The orc gave enough ground to immediately reassess the situation and wasted no time in bearing down on Gregory once again. Rushing back toward his weapon, Gregory rolled over the club and emerged in a crouch with it back in his hands. Yet the time it had taken had been sacrificed to Ulf who was now upon him and forcing him to fight in a way that he wasn’t used to. The clubs in Ulf’s hands were swung with precision and the blows that followed were barely fended off.


    Gregory tried to parry one of the attacks with his own weapon but found even Ulf, who didn’t quite have the size or bulk of his brothers, was far too strong to stop with such a manoeuvre. The attempt caused the club to sail from Gregory’s hand and fall to the ground far out of reach, making him rely solely upon dodging. This was somewhat easier than it should have been, as despite Ulf’s talent with the clubs, they were still unbnced weapons and couldn’t adjust their arc in mid-swing.


    It was the sudden kick from the orc to Gregory’s calf that finally gave Ulf the advantage and allowed one of those blows to connect. The young human felt the club smash across the side of his face and sent him immediately crumpling to the ground. He felt like he’d just offered his jaw to a charging rhino and the entire right side of his face felt like it was on fire. Blood was felt rising inside his mouth and he spat it out, only to be a good deal more worried when he saw a couple of his teethnd in the pool of blood he’d made in the dirt.


    “Enough!” The elder orc had evidently emerged from his tent upon hearing the cheers of the human getting pounded into the ground.


    “Master g!” Ulf quickly turned to face the master of the proving grounds and fell to one knee whilst resting his clubs upon the ground.


    “Ulf! You think it honourable to face a human?” Clearly, g was not impressed.


    “Master, you taught us never to bow to…”


    “A challenge.” g finished, though he didn’t seem to be putting much stock in his own words just then. “Very well, young pup. Since you have faced the human then you shall keep him. He will join you with the rest of your Runts.”


    Gregory might have found this news to be curious if he’d been able to hear anything over the ringing that Ulf had left in his ears. He was getting slightly worried that the world was refusing toe into focus properly.


    “Pups! Form up for pack skirmishes!” g barked out the order and the orcs roared their approval. All except for Ulf, who was staring at g with a look of horrified disbelief.Belongs to N?velDrama.Org - All rights reserved.


    Gregory tried to push himself up with his arms but grew nauseous around the half way mark and abruptly vomited more blood onto the ground. Suddenly d he’d skipped breakfast, he reached down and found the anger that had brought him there in the first ce to start burning through it like fuel. nting his fists in the ground again, he pushed himself up to his feet and found himselfing face to face with Ulf, who reached out to grasp Gregory’s shoulder and firmly steady him on his feet.


    “Frun! Bring a bracer for him!” Ulf shouted to the small group he’d been seated with. The order got one of therger males seated there to stand and lumber off to the weapon racks to grab Gregory one of the smaller chest-pieces beforeing over to help the young human fix it into ce. Even as he felt his right eye swell over, he glimpsed the orc look to Ulf with an expression that clearly meant you can’t be serious.


    “Human! Look at me.” Ulf grabbed the front of the bracer once it was fixed around Gregory’s bare chest and hoisted him forwards to bring them to eye level with each other. “You are part of the pack now, yes?”


    As Ulf spoke, the rest of those few orcs that had been eating away from the others had stood up to walk before them. Was one of them missing an arm? That couldn’t have been good news.


    “Whaddoo I do?” Gregory found it difficult to voice the question as he was having more trouble not falling over just then.


    “You stay behind me.”


    “Noproblemo!” With that, Gregory turned his back to Ulf and raised his mitts at nothing in particr.


    Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Ulf let out a low grunt instead and pulled Gregory backwards to fall into step with the rest of the pack as they moved to the arenas wherein the future war packs fought each other for dominance. The arenas themselves were little more than pits of stone that orcs could view from several rows of seats above. There were five of them in all and Ulf was leading them with the other groups of orcs that had formed in the wake of g’s order.


    “First match! Runts to take on Berserkers!”


    “What!?” This time, Ulf couldn’t hold back his incredulity.


    “You heard, Ulf. Let’s see how your human fares.”


    Something told Gregory that matters had not improved and he felt his face had swollen horribly along its right side. Pain was the only thing keeping him awake then, until he saw the six orcs that the Runts were going to face. Then fear leapfrogged pain in capturing his attention.


    The six orcs that emerged to make their way down into the arena were all testaments to how physically overwhelming their species could be. All were young, just like them, but some members of the Berserker pack were already towering over a good many of their peers. Gregory recognised the one that hadughed at him amongst their ranks, no, leading their ranks. Four of them carried twin clubs in each hand with the other two hulking brutes carrying what looked to be like uprooted tree trunks.


    He got the feeling that the blow to his head might not be his biggest problem of the day.


    Inparison, he looked over the orcs that had fallen in line with Ulf. There were two women, one was strong and had a figure much like Algra’s lean and muscr visage, albeit slightly more slender and younger. Her hair was tied up in intricate braids, unlike the rest of the pups he’d seen who went mostly bald or with very simple ponytails to keep their hair from their faces. The other female was much more slim with a body almost like a gymnast and, like Gregory, carried only one of the single-handed clubs. Although she seemed much morefortable with it in her hands than he did.


    Then there was Ulf, of course, who was well built but not as bulky by far as the orcs they faced. He was looking out over them as if trying to formte a n of attack and finding himself woefully outmatched. Yet there was no fear there, only frustration. Beside Ulf, there was a stockier male who carried one of the single clubs in both his hands and looked as if he could do some damage, though he was quite a bit shorter than the rest of them and somewhat short for an orc in general.


    The final two were an odd pairing as one was downright wiry inparison to the usual orcish muscr builds. Gregory could see the lines of his bones beneath his green skin and he seemed to be carrying a pair of much smaller clubs that looked almost like batons rather than the awkwardly weighted monstrosities that the rest of his kin favoured. He was looking at Gregory and offered a rather wry little smirk at him when he met his gaze. Was something funny? The world was still too shaky for the young human to know.