Shift the foot back, grasp the spear firmly, bring it back to strike. When ready exhale and twist the legs, hips, arms and finally hands.

Then let it soar.

Wind and Flame twirled around the shaft of the spear before piercing forth cutting through the air. Although it seemed like a good strike Urist frowned as he brought back Greedy Serpent to his side and started thinking.

I’ve grown stronger but the strike isn’t the same as I used when I killed the rat king. I should keep practicing to reach that level once again, well it’s a good time to finally test this body’s strength. Let’s see how much stronger I have become with some exercise.

Limbering up first, he shockingly noticed that his flexibility had increased. Before it was a chore for him to try and touch his toes now it was easy. He also found out that his ability to do splits had increased considerably allowing him to perform perfect splits without any strain. It weirded him out in the ways he could stretch his body but felt glad that learning the seven strikes will be easier from now on.

He moved onto push-ups doing one hundred and not feeling tired. He moved onto three-finger push-ups then two fingers and finally thump push-ups all done with ease. Feeling adventurous he decided to do one-handed thumb push-ups and although it was a bit hard he could manage it with great balance.

If my balance is so great then can I do handstands?

After a few failed attempts Urist managed to pull the maneuver off and began walking with his hands. It took him only a few minutes before he had become skilled in moving around the training room. He then began doing handstand push-ups removing a finger every set of fifty leaving him with only a thumb and finger before the strain was too much to continue.

Working up a light sweat he took a swig of water and moved to one side of the training room and moved to the other side as fast as he could. Digging his foot into the ground he became amazed that he could move twice as fast as his previous speed.

He already tested his eyesight and found that he could see within 100 feet in great detail, and could also see fifty feet in the dark with perfect clarity. The last thing he needed to test, was his strength which he had been quite eager to test since he woke up. He walked over to the corner where different sized rocks were located. He started easy with a fifty-pound rock and worked his weigh up to five hundred pounds before he felt some strain.

After he did these tests he felt pretty good that if he had to fight the rat king once more he wouldn’t be that disadvantaged in his current state. If he entered Berserker's Fury he had a feeling that he could overpower him and probably kill him one on one eight out of ten times. If he entered two-fold berserk it wouldn’t be a challenge.

If I had this power at that time then Uria wouldn’t be blind now. No, I can’t keep going like this. I can’t let the past drag me down, I must move on and deal with the consequences to the things I let happen and become stronger and make this never happens again.

Affirming his belief Urist took his stance once again with his spear and began practicing once more.

---

“Hey, musclehead. What is this report saying that the scout team has found a land bridge up north to cross the river? If so this will change our plans of expanding to the south.”

Snorting, Unicy sat in her chair and took a drink of tea before replying, “Stop calling me a musclehead you failed general. Blink personally reported to me this morning about them finding the bridge. Man, that Valkus guy is crazy I feel bad for those hunters under him, making them spend these past few nights outside in the wild.

“But yes he said it’s more of a small mountain than a bridge easily able to transport back and forth. It’s also reported by Valkus that when he went into the river and swam up into the hill, he found a large lake. Both entrances are able to support ships to pass through if we built them. Honestly, by the description with some work, it can be considered a natural fortress to connect to the west and a shipyard to easily hold one hundred small or fifty medium ships. Although I wish we could see it with our own eyes before making such a judgment. ”

Pushing up his glasses Ubel looked over the map on the table that had been expanded greatly in the northern area. Thanks to Reaver’s pets the hunting team made great progress in scouting the area yesterday.

He didn’t have a big problem except for the area that covered the river as it changed the plan they were going to put into action. Originally to obtain salt and seafood as they found out thanks to the report Urist bought that salt could neutralize the waterway poison. Also finding that natural non-transported sentient creatures and plants broke down the poison making it harmless. With a few exceptions such as cactuses which were known to increase the poison concentration.

It weirded out Ubel why there was such a strange poison in the fresh waterways but rolled with it. He and Urist talked about and decided when they had enough power they would investigate where this poison came from.

But that was a long time away and it was more important to focus on expansion. With such expansive fields to the west to tap in and were much closer, it would be a better choice then going an unknown distance south.

“I was just making sure the map was correct. With this information, we’ll probably be going to have to change the plan. I’ll go talk with Urist and set up a meeting to figure out which will be better.”

“Mn. Then I’ll go back to training the troops with Volt and ready ourselves against the beast invasion hitting us tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be heading out first Musclehead.”

“I told you not to call me that shitty four-eyes!”