Getting up from the ground Vaikus let up the peasant from the ground. Eyes cold as ice, his spear ready for any hint of aggression.

Well, that shortens my selection a bit. Still. What kind of idiot doesn’t study his opponent? Should have killed him. Whatever I’ll spare his life only to give face to Urist and Ubel. Next time though I’m gonna kill him, now where was I? Oh the hunting, now that those greenhorns are out for the next few hours. I guess I’ll do a little hunting to shake off the rust.

Taking a deep sniff in the air Vaikus took a moment to sort out the scents before deciding on one. Without much hesitation, he began traveling east to the familiar scent of a beast he had the rare chance of hunting.

Without many challenges, he passed by the greenhorns that had just headed out without any notice like a ghost soundlessly running through the forest. Eyes searching, breath leveled, movements natural. As he moved he almost seemed like more of an animal then a dwarf as he tracked his prey.

It didn’t take for him to come to a small hill in the middle of the forest to make him stop and observe. The hill had a walnut tree growing on top of it with a cave on the side. Littering the surrounding area the corpses of picked clean animals littered the area like a barnyard.

Taking another deep sniff of the air the usual calm facade that Vaikus kept slowly crept up into a smile. He could smell the rot of flesh and the smell of a powerful beast marking its territory with shit.

How long has it been since I’ve killed one of your kind? How long have I been asleep? How did I die? Questions I don’t have answers for.

But...

Sticking his spear into the ground Valkus pulled out his short bow and knocked back an arrow and held two in his fingertips.

Receive my challenge beast of brown so that I may feast and live another day.

When that thought ended Valkus let his arrow fly one after another in quick succession shooting one arrow per second. The first arrow agitated the beast, the second brought forth it’s anger, and the final had caused the earth to be unleashed. With a roar that shook the cave, the beast sallied out of its den to devour the intruder who had caused it pain.

Putting his bow back Valkus grabbed his spear and took a deep breath as the large brown animal stood on its hind legs and roared.

You’re a pretty big bastard for a brown bear, aren’t you? I’m gonna enjoy eating your feet and wearing your skin like a coat.

“Kill. KILLLLLLLLL!”

“RAWRRRRRRRR!”

…

As Vaikus challenged a king of the forest the dwarfs were currently trying to meet Vaikus’s vague requirements to the best of their ability. Some of them had chosen to go solo to rely on themselves while others had grouped up.

Reaver had two following her the earth mage Brick and Emu. They decided to group up since Vaikus had never said anything about hunting solo. The team headed north into uncharted lands using Reaver’s tigers to smell the air and with there eyes to track making good ground.

It wasn’t even ten minutes past that a beast's roar resounded through the forest behind them.

“Hey, you guys wanna hunt that?”

“I rather kill something tamer.”

“Same, when we get more experience we can do that.”

“OK. Let's just keep going then.”

Making their agreement the three kept moving towards the tracks that seemed to be traveling in a pack. A quarter of an hour later they spotted their quarry which Reaver judged after studying them for a bit to be a pack of water deer.

Although she knew that they weren’t dangerous from the stories the other dwarfs told she heard from Urist that they could run fast and be difficult to catch. It only took her a few moments to come up with a plan of attack.

“Brick when we get close cut off there a path of escape, Emu as we approach I want you to erase our sound and sent. We will then kill three deer and let the rest of the pack run. Is that acceptable”

Brick stroked his beard, "Why not kill more? With our power, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Do you have a way to store or carry that many corpses?”

“No.”

“Then waste not want not. When you guys are ready we attack.”

“Ready any time big sis.”

“Good to go as well.”

Eyes flashing blue fire Reaver walked forward with confidence. “Then let’s go earn our keep.”

…

Breathing softly Vaikus kept dodging the bears swipes as big as his head by mere inches. Although the bear head dozens of spear wounds it had tons of spirit to keep going froth in an attempt to kill the ant that was half its size.

Ya, a strong bastard aren’t you. But in the end, I’ll kill you the same as your predecessor. Thanks for not being different.

Without hesitation, he threw away his spear for he knew that such a weakly built spear would not penetrate the fat and thickly muscled bear. This action caused the bear to dash into the new defenseless dwarf thanks to it losing that dastardly pointed weapon.

He would tackle this bastard and tear his throat out. Were the thoughts of the bear.

Vaikus only smiled as the distance closed remembering a memory of his mother.

Remember son, many people think that you can’t strangle a bear to death. Most are right that normal humans, elves, and dwarfs just don’t have the power.

With a wild smile plastered across his face, Vaikus charged at the bear headstrong. When the two were about to impact one another he jumped and grabbed the bears' head hair, flipping himself on the bears back. Like a snake, he wrapped his arms around the bear's throat at the memory kept playing.

They say that only beastkin can do such a feat.

He began to pull hard tightening his stranglehold of the pissed-off bear who kept running who decided to use the trees to kick off the hateful ant.

But they are wrong, for even if we are dwarven we have the bloodline of him.

Shifting his weight as not to be impacted by the trees, Valkus kept putting more and more power into his stranglehold, he could feel the bear weakening as time passed on. Feeling death close the bear decided one last-ditch attempt at life. Standing up on its hind legs it became resolute and tried to fall back. With its immense weight if the bear fell on him there would be no doubt that he would break many bones.

But Valkus snorted at the thought of running, It’s about time I end this.

His arm muscles tightened like iron fibers banded together and with a shift movement with his hands, a loud crack could be heard. Without much suspense, Vaikus let go and moved to the side to watch the towering bear fall to the ground unmoving. His wild smile had become faint as the memory started to fade away.

So go out into the forest and only come back once you brought back a bear choked to death.

Looking towards the testing ground Vaikus began to wonder. I wonder if I’ll see you once again in this world mother.

If so.

Let’s hunt together once more.