Martial Elf

“Die! Die! Die!”

A dwarf, no bigger than a thumb, was swinging its tiny limbs with a flushed face.

This dwarf, who referred to itself as an elf, looked somewhat similar to a human but had slightly elongated ears and was incredibly beautiful, as if it had lost its soul.

There was indeed something about the way it looked that struck one as a little odd, whether it was a giant or a human, but the perfection of its form left me dazed when it removed the first thing it wore on its head to show its face.

However, I now knew how horrifying it was whenever those adorable limbs were flailing around.

With each punch that landed, the area it struck would dent and ripple, bringing pain that reverberated through my body like the times my father slapped me in anger when I had done something wrong before he passed away.

“Ugh… Ugh! Stop! Stop!”

“Ahahaha… It hurts! It hurts! Mom!”

The giant Golb looked over at his younger brother Silv, who was curled up beside him, crying and searching for his mother as they endured the violence.

How could they, who were only frightened by Titans, end up in such a situation?

It was as if Golb was rummaging through his memories like a warrior reflecting on their life before death.

He had taken his somewhat dimwitted younger brother along for a hunt as usual.

While not all giants were Titans, if there were anything fundamentally similar among them, it was that giants needed to eat a lot due to their size.

Houses, clothes, and food were always in great demand, so all giants living outside the city must work hard to survive.

Leaving behind his mother’s farewell, he decided on today’s hunting grounds.

In reality, there wasn’t much to it.

Giants stood out far too much, and prey would always flee if they saw a giant from afar, making them hard to catch and few in number.

However, the truly large creatures that did not know their place could be caught easily, but the problem was that even if you caught them, they were tough, tasteless, and even smelled bad.

Thus, though they sometimes hunted, the basic strategy was to choose a few ways humans moved and just wait.

What humans made, though small, was of good quality.

When they blocked paths and demanded tolls, they would either hand over the goods they were carrying or make something for them.

Golb’s tattered clothes were obtained through trade with humans.

Those who had nothing or were short on goods would sometimes fill in for their comrades.

Humans were softer compared to the beasts of the fields and forests, making them quite a delicacy.

Therefore, there were days when they returned empty-handed, but today, Golb settled behind a rocky path, hoping to see what might pass by.

Having rummaged through other areas recently, he chose this spot since humans might not visit as often lately.

As he left his younger brother sprawled out and looked vacantly at the sky, he sensed a presence approaching from the direction of the rocky mountain.

However, the strange thing was that while the presence was not large, something enormous could be felt.

He tilted his head at the contradictory sensation and struck his slumbering brother to wake him.

Crack!

“Get up, you!”

“Kit-hing!”

Ignoring the baffling scream and the thing rubbing where it had been hit, he moved toward the path.

What was approaching was a large stag.

It was unusual for a deer to be in a place like this, a path touched by humans and not the forest.

“Brother, it’s a deer!”

“What? I thought I felt something big, but it’s just a deer? Huh? What’s that on its back?”

Upon closer inspection, partially hidden behind the stag’s antlers was a green lump.

“Wow… I’d seen a wolf that was 8 Elte tall, but I never expected there to be an 8 Elte tall human!”

Riding on the deer was a human, small in size.

Golb had seen humans riding horses, but this was the first time he had seen one riding a stag.

Horses were cowardly, but so were stags, rarely allowing anyone to ride them.

Moreover, stags were smaller than horses and weaker, so they couldn’t carry humans easily.

He continued the conversation.

There was a large aura, yet only a single stag and a small human were present.

He felt that while they wouldn’t be overpowered by dwarves, he wondered if there could be some ambush set up to catch him.

However, after talking, it turned out the dwarf was all alone, and more importantly, he claimed he was not a human but an elf.

Then he took off what he wore on his head, revealing a truly beautiful face.

As I was lost in awe, the elf dwarf began acting strangely like a human sorcerer, making a loud noise.

And he claimed he was a martial artist training his strength…

Was it really power boasting in front of the Titan children of Terato, giants who could move mountains?

Upon demonstrating strength, the elf looked shocked, as if his soul had left his body!

The elf dwarf seemed to be insulted by something and spoke about a tree being his mother or earth goddess, which was an absurdity.

Wasn’t wood meant for firewood or building houses?

Since he was born from something so ridiculous, it made sense that he was a dwarf.

So, without possessing such a gigantic body and strong power, all he could do was get things taken from him.

If he mentioned that tree being a deity in front of me, I would have found an axe that fit my hands and used it to chop it into firewood.

Though I tolerated his rudeness, the one who had swallowed his anger blurted out a few things.

I was gradually feeling boredom and decided to take this elf and the stag as today’s hunting prey.

If it were a group of humans, that would be one thing, but a single dwarf elf couldn’t possibly have anything.

However, wanting to twist that cute face into a frown, I tried to threaten him, but my foolish younger brother suddenly began to make a fuss.

“Hehe… I want to marry her.”

Terato, oh my, I knew my younger brother was foolish, but not to this extent.

And when he said he would even have kids, no matter how wise and brave a Titan I was, I momentarily lost my words.

But even if he was foolish, Silv was still my younger brother.

As the older brother, I had a duty to guide him down the right path.

I thought of wanting to taste that elf, but considering my brother, I decided to let him keep her as a pet.

With that, I tried to explain things well and persuade him.

However, well… the situation that became the cause of everything began from that moment.

“That’s not even a woman.”

Though the dwarf elf was pretty, it was obvious that she was not a woman.

What do humans call such things?

I think they called them parasitic beings.

A man, by nature, should be robust and strong rather than delicate and pretty.

However, I should’ve sensitively felt something strange about the atmosphere around me from that moment on.

“… To nurse, the chest must…”

“… not a woman…”

I should have noticed how the star-like eyes of the elf dwarf, shining brightly, began to darken.

「Stop」

A command reverberating in my head.

Before my eyes, the elf dwarf had turned into ‘something unknown.’

Only then did Golb understand.

The identity of that gigantic something he felt earlier.

For a moment, it felt like the elf dwarf, smaller than even a quarter of him, had grown to his size.

“I, El Prigion’s seventh daughter El Araya, a conductor who bears a mission and authority, swears by the name of my mother Goddess that I shall punish with a clear stance as a conductor for the sake of your mockery of my mother and for the sake of the life that springs forth in the land where the divine power you possess mocks all living things!”

She poured out words I didn’t even comprehend like a waterfall.

In that moment, my vision wavered.

No.

“Get———off—–!”

More accurately, I was crumbling down.

Without being able to breathe properly.

As I looked at my abdomen, where a terrible pain erupted, a line of light was connected.

My belly, which had been protecting me from the teeth of a great beast, was ruthlessly dented around the elf dwarf’s tiny fist, causing my flesh to ripple.

“Uh? Hyekhyek.”

In the blink of an eye, a line of light that had been connected to my stomach connected to Silv’s chin, causing his mouth to shut tightly as he was about to speak.

“Si… Silv.”

“You’re quite relaxed. Do you have time to worry about others?”

Feeling a chill run down my spine as I observed the emotionless dwarf elf staring up at me from below.

“You… what have you…”

“Hmm. You’re a Terato or a Titan, boasting about your strength, and yet do you not realize how to see properly?”

In an instant, it seemed like the elf before my eyes had vanished, but along with a pain around my chin, my view that had been looking downward was now looking up at the sky.

“This, more or less, is what I meant.”

Over my face tilted toward the sky, the elf descended.

And the elf continued speaking as they sat on my face.

“The giants eat humans, and I don’t really mind that. In the story of ecological stages, it’s natural for a superior being to consume a lesser being. While it may feel uncomfortable for the prey, it’s too simplistic to define it as right or wrong.”

“This is the basic cycle; all eventually die and become food, the principle of predation.”

As I stomped the ground and shouted at the dwarf, I swung my palm at him.

As my hand was barely close to landing on him, I suddenly felt myself weightless.

I didn’t know what it was, but my body seemed to be transferred as if it were six times larger, pivoting around the elf’s position.

“Cough!”

‘This is absurd!’

Weight crashed down on me like my own weight hitting the ground, leaving me unable to breathe, but more shocking was that I had been tossed around by a dwarf elf that was not even half the size of me, not even a Titan.

“What I am discussing is mutual respect as sentient beings.”

The expression of the elf who performed such a miraculous feat remained utterly expressionless.

The insides of its green eyes, where the light had vanished, seemed to swallow my soul like an abyss.

From that moment on, Golb couldn’t see this beautiful elf as beautiful anymore.

“Even if you look at this body as prey, there must be a necessary respect for that prey, and a gratitude for the life that continues through life.”

As I staggered back, the slowly approaching elf with its short legs made me feel an emotion I had long forgotten.

“You insult my goddess mother, and remind me of the body I received from her and the nightmares of my past I wished to forget. In the end, you wish to make this body into your pet.”

Seeing the elf vanish again, I panicked and looked around, and a voice came from below.

“Is your arrogance the result of the giant’s unique perspective of looking down on others?”

And suddenly, I felt my legs twist, and my legs were flailing in midair.

Boom!

“Now, this matches your height somewhat.”

Before me, the dwarf elf, breaking its expressionless facade, had transformed its face into one resembling a demon, filled with rage.

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