章 368: Giant Hunt

To Daphne's surprise, her taunt worked much better than she had expected. And now that the Giant knew that Daphne could speak Giantish, it immediately gave up on its attempts to speak in English in order to communicate.

"YOU DARE INSULT ME?" the Giant roared. "I, GORUMP, HONOURED SON OF FRIDWULFA THE ALL-KNOWING AND OF SKÅNE THE AVERAGE?"

"That's right!" Daphne shouted back, slightly taken aback upon hearing the Giant's eloquent response. "I think you're a coward! Sneaking up on us like that like a mouse, don't you have any shame? Why don't you let those two go and face me fairly— if you think you're hard enough?"

The Giant let out a cry of rage and threw the unfortunate pair of Nymphs aside, before charging towards Daphne. The roots coiled around Gorump's ankles immediately snapped; and in an instant, the Giant was upon her. It raised its enormous foot and stamped down, just barely missing Daphne, who managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time.

Nevertheless, the power of Gorump's footfall caused a localized earthquake, which stopped Daphne from getting back to her feet straight away. It raised its foot again, readying itself to squash her like a bug, but just as Daphne was about to use magic to Tree-Port out of the way, she found herself being swiftly dragged out of the way by the ankle.

"I've got you!" the oak Wood Nymph called out.

"And I helped!" the ash Wood Nymph added.

To Daphne's surprise, the bickering pair hadn't run away upon being dropped by the giant; they had instead come back to help her, by looping a thin root around her leg and pulling her to safety. And they weren't alone; the other Nymphs were coming out of the thicket one by one.

"IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MANY OF YOU PUNY WEAKLINGS COME OUT TO FIGHT," the Giant roared. "I, GORUMP, HAVE NEVER REFUSED A CHALLENGE FROM THOSE SMALLER THAN I AM!"

"The forest stands united against foreign aggressors," a hornbeam Wood Nymph declared. "For upsetting the balance of nature, I sentence you to death."

The Nymphs raised their hands skywards as one; twilight was already fading quickly, and night was falling. The sun, the source of their power, had already disappeared behind the hills, so their magic would only continue to wane as the fight continued. Daphne immediately understood this fact, so she joined her magic with theirs.

This was their last chance to save this little thicket!

Vines and brambles burst out from the ground under the giant's feet and snagged the Giant's skin and its clothes, restraining its movements. It roared and tore its feet away from the plants hindering it, intent on running towards them and squishing them underfoot.

More and more vines and roots shot out of the ground, slowly but surely wrapping themselves around the Giant. However, Daphne could see that the Nymphs were weakening; with the sun setting, they were having trouble restraining the Giant, even at ten against one. Daphne's mind raced as she searched for ideas, but she was a still a classically educated Witch; all of her plans would revolve around using magic.

Even so, she had to find something, so she quickly racked her brains for ways to overcome gigantic, magic-resilient monsters.

Oleandra had beaten the Troll by making it slip, but Isaz was runic magic, so that was a no-go. Similarly, defeating Fluffy the gigantic three-headed dog had required runic magic in order to make trees tear it apart from the inside.

And then she thought of the Basilisk, and Daphne had her answer.

"Help me grow this around him!" Daphne cried out to the faltering Nymphs.

She rummaged inside her bag and found what she'd been looking for: a ball of vampiric mistletoe.

"Eww, is that mistletoe?" the quaking aspen Wood Nymph cringed. "Get that stuff away from me!"

"I hope you know what you're doing…" the oak Wood Nymph said, as she looked at the parasitic plant with disgust.

Nevertheless, all of the Wood Nymphs joined in. The ball of mistletoe quivered; it expanded in mass, and Daphne threw it with all her might at the barely restrained Giant. There, it took root in its skin and began drawing blood. Galvanized by the nature magic it had been infused with, the mistletoe began greedily sucking up the Giant's blood.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?" Gorump roared feebly. "MY STRENGTH… FADING… HUNGRY…"

The Wood Nymphs coldly stared as the Giant collapsed, its body visibly diminishing in size as its life essence was inexorably drawn from it. Now that they had confirmed that Daphne was an ally and that the Giant was no longer a threat, they no longer needed to keep up their façade.

"How about we sing a funerary hymn, ladies?" said the hornbeam Wood Nymph happily. "I know it's not karaoke night yet, but we've earned it, haven't we?"

"Do not fear, Giant," the oak Wood Nymph said sombrely, ignoring what the other Nymph had just said. "For your carcass shall feed the worms and your blood shall water the earth."

"In time, our thicket will grow into a splendid forest," the ash Wood Nymph added. "You will compensate for the damage you have wrought with your nutrients."

"I was going to say that," the oak Wood Nymph said irritably. "I'm the oak, so I'm the wisest, so just let me do the elegy, okay, sweetie?"

"I don't think it can hear us any more."

"Oh."

Now that the danger was past, they were returning to their annoying selves. Maybe it hadn't just been a façade, Daphne thought to herself. Maybe they had always been this obnoxious…

"My name is Daphne, by the way," Daphne introduced herself to the curious Nymphs grouping around her.

"Daphnaie?" one of the Nymphs said quizzically. "Aren't you a yew tree Nymph? I didn't know there were any laurel tree Nymphs in England, let alone this far north…"

But the Nymph didn't get to finish her question, as a man's deep voice tinged with a heavy Somerset accent interrupted her.

"GRAWPY, NO!"

Daphne froze; that voice was extremely familiar…

"WHA' HAVE YEH DONE TER 'IM!?" Hagrid howled, as he hobbled towards them. "HOW COULD YEH, HE'S JUS' A KID!"

"Eep!" the quaking aspen Nymph squeaked in terror. "It's that human woodcutter, we're really doomed this time!"

Question marks kept popping up in Daphne's head. What in the world was Hagrid doing here? His face looked as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it; most likely the work of the dying Giant at her feet.

But why was he worried about the murderous monster that had very clearly just knocked him into the middle of next week, and then back again!?