“Let me up, dammit! I told that bastard if he ever put you guys in that kind of danger again I'd come for him

“Things have changed, my alpha." Frelki crouched down to where Gregory's head was poking out of the pile of bodies.

“This is not an insult or a threat to you. It is an honour.”

The slender orc reached out and gently ran her fingers over his brow before they slipped into his hair to soothe his fiery temper.

Given that he seemingly had little choice but to hear her out, he grunted and stopped trying to break free of his pack

"You are definitely getting stronger, alpha." ULf stood back up and dusted himself off with the others, clearly impressed at how many of the pack it had taken to keep the human at bay.

"Tell me why this is such an honour, and more importantly, why I shouldn't go bury this damned club between Ulag's eyes.”

“The Berserkers have hardly ever Lost a fight in the provings." Frelki explained.

“In a Grand Proving, the packs are set against others that the proving master believes are a fitting match for their skills. Ulag thinks highly enough of us that he’s pitted us against one of the most dangerous packs on the proving grounds. This isn't some trick. It's not just Ulag who has a voice in who's selected to face who. He might start it off, but many of the elder warriors have a say in the matter. Grolfir himself can scrap matches if he chooses to."

Gregory Lifted himself up from the fighting stance he'd unconsciously adopted to stand up straight. Whilst he still had some degree of control over his temper, he threw the club aside and set his face into his hands in an effort to try and rub away the haze of anger and see clearly again. The Runts watched wearily as their leader began to pace back and forth in silence, trying to get his head around the situation Fighting The Berserkers was not a light matter at the best of times, let alone in what had just been described to him as a “more brutal" fight than the usual proving matches.

“Do you not think we can win against them?" Wrut asked.

Gregory stopped pacing and immediately lifted his gaze to flash daggers at the one-armed orc. Then he blinked away the remnants of his anger and shook his head.

“That's not the problem. Well, alright, it is a problem but it's not one I'm all that worried about right now. Rolk, the alpha of The Berserkers is plotting to kill me, and this kind of encounter is practically gifting him my head on a platter."

"Gregory!" Ulla stepped forward, her own temper never far from the surface.

“Why did you not speak of this to us?"

“If it happened, I didn't want you guys going for payback or getting caught in the middle of it."

Ulla needed a minute to process that, and then she stormed over to the weapon rack and crouched down before flinging the entire thing in the air. The show of strength was downright spectacular, and Ulla rounded on him so fast that he instinctively braced himself for a fight. Except this time, Ulla didn't seem to want to harm him. She very badly wanted to harm someone else, so she rounded on the rest of the pack and growled a vicious challenge of open warfare.

“That... that animal would dare try to take our alpha from us!?" she hissed.

The expressions of the rest of The Runts darkened one by one as her words settled in their guts, igniting flames of rage.

“Then it is a challenge or a proving no more. It is war," Ulla declared with a vicious growl. "No holding back. No fighting safe. Our weapons shall taste Berserker blood.”

A rumble of approval arose from the pack.

"Wait, hold on a moment here." Nullik Lifted his hands disarmingly. "I'm not arguing with Ulla's words, but before we start bathing anything in the blood of our enemies we have to actually beat them. I mean, can we even beat The Berserkers? I know we've gotten a damn sight better, but they hit Like a damned battering ram."

Ulla curled her lip at Nullik's reservations, but she didn't speak out against him or threaten him with bodily harm. So that was progress, at least. The rest of the pack turned their heads one by one toward Gregory, and Nullik's question hung ominously in the air.

The human looked over each of them in silence for a long time, and then a small smile curved his lips upward.

"I might have a few ideas."