My notion that we are the top predators in the jungle got shattered in just a fraction of a second. The scene just reminded me how dangerous my snobbish feeling can be. This was a real jungle.

Cougar started growling again. Everyone left their victory celebration to dawdle towards him, making a circle around it. The beast understood what we were doing as he kept growling while looking in every direction.

Suddenly it took a leap in our direction as our formation scattered. It closed the distance between itself and a hobgoblin in a fraction, giving that hob zero chance to escape. The hob stumbled in nervousness and went down to the ground. It immediately grabbed that hob engulfing his upper body in its mouth. Everyone charged as we heard a snapping sound from that hobs neck. Throwing that hob, that beast desperately moved to counter. It then leaped again. This time, it was to Rizu, who was perpendicular right to the cougar. He immediately jumped left to avoid the contact and counter momentum. He still swung his sword to attack the cougar, which made an impact as it howled a little. Cougar's body made contact with Rizu's body, sending him flying away.

Disgruntled cougar scanned his prey for a second and immediately attacked the nearby hob, killing it. Suddenly we saw uncle Uuk jumping and hitting the cougar with his sword as soon as it was finished with the hob. Cougar defended with its horn which consists of four rings. An enormous impact sent the cougar in the opposite direction for a few meters. It was in pain as it stood up again, growling.

It was angry. The cougar suddenly lifted its mouth and roared on top of his lung, exposing all of his neck. However, to my surprise, uncle Uuk was preparing for defense instead of attacking its neck. Then suddenly, the cougar sent an ice blast as if it was sneezing. Uncle Uuk blocked it with his heavy sword as he was sent flying away. It took a few seconds for him to get up. I knew just by looking at my uncle that he was struggling, then I looked towards the cougar standing there looking at me right in the face. I took out one of my throwing ax in desperation. I took aim as the cougar took a step forward. With all my might, I threw it towards the cougar's eye. It missed by a slight margin, but it was in discomfort. I only knew the cougar was targeting Rizu, who stood behind me and missed my throw. The cougar ran, picked up the moose killed by Bimu, and started running away.

'Let it go, don't chase it. You will only get killed. Instead, look for Bimu.' Uncle Uuk said he sat down on the ground, holding his shoulder. Darg & I immediately ran towards Bimu. He was lying there looking at me.

I glanced over Bimu's ravaged body as he was lying on the ground, half unconscious. I wonder if he can survive. We gathered other killed and injured members. Two hobgoblins alongside a few goblins died, and Rizu had a fracture in his arm and ribs. While Uncle Uuk still has a sore shoulder.

'You'll live, Bimu. Don't be afraid.' Uncle Uuk said to Bimu, who was groaning in pain. Then, Uncle gave some potions from a red vial to Bimu and Rizu while he also had.

'Will he live.' I asked uncle.

'He'll live. Only his shoulder and back is broken. But he won't be able fight anymore.' Uncle replied with a sad face. I was little relieved to be honest.

'Hurry up, cremate the dead. We need to leave. We can't stay here with our back exposed for a long time.' Uncle UUk said. In orcs, the dead are cremated as leaving them for predators is disrespectful, and burying them can lead to an infectious pandemic in the jungle, which will catch us ultimately.

After cremating the dead and tending the injured ones, we set off the road to find a hideout for the night. Unfortunately, we could only take three moose as one was stolen by the cougar. After a long period of walking, we decided to take a break. Finally, we found a cave that was big enough to give shade to us, and we decided to spend our night in this cave. Uncle uuk then slowly moved towards a tree, unsheathed his sword, and made a colossal slash that cut down three trees in a blink of an eye.

'tch...I think I got a little rusty with my techniques. I knew it when I fought that cat, but now I can say it.' Uncle Uuk said. I could only wonder in awe as it was so fast and clean.

Then the other orcs cut those and made them into logs. We used them to clean the hunted animal and made them into travois with leather pouches, making it easier to carry our hunt and injured orcs.

I sat down on one of the logs and began to observe how the other orcs were doing the work. Uncle Uuk was very busy directing how the work should be done. He was assessing them very quickly and giving them directions. The orcs worked like an assembly line. I was awestruck by the sight of the orcs working. Looking at uncle Uuk was as if Henry Ford had returned to life.

'Uncle, how could that beast throw ice from its mouth?' I asked my uncle, who was still cleaning up wooden logs.

'That was an lvl4 beast. At that level, you can release your core energy from your body. There are only Ice element magic beast in this area as it is close to cold regions of Dragon glade. It was our fortune. It only wanted food. Otherwise, more lives would have been lost.' Uncle replied.

'Can it come back again?' I asked again. It would be challenging to go through that again.

'No, that won't happen. Those cats eat up to one-fifth of their weight in one meal. After that, they don't need to hunt for a week. But still, we'll have to be on guard. Others can still attack us.' He said

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I turned my head towards the sound of footsteps approaching me, where I saw Darg holding his back and making weird faces.

'Brother ... I think I need to go take a shit ', he said.

'seriously? Didn't Uncle Uuk instruct us to do these wearisome tasks before we began our hunt?'

'come on .. try to understand my current situation. My food got digested after all these things happened.' Darg said with an embarrassing face.

I explained everything to uncle Uuk, who gave Darg one goblin to keep his company. He then rushed towards the bushes with all his might. Goblin was not happy. Right now, all the goblins were celebrating our hunt with their reckless dance around the dead moose.

'Damn, if he were to run that fast during our training, he would have beaten me quite easily.' hearing this, uncle uuk began to laugh.

'See, young chief, it was an excellent idea to take a dump. I didn't die lying in my own shit.' Bimu, who had gained consciousness, said with a smirk on Darg's situation. Everyone burst out in laughter after watching Bimu cracking a joke. I thought orcs were masochists, but even on their deathbed, they can still laugh.

A few minutes had passed Darg was taking longer than expected.

Maybe I am overthinking it. Because of curiosity, I stood up and started walking over the whole cave. Soon after 15 minutes had passed, there was still no sign of Darg. Now it's over the limit.

I rushed towards the site where Darg went. Noticing me, uncle Uuk who was busy, left his task and began following me. Others also followed. However, by the time I reached there, We had found no signs of Darg. After looking for a minute, we saw some signs of struggle there. Uncle Uuk concluded there were signs of resistance after seeing the state of the ground.

I clenched my fists in anger and could feel my nails entering my flesh. I felt like slapping myself on my own face. How could I send Darg alone in the jungle with only a goblin? I was even getting angrier at the sight of goblins. I wondered what I would say to aunt Urmi that first her husband and now her son has died for the tribe. I quickly distracted myself by thinking something positive.

'We should remain calm in these situations.' Uncle Uuk said after seeing me all agitated. I turned my face towards Uuk, and his face was utterly stoic. He was showing no emotions whatsoever. I began to observe the surroundings. I saw some footprints around and a sign of dragging a body. I removed all the unnecessary thoughts from my brain.

'Uric, come with me, and the rest of you go back and pack our supplies. ' Uncle Uuk then began observing the clues and predicted where Darg was taken. After that, we started sprinting towards the area with fewer trees.

He halted abruptly and put his arm up in the air, indicating me to stop. I moved forward a few steps and wiggled my head through the bushes to see what was happening. I saw the goblin with Darg tied with ropes around a tree. There were a couple of tents and a lot of hunting material around the plain field.

After waiting for ten minutes, we saw two orcs covered in blood come from the direction of the inner forest. As soon as I saw them, I became enraged and jumped into the field without thinking too much. Uncle Uuk tried to stop me, but the cover was already blown.

' hey kid, are you stupid, or do you have overconfidence in your ability?' The orc turned around and looked at me.

'What happened to the small orc that was with that goblin.' I asked him as I was taking my steps forward.

They looked at each other for a brief period. Then, 'What do you think we did with that orc?' He laughed as he said while brandishing his bloody hand.

I unsheathed my sword and rushed toward him. He pulled out his sword and blocked my attack with ease. He took steps back, creating distance between us. At this point, I had lost all my reasoning. I jumped in the air and gushed toward him with my sword. He gripped his sword with two hands and got in a stance to slash it against me. I infused all my might in the run, made the exact zig-zag in the astral steps, dodged his verticle slash at the last moment, and was behind him in one step. As soon as I saw an opening, I swung my sword removing his head, resulting in a quick victory against him. It happened in a blink. I started stabbing him repeatedly even after he died 'this is what you will get, you bastard,' soon a hand came behind my back and stopped me. It was uncle Uuk. I stopped for a movement and saw the other orc's body lying in the vicinity in two parts. It was a lateral slash that took their life. I felt drowsy to the point I felt passing out.

Then I realized what had happened. I just did the two-step astral steps technique that I struggled with. Then I looked at my uncle's face. He had the same stoic look. Tears started to pour out of my eyes. I kneeled, bowed, and let the tears fall on the ground. I felt empty inside my chest again. Yes, this was a similar feeling. I had depleted my core. I could only see an auburn tree under which I was lying. By the tree's color, I knew it would soon be night.

When I opened my eyes, there was very little light in the surrounding.

I got up and saw an orc approaching me in the distance, similar in size to mine. My sight was still not clear. I rubbed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my vision.

'what the hell.. you.'

I ran toward him and hugged him tightly. Darg was standing still, making a rugged face to read as if he was cautious of something. Uncle Uuk looked at me and smiled. It was about time I got up, sat on a log, and tried calming myself down.

'Where the fuck you have been roaming around.' i shouted at him. He bowed his head down as a reaction to my scolding. Then, Uncle Uuk came up to us and punched Darg's head.

'If you were trying to play smart, you should have come to us. But, first, you are not strong enough to have survived those two if you were caught.' I was confused by uncle Uuk's words.

Then Darg started explaining what actually happened. He said that he saw these two orcs approaching him. Then he left the goblin as bait and escaped from them. He was trying to devise a plan to rescue the goblin once the kidnappers were distracted. He explored the area briefly and came to save the goblin.

'Uric, if you have rested enough, then get up. Darg has spotted a tribe. We have to see it.' Uncle Uuk said. I nodded and got up. After a little stretch, we were on to locate that tribe. After walking around a mile, we stopped around two hundred meters away from that tribe. By now, it was dark, but we could see clearly as the tribe was well lit.

'What the hell they are doing here.' Uncle took a few steps forward. He was shocked to the core as I looked at him. Then I looked carefully at what he had seen just now that had shaken him this much. After gliding my eyesight over the tribe, it stopped on a particular being. I knew this creature very well and could understand why my uncle was so shocked after sighting them. There were humans in that orc tribe.