Michael threw a punch at the greasy haired man, but he’d been ready for it and ducked out of the way before throwing a punch of his own. Michael flexed as he took the blow to the gut and threw an elbow at the man’s face, managing to hit him on the edge of his jaw. The man wobbled for a moment then ducked low and tackled Michael slamming him into a cloth covered wall. Michael grunted as he struck it and slammed his elbow down on the back of the man’s neck. The man collapsed down onto the ground.

Michael very carefully removed himself from the wall and placed a glowing hand on the man’s back, healing a freshly damaged vertebrae below his neck, a cracked jaw, and a fractured knuckle bone. Michael was surprised to find that he himself was unhurt, his durability seemed to be reaching a point that kept normal levels of harm from affecting him much.

He looked around and realized that there was a crowd around him and the bouncer from the front had come in.

“What’s going on?” he asked. He quickly assessed the situation and moved toward Michael.

“Sorry about that,” said Michael, holding up his hands. He gestured at the unconscious body. “He’ll be okay. I’ve healed him.”

The bouncer looked at him. “You're the healer that’s been in town?” he said, pausing. “Well shit, you healed my aunt last week. You can stay, but no more trouble. I’ll drag this fool outside.”

“You sure you don’t need help?”

The man laughed. “I’ve dragged much bigger out of here. Don’t worry about it.”

Michael nodded and went back to where the blonde woman was waiting for him, nibbling on the nail of her pinky finger as she looked him over. Once he was closer she grabbed his collar gently and pulled him close. “Promise you won’t go as easy on me as you did with him?”

Michael swallowed. “I know I said you were good, but wow, that was an understatement.”

She laughed a bit and dragged him back. He could hear Nykas’s laughter in his ears.

…

Michael walked out of the room with a smile on his face and a lighter pocket. He wasn’t entirely sure about the rules of tipping in Swandia, but she didn’t seem to mind the extra coin. Marcus and Ollie were waiting with wine in their hands and smiles that matched Michael’s. Michael didn’t intend to make a habit of this sort of thing, but as he approached he could hear them already planning their next visit.

“-two? You bastard, waiting for the rest of us to go so we wouldn’t think of it,” said Ollie.

“You couldn’t have handled it,” replied Marcus. “I was in the room next to you and it sounded like that woman was killing you in there.”

“She tried to break me, can’t say I didn't enjoy it.”

“I’m not surprised that you two were the first to be done,” said Michael with a smirk.

“Well not all of us have all that recovery doing the heavy lifting,” said Marcus. “Besides, I had twice the trouble.”

“And Ollie had half,” said Michael, prompting Ollie to flip him the bird.

Michael slid down onto the couch next to them, another girl arriving to give him a glass of wine. What he really needed was a pitcher of water, but he took a long sip anyway.

“Pyotr must really be enjoying himself back there,” he said as the warmth of his wine settled in his stomach.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Did you see the look he gave that woman when he saw her?” asked Marcus. “I’m just hoping he can keep himself from proposing to her before we go.”

There were the sounds of a scuffle outside, and yelling. Michael frowned at the others, and placed his wine glass down, moving toward the door. Ollie moved quickly behind him, but Marcus sighed heavily and drained his glass before he got up to follow them.

Outside Michael saw the bouncer struggling in a fistfight with three other men, one of whom he’d recognized as the greasy haired man he’d laid out earlier.

The man pointed at Michael. “That’s the one who-”

Michael transferred the pain the bouncer was feeling to the greasy haired man and he grasped the side of his face where the bouncer had taken a nasty blow. Michael tackled another of the men to the ground to get him off of the bouncer and started raining down blows until he stopped moving.

Another man moved to tackle Michael, but Marcus intercepted him, smashing his foot into the man’s knee and then following that up with a swift kick to the groin. Once he was down Marcus gave him a firm kick to the gut for good measure and he vomited in response.

There were two more, and with the pressure off, the bouncer laid into them with fury, beating the greasy haired merc up the road as he suffered from both the bouncer’s bruises and his own.

The other thug tried to attack the bouncer from behind, but slipped and fell on some strangely icy mud. When he tried to stand back up, Ollie literally kicked his ass to knock him back onto the ground, and waggled a finger at him with one hand while holding an orb of fire in the other hand when the man tried to stand again. He gave up with a half hearted apology yelled slurrily to his friend and sank down into the mud.

A few guards approached the scene at a light jog, wearing chainmail under their ochre tunics and holding spears in their hands. They assessed the situation and saw the bouncer lay out the last of them with a strong right cross.

“Tav, what’s going on.”

The bouncer wiped a bit of blood off of his cheek with the back of his hand and spat.

“Just some disgruntled customers.” He waved at Michael and the others. “These few helped me out with them.”

The Swandians nodded and started to collect them.

Michael raised a hand and focused, healing them of any permanent damage they might have to deal with, but leaving any painful cuts and bruises behind as a reminder. Tav, he healed completely.

“Damn, that’s nice,” he said, rolling his neck a bit. “Wish we had a healer, but they get hired up by mercs or recruited as soldiers pretty quick.”

“Sorry about the trouble. If I hadn’t started that fight earlier this wouldn’t have happened,” said Michael.

“Oh good. I thought you were helping just to help again. Knowing this was your fault is a load off,” said Marcus.

“Load off? Isn’t that what we just took care of back in there?” said Ollie.

“Oh, that’s foul,” said Michael, chuckling a bit in spite of himself.

Pyotr stepped out of the Velvet Embrace with a blissful smile on his face. “There you are, brothers! I had thought you’d left me behind.” He looked at the guards dragging men off and frowned. “What happened? Did Michael defend a whore’s honor leading to some large fight?”

They raised eyebrows and looked at Michael.

He sighed. “I wasn’t defending her honor exactly. Just her preference. And mine.”

Pyotr nodded. “Definitely worthy a fight then. Sorry I was occupied.”

“No you aren’t,” replied Ollie.

Pyotr chuckled. “No, I am definitely not.”

They made their way back to the inn with their blood up from the fight and other activities. Davi was waiting for them, and they shared drinks and stories in the common room until it was nearly morning, only dragging themselves back up to their rooms once they had started dozing.

The next morning Michael was the first up, blissfully immune to hangovers of any kind. He took a moment to see if he could heal the affliction for Ollie as he slept and finding that he could. He thought back to their first hangover from Marcus’s hooch and frowned. He really should’ve thought of trying that sooner.

He took his usual bath and strapped his dagger to his belt before he made his way downstairs, deciding to head to his usual spot where he did his healing a little earlier. Some of his lingering catholicism made him want to repent for the previous night’s activities, and he found that hard to shake despite the new gods who seemed nothing, but entertained and satisfied with his actions based on their mumblings.

As he stepped down the stairs a woman caught his eye. She was tall and lithe with red hair that had shocks of white swept back behind her ears and silver eyes that were staring at him.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“That depends. Are you the healer who got into a scrap outside of a whorehouse yesterday?”

“I go by Michael, if you want to save some time,” he responded with a friendly smile.

“A Taker?” she asked.

Michael hesitated, but nodded after a moment. “Yes.”

She nodded. “I’m here recruiting for the Gemini Company. I heard about what happened and was hoping you and your friends might be available.”

“Gemini?” he asked.

She smiled. “Let’s just say you wouldn’t be the only Taker in our company.”