The next morning Xander awakens to the early morning light shining through the window onto his face. After getting ready he finds Gwendolyn waiting outside his room.

“Good morning,” he greets her warmly, giving her a hug and a smile. He realizes something isn’t right when she doesn't smile back at him.

“Is something wrong?” He asks in concern.

Gwendolyn contemplates burdening him with all of her troubles, but instead, she tells him, “I just didn’t get to see you that much yesterday”.

“I know, I want to spend more time with you too, but we both have things we need to accomplish,” Xander hugs her again.

“Yeah,” she frowns over his shoulder so he does not notice, a fake smile appearing on her face as he backs away.

“Well, good luck... I’ll see you later,” Gwendolyn waves goodbye, dropping her grin just as Xander is out of eyeshot.

Xander meets up with Kayde and Drakthar and the two of them meet with the city guard at O’Malley’s Tavern.

Sarge hands them all sacks of gold, “Here is the haul from turning in the gang leader”.

Xander and Drakthar pocket theirs while Kayde jingles it in front of him to quickly determine how much he just made.

“Anyway, we’ve found this,” Sarge holds out a piece of parchment in front of them.

They take a closer look at it and see that it is an advertisement for the Bears. It details a time and place to take their initiation test.

“I guess they are running low on members,” Gorl comments, pointing out that they must be desperate to put out an ad.

“The Bears’ initiation is a swift punch to the gut, withstand it and you are in. I suggest we attend that initiation and go undercover to figure out what we can about them,” Sarge lays out the plan he has already formulated.

Everyone looks at Drakthar, him being the obvious one to go undercover within the Bears.

“So who thinks they can take it because I can’t,” Gorl is not afraid to admit.

“Yeah, me neither,” Lydia agrees meekly.

Eric includes himself noting, “I wasn’t made to take a beating”.

“I can take the punch,” Sarge declares proudly, puffing out his chest a little.

“I mean I could, but why would I want to get punched? I’m out for this one,” Kayde waves it off. This sort of thing is a waste of his time anyway.

“I could try, I don’t want to leave the two of you to go by yourselves, so I will go too,” Xander decides, very unsure of what he just dragged himself into.

“So it is decided, Xander, Drakthar, and I will go to the meeting tonight. The rest of you are dismissed,” Sarge tells them.

The three of them set off at dusk and head towards the warehouse specified on the recruitment ad. Arriving at a warehouse, they see a bunch of large men headed in the same direction. The room they are guided into is filled with the smell of body odor and stale beer. Once everyone is inside, a rotund man as big as Drakthar stumbles onto the stage up front, likely drunk by his over-exaggerated mannerisms.

“Hey, members and new fish. Welcome to the Bears, well I’ll welcome those of you who pass our initiation. You all are going to line up and receive a punch to your gut. You stay standing, you're in, if not you will be thrown out. It’s like that because the Bears are all about strength, if one of you clowns were to beat me they would be the leader, but we will save challenges for another day. Line up, let’s get this started,” the gang leader takes a seat while his men usher the initiates into a line.

Sarge, Xander, and Drakthar wait in a line, heading up onto the stage. They watch as one by one people go up on stage and are punched in the stomach. Most of them collapse to the floor at the power of the Bear’s fist, but some are able to stay standing.

“This doesn’t look too bad,” Sarge nudges Xander, trying to encourage the one among them with the worst shot of making it.

“Yeah,” Xander agrees tentatively, continuing to stare at the people who go up on stage to gauge if he can, in fact, do this.

It is finally Sarge’s turn. He walks up onto the stage and stands up confidently, waiting for the hit. The Bear winds up and punches him right in the stomach. He flinches for a second, the slight belly on Sarge ungulates a bit, but he stays on his feet.

“Nice work, welcome to the Bears,” the man slaps him hard on the shoulder, signaling him to go to the back.

Once Sarge disappears, Xander, walks up on stage, glancing towards the man who is about to punch him directly in his stomach.

The boss, who has been sitting in a chair off to the side has gotten restless and gets up from his chair, “Hey, let me do the punching for a couple of these”. He shoves his subordinate aside and standing in front of Xander readying his fist.

Xander curses to himself, this is just his luck. The leader winds up his arm and imbeds his fist in Xander’s gut. Xander goes flying from the force of the punch, landing ten times further back than any of those who failed before him.

Xander lands on the other side of the stage, a couple of Bears collect him and throw him out of the warehouse onto the street. He feels the pain beating in his stomach as he tries to get himself up off the ground. He leans on the wall of the warehouse waiting a second for the pain to die down before he starts the excruciating walk back to the inn.

Back inside the Bears’ warehouse, Drakthar steps up front, not discouraged at all by Xander’s exit.

The Bears’ leader looks him up and down, “You seem like a sturdy one, but fellows like you haven’t been able to withstand my fist before”. Drakthar grunts, not intimidated by the man’s words.

Drakthar stands firm as the boss punches him right in his rippling abs. An audible crack can be heard throughout the warehouse as the leader’s hand is crushed upon colliding with Drakthar’s hard body.

The Bears’ boss reels back in pain clutching his now broken hand.

He looks straight at Drakthar with a hint of pride in his eyes, “I’ve never punched anyone as solid as you before”.

Drakthar does not care for pointless compliments, he gets straight down to business, “Before, you mentioned something about if someone bested you they would become the new leader?” The boss nods still cradling his fist.

“Then I would like to issue a challenge,” Drakthar declares, causing gasps from the others in the warehouse. They have never seen a new member be so bold.

“I would never turn down a challenge from one of my men. Midday tomorrow we will meet right here and decide which of us will lead the Bears,” the leader declares, not shying away from this hulking man’s challenge.

Drakthar nods, a wide grin starting to make its way onto his face, “I look forward to it”.

After the initiation party, Drakthar and Sarge run into Gorl at O'Malley's.

“Hey, how did that whole Bears thing go?” Gorl asks once he has seen them.

“Both of us got in,” Sarge explains.

“What about Xander,” Gorl asks, not seeing him with them.

Drakthar winces a little, recalling his friend’s failure, “He didn’t pass, but he got sort of unlucky”.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Gorl notes, concerned that they didn’t all make it.

“It’s fine though lad, Drakthar here might be the new leader of the Bears after tomorrow,” Sarge tells Gorl, slapping Drakthar’s back.

“How did that happen?” Gorl’s face turns to a look of surprise.

“The Bears value strength, so anyone can challenge their leader at any time. Kind of an odd system, but it works for us,” Sarge explains how it works to Gorl.

“I guess good luck to you tomorrow,” Gorl lifts his drink to Drakthar. Drakthar nods silently, before starting to drink his own.

Meanwhile, the injured Xander has just made his way back to their inn. He opens the door with one hand while the other is over his stomach. He limps through the halls trying to get back to his room so he can rest.

“Hey, how did fighting the gangs go today?” Gwendolyn asks Xander as she sees him walk by.

She notices the pain on his face and his limp, “What happened?” The look of concern on her face grows as she moves to help him out.

“I got hurt,” Xander responds as he lets Gwendolyn lead him back to her room.

“Well that’s obvious, how did you get hurt?” Gwendolyn sits him down on her bed, genuinely worried over his sorry state.

Xander looks down in embarrassment while he explains; “We went to infiltrate a gang called the Bears today. They have an initiation ritual where you get in if you can take a punch to the stomach. It looked like I could do it, but at the last second the boss, the biggest guy there, stood up and started doing the punching”.

“Why on earth would you do something so stupid like that?” Gwendolyn asks Xander, her voice carrying a harsh tone he wasn’t expecting.

Caught off guard and a little confused Xander asks, “What do you mean?”

“You should leave stuff like that to Drakthar, you should stick to the things you are good at,” she scolds him, not wanting him to put himself in those kinds of situations.

“And what is it that I am good at?” Xander asks hesitantly.

“Well there is one thing I think you are pretty good at,” Gwendolyn’s face turns red as she leans in, she watches Xander close his eyes and she continues forward pressing her lips against his.

“Okay now let’s see that bruise,” Gwendolyn tells Xander after they part. He pulls his shirt off and drops it at his side. Gwendolyn gets her first look at the bruise. It discolors Xander’s white skin with shades of blue and purple.

“It looks pretty bad,” Gwendolyn murmurs as she touches it lightly, causing Xander to wince.

She looks up at the pain on his face and gets up, “I have some ointment that we can put on it”.

Xander can’t help but smile in spite of himself as he watches Gwendolyn rummage through her bag.

She finally finds the ointment, “Here it is!” She dips two of her fingers in it.

Gwendolyn tosses her hair back with her free hand as she leans over. She begins to lightly spread the ointment on Xander’s bruise, goosebumps start to appear on his skin, the ointment unexpectedly cold. He feels the slightest amount of pain from her touch, but it is drowned out by a tickling sensation that goes along with it. He tries to stop himself from squirming a little.

Gwendolyn cleans off her hand with his shirt.

“There we go, you should put some more on tomorrow as well,” she orders him as if she was his doctor. Xander stands up and grabs his shirt.

He starts to put it back on, but Gwendolyn stops him by putting her hand on his shoulder, “Don’t put your shirt back on, you are going to smear the ointment”.

“But I don’t want to walk through the hall shirtless to get back to my room,” Xander explains, not confident in his appearance at the moment, due to the giant purple spot on his torso.

Gwendolyn puts her other hand on his free shoulder and pushes him back down onto the bed, “Who said you get to go back to your room?”

Gwendolyn lays him down, “Best not move, you should get some sleep if you want to recover”. She slips into bed next to him and lies her head on his shoulder. He feels her soft hair resting on him, it is soothing but uncomfortable at the same time.

A few minutes pass and Xander starts to feel Gwendolyn lightly breathing on him. He looks over at her, realizing she is asleep. Throughout the night Xander tries to doze off as well, but he is way too awake due to the situation he is in. Despite his efforts, he doesn’t get any sleep the entire night.

The next morning Gwendolyn wakes up and realizes that Xander is in the same bed as her. It takes her a few seconds to remember what she did.

“Did you sleep well?” He asks her as soon as he can see she is awake.

“Yes… uh… I did,” Gwendolyn responds, flustered by the situation she caused.

Gwendolyn looks into his eyes and realizes how irritated they are, “I’m so sorry I did this to you. You didn’t get a wink of sleep did you?”

“No it is okay,” Xander yawns, trying not to make her feel bad about what happened.

“Why don’t you sleep here, I’ll leave so you can finally get some sleep,” Gwendolyn gets up and throws her boots and another shirt on.

“Yeah, have a nice day,” Xander yawns again as he closes his eyes and settles into her bed. Gwendolyn takes one last look at him begin to drift off as she leaves the inn for the day.

Drakthar and Sarge meet up and head to the same warehouse they were initiated in earlier. They are met by a group of Bears waiting outside, their arms folded, trying to put up a menacing front for the new recruits.

“Drakthar right?” One of them asks him, already knowing full well that he is. Drakthar nods, clearly not affected by whatever form of intimidation they were trying to employ.

The Bears turn around leading Sarge and Drakthar into a backroom within the warehouse. It appears to be a stadium. Benches on risers are filled with Bears surrounding a raised ring in the center of the room, all of them fall silent when they see the young challenger enter the room.

The gang leader stands confidently within the ring, “Looks like you showed up”.

Drakthar climbs up into the arena without hesitation while Sarge sits down in the front row.

“Before we begin let me explain the rules, hand to hand combat within the ring if one of us falls out they lose. If someone dies or faints they lose. That’s it; after this is over one of us will be the gang leader,” the boss states loudly so not only Drakthar can hear, but the rest of the Bears as well.

A bell rings and the fight begins. The Bears’ leader starts fast, diving towards Drakthar’s legs trying to get him off his feet, but instead, he finds nothing, but air. Drakthar jumps over him, avoiding his grasp.

Now that the boss is prone on the floor, Drakthar bears down on him. He feels the pressure from Drakthar’s muscular arms pinning him to the ground. All of the Bears watch in horror as Drakthar starts to slowly push their leader towards the edge of the ring.

The boss looks behind him, seeing how close to the edge he is and makes his move. He grabs a hold of Drakthar with his arms and legs. Drakthar is surprised as he is flung over and lands on his back towards the edge of the ring, barely able to remain inside.

Drakthar is barely able to remain in the ring. He had underestimated his opponent and now feels the immense weight of the gang leader on top of him, pushing him towards the nearby edge. Drakthar tries to resist, but he feels himself slowly getting closer to falling out. He recognizes this man’s pure strength and knows how this man came to be the leader of the Bears.

Having no other option, Drakthar slams his head against the gang leaders’. The boss’s head starts to ring, disoriented from this unexpected tactic. Drakthar takes this opportunity to slip out from under him and get to the other side of him. Drakthar, with all of the strength he has left after resisting for so long, pushes him out of the ring, the gang leader’s body hitting the stone around the ring like a sack of potatoes.

The Bears watch in awe while their leader is bested.

The room falls silent until the old gang leader gets up and points to Drakthar, “Behold the new leader of the Bears!”

Drakthar hops down out of the ring to help him up, in Drakthar’s mind this man is a warrior worthy to have been his opponent.

“Now that I am the leader, do I control the gang’s actions?” Drakthar inquires about his newfound power. The former boss nods to confirm.

Drakthar steps back up into the ring and begins to address his subordinates, “From now on, all of you will no longer terrorize the citizens of Melusarej. You will work together with the city guard to help protect and nurture this city”.

The Bears start to mumble in the stands, their mumbling quickly evolving into protest.

The former leader stands next to Drakthar and screams out, “Everybody quiet down! This is our new leader and what he says goes! If you have a problem with that challenge him and take his title!”.

The crowd is silenced and no one steps forward, they are all too afraid to challenge the beast of a man glaring back at them.

In the coming weeks, the Bears approach the city guard and agree to help them. Together they take down the Snakes and end gang activity in Melusarej. Once his job is done, Drakthar gives the mantle of leadership back to the one he took it from, under the condition that he continues to aid in the growth of the city. He and the others have grander things to accomplish, and small problems in a port city are no longer going to keep them from it.