Galli realizes in a quick panic that it would be way too easy to touch him accidentally if she stood close - the girls on the other end are overlapping each other and do touch often - and That Will Make It Weird. So she puts a few knots between them. Totally normal. Yes. She can totally give it her all from here and not breathe on anyone.

The slow start builds confidence for the other side. They know the strategy for playing this game as a team, how to brake with their feet and add their collective weight to the rope when Guts is pulling, saving their strength for when he has to pause and then pulling all together. They coordinate easily, yelling out "Hang!" and "Pull!". But there's only so much traction to be had in the wet, churned-up ground and The Boy is, in fact, very strong. Even as sturdy farmer's children who train in physical tasks and low-level swordwork, they inexorably start to get brought forwards, yelping and protesting.

Fresh girls add themselves to the other side of the rope to reinforce them and Hesri has to tell them "Two at a time! Hey!" Some of them are absolutely ones from Lashan's party a week ago and Guts does kind of get glared at, but it's not really in the same way as when he first arrived.