It was a beautiful day. The sun had finally come out after 4 days of rain. Jonathan was working in his garden on the edge of the village. Working the garden had become the only thing that kept his mind off of his son and that giant bitch, Juliette.
"What was that?" Jonathan said to himself, looking to the forest as animals fled and birds took to the sky.
He put down his hoe and walked cautiously out into the path. It was then that he felt the tremor. He paused, thinking he might have imagined it. He stood for minutes, just listening. . . . But nothing.
"What are you doing, Jonathan?" His wife asked, sticking her head out the door of their home.
"I. . . . Thought I heard something. . . Someone." Jonathan said, cryptically.
"Please just come back inside Jonathan. Its been a rough couple of weeks, but everything will be ok. Those slayers will get our son back." She said, hope in her voice.
"Do you really believe that, Samantha? You saw what Juliette did to that man! What chance do any of them have?!" Jonathan shouted.
Just then, they both felt and heard the tremor.
Tremors.
Trees snapping.
Jonathan's eyes got wide as he saw her once again emerge from the trees like he had seen her do too many times before.
Juliette.
But. . . Something wasn't right. It wasn't time. It had only been two weeks since they had given her the last group of 15. Sure, they had traded off the slayer's companion for 10 humans, but that still meant that 5 of the village would be taken as well.
That wasn't the only thing that troubled him. The look on Juliette's face. He had never seen her like this. Although she had taken a terrible toll on their lives, she had always been. . . . Friendly. . . But now. . .
She wore a scowl. Her walk was completely different. . . . None of this felt right.
"Juliette! We. . I. . What are you doing here?!" Jonathan stammered, as she chewed up the distance between them. "It's only been two weeks. . . We don't quiet have the 15 people yet. . . But we will. . .We. . . .WE NEED MORE TIME!" He screamed as Juliette approached, never breaking stride.
By the time Jonathan realized she wasn't stopping, it was too late. He turned to run but a shadow immediately overtook him. A second later he was gone. Snuffed out like nothing under Juliette's sandal as if he wasn't even there.
His wife screamed in horror as her husband was turned into a greasy red smudge in the dirt, flattened into the massive footprint his nemesis left behind. . . . But she wasn't done yet. The woman's scream caught her attention and Juliette turned her attention to the house.
Jonathan's wife darted back into the house but it was no use. In one step, Juliette was over the house. She got down on one knee and with no effort, peeled the roof off of the home. Inside, Samantha hid under a table. It was all she could do to protect herself.
Juliette was about to grab her, when a teenaged boy came running out of a side bedroom. He was wielding a pitchfork and tried to stab Juliette in the hand as she reached for his mother. Unfortunately the attack did nothing but catch her attention. With a flick of her wrist, the boy was tossed against the wall, knocked unconscious.
Juliette returned her attention to Samantha, picking up the heavy wooden table and crushing it to splinters in her hand, before tossing the chunks aside. Samantha scrambled to escape but Juliette was just too big and was able to subdue her inside her fist.
The first squeeze turned her cries for mercy into groans as Juliette's grip tightened marginally. The second turned the groans into a gargled mess of unintelligible noises and tears. The third and final squeeze cause blood and innards to escape her mouth and her eyes to bleed as Juliette's fist closed as tight as it could.
After seeing her victim was dead, Juliette dropped the crumpled husk but before she left, she unceremoniously crushed the boy under her fist before she stood and continued on to the city.
Daniel looked up from his drink, as the earth began to shake with footsteps. A feeling he was beginning to know all too well. He had slayed 3 giants in the last 2 years and had begun to make a name for himself in the smaller villages. 3 kills was a big deal for feral. It was just his luck that he was passing through this particular town at this particular time.
Feral slayers had only become common in the last 100 years or so. Ferals were giant slayers who weren't trained in the ancient ways. While they were still just as strong physically as classically trained slayers, they were never taught to use prayers, proper swordsmanship and strategy for facing skilled fighters so they were utterly ineffective at long range and against more skilled opponents or weapons users.
He set down his cup and ran outside to chaos. The street was blocked with the rubble of a crushed building and people were screaming and running aimlessly in any direction. Daniel jumped over the pile of brick and caught his first glimpse of the attacker. A blonde woman in a white dress, her footsteps echoing as screams were silenced with every stomp.
Daniel jumped on to the roof of a building and sized her up. She. . . Was big. Much much bigger than the 75 foot giant he had slayed 8 months ago. Not that it made any difference. He had killed 3 of them so far, and this would be the fourth. The fact that she carried a sword. . . That massive, massive sword was also foreign to him. Until now, he thought giants only used clubs and other blunt objects, but here she was, humongous blade strapped to her back.
Juliette was about to stomp down on a fleeing woman when she felt a small presence to her right. There, on top of a roof, was a slayer. She could feel his familiar energy. It was one of the abilities the gods had given her and her sisters. Juliette clenched her fists as Ant stared her down. . . . Or at least she thought it was. Her vision cleared and she could see that it was merely a boy.
Ever since that day at the mine, Juliette couldn't get Ant out of her head. If not for him, the slaves wouldn't have escaped. Her reputation would still be intact with Florence and the world wouldn't think that she was just some little girl who needed protection.
And so here was this boy. He couldn't have been more than 150 years old. A scrawny little thing in peasant's clothes, deciding to stand up to a princess of the giant kingdom. Usually, Juliette would have just bullied the little twerp, beaten him up a bit but ultimately let him go. . . But today. . . Today wasn't the day.
"I don't know what your problem is, but you're done here!" Daniel said, addressing her with his sword.
He didn't let her reply as he jumped into action. He lept forward, aiming for her face. This attack had worked in the past, and it would work again. At least it should have.
Juliette saw the brutally slow and direct attack from a mile away, and just moved her head out of the way. Daniel sailed by, shock on his face as his attack missed its mark but he never got the chance to touch the ground. Juliette reached back and snagged him by his cloak.
She wasted no time taunting him and just immediately hurled him back the way he had came, smashing him through the side of a building, only using a fraction of her true strength. Juliette had already decided she wasn't just going to crush this boy. Ant had fouled her mood and anyone who got in her way was going to suffer.
By this time all the humans had escaped the street and were running desperately for the edge of town.
The woods.
Juliette didn't allow it. In three steps she had cut them off. Screams of terror erupted as she loomed over them. The crowd scattered like a splash of water as her foot came down on them. The people unfortunate enough to get caught underfoot were pulverized, while the others were merely tossed to the side.
Daniel rose from the ruins of the building and crawled back into the street. He could see Juliette at the other end of the street, but he couldn't attack her from there. He sprinted as fast as he could, building up speed before he attacked her calf, hoping to slow her down. He had a clear opening, as she stomped a man crawling for the safety of a building and he drew his sword back to severe her leg.
Again this little pest attacked but it was of no consequence to Juliet. In a heartbeat, she drew her sword and stuck it point first into the ground. The boy was moving far too fast to avoid it and though he took a swipe at it with his sword, he still bounced off of it and deflected to the right. Before he could recover, Juliette snatched him up.
She took the time to kick a man struggling with freeing a panicing horse from a cart before she tossed the slayer straight up above her head, at least 300 feet up, and just let him fall back to the ground before continuing her rampage.
By now the town's people had either escaped into the woods or organized the weapons they had been assembling ever since the first time Juliette had shown up. 6 men had worked together to roll out a massive rolling crossbow and had the 4 giant, foot diameter wooden arrows loaded while a horse drew back the bow. None of them actually knew if the crossbow would be enough to even harm Juliette but the size of it was promising if anything.
Inevitably. . . As soon as Juliette spotted them after tossing some poor soul like a rag doll, urgency turned to panic. A man fumbled with a knife as Juliette pulled her sword from the ground. He got it under control and hacked the trigger rope just as she lifted her sword above her head to smash them.
The arrows rocketed from the bow in a cloud of dust and rope, the recoil spooking the horse. The men watched in slow motion as the arrows flew across the length of the town. They seemed to be on target, but it didn't matter. In the blink of an eye, Juliette flashed her strength as her sword went from above her head in an attack position to swing down and cut all the arrows clean in half.
The men had zero time to be disappointed as Juliette once again raised her sword and this time successfully smashed it down, splintering the crossbow into toothpicks and scattering the men along with the shrapnel. Before they could recover, Juliette snuffed out every one of them and mangled the horse.
The next half hour was a blur for Daniel as he was repeatedly smashed, blocked, tossed and just outright embarrassed by this giant woman. He had been unable to land a single blow against her and it seemed that she was content with just hurting him, and holding her true strength back as to not kill him. Meanwhile she had systematically crushed the entire city and everyone in it, even taking the time to hunt down the humans who had escaped into the forest until there was no man, woman or child left alive.
Now he lay, barely breathing, face up in the street, the last place he had landed following a bouncing from the woman that put him down for the count. He still clutched his sword, but his hand could hardly muster the strength to hold it.
He could hear her moving around but he couldn't see her. He could only see the blue sky, tainted by a black smoke that rolled off of some of the buildings that were burning now, through half swollen eyes It. . . Had began such a beautiful day. Now though. . . . Now his fate was unclear.
His inner thoughts were interuppted as the woman appeared above him. . . So high above him. She looked down at him, and he saw just a hint of pity in her eyes, although her actions were completely devoid of any. Any anything beyond cruelty and hatred it seemed.
"Why? . . . Why are you doing this?" He asked, weakly.
"Why?. . " Juliette repeated, thoughtfully. "I suppose the short answer is because I can! These people slighted me. Dared to try and kill royalty! Unacceptable!" Juliette declared, stamping her foot.
"Then why. . ." He managed to say between coughs. "Why haven't you killed me yet?"
"Because young slayer. . .killing you right away would be the easy way out for you. No. . . . You got to live with the fact that all these people died and there was not a thing that you could do about it!" Juliette said, her expression neutral, despite her words.
"So what? You're just going to leave me here to die then?! Daniel shouted, his voice horse from the dirt this woman had forced him to eat.
"I'm afraid not. . . As much as every slayer deserves to die in the street like a dog, from dehydration or blood loss. . . I already let one dead man go, out of some stupid decision to have mercy . . And he still haunts me even now! She explained, as she reached down and picked the man up with no resistance.
Daniel didn't know what she meant exactly, but he could tell she was bitter about something.
"I've been trying to change my ways. . .in a misguided attempt to. . I don't know. . . Repair. . . My soul? I guess. . . But the first time I give a slayer a second chance. . . Instead of counting his blessings and just continuing to live to the best of his ability. . . He follows me. . . . Accosts me in my home. . . . Kills my guards. . Lets the slaves go. ."
For the first time, Juliette looked down and noticed she had unconsciously been squeezing the boy as she spoke. His face was turning purple and blue by the time she realized what she was doing and loosened her grip.
"I'm sorry! My trials and tribulations are. . . Nothing you should have to hear about. It's just. . . My older sister Florence is the one I usually talk to about these things, but I'm afraid she might be disappointed with me after she finds out what happens. . . That and she isn't around right now. . " Juliette trailed off.
Without another word, she reached out with her other hand and grabbed Daniel's sword. She tried to pull it from him but he held in with all his strength. Juliette wrapped her fingers around his legs and tugged to separate the two.
"No! I don't care if you kill me, but you're not taking my sword!" He screamed.
"Correction, I am taking your sword. But it's not in veign." She replied, and with a big tug, she successfully plucked it from him, before tucking it away.
He was left dangling upside down by his feet in her hand.
"Look!" She said as she pulled her sword partially and held him up to her shoulder to see it. "Do you see the difference in the edge from the rest of the blade? It's my own special design. A mix of rare metals, but most of it is slayer's blade. It helps my sword to stand up to physical attacks as well as prayer based ones. So your own sword will continue on long after you're gone. . . There is honor in that."
The boy said nothing. He had officially reached the lowest point in his life. Crushed by this woman and she didn't even break a sweat. Unable to save anyone. His sword taken from him. But his ordeal wasn't over yet.
Juliette knelt down and Daniel watched her push her powerful fingers into the ground and scoop out a giant handful, placing it aside. He was confused until she began to lower him down toward it.
A grave.
By this point, he was too out of energy to do much of anything just scream and cry as Juliette placed him gently in the ground.
"This. . . This is nothing personal, little one. I just cannot risk anymore ghosts." She said, her voice unsure and soft. With that, she stood and used her foot to push the dirt back into the hole.
She took a deep breath and raised her foot.
There was no doubt in her mind that the first stomped killed him. Since she had grown past 120 feet tall some decades ago, no slayer had been able to withstand her weight or her power. But this wasn't about killing him. It was about his soul.
It was said that the soul lingers in the body for around 5 minutes after a person dies. So that is how long she had to seal it in the ground. She used two more heavy stomps, before just stepping regularly to pack the dirt in. When she finished, there was a newly formed rock tomb in the ground. She was entirely sure that this slayers soul wouldn't be coming back like Ant's had and so she was satisfied with her work.
She hadn't truly rampaged a village in so long and it felt good. . .right somehow. It should have felt great, but thoughts of Antony Lockwood still plagued her.
Oh the things she would do to him when she got her hands on him.
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
The dark side of Juliette emerges.