I flew forward as the airbag-like response of my cloak flung me away from the impact of whatever had struck me in the back. The cloak didn't help as much with the impact of my face smacking the ground, but I was thankful for the help with the first hit.

Pips had jumped from my shoulder on impact and had suffered no damage. He ran over to where I was lying on the ground and patted the back of my head to get my attention. I turned toward him oddly glad that he wasn't hurt. Maybe it was because he seemed so defenseless. He was standing there cutely and rapidly pointing towards where the blow came from.

I got to my feet and looked over and sure enough, there was a large rock sitting on the path where I had been hit. Who could throw a fifty-pound rock that hard? Then I saw it. A massive humanoid creature. It looked like a nine-foot-tall world's strongest man contestant fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. The face wasn't quite human. It was almost more of a child's drawing of a human where the features are too big for the face.

"Run," I said to the squirrel who I could've sworn had put itself between the hulking monster and myself.

Pips looked back at me resolutely.

"Run," I said again with a bit more desperation in my voice. I really didn't want anything bad to happen to the little guy. He seemed to listen this time and scurried up a nearby tree to safety.

I scrambled to my feet and focused all of my attention on the new threat. That was when the smell hit me. I don't know what this enemy was called yet, but I knew it stank like the dickens.

"I don't want to hurt you," I said to the creature loud enough for him to hear. He responded with a bellow of laughter.

"Food no hurt. Me hurt food," it said with another chuckle.

I thought of my good bow and arrow and fired an arrow piercing shot dead center into the monster who had just called me food. It barely penetrated its thick skin and was brushed off like it was a splinter.

"See?" he said with another laugh.

I put my bow away and moved on to plan b.

"Want to see a magic trick?" I said halting his forward motion. It was almost as if this thing wasn't smart enough to walk and talk at the same time. "That's right. Who doesn't like dinner and a show?"

"Show me trick," he said with a clap. Thank goodness that worked.

I held a waterball spell in my hands until it had reached beachball size and released. It went hurtling towards its intended target and splashed harmlessly against the monster. This was the intended purpose besides helping with the stench.

The monster seemed to love the waterball magic.

"Again, again," he said with a grotesque smile and a hearty clap of his massive hands.

I fired off a few more of the waterballs. Besides helping with the smell it also soaked him and left a good amount of water on the ground around him.

"Now for another trick," I said trying to match the glee on the monster's face. I held my spell of frost for an extended time. I held for as long as possible before the thing became impatient and fired it towards him.

Ice spread from the point of impact until the water that covered the monster and all the water underneath him was frozen solid.

The thin layer of ice on him was only enough to make him angry and he was able to free his partially stuck feet fairly easily. He smiled at me and started walking towards me.

"That good trick," he said with a grin. "Now I eat."

I instinctively started backing up as he approached, but then I heard Gwen whinny with fear. I looked at the monster hoping he would ignore the horse, but had already veered off from me slightly to investigate.

"Horse my favorite! So much meat," he said as he neared their hiding spot.

I did the only thing I could think to do to save them. Something stupid. I shot a fireball scroll towards the back of his head with no step two to the plan. It hit him squarely in the back of the noggin and he was enraged. He turned to face me and looked like all the blood vessels in his face were about to pop.

"You first," he said as he stomped towards me yet again.

As I had no other ideas at the time I began to run. I zipped in and out of the tree line and was fast enough that the monster's slow attacks couldn't quite hit me. I desperately looked around hoping that a plan would materialize but no such luck. The more panicked I became the more careless and something that had slipped my mind gave me a painful reminder.

I stepped on the edge of the large patch of ice that remained in the center of the fairly smooth cart path. I introduced my face to the ground and it was a bittersweet meet-cute. Bitter because of the pain in my face region, but sweet because I was able to practice my healing magic.

I turned over still dazed from the slip and fall. The grotesque man-beast was standing right behind me with his arms raised to deliver a killing blow. I tensed my whole body, closed my eyes tight, and waited for the blinding light that accompanied my demise.

Instead, I heard a guttural yell of pain. I focused in the direction of the sound and saw Pips clawing at the monster's eyes and face. He was too quick for any of the defensive strikes to land. He had saved my life.

"Get back to the trees," I yelled up to Pips as he continued angrily scratching at the brute. He jumped from the wrecked face of our enemy and scurried up a nearby tree. If I wasn't absolutely terrified of his ferocity I might continue to call Pips adorable.

A plan materialized and as it was all I had at the moment, I trusted my gut. I threw a good-sized rock into a bush to lure the monster away and give me time to set up my plan.

It worked and he went to investigate the noise.

I quietly started work on phase two of operation: the bigger they are. I silently worked my way to the opposite edge of the ice patch from the enemy. I brought every short and long sword out of my inventory one at a time. When I summoned them I made sure that my hand was right next to the ground so that when each blade materialized it was buried to the hilt in the ground with the stabby end skyward. I did this over and over again until I was out of swords. The final piece of the puzzle was to summon my trusty iron spear to where it had a few feet including its razor-sharp tip sticking up towards the center of the ouchie zone of death.

He really wasn't too sharp and was still looking for me around the bush where I had thrown the rock. His rustling covered any noise I made nicely. I was even able to use some magic to slick the ice and make sure the blades were all frozen in place. It was time for the scariest part of the plan.

"Hey, dummy, help me out. Are you uglier than you are stupid? Or are you stupider than you are ugly?" I asked as rudely as possible.

Enraged he turned and blindly ran towards me. Just as planned he slipped on the ice and fell directly onto greater than fifty percent of the miscellaneous weaponry. The fight was over in an instant and I got an XP notification.

"I can't believe that worked," I said standing in amazement at the hulking beast in front of me.

"It's safe. He's neutralized." I said loud enough for Gwen and Jen to hear. Jen started to lead her horse and cart back onto the main road and came over for a look at my disgusting and smelly prize.

"Can we head out pretty soon?" Jen said covering her nose with a cloth in her hand. "The smell is terrible."

Pips ran over and climbed up to his assigned shoulder.

"Thanks, Pips. You saved my life," I said sincerely to the little guy. It was slightly more disconcerting having him an inch from my cheek after I knew what he could do to a face.

Mae flew out of the forest and gave her tiny hands a clap of approval.

"Great job, Teddy. You killed your first ogre," she said landing on her assigned shoulder.

At least I knew what I had faced now although I had no intention of fighting another one anytime soon.

I looted the ogre and found a rare quality ring and nothing else. It was a worthy prize. The ring resized itself as I slid it on my finger to test its magic. I stood still for a few seconds and started blending in with my surroundings. If you didn't know I was there you may have missed me. I read its description in my inventory.

Ring of Blending (Rare)

Standing mostly still for ten seconds allows a thin shield of magic to obscure you in any environment. Costs 1 MP per second used to maintain the blending effect. The wearer can mentally choose to stop the effect at any time.

I practiced using the ring and it was amazingly intuitive like most things in this place.

"Either that guy didn't have MP or he was too stupid to use this ring effectively," I said to whoever was listening. "Let's get moving."

I didn't want to think about how close Jen and Gwen were to danger but I couldn't help it. I could see the fear and doubt in Jen's eyes.

"Jen," I said getting her attention, "I will get you back to your parents safely."

She smiled and gave me a look of appreciation. The smile sent a fresh pang of guilt through me but I tried to stay focused on the task at hand.

"My attack squirrel and I are ready for anything."