Aj and Kit were “enjoying the fight” which was surprisingly still going on even with all the bodies involved. The young swordsman had gotten a few good hits in on the well-equipped pugilist, but now after half a minute the pugilist had recovered and began his counteroffensive. The pugilist deflected a punch with his left forearm and quickly brought his left fist down hitting the swordsman in the jaw. The swordsman recoiled in response, small streams of blood dripping off his chin.

As the pugilist brought his fist back for another swing Aj noticed something off about his gauntlets. There was a small collection of ruby extending out not even a centimeter from the gauntlets, forming a minuscule spiked crust on the end of his gauntlets.

“He’s ruining this!” Kit said “This was supposed to be a good old-fashioned brawl, adding spikey bits to the end of your fists isn’t fair…… Wait! This means he should take out his sword!”

The swordsman now had several groupings of pinhole wounds on his arms and face from the enhanced punches of the pugilist. He threw another punch, that was easily deflected by the pugilist who again countered with a punch from his left.

“Cut it out!” A gruff voice yelled, coming from around the brawl. The earth underneath the two fighters was quickly slid out from underneath them, causing them to lose their balance and step apart from each other.

“Both of you calm the fuck down before I get in the middle of this” the same voice that called out continued. It came from a grizzled man who seemed only a few years older than what many would consider middle-aged. He wore weathered leather armor and had an ornate hammer at each of his hips. He had his hands over those hammers right now, signaling that he was ready to honor his word and hop into the fray.

The swordsman looked down at his feet embarrassed, while the tall pugilist only snarled in response before once again lounging at the swordsman. The grizzled man grimaced and removed a hammer from his left belt.

“Stop Lucas, enough is enough” A new calm voice cut through the sudden action, causing the pugilist to stop instantly and turn around. The voice came from a composed young man with dark black eyes and an entertained smile. “I’m sure Trace would like no more conflict and commotion to tarnish our first journey together” the smiling man continued.

“Thank you Julian for your intervention. I would have appreciated it earlier” said Trace the grizzled man, pausing heavily on Julian who simply nodded in response. “Listen we are about to go into uncharted territory, a newly shifted underworld is already dangerous enough as it is for a group's first outing. We cannot afford infighting.” He continued addressing the entire group of twenty men. Several of the group nodded in agreeance, while some simply stood and stared.

“Well said, I couldn't agree more. We need to be at Peak cohesion and efficiency " Julian said before focusing on the young swordsman “I have no problem with the commoner but given this recent fight, it’s unlikely that our cohesion would be unaffected” Julian finished flatly.

“Julian, Mig may not be a sovereign or bonded but he’s got excellent cor control. He’d be a real help out there. Give him a shot” Trace said vouching for the young swordsman.

“His status doesn’t bother me, Trace, it’s what’s happened that does. There’s no coming back from that in the little time we have left before we leave. We have to make a decision now.” Julian said with his back straight.

“What’s the dynamic here between those two?” Kit said mentally to Aj, referring to the old man Trace and the dark-eyed Julian. “I can’t tell who’s in charge”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I think it’s the old guy, but it’s hard to tell” Aj replied, he too was stumped at the whole situation and found himself being pulled into the drama. “I’m surprised they haven’t noticed us up here yet”

“I think there’s too much stuff going on or maybe they just don’t care. I’ve noticed a few fleeting looks though” Kit replied.

“I get where you’re coming from Julian, you’re right,” Trace said convincingly, suddenly switching sentiments. “Mig it’s hard luck, but you aren’t going with us. Best of luck” He said, reaching a hand out towards the young swordsman.

Mig reached his hand out and shook Trace’s hand firmly while nodding and looking down. Trace continued the handshake for a few seconds, his eyes looking at Mig’s head. To Aj, it seemed that Trace wanted to look him in the eyes, but not once in the interaction did Mig lift his head and look Trace in the eyes, he simply continued nodding almost compulsively. Trace ended the handshake.

“Alright let's head out, groups stay the same. Group 1 with me in first, then group two.” Trace said gesturing for his men to follow him into the underworld’s tunnel. “We’ll make a 1st assessment about five minutes in, so stay on your toes until then and keep your lickers locked” He finished looking back over his shoulder and disappearing into the tunnel ahead.

“You see that? When he did that final look over his shoulder he swung a glance at “Mig” to check on him” Kit said. “This is spicy stuff”

“Ehhh I don’t know, It’s kind of depressing,” Aj said watching the groups disperse into the tunnel uniformly. Leaving Mig alone in the yard still bobbing his head and nodding to himself.

“We should go talk to him!” Kit said, “Cheer him up!”

“What? What the hell are we gonna say, “Hey sorry all you got your ass beat and then all your friends left you, want to hang out with this random guy who you’ve never met?” Aj asked.

“Yeh, something like that” Kit replied deadpan “Listen, as our guild’s recruiter I know from experience this is a primo opportunity. We’ve got some unappreciated talent who just became a free agent, we have to strike while the iron is hot!”

“You’re throwing out too many analogies. I would not consider us an active guild right now.” Aj said, taking another glance at Mig who was still standing there nodding to himself. He did look really sad.

“Fuck it I’m going down there,” Aj said starting to walk into the training yard.

“Yes!” Kit said mentally.

As Aj got closer he got a better picture of Mig. He seemed around 18 years of age with light brown skin, he had short shaggy black hair that covered his ears and he had hazel-colored eyes. Eyes that Aj could see because Mig looked up questioningly at him when he got within 10 feet.

“Hi, uh let me get out of your way,” Mig said, gathering a bag at his feet. His voice was soft and slightly choked up.

“Ahh no it’s cool man I actually came down here to talk to you” Aj replied. Mig seemed to relax a little bit after hearing Aj’s response.

“Are you a Sovereign?” Mig asked with slightly red eyes and cocked eyebrows.

“Uh yeah I’m a Sovereign, my name is Aj” Aj replied, while also mentally communicating with Kit “Where were we going with this again?” he asked Kit mentally.

“You’re doing great! Keep going!” Kit replied mentally not answering the question

“Oh my name’s Mig, what family are you with?” Mig replied.

“I’m actually… freelance I’m not with any family right now. What about you?” Aj asked.

“Well, I- I gotta be upfront I’m not bonded or a sovereign but I’ve practiced a lot, and uhhh A few people have said my cor control is really good” Mig paused “I was trying to get in with a Tiermon group but I uhh-, they didn’t need me” Mig finished, biting his lip at the mentioning of the Tiermon group.

“WTF is cor?” Aj asked Kit mentally.

“Not really 100% sure but, I think it has something to do with the power system in the underworlds. What I read treating it like generic magic though” Kit replied.

“Have you been outside the stronghold Mig?” Aj asked.

“Yeah I was part of a transport group, we brought some goods to another stronghold four underworlds away.” Mig replied “Are you looking for someone to accompany you out? I wouldn't mind doing it as a probationary status” Mig said eagerly.

“That sounds good,” Aj said internally, wincing for answering so quickly without thinking. It didn’t help that he could hear Kit rolling in laughter in his head.

“It’ll be fine bro, we got this” Kit said after he’d finished laughing.

“If you want to go out now, it might be a good time. This underworld just shifted, I’m sure you know that means it’s essentially virgin ground” Mig said eagerly.

“Fuck it, I’m sick of all this debating. You win Kit we’re going in” Aj said mentally to Kit before responding to Mig.

“Sounds good, lead the way Mig,” Aj said. Mig nodded and began walking into the newly shifted underworld. Aj could feel Kit’s excitement as he swallowed his fear and followed Mig down the dark tunnel.