Destroying the Tribe

"Roar—" With a guttural roar, the land drakes charged straight into the burning encampment. Though hill giants towered far above ordinary humanoids, they proved utterly fragile before the massed charge of these hill-sized drakes. "Ah!" "It hurts!" Trampled beneath massive feet and crushed into paste, the crude giants howled and wailed in agony. "Who... are you?" "Why... trespass... tribe!" Hunched over with wooden staff in hand, the hill giant elder cried out in a mix of terror and rage. For millennia, they had lived on the mountains like savages, their beast-like existences driven only by feeding and breeding, yet they possessed a rudimentary intelligence. Giant elders were often the wisest among them; this one even knew a few basic words in Common and managed to utter the question. Having lived in Katepa for many years, the hill giants had learned to fear the humans to the south and never attacked them unprovoked, contenting themselves with greedily devouring every living creature around them. Though they had never developed a culture of their own, they often attempted to mimic the habits of their prey before eating them. Yet it was merely shallow mimicry. They never considered whether their immense bulk was suited to such behavior—once, an entire tribe of hill giants had tried to live in trees like elves, ultimately crushing every tree in the forest. Now, the arrival of a new enemy shattered traditions that had lasted for centuries, leaving the giants utterly bewildered. Standing atop the back of his land drake, the hobgoblin count looked down at the hill giants before him and laughed wildly. "Who are we? You dare ask who we are?" "We are the imperial expeditionary force!" "We bring utter death and ruin to this land—simply because you are vermin infesting the empire's territory!" Jesai had considered hurling his spear to finish the elder off, but after a second thought, he grinned wickedly and drew the pistol at his waist, swiftly raising it to take aim. "Ignorant beast, have a taste of the empire's ingenuity..." *Bang!* A bloody hole burst between the hill giant elder's brows with a loud gunshot, and the colossal body crashed heavily to the ground. "Hahahahaha!" "What a fine treasure!" Jesai blew away the faint wisp of smoke from the muzzle and tucked the pistol carefully back into his belt. Every shot brought him immense satisfaction. Having fought the war against the "Everfrost" tribe, the imperial army was quite experienced in slaughtering giants. Coordinating in squads of two and three, they divided and surrounded the battlefield, striking from multiple directions. Before the clumsy brutes could even spot their attackers, they were gunned down in a hail of bullets. Gunshots, the thundering tread of land drake claws, the wails of hill giants, and the battle cries of imperial soldiers intertwined across the battlefield. The scent of blood and gunpowder smoke drifted over the wilderness. Before the well-drilled imperial infantry and rifle cavalry, the savage, disorganized hill giants had no hope of victory—despite their massive frames and brute strength. A hobgoblin adjutant, also riding a land drake, trampled a sprawling hill giant to death and called out to Jesai from across the field: "My Lord Count, there seem to be some runts in the caves!" Jesai's face instantly went cold. "Leave none alive. Slaughter them all." Though called runts, these young hill giants were still far larger than ordinary men; even the shortest stood over two meters tall. They cowered deep within the cave, shivering in fear. At Jesai's command, hobgoblins tossed bundle after bundle of firewood into the cave. Several wyverns landed, blocking the entrance and unleashing jets of fire into the opening. The firewood ignited at once. Flames and thick smoke billowed deep into the cave, choking and scorching the young giants until they could endure it no longer. Howling in agony, they scrambled toward the cave mouth to escape. Yet before they could take a single step outside, a line of hobgoblin infantry who had been waiting at the entrance pulled their triggers in unison, their rifles cracking with deafening reports. *Bang!* *Bang! Bang!* Charred corpses piled high at the cave entrance, burnt beyond recognition and riddled with bullet holes. "My lord, all the hill giants in the vicinity should have come from here. We have finished sweeping the area." "Very good. These wretched beasts dared to attack our hunting party and devoured a hobgoblin. This is what they deserve." Jesai folded his arms, inhaling the scent of gunpowder lingering in the air and savoring the beauty of war. Hill giants were classified as vermin, unfit to become imperial citizens—a conclusion reached after thorough deliberation among the empire's upper echelon. Unlike their lawful evil kin, the frost giants, hill giants were purely chaotic evil monsters possessed of abysmal intellect. Furthermore, there was a hidden factor best kept unsaid: hill giants bore striking similarities to ogres in appearance, habits, and bloodline. In the giants' complex social hierarchy, ogres ranked below every true giant. By instinct, an ordinary ogre would do almost anything to satisfy a giant's demand. Though the empire's ogres had experienced a tremendous leap in intellect and were no longer bound by giants, they still had no desire to see a race with an overlapping ecological niche usurp their standing. Moreover, the imperial think tank had evaluated the cost of transforming hill giants into "valuable imperial citizens" and determined that the expenditure far outweighed any potential return. Taking all these factors together, frost giants could at least serve as a slave race for the empire, whereas hill giants were fit only to be eradicated as pests. Jesai stepped forward, pressed his foot onto the massive head of the hill giant, and casually kicked it aside. "Bart, has there been any movement from the Kingdom of Thrace—after they burned down their old castle?" "My Lord Count, over the past two days, the Redscale Conquerors spotted Thracian scout units along the border. However, our observations suggest they are merely insignificant, irregular rabble." "All of their god-blooded elites have been redeployed south to counter the Kingdom of Cassander's offensive." Jesai frowned slightly, displeasure tingeing his voice. "The arrogance! Those Thracians actually dare send scouts?" "It seems they still don't understand the might of our empire!" The hobgoblin count drew the pistol from his belt, feeling its cold metallic weight in his grip as he aimed it toward the distance. "If His Majesty Cassius were not concerned with the people's livelihoods, our Cinder Empire's army would have marched straight in long ago and conquered Auguste, that so-called 'City of Sunrise'!" "They should count themselves lucky we haven't picked a fight with them. Who gave them the nerve to probe us?" Narrowing his eyes, the hobgoblin count turned south and asked coldly, "How far from our current position are those scouts encamped?" "Very close. Just sixty li to the southeast." Jesai fired several shots toward the south and barked his command: "Men, we move out immediately! Let these Thracians... face reality and realize the power of the empire!" "For the empire!"