His brows raised slightly in surprise. He couldn't say that it was rare to meet others in the wilderness, but it wasn't an everyday occurrence. Detrius, from what he knew, was incredibly huge which reduced the chances of meeting someone when exploring.

Then again, he was only a couple of days' walk from the portal and it seemed like more and more people were becoming champions. Soon, he would likely encounter other humans in droves.

The silhouettes stood up hastily as their heads turned in his direction. The fire cast light that reflected off the metal weapons in their hands and allowed him to see their wary expressions.

Kade slowly raised his hands "I'm not lookin' for a fight."

"Then why have to come to our camp?" A gruff, unfriendly voice questioned.

"Curiosity?" Kade replied with a raised brow "I was planning to make camp near here when I saw your fire and decided to take a look."

"Yeah, okay. Maybe you should plan to make camp somewhere else." The voice retorted harshly.

"That's a good idea." Kade replied with a slight chuckle as he walked in a wide arc around their camp.

"Jeez Darrel. A bit much, don't you think?" A feminine voice sounded out "Hey, you. What's your name?"

Kade raised a brow but didn't stop moving "Kardis... Yours?"

"Rey. It's nice to meet ya, Kardis." She said with a chipper tone "You can camp with us tonight if you'd like. It's dangerous out here, especially for lone wolves."

The shadows hid his visage so they couldn't see the small smile sprout on Kade's face. Life had ups and downs, but the downs tended to leave deeper impressions. It was difficult to keep the negative thoughts from pervading his mind and turning him into a cynic.

Friends and family were the best at keeping him grounded, but when they weren't around it was the small moment's like this when someone showed kindness and compassion that shined a bit of light in an otherwise dark pit.

Even though he wasn't feeling down at the moment, he still appreciated Rey's kindness.

"Absolutely no-" The gruff voice spoke up again but was cut off.

"Thanks, but no. I don't want to intrude and I prefer camping with my friend." Kade replied as he walked into the darkness.

Rey's brows locked as she watched his silhouette merge with the shadows.

"You gotta stop being so naive, Rey!" Darrel scolded, bringing her back to reality.

"Remember what happened last time we tried to help someone?"

Rey rolled her eyes as she turned back to the fire and sat on the ground. She remembered, but she didn't want to let a few bad experiences turn her heart cold.

"Let it go, Darrel. Rey's kindness is what makes her special. You might be the leader of our team, but she is the team's heart." A woman cut in while sitting beside Rey.

Darrel frowned while looking in the direction Kardis had left. He didn't feel good about sending a person out there alone either, but he was the leader and he had to prioritize his team first and foremost. Kindness was a luxury he couldn't afford.

"I wonder where his team is..." One of the others spoke

"Who knows. He could have come out here alone for all we know."

"Don't assume he is alone." Darrel cut in "He could have been scouting us out for his team or something."

The others nodded. It wasn't like they hadn't come across a lone champion, but it was rare. Usually, the person had been split up from their team for one reason or another and was relieved to come across other champions.

Thinking back on it, they realized that Kardis was far too calm. Darrel's reasoning was solid and most likely, though, solo hunting wasn't completely unheard of.

"Night watch needs to keep your guard up tonight, no slacking. The rest of you, get a good rest. We will be pushing ourselves this time."

...

"Tissss"

"No complaining!" Kade growled while glancing at Obruo "You gotta start carrying some of the weight too."

Obruo whined while walking funnily. A makeshift harness allowed him to carry a sled with their fresh game. It wasn't much weight for him, but it was uncomfortable and degrading!

"Look, I don't like it either." Kade sighed as he parted the brush "But I don't have a fancy space doo-dad to store all of our loot, so we have to carry it."

Kade had grossly underestimated the value of spatial storage. When Tetron had flipped his hand and made a couple of pills appear, he thought it was neat but that was it. Only now did he understand how useful such a tool could be.

'Still, I guess I have it kinda easy.' He thought while imaging the difficulties warriors must face having to lug around heavy weapons and armor.

*Crack*

Kade and Obruo halted their steps and lowered their bodies as their heads snapped in the direction of the sound. Soon, the rustling of leaves and playful growls were heard.

Kade gestured to Obruo. The pup quietly detached the sled using a quick-release system made exactly for this reason. After, the canine disappeared into the wilderness.

Kade crept forward while trying to get a line of sight on the creatures making the noise. His muscles were tense and his gaze focused, prepped to act at the spark of battle.

After what seemed like hours, he finally saw the creatures. 'Bears?' He thought as his face scrunched. There were some noticeable differences, like the heap of small tentacles on the sides of their maws and the back of their heads. Otherwise, they were huge bears.

Kade scrunched his nose. There were a couple of issues. Mainly, the fact that there were four of them. One was far larger than the rest, giving the impression that one was the parent and the other three were its children.

'Should I?' Kade thought. He was no saint by any means, but could he reconcile killing a family even if they were beasts?

'Fuck it.' It only took a moment for him to make the decision. He would deal with his feelings after.

An arrow flew forward and struck the face of the largest bear before countless vines sprouted to entangle the injured beast. The bears weren't very perceptive and for them, this all occurred almost instantaneously.

The cubs began to panic, crying out while attempting to escape frantically. They disappeared through the foliage in a matter of moments while the largest bear caused a commotion by thrashing its body around and roaring.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Kade watched as the vines were snapped, proving to be nothing more than a slight hindrance to the giant bear. Thankfully, they were only meant to keep its attention for a moment.

A second arrow flew out and struck the bear's rear leg at the joint. A third came a few seconds later and took the mobility from the other hind leg.

Kade kept a deadpan expression as he stared at his prey. His first arrow had told him enough about this beast. It wasn't smart, nor perceptive. It was, however, durable. Unlike with the snake, his spell had failed to bore a hole through the beast.

He couldn't be certain how many Yisik Arrow's he would have to cast at the bear's head to end its life, so he had changed his plans and went for its mobility first.

Now that it couldn't move, he didn't have to worry as much about the Altaris drain. Worst case scenario, he would hide and regenerate his Altaris before continuing to whittle away at the beast.

Another arrow formed before he launched it at the bear's head. A mournful wail was returned as a hole appeared in place of the beast's right eye. Kade ignored the sound as he cast one more arrow before stopping.

He could feel that his Altaris pool had depleted by a large amount. He estimated that he had 30% of his Altaris left.

'Going any lower would be risky.' He thought as he sat down with his gaze locked on the bear. He wanted to keep 30% Altaris in reserve at all times, just in case an emergency popped up.

The bear was in a sorry state. Its vision was lost to the last two arrows, and its hind legs were unable to support its weight. Though Kade couldn't take advantage of the situation at the moment, his friend could.

Obruo appeared and leaped through the air, landing on the bear's back before sinking his teeth into the beast's shoulder and ripping a small chunk of flesh off before the bear managed to shrug him off by thrashing.

The canine retreated a short distance and swallowed the meat in its mouth before circling the beast and going in for another attack.

Kade watched Obruo tear the beast down bite by bite. His canine friend was smart. He was attacking the limbs first in an attempt to completely immobilize the bear. The pup showed no greed, backing off at the first sign of retaliation and attacking from a new angle. Though the method wasn't quick, it was effective.

Seeing that Obruo had this handled, Kade cast earth mold to dig a small hollow and climbed inside for a modicum of cover while he meditated. Resurfacing nearly forty minutes later to a disturbing sight.

He didn't think himself overly cruel, but he almost changed his mind upon seeing Obruo feasting on the beast. Normally, he would consider such a sight to be gross at best, but that changed if the beast was still alive, and the bear was.

"Laws of the jungle." Kade mumbled with a frown. He had to remind himself of what the world was like, especially Detrius. Animals and beasts didn't care if their food was dead. As long as it didn't pose any threat, it was of no consequence to them if it still breathed.

With a deep breath, he steeled himself and approached while casting Armament to create a spear. His eyes were cold as he plunged the spear into a hole created by one of his arrows with all of his strength. It took some extra effort when the spear met resistance, but he managed to finish the beast off.

He took out his knife and began looking for the beast's core, finding it in the nape and retrieving it.

He glanced at Obruo "Finish up, we need to leave soon-"

He was interrupted by a low growl followed by a nasty screech and loud thumping noises.

"Now, we need to leave now." Kade spouted as he resheathed his knife.

The surrounding beasts' had shown up after smelling an easy meal, and fighting wasn't an option. He didn't have the skill nor the Altaris needed to handle a horde of beasts flooding in.

He didn't waste time, running as fast as he could manage in the environment. It only took a few minutes for his breathing to grow ragged but he pushed himself to his limits. Unfortunately, it was too late to leave unchallenged.

*Grrrrrr*

Kade's expression grew severe the moment he spotted the Badger beasts. Three of them stood in his way posed for a fight. They dwarfed even the largest of dogs, reaching a height of nearly two meters while on all fours.

Normal badgers on earth were a ferocious species with few to no natural predators, so a beast version was bound to be incredibly dangerous. Even in a perfect scenario, Kade would be reluctant to fight more than one of these. Luckily, he had been training more than just his combat skills.

While moving at full speed, a spell trace began forming under his left foot. His right knee came up to his chest before descending onto a log in front of him. As he pushed off with his right leg, a blast of air was released from his left foot, launching him into the air, allowing him to fly over the beasts blocking his path.

He lost control of his body as it tilted forward, resulting in a horizontal superhero pose. While descending, he reached out an arm and caught a branch. He didn't have the strength to stop his momentum and cling to the branch, but it was enough to spin his body back into an upright pose.

Moments later his feet contacted the ground, opposing his body's backspin as he absorbed the gravitational force by bending his legs and rolling forward over his shoulder. The momentum of his spin allowed him to bounce to his feet and without looking back and continue his escape.

He had only taken a few steps when he heard the rustling of leaves and breaking of twigs.

'Damn it!' He thought as his face scrunched. He had hoped that the badgers would leave him alone and head toward the bear carcass. Alas, murphy's law prevailed.

His mind rushed as he tried to think of a solution to this predicament. The noises let him know that the badgers were quickly gaining on him. Their robust bodys' allowed them to ignore many of the hindrances he had to circumvent, not to mention that they were likely faster than him in the first place.

In desperation, two spell traces began to form. Dual casting, as he called it, was surely possible. However, it required an immense level of mental control. He still hadn't grasped even the smallest success in attempting the feat, but this was the only thing he could think of.

He twisted his torso as his left arm reached out behind him, while his right pointed at the ground ahead. Normally, he could form these two traces in the blink of an eye, but it was taking over twice as much time when trying to cast both at the same time.

'FUCK!' He screamed mentally. He felt instability in both of his traces. He was losing control of his Altaris, causing the spell traces to warp. He quickly dispersed the trace he was casting with his left hand and stabilized the other.

He felt an impact on his left shoulder followed by a searing pain that spread through his shoulder and tricep. His body was thrown forward as his spell finished.

A ball of ice struck the ground, the energy continuing forward and created a patch of ice a few meters long. Kade fell upon the ice and slid forward, which helped conserve his momentum.

Leaving the ice strip, his body tumbled. With impeccable timing, he cast the improved wind gust spell and launched himself into the air as he had before. The only issue? He was flying through the air backward this time. He saw the three badgers beneath him, staring up with hungry glares.

*Crash*

His back slammed into a tree, causing his limbs to buckle at the shoulder and hip. By luck, his right arm caught a branch as his body descended. Perhaps his instincts of self-preservation saved him by causing him to cling to the branch with everything he had.

He panted heavily as he stared down. 'Badgers can't climb, right?' He thought. No, he hoped. He had made a grave mistake by not spending more time developing his mobility. His improvements of inferior wind gust helped a bit, but it wasn't enough.

If he survived this, he had resolved to spend as much time as he needed to shore up this weakness.

His eyes remained glued to the badgers as he pulled himself onto the branch. One was attempting to climb the tree, but couldn't make it more than a meter off of the ground. It kept sliding back down, leaving deep grooves in the tree. Likely due to a combination of reasons. The sharpness of its claws, its weight, and the durability of the tree.

He was able to heave a sigh of relief, but the feeling was momentary. He wasn't out of the woods yet, literally and figuratively. Though the badgers couldn't reach him, he couldn't leave either. He was trapped. At this rate, he would die of hunger and thirst if the badgers didn't lose interest.

Though, he did have a few options available. He could rain spells down from above. Maybe he could kill these badgers or cause them to leave after dealing enough damage. He could also wait until the beasts grew lax and attempt to sneak away while they slept.

As he calmed down, more options became clear. He had a few utility spells at his disposal. Telekinesis, push, and pull would be the most useful in his predicament.

A plan was beginning to form as he took out his supplies. He rolled a piece of battle cord between his fingers while pursing his lips. The most simple method of survival would be to bombard the badgers until they gave up, but he had the time to think of a more clever method that might have better results.

He took the battle cord -- The version of paracord with the highest tensile strength available to the public -- and began working, tying a few loops and creating knots. He fiddled with the battle cord for a long time until he was satisfied with what he had created.

Next, he cast Telekinesis on his knife and worked on creating smooth leverage points on the trees and branches in his surroundings through carving.

The process took a long time. Telekinesis used a complicated method to achieve simple results like lifting and moving an object. It was primarily used for convenience because the spell lacked agility and precision. However, it could be used to great effect if the caster had enough determination.

Kade had that determination, simply because he didn't have another way to achieve what he needed to do.

Night had fallen and his head was drenched with sweat by the time he finished. Taking a deep breath, he went over the plan one more time before meditating to fill his Altar with Altaris.

If this succeeded, he would receive a nice reward. If it failed, he would just go with the most simple method of bombarding the beasts with offensive spells. He wouldn't lose anything other than his time, but he didn't want to fail here.