Pudge

His eyesight was blurry as Otis waited for death, but then he heard loud 'thumps' that shook the ground. Then there was a loud grunt, followed by…

Boom!

The Ogre was suddenly thrown to the side, crashing into the wall with its huge body.

Otis' legs finally couldn't hold him any longer and he collapsed to the ground. The helmet fell off his head, revealing the face of a middle-aged man covered in blood. He quickly wiped his eyes and what he saw made his whole body shudder.

A giant was standing before him, brownish-gray and made of stone, more than three meters tall and extremely tough-looking.

Otis almost couldn't believe his eyes. 'I was saved?' he thought in disbelief. But then he remembered, "Ethan!" He crawled towards the unconscious child as fast as he could, leaving a trail of blood behind.

"Ethan!" He came to him and after seeing he was still breathing, he weakly collapsed beside him.

"He's going to be fine," Elly said and placed her hands on Otis, "Don't move, and don't resist." She started slowly healing his injuries.

"U-uncle?" Ethan quietly gasped, still half unconscious.

"Ssssh, sleep child, everything will be alright."

***

The stone giant ran towards the Ogre, building up a monstrous momentum. He gripped the monster's head and smashed his knee in its face.

The Ogre's nose was immediately crushed, and the beast roared while stumbling back, blood dripping from its face.

But the stone giant didn't give it a chance to recover. Fists the thickness of an elephant's leg rained punches on its body and each strike made the giant monster take a step back.

Bam, bam, bam, bam!

The pummeling strikes rained down on the beast, however, they didn't seem to do much damage.

Suddenly the Ogre stomped on the ground and steadied its balance, swinging the club at lightning speed and striking the stone giant.

Despite its size, the golem was blasted back as if it was a dry leaf in a wild storm, and broken stones trailed behind. It crashed into a building and almost collapsed it.

Where the club struck, an opening was created, revealing Gerald inside. His chest had some wounds from the strike, and he was bleeding, but it was not too bad.

However, he was pissed! Pain always made him angry for some weird reason. He took a handful of potions and drank them one after the other before discarding the vials and standing back up.

The stones covering his left hand shifted to his chest and covered the gaping hole while also revealing the silver cannon beneath. He started walking forward with the barrel pointing at the Ogre. Then the firing started.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each time the cannon fired, a small puff of blood erupted on the Ogre's skin.

"He's doing it!" one of the warriors observing the fight shouted in elation. His teammates, however, didn't agree.

"No, it might look like it's hurting it, but look! It's barely flinching. It's just making it mad instead!"

And indeed, the cannonballs that could usually tear other monsters apart as if they were made of wet paper, were as if a human getting fired upon with birdshot... One grain at a time.

Gerald was fully concentrated, but even then he could only shoot twice each second! It was completely inadequate.

"Come on, just die already! Stupid Ogre!" another one shouted.

But the giant monster didn't seem to like what the warriors around it were saying, and instead bellowed in rage. Gerald could see the Mana inside it surging, and soon it formed a thick layer at the surface of its skin.

That's also when the sounds of collisions changed.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

"Fuck! You got to be kidding me!" Gerald cursed and stopped firing. The cannonballs were simply bouncing off among a sea of sparks. The skin of the Ogre became like the advanced armor of a modern tank! Now way his primitive cannon could break through!

He had no choice but to try another approach. There was one way he knew would work for sure, but it would be time-consuming and could possibly turn bad in a heartbeat.

Gesturing towards some rubble, a bunch of stones flew to him, covering his cannon and shaping itself into a new hand. Then what Gerald feared most would happen, happened. A bunch of Orcs and Hobgoblins came over the wall, quickly approaching the two giants on the battlefield.

"Damn it, stand back you filthy beasts!" Gerald stomped on the ground in anger, and three Orcs were instantly impaled by lightning-fast spikes rising from the ground. But that did nothing to stop the rest.

Splat!

"Huh?"

The Ogre actually smashed a Hobgoblin as it came running past, and every other beast near it froze in that instant.

"Stand back!" the Ogre roared in its native tongue. "This human is mine!"

The Orcs didn't dare to retort and immediately turned around and left to attack elsewhere. A hundred meters around Gerald and the Ogre was clear of any weaker monsters now. Somewhat like a safe zone.

That included Gerald's friends, some warriors, and a few soldiers. They were all safe for the moment. The few wounded around were also dragged there since that was the case. A few stone walls were also quickly erected to give them some protection.

"It's only you and me now, Shrek. Though I must say, you look way uglier in real life," Gerald snickered and gestured the pudgy Ogre to attack.