Karl grabbed the mages, one under each arm, while Doug jumped on Thor's back as they leapt from the vehicle, right into a grassy clearing, where they could see the Giants approaching.

Doug hopped off Thor's back, and the Cerro spun around to smash an Earthquake with his tail, causing the giants to stumble, while the mages called out the Golems and erected barriers over the group, Thor and Rae included.

Rae darted into the trees, moving to flank the attackers, while Karl threw a flurry of Rend attacks at the slowed Giants, and Bob created a circle of light around them that caused the Giants' skin to bubble as if burned when they entered.

He took the brunt of the first attack with his shield, nearly knocked to his knees, while Thor was slid backward as he parried with his upper horns.

But then Rae was on the giant attacking Bob, clinging to his back and tearing out his throat with [Lacerate] before fleeing from any retaliation by the other monsters.

The giant dropped his club to hold his throat, trying to keep the blood inside until he could heal, but that left his stomach open to Bob's counterattack, which tore apart his lower belly.

The Wood Golems moved up to join the fight, and Karl watched as the helicopter faded out of sight.

That should be far enough that anything wanting to chase it was already gone, so he called on Hawk, and used [Shred] to deflect and slow the attacks of the giants.

It was more effective than trying to cut through their thick hide, as his personal attack power was a bit lacking, but with Hawk on the scene, that was about to change.

Fireballs flew from the enraged bird into the small group of Hill Giants, blinding them and burning their faces, so they were defenceless as [Shred] and Rae's [Lacerate] came for their necks and knees.

Cutting the tendons in the leg joints caused the Giants to crumble down to a manageable height, and would prevent them from fleeing, while the exposed throats were a perennial favourite target of Hawk's.

There was more crashing in the trees coming from behind them, and Karl turned to see a two-headed Ogre coming their way.

"Shit, I think that we found the Ettin Mage." He called.

Doug looked back for an instant and frowned. "Take care of it. That's not the one they warned us about, it's not even full-grown yet."

It was four metres tall, what did the cleric mean it wasn't full-grown?

But Karl turned to face it, using Rend to deflect its first attack over his head, and then the attacks from the second hand cut deeply into its side.

Doug was right, this was an Awakened Rank beast. The skill had left it bleeding and gasping for breath through a collapsed lung, until Rae made her way over and claimed the heads as a trophy.

[Colonel lady wanted heads.] She reminded Karl with a smug sense of victory in her mind.

[Good job. Now, help Thor before someone breaks his scales.]

That was unlikely to happen, the Giants hadn't broken the barrier over him yet, but the twins were looking tired from the mana they were using to keep the barriers and Golems active as the Giants smashed them apart.

Bob had taken another down, and Doug had cast a spell over Thor that made him glow with golden light. The warrior's next attack shattered the knee of a Giant, and then the ball of Thor's tail flattened the creature's face as it tumbled to the ground.

That left only two of the creatures, which were surrounded by the Golems, and desperately trying to keep Hawk and Rae away with wide sweeps of their clubs.

It was a losing battle, and with a solid kick from a golem, the two Giants collided, and their timing was thrown off enough to allow the beasts to finish them off.

Hawk landed in a nearby tree, and Rae skittered over to Thor to drape herself over his back for support as she caught her breath.

"Well, that sucked about as much as I had expected. Seven Ascended Hill Giants and one Awakened Ettin Mage, was it? I see that you've already collected the heads, but we can loot the others once we have had a chance to get our bearings." Bob announced.

Karl was about to sit down, but a shiny rock in the hand of the Ettin mage caught his attention.

He pulled the massive fingers apart and found a wand with a large ruby on top clutched securely in its palm. It looked to be very well-made, but he couldn't read any of the lettering on it.

"Ladies, I have found a wand. Take a look and see if it's any good for you." He offered as he finally managed to remove it from the death grip of the Ettin.

There was a pouch full of coins and rocks at its waist, but nothing else of use. Still, it was a wand, and that was better than anything else they'd found so far.

Danni passed it to Donni, who was better with barriers, and she carefully examined the inscriptions.

"Now this is a find. It's a wand of Fireball. It has limited uses, but it is rechargeable. Think of it like prepaid magic." She explained.

Rae pulled the Ettin's body into her space and strung it up in a web for later, while the rest of the group began to disperse and check the bodies of the Giants.

"We're in the loot now, boys." Doug laughed a few seconds later.

He had pulled a bag from a Giant's waist, revealing a large amount of gold in the form of crude coins, as well as a magical dagger, that would be a proper sword in the hands of a human. Meanwhile, Bob had removed two magical rings from the Giants, and a pair of gauntlets that no human could wear.

The mages were the only ones who could properly identify the items, as they were the only ones who could read the language of the inscriptions, but anyone could sense that they were magical items.

Thor was uninterested in the majority of the loot, but there was a spiked helmet on one of the Hill Giant's heads that he was staring at with longing.

"Is the helmet magical?" Karl asked.

"It is, but it's huge. Unless we need a new cook pot, it would be a real pain to try to bring it with us." Doug replied.

[I want it.] Thor insisted.

Karl walked over, and intending to humour his Cerro, he removed the helmet from the Giant's head.

Thor thumped his tail down into the helmet and gave a soft bugle of joy as the impact seemed to mould it around the ball of his tail. A half dozen more hits, turning his tail as he did, and now his spiked tail had spiked metal armour around it.

"Well, that's one way to do it." Bob laughed.

"If it makes him happy, armour is armour." Doug agreed.

[Metal smashing tool.] Thor declared.

Karl continued to search the bodies, piling up the gold and gems that they were carrying. It would be split between the group members when they finished the mission, and ten kilos of gold was no laughing matter. You could buy a very nice house in the city, or three in a town like Karl grew up in with that much gold, and that didn't even count the gems.

If they were going to keep sending him on missions with rewards this good, Karl wasn't going to complain at all about being asked to fight.

With the rest of the loot sorted, Karl picked up the metal gauntlets that one of the Giants had been wearing. He was admiring the craftsmanship when Doug came over and pointed to the inscription on the cuff.

"Gauntlets of Bestial Strength. That's why that first attacker hit Bob so hard it nearly folded him." He explained.

Karl stuck his hand inside, wondering what it took to activate the ability.

Then, with a flash of golden light, the gauntlet shrunk, and the second one appeared on Karl's other hand, perfectly sized to his body.

"What was that? How did you do that?" Doug gasped.

Karl could only give him a confused look, and marvel at the power that he could feel flowing from him to his pets through the gauntlets. His own strength felt massively improved, but the effect wasn't just on him, it was increasing the strength of his partners as well.

"Well, I guess I'm keeping these. You can take it out of my share." Karl laughed in delight as the feeling of overwhelming power flowed through him.