An eruption of murmurs went through the crowd. Did this mean that the human was now the alpha? Was it even allowed to stop a proving match in the middle of a bout? What the hell was wrong with the war chief's son that he would abandon his pack Like that?

ALL eyes then turned to Ulag.

The old, grizzled proving master had also been watching the exchange with seemingly distant curiosity. When both Gregory and Dreadlocks turned to look at him, he waited for a while as if weighing his options. It was after a tense few moments that he nodded his approval.

Gregory was left somewhat dumbfounded by this. He thought that Ulag might condone a rematch for his pack, but didn't see any way in hell the old bastard would turn away the chance to see the human get beaten by an almost full-strength pack. So, when he didn't insist that the match continue, and instead quietly stood up and Left his seat, Gregory breathed a sigh of relief.

He then turned back to see their opponents had already begun to take their leave.

Without thinking much about it, he jogged up to Dreadlocks and called out.

“Hey,” he rounded to step in front of him. Every one of his pack members growled aggressively as if Gregory might have been coming back for more. It made him pause for a moment before bowing his head before Dreadlocks and smashing his fist against his chest in a classic orc salute. "We dishonoured you today by not giving you our best fight. On my own honour, it will not happen again."

Dreadlocks paused a moment, and then offered a respectful nod of his own head before quietly striding past Gregory with the rest of his pack in tow.

This left Gregory feeling like he could actually breathe again for the first time since he'd walked into the pits that day. Now all he had to do was get to the rest of the Runts and get their shit together without getting himself killed in the process. No problem, right?

Right, because everything around there was just that easy.

Later, at Bolut's camp, The Runts sat around the fire whilst Valise deftly moved between them one at a time to tend their wounds. A silence had fallen over them, and each sat staring into the flames of the campfire. As usual, such a silence could not hope to survive for Long with Nullik in attendance.

“I am bloody well not doing that again," he grunted before wincing as Valise rubbed ointment into his arm. "I thought you said that was supposed to numb the pain?"

“It will, but it isn't instantaneous. Perhaps next time you might try parrying your opponents' weapon with your own rather than trying to use your forearm. It's a wonder the bone didn't snap in half."

"I Like to be unpredictable." He propped his elbow upon his knee and glumly set his chin in his hand.

“And I really am not doing that again."

“We may have to. If ULf doesn't come around before our rematch.” Frun lowered his head and stared down between his feet. He didn't sound remotely enthusiastic about the prospect of that rematch.

“ULf can go take a long walk off a short pier if he pulls that shit again," Nullik's Lips curled back over his teeth. "I actually got good when he was giving us ideas." He unseated his head from his uninjured limb to point at Gregory.

“The women were looking at me after our last fight. And for once I didn't feel like they felt I was akin to something they'd just wiped off their boot."

“We must do as our alpha commands," Frun frowned and raised his head to ‘Look at Nullik.

“Right, so I say that if our alpha keeps being a total asshole then we pick ourselves a new alpha.”

“I'm not going to do that, Nullik," said Gregory. ALl heads turned to face him. "Like it or not, I wouldn't even have a pack if ULf hadn't taken me in with you guys. I'm not going to take anything from him.”

“But that's-"

"The right thing to do?" Frelki cut off Nullik's protest.

“Whether it's right or not is beside the point." Wrut's voice rumbled forth, taking everyone by surprise. The big guy was usually an orc of few words.

“The point of the provings is to prove ourselves as a pack effective enough to bring battle to our enemies. We have weaknesses that hinder that goal, but the human has shown us that we also have strengths that can make us just as dangerous on the battlefield as any war pack. To wilfully continue doing things the old way and ignore those strengths is not only foolish, but it disrespects the proving grounds themselves."