Jacob awoke from his place atop the tree when the rumbling ground caused the tree to shake the suns were shining brightly causing him to keep his eyes squinting as they pierced harshly through the foliage into Jacobs’ newly awakened eyes, the kobold horde had returned and with them most likely their spoils of war. Jacob shook himself to get rid of the lethargy and with his eyes wide open Jacob looked to see if anyone was caught by the kobolds he could see that once again Riley and Brian have been captured, either they were abandoned by the Grade 1s fiends or the fiends simply out ran and left them to be captured. Jacob saw that the kobolds also slain quite a bit of animals of various and foreign sizes, he saw small rabbits with the colour of blood red fur, boars with 3 sets of tusks jutting out 2 in front and 1 from its side, the same type of deer he hunted with the fiends and 2 massive bears with normal brown fur but their claws were silver tipped.

Jacob waited calmly for the horde to pass by while keeping a lookout for the two Grade 1s if they were dumb enough to come back. Jacob would end their lives swiftly. Two hour passed by, Jacob threw Flowing Water down the sword cutting through the air like an arrow released from a bow driving deeply into the soil Jacob jumped after landing knuckles hitting the ground and bended knees absorbing the impact. During the two hour wait from Jacobs’ vantage point he did not see the two fiend so they got to live another day with Alexander perfect visage and Turner bookish constantly appearing in his mind, Jacob moved towards the forest away from where the horde came he needed food before he can go to check on the the two that was once again captured. If it was viable he would help them and they could serve to help him progress his skills and given that they had been running quite awhile, their endurance and vigor might have increased too so if he manages to save them this time they would be able to run abit faster than they did not to mention Jacob own speed now.

The bounty around the forest was as plentiful as it was even if the kobolds massive movement scared the local fauna they returned within the two hours that Jacob waited. Jacob followed in the direction where he saw one of the bears moved lazily through, it was most likely one of the apex predators present in the lively forest. It did not take Jacob long before he saw the back of the massive bear,it was slowly eating a dead animal which seemed to be the remains of an ox or something similar to it as the ox he knew did not have razor sharp canines for teeth.

Jacob slowly crept up to the bear making his scent already masked by the layers of dirt he was caked in he confidently moved towards the hind legs of the bear, as suspected the bear did not react to him even when he was mere inches apart Jacob began channeling essence into his two arms and swung Flowing Water as it started to churn within. With nothing pressuring or surprising Jacob he managed to cut cleanly through the left hind leg, the bear released a loud cry filled with anguish and confusion. Jacob took the chance to move to the right leg however it suddenly moved out of Jacobs way and a fast approaching silver claw swapped places with the leg, Jacob covered his body with Flowing Water vertically. Silver met with blue clear water and Jacob felt an overwhelming force causing him to fly back, his back met a tree and got the air knocked out of his body. Whatever was used to made Flowing Water seemed to be incredibly sturdy as Jacob did not notice it breaking or bending under that immense force, only the user got sent flying back with no marks appearing on the sword. Jacob immediately got up to prepare for a rushing bear only to see it moaning on the same spot he was knocked away from, the bear was still getting used to moving only with three limbs.

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This began a back and forth with the bear as Jacob sought to cut off the right hind leg but he was always met with a silver claw barely dodging it each time as he slowly got used to the speed of the claws. The bear was surprisingly agile at moving on the spot but slowly and surely the blood lost of its left leg caused it to move slower and slower, Jacob also managed to score cuts here and there by feinting for the right hind leg and waiting for the bear to finish its swipe and cutting across its front legs instead. With this battle of attrition in Jacobs’ favour and not seeing anything coming to interfere in the fight Jacob movements became one of confidence and amusement. The bear after enduring endless agony across its front legs and the blood constantly dripping from its massive gaping wound gave one last wail before fully collapsing onto the ground not a movement could be seen from the bear.

Jacob felt the essence rushed into him confirming the kill before he moved to dissect the bear as it was for himself he did not need much so he only cut off some of the meat that was easiest to get and skinned that off as the bear was too massive, the work would not have justified the cost. Jacob still had to check on the captured duo, however he also cut off the silver claws giving him 8 new throwing daggers. They sat snugly in the makeshift bundle Jacob still had strapped across his chest, with his new daggers and meat for sustenance in tow. Jacob moved a distance away from the bear and set Flowing Water once more to lumberwork and a small campfire was quickly constructed. Jacob pierced through the bear meat with his crudely made skewers and began cooking the bear meat, not long after the sweet smell of roasted meat tickled his nose anew causing him to salivate and quickly grabbed the first skewer he cooked into his mouth.

Burst of flavours exploded into his mouth as he first bit into the skewer eliciting unintended moans to escape from his throat at how delicious alien bear meat could taste, the bear meat tasted like the finest sliced meat dry aged for 7 days and prepared specifically to Jacobs’ taste both sweet and juicy at the same time. Jacob quickly gobbled up the rest of the skewer and his eyes landed on the rest of the prepared skewers, greedily waiting for their completion before sinking into the meat upon those skewers.

With the delicious meal quickly eaten up by Jacob, he set off for the cave to begin his scouting after smoldering the campfire. Somehow true to form the kobolds once again had 30 of them guarding the outpost the only difference this time was that Riley was tied up to the sacrifice pyrefire. In anticipation of the coming slaughter and confident about his chances after the improvements to his stats, Jacob readied Flowing Water in a 2 handed hold and charged towards the kobolds.