Hajin slid his grip from the back of the neck to the jaw and drove upward through both legs.
His badge read Maren, and his feet left the floor while his free hand clawed for his hilt.
"Oh, you're reaching for steel now?" Hajin laughed into his face, waggling his eyebrows, "Bad idea, real bad idea."
He slapped the reaching wrist aside, and Juna slipped clear as the cuff slid back from his own arm.
The Ring blazed under his sleeve as his right arm locked around the weight.
[ CringeSlayer91: picked him up, didn't even draw the sword ]
[ DarkBlade: what is that ring? ]
Two earth Shards flickered beside Maren's wrist as his fingers scraped toward a spell.
"Nope, no magic, you don't get to throw rocks indoors!" he barked like a scolding grandmother, then rammed Maren's breastplate straight into the central pillar.
Plaster exploded around Maren's shoulders, and the half-formed Shards broke apart like snapped twigs.
'Gods, I missed this, no sneaking or knives in the dark, just a straight fight.'
Maren swung a fist at his temple, and Hajin took it on the forehead, grinning through the sting.
"That all? Alley kids back home hit harder, and they were starving."
He clamped his palm across Maren's mouth, keeping his fingers clear of teeth while air whistled hard through the nose. Cracks crawled up the facing to a joint above Hajin's shoulder, and plaster chips rattled onto the abandoned cups below.
"I asked nicely, then I asked less nicely," he said, the cheer draining out of his voice, "and you still put your hand on her, so here we are."
Silence spread from the exchange desk to the back tables until somebody's cup clicked down loud as a dropped plate.
"Let him down, this is guild ground, you can't attack a licensed member over words!" One companion's voice cracked as he yanked a shortsword halfway free and stepped toward Hajin's back.
He winked over his shoulder at the half-drawn blade without loosening his grip.
"Over words? Come closer and explain it, there's plenty of wall left."
The second companion grabbed his friend's sleeve and hauled him back until the blade slid home again.
"Smart guy, that one, buy him a drink later."
The appraiser's jaw hung open behind the desk, both palms flat on the counter, eyes stuck on the Ring.
Hajin peeled his hand off Maren's mouth, and blood spattered the breastplate on the first ragged cough.
He twisted the collar until those frightened eyes met Juna's, "Look at her, she's who you owe, not the purse you thought could buy her, got it?"
"Now apologize for grabbing her, loud enough that your laughing table hears every word."
She stood beyond the fallen chips, ears pinned flat, freed arm pressed to her chest, claws still half raised.
"To a wolf freak? You want me bowing to some animal you dug out of a ditch?" Maren sneered, spitting blood off his lip through reddened teeth.
Hajin snapped the collar forward and back, cracking his skull against the pillar a second time.
Maren's knees buckled under the dust, and Hajin caught him while fire ripped through his own shoulder.
"Shit, that one hurt me too," he wheezed, rolling the shoulder with a wince, "okay, wrong answer, try again."
'He wants a lesson, fine, but my sword stays home, this idiot doesn't rate steel.'
"Her name is Juna, your hand never got her permission, start there."
Maren's mouth worked, hunting for one more insult, then gave up and sagged against the cracked stone.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have grabbed you," he croaked, eyes squeezed shut, "I shouldn't have said any of it, please, just let me go."
"Enough, or do you need it plainer?" Hajin held him steady and turned his head toward her.
"Enough, let him go, I don't want any more of him." Juna rubbed the sleeve where those fingers bruised her, voice low and rough, tail tucked tight.
Hajin opened his hand at once, and Maren slid down the pillar onto one knee.
He stepped between Juna and the companions, who hauled Maren back to his bench.
'And no EXP for wall-polishing, figures, the System never pays for idiots.'
She tugged her collar straight and glared at the floor rather than his face, "Thank you, I wasn't expecting that from a human."
"You shouldn't have to expect it from one guy, but I'm glad you stood with this one." He scratched the back of his neck, keeping his hand clear of her marked wrist.
Her tail gave one traitorous swish behind her before she pinned it still.
The entrance swung open before he could grab his pack off the floor.
A woman strode inside wearing an adjudicator's mantle, and five frost Shards formed around her arms as she walked closer. Patrons snatched their cups out of her path while a numbered badge glinted from the silver clasp at her collar.
She stopped beside Maren's table, pressing one hand on its edge to keep him seated.
"Who began this," she asked, one brow lifting at the fallen facing and the bloodied collar, "and why is everybody suddenly too quiet to remember?"
"No badge, attacked a member, damaged the pillar, Lady Yenna, I was about to send for help!" The appraiser squeaked, leaning over the desk to jab a finger at Hajin's sleeve.
'Great, a five-Shard judge, and I'm the guy standing beside the broken wall.'
Hajin raised both palms like a kid caught stealing pies, with Juna planted beside him.
Yenna glanced at the sleeve Juna held closed, "No badge explains registration, it doesn't explain that arm or why your member needed peeling off a wall."
He jabbed a thumb at the bench instead of her sleeve, scowling.
"He grabbed her, tried dragging her across the seats, then offered five silver to buy someone who doesn't belong to me."
Yenna turned to Juna rather than making him repeat it, leaving the answer to her.
She raised her cuff with her jaw set until the finger marks showed, then let it fall.
"I told him to let go, he squeezed harder, then went for his weapon when words weren't enough."
Yenna pushed the appraiser's fallen pen back toward his hand, "You watched from here, tell me whether either account is false before I ask everyone who stepped away."
The appraiser shot a pleading look at Maren's companions, but one stared into his cup while the other edged away.
"He grabbed her first, Lady Yenna, I saw it, but the damage is real, he broke that pillar in front of everyone." He hugged the ledger to his stomach and bowed, sweat beading on his upper lip.
A chip broke loose above their shoulders, and Yenna caught it under her palm in a puff of frost.
She set it on the empty table without pretending one removed piece fixed the crack.
"No further contact, the assault is confirmed, and lack of registration invited none of it."
Hajin tugged his sleeve down, and the Ring dimmed once he stopped feeding it mana.
Maren's badge showed guild identifier 412 beside its seal, one more number for her file.
Yenna nodded at the floor, so Hajin lifted the pack strap without dragging it through the chips.
"Now the pillar," she said, pointing at the damaged joint without a flicker of expression, "and don't call its repair an apology somebody else owes you."
He clutched the purse under his shirt like a mother hen, "An honest bill can wait where I can see it, tell me the price, I'll tell you how soon I can pay."
'My purse is already sweating, and she hasn't even written a number down yet.'
Juna stayed near his shoulder instead of heading for the door, smothering a snort, while Yenna opened the repair ledger.