After hunting, Kael returned to the cave with a deer slung around his neck. Getting to the cave he noticed the entrance was open. It did not appear to be broken into by an animal as the smaller set of logs was set off to the side. Dropping the deer on the ground, he pulled out a dagger that he held in a reverse grip with his left hand, while gripping tightly to his hammer with the right.

Slowly approaching his cave he could hear indistinct voices coming from inside. Heading to the entrance and looking inside, he saw 3 men dressed like typical mercenaries in the back of the cave. They were all wearing leather armor covered by chain mail and had swords on their hips. They had a few bags propped up against the side of the cave wall and were in the process of bundling up the numerous hides he had collected in the last 2 months.

Seeing his home being robbed he shouted out, “Hey, stop taking my pelts, that’s my bed you bastards!”

With the sudden shout the mercs dropped what they were doing and spun towards the entrance of the cave. Seeing a child they laughed and said, “If you wanted them you should have taken them with you. Who is to say these are not ours, and you are trying to steal them.”

Getting pissed at the guys Kael said, “I don’t want to hear your bullshit, get the hell out of my home.”

One of the mercenaries, an ugly man with an overly large nose, sneered and said, “Hear that guys, we are in the poor kids home.”

A second mercenary gave Kael an evil look and said, “Brat, that is a nice hammer, drop it and your backpack and you can leave. Otherwise, this cave will permanently become the place you sleep.”

“Was that supposed to be a threat? All I see is three barking dogs who are begging for a beating.” Kael responded. Shrugging off his pack from his left shoulder it fell to the ground, spilling his javelins across the cave.

Seeing that the kid was going to fight over his shitty little cave, the three men pulled their swords and prepared to hack him to death. None of them stopped to consider that the little kid in front of them was most likely the one who hunted all of the precious hides they were so excited about a moment earlier. Considering it was impossible for them to hunt even a single one of the beasts, if they had stopped to think, they would have known they were walking to their deaths.

As the three men drew their swords, Kael sat his hammer on the ground with the hilt sticking into the air. Kicking one of the javelins up with his toe, he caught it with his right hand. Not waiting for them to approach, he reared back and threw it at the smallest looking guy. The javelin zipped through the 40-foot distance hitting the merc directly in the chest. The bear claw tip split the chain mail easily. As the javelin pierced the man's chest he was lifted from the ground and literally nailed to the wall behind him. Grasping the javelins handle the merc looked down at it with blood spilling from his mouth. His last thought was, a fucking kid killed me.

Seeing how easily their buddy was dispatched, the other two mercenaries rushed Kael at full speed. With the mercenaries rushing him, Kael gripped his hammers hilt, took two steps forward to get some extra power, and hurled it at the merc on the right side. Not waiting for it to connect he dashed forward. Diving into a roll to make a smaller target, he came up in a crouched position directly in front of the merc who was on the left. Hearing the sound of a sword cutting air as it whistled above him, Kael used the momentum he had built to help in gutting the man. With a downward strike, he split the man from just below his sternum to below his belly button.

Kicking himself into a backward roll and coming to his feet a little away from the merc, he just barely missed being covered in entrails as they spilled out of the man. Looking over to the other merc he was also on the ground. His armor did almost nothing to reduce the blunt force trauma caused by the hammer, which had shattered his ribcage when it hit.

Walking over to the mercs and giving them a quick death he looked around his cave in shock. It wasn’t the first time he had killed a man, but the first time was all on instinct. This time he had calculated the best way to end them. Feeling a bit sick he reminded himself that they were going to rob and kill him first.

After catching his breath, Kael wrapped the three bodies in one of his beast hides. Hauling the three of them out a few miles into the woods he dumped them. Taking their money pouches before heading to the river for a bath. When he was finally feeling clean he headed back to his cave. Once there he collected the mercenaries swords and packs and placed them on the table along with their money pouches. Rearranging the hides that had been bundled up he got his home back to the way it was.

Sitting down at his table he examined the swords. Finding them to be mortal tier 2 weapons he tossed them to the side of the cave thinking, No wonder my dagger cut their armor like it was mud. All of their gear is shit. My freaking bone weapons are all tier 5.

Sorting through their money bags he came out with 2 gold and 300 silver. Seriously poor. He found nothing notable in the pouches other than some metal cutlery. Keeping one of the forks and spoons, he thought, At least I finally have a spoon.

Wrapping the rest of their belongings up he took to them to their owners. Dumping the cheap gear in a half-hearted manner near what was left of their corpses. He wiped some of their blood on the packs so scavengers would get to them too. Erasing his tracks he headed back to his cave.

After a half hour of covering the blood with dirt and packing it down, everything was back to normal. Remembering he had a deer outside, he went to look for it, only to find it had been taken by some animal while he was gone. Swearing he sealed up his cave to go hunting once more.