[b]Aftermath of the riots.[/b]
Following the riots of Nyhem, the Steel fist had captured hundreds of dissidents, if not thousands.
It was not his place to keep track, that job he happily left to his logistics officer, Katrina Nikos. Whom had proven to be an invaluable asset to the fist since she joined.
Claus himself had retreated to his tent following the work in the final hours of the last night of the riot. He had done as ordered and focused on the districts indicated by the high king and the Steel fist had dealt with the rioters flawlessly.
That's what he is gonna write in the report anyway, to be fair there had been flaws, a few in the fist had gotten minor injuries and several of the rioters were badly bruised. Not to mention the guy who was shot in the leg.
But in truth, the steel fist hadn't killed a single person during this riot. Something Claus could feel pride about, not a single one...

After all, he wasn't on his post there in the inn, Dyril needed help and Claus was sent not as captain of the steel fist, but as a concerned individual.
Sent? Perhaps the gods were at work, who knew.
The steel fist hadn't killed anyone, but he... how many were there? Five? He didn't know, he tried to not care, they were just numbers, numbers who tried to kill and maim a friend of his, of course he should've saved her.
But they were still dead.
It was different with civilians, in the Beilokias he could more easily ward it off with them not being human, they were birdmen or lizards and with soldiers and militia they knew what they were getting into, they had some sort of training.
But these guys...

He realised his thoughts had run off again, the dreams with the faces of the thousands of dead that haunted him at night didn't help either. Claus was sitting at his makeshift desk and writing letters, reports and logs to keep the company in order.
At first Dyril had welcomed the safe haven the Steel fist camp had offered, but the following morning she had realized that the chilly weather, multitudes of bugs and a bedroll that seemed just a bit too thin was not something she would endure in the long run and had returned to the city and one of its inns as soon it was deemed safe.
Too bad Claus had thought, he had hoped to have a proper party to celebrate long time no see, but the sad truth was that now had a buttload off work to do after the war and all.
The casualties, the final pays would need to be sent to their families along with condolences and their equipment would need to be evaluated.
After that there was the new guys, they needed drilling, since the discipline right now was NOT up to snuff with steel fist expectations. Sure they would form a line and hold it roughly, but they were a troupe of individuals, not a team effort like the steel fist required.
And admittedly, some of the drill was for show, it helped when negotiating prizes.
Lastly he needed a lot of new gear and to sell off more of the loot. He had claimed a few nice sets of harnesses and weapons from the Mandarass baggage train, nothing amazing, but still several sets of high quality scale mail and a plate armour.
Not to mention he probably needed a full new suit of armour himself, the one he got was severely banged up and worsley, it was warped.
Guess that's what getting squashed by an elephant does to ya.

Outside the drills were coming along, the new guys realizing the truth about the steel fist.
The steel fist was the best mercenary company in the world. Why? Drill. Punishing and exact drill.
Not one step out of line, not a single order ignored or done later. The companies renown as drunken idiots was not really deserved considering how serious they were.
Several of the new guys quit the first day, many more during the following.

[b]A duel of ill fated.[/b]
The days passed and life returned to normal, Claus always almost got to have a rest before some unexpected events needed his attention.
The meeting with the king, the strange happening with old man Blackwell and following that the prisoner exchange to the royal troops.
They would probably end up in the dungeons, a lot of them.
After all the fist had captured roughly four thousand dissidents, most of them would not fit in the dungeon.
As there was a breakout of rats in the grain storage, Claus realized he had once again not gotten a moment of rest before the duel next day.
He was sitting among the troops in the vanguard who had a pot of pig porridge.
Grain, water and salt, made to a porridge and served with butter, hopefully... this was one of those days and he exhaustively but happily munched on his salty food when Roogel and Katrina came up and joined him.
Roogel was about to speak when Claus boomed out.
-"NO, i am not needed anywhere... apart from here with my dinner." To which Roogel laughed once and sat down.
-"You're in luck then, Katrina just wanted to give you some thoughts on your enemy tomorrow." Roogel said heartily as he gave Claus a good whack on the back with his right palm.
Claus ended his spiel and looked to Katrina while eating his porridge. It took a while before Katrina understood she was supposed to talk.
-"OH! Um, yes. It is Alice Rallar, she served the Remonnets in the Remonnet Mandarass civil war, she's apparently a bit of a war hero since she commanded so well the old king rewarded her with the advisor's seat for her service."
Claus didn't look up as he sarcastically answered.
-"Great, i have to kill a war hero. That'll look good on my resumé."
-"Furthermore, she is a very skilled swordsman, apparently fighting with rapier and a dagger. She's also deceivingly strong." Katrina worriedly kept on.
-"You know Claus, you don't have to fight her, you could...." Katrina tried to reason, but Claus stopped her.
-"I do have to fight her. I saw it in her eyes, she is cornered. Don't worry though, i'll manage. I get to try my new toy as well." He finished with a smirk.
-"So boss, what about a few training bouts?" Roogel's optimism was welcoming as always.
-"I don't wanna.... but i guess i have to." Claus weariness was obvious, but he didn't have familiarity with his new weapon. Plus getting a new sword would take days, or he'd get a ready made sword he wasn't familiar with either, so he might as well use the new one.
It would also be a moment to show off himself.

The following morning he moved out, he wore his full suit of armour, whom Katrina and a few others had done their best to look better, he  marched with a full fifty people from his vanguard, two of whom carried his blade. Along with Roogel and Katrina on his side. Roogel was also carrying the banner of the Steel fist. A ragged and stitched black banner with the white clenched gauntleted fist on top, with the most heroic deeds of the fist embroidered on its surface.
The procession entered the city and moved towards the arena.
There were thousands who were flocking to see the event, the arena was packed. Nobility, burghers, it was said even the king was there to witness the event.
It was honestly difficult to get there before Claus began to make himself known via horn calls.

The arena was packed, people from all social stratas had gathered and Alasdair was looking down upon the arena from the kings podium, he sort of wanted the whole ordeal done with as he gently rubbed his temple, but in truth he was early.
Claus had not even arrived and Alice had barely gotten inside the arena's preparation rooms. Which was fine with him, it had gotten him a lot of time to set up the 'plans' for this combat event.
Known only to himself and one other, the water Alice would be offered would be poisoned. Not a strong poison, she would not die. But her judgement and her awareness would be hampered.
He momentarily wondered if he'd need to get rid off the man doing the deed later, but his train of thought was interrupted as a chilling horn-call was heard from outside.
It repeated itself four times, each time it was closer. The call was deep, it cried war, blood and death. A few who had heard the horn of the steel fist before were reminded of its meaning. Others needed no prior knowledge to be chilled to the bones.
After the last call, one of the kings servants snuck up to Alasdair and told him that Claus had arrived.
Finally.
He stood up and unusually, there was no cheers from the crowd. They had gotten into other thoughts, as Alasdair stood the much more happy and joyous fanfare of the brass horns called everyone's attention and silence befell the arena.

-"People of Nyhem, we gather here today to witness the conflict of old versus new. So without further ado, let us commence!" Alasair used the most imposing 'king voice' he could muster, the clever design of the arena also made it easier for his voice to travel to those who would need to hear it.
A cheer was heard from the crowd as two of the arena doors opposite to each other opened to reveal the competitors and their aides.
Alice had gathered several imposing soldiers in nice cuirasses and with capes in her heraldic colours, they carried only shields and had their swords in the scabbards, the four of them formed a square behind her as she walked up to her designated spot, the marshall was overseeing the event from the arena floor and instructing the combatants on their positions.
From the other side, Claus exited, he took a few steps and raised his horn and called the two tone call for march, out from the door behind him came his entire entourage in formation which was not how anyone expected him to arrive. The marshall was not happy to say the least.
With perfectly matching footfalls, the troupe went to their spot and claus stopped the formation with a shouted order. Followed by 'Form wall.' which the troop did with a shout in perfect unison and formed a spear wall behind him. As usual in flawless straight lines.

The arena was silent for a moment before Alasdair motioned for another fanfare.
-"Competing for honor today, are the champions seen before you. In the southern field, ser Alice Rallar." A cheer came from the populace, the southern field was the one further from the king, symbolising that she was the one who challenged the one in the north.
-"In the northern field, we have captain Claus Rotstein, advisor of war to the crown." Alasdair's last sentence had stirred some murmurs, the changing of advisors of war was still rather new and many had not gotten assurance that that was the way it was.
-"Marshall, you have the word." Alasdair happily let the marshall explain the rules, he didn't let it show in his voice though.
The marshall's voice was booming and clear.
-"Thank you high king. The format for today is a duel to the death, fought between the champions with the arms they best see fit. The champions will now give praise to Timtos, so that the battle will be honourable and fair." With that Alice drew her sword and knelt, Claus however reached his left hand to the back and Katrina nervously strode up to him with a cloth wrapped package. Claus took it by the hilt, nodded to Katrina and with a one-handed swing to the right followed with a flourish he cast the cloth off the sword revealing it as he in one fluid motion knelt as well.
The weapon was nothing like most of those present had ever seen, constructed with dragon scales and talons. It's size made it look almost like a caricature more than a sword, but Claus wielded it seemingly without hindrance.
This event got an noticeable response from the crowd as gasps, hollers and ooh's were let out.
Finally the marshall knelt together with the aides as a priest came and led those present in a prayer to Timtos, god of battle and honour.

As the prayer finished, the aides left the arena leaving only the marshall, Alice and Claus.
-"Now we pay respect to the king!" The marshall commanded and those present knelt for king Alasdair, even if Claus was slow to kneel.
With that Alasdair waved to the populace and nodded to the champions.
He held a striker for a gong for everyone to see, walked to the bronze gong and showed he was ready to strike.
Claus and Alice assumed fighting stances and were given a few words.
-"Now i will strike you down for your impudence! I will have my honor, you will be.... dead." At the end of her sentence, Alice felt a bit groggy, loosing her focus for a second. She thought of it no longer.
-"Impudence? I don't even know what that means! HA! I'll cut you up since you wanted that, good chance to try out my new sword as well!" Claus was grinning broadly as he tried to piss off his opponent. He ended by fastening his visor with its buckle and spinning on the rondel in the back with a flick.
There was a brief moment of silence, but seemingly from nowhere the gong sounded and the duel had begun.

Alice did not wait for her opponent, she knew he had range advantage and wanted to get in as soon as possible. Claus held is sword straight up in front of him with both hands, his visor slightly open revealing the focused eyes within.
Claus simply let his sword fall, he guided it and made a surprisingly quick thrust towards Alice face, she however realized in time and pushed the sword away with her rapier, she was going for a quick stab at Claus face with her dagger when she realized he was already punching in with the quillon of the sword, the dragon talon looked wickedly sharp and she literally threw herself backwards to avoid it hitting her torso.
Even if she wore a reinforced cuirass, she wasn't going to take chances with a strange new weapon like that.
Claus renewed his pose and swung the sword above him into a diagonal slice to his right, pursuing her relentlessly. She moved low and aimed for his leg when she once more felt groggy.
She stumbled, barely avoided the slash and was pommeled in the side by Claus.
Alice fell over and rolled away from Claus, luckily for her Claus was backing off as well. The pommel strike didn't have the proper force that a stronger wielder could have gotten in, it had however dented the cuirass and put in a visible indentation of the dragon snout of the pommel.
The truth was that the blade was heavier than Claus was used to, so he had overswung. The force needed to reroute the weight in the large sword was a bit much, so he had gotten in a poor blow... of sorts.
It had still dented steel plate.
Both of the fighters were now breathing heavily, one because she had been struck in the side, one because his sword was far more unwieldy than his usual weapons.

Alice was now getting worried, she wasn't feeling well, her focus went in and out and she felt groggy and wheezy. The combination of nausea and the pommel strike made her throw up.
But unbeknownst to her, the poison had already taken effect, even if she got some of it out now, it was too late.
She stood up with a noticeable shakiness to her gait, cheers were all over as she pointed her weapons at Claus once more.
-"Nice to see that blow didn't stop you!" Claus shouted at her with a smile, he changed his guard to a half swording stance. He realised that the weight of the sword would not do well against her skill, even if it gave him a reach advantage.
For he realized it now, her attack against his leg had hit, luckily the armour had pushed it off safely.
She moved in with a flurry of blows, all would have been fatal against a lesser opponent. But Claus managed to dodge parry and block most of them. One had glanced off his shoulder while another struck his arm.
The dagger pommel strike to his arm had hurt like a bugger though and he shouted in pain.
He leaned in, pushed Alice off him and seemingly swung madly in what looked like someone trying to row a boat. The manoeuvre was less stupid than it looked though as the repeated attacks threatened her from several points of danger, the edge, tip, the quillon and the pommel.
She took a step back, began to move to her left when once again her vision blurred.
Her movement had slowed and Claus took the chance, with a downward stab with the blade-tip, which hit her in the right leg, it sliced through the armour like a sharp knife through cloth and opened a rather messy wound through her leg with an opening towards between her legs.
Claus followed up with a full on pommel strike with all his might, she however countered with a quick thrust from above and both attacks hit home.
The force of the pommeling sent her literally flying, half a metre or so. Her strike had however left the rapier stuck in Claus helmet. It swayed ominously up and down.
The arena was in uproar, Alice was scrawling on the ground as Claus just stood there for a moment like a statue with a sword in its head.
Alasdair stood up trying to get a better look, boos and cheers were rampant as the crowd was in uproar.

Then with a stiff twitching motion, Claus moved his left arm, took Alice rapiers hilt, dragged the sword out of his helmet.
With mad cheers from the crowd.
The blade had hit his right cheekbone, bounced to the side and sliced his ear slightly, then it had gotten bent to follow the inside of the helmet.
As he pulled it out blood flowed visibly as he hurt more of his cheek and ear, booming cheers were rampant as he took a few steps and tossed the sword back to Alice.
-"Take the weapon! FIGHT!" Claus voice boomed over the arena, it had more presence than both Alasdair and the Marshall.
Alice was beginning to get a hold of herself, took the sword and began to sit up. The blow had pierced her cuirass and hurt her stomach quite badly.
But she wouldn't give up, she managed to kneel with the weight on her left leg, resumed her guard with the now bent rapier and shaky hands.
-"Good thing i brought the visor, otherwise you'd have put that one in my mouth i reckon." Claus spoke to Alice as he responded with a guard pose as well.
-"Anything to shut you up!" Alice spat out as well as she could. Before summoning the best of her power, standing up and charging in on Claus with repeated thrusts and slashes with both sword and dagger.
As her onslaught began Claus just began an echoing sinister laugh, her movements were now slow enough so that Claus could read them and easily defend himself.
He let her strike his armour several times, every time the blades making a deep score, but with each strike they became weaker and weaker.
At one point he headbutted the sword arm of Alice away followed with a hearty punch to the stomach. Something Alice barely could handle and stumbled a few steps backwards holding her wounded stomach with her left arm.
It was here Claus changed grip once more, took a step forth and made a massively telegraphed upwards strike. However Alice was too weak to even notice.
The strike hit her right armpit, with seemingly no effort the dragon-sword lopped off her arm cleanly at the shoulder, as she noticed her arm was hit she looked at it, and felt the kick on her chest which sent her flying to the ground.
She saw Claus stepping over her and with a massive two handed thrust he roared as he struck down with the blade vertically.

[b]The friend.[/b]
Earlier, as Claus entered the arena doors, he and his entourage was shown the directions where to go by some servants, he was however approached by someone in far nicer clothes whose thin frame and young appearance stood out.
-"Mr Rotstein, if you may? I want to speak with you."
-"I'm busy." Claus responded without stopping.
-"I am Alex of Nyhem, advisor of law, please listen." The young man informed, which had Claus stop for a second.
-"What? Am i breaking the law or something?" He ended with a smirk.
-"No, but please, listen, you are fighting Alice, i heard it was to the death. Is that so?" Alex was worried and genuine, Claus just responded in his serious tone.
-"Yes, she wanted it this way, so she'll get it. Now i have a fight to win, anything else? Or move out of the way."
-"Mr Rotstein, you must listen, i... i, want to ask a favor of you." Upon this Claus moved up to Alex and led him off a few steps.
-"I am listening." His face in that most sinister look.
-"You see, Alice is my friend, i don't want to loose her... but i can do nothing except... well... talk to you. Since i fear things will go bad for her, and i don't think the whole ordeal will be honest, I'm not thinking you will do anything.... but someone... so please... spare her." Alex spoke with true words, Claus had seldom heard more genuine words.
Claus pondered shortly before answering.
-"We shall see, i'm really tempted to kill her you see. But if i spare her... you owe me." At the end Claus pointed at Alex for a while. Then he left, leaving Alex as worried as before.


The crowd cheered and booed like madmen as they realized the blade had missed her head, it was embedded a good half metre or so into the arena floor. Claus bent down and took her dagger held it up high and walked towards the nearest spectators as he boomed out.
-"I have, DISARMED her! So now i spare her life!" He then tossed her dagger up to the spectators so that they could take it. A small fight broke out up there to take it.
With this the marshall signaled the duel was over, there was a clear winner, a clear loser and a massively entertaining fight.
He realized that the words of Alex held some weight to them. She was good, he had been weary and hadn't got time to recover after the war. She was completely fresh and seeing how she moved, she should have won...
But something was amiss. He didn't care though, now he had taught her a lesson and he had earned a favor from that kid back there.

As medical staff hurriedly took Alice off the field and began to treat Claus cheek and ear, the king stood up once more and motioned for a fanfare to prelude his words.
-"Thus, we have a winner. Congratulations Claus Rotstein, such a performance. Let us now celebrate!" The crowd was cheering, the mood was unexpectadly good.

The corpsmen of the steel fist now entered the arena and they ran up to Claus who had gotten a chair to sit on and was brought his sword.
They gawked at his wounds, messed with each other and Katrina was worried, back to normal so to speak.
Back to normal Claus thought with a smile on his face.

[b]Back to normal.[/b]
The following day, Claus thought it was time, he gathered the steel fist at a certain town square, and stood upon a certain speakers podium.
-"Gentlemen of the Steel fist! My friends! We have persevered through a harsh conflict and are now here to claim our prize. I can contain you no longer!
You deserve this time to feast, for you drink not only for yourself, but also for the fallen. So i implore you....
STEEL FIST! It seems we failed last time, DRINK THIS TOWN DRY!!!!" A mad cheer erupted as hats, boots and hollers were tossed to the sky as the steel fist began another victory celebration.
A few of those present managed an 'Oh no' before corpsmen began to take over all the local pubs.
Roogel went up to Claus and asked.
-"Was that a wise move? With the riot and all? Not to mention last time..."
-"You know i am right, i cannot contain them anymore. They were getting skittish, they've earned this. And it would never be long enough time after the riot." Claus stated, Roogel simply nodded and turned to Claus.
-"True true you little idiot. Now, are we gonna show our troops how it's done?" Roogel laughed with a massive grin.
-"You know it's time, i know just the right place as well!" Claus smiled as he got this mischievous look on his face.
Later Claus, Roogel, Katrina and several from the vanguard entered a fancy restaurant which clearly remembered them from last time.
This time they had even less chance to stop them since Claus brought about fifty from the vanguard this time and made sure to buy three bards to have one hell of a party.
The butler from last time just left, he perhaps even quit his job right there, or perhaps not, certainly no one from the steel fist Cared.

Once more the steel fist was let loose upon Nyhem.