Gi and Poe swam their way to the surface with Poe breathing through a Wind Fern. Despite Gi's recent disillusionment with Danna, it was hard to stay down with Poe nearby. The dragonfly was a bundle of positivity. Even as they swam, he practically danced and blew bubbles. with a smile on his tiny face.

As they ascended, an otter swam furiously for the Lake Encampment, blue scales shining from the light of the sky-ocean. Seeing them, she stopped in surprise and started to gesture wildly about something on the surface, but Gi couldn't understand so pulled her along back towards the surface.

All three of them broke the surface taking a deep breath of air and the otter immedialtely started to stammer out her urgent message. "Boss! There's clan here threatening to attack us if you don't meet with them!"

Gi sighed. When would the other clans just leave them alone? Why couldn't they just give them a few days to recover? "Go let Tiria and the other Elites know. Have them ready the clan, but don't have them rush to shore yet. I'll talk with them."

The otter snapped off a sloppy sign of the Mother and then dove back down into the lake to follow his instructions. The otter was pretty rattled for having survived both the Brain Goblins and the Trolls. He wondered if it was warranted. He'd just have to see for himself.

Gi and Poe continued on towards the shore. The Underbridge towered overhead, blocking much of the view and even Igna from their extreme angle.

"Uggghh," Poe complained, shaking water off his wings, "We've been through so much. Like, remember when we were just in that fight and you were like, "Fight me, bastard," and then Tiria showed up and she was like, "Let's merk them like Yom." I wasn't there but that's what I heard and so what I'm trying to say is that it's just reall-"

The two of them finally made it to the rocky shore and Gi's eyes landed on his new enemy. As described, there were a few dozen rhinos in front of him. All of them stood on two legs similar to Gi and crew which made him think that they might be a Humanoid/Beastial mix like himself.

Their thick hide was mostly grey, but they each had oversized forearms with a giant scale across it. The strangest aspect was that the band of black that lay across their eyes and face just above their horn. At first, Gi assumed it was face paint, but the way it shifted made him think it was something more.

Poe's voice whispered against his ear in awe. "She's beauuuutiful..."

From the size of each of the Rhinos, Gi assumed that all of the few dozen before him were Classers. An impossible number for a non-Ground Clan. At their head was the one Rhino that looked differently. She had a massive forged warhammer on her back that Gi had to assume was magical. It lay across a cloak hanging from two oversized pauldrons on her shoulders.

Upon seeing her, Gi floated into the air, the golden sheen of light dripping off of his body like water made him obvious and her head snapped over to him. She stomped over to meet him just at the edge of the water.

"You the Underbridge Progenitor?" For some reason, she opened her palm and looked at it. "Uh, Go?"

One of the rhinos next to her leaned in and whispered loudly. "Gi, Progenitor."

"Gi?," she asked.

Gi frowned. "Who's asking?"

Poe yelled out. "Yeah, who are you? Tell us who you are! Like what is your name? Please tell me your name."

Both Gi and the rhino Progenitor looked askance at Poe, but the little dragonfly had no shame. Instead, the rhino next to her yelled out a response. "She is the Progenitor of the Peach Clan! Famous Mercenaries, Former Ground Clan, and a peach merchant of the highest order! You may call her Georgia!"

"Yes, Georgia," Poe said, savoring the word. "Georgia. Georgia. I won't forget your name, um, you savory villain you!"

The Progenitor raised an eyebrow. "Did your little guy there just call me a villain? That's not really nice, is it?"

Poe gasped in horror, hiding behind Gi's head. He could just hear him whisper, "Oh no, I offended her..."

Ignoring Poe for the moment, Gi returned his attention to Georgia. "If you're not a villain, what are you doing here? Do you plan to attack us?"

"Oh," Georgia scratched the bottom of her horn sheepishly, "Well, yeah, but that doesn't make us villains. The Angelic Mice hired us to kill Gi."

The rhino beside Georgia whispered at the top of his lungs. "Progenitor, you're not supposed to say who hired us."

"Oh," Georgia said again, "Well, it's probably fine. One of us will be dead soon anyways, right?"

Gi didn't know what to make of this cartoonish Progenitor in front of him. On one hand, he could tell that at the bare minimum she was level thirty considering the elements of Beastial, Humanoid, and Draconic he could see visible on her. With the number of Classers she had, his clan would be demolished in a fair fight if they were any good at all. The two back-to-back battles had a few still suffering from Soul Sickness.

This Georgia didn't seem the brightest though. Could he...?

"So you come dishonorably after we fight to attack us when we're weakest. Yet, you don't think you're villains?"

Georgia leaned in towards what Gi now assumed was her Subgenitor. "Is that right? Are they weak right now?"

The Rhino Subgenitor sighed. "Yes, that's why the Angelic Mice hired us to attack now."

"So are we the bad guys?"

"No, Progenitor, we're mercenaries."

Gi blinked. The level of stupidity from this monster was astounding. He'd never met a Humanoid with so little intelligence. Georgia raised her voice to direct the conversation back to Gi, though it was only a little louder than her "whisper."

"We're mercenaries, not villains. So you're wrong."

"Oh mercenaries that need to fight weakened enemies. I suppose that's why I've never heard of Georgia in the same breath as Elizabeth when speaking of mercenaries."

Georgia stomped one giant foot. "Hey! We're a thousand times better than that little icey prick pit."

For the first time in a long time, Gi fed Aether into his [Persuasion] skill as he spoke next. "Elizabeth wouldn't stoop so low as to attack weakened enemies. It's bad for business to only attack the weak. If she were here, she'd duel us instead."

"I can duel!" Georgia shouted and the Subgenitor next to her didn't speak up. From Gi's perspective, it looked like he was trying to figure out if that was true. His hastily thought up argument probably didn't help his [Persuasion] skill out enough. Gi needed to lock it in before the Subgenitor figured out a reason to disagree.

"Then let's fight!" Gi floated upwards and flared his Domain without summoning any otters yet. As he did, Georgia turned serious.

"Wait!"

"I thought you intended to duel honorably?," Gi asked, trying to provoke her. "Or are you just a cowardly thug?"

Georgia surprisingly didn't rise to his instigation. "You're in the Individual Stage. We're only in the Adolescent. If we're trying to remove the unfair advantage, we'll need an Adolescent to fight."

There was some steel in her eyes and Gi realized that he wasn't going to be able to budge her on that part. Some skill of hers told him his stage, and somehow despite her lacking intelligence, she had a certain amount of wisdom. It would be difficult to be alive without some caution as an Adolescent Progenitor here so he'd have to respect that.

However, the fact that she was setting conditions meant that his hastily thrown together ploy had worked. "Very well. If you intend to treat us honorably, I can call up one of my Elites to fight in my stead."

"As long as they're an Adolescent, I agree," Georgia said. "If we win, then you die and your people will tell tales of the honor and might of the Peach Clan."

"And if we win..." This was a unique opportunity for him. What could he ask from them that would be worth this charade? They wanted to kill him so it had to be something of equal worth...

"A DATE!" Poe yelled out and Gi turned his head to gape at the dragonfly on his shoulder.

"What the hell, Poe?"

"I- uh, Boss, uh... sorry. She's just... I mean, look at her!"

Gi looked back to Georgia. The monster was bulky, a little stupid, and scratched her horn dully as she actually considered Poe's request legitimate.

"A date, huh?"

Then it clicked for him. Poe had told him months ago that he wanted to find love. It had happened after reading that book, "The Fattest Unicorn," which was literally about a rhino who thought it was a unicorn. For Poe, Georgia was all his dreams made real.

"Yes, a date!," Gi agreed, trying not to consider how ludicrous it sounded. "That balances out your requirement for us to spread tales of you. For my life though, your clan joins ours when we win."

Poe hugged Gi's head tightly. "Thank you, Boss. Thank you, thank you!"

Georgia nodded, looking over to her Subgenitor who shrugged. "All right, you've got a deal. Go get your Elite and let's do this!"

"Patience," Gi said, before turning to Poe, "Can you go grab..."

As he searched for a name, he was a little stumped. Who should he use for this? It was a great opportunity for them, but only if they won. If not, they'd have to fight a couple dozen Classers because Gi for damn sure wasn't just going to just let them kill him.

Kumo was his best fighter, but just looking at Georgia, she specialized in Vitality with some defensive traits. Kumo had a C in both Strength and Agility so she might be a good fit, but her Vitality was only D so if it became a battle of attrition, she'd lose from lack of stamina.

The twins would probably do great damage with their [Twin Soul] buff, but they wouldn't be able to one shot her so they'd get destroyed after their first salvo. Tiria had chosen a more all around approach for her physical characteristics. It made her great as part of the clan in a battle, but in a duel like this she'd lack a proper advantage.

That left Samba. He also specialized in Vitality and Defense and he'd been able to increase his Strength to C as well. Should he really clash their specialties head to head? Samba would have a level disadvantage since Georgia had to be thirty and Samba was only twenty.

"Who should I grab?," Poe said, "I didn't catch the name. Did you mumble? You shouldn't mumble cause like it's bad or something. Oh, you're the boss. I forgot. You can mumble if you want. It's totally fine. Especially since you just convinced her to go on a date with me."

"Get me Samba and bring the rest of the Elites here as well." It was a risk to use him, but it would be a risk regardless. If things went to hell and he lost, it would be better to have a Templar on the front lines than an exhausted Kumo.

Poe flitted off back towards the lake and Gi saw that they were already treading water at its surface. It didn't take them long to swim to shore after Poe told them what was happening.

Georgia started limbering up as she waited and Gi noticed that despite her size, she was surprisingly agile. That meant her last ten levels had gone into Agility. Kumo would have gotten destroyed.

Samba sidled up beside him. The towering otter was even larger than Georgia due to his [Towering Physique] skill so he'd have an advantage of reach in this fight at least. Gi floated up until he was beside Samba's head.

"Did Poe tell you what's going on?"

Samba nodded. "I beat this monster in a duel and she'll go on a date with him, right?"

Gi sighed. "Sort of. If she wins, she kills me. If we win, they join our clan."

"Oh," Samba said, his face suddenly much more serious as he turned to look at Gi directly. "...and you trust me for that?"

Something about that question reminded him of Richard. It screamed of weakness and insecurity. Gi's anger flared and he almost ridiculed him for the question, but then his thoughts returned to the memory of that last day. Richard had needed more from Danna then. He wouldn't be like her now.

"Of course. There's no other monster I'd rather have standing between me and my enemies. My life is in your hands."

Samba's eyes got shiny like tears were barely held back, but his expression was the same laidback and lazy confidence that he had in most things. "Then I guess I better handle it, huh."

"I know you will," Gi said, patting his Elite on the shoulder. "She's going to be a match for you in Strength and Vitality. Her Agility will be higher so you'll need to kill that advantage fast. That warhammer might be enchanted as well."

Samba nodded. The trace of whatever insecurity he'd had was gone. "I can do that. I've learned a thing or two training all our fighters."

Gi gave him another pat on the shoulder before floating down to his other Elites. Georgia had finished limbering up and had one hand leaning on the haft of her warhammer with its head resting on the beach. Her other Classers including the Progenitor had backed up to the cliffs of Igna.

Samba stepped forward while Gi and his Elites waited patiently by the shoreline. Kumo, Tiria, and the twins looked to him.

"If Samba loses, we hit hard and fast, killing as many as we can before they can attack. If we need to, retreat to the water and continue attacking. We can't afford to fight a few dozen Classers right now."

Kumo had seemed a bit disappointed as Samba had stepped up to duel for them, but at Gi's words, she seemed to barely be able to contain her delight. "I'll teach them to regret coming here."