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Chapter 760: Primitive
🕑 Added 2023-05-09 08:13:29 +0000 UTC"Because of grudges from the past, the remnants of the old tribes often fight each other, and that’s even without squabbles over food and the best fires and sleeping spots," said Hagrid. "You'd think, seeing as how their whole race is on the verge of extinction, they’d give it a break, but… those are giants for you!"
"That Gurg, the chief of the giants, doesn’t he care?" Evan asked. He had read about this in the reading materials gathered for him by Hermione, but still found it inconceivable. "He just lets it happen?"
"Giants have their own rules, and they have always been like this. From the information we’ve collected, the current Gurg, Karkus, is an incompetent leader. He may be a little smarter than other giants, but he’s too weak," said Sirius, putting his things down. "He has no way to restrain the other giants. If he tells the giants not to fight, they may join forces to overthrow him."
This image depicting the barbarism and backwardness of the giants was getting more and more solidified to Evan. Their various living habits and customs were still comparable to those of early human ancestors...
Even the giants who had come into contact with modern society preferred this primitive way of life. That was their nature.
In the direction of the rumbling noise, they walked for more than ten minutes before Evan saw the giants. Two young male giants, still fighting on a rocky hillside.
They were each twenty-five feet tall, looking over twice as tall as Hagrid, and clearly much stronger than him. Aside from a rudely stitched hide around their waists, they were practically naked.
As they beat each other viciously with a very primitive technique, the ground shook beneath their feet.
Even though they were far away, Evan could still feel their amazing momentum, and could not help gasping...
Continuing down the hillside, there was the giants’ actual camp, and there were more giants gathered there.
They lit fires and were eating food, and the smell of meat being roasted came along with the wind.
They seemed to not even care about the deathmatch taking place near them, and it was clearly something they were used to.
For them, a bloody duel to the death might not be as big a deal as a dinner. After all, this kind of thing would happen too often. If the fight ended with one of the two being killed, then it would be even better: More food for everyone else!
In the giants’ camp, Evan saw many taller shadows gathering around the mountain lake.
Most of these giants were like the two fighting giants, barely wearing clothes and having only simple accessories, even the female giants. Only a few of them looked different in clothes or armor.
On the other side of the lake were steep mountain cliffs, with only a narrow path winding upward, and more giants could be seen vaguely above. They seemed to have a higher status than the giants below, living in caves at the top of the mountain.
"Well, we'd better stop here and wait for tomorrow!" Sirius said, and he took out the tent. "It's best to be careful when making dinner. the giants' noses are very good."
Food was very attractive to giants, even if they were too “slow” to notice much else!
At dusk, Evan sat cross-legged on a high boulder, slowly eating the cake and stewed mutton made by Hagrid, watching the two giants fighting for life and death on the hillside far away. As weird as it looked, it was rather impressive!
They fought for over two hours before they finally stopped. By then, they were covered with scars and blood, and one giant's ear was torn apart and seemed to be almost on the verge of death.
They stopped; it seemed that no one was convincingly defeated, but they did not have the strength to continue fighting and sat back to back on the hillside.
After they gradually recovered their strength, they grumbled back to the camp by the lake. Evan didn’t know if their grudges had been resolved.
It was a meaningless battle, with no reason; no winner. Even both sides of the fight did not know what that had been for. Maybe because of excess energy, it would be much better for them to vent, to then get along well with each other. They even supported each other as they walked back, as though they were close brothers. It was hard to imagine that they had been fighting so hard just hours ago.
After observing the camp for a long time, Evan found that the number of female giants was far smaller than that of males.
There were several male giants around each adult female giant, and as a result, their status was much higher.
The two giants who were fighting on the edge between life and death just belonged to the group without female giants. They could only snuggle up with each other. When they would be filled with pent up energy and the ferocity in their bodies could no longer be restrained, they would vent in this way...
Sirius and Hagrid were in charge of the night guard to prevent the giants from suddenly coming. They asked Evan and Madame Maxime to go to sleep in the tent.
But Evan didn’t get a good night's sleep. The giants didn’t fall asleep until after three in the morning, and when they did, they snored horribly. The rumbling, roaring, thundering snoring continued, spreading through the entire valley.
At first light the next day, Evan got up with two dark circles under his eyes. Sirius, Hagrid and Madame Maxime were already sitting at the simple dining table in the tent. Sirius handed him a cup of steaming coffee.
After breakfast, the four of them walked straight into their mission!
It was a very special experience. Evan saw many giants spotting them, roaring and yelling rudely, but they didn't come to them, because they saw Hagrid and Madame Maxime holding their gifts up high.
Those goats were their favorite food. As for the Gubraithian fire, the quietly burning light blue flame awed them. At that moment, even the densest of the giants felt the power of magic from the flame...
They stared at the four people who entered their territory, with indescribable expressions on their faces.
Compared to the giants around him, Evan’s slim body was like that of a doll.
He had no doubt that if a huge fist was to hit him, it would definitely kill him.
These giants were war machines, terrible beasts born for warfare.
