humble to none

“All talk, yeah,” Rovasha said with the shake of her head. “Surprised he hasn’t got me on some type of list with all the shit I’ve said about him. You know how much of a hothead that motherfucker is.”

Grim hummed somewhere in the back of his throat, one of his thinking noises. “Don’t worry, I bet you’re on someone’s list. Don’t think bein’ on his is a big deal,” he finally decided to say, with a nod, like he was smart for saying it. It was true, though. Zed wasn’t worth thinking about outside of beating him up.

“LIsten okay I am not kissing ass in the army! The army has to kiss my ass becasue I order new stuff for the stuff they break. Also my Granny says if I leave the army she’s going to beat my ass and I dunno Grim I think she’ll do it.” 

Sarkesh sighed. “Oh man I would love to figure out stuff the fun way but you know I’d end up in prison. And if I end up in prison someone other than you is going to be kicking my ass.” 

Grim was going to make a joke about Sarkesh’s granny, but then he remembered that he’d be the same way if it was his mom, so he skipped that bit. He knew what little ladies could be like. Scary.

“Huh. I guess prison is less fun...” On one hand, free-range fights. On the other, you couldn’t actually go anywhere like in the army. Grim thought they both sucked, which is why he was in neither. “But you only go to prison if you get caught.”

Well. That had gone better than expected. A nervous burst of laughter bubbled up and out of them, though they quickly choked it down with a cough. “You uh. You really don’t have to worry about that. I’m just trying to get back to the academy in once piece. There’s this bioluminescent fungus that grows in specific areas of Khaggon, and it just so happens that the largest patch is near the uh…” Hanna glanced around, unsure if she was supposed to mention the next part, since it wasn’t exactly legal. “The fight club? But I needed to take some samples.”

Hanna hitched their satchel higher on their shoulder, trying to shrink down further into themselves. They nodded towards the way the half-orc had come. “Am I going to run into the um. The guys that did that to you if I go down that way?”

Grim did his best bit of listening, even though there was one really big word in there that his person used and...he didn’t know what it meant. But he did know the fight club, so he figured he could do a bit of bodyguarding as a payback. “I dunno what lunascent fungo is but there’s glowy mushrooms. Sometimes the guys eat them on dares.” Yeah, he’d been one of the guys once. That’s why he remembered it. “I’ll get you there, they know better than to bother anyone with me.”

Grim glanced over his shoulder as he crossed his arms. “Nah. Still should be out. And I’m comin’ with you so it don’t matter if they ain’t.”

“Well it sounds like you’ve already dealt with whoever he is and that he’s received punishment. The patrol will no doubt find him wherever you left him.” Efrain didn’t interfere with the local guard’s actions unless ordered to by Rolland or if they were clearly incompetent. No matter how competent they were, though, some crime was bound to occur. “Thank you for stepping up and doing so,” he continued seriously, his brow furrowing ever so slightly. “What is your name?”

Well, at least that first bit sounded alright, because he wasn’t getting in trouble. Sometimes he did, even when he was helping, which was part of why he didn’t really help as much. Got tired of it after a while. “Whatever. ‘M Grimdall.” Normally, he would’ve left it at just ‘Grim’, but only people who weren’t authorities got to call him his nickname. “Don’t got a last name.”

Miraculously, Avi could tell that he’d taken a wrong step with his last question. The stranger seemed annoyed and unimpressed. This seemed to be getting more and more common as of late. Had he lost his touch with people? He tried to shake off the feeling of embarrassment. “I don’t spend a lot of time in this area,” he explained, “I was wondering what the competition there has been like lately. Room for a newcomer, you think?”

Grim felt his head tilt of it’s own free will, as the gears in his head turned. Was this guy...really offering to get in the ring? He heard himself laugh, a short, sort of surprised noise. “Sure. I like bustin’ new heads every once in a while,” he answered with a shrug. “So do the others. You don’t look like much, though. And we don’t use magic.”

“Oh bother.” Ventis made true to their threat and sent a shot of air directly into the brute’s gut. They didn’t need to get close to take a stab at them. That would play at their advantage. “I do not want to fight you.” Ventis smiled and turned to walk away, clearly done with the encounter. That left her back entirely vulnerable, open to an attack, or an excuse to get the tar beat out of them. Either way, Ventis was sure to have a rough night.

As soon as Grim felt the air slamming into his stomach, he saw red, and that wasn’t good for anyone who was going to be in the same room as him. In an angry haze, he grabbed the closest thing to him, he just knew it was solid, and threw it directly at the back of their head before he came closer. If that didn’t knock them out, then they could deal with an enraged half-orc up close, and with a grip on their arm. Maybe if he wasn’t so angry, he’d warn them that their hand was about to be crushed, but instead he glared, and he waited.

Avi’s curiosity regarding the fight club had peaked over the last few days, so when he saw bloody-knuckled stranger near the establishment, he lost all sense of reservation. Typically, he was polite. He avoided staring and always approached someone with a topic completely separate from what he was actually wondering. Today, he’d meant to be upfront, but the half-orc beat him to the punch. Surely his question would seem pathetic in the wake of that introduction. Oh, well, he thought, and asked anyway. 

“Pleasure to meet you, too,” He gestured in the direction of the fight club. “You come from the club?”

Now, normally, Grim didn’t think questions were stupid, because he couldn’t judge. But that? What was just said to him? When he was a little beaten up and had just walked out? That was pretty dumb. “...What d’you think?” he couldn’t help but ask, voice slow and raising an eyebrow at the guy. “Yeah. I did.” Grim gave the answer anyway, just because, well...he’d met people who weren’t the sharpest daggers before, and he wasn’t sure what he was dealing with yet.

“A knight, but yes,” replied Efrain with a calm shrug. He knew plenty of his fellows would puff out their chest and scold the man for mistaking them for a simple, lowly guard. Efrain didn’t have nearly enough energy to be so up in arms, however, and it was an easy mistake. “I can show you to the guard station if you’d like to make a proper complaint. I’m afraid robberies and attempted robberies have become more common as of late.”

Grim narrowed his eyes at the correction, because what the fuck did it matter? Supposed to help people either way. “Nah, no complaint, but I left ‘em back there. Knocked out. Someone might wanna carry ‘em somewhere or whatever you people do.” Grim didn’t know how knights or guards or whatever worked, and he didn’t really care to learn, because they were all annoying anyway. Or be much help, if he was out here protecting old men he didn’t know.

“Oh you know yourself I did that for a long time…and I’d love to do it again but, oh man I dunno Grim. I just got…I got a lot of questions that need answered and the only way I think they’ll be answered is if I’m in the army.” Sarkesh sighed hoping that by the grace of some god that he’d be out of there soon. “Once they are answered though I can go back to my regularly scheduled ass beating.” “Honestly I don’t even thing I could beat you, Maybe if I got a real lucky blow to the head but look at you.” Sarkesh gestured to Grim’s body. “You’re a wall of muscle.”

Grim openly made a face at that. The army was for people who wanted to follow rules and wake up too early in the morning so they could make themselves look decent for their bosses. No point to it, when you could fight wherever you went anyway, without having people breathing down your neck. Gross. “Okay, if you wanna kiss ass instead of figuring stuff out the fun way...” he drawled. Couldn’t Sarkesh just...beat the leaders in fights to get them to tell him shit? That’s what Grim would have done.

“Nah, you probably couldn’t, but it would be fun to try, yeah?”

Hanna laughed nervously, involuntarily, and then quickly snapped their mouth shut with a sharp clack of their teeth. “Oh, you don’t have to pay me. It’s just magic. But um.” They took a terrifying step forward, eyes fixated on the half-orc’s shoulder instead of his eyes, which seemed to be boring holes right through Hanna’s skull. “I have to uh. Touch. Um. Okay.” They reached out and up, while with their other hand gripped the holy symbol of Aureon they kept pinned to their collar. It glowed beneath their fingers as their other hand blindly patted the man’s cheek. Distantly, Hanna could feel muscle fibers stitching themselves back together, skin becoming unbroken once again, and they quickly took their hand away. “Sorry,” they offered, instinctively.

Grim hummed, somewhere between impressed and just no feeling, but at least it wasn’t taking money from him. He’d keep his nose broken, if he’d had to pay, and most of the time, that’s what he did. Still, he was impressed when this person, that reminded him a bit of a mouse, actually took a step forward and touched his face. He stood still, because he knew that if he so much as flexed, he would probably scare them off, but at least he felt better, and he could hear his nose snap back to where it should’ve been. Wasn’t fully better, but it was something. “Thanks...Okay, so now I owe you, hope you know that.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Rovasha leaned back against the wall. She fished a pack of smokes out of the pouch strapped to her hip, giving him another once-over before lighting one up. “Say I’ve seen you before, huh? In the ring? You’re the one that stood up to Ibefa the Beast-Eater, right? Fuckin’ impressive. Thought they’d never get knocked off their feet.”

There was a flash of self-importance that came with being recognized, but Grim only let himself smile a little bit. “Yeah, that’s me. You’re...a solider, ain’tcha?” He only remembered that because he remembered the people who went and fucked off for a while before he saw them back at the ring. Everyone who wasn’t a solider usually showed up for every fight, but this girl and Sarkesh kept going places.

“Sooooo, you fight other people’s battles.” Ventis caught the towel and rolled their eyes at him. “You always so sour? For a guy who defends others…..you think you’d be nice to people.”

Ventis through the towel back at him and crossed their arms. “Go ahead, throw it back and I will kick you in the gut.”

“Fight anything that I can,” Grim corrected. Didn’t matter if fights were his or not, if there was one, he’d be in it. Made him feel at home. “Don’t need to be nice to punch things.”

Grim raised an eyebrow at the threat, and threw the towel back. “You do it, you’re gonna regret it,” he warned, voice hardly more than a growl.

“Oh you know as much as I’d love to stick around and get beat to death in an alley by you, I still have to go to work and stuff.” Sarkesh sighed he missed being in the fight club most nights he was only back often enough to keep his name on the board.  “You know Arx and all that got the lads in the barrcks pretty shook up. Someone has to beat them up for forgetting to return their gear you know. I have like 17 left boots and no one has returned the right ones. Enough about work how’s fight club? I see you’re up on the board again. Congrats.” 

“You could always be like me and have fighting be work,” Grim reminded him. It worked pretty well for the half-orc, but that’s because he didn’t make himself cost much. Lived somewhere bad, never got new clothes unless he had to, fed his dog more than himself. Easy shit.

“Soldiers,” he grumbled, shaking his head. Not that Sarkesh was very included in that. Just kinda. “It’s goin’ fine, I don’t think I’m gonna get beat anytime soon.” Mostly because he wouldn’t let anyone beat him, and if they did...they could say goodbye to some body parts.

Efrain looked up from his notebook and raised his brows so high they nearly became acquainted with his hairline. “So, what, indeed?” He’d simply been walking through his streets on his way to the Truesilver Temple when the half-orc stopped him so abruptly. He had no inclination to carry on such a hostile interaction and little reason to endure it. “I’m acquainted enough with facial wounds, thank you,” he said as he stepped gracefully around the stranger. “Acquainted enough to know you may want to get your nose checked.”

Grim felt himself huff, and one hand came up to nudge at his nose, a test he was pretty used to. “Not broke,” he grumbled, before standing a bit straighter, just because...he knew he wasn’t supposed to be like this all the time in the city. One day he’d get used to...manners or whatever they were called. “Look, this is from stoppin’ some guys from stealin’ from an old man a few shops down, you’re...guard, right?”