Rhonda saw that the shadow was an ugly giant mutt.

It was all veiny muscles and stretched skin, the fur missing from its body. Its torso and shoulders were its widest and bulkiest portions as if it was in a constant state of flexing its front body while the back was slim and underdeveloped.

Then there was its face: a boxy head with mutilated ears, a flat, flabby muzzle, and wild, bloodshot eyes. Its teeth were big and terrifying; they could probably snap Rhonda’s arm off in one bite. Oh, and the monster was as quiet as a shadow, too.

It was a Lvl 25 Garmr Boss, and it had everything going for it based on its looks, being 15 levels above Rhonda, and its ability to move ultra stealthily. With that noted, it had two costly failings: it did not have Londa on its side, and it pissed off a hungry giantess.

So, when Rhonda faced around and threw her shot, she threw it with all her might. She threw it as if she expected the Administrator to be standing right behind her. She threw it like she was going to punch all the bad things tormenting her and obliterate them so she could go back to what was truly important in life⁠⁠—her comforts.

That was a tall order, so she took up the next best thing⁠—she buried her fist into Garmr’s nose. She heard and felt the nose sink into its face, the cartilage breaking, the top of its muzzle splintering. Then they reached a point where the face wouldn’t break any further.

The impactive energy of the pouncing boss caught mid-air by Rhonda’s counterattack rebounded. The shocking force traveled in the opposite directions.

Rhonda was forced to stagger backward, her punching arm windmilling from the sheer force of the fist-on-head collision. Opposite of her, Garmr’s forward momentum was stopped completely, its neck squished between its heavy body and its mashed up face.

It landed right in front of Rhonda, its legs wobbly, its head lolling side to side. It looked like it was trying to shake off being drunk on Rhonda’s punch.

Oh! Oh! You stunned it! Londa shrilled from her corner in Rhonda’s head, cheering. Rhonda, go, go, go! Unleash your beautiful beast, queen! Unleash your everything!

“Graaaahh!”

Rhonda bulldozed Garmr with furious haymakers thrown from every angle. There was no technique. There was no beauty to it⁠—unless the beauty was derived from her thunderous heart and boiling blood pumping every ounce of her rage into each blow. And with those blows, she was making a bloody pancake out of garmr’s face.

The boss enemy skittered backward, reeling from its daze and the push back from the giantess. Its claws scratched deep grooves into the stone floor before it started tripping backward up the pile of stones that lead into Rhonda’s self-made hole. It caught its balance before it fell back while still being clobbered into a forced-retreat. Blood, spit, and fangs flew in grisly arcs from Garmr’s whipped, squashed up face while Rhonda cut her knuckles on its teeth.

Rhonda, babe, I checked the system for you, and your fatigue is rising way fast! You need to finish this now!

Londa was right, but Rhonda was driving this fight in a singular direction on purpose. They were inside the room Rhonda had been napping in before Garmr came around to mess with her. Every time the boss teetered off to the side, she caught Garmr with a loopy hook to keep their course aligned, steering them.

It was a horribly tiring effort.

She knew it hadn’t been a full minute since the first punch and she was feeling gassed. Sweat poured down her body in rivulets, some of it getting into the corner of her eyes and stinging. She was working her arms with less snap and pop, arm-pushing more than flesh-pounding. She was also losing her balance going forward, her feet tripping over each other.

Yet, after all the work she had done, Garmr didn’t look like it was going to fall yet. Despite her efforts, it started to hold its ground, getting its paws underneath it to stand tall like a stout castle wall that endured all siege attempts. The situation looked like it would end with Garmr standing while Rhonda fell face-first from over-exhaustion.

Then it got even worse. Garmr reared its head back, opened its mangled maw, and revealed a red-orange light in the back of its throat. The light was super bright and warm compared to the moonlight from above. The skin on Rhonda’s face prickled from the sudden wave of heat emanating from Garmr’s mouth. It was like standing close to a…

Londa was screaming unintelligible gibberish, but Rhonda understood the warning from her other half anyway.

She ducked into a crouch underneath Garmr’s flaming breath. She clenched her jaw, covered her hair, and endured the skin on her back blistering from being near the blazing torrent. It sailed over and splashed, smoldered, and scorched the area behind her. The entire room lit up in bright orange and yellow, the illumination drawing a huge shadow of the mighty Garmr against the wall.

It also shone a light on Rhonda’s goal.

Oh, snap, that was your plan! Londa exclaimed.

Garmr’s flames eventually sputtered out. What remained was embers and wreathing trails of smoke rising from its maw. It stood in place, clearly unaware of Rhonda crouched right under its broken snout. The light from the flames and the steam and smoke rising was clouding its vision most likely.

Thus, it definitely didn’t see Rhonda’s tackle coming. The giantess unfurled with a lunge that clipped the boss’s legs with her shoulders. Then she straightened and drove a shoulder into the monster’s belly, her arms already in place to scoop it off its paws. It barked in surprise, squirmed in her hold, and tried to break free.

It was all futile.

Rhonda hoisted it with a death grip, jumped forward with her luggage, and corkscrewed into a fall toward the sinkhole formed earlier. Meanwhile, Londa sang:

Welcome to the Rhonda Hour!

What’s the special?

SUPLEX CITY BIISSH!

Rhonda body-slammed Garmr and made the sink-hole into a giant hole. They hurtled downward for a brief time. Then they struck a more solid surface, and she crushed Garmr underneath her body with a heavy, earth-shattering THOOOM!

The landing was jarring. It knocked what little air Rhonda had in her lungs out in a big whoosh. One of her knees was smarting really hard from meeting the next floor down wrong.

Her pain did not compare to how sorry Garmr looked. It was a muscular bag of blood and broken bones jutting through its flesh. Blood poured out of its maw in a heavy flow. It was dazed once again.

It still had fight in it. The boss thrashed, kicked, and snapped its jaw frantically. It smacked Rhonda with its paw and dragged ragged, painful rips across her cheek.

Rhonda was too exhausted to fight back. A darkening horizon was swallowing her vision. Still, she managed to catch the paw that smacked her.

“Thanks… for the meal.” She bit Garmr’s paw and ripped away with a portion of it. She crunched it up, swallowed, and dove for more as [Ravenous Insight] and [Healthy Eater] kicked in. Suddenly, Rhonda was filled with a second wind. She took full advantage of it as she chased after Gramr, who was trying to scramble away.

She mounted its back, hammer-fisted the back of its head until it collapsed again, and then dove for another bite. She ripped away a part of its face and chewed it up. Then she bit down again, seizing the side of its neck. The muscles there were tough, almost like fleshy metal, but Rhonda ripped away a piece anyway. Then she dove for the same spot⁠—like a mad dog snapping at the neck of her foe, ravaging it to death as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

At some point, it stopped being a fight. It became a buffet instead. Garmr laid still, a mess of broken bones, torn skin, and blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Rhonda reared backward while she remained saddled on her enemy’s corpse. In her fist was a bloody rib she tore out of its chest. She raised it to the air, her blood-smeared face upturned, as she let loose a wicked howl of laughter.

“Thanks for the meal!” She cackled.

Then she returned to the feast, the taste of her foe filling her with mind-spiraling ecstasy. The high of a victorious battle and the taste of her spoils was a river of pleasure coursing through her body.

This was such a huge, protein-rich meal, too. Rhonda knew the sleep that would come afterward would be glorious. And she was going to pleasure herself right before nappy time because she deserved it!

Rhonda, stop, something’s wrong.

Chomp. Rip. Tear. Gulp.

Rhonda, you need to stop! Something’s not right! You haven’t gotten any notifications that you’ve defeated the enemy. Please stop. Please.

“Shut up!” Rhonda roared at a random dark corner, blood and spit flying. “I don’t want to hear your sniveling while I feast!”

… No.

Rhonda froze. Was… was Londa defying her?

Yeah… I said it. And I’ll say it again if I have to because I’m falling in love with you, who is me, who is important to the both of us. I love you too much to… to not be brave. So I’m going to stand my ground when I say you need to stop… please.

Rhonda blinked. She was still high off of the victory and the taste of her enemy. Her skin was abuzz. She felt very hot and sweaty; her blood was on fire. Her heart was uproarious, and her mouth held a roiling sea of zesty flavors that was begging for more.

All she wanted was more.

But Londa’s opinion mattered.

Rhonda grunted as she pushed away from the meal. Tears were brimming in the corner of her eyes, but she got to her feet anyway. She heaved heavy, shaky breaths and ignored the pulsating ache at her temple.

Thank you, Rhonda, Londa said carefully. As I was saying. We weren’t given the notification that we defeated Garmr. I know you’re in the middle of eating its corpse, but doesn’t that strike you as weird?

Rhonda was looking everywhere else other than the corpse. She wanted⁠—no⁠—needed to eat Garmr. It was so hard to turn away from something she started, but she trusted Londa too much not to heed her warning. So, she looked around to see if anything was out of place with this new location under the manor proper.

With the little moonlight that had filtered through the hole above, she saw dozens of gleaming objects. A closer inspection told her they were weapons in their racks, and they shone as if the centuries that had passed hadn’t affected them.

Giant short swords. Giant great swords. Glaives, axes, hammers, shields. There were pelts and chainmail. There was fine clothing with intricate embroidery that glinted brightly under the faint moonlight. It was a giant’s armory, the last vestige of her dead parents.

And it was all a little too big for her. Made for giants that were a tad larger or smaller than 25 feet tall. She was still a child, a progeny, in comparison, even though she felt like a grown woman if only a young one.

She knew she had to be careful if she wanted the choice to grow further because Londa’s warning could mean the Administrator had another trick to play on them. This angered Rhonda.

“Vermin,” Rhonda spat. “I’m tired of your stupid games. End this now. I want to eat and sleep and be done with you.”

 

The Administrator: No.

 

Rhonda opened her mouth to ridicule the coward when she felt a ripping pain in her stomach. She screamed as the horrid pain felt like her insides were being sheared by blades coated in malicious fire. She fell on her knees, clutching her belly, screaming and screaming at the top of her lungs; the pain was so intense her vision was turning white.

And to make matters even crueler, Gramr’s corpse rose off the floor. It raised on its hind paws like a marionette being pulled up by invisible strings.

A violet light glowed through its eyes. Then the eyeballs smoldered, popped, and melted down around its squashed snout. Ghastly phantom light shone in the sockets⁠—right above a mutilated grin aimed down at the kneeling giantess.

 

The Administrator: Heh heh heh. You’re right where you should be, on your knees. The perfect position to beg for your miserable dumb life. Before you get rekt by Garmr’s Second Phase.