Strength to Bear- Part 3

Kumatetsu continues to grow in strength- but so do the responsibilities he's expected to bear. Enjoy!

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Kumatetsu rumbled low, his body tensed and starting to ache as he lifted a boulder the size of his house back in Juntengai, resting the immense weight on his sprawling shoulders. He grit his teeth, each heavy footstep starting to burn in his trunk-sized legs.

"C'mon, Kumatetsu! When'd you become such a slowpoke?" Tatara chortled.

The bear ground his teeth harder, casting a wide-eyed glare at the monkey. "One more word, and I'll throw this boulder at you. I don't see any of you doin' anything to get rid of this rock slide!"

Kyuta canted his head. "You… told us all you got this. To 'stand back and watch a real warrior work.'"

"Hey! I wasn't talking to you, apprentices don't talk back to their masters!"

Don't be harsh on them— strength is power. Power breeds responsibility. The spirit that had granted Kumatetsu all this awesome strength whispered teasingly in his ear. 

"Ugh. You're going to start lecturing me, too?" Kumatetsu muttered under his breath. With a mighty heave, he threw off the boulder with immense relief, the giant chunk of stone crashing to the forest ground beneath them.

"Well… I hope no one was down there…" Hyaku said quietly, watching the rock crash into the ground with a tremendous, cratering impact.

Kumatetsu rolled his thick, pillar neck, trying to break free of the kinks and sores in his massive body. The strength granted to him was tremendous— and despite the fatigue, he couldn't wait for Iozen to see him now. The bear's mighty chest heaved, a pair of boulders in their own right grinding against one another. While he dropped his arms at his sides, the bloated masses of his triceps and the crowning peaks of his biceps were pressed at angles by the widening buttresses of his flared-out lats, the framework of his massively wide back. 

The bear's thick, powerfully built legs rippled, rolls of tightly packed muscle bristling. He had eschewed all of his clothing for this job; with how big he had grown, the heat and humidity of the forest was getting to him. He could only stand to have a fundoshi on, saving his dignity. As he caught his breath, arms tensing, pectoral muscles rolling up and out, he glanced at the sheer enormity of his body, and felt the tingling sensation of power coursing through him.

Had enough?

"Heh. Not at all," the bear grinned tightly.