Returning to the elk's body, Hulk spat aside a piece of gristle and marked the spot with a broken branch, bending it sharply to point toward the tree line.
Summer was almost done, and the Bloodfang Tribe needed every scrap of food for the cold season ahead. Meat rotted fast in the heat, and Hulk wasn't about to waste good kills. But just marking the spot wasn't good enough.
With a grunt, Hulk climbed a thick, knotted tree and hauled the elk up into the branches, wedging its heavy body between thick limbs. It wasn't clean, but it kept the meat out of reach from ground-scavengers.
No point letting bone-stealers or cavecrawlers get a free meal.
Done with that, he kept moving, crouched low, eyes sharp. His steps were quiet now—weight on the balls of his feet, knees slightly bent, ready to explode into action. His old coach back on Earth would've been proud.
His traps were decent, tight snares woven from vines and rope, stakes buried sharp, but they were only good for small beasts. Anything bigger would snap the bindings like thread.
Didn't matter. Hulk didn't need traps for a fight. His fists were enough.
Soon, his sharp gaze caught movement. A new beast had appeared.
[Beast: Red-Eyed Burrower][Level: Standard][Weight: 115 pounds][Strength: 7][Agility: 10][Stamina: 2]Traits: Blood-hunters. Pack hunters. Fast, but weak if surrounded.
A burrower, a beast the size of a wild dog, covered in thick grey fur, teeth jagged, claws sharp, and worst of all, glowing red eyes filled with hunger.
"By the War God's teeth..." Hulk muttered, lips curling.
They were crawling out of their burrows, sniffing him like he was dinner. One, two, five... ten of them in total, moving in a loose circle.
Felt like fighting drunk amateurs in an alley—except these amateurs had fangs.
The first burrower lunged, claws outstretched. Hulk shifted his stance, grounding his feet wide. His left foot slid back, hands up, elbows tucked in.
Crack!
An elbow like a swinging hammer caved the bunny's skull, sending its body tumbling sideways in a mess of fur and twitching limbs.
The others didn't hesitate. They charged from all sides, as fast as lightning.
"Come on, then," Hulk growled, twisting his waist and driving a knee up hard into the next burrower's ribs. Bones snapped like dry twigs.
Two more hit his back. Hulk rolled forward, grabbed one by its throat mid-roll, and slammed it overhead into the ground like a wrestling throw.
Another leaped at his face, teeth gnashing. Hulk ducked, swung a heavy backfist into its jaw, and followed with a brutal stomp to the chest.
[Newbie Quest Triggered: Defeat 5/100 creatures barehanded to unlock Advanced Hand to Hand Combat Mastery]
Good. Progress.
These things were fast, but their stamina was trash. Hulk kept his breathing slow, body loose, shoulders relaxed.
His fists hammered one after another, elbows cutting like axes, knees rising like battering rams.
Scarlet blood sprayed the ground in wide arcs.
Soon, the surviving burrowers panicked. They broke formation and ran, running toward the safety of their burrows.
But Hulk didn't come this far to let prey escape.
He bent low, coiling like a spring, and then launched one of the dead burrower corpses like a shot put, slamming into a fleeing one, breaking its back instantly. Orc throws weren't pretty, but they worked.
[Newbie Quest Completed: Hit enemies 10/10 times with thrown weapons. Intermediate Throwing Mastery unlocked.]
Fists. Elbows. Corpses. Whatever works.
In less than ten minutes, over ten bloodthirsty burrowers lay dead at Hulk's feet, and over a thousand pounds of meat sat ready for carving.
Good food. Better fur. Clean winter clothes, maybe.
The Blood Forest wouldn't stay generous forever. With the cold coming soon, the tribe would face harder hunts, scarcer prey, and worst of all... voidspawn tides in winter.
They came like locusts—mindless, endless, flesh-hungry monsters from deep in the ground.
If the tribe wasn't ready by then, they'd starve or worse.
Humming to himself like an old fight chant, Hulk piled the burrower bodies, slinging several over his broad shoulders. Blood dripped down his arms, dark red against green skin.
"Burrower stew for the camp. Lucky me."
Suddenly something snapped!
One of his traps had been triggered. He heard the low, angry hiss of a beast caught, struggling.
Hulk followed fast, pushing aside thick vines, and there it was.
A massive lizard, dull gray skin shining in the light. Its thick tail lashed, sharp teeth dripping venom.
[Beast: Komodo Lizard][Level: Standard][Weight: 800 pounds][Strength: 9][Agility: 4][Stamina: 8]Traits: Toxin resistance. Can swallow prey whole. Good for leather, bad for eating.]
Hulk spat to the side. "Great. Lizard leather. Tastes like dirt but makes decent carrying bags."
The beast thrashed harder. Hulk stepped in, dodging its jaws, and drove a hammer fist down on the skull, cracking bone with raw power.
It slumped.
He got to work fast, slicing open the belly with a sharp bone shard, digging out the elastic stomach lining. Orcs used these crude stomach bags for carrying food or goods. Not pretty, but it worked.
Hulk cleaned it out near a creek, packed the bloody bunny bodies inside, and shouldered the messy bundle.
No weapons. No steel. Just fists, flesh, and bone tools. The orc way.
Glancing up, Hulk saw sunlight breaking through the forest canopy. The shadows were already stretching long.
Night was coming fast.
Out here, things hunted after dark—and Hulk wasn't stupid. He needed to get back to the tribe before something worse smelled all this fresh blood.
Time to move.
But just as he was about to leave, he spotted something limping through the undergrowth, dragging its leg, bloody, weak.
A wolf. Grey fur, fangs exposed in a silent snarl. One of Hulk's traps had caught its paw. It wasn't going anywhere.
"Wolf meat's chewy," Hulk muttered. "But better than starving."
He raised his fist, ready to smash its skull in—
Ding!
[Newbie Quest Triggered: Feed a beast 10 times to unlock Basic Beast Taming Skill]
He froze.
Beast taming? Orcs didn't tame beasts. Orcs killed beasts.
But taming... That's a strength too.
Hulk lowered his fist, eyes narrowed.
"Interesting."