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When news of the mammoth herd spread throughout the chiefdom, everyone was excited. It had been a good few years since anyone had eaten any meat that walked on land, and everyone was up for a change of diet.
Those who were especially excited were the hunters of the tribe who had to take up other professions during this long winter, and there was a good chunk of young men who had come of age over the recent years but had nothing to hunt for their coming of age ceremony, so they had to resort to fishing to show that they were capable of providing, but it was just not the same.
Within hours of the news spreading, there was a hoard of hunters at the gate, ready to move out at Grud's command. Seeing that everyone was clad in thick furs and wagons of supplies were ready to move out, Grud saw no reason to delay and sent the scouts to lead the way.
As Grud's group traveled towards the last seen location of the mammoth herd, hunters from smaller tribes joined them for the hunt in hopes of bringing something home for their tribe.
***
A week and a half into their journey, Grud's group came across a convoy that was holding dead and injured hunters going back to their tribes. When questioned about what caused such casualty, Grud was informed that the mammoth herd was at least a day's journey away, and those in the wagons were those who were unlucky or too eager to prove themselves when facing the mammoth herd.
With this news of them being so close to their prey, Grud pushed on as much as his men could march in the thick snow until nightfall and continued their journey the next morning.
A few hours into the morning travels, the scouts returned to Grud to report the first signs of the mammoth herd passing. When Grud arrived at where the scouts reported the tracks were, he was greeted by acres of bald evergreen trees with almost every speck of green striped from them.
This made tracking the herd easier. All they had to do was follow the path of stripped trees to find their prey. Within no less than three hours of travel from following the stripped trees, the scouts came running back to Grud, confirming the truth of the size of the mammoth herd.
Hearing the confirmation of the mammoth numbers, one of the younger, inexperienced hunters commented, "With our mighty chieftain, we can hunt them all down. With the cold freezing everything, we will have more than enough meat to make it through this long winter."
Hearing this, Grud used his spear to give the young man a light bonk on the head, "Do not be greedy, young hunter. Only kill what you need, not what you can. If we kill too many, there will not be enough to hunt next time. This goes the same for every beast you will ever hunt. Remember that." Grud said as he lectured the young man.
Grud turned to the scouts who had just reported in. "How many males are in the herd? We don't want to target the females, if possible."
"If we exclude their young, there are only four adult males," the scout replied.
"Huh… that is a lot fewer than I was expecting. Did other tribes get to all the males before they got to us?" Grud commented.
"That is normal, Chieftain Grud." One of the older hunters replied to Grud's comment. Grud raised a questioning eyebrow and gestured for him to continue. "My grandfather was from a tribe far north, so he told us about the mammoths. The herds are mostly made up of females and their young, led by a matriarch. The males mainly roam from herd to herd to mate. So it would be prudent in this case to mainly target the females for this hunt."
Hearing this, Grud folded his arms and looked like he was contemplating something. 'As practical as I want this hunt to be, I still want to hunt a male mammoth. Its skull, with its impressive tusks, would look impressive mounted above my front door. And seeing that this is the first proper hunt I had in years, I will do this without mana or my personal weapons and armor. It has been too long since I felt a real challenge when hunting, and I feel like I am getting out of practice.'Grud thought to himself.
Grud turned to the scouts and commanded, "Select ten female mammoths. We will divide the hunters into ten groups, and each scout will lead a group to their target. As for myself, find me the largest male mammoth of the four. I will hunt it alone."
As everyone went about to carry out his instructions, Grud went up to one of the supply wagons and started undressing. At first, nobody batted an eye as Grud took off his armor. They thought he was just making some last-minute adjustments. They only took notice when Grud was putting back on his fur winterwear without the armor that some of his own tribe's men came up to him.
"Chieftain, did you forget to wear your armor?" they asked as politely as possible.
Grud slowly shook his head. "I did not forget. I am just hunting as I did during my coming-of-age hunt. With just my body and a spear, no magic, no magic weapons or armor." he said as he loaded his spear into the wagon and took out a simple spear.
This caused alarm for those nearby who overheard this, "But chieftain! It-" one of his men tried to object to Grud's decision, but Grud put up his hand to stall what he was about to say.
"It is something I need to do for myself. I need to feel the challenge again, the feeling that my life is on the line." Grud said as he checked the balance of the spear he was now holding.
"But Chieftain! Should you fall, what would become of the chiefdom?" another of his tribe's men asked with worry in his voice.
Grud just waved off the man's worry, "I have many sons, and most of them are strong. Pick from one of them." he said as he walked off to oversee the hunting groups.
Soon enough, a hunt leader was chosen from each of the ten groups, and a plan to isolate and engage the target was hammered out. As for Grud's plan in all of this, his plan was to find the biggest mammoth bull in the herd and have any nearby hunting groups help isolate it from the herd, leaving him to step up to solo it.
***
It took the better part of an hour for all ten groups to creep into position, and when they were all ready and had picked their target, Grud made a bird call to signal the start of the hunt.
As one, ten hunting groups and Grud burst out of what little hiding the frozen forest provided and charged the herd, waving their hands and hollering, kicking up a racket and trying to sound as threatening as possible. All of this to spook the herd and try to break them up.
However, unlike the tactics passed down from their ancestors regarding hunting mammoths, this situation was different. The herd had doubled its previous number and was emboldened by that. After ensuring their young were surrounded by a defensive ring of female mammoths, the other females and the biggest of the females, the matriarch, charged the hunters.
This surprised the hunters, but they were fast and agile enough to avoid the charges by putting trees between themselves and the charging mammoths. In a way, despite being counterattacked, the result was the same. The charging mammoths separated from the herd and were easier to hunt.
As for the male mammoths, besides trumpeting and stomping their feet in threat, they did not do much besides join the wall of mammoths defending the young. So, while the ten hunting groups pulled away the charging females, Grud slipped by relatively unnoticed as he saw his target and went to confront the biggest mammoth bull.
When Grud stood before the wall of defensive mammoths defending their young, He released his murderous intent and focused it on his target, the mammoth bull. Somehow, most likely through pure instincts, the other mammoths around sensed where Grud was targeting his intent, and all of them saw it for what it was. The mammoth bull was being called out, and if this mammoth bull ever wanted to mate and pass on his genes in this herd, he needed to face this human or be deemed too weak for any female to accept his seed.
Despite its senses telling the mammoth bull that the tiny human before it was a dangerous predator, it could not tolerate challenges to its dominance. It stopped and trumpeted as he brought its tusks low and charged.
Wanting to test the limits of his body that had been evolving over the years after consuming so many different animals. Grud charged forward with a roar while bringing his spear back for a throw, and just before they clashed, Grud hurled his spear with all his might right into its eye. But besides trumpeting in pain, the mammoth did not flinch as it clashed with Grud.
Grud grabbed the mammoth's tusks, which curled to almost touch each other, and braced his whole body against the ground to attempt to stop the mammoth's charge. But no matter how strong Grud was, the difference in mass was too great. This caused Grud to be easily pushed back across the ground.
At first, Grud's feet dug up snow as he was pushed backward. Soon after, they dug up frozen dirt. A few meters later, Grud's feet were digging a furrow. The friction alone tore off his footwear, but Grud did not care. Eventually, Grud managed to bleed the momentum of the mammoth's charge, but the price he paid was his whole body aching and was knee-deep in a furrow of his own making.
Despite the pain, Grud considered this a victory. He had met a paragon of strength head-on and survived what some of his people say is the greatest of prey, but he was still standing strong, and Grud saw his path to victory, all he needed to do was pull himself over the tusks he was holding and punch the spear embedded in the mammoth's eye to pierce its brain.
Grud began pulling himself out of the furrow by pulling on the mammoth's tusks but was interrupted by a trunk wrapping around his waist. Grud reached for his knife but found that the trunk wrapping him also wrapped the handle of the knife, preventing him from grabbing it.
Seeing that he could not use his knife, Grud resorted to throwing punches at the trunk. But before the second blow could land, He was yanked up into the air, slammed on the ground, and dragged through the snow.
After a few seconds of being thrashed around, Grud regained his composure, got a grip on the trunk holding him with one arm, and started wailing on the trunk with his other arm. As Grud rained down punch after punch on the meaty trunk, the mammoth made pained noises and finally released Grud by throwing him at a tree.
Grud flew through the air, smacking a tree with his shoulder. As he bounced off, a chunk of the tree got smashed off by the impact. The only silver lining was the thick snow cushioning his landing, allowing Grud to stand up to face the mammoth with just a dislocated shoulder.
Seeing its opponent still standing, the mammoth bull charged Grud to finish him off.
Seeing the incoming mammoth, Grud decided that he had enough time to relocate his arm and knocked it back in its socket by bashing his shoulder against a nearby tree.
Just as the mammoth was almost upon him, Grud jumped, stepped off the mammoth's tusk with one foot, and kicked the butt of the spear sticking in the mammoth's eye with the other, just as his body was headbutt by the mammoth's massive forehead and sent flying and spinning a few meters in the air and crashing into the snow.
When Grud got his head out of the snow and looked around, he looked behind him to see the mammoth he was fighting, face down and ass up in the snow, unmoving.
Wanting to make sure, Grud limped to the mammoth and rested his hand on its body. Besides the warmth of its body, there was no heartbeat or breathing, and when he made it to its head, he looked into its remaining eye and saw that it was lifeless.
He had won… without magic or equipment but by just the strength of his arms.
Grud looked around at the other hunting groups and saw that they were doing well with their own targets while the main body of the herd was slowly retreating.
Seeing this as an opportunity to get the strength of this mighty beast, Grud drew his knife and started cutting into the mammoth to look for its heart.
Grud was three-quarter-way inside the mammoth carcass before he found what he thought was the heart. After feeling his way around it with his arms, he estimated it to be around six times the size of his head.
'No way am I going to be able to eat this in one sitting.' Grud thought to himself, so he decided to cut out a chunk of the heart and scoff it down when he was outside of the carcass.