The Human Giant



"Thank goodness they are still here." Breathing heavily, the young man wiped the sweat off his brow and walked towards a building next to the city gate.

Noticing that there were still heavily armored guards surrounding the building, the young man knew that he needed to hurry, or he would miss his chance. Fixing his school uniform a bit to not embarrass himself further, the young man walked toward the guards. He flashed out a paper with his information on it.

"What is your name?"

One of the guards blocking the doorway grabbed the piece of paper and glanced at it. He then asked the young man a question in a stern voice.

"Floyd Stone," The young man quickly answered and waited for the next series of questions he had long grown used to.

"Who are you here to see? And state your business." The other guard gave Floyd an annoyed face as he went on with the questioning.

"I'm here to see my grandfather, General Blood Stone. I was given an order by the general and the city and was told to come here as soon as the mission was complete." Floyd answered with haste as he took out another slip of paper from his backpack and handed it to the soldier.

Knowing their patients were already low from dealing with the stress of going on an almost certain death mission, Floyd didn't mind that he was not getting the fairest treatment. He only tried his best to make the process even easier for the soldiers so that everything could go smoothly.

"Okay, wait here. I will go into the room to inform the generals of your arrival." One of the guards calmly said to Floyd without any of the previous irritation.

Happy that his effort worked, Floyd almost wanted to celebrate his achievement but stopped himself when the guard who spoke walked inside the building. Twenty minutes passed as Floyd waited silently for the soldier to return and let him in.

"Follow me, and don't make a single noise."

Finally, after another ten minutes, the soldier returned and signaled Floyd to be quiet and follow behind him. Knowing the severity of the situation, Floyd didn't complain and silently followed behind into the building.

"It reeks of blood,"

Floyd's face paled as he instantly was slammed with the strong scent of blood, and the pressure inside the room made it difficult for him to even breathe. If it wasn't for the sudden assistance that helped relieve some of the pressure, Floyd wasn't sure if he could have maintained consciousness.

"General Devil Storm, what do you think could be the cause for an Immortal and demon deciding to fight so close by? This hasn't happened in quite a long time?"

Suddenly hearing the voice of a mature and deep male voice coming from in front of him, Floyd's mind snapped back into reality as he realized that standing in front of him were the 20 Blood Masters generals of New Swamp Town. Each of them had a stern and grim look as they all turned to look at one particular general.

That general had long black hair slicked back with a shiny finish. Given his hairstyle alone, one would have assumed that General Devil Storm was a fashionable person with a care for his elegant appearance. 

However, that couldn't be further from the truth. Not only was General Devil Storm covered head to toe in scars, but he had sharp eyes that glinted with blinding golden light.

Known for his fierce appearance, General Devil Storm had plenty of rumors and stories about the ruthless methods he used on enemies. However, Floyd's favorite rumor was where it was said that General Devil Storm was raised by a pair of baby demons and learned their demonic manners as he aged.

Even when he learned that he was human and left the safety of his demon parents to learn martial arts, General Devil Storm still loved to use the demon method of tearing their enemies apart with their hands, feet, and claws. So regardless of who he fights against, General Devil Storm uses his hands and feet to defeat his opponents.

He only wore black leather armor to make himself look even more like a demon whenever he crushed his opponents into submission. Even though he was considered the youngest general inside the room, no one dared to underestimate him since he was extremely strong in combat.

"I believe that there is another treasure that had been born that had attracted the arrival of an immortal demon. Just like the one in the records when the Immortal Spinach had attracted the Gold Orb immortal and several other immortals to the grand line."

"The battle that had happened must have been glorious as the previously-existing mountain range was no longer found after. It's a pity that we couldn't get any sightings or witnesses of the scene." General Devil Storm sighed with regret as he took out a scroll and unraveled to scroll's contents.

Inside the scroll was a hyper-realistic image of a large monster made out of leaves similar in shape and color to spinach. Each of the spinach leaf's veins seemed to be made of crystal as rays of light passing through them turned into a dazzling rainbow. 

If it wasn't for the creature's six legs that looked like spider legs mixed with an eagle's talons and the bloodshot eyeballs covering each spinach leaf, the creature would have looked magical. Instead, these features showed that it was a monster, an abomination that could only be born from deep within the forest.

"Easy now, General, it was already extremely difficult and expensive to get that single image of the Immortal Spinach. We don't want to risk it getting teared up now." The voice of a soft-spoken general spoke up, drawing the eyes of the room.

Floyd turned his attention to the general that had spoken with a clear unhappiness in his voice. The general that spoke was an old man with wavy white hair that was tied up in a bun. Paired with his well-groomed beard, skinny body, and white robe, the general gave everyone the impression that he was an elegant old scholar that had come to preach to the new generation.

"General Black Snow," Floyd swallowed his saliva in fear when he saw the old man as he knew his terrifying reputation.

Floyd heard from stories and his grandfather that General Black Snow was ruthless and petty. Known for holding onto the slightest grievances for years before giving a disproportionate punishment to all those who opposed him.

There were rumors that once General Black Snow had waited for three decades to kill the family of a pig farmer that had denied him a slab of meat back when he was poor and young. Not only that, he had found the extended family of the pig farmer and killed them all, except for a set of twins he had adopted as his own.

With such a dangerous man with a reputation even more feared than General Devil Storm being so close to him, Floyd didn't dare breathe wrong, or else he knew he would find his entire family line exterminated decades later.

"Hmph! Of course, I know, and I have enough self-discipline to hold my desires in check. But what I am curious about is what you think is the cause of this mess, General Black Snow." General Devil Storm said with frustration as he glared at General Black Snow.

"I think your reasoning is too simple and obvious to be the truth. Why would the immortal and demon fight one another in front of this treasure?"

"There is a clear possibility that it could be destroyed during their battle. The most obvious clue is the huge explosion that had happened."

"I think it is more likely that the demon and immortal had a feud spanning thousands of years and couldn't resist battling to the death the moment they felt each other's presence." General Black Snow gave General Devil Storm a cold stare before turning his head towards another general.

"General Blazing Phoenix, you have spent more time in the forest than any of us recently. Did you spot anything during your time there?" General Black Snow said harshly.

"General Blazing Phoenix? I thought that she had died in battle." Floyd's heart began rapidly pounding as he turned to look at the general.

Standing across General Black Snow was a middle-aged woman with bright red hair and skin covered head to toe in tattoos of mythical birds. With bright orange eyes that sparkled regardless of the lighting and a body temperature so hot that she could give third-degree burns with a light touch, she gave off the impression of a Phoenix about to be reborn.

This middle-aged woman was the General Blazing Phoenix from the legends and could be argued to be the most talented soldier in the entire history of New Swamp Town. Her rise to fame was as glorious as her title and earned the respect of everyone in the town.

There were many versions of her story, but the one that was the most known was that she was the daughter of a poor couple in a rural village. Since birth, she has struggled to survive and has had to mature quickly due to her parents falling deathly ill when she was only ten years old.

To survive, she created a small gang to rob other children in the village to get enough food to take care of herself and her parents. By the time she was in her teens, her self-created gang had grown strong enough to control her village and live a good stable life.

However, General Blazing Phoenix hated working for evil, so once she had become a young adult, she asked a group of soldiers passing through to take her along. What happened during that trip was when her story split into countless theories and rumors.

But the common end was that she became a soldier for New Swamp Town and rapidly rose to power through hard work, dedication, strong ethics, and talent to fight. In ten years, she went from a nobody to a Blood Master who no one in her rank could challenge.

It was predicted that if she hadn't died six years ago when the town launched an attack on a martial art sect that was rapidly rising to become a large sect, she would have reached the Martial Grandmaster realm. To see her standing in front of him, not only alive but stronger than ever, nearly made Floyd's mouth drop from shock.

"Did your dog give birth to an egg? The only thing I made a note of during my time there was how beautiful the forest had become under the control of the Beast Hunter Sect. Such a pity the sect is gone now." General Blazing Phoenix quickly replied as she adjusted her armor without care.

"The Beast Hunter Sect's disappearance is not much of a concern for us. It was going to disappear soon anyway. In any case, I strongly recommend that we listen to the government's orders and get a move on soon. We don't know what could happen if we stall for too long." 

Suddenly hearing his grandfather's comforting and deep voice, Floyd's shoulders relaxed as he turned to face his grandfather. Right away, Floyd noticed that while his grandfather still had the stern and powerful aura that he had grown familiar with, compared to the other generals, who could be considered to be in a league of their own, he seemed almost ordinary.

Yet when General Blood Stone spoke up with confidence and composure, the other generals looked at him with the same level of respect as a fellow peer, which filled Floyd's heart with pride.

"This is my grandpa. He might be old, but he doesn't fall short even when standing with legends." So Floyd thought with a smile as he clutched his rapidly beating heart.