The giantess let out a battle cry and brought her fist down on the spider’s back shell. Her fist collided with the shell with a booming sound from pure strength alone.

Part of the spider’s shell cracked and green blood flowed out through the blade that had penetrated it.

“Kieeeek?!”

However, the spider wasn’t weak enough to die from mere punches. It screeched and shook its body like an enraged colt, trying to throw off the giantess.

The giantess frowned, wrapping the blade’s chain around her arm, and spat out curses.

“You damn spider… You’ve given birth to too many babies, just die already!”

“Kiriririk!!!”

The giantess held on atop the wildly thrashing spider like a cowboy performing rodeo on horseback, pulling on the chain.

Realizing it couldn’t shake off the giantess with just that, the spider moved its legs to aim at her.

As two pairs of sharp legs targeted her, the giantess cried out in alarm:

“Hurry!”

“Coming now!”

At the giantess’s cry, Gulmag shouted boldly and swung his club towards the spider’s head.

The spider was shocked by the stone club flying at its head and rapidly grew its shell to brace for the impact.

Bang!

As the club collided with the spider’s head, the spider’s body swayed with a loud noise like an avalanche, and hastily formed shell and green blood splattered.

The spider, barely maintaining balance, bared its teeth at Gulmag while swinging its legs. Gulmag clicked his tongue at the spider’s head being tougher than expected and swung his fist.

A few of the spider’s teeth dug into Gulmag’s tough skin. But Gulmag stubbornly added more force and struck its head.

Teeth fell out along with flesh, and the spider spat blood as its body tilted. The spider instinctively tried to regain balance by moving its legs, but…

Slash!

“Kieeeeek!!!!!”

Wendigo, who had rushed in like a beast, swung his ice sword at the spider’s legs. Five or six legs were cut off, and cold frost froze the wounds and dug inwards.

The spider’s massive body collapsed, striking the ground like a small earthquake.

Wendigo was about to swing his sword again, but hesitated when he caught sight of Gulmag.

After all, Gulmag was the protagonist of this situation.

When Wendigo gave a signal with his head, Gulmag grabbed the spider’s head and raised his club. The giantess looked at Gulmag and shouted with a belligerent smile:

“Bring it down!”

Gulmag roared and swung his club. The enraged club smashed through the spider’s shell and pulverized the brain inside.

As the headless spider’s body staggered, the giantess retrieved her blade and jumped down to the ground.

Thud!

The spider’s massive body collapsed. Debris poured from its crumbled head, and the giantess walked over it as if getting dirty didn’t matter at all, and stood before the two.

The giantess smiled broadly, showing her canines, and held out her hand.

“My name is Angrd. Honestly, it was an armored spider that had lived long enough to be difficult for me to catch alone, but thanks to you, I’ll save face!”

Wendigo patted Gulmag’s shoulder. Wouldn’t it be better for Gulmag, who had business with her, to shake hands?

At Wendigo’s consideration, Gulmag nodded and grasped Angrd’s hand.

Wendigo quickly looked over her appearance.

Her skin was pale like a frozen lake, and her eyes were heterochromatic, like a blue moon in the night sky…

Aside from these features, Angrd looked like the word “female warrior” expressed as a giant.

Her hair was cut short for convenience, and her body was full of well-trained muscles and various scars.

The most distinctive feature was a scar crossing her left eye, which wasn’t a clean scar, as if cut by something other than a blade.

‘She looks quite fierce.’

Wendigo thought that if an argument broke out with Angrd, fists would fly before words. Honestly, she didn’t give the impression of becoming a good partner.

She seemed like the type of woman who would test whether she could cut with a knife at the slightest marital dispute.

Wendigo approached Gulmag, who was shaking hands, and observed his expression.

If by chance Gulmag didn’t feel attracted to Angrd, they could return after just forming an acquaintance…

“My name, Gulmag. Angrd, beautiful warrior. I, never seen female warrior like you before.”

“What? I thought I heard wrong, but an ogre is really talking? And such a kind ogre at that!”

To think that Gulmag would say such embarrassing things to impress a woman.

Gulmag seemed to be quite taken with Angrd. Pleased by Gulmag’s compliment, Angrd shook their clasped hands up and down vigorously while cackling.

She let go of Gulmag’s hand and looked back and forth between Gulmag and Wendigo with curiosity.

“Gulmag? A talking and kind ogre is amazing, but… are you really alive?”

“If having a skull for a head doesn’t mean I’m dead. Originally, only my head is like this, the lower part is a proper body.”

“Usually when the head rots, you die. But if you can joke like that, at least you’re not dead!”

Angrd burst into laughter, finding something very amusing, and picked up her chain blade.

It would be a shame not to chat after meeting such interesting fellows, and proper chats need appropriate snacks to flow smoothly.

Angrd approached the armored spider’s carcass they had hunted together and cut off one leg. She skillfully removed the shell and offered a chunk each to the two.

“Shall we talk while eating? Game tastes best when eaten right after hunting!”

“Mm-hmm, that’s right.”

“……”

Wendigo looked at Gulmag, who had become a yes-man, with bewilderment.

However, Gulmag didn’t seem to care about such looks at all and took the spider flesh Angrd offered and took a big bite.

Of course, Wendigo didn’t particularly refuse either. The armored spider’s flesh was quite tasty after all.

When even Wendigo picked up and ate the flesh, Angrd sat down with great satisfaction.

“Mmm~ As expected, the bigger armored spiders are tastier! If we had mammoth milk liquor to go with this, ugh~ my mouth is watering!”

“Mammoth milk, huh. If it’s that delicious, I’d like to try it sometime.”

“For someone with a deer skull head, you like eating more than I expected.”

“Meals are one of my few hobbies. Anyway, never mind me… This isn’t your first time meeting an ogre, it seems?”

Wendigo asked Angrd while savoring thinly sliced flesh.

Angrd answered while crunching on the shell as if it were no big deal:

“Well, I don’t see them often. Sometimes when the weather cools down, I visit the eastern plateau and occasionally encounter them there. This one…”

“Angrd, you can call me Gulmag.”

“Thanks. But they weren’t as kind as you, Gulmag.”

Angrd talked about the ogres she had met.

In most cases, ogres almost never attacked her people, the Hrimthurs.

Ogres are born as valiant warriors, but they’re not stupid enough to fight without gauging the opponent’s level.

However, there were cases where ogres would attack even after gauging the opponent’s level:

“Sometimes ogres in heat attack. Male or female, they go crazy trying to breed with giants.”

“……”

Wendigo was surprised that liking giants was a normal preference for ogres, and was speechless at the fact that they attack giants when in heat.

Gulmag seemed not to have expected this either, as he froze and nibbled on the spider flesh.

At this rate, he might have to return dejectedly without even proposing, so Wendigo carefully asked Angrd:

“Then the Hrimthurs must… dislike ogres. Not only because of their purpose but because they’re being attacked.”

“Nah, not to the point of disliking them.”

“Huh?”

When Angrd chuckled and waved her hand, Wendigo was puzzled. Logically, there was no reason to view monsters that attack when in heat favorably.

“We take pride in being attacked by ogres. An ogre being in heat can be seen as nature recognizing us as strong warriors.”

“It works like that?”

“Does it sound strange? Well, not everyone thinks that way, but most do. Honestly, ogres are quite handsome, so many women think it’s fine to spend a night with them.”

“I-I see.”

“Right? Just look at Gulmag, he’s plenty handsome.”

Angrd pointed at Gulmag’s arm while tearing off armored spider flesh with her canines.

“Those muscles are rock-hard from birth. It’s amazing how they get even more trained by beating enemies even after reaching adulthood.”

Next, she tapped his skin with her finger.

“And what about this incredibly rough skin? It’s natural armor that even creatures with sharp teeth and legs like armored spiders can’t easily penetrate.”

Next, she pointed to his chest, specifically the area where the heart and lungs are.

“An ogre’s heart is tougher than a giant’s. They say long ago, an ogre went berserk and picked fights with everyone it met, but only collapsed after the sun rose and set three times.”

Finally, she twirled her finger, indicating Gulmag’s face as a whole.

“Above all, his face is handsome. Look at that face overflowing with wild charm and those big canines. There’s a beast called a saber-toothed tiger, and he doesn’t lose to it in comparison.”

Gulmag cleared his throat and became embarrassed at the unexpectedly high praise.

Honestly, it was unexpected. Not only the unusual aesthetic sense but to consider being attacked by ogres as a source of pride.

At this rate, there should be hope for Gulmag.

Wendigo gestured with his chin to Gulmag as if telling him to go ahead. Gulmag caught the signal and looked at Angrd hesitantly.

“Ahem! Angrd, I have something to say.”

“Oh my, did I ramble too much? This was the most robust armored spider I’ve caught recently, so I got excited without realizing. Please forgive me.”

“It’s fine. What I want to say is…”

It was then.

Just as Gulmag was about to express his goodwill towards Angrd, Dario, Jermy, and Anna, who had been hiding far away, revealed themselves.

Still pretending to be a loyal subject, Dario ran up breathlessly and said to Wendigo with a worried face:

“Your Majesty! What on earth were you talking about that you didn’t even call for us and kept talking…”

“Is, is that a dwarf!? My goodness, to think such small humans really exist!”

“……”

Angrd jumped up in surprise when a dwarf from old tales appeared before her eyes.

Gulmag glared at Dario, who had stolen Angrd’s attention, with resentful eyes.