Janette wobbled as her balancing shoulder vanished and then she yawned with a long stretch. "I'll go ask them. Then if someone could just catch me when I pass out, that'd be nice."

“Thanks, Jan."

She yawned again and waved her acceptance of his thanks before walking along out of the camp towards the proving grounds.

Gregory lifted up one of the products of their productive evening, looked it over, and grinned.

* Oe KKK

The Runts had been persuaded by Janette to break away from their daily training with varying degrees of reluctance. Nullik was overjoyed that he wasn't going to get the tar beaten out of him for a change and Frelki was also somewhat relieved by the summons. Frun and Wrut were both quietly curious about the change of plans. Ulla and Ulf had taken the most convincing. Ulla didn't Like to be summoned anywhere and ULf thought that their place was on the proving grounds. He was quite the dutiful type.

Janette managed to convince them all that it would probably be worth their while, and Gregory had earned some respect amongst the group as he was often one of the last to go down in the pits despite his unfortunate lack of tusks.

When he emerged onto the open glade in the jungle and saw the pack standing around, he decided to start as he meant to go on.

“Alright you Lot! Form a line!" he bellowed.

The sudden commanding tone got all the runts forming a single line before they realised that neither Ulf nor Ulag had ordered it. ULf himself only seemed to realise that he'd been thus commanded a few seconds after standing at the head of the Line and straightening up for inspection.

Everyone of them except Ulla, who turned to Gregory as if he'd just openly challenged her.

“We answer to ULf. Not you," she growled.

“Gregory, it is not your place to-“ Ulf began in a more diplomatic tone.

"I don't give a shit!" Gregory quickly put down both arguments whilst setting his shoulders and calmly holding his arms behind his back.

“I don't know if any of you have noticed, but what we're doing right now is not working. It's not a matter of practicing. It's not a matter of trying harder. We are simply not built for this kind of battle."

“You would say this to us? After we accepted you?" ULf might have been reasonable as far as orcs went, but Gregory's words certainly seemed to bring out his primal side.

Good.

“It's not frustrated criticism, alpha. It is cold, hard fact. Do you want to know what I see when we take the field?" He turned to Frun and addressed the stout young orc directly.

“I see a slow, unimaginative warrior who follows his elder and his alpha expecting them to pave the way." As Frun bared his teeth at the human, Gregory wasted no time in continuing on to the massive form of Wrut.

“And you, with all your experience you should be the most dangerous of all of us out there on the field. I don't know what the hell happened to you that you've been cast back into the provings and I don't give a damn. Right now you're a liability. You can't wield a two handed weapon with one arm. So, I'd suggest you learn how to grow a fucking arm before dawn tomorrow or you start to use the one you've got left a whole Lot better."

He could see the look of bloody murder he'd brought into Wrut's gaze, but he paid the old orc no heed and casually dismissed him to move on between Frelki and Nullik.

“Then there's you two. Did it ever occur to you that getting into a close-up grappling match with an opponent twice your size might be a stupid idea? I'm just suggesting it because you both charge right at the other orcs like you think they're made of feathers rather than muscle and bone.”

“We do as we are commanded!" Nullik stepped forwards and Gregory rudely shoved him back into line the moment he saw the orc was off his balance.

“And that brings us to the last, and why we are here tod-" Gregory was quickly interrupted by Ulla's fist swinging over his head.

It was going to connect with his jaw, but the human had long been keeping the unstable female orc in his peripheral vision and saw the attack coming. She predictably put too much power into the Lunge and he wasted no time in slamming his shoulder into her belly to crush the air from her Lungs before uprooting her completely. He lifted her into the air and cast her over his shoulder without a second thought to land with a heavy thud on the dirt at his feet. Without a moment's hesitation, he jammed his boot on her throat to make damn sure she couldn't get back up again.