as her waist and about 2/3's as long as she was tall with a very thin and delicate handle. The scabbard was beautifully stitched and had intricate carvings in ancient giant dialect. Absolutely gorgeous.
It honestly didn't look like she would even have the strength to wield it, but here it was, strung across her back as she strutted toward us. The last thing of note was the cage she carried on her hand.
With her long strides she was on us in a moment and she looked flustered as she set the cage down in front of us and opened it to us.
"Sorry I'm late! I accidentally overslept this morning." She said, her voice surprisingly kind and gentle sounding. She seemed genuinely apologetic as she brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
The village leader stepped out of the crowd confidently and just stared up at the behemoth of a woman before him. She was breathing deep like she had been running and wasn't paying attention to him as she caught her breath.
Then he spoke.
"It doesn't matter! Because nobody is going with you today!" He shouted up at her defiantly.
Seemingly oblivious to his intent, her face went from slightly tired, to worried. She knelt down and examined the cage like she expected to see a gaping hole in it.
"What? Why not?! Is something the matter?" She asked, looking to the man.
"Today we are making our stand. No more innocent people will be going with you, for we have a hero who will end your life on this day! A famous giant slayer!" He declared, boldly.
As if on cue, I was shoved out of the crowd from behind to stand next to the man. A second later, he stepped back, and I was left face to face with Juliette. She didn't exactly seem impressed as she looked me over, but her face shown no arrogance either. Her worried expression twisted into one of puzzle.
"You. . . Are a giant slayer?" She asked, standing up to her full height and casting the whole town into shadow. Someone in the crowd gasped.
I said nothing, just staring her down.
"I only ask because. . . You have no sword or weapon of any kind. We were always taught that a giant slayer has an unbreakable bond to his sword." She said, politely.
On instinct, I reached over my shoulder and grabbed air. . . . . . My sword wasn't there! I looked behind me, but it was nowhere to be seen. I must have left it inside during my. . . . Nightime outing. . My heart began to pound as I turned to face Juliette again.
"That's no problem. . . . If you don't fight with a weapon, than neither will I." She said calmly, before she took the sword off of her back and leaned the giant blade against the face of a nearby building, before turning back to me.
She took a deep breath, before raising her fists like a brawler in a tavern. She truly intended to fight me bare knuckle. What an odd woman this was.
"Are you ready?" She asked, watching me over her gauntlets.
This is not how I wanted this to go, but what choice did I have. In hand to hand combat, giants had a serious advantage because although we were equal in strength, the effect of our force being focused into a "pin point" just due to our size, was nullified without our swords cutting edge.
I nodded to her and immediately she made her move. I narrowly avoided being obliterated by a stomp that crumbled a nearby house with the force of the shockwave. I sprinted to my right, kicked off of the wall of a building and jumped toward her. She made an attempt to punch me out of the air but I dodged it, grabbing on to her gauntlet, before hurling myself at her face. The move gave me clear access to her face, and I brought my fist back to lay into her.
Then she did something that shocked me.
I clearly had an opening, but at the last second I saw her eyes track me, and before her brain even should have had time to process my movement, her head snapped forward and I was smashed down with a brutal headbutt.
I was stunned by the pure speed of her movement. She shouldn't have been able to react in time, but here I was gliding toward the ground, although I never made it there.
Before I could land, her knee came up to meet me. . . Accompanied by the familiar sound of my bones adjusting to a "different configuration" also known as "cracked" as the massive appendage rose, lofting me limply into the air, defenseless.
I knew I was in serious trouble now. My eyes barely caught the movement of her hands as they went from clenched fists at her sides, perfect for balance as she smashed me with her knee, into interlocked above me, awaiting my trajectory.
It all happened so slowly. Her hands reached a peak, high above her head. Her body rippled as her muscles tensed up and her two giant hands began their descent to meet me like a giant hammer. And meet me they did. . . . With more force than I had ever experienced in my entire life. Juliette followed through and I was smashed into the ground below with so much force that the ground splintered out and up through the walls of buildings on both sides of the street causing them to crack and collapse in a cloud of dust. Terrified screams erupted from the villagers as they fled for cover from raining debris.
Amidst the dust and chaos, I heard Juliette take two steps forward and when everything finally settled, I was met with two giant, pale blue eyes examining me as she crouched over my crumpled form. My first move was to stand before she could pin me down, but literally no muscle in my body responded. I surged again, but still nothing.
I was used to ignoring pain, but this was the first time I actually stopped to notice it. It. . . . Was more than I had ever felt. Every inch of my body felt destroyed. Despite all the strength of a giant, I couldn't even lift something as light as my own body.
"Please. . . Please just stop struggling! All of your bones are broken. Your muscles have nothing to hold on to. . . . The fight is over." Juliette said, looking me over and seeing me struggle to move.
To my surprise, her voice held no ill will or malice. None of the condescension I had come to know from giants in her position. There was something else there. . . . Pity? Regret maybe?
"You fought hard and well, warrior. . . Please. . Allow me to end your suffering. . " Juliette said softly as she stood back up.
I could only watch as she looked down on me, biting her lower lip. Indecision on her face.
"I. . Promised myself I wouldn't take any life today. . . I've been doing so well with it lately. . . But this is different. This is mercy." She said, more to herself than to me.
I could only watch with indifference as a giant, leather sandal was lifted above me, poised to crush me with no resistance. I knew the weight behind it. I knew that it could flatten me, even if my body wasn't already broken. . . It was a knowledge that was harder to swallow considering I had fought more times than I could count, and that had never been the case.
Without further ceremony, I closed my eyes and just waited to be sent to the afterlife. A second later I felt the wind from her foot.
"STOP!" A voice rang out.
I opened my eyes to see that the sandal had come to a stop level with the ground. If I had not been pounded so deeply into the ground, I would be dead now. Juliette placed her foot back on the ground and looked to see that Julius had separated from the crowd and was on his knees, begging for my life.
Juliette focused on him with a furrowed brow.
"You would have him suffer?" She demanded, stepping over me looming over Julius. "His body is completely broken! There is zero chance of his survival, and even if he did, he would never walk again. This is merciful and kind!"
"We'll do it! We'll end him! I. . . I just can't bear to see him crushed into the dirt like some bug!" Julius shouted passionately.
His words must have moved Juliette because she didn't smash him into a pulp. Instead, she just shrugged before turning and retrieving her sword. Unfortunately next she picked up the cage and placed it in front of the crowd, tapping the roof of it with her finger.
Everyone looked to the leader for guidance, but he just hung his head in defeat. From behind him, men kissed their families goodbye before stepping into the cage. Before long, 15 stood inside. With a pleasant smile, Juliette went to reach for the handle but paused. Her smile faded into a troubled frown as she looked the crowd over.
A second later, her massive hand reached out. The leader cowered in fear as Juliette came straight for him, but ultimately passed over and grabbed the young boy standing behind him. A scream of terror came from the boy's mother, the leader's wife as the boy was whisked away and stuffed into her cleavage.
The leader went from fear to anger in a heartbeat.
"JULIETTE! YOU GIVE ME BACK MY SON!" He bellowed, pushing through the crowd to stand at her feet. "YOU GOT YOUR 15 humans! MY BOY IS INNOCENT! HE'S NOT A PART OF THIS!"
"Florence says "no indiscretion can go unpunished." You tried to have me killed. It didn't work and so now you lose your son as payment for your defiance.: She replied, as if she had no choice in the matter.
In anger, the man drew his sword and tried to attack Juliette's foot. It was common knowledge that a human blade, no matter how sharp it seemed, didnt possess an edge sharp enough to cut giant skin and this was no exception as it just harmlessly glanced off of her toe. There was an audible gasp as Juliette merely brushed him aside with her foot but the force was enough to throw him against the wall of a nearby building with a sickening thud.
With that, she picked up the cage and turned to leave. The man managed to get to his feet, and scramble over to me.
"SLAYER! SLAYER! YOU GET UP AND YOU GET MY SON BACK YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF GARBAGE!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and I was kicked and stomped as Juliette's footsteps faded into the distance. "DO YOU HEAR ME? WE GAVE YOU EVERYTHING!"
At this point, I knew I had no choice. I had to use "the prayer". It was a last resort in any scenario, but I figured I was going to be dead in a few minutes anyway. I closed my eyes and amongst the abuse, I let the goddess in.
Immediately my insides began to burn, the price of offering the goddess an unsatisfactory vessel. The more damaged the body, the more your soul burned when the goddess took control. This was the most intense it had ever been and I was made to feel it directly as she went to work on me.
Before the crowd, my eyes began to glow green and they watched in disbelief as my bones began to crack and snap back into place. A moment later, my body rose unnaturally from the crater Juliette had created with it. The leader stood back from me like I had the plague now. I myself was only along for the ride as the goddess of death stepped from the hole.
The entire crowd was dead silent as they witnessed something they didn't understand in the least. They watched as my arm rose, and my sword flew to my outstretched hand, guided by some unseen force. They watched as my body took aim at Juliette walking down the path, about to disappear into the woods. Finally, they watched as I unleashed a violent vertical slash that produced a massive, violent tower of green energy nearly as tall as Juliette herself.
It screamed down the path towards her back as she walked unsuspecting down the path. The beam ripped the faces off the buildings as it passed, intent on taking Juliette's life. It appeared the aim was true as it neared the target, but suddenly something unexpected happened.
Without ever turning around to see the attack, in one swift, graceful movement, Juliette performed a pirouette, drew her gigantic sword and effortlessly deflected the attack, guiding it gently skyward where it dissipated harmlessly in the sunlight. All this before returning the sword to the scabbard before she had even completed her 360 degree spin. It was the fastest sword draw I had ever seen from a giant. Once you factored in the size and weight of her sword. . .
This woman was unreal.
I was entirely sure the whole thing had happened too fast for the humans to even witness it. They stood speechless. Juliette stood motionless, facing away from us. Time stood still as I waited for whatever would happen next.
Slowly Juliette turned her head to look at me. The look on her face didn't bode well for me, as for the first time I saw what looked like irritation on it. It may have been from the underhanded tactic of attacking an enemy whose back is turned but I'll never know for sure. All I knew is that at any moment she would likely return and stomp me into dust.
I never got the chance to find out.
As soon as our eyes met, the energy boost from the goddess ran out, and the last thing thing I saw was her before I collapsed face down in the dirt.
I was jarred awake some time later. I opened my eyes and saw the blue sky moving slowly by.
I was still alive. . . And what's more, my body was no longer in excruciating pain. It still ached like crazy but I tried to lift my arms and was successful. I lifted my head to see where I was and my spirit ultimately dropped.
I was in the back of a wagon.
My sister was nursing me back to health.
3 other kingdom slayers were in the cart too. An older man drove the cart. Beside him, a dark haired man around my own age sat, sharpening a knife. Opposite my sister was a woman, also working on repairing my body. She had wild spiked hair and looked to be slightly older than myself.
"What the hell is going on here?!" I demanded.
"Calm down. You were dying, face down in that trashy little town and we rescued you." My sister said, pushing me back down to a resting position.
"Where is Julius. . . .and Cassius?" I asked, confused.
"Cassius offered to stay back." She said, but it felt like she wasn't telling me everything.
"And Julius?"
"The village is. . . Holding on to him. . .until we bring some human boy home." She explained, as if she didn't actually have all the details.
"Where are we?" I asked, rubbing a pain in my arm.
"250 miles into giant country." She replied, casually.
That information didn't really mean too much to me at this point. There was no changing the facts now. I was just along for the ride.
"So where are we going?"
"We are about 40 miles away from Juliette's mine. The plan is to-
"Lady Abigail!" The man driving the cart said, concern in his voice.
We looked up, and immediately we knew what the problem was. As soon as we crested the hill, we saw two giant men leaning against a couple trees on the side of the path. The driver continued on but stopped when the man on the left, a heavier set middle aged man, stepped out in front of us. While the path was wide enough for two giant carts to pass by each other, the horses weren't anywhere near fast enough to get around him or escape in a chase. The right side of the road was bordered by the steep rocky mountain face. The left was almost a sheer drop off with tall trees completely covering it, their tops basically level with the rosd
I knew this was a bad situation. Not for us though. . . . For them. My sister was not known for being particularly patient or forgiving when it came to nonsense and it looked exactly like what these two men had in mind. Slayers for the crown also had a reputation for killing giants indescriminantly when provoked so this was a bad situation just waiting to happen.
The man crouched down to look at us, and his eyes got big when he saw me.
"You!" He said, pointing at me. "Get out of the cart."
My sister was shaking her head but I pushed past her and stepped out to face the man. He stood, and pulled out a scroll, looking back and forth between me and it.
"Are you Antony the undead?" He demanded, turning the scroll around and revealing a scaled up wanted poster of me.
The one thing that giants and humans shared were their wanted posters. They each worked together to size up and scale down the posters for bounty purposes.
"That isn't me." I said, inspecting the poster. "You must be mistaken."
By this time, my sister had walked up behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder, but the other slayers remained seated as my sister had instructed them.
"So you're saying that you aren't Antony the undead who recently visited Ellenworth in the human realm?" He asked, more telling me that I was him than asking me if I was.
"What are you getting at, friend?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and unconsciously my hand found its way to my sword hilt.
Now, the other man, a tall skinny bald man stepped out on to the path as well. Behind us, a giant woman appeared from behind another tree, surrounding us. She looked familiar some how, but I couldn't place the face.
"What I'm GETTING AT, is that our baby sister was murdered there, by a slayer matching your description!" The man shouted, shaking the ground with his voice.
That is when it hit me! The woman looked almost exactly like Emelia! Not that it really mattered now, but this was her family apparently.
"I've never been to Ellenworth, friend. That city has a certain reputation that normal people tend to avoid!" I said, playing it cool.
I could tell they weren't buying it, and the woman stepped in closer behind us.
Seeing as how a fight was pretty much unavoidable now, I decided to throw caution to the wind.
"Hmm. . . Well. . . . I'm sorry for your loss, gentleman. . Ma'am." I said, politely. "Amd since I took your lovely sister Emily from you, in all fairness. . . You can have MY sister in exchange."
My sister's jaw dropped as I gently pushed her and She stumbled out ahead of me. She turned and glared daggers through me as the bald man let out a perverted chuckle.
"Heh!. . . We could have some fun with her!" He said, with genuine interest.
It was common knowledge that in the seedy underground of the giant cities, there was a market for human sized women, and this man seemed to want to take part.
That was a mistake on his part. My sister's face turned a dark shade of red, and her fists clenched. I didn't know if it was going to be me, or the man that would get the brunt of her wrath, but the first gentleman didn't even entertain the idea.
"HER NAME WAS EMELIA!" the female giant roared from behind us.
"Our quarrel is with you, slayer!" The man said, drawing a staff that was on his back. "We would have paid a visit to Ellenworth, but unfortunately, the princess already crushed it! It's almost a shame that she didn't get her hands on you as well! Leonara isn't quite as forgiving as we are!" He chuckled.
"So what are you planning to do?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
Just then, the giantess behind us lunged forward in an attempt to stomp the wagon. A dark haired slayer jumped from the wagon and shoved it out of the way. The driver whipped the horses and got the wagon into the clear before it took damage. The younger man drew his sword and faced off with the woman, waiting for my sister to give the order. The woman got out and had also pulled her sword.
The man in front of us thrust his staff, looking to impale me with it and though i saw the attack coming a mile away, it was all I could do to just barely dodge. My sister on the other hand squared up and caught the staff with her bare hands, getting pushed back a bit but ultimately digging in and stopping it dead. The man's eyes got wide as the staff was yanked from his hands. I truly thought my sister was going to throw it back and kill him with it but to my surprise, she just heaved it down the mountain into the trees.
Somehow, this nonviolent act set off a vicious series of events.
The giantess decided to fight dirty, kicking a wave of dirt at the two slayers facing off with her. The man turned himself, and the chunks of rock and soil peppered him. The woman evaded, dashing to her right before she let fly with an attack of her own.
A streak of white energy burst from her blade in a horizontal slash that found its way to the giant woman's arm. It was severed immediately right above the elbow and fell lifelessly to the ground. As expected, she let out a blood curdling scream as her blood sprayed everywhere. She stumbled around before blood loss took it's effect and she tumbled to the side, off the edge of the path and down into the trees below, disappearing.
The slayer who had been covered in dirt, shook it off, before his eyes met with my sister's. He sprinted at her and they locked hands. As the giant man stood in shock of his sister apparently falling to her death, he didn't defend himself as my sister spun, swinging the slayer by his arm, picking up speed before hurling him at the face of the giant man.
It all happened so fast that the giant didn't likely even see it before he was dead. The slayer collided with his face, driving his sword into the giants skull right between his eyes. The forward moment drove the man back, stiff as a board as he fell. The slayer road him down, stepping off of his face casually as the giant hit the ground with a massive crash.
At this point, the bald man had figured out that they had chosen to mess with the wrong group of people. Terror was burned into his eyes as he saw his brother dead at his feet with a tiny sword hole in his forehead and his sister's arm laying in the dirt. It was all too much for both him and myself but unlike him, I didn't run.
Unfortunately, it would be the last mistake he would ever make. He shamelessly dropped his tough guy routine and scrambled to get as far away from us as possible. Immediately I felt the murderous intent emanating off of my sister like raw, dry heat. It was instinct. The natural urge to kill giants. Probably the reason both humans and giants agreed that our kind was blood thirsty.
She drew her terrible blade, a double edged, two handed broadsword made of steel the color of blood.
Alexandra.
Abigail closed her eyes and whispered a prayer to the weapon and it instantly turned Orange. She hefted the blade in traditional broadsword style, with a spinning vertical slash, a move I had seen her use countless times. Similar to my attack against Emelia, only as sharp as if it had been used yesterday, a perfectly focused bolt of energy blasted from her sword.
The attack seemed to have a mind of its own, and an appetite for flesh as it hunted down its target. It caught up with the man a few paces on, and that was the end of him. Unlike Emelia, who had suffered more internal injury than anything else, her brother was cut clean in half. The kicker was that the attack was so hot, it cauterized the halves and not a drop of blood was spilled.
The left side of the man fell awkwardly into the trees below, and the right ended up strewn against the rock face on the right. The whole scene was in incredibly bad taste, but I knew by the company I was keeping that it was going to stay that way. Slayers in general weren't big on cleaning up their messes.
The look on my face must have said it all, because my sister made a comment as she helped me back to the cart.
"Don't tell me you're suddenly uncomfortable with all this!" She said, with a grin. "There was a time not so long ago, when I had to fight you and Jacob for a kill! Now suddenly, out of nowhere, both of you decide you're done fighting all together unless you are about to be killed? And even then, you half ass it!" She finished, boosting me into the back of the cart.
The dark haired slayer was cleaning the blood from his sword as he walked up. The woman had since gotten back in as well.
"I understand you're injured, but this is the last time I'm cleaning up your messes!" He said rudely, pointing his sword at me. "A slayer who is afraid to kill is worthless to us out here."
"Leave him be, Jag! Right now, he is the only person to survive an encounter with this "Juliette". He is lucky to be alive at all, let alone be able to fight so soon." The driver said, as he immediately took off after the man climbed in.
"No, he is right, Thomas! We are at war! Now is not the time to negotiate or make deals with the enemy!" The woman interjected. "And you see where his "peaceful ways" got him! Ellenworth is in ruin because of him!" She said accusingly.
"Ellenworth was freed because of him!" My sister said loudly, finally standing up for me. "And we are done talking about it!" She added. "Ant comes through when it counts."
The woman only huffed and turned away.
"Well he better! This is no game! We don't know what we are walking into with this!" The younger man "Jag" spat from the front seat.
"I have a plan! We are going to scout first, see how many giants are on guard. We don't need to free all the humans. Just the boy. The goal is not to initiate a full scale battle at the mine, but if you get the chance at a clean assassination on Juliette, you take it." My sister commanded.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
If you are familiar with the soul caliber games, in my head Juliette looks exactly like sophitia, but wields Siegfried's sword. Google that for visual reference.