"Good." ULf stepped forward.

“Very good. But why did you not press your advantage when you had her on the ground?"

Gregory made an effort to calm his breathing before answering.

“Wasn't a very good way to win," he said with a shrug.

ULf nodded, looking at the human with more respect. "You learn well. But you must fight with a weapon. FreLlki will teach you."

With those words, Ulf gave Gregory a pat on the shoulder and then turned back to help out Ulla. She promptly shoved him away and went off to sit and sulk by herself at losing to a mere human. Frelki approached Gregory a little while later and offered him back his training club.

They spent until sunset practicing. Frelki was a patient teacher and the training was much easier on him than Algra's had been. The slender female seemed to have a somewhat gentler nature compared to most orcs. Although it soon became quite clear that she knew what she was talking about, and Gregory dutifully paid attention.

"Swing with the club. You're countering your weight against it. It won't be as powerful." Frelki advised before showing him the difference.

Gregory wasn't so sure that was the best way of going about things.

Orcs were powerful foes, but they tended to be too top-heavy in their charges and if Ulla hadn't put her weight behind her swing in that third bout then he probably wouldn't have gotten such an easy advantage. Deciding it was best to do as he was told, he swung the club as instructed and then looked back to receive an approving smile and a nod from his tutor.

Frelki wasn't built like most orcs, and he supposed that made her all the more interesting to his eyes. Her tusks were smaller than both Algra's and Ulla's, despite her being obviously older than both. She was also the first orc he'd seen that didn't have black hair. Instead, it was a mousey brown colour that Looked quite appealing on her green head. She wore it in a simple braid that fell down her back.

Her body was tall, but leaner and far more slender than most of her kin. He'd particularly noted her legs, which were bare and rather gorgeously streamlined. The gentle curves of those Long stems had made him cast more than a single thought to what her ass Looked Like beneath her skirt. Though he tried not to dwell on those thoughts when she was teaching him something that might save him getting beaten to death. It was clear in her demonstrations and her movements that she was remarkably fit and almost eerily agile. She'd just been given the body of a ballerina as opposed to a bodybuilder. Strong, yet perhaps a little too fragile.

Frelki's voice was easy to listen to, without the hard edge that most orc's carried in their throats. Though she did seem a little too gentle, or even timid. It made her stunningly cute, with a cheeky smile and keen eyes. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite so sure that the words cute, gentle, or timid were ideal to describe a companion who he might be going into a straight-up brawl alongside.

As the light started to fall away, Ulag marched out of his own tent to bark fresh orders to the assembled pups.

“Enough playing! Time for a real fight!" The old orc yelled to the quick cheers of the others. Gregory noticed that none of the Runts joined in with cheers of their own. Instead they stayed silent and somewhat morbidly resolute.

That didn't exactly bode well for their chances.

He followed along with them as they fell into Line and marched towards the fighting pits. Ulag was still to decide which of the packs would face off against each other. It wasn't exactly reassuring to see the old scarred orc out there again, given what had happened the last time he'd set up a mock battle. It made Gregory's chest hurt just to think about it.

The orc prowled before them and stopped short when he Laid eyes on the human in their midst again. There was a quiet momentary snarl that crossed his features before he steeled himself against his annoyance. The brat was supposed to have limped off into the night after what the Berserkers had done to him. To see him standing there just over a month later looking alive, well and even ready to fight again should have been damn near impossible.

Ulag couldn't put the Runts up against the Berserkers again. The warchief had been angry about Ulag's Little show the last time. He had some goodwill and an enduring friendship with the warchief, but throwing the Runts into the meat grinder again so openly would have made Grolfir angry. He'd seen Grolfir get angry before. It wasn't a memory he was keen on reliving.

“Runts! You fight the Thorns." Ulag yelled before plopping down glumly into his seat at the edge of the fighting pit.

If he couldn't outright beat the human out of his proving grounds, then he might at Least be able to make a case that he shouldn't be there at all. The Thorns were decent fighters with a very strong pack mentality. They liked to test the waters of battle first, and bite into any weak spots they found. The Runts had plenty of weak spots for the tasting.

The human made no complaint as ULf readied his pack, setting them into position and getting ready whilst the Thorns did the same thing. Around them, the other pups fell into a low chant of anticipation for the first clash of the upcoming fight. Their voices repeatedly shook the air like thunder. The beat of their song grew steadily faster as the packs facing off fell still. Ulag roared his approval and on his signal, the young orcs bolted towards each other. It was a different tactic for the Thorns to charge into the fray so openly, for they usually held off and drew out the fight in an attempt to weaken their foes. Ulag conceded that if the Runts got any weaker, then some of them might not have the strength to breathe properly. The two packs met at the centre of the pit. The human fell in behind ULf whilst the great one-armed orc took the centre and fought into the fray Like the veteran he was.

The Runts didn't do so badly at first, using the powerhouse of their two heavy hitters to centre the battle whilst ULf, Frelki, Ulla, and Nullik prevented any flanking manoeuvres. It was hardly tactical genius, but the one-armed Wrut was a strong warrior, even despite his disability. Alongside him at the centre of the fight was Frun, a stout yet powerful orc whom Ulag had long since noticed was perhaps a few planks short of a barrel. What he lacked in smarts, he more than made up for in aggression. The Thorns on the other hand were a little too smart for their own good and hadn't quite taken Frun into account. Two of their members had already suffered a number of very powerful hits to their armour for overlooking him.

The human followed ULf's Lead and somewhat annoyingly he wasn't doing nearly as bad as he had done in his previous stint at the provings. Ulag watched him pick his moments carefully, often sidestepping around ULf's opponents and taking the advantage. He never got much of an advantage, but the Thorns clearly weren't expecting him to be quite as aggressive as he was.

Unfortunately for the Runts, the tide began to slowly turn on them as their wily opponents shifted tactics. The Thorns were pushed back, but they had also spread out and sacrificed much of the impact Wrut and Frun were making in doing so. Both ULf and the human managed to actually bring down one of the Thorns into the dirt, but by then it was too late.