As the silhouettes entered the valley, Mike produced the two steel axes from his spatial storage back and waited patiently. When the villagers were just ten feet in front of his elevated position, he threw the axes in quick succession, then proceeded to launch himself from the 10 foot ridge and into the midst of the attackers. Time seemed to slow as his feet left the ground, and he reviewed his quickly devised plan:

Step 1: Quickly take out Igor and Fen. Fen was too fast to deal with while also trying to fight others, and Igor’s lightning fell into that same category.

Step 2: Quickly kill off everyone other than Jake the Giant, who had amped up his sturdiness with a full set of plate mail, and would need some additional TLC. He wasn’t worried about Bart, who was just a conniving ferret. Mike wasn’t sure what talents the fifth member of their previous party had or even what he looked like for that matter, having inadvertently obliterated his body as he sailed through the air during their previous encounter.

Step 3: Make sure to finish off three other opponents with a thrown ax. This complicated the scenario, but he was only 3 kills shy of getting his Ax Throwing skill to level 3, at which point he should get another Skill Ability based off of everything he had experienced thus far.

Step 4: Loot the bodies. Maybe they would have another spatial storage bag on them, which would be great, but at the very least, their metal weapons could help him make more axes.

Step 5: Go get some food. Over the last few days while he had trained, he had been living off of food that he had taken from the garden and put in his storage bag, and he needed some meat in his diet.

Time returned to normal, and a rebounding ax flew streaked towards his position even as gravity began dragging his leaping body towards the earth. The returning projectile was on course to hit the tree he had positioned behind himself before starting his attack. The other ax was just a split second behind it, following the same course back to his original position. Ducking his head, he evaded the first ax, and even as he prepared himself to dodge the second, his adrenaline fueled hand reached out and plucked it out of the air, accomplishing what he had been unable to do during training.

His mouth was set in a satisfied grin as he landed with a thud and stormed the small crowd, whose faces were still gaping at the fallen body of Fen near the front of their party. They had not yet realized that Igor had met the same fate in their rear. Capitalizing on their shock, Mike pushed forward on the balls of his feet, flying past the first man and casually flicking out his ax to swipe through his jugular. His feet barely touched down before he surged onward, his Strength enhanced body arcing five feet through the air as he sailed towards his next victim, a smallish man who was still trying to process Mike’s inhuman capabilities. His mouth was still open in a dumbfounded gape when his life ended.

Mike stoically took the ax’s rebound to his chest, before he pivoted towards the next closest man, who happened to be Bart. The shopkeeper was already backing up in fear, and upon seeing the green eyes filled with malice, his heart failed him and he turned to run.

Sensing impending pain near his upper back, Mike threw the ax in his hand at the fleeing Bart and quickly threw his body into a barrel roll, dodging the rebounding ax to finish the threat from behind while also earning another point towards his Dodge skill. Such a feat of acrobatics would have been impossible for him, even at the prime of his younger years, but it was barely a strain for his enhanced body.

The freedom with which he moved momentarily distracted him, and if the maneuver had initially been impressive, his landing was less than perfect. The ground beneath him was uneven, and he stumbled forward. In such a vulnerable position, he was unable to do anything about the pain he sensed heading for his thigh. A split second later, an arrow pierced him, the iron head managing to submerge itself fully before his high Toughness score prevented it from continuing any further. The pain was excruciating, but he broke off the shaft, before his rage-fueled arms grabbed the body of the fallen man next to him and threw it at the archer. A loud crunch confirmed the kill a split second later, but Mike had already moved on.

Materializing his two iron axes from his spatial storage bag, he turned towards the remaining men and watched, completely dumbstruck, as Jake and the other two enemies charged him. There was no way they felt confident killing him after watching him decimate 7 of their friends, right? Was it the reward promised by the System that made them charge him with no thought of their own lives? Deciding that he didn’t really care about their reasons, he pivoted to avoid a thrust from a spear, then speed-limped sideways up the length of the shaft and struck the spear wielder in the chest.

Looping his arm around the shaft of the spear, an ax still in each hand, he angled the spear towards his 5 o’clock, where a flash of phantom pain warned him the next attack would come from. The warning dissipated amidst a gurgling scream, which testified that the spear had struck home.

Jake lumbered towards him, only five feet away, and Mike sighed in exasperation. He would have to finish off the giant with a thrown ax if he wanted to level up his Ax Throwing skill, which was decidedly harder to do when the target was covered in plate mail.

This wasn’t how I planned things to go. He thought to himself, even as he threw the ax in his right hand straight at the chest plate of Jake’s armor.

He was shocked, when what was meant to be a distraction ended the giant's life. The ax head struck the plate mail with explosive force, and pieces of it shot in every direction. The largest of which flew up into the underside of Jake’s unprotected chin and ended his life.

Stunned at the turn of events, Mike was not expecting the ax handle, topped with a few lumpy pieces of metal to rebound, and he barely managed to turn his neck at the last second, saving his eye, but taking a forceful blow to the side of his head.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

It had taken a while, after likely receiving a concussion from the force of that broken ax rebound, but Mike had eventually collected all the loot from the downed bodies. The bounty was somewhat lacking, consisting of a sturdy bow and some arrows, some more steel swords, and all the plate mail from Jake’s body.

As he had stumbled about between the bodies, he had come across the remains of the broken ax handle. Somehow, his bleary thoughts identified the obliterated tool as the perfect equipment for skill advancement, and he stowed it in his spatial storage bag for a later date.

Once all of the loot had been collected, he sat down to review his notifications:

[Congratulations! Branching skill unlocked, Body Throwing!

+3 Strength

Would you like to replace your current Ax Throwing skill? y/n]

Was the System just messing with him now? Maybe there had once been some kind of evil warlord on a distant planet that had thrown bodies instead of normal weapons, but the impracticality and grotesqueness of the skill made him immediately throw it out as a viable option for himself and move on to the next notification:

[Congratulations! You have leveled up the skill Ax Throwing.

+1 to Strength and Dexterity.

+30% to accuracy and distance when thrown ]

[Congratulations! New skill ability unlocked: True Shot

Once every five throws, your ax will have 50% increased range and penetrate armor]

He was slightly disappointed, as True Shot seemed less amazing than his other skill abilities. He couldn’t deny that it would have come in handy when facing down Jake in the last fight, so he didn’t discount it completely. It was unlikely to be the focus of his training though in the future. He would prefer to simply throw the axes harder.

His notifications completed, he turned his attention to the throbbing pain in his thigh. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time he had had to pull an arrowhead out of a wound, but it was the first time he had to do it to himself. The process was painful, which meant that it was pretty similar to the majority of his existence over the past few weeks. Once the process was completed, he stood and made his way back towards the hobgoblins.

Though he had pulled the arrowhead out of his leg, there was nothing he could do for his torn thigh muscle. Though this increased both the pain and duration of his march, it wasn’t wasn’t the driving factor for the grim set of his mouth. That stemmed from a far worse realization that had come to him as he hobbled along: He would be in no position to hunt meat until his leg healed up.

I deserve a roast after today! He screamed internally as he continued to forward through the darkened valley.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

The camp was bustling with activity as he approached, the noise and the light from a large bonfire reaching his position long before he could actually see any of the hobgoblins. The throng quieted as he limped from the tree line, his bloody and torn clothes exposing the mottled blue and black bruises from his days of training and a large bump on his head from where his rebounding ax had hit him.

“Big Bossy Boss” the hobgoblins intoned in unison, earning only a grunt in response.

Sitting down to rest, Mike was surprised when a small hobgoblin brought him some garden vegetables, which he silently ate in resignation, the fibrous food doing little to satiate the energy he had expended. Deciding he couldn’t wait any longer to hunt, he used Hands of Healing on the wound and promptly passed out.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

“Meat!” his stomach roared into the darkness, rousing Mike around 3 AM, and taking him from dreaming to completely awake in the time it took for his eyes to open. Relieved that the noise wasn’t an indication of the camp being attacked, he stared up at the nighttime sky above him.

When his stomach made its loud displeasure known for the second time, he decided that he needed to feed the angry beast before he began experimenting with hobgoblin flank steaks. Grabbing a few veggies, he made his way out of the valley. His Dexterity enabled him to ghost through the mountain pines without any trace of his passing, and he marveled once again that a wound like his damaged thigh muscle could be healed so completely in such a short span of time. The changes of the System went deeper than that though, as evidenced by the way his body continued to adapt to the constant torture he put himself through. Many of his bruises had disappeared, though less than a day old, even though he hadn’t done anything to directly heal them.

Only an hour after setting out, his swift pace had taken him out of the foothills entirely and he found himself stalking through the high hill grass, straining to see the slightest indication of any four-legged food group. He was hoping for some venison, but was willing to gorge himself on a bushel of hares.

Cresting a small hill, he immediately dropped to his stomach and surveyed his find: a herd of buffalo slept quietly in the grass beneath him. After enough time had passed for him to feel confident that all of the pack was still sleeping, he army crawled towards them.

As the distance between himself and the slumbering forms closed, he couldn’t help but feel intimidated, despite his newly-acquired, superhuman strength and speed. He had heard too many stories of raging buffaloes before the System, and he was willing to bet they had only become more fearsome after the integration. A quick check of their stats showed that they were all at least level 5, some of them being level 8. While none of them had all of their stats as high as his, their stats were high enough that he found himself more timid in approaching them than he was when he awaited to attack the group of ten villagers just hours earlier.

A crazy idea struck him as he approached, and he decided it was worth a shot if it meant he could get one of the behemoths without the rest of the herd being onto him. Slinking up to the nearest beast’s side he stowed the beast into his spatial storage bag, or at least he tried to. All he got in response was a mighty bellow that seemed to shake the earth as the whole herd woke at once and began searching for the viper in their midsts.

Sprinting away at top speed, Mike found out what it is like to be chased by a stampede.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Six hours later, with the sun at its peak, Mike once again limped into the clearing that served as his home. Just like the previous night, he was covered in fresh blood, although this time, none of it was his own. The hulking monstrosity resting across his shoulders had been dripping blood down his body most of the walk back, making his movements slick and uncomfortable. It was a small female buffalo, weighing around 1000 pounds, and it was about the limit that he could carry. He knew that some strongmen could yoke more than that even before the System had come along, but the difference between slinging a thousand pounds of dead-weight across his back and some nice steel bar, designed to be carried across the shoulders, was immense.

The previous night had been touch and go, the stampede having caught up to him several times. He had barely been able to fling himself sideways to avoid getting skewered, only to have the hivemind of rage pivot and start chasing him again. Eventually the herd forgot why they were running and headed off in a different direction. That is when he had managed to get the small female lagging behind the rest, using True Shot to easily pierce the layers of muscle and fat that usually protected their kind. The rest of the dumb brutes didn’t even notice her fall.

Depositing the carcass in the center of camp. Mike began dinner preparations.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

As the sun set, a large bonfire roared in the center of the small clearing, adding a wonderful ambiance to the already pleasant atmosphere. Mike began portioning out the meat to the hobgoblins one by one. He had prepared the meat like a Luau Pig, and narrated the entire process aloud to the watching hobgoblins. Somewhere along the way, they had picked up on the word “meat” and now, with every portion he handed out, a loud chorus of “Meat” filled the glade. Though small, the hobgoblins had large appetites, and he preemptively stored some of the cooked meat in his spatial storage bag for a later date, knowing that there likely wouldn’t be any leftovers, and not wanting to see if he could survive another bout with the bison anytime soon.

Even after the meat was completely eaten, the festivities continued. The small creatures entertained themselves with various roughhousing and jibber-jabber. A pang of longing filled Mike’s heart as he watched the scene. It took him back to the Hawaiian beaches where he had been stationed, and the many feasts he had attended there. It also reminded him of the nights spent wrestling with his brother. Those had been simpler days.

Longing turned to anger as he thought about the System that now prevented him from enjoying such moments with the rest of humanity, and they way it seemed to slowly ingratiate itself into his thoughts and desires. He also felt anger towards those who hunted him for sport, who continuously impeded his ability to simply survive in the wilderness. He shouldn’t have to spend so much time training. He shouldn’t have to protect the hobgoblins from harm. He should have all the spices he needed to make the perfect Luau Pork, instead of just salt and pepper. What had happened to the world’s decency?

The way he saw it, his path to live among humanity was gone. That was hard to accept, but he had been slowly coming to terms with it over the past two weeks. What he still couldn’t accept was that he had to kill his fellow members of humanity to survive. He wanted nothing more than to continue teaching bushcraft to his new tribe and honing his own survival skills, but the regular attacks on his valley prevented him from doing that. Deep down, he knew that the attacks would only continue to escalate.

First there were 5. Last night, there were 10. How many will Bart bring next? He was unsure how many more he could defeat in open combat at his current strength.

He could think of one path forward but it was one he had been loath to take until that moment, as it required him going on the offensive and more bloodshed. He had been trained as a SEAL to lay siege to an area, slowing down operations, picking off key targets, and ensuring that the inhabitants were too fearful of what hunted them to properly function. If he had no other choice, he would take the fight to the village and put the fear of Boss into those untrained townsfolk. When that was accomplished and they no longer dared to come after his home, he would get himself some garlic and make a proper roast.