Chapter 7 - Combat

Kazimir glared at the bear. The small mountain-like beast was coming down at him. Kazimir gulped down saliva from his nervousness and brought his spear up, pointing it at the bear's face.

The bear didn't slow to attack, it wanted to trample him to death with its massive weight, and increased it's speed instead.

Kazimir braced the spear against the ground and gauged the quickly-closing distance. He rolled aside at the last moment to avoid being tackled. The planted spear drove right into the charging bear's chest. The spear's shaft snapped in half with a crunch from the impact, but luckily the spearhead was driven in deep.

Kazimir was happy he was able to do some damage in the first exchange, but regretted losing the weapon with the longest reach. Now he only had the rusted shortsword and dagger left.

*Rooaarr~*

The Rock Bear reared up as it screamed in pain. From high up, it slammed down its arms to crush Kazimir, but Kazimir calmly evaded once again. It hit the ground with incredible strength. Shock waves and cracks were sent racing through the earth from the bear at the center. After the tremors passed, Kaz had already recovered faster than the bear.

He wielded the shortsword in his right hand and the dagger in his left. Lowering his stance, he lunged forward and slashed with both at the bear's back. The dagger just slid off of the bear's thick hide, and the sword barely cut through some fur.

The beast tried to hit again with a back handed swing. Kazimir rolled backwards to dodge and kicked-up to get back into striking range.

He stabbed with both hands and the blades found their way into the Rock Bear's eye sockets.

The bear instinctively smacked Kazimir away, but it was too late. The bear was now completely blind. Kazimir left the dagger sticking out of the bear's face. He was able to keep hold of the shortsword's hilt, but the rusted blade couldn't take the stress and was snapped in half.

Despite the bear's strength, Kaz had braced himself and between kicking himself off the bear's chest into a roll he was able to negate the strength of the blow.

This was the end. The bear was rampaging about, it was swinging wildly and roaring angrily. Several innocent trees have already been mowed down as it searched for Kaz.

Kaz started making his presence thin: he retracted his killing intent, slowed his pulse and breathing to crawl, and utilized special footwork that focused more on stealth than speed. He slowly waited for the bear to become less frenzied as he slowly closed in on it.

He looked at the broken blade in his hand and quietly stowed it away. A little angry that his only metal tool was broken, he decided to use a technique that would make turn the bear's own external skull into a weapon for him.

Kaz got close to the Rock Bear's head and channeled the strike from his core with a whip like motion, the hit landed on its head from the side with inhuman speed.

The bear stiffened. Invisible vibrations were released from the strike into its brain, the effect was amplified by the bear's rigid skull. The bear was paralyzed due to having its entire brain shaken by the Vibrating Palm.

Not missing the momentary vulnerability, Kaz took out the broken blade and used it to hack into the bear's spine. Blind, unable to feel anything, and not knowing what happened, the mighty Rock Bear was killed by a human.

Kazimir leaned against the dead bear. Realizing he was covered with sweat, he thought he would rest for a moment to recover, but then he felt a heat spreading through his body.

Unlike the previous times that he leveled up, the heat was on a completely different level. It was to the point of making him uncomfortable and feeling like he was itchy under his skin. Luckily this sensation lasted for only a few seconds, which was still longer that the previous times.

Feeling instantly refreshed, Kaz checks his [Status]:

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Name: Kazimir Lin

Race: Human

Level: 10* Class: N/A

STR: 7 » 8 [┼]

AGI: 8 » 9 [┼]

VIT: 6 » 7 [┼]

INT: 6 » 7 [┼]

SPI: 2 » 3 [ ]

Unassigned points: <9>

Titles: [Beat the Odds]

Skills: [Survival lvl 1][Martial Arts lvl 7]

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Whoa! He leveled up five times, and got some stat increases without having to spend any points by himself. Kaz thought the bear must have been at a much higher level than him since he received such a big improvement in his stats.

Kaz saw his new title, and when he focused on it he instantly understood what it meant. He fought a creature that the world evaluated as being much more powerful than himself, a creature he should have had no chance against. By overcoming such a situation, he got a title, and it was the reason all of his stats went up by one.

Next, he noticed the asterisk by his level. Information entered his brain - he would not be able to advance any further unless he got a class. He already reached the peak energy that his body could handle without a specific direction to grow in. A teacher would become necessary to make further level increase possible.

Digging the tip out of the bear's head, he made sure that he retrieved what little metal he had. He pulled out the knife and proceeded to skin the giant bear.

The knife wasn't sharp, and the bone protrusions meant Kaz had to strip the hide in large chunks rather than as one large pelt. He ripped out the claws and fangs. Before long, the bear was dismantled into its smallest usable parts.

...

Several hours later a figure could be seen wearing a large backpack and dragging a large sack. The head, paws, meat, and hide were bundled up in bags made of hemp rope, bone, and more hide.

Kaz filled up the makeshift bags with as much bear material as he could take away with him and was making steady progress through the forest. Even though he didn't have to spend time tracking anything on his way back, it still took twice as long than when he and Obie came out to find the bear.

Kazimir approached the goblin village and was met with the surprised and curious faces of the goblins. He dropped off his haul next to the tree that he used as a bed the last few days.

Doing his best with the pronunciation, he called out to one of the goblins nearby, much to the goblins' shock. He asked where Obie was.

After some rough communication, Kaz understood that Obie has not returned yet. Something must have happened to the little fellow after they separated.

Kaz looked up at the sky and figure that the still had several hours before sunset. He gathered half of the adult gobllins with choppy commands, and had them all arm themselves with the weapons that they made while he was out.

He also grabbed a short spear that was of even better quality than the Kobold spear that was broken earlier today.

The party swiftly made their way through the forest, and started searching for signs of the missing goblin. After getting a strong hunch, Kaz went to check the large Kobold camp.

At the camp he saw Obie tied up and bruised. The little guy was restrained by the edge of the camp, next to a boiling cauldron. It seems he was to be the main course for the Kobold dinner tonight.

Kazimir split his party, he had five goblins go check out the place where he killed the bear. These goblins were given the command to scavenge as much of that bear's meat as possible, among with other useful parts.

After the five left, Kaz had about a dozen goblins remaining with him. He started explaining the plan.

He wanted to keep the strategy as simple as possible. The goblins would creep up to the entrance of the Kobold camp and wait for Kaz's signal. Kaz would get as close to Obie as possible, and the goblins would make a ruckus to divert the camp's attention while he rescues their target. They would all escape afterwards.

Due to the large number of Kobolds, Kaz got a little serious. For the second time in one day, he utilized techniques that made it hard to perceive his presence. Getting close to Obie from outside the camp, he heard a commotion from where he left the Goblins.

A scouting party was returning and the goblins, emboldened by their numerical advantage surrounded and killed them. This wasn't before the screams of the dying Kobolds alerted the whole camp.

Cursing under his breath, Kazimir exited his hiding spot and ran up to Obie. On his way to the goblin he killed two nearby Kobolds that were surprised by his presence. Using his dagger he quickly cut apart Obie's restraints and picked the small goblin up.

Carrying him on his back, Kaz didn't care about stealth anymore: He used a special method to sprint past the surrounding Kobolds and ran straight to the edge of the camp where the goblins were engaged in battle.

Handing Obie over to one of the bigger Goblins, Kaz acted as the rearguard to make sure the goblins weren't wiped out during their escape.

Using his spear Kaz was swiftly parrying away and stabbing Kobolds as they got close, thinning their numbers. After running for a few minutes it seemed like they lost their pursuers. Thinking it better to be safe than sorry, Kazimir didn't slow the pace and the party ran all the way back to the village.

...

Josz received Obie from a goblin when everyone returned. Kaz explained what happened today and apologized for letting Obie get hurt on his watch. Josz was clearly upset, but didn't say anything.

After making sure nothing was broken and that there wasn't any internal bleeding, Kaz left the cave to let the uncle and nephew rest.

It was starting to get dark, and Kaz was reflecting on his performance today. The matter with the bear could have been handled better. Getting overconfident and then losing composure was his greatest mistake.

It was bad that Obie was injured, but as it was nothing serious Kaz was able to view their skirmish as a win. Thee exact layout of the Kobold camp was now known, and he even thinned their numbers out significantly. He regretted not having the chance to see the Shaman's combat performance, but he knew he was greedy to want that much.

The five goblins that were sent out to collect the bear returned an hour after sunset. Surprisingly, they were able to carry the entirety of the remains by making nets from ivy and dragging the pieces like Kaz.

Another night of merrymaking followed and Kazimir was finally able to join the barbecue! He finally felt the feeling of a full belly for the first time in this world.

He hadn't paid it much attention when he returned to the village earlier, but a large foundation and wooden floor was already complete in the village. He should be able to sleep indoors tomorrow.

Making a bed from plants and hide, Kazimir relaxed as he drifted off to sleep while peeking at the starry sky above. After such an exciting day he was already looking forward to tomorrow.