"No attempted maiming. Broken bones should be avoided. Death is unacceptable. Strikes with the open or closed hand, foot, knee, or other parts of the body are all acceptable. Loss is determined by surrender or unconsciousness. If there is a perceived tie, the fight can be repeated."
Muti's explanation was straightforward, but Astrid hadn't expected to be allowed to keep her armor on, including her helmet. Interestingly, her attributes were high enough that she was faster wearing her armor and benefitting from Steady Load than without the armor on at all. Muti too wore her armor, but she'd changed her regular gloves for ones that had a thicker boiled leather padding on the knuckles. As she explained the rules, she bounced from one foot to the other with her arms bouncing loosely at the side. Astrid couldn't help but look at Muti's roughly bandaged arm while the Barbarian bounced and spoke.
"Is there anything that is unclear?" Muti asked. "I will begin the countdown once you have agreed to the terms."
"What constitutes surrender?" Astrid asked, looking around the sand pit where they were about to fight.
"Shouting yield. Falsely pretending to go limp is contrary to the spirit of the competition and is a sign of cowardice. Do not do so, as I will cease any grappling as soon as resistance ceases."
"That's fine." Astrid answered, getting her fists up into position. "I'm ready now."
"Very well!" Muti laughed as she bent her knees into a ready position. "In three, two, one, begin!"
Astrid was ready to grapple, she'd spent a small part of her life doing it with the guards and their prospective rookies. What she wasn't used to, though, was wrestling someone her own size. Regardless of Power, size and weight were a massive benefit in a match like this, and Astrid had always leveraged that over her foes. Muti was taller, broader, and heavier than Astrid, and she used it to bully Astrid.
The Rogue's hands flashed out, and Astrid anticipated the grab, but not the lowered shoulder. With her Attributes and the steadier bearing that Steady Load granted her, she managed to keep her feet, but Muti's fingers sought and found Astrid's belt. She roared in effort as she turned and lifted Astrid into the air. Fortunately, Astrid knew enough to keep herself from getting driven back down into the dirt underfoot, and she shoved back against Muti's chest and got some measure of space between them, allowing her feet to touch the ground again.
With Muti's Class, Astrid expected to be fully outclassed in Alacrity, but she found that while Muti's moves were more practiced, the Barbarian actually wasn't that much faster than her. Astrid used that to her advantage as she wove her arm between Muti's and broke the Barbarian's hold on her. Then, when Muti tried to punch out at Astrid a couple times, Astrid took the blows. They hurt and threatened to knock the wind out of her, but she took hold of Muti's hurt arm and squeezed while the Barbarian moved.
Astrid saw through Muti's mask as she grimaced and groaned, but there was a certain satisfaction in the Barbarian's eyes that Astrid couldn't quite place. She didn't care, and while Muti yanked her arm back, Astrid took the opportunity to strike a single heavy blow into her ribs. Muti didn't react except to fight to take even breaths, and Astrid noticed that she'd managed to know the wind out of her with that hit. A small part of Astrid wanted to finish the fight there, but Muti had been immensely straightforward in her explanation—this was a fight until one of them gave up or was knocked out of the fight.
They continued grappling, with Astrid using her heavier armor, higher Fortitude, and Blunt Weapons Mastery to her advantage, turning many of Muti's attacks into strikes that harmed the Rogue herself. All the while, whenever Muti closed in, though the Barbarian obviously was more experienced than Astrid herself, Astrid took the opportunity to strike back.
The fight came to a head when Astrid seized an opportunity to hold onto Muti's wounded arm with both hands. As the Barbarian hissed in pain and tried to pull back, Astrid closed in to hold instead on Muti's waist. With a roar, she lifted the Rogue and smashed her down into the ground. As before, Astrid set on mounting and pummeling her opponent, but this time, she didn't realize her center was too high. Muti thrust her hips up and threw Astrid clear, just enough for Muti herself to get free and on Astrid's back.
At that point, there was nothing more Astrid could do as Muti's legs locked around her waist and she punched at Astrid's neck and ribs while snaking another arm around Astrid's throat.
"I yield!" She shouted, stopping her resistance. Muti crowed in victory and pushed off Astrid, who lay in the dirt, sand in her mouth and sweat in her eyes. Frustrated tears threatened to well in her eyes, but Astrid blinked them away. Instead, she rolled onto her back, panting and exhausted. After fumbling for a moment, she managed to get her helm unfastened and pulled it off. A couple people had gathered to watch the fight, seemingly happy to just enjoy the sight of two delvers kicking the sense out of each other. Now that the excitement was over, they called out encouragement while they walked away. Astrid swiped her glove across her face, trying to get the worst of the sweat and dirt off, to limited success.
"You're a damn good grappler." Astrid grunted as she sat back up. Muti stood victorious above her.
"I am." Muti nodded, though there was a certain melancholy to her words as she said as much.
Astrid struggled to her feet, cursing the fact that she'd taken a bath just an hour or so before. She needed to make her way around the town, see where the smithy was, where an Apothecary sold draughts as well as health potions, where a Grocer would be able to provide materials for longer delves… And instead of that, Muti had ambushed her with a demand that they have the fight that she'd mentioned before.
"You do not know how to grapple." Muti said. Again, there was no malice. Astrid still felt her anger rise, and Muti noted it. "It is obvious—you do not know how to protect your back, how to leverage your grabs. We will work on it. It is something that the people here do not do. You rely on Skills before practice, you listen to Classes before you listen to experience."
"And that's why you're here? Because you don't listen to Classes?" Astrid snapped back. Muti's earnest posture bled into an angrier one. Astrid felt her stomach drop but it was too late.
"I am here," Muti hissed, "because weaklings like you stole my Class from me. The Dungeon decided that others too weak to deserve what I earned should receive it nonetheless. Do not expect my next lesson to be so kind, Astrid. I will carve into your bones an understanding of what I have done to become Muti."
As she said as much, the Barbarian turned to stalk away. Astrid tried to get to her feet to pursue her, but instead, she was kicked in the chest, knocked back down to the ground. She felt her nostrils flare in her angry breathing, and she resolved herself to follow the uppity Barbarian and teach her what would happen when Astrid was truly fighting! Fortunately, she calmed down enough that, instead of going to try to commit murder, Astrid instead stood up and took a couple calming breaths while she thought about what had just happened.
A part of her complained to Klara, that the Guild's representative had said that Muti would welcome Astrid's anger, but the rest of her knew that this was entirely something different. Astrid had learned what Muti's greatest regret, fear, and painful experience was, and then threw it in her face. Of course Muti was angry about that. Then, instead of swearing to kill her or leaving the party or anything permanent, Muti merely promised that she would continue to teach Astrid.
"If you can hear me, Muti," Astrid spoke with a raised voice, "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking, I was just angry that I lost and then you were teaching me. It was stupid, but it was what I did."
There was no answer. Astrid looked down at herself and slowly decided that she should go get cleaned, again, before going to see the town and which stores she would need to work closely with for the next however long.
***
Muti
"It was stupid, but it was what I did."
The damned weak Warrior apologized. They all did! They always did! It didn't make sense! Muti knew their ways were foolish and weak, but still, they made her angrier and angrier by the day. This was why there were no Berserkers here, none who understood the depths of power that come from losing humanity in the fight! She breathed a deep, calming breath and stepped into the inn through the door that Astrid opened. As she had earlier that day, the Warrior seemed to feel Muti's presence and glanced behind her. Fortunately, the attention diverting nature of Sneaking was stronger than the Warrior's Acumen. Muti slipped past Astrid and into the inn. She glanced to each side and ensured that her path to her room was clear. So many delvers, and none of them paid any attention to the world around them.
Disturbing.
How could they live like this, so unaware of the dangers that the world constantly posed? Why didn't they understand that they were surrounded by enemies on every side? It was something they whispered about behind polite smiles, so if they thought she was dangerous, why didn't they treat her like she was?
Maybe if she was an Assassin they would have believed it in truth.
But if she was an Assassin, she wouldn't be here, would she? Muti didn't need to ask herself the question. It was something she knew the answer to. The Hordemaster's disgusted face as he marked her below her face was indelibly printed on her mind. The tears that'd burned her eyes and her face as they'd been shed despite her efforts to keep them from spilling shamed her still. The mocking looks on the rest of her peers—no, her superiors, now—that she'd spent her entire life proving herself superior to threatened to break her pride.
A Rogue. A weak Class whose focus was stealing. A trait of the weak and unworthy, unable to provide for themselves. She'd turned away every offered Skill that had anything to do with anything other than combat, scouting, and stealth. She didn't need anything else. She could become an Assassin, or something better than it. After all, Iron was where someone's true role was created.
Muti hissed in pain as she was finally in her room. She locked the door behind herself as she investigated every corner. Her blanket made for a good sweeping tool, and there wasn't anything in the small room. Good. She'd shown weakness here and didn't want to have to try to fight off a confident killer. After all, she was an enemy of this country, and her intention wasn't to stay here and become a good little pet of the humans. Pulling her armor off was a struggle, but it was necessary for her to cleanse herself.
Once she was fully naked, she took a clean cloth and dipped it in the bucket of water she kept in the corner of her room. Then, soaking the bandages to loosen them, Muti slowly peeled them off. Astrid was smart to use existing wounds against her. That meant she was ready for stronger instruction. The gnoll's teeth were filthy, and Muti smelled over the wound carefully. She was strong enough to need no dressing for the smaller, shallow cuts the brawlers' knuckles had cut in her, but this bite… it already smelled off.
She pulled the pouch from beneath her bed and pulled some of the cullweed out. Then, after chewing it just three times, she applied the medicine to the area. She'd hoped to not have to use it, but it was needed, and running out was better than getting sick and needing to rely on someone around here. Even Astrid, though they'd been briefly bloodbound, was far from ready to be trusted with Muti's health like that.
As she told herself as much, Muti felt the pang of loneliness and the need for companionship inside. She pushed it away with the memory of the oath she'd made with her own blood, before the Hordemaster. She set about repairing her armor as she repeated it to herself.
"I will return and prove myself superior to the rest of you."
***
"Yes, thank you." Astrid said with a smile. She thanked the Duchess above that she'd stocked up with Guinevere before leaving. Typical draughts for recovery were expensive here. 65 copper for a single one? Even at the highest, deliberately gouging price, Guinevere wasn't charging more than 55 copper apiece. Something inside of her whispered about demand being higher, as well as delvers here having much more money, but she pushed those thoughts down. She still had a couple silver from her days of delving like a madwoman down in Schteldt, but more than ever, Astrid knew that they wouldn't go far. Fortunately her weapons and armor wouldn't need much in the way of maintenance today. There would be excessive costs there too, but benefits could be found in lands where there weren't many people. For now, she was stuck with working with the people who'd set up shop.
On a whim, Astrid bought a couple sausage rolls from a nearby vendor as she returned to the inn. Maybe she could find Muti and offer food in a peace offering, but there was no telling what that would mean to the Barbarian. She munched on it idly as she mused over this first day in this new city. She'd gained 105 experience in a very short delve, and would be able to get at least that much every day moving forward, though the true delve days would be the most impactful. There wasn't a limit on how many gnolls they killed on those days, according to Anders, so Astrid would see how much she could push that.
The thought of gaining experience so quickly was a blessing, and not having to do it all alone, regardless of the quirks of her companions, was a welcome change. The soft conversations with Skandr as Muti scouted, the grins of victory after they'd killed a pack, the walk back to town with each other, talking about little parts of the delve they'd need to tweak on their next expedition… it was just what she'd always planned and hoped for.
Pushing her way into the inn, Astrid felt dozens of eyes on her. Everyone watched her approach, and she stiffened. Had she done something? Had she managed to offend someone? Had, unlikely as it was, Tobias come here to spread some malicious tale? Was it as silly as something like her hair looking weird? What was it?
Bogdan slunk up, his body language relaxed and "roguish", as he'd love to describe it. "You're forgetting something, Astrid."
"What?" She demanded, anxiety spiking in her heart. "Was there some newbie ritual that I've managed not to learn about?"
"No?" Bogdan looked back and forth, seeming to think that he was being pranked himself. "I was told that you offered to pay for drinks for everyone tonight? That you'd trust me and Markus to help make sure that it went according to plan?"
"Yeah!"
"You did, Warrior! I heard!"
"Me too! You said it was for everyone, didn't you?"
"You too poor? We can put it on your tab!"
People laughed at the last one, unconcerned with her potentially bankrupting herself for them. For her part, Astrid relaxed into a grin. "Oh. That. Yes, I promised and I'll stand by it. Everyone! I'll speak with Tomas for a moment, go to my party member's room, and then be back."
Cheers filled the space, and most of Astrid's fear melted away. She gestured for Bogdan to follow along as she stepped up to Tomas's bar.
"You're doing what you said, huh?" Tomas asked.
"I promised." Astrid replied simply.
"That you did." Tomas smiled. "The beer here is cheap, a copper apiece, so you can give me a deposit of 80 copper right now, and I'll take care of the rest."
"Sounds great." Astrid nodded, pulling a silver out and handing it over. "I'll take the change when we're done. Bogdan, will you make sure nobody doubles up for now? I have a party member to speak with."
"Good luck with the lioness." Bogdan scoffed. "She'll eat you."
"No, but she might punch me." Astrid joked back. Neither of the two men in front of her laughed. She waved them off. "I'll be back soon. Thanks."
Then, with her nervousness returning, Astrid went up the stairs to the room Muti had told her to go to earlier that day, and knocked. A muffled groan was all that answered her. When she knocked again, there was no answer.
"Muti!"