Humanity was powerful.
But humanity's strength lay in numbers. Alone, a human could easily be killed by many creatures in the natural world.
Ogres had always treated humans as food, but they also understood how terrifying humanity could be. Once exposed, even the strongest Ogre would struggle to withstand an army.
To Ogres, the so-called Ogre hunters were actually a line of defense.
When necessary, the Ogres could sacrifice one of their own and let the hunters complete their mission. That reassured most humans and lulled their leaders into believing everything was under control.
The Ogre looked down at Nameless and the others. "You're the cleverest Ogre hunters I've ever met. But clever people rarely live long. If you'd taken those fools' corpses, turned them in, and left town tomorrow, we all could have gone our separate ways. But you were too clever. Clever enough to... die!"
In an instant, the antenna on its forehead twitched, and a bolt of lightning shot toward the three of them.
A glint of gold flashed through Nameless's eyes. As the lightning approached, it swerved sharply, like a billiard ball striking a wall, and bounced straight back into the Ogre.
Though the Ogre could fire lightning, it clearly could not defend against it.
Strange as that was, it was the truth.
The lightning struck it. Its whole body convulsed, and it screamed in agony.
If the Ogre Nameless had killed earlier had a combat strength of one, this one had a strength of ten. An ordinary creature struck by its lightning would become a charred corpse in an instant.
It was not immune to lightning itself, but the strike only hurt it. When the searing pain passed, smoke rose from its body as it knelt on the ground, gasping for breath.
"What can your