Tai wrapped his shoulder-length hair into a bun. It was a nuisance more often than not. He glared at Tenma, who blatantly ignored him.

"If it was an emergency, kid, you'd be dead," Tenma said seriously. "Next week, you'll be alone for an entire month. Kid, you've been working hard so far. But if you really want this, I need you work harder. If you break—well—you better not."

Tai stared at the torrent of water. It seemed that Tenma brought him here to get a reality check. He had trained in combat throughout the past weeks, but was it enough to survive here? He now had a passable level of knowledge in the basic school curriculum for his age, but was that enough?

He was proud to make it so far...but was it enough to reach the top of his generation?

Tenma told him of the thumbling with the most potential within the kingdom. The entire high society acknowledged him as their new leader. His name was Thomas Thumb. It was said that he was an oustanding gem that outshone his peers with sheer ability.

There may be some truth in there, but Tai didn't buy it. If that was so, was there a need to eliminate children like him?

"We'll come here again tomorrow, kid. We have five days to go before the next month begins. Make it worth it."

Tai got dressed. He didn't know if he could be the best, but he would die trying.

As they mounted Angela, a gruff roar sounded from within the forest. Knowing Tenma, Tai immediately brandished his dagger. Where there was chaos, Tenma always found himself in the middle of it.

Tenma descended Angela and hopped from branch to branch and disappeared after two blinks. Tai followed, unwilling to miss out.

He hopped from branch to branch with speed that outmatched his former self. His now toned body did not easily bruise, and he recovered quicker from injuries.

He caught up with Tenma, who was fighting a giant, matted bear. Animals tended to look the same, but Tai could recognize that bear at a glance. It was the bear he encountered on his first day in the forest.

Tai took a deep breath and stopped himself from running away.

His heart thumped in his chest as ice filled his veins.

calm down, calm down...

He robotically analyzed this situation in full. Besides the attention-grabbing fight between Tenma and the bear, a score of thumblings, injured, were strewn across the forest floor.

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He instinctively made his way to them with his knife in hand in case of any danger. He did not know why, but seeing these people he did not know being injured caused pain in his heart. The feeling transcended any trauma he had at the moment because of the bear.

Expertly climbing down the tree, Tai found the first thumbling. He seemed to be around his age. The thumbling in question had his face scrunched up in pain. His two feet were broken, and the crown of his head was bleeding.

Tai checked the first aid reserves in his sack. If he had to treat this thumbling alone, he could do something. However, there were nineteen other thumblings with similar injuries.

Tai began to thoroughly assess the injuries. Though the scene was chilling, he'd be alive for now. He cleaned the head wound and wrapped it with a sterile cloth. He carefully and methodologically moved him from the scope of the ongoing fight.

The thumbling gritted his teeth in pain, refusing to make a sound. Tai carried him behind the tree he descended, and rested him on a soft bed of leaves by the tree root.

One by one, he carried the other thumblings to the same spot. Each had varying degrees of injuries, and one, was dead. He still carried the dead body to a safe spot.

Occasionally, he heard the bear hurling slurs at Tenma to intimidate him, but that would never work with Tenma. However, it affected him even though he was not the target. It was not what the bear said, but the mere fact he could talk.

Only animals that ate a massive amount of thumblings could develop the ability to speak.

He tried his best to stop the bleeding of the worst injuries. Thankfully, Tenma was very skilled in the area, so he learned alot. As for the youth with broken bones, he used the wood of sturdy trees to straighten his feet and wrapped it with soft fibers.

Tai realised that aside from the first thumbling, the others were definitely adults.

They had an exaggerated stocky build and skin many times more thick than his and Tenma's. Their hair was quite unkempt. What stood out to him the most, however, were the black, ziz-zag lines traced along their entire forearms. Those tatoos were the symbol of the ground village.

The young thumbling had them too.

Tai heard again again another roar of pain and a torrent of slurs. Tai would love to plant his dagger into the bear despite his fears, but he knew his priorities. He dutifully monitored the thumblings of the ground village.

Thankfully, when apex predators are fighting, the other animals tended to stay clear.

Tai knocked out the screaming thumbling. His foot was a mangled mess. It was better for him to be out cold than suffer unbearable pain. His anasteasic herb was completely spent on the other thumblings.

As Tai passed the young, lean thumbling, he said, "If a predator finds us, we're dead."

Tai calmly looked into his dead eyes. They were pitch-black, and unreasonably cold. Tai smiled.

"We'll be alright. Animals tend to avoid those up the food chain. We're still close to the fight."

"Coyotes don't care for strength," the thumbling spat.

"They don't come around these parts. Bears like their territory free of threats, especially sentient ones." Tai tried his best to placate him. He finally seemed to relax. His dead eyes gained a little life to them.

Tai smiled reassuredly and continued to survey above and around himself.

After a while, there was silence. A bloody and somewhat tired Tenma came from behind the tree.

Tenma ruffled his hair, "Good job kid."

Afterwards, Tenma called Angela. He sent them off in groups of two and three to somewhere safe. Tai took the oppurtunity to speak to the young thumbling waiting in queue.

"Will I see you at the inter-village competition?" It would be good if he could get some allies.

"I will. Who else would be the winner?" He raised his brows at him. Tai grinned brightly, accepting the veiled bet.

"Who else?"