Davi stepped up to the mercenary commander. His size and musculature made him nearly the commander's equal in height and weight despite being physically younger than him. Still, he had to look up slightly for his gaze to meet Jeb's.

"Alright pup, I hope you're hungry. I'm about to make you eat a lot of mud."

Davi stayed silent, just rolling his shoulders once and lowering himself into a stance.

Finn finished vomiting mud off to the side and wiped his face to return and watch the match. There was a bit of anger in his face, but he didn't discourage Davi, nor did he complain about the unfairness of his defeat. He just took his place at the front to watch. Gemini mercenaries cleared the way for him and regarded the muddy circle silently.

There was no countdown, or gunshot for the fight to start. One moment Jeb was smirking at Davi and the next he threw himself forward at him.

Davi met the tackle with his own and they started to push against one another in the mud, their shoulders pressed together as their arms shifted and their hands slid around trying to find leverage.

The redheaded mercenary's size caused Davi to get pushed back into the mud, his feet sinking deeper into it, but Davi kept pushing, his stoic expression a sharp contrast to Jeb's wide grin. They pushed against one another while probing for weaknesses for nearly a full minute before they both attempted to let up a bit and reorient themselves for another collision. When they moved back in on one another, Davi went low and grabbed Jeb's leg.

The commander managed to keep himself from being flipped immediately, but was only able to resist for a few moments before Davi put him on his back. Davi tried to maintain hold of the leg, but Jeb managed to use the slick mud to his advantage and removed his leg from Davi's grasp, repositioning and trying to get hold of Davi's arm.

This went back and forth for some time with neither of them relenting. The fight with Finn had been based on Finn being fast and getting Jeb into a submission hold, but this was just a brutal slog of two men doing everything they could to subdue the other. Eventually they were both completely covered with mud, and Jeb managed to very suddenly gain the upper hand, getting Davi into an arm bar.

He pulled, but Davi didn't relent, gritting his mud-covered teeth and roaring as he slipped his other arm through Jeb's leg to grip his locked arm and provide leverage in the opposite direction. In a burst of furious strength he broke his arm free and got around Jeb getting hold of his leg as he'd intended to from the start and pulling back on it causing the larger man to nearly let out a howl of pain that he barely managed to bite back.

The mercenary captain suddenly burst into flames as he had before, mud bubbling and exploding around him for a brief moment, but Davi didn't release him, even as Michael watched large burns spread from wherever he was in contact with the mercenary commander's flames. There was another burst, and a third, but Davi still didn't relent.

Finally the bursts stopped and Jeb's body went slack. He muttered something.

Davi pulled the leg harder, bringing it closer to breaking. "What was that? I couldn't hear you?"

"I yield! You hear me you bastard? I yield!"

Davi released his opponent and stood, his body smoking a bit, only clean in those spots where the mud had been burnt off revealing large patches of burns across his skin. He spat a mouthful of mud onto the ground.

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Finn clasped Davi's shoulder as he walked back and they exchanged a nod.

Michael approached Davi. "Well done," he placed a hand on his arm and healed the burns along with a number of damaged ligaments and muscles.

Davi nodded. "Thank you." He looked across himself and scraped a bit of the mud off. "You don't suppose it'll rain soon, do you?"

Michael laughed.

"I'll help you with that, mate," said Ollie as he began to chant his usual string of curses. He began moving a large ball of mud into the air and slowly pulled all of the water from it. After that he dropped the dry dirt back into the mud pit and had the now clean water gradually fall onto Davi allowing him to clean himself.

The rest of Gemini went over to praise his victory, or in the case of a number of their members, gaze at him appreciatively as mud was washed off of his impressive physique. Some of the Breaker mercs also came to do the same, seemingly as shameless as their leader was.

With the main event done, there was a follow-up of a number of other Gemini and Breaker mercs challenging one another to wrestling matches or first-blood duels. Despite the enmity Michael expected the man to have, Jeb came over to shake both Finn and Davi's hands.

"It was a good roll," was all he said before returning to his side. He was clearly miffed, but had the sportsmanship to praise his opponent anyway. That boded well for them working together, and Michael had a feeling the man would get along far better with Tai when the twin returned.

Michael opted to stay where the mercs were fighting so that he could help in the event any of them got hurt. They weren't exactly being careful and before long he'd healed a broken arm, a cracked rib, and a nasty gash above a man's eye. Trina helped as well, and he was impressed that she managed to fix multiple broken limbs before taking a break. She was almost to where he'd started when he was healing at the academy in Stent, and in her case it was all hard work rather than the talent and titles he'd been able to rely on.

Eventually a few of the regular Cantalian soldiers got involved in the scuffles and Trina had to take a break. Michael on the other hand decided to get into them himself, throwing himself into wrestling matches and duels with a half-dozen different soldiers, only taking breaks to heal serious injuries. It was good to fight people he wasn't used to practicing with. He won his bouts more often than not, but always saw something new in each fight. The Breakers seemed to favor overwhelming strength and attacked with a kind of breathless all-or-nothing style that never relented. The Cantalians on the other hand were measured, but precise. There was something oddly relaxed in how they fought, like they were only tense when they were striking or defending, but the rest of the time their bodies were calm.

The challenges came to an end and Michael had Ollie do him the same favor he'd done Davi, drawing a similar crowd. Once he was clean, he still felt a good amount of energy so he made his way to Lys's tent to see if she was up to a bit of wrestling herself.

…

The next morning Michael guided Ollie, Marcus, Davi, and Pyotr to Tallant. They were all curious about what he might offer them for an exam.

Tallant was whistling and grinding something down with a mortar and pestle when they entered. He smiled widely as he saw Michael and the others.

"These are the other taker soldiers from Stent? Your fellow deserters?" he asked.

Michael nodded.

"Excellent, I can't thank you enough for bringing them. I don't have much to offer you all, but I do have some potions I can offer as a reward if that would work? A lot of the supplies had been dwindling, but thanks to your friend here I have some spare ingredients and should be able to make a few things you may find enticing. Some that improve magicka channeling, or empower your strength, I may even manage a small hardening salve if that's more your speed."

"A hardening salve? I probably won't need one of those for a few more decades. At least I hope not," said Ollie, as he laughed a bit at his own joke.

"I mean, how thorough is this exam?" asked Marcus.

"I'll poke and prod you externally a bit, draw some of your blood, and see how your body reacts to an agitation potion."

Marcus bobbed his head back and forth for a moment. "I'll do that, but I want a potion, and a bit of knowledge of the local plant life if you have the time."

"I'm always happy to discuss plants."

The others all negotiated and agreed to their own terms.

"I guess I'll go first," said Michael.

There was no objection from the others, and Michael stepped into the back of the tent to be picked at in private. They had nearly two hours before they'd need to head back to Gemini camp to get a briefing from the twins. He hoped this wouldn't take quite that long.

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