A Magic Duel

"There will be a duel," Aurora said. "The winner will join us on our crusade against darkness, and the loser will remain here and vanish into obscurity."

Sadarth laughed. "Sounds like easy XP to me."

"This duel is _not _to the ****," Aurora said. "If you cannot defeat your opponent without killing her, then you do not have the control necessary to be part of this party."

Sadarth scowled, but Fiora breathed a sigh of relief. She had no control at all, but the idea of not dying appealed to her.

They didn't have a designated dueling arena, so they cleared out a space in the town square, knowing that the words "magic" and "duel would be enough to keep the innocent bystanders at a safe distance.

"Begin!" Aurora shouted, imitating the stage voice of the man who presided over her jousts.

Sadarth sneered at her opponent. "I'm going to end this with one spell." She began her incantation.

Fiora began to panic. She didn't recognize the spell the dark elf was chanting, so she decided to play defensively. "You can't hit what you can't see! Invisibility!" She could cast that spell, some of the time. Today must have been her lucky day, because her fingers began to glow with magic. Okay, so the spell makes the target unseen, duration variable, cast on touch. I have to touch myself. Well, not like that, but she knew what she meant. She took a deep breath and put her hand on her chest, absorbing the magic. Now Sadarth wouldn't be able to see her and her spell, whatever it was, wouldn't have a target.

The instant she finished her spell, laughter surrounded her. Aurora tried to keep a straight face, but Rose didn't. The people who had stopped to watch the duel burst out in mocking jeers, and even Sadarth doubled over in laughter, interrupting her own spell.

"Um," Fiora said nervously, "can you still see me?"

"Yeah, we see you!" Rose shouted. "We see it all!"

Fiora looked down at herself, hoping to find herself transparent. She wasn't. She didn't see her sandaled feet, black skirt, or white blouse either. Instead she saw her bare feet, slender legs, uncovered womanhood, milky white breasts, and strawberry pink nipples. Her spell had almost worked, but the only thing it had made invisible was her clothes!

She screamed and covered herself with her arms as much as she could. She was able to cover her trimmed mound with one hand (though little else), but hiding both breasts with one arm was harder than she assumed it would be, and one of them kept on popping out over the crook of her elbow.

"Well done," Sadarth said. "You've managed to last longer than I thought. Let's see how much more you can take. Mordenkainen's Sword!"

A floating sword made out of green light appeared in the air. That was a spell that Fiora couldn't cast, but he knew of it. It wasn't an invisible creature holding a visible sword, it was just the sword itself that did whatever the mage commanded. It flew towards Fiora and she flinched, expecting it to run her through, but instead it swiveled around, and poked her in the butt.

"Ow!"

It didn't stab her in the butt, it just poked her, like she had sat on a pin. It poked her again. She jumped and rubbed the afflicted area before she realized that she was exposing her front to the crowd.

"Dance, girl!" Sadarth laughed. "Dance!" The sword struck again, with the flat of the blade instead of the tip, spanking her across the buttocks. The humiliation hurt nearly as much as the sword. She was a mage, darn it! Not some disobedient child!

"S-stop that!" she said, trying to keep the sword away from her.

"You're still not dancing," Sadarth called back.

"Fiora!" Aurora shouted. "You may forfeit if you wish."

"Don't tell her that!" Rose hissed. "This is just getting good!"

"Okay!" Fiora cried. "I … I …" No, she couldn't forfeit. She wouldn't! She was a good mage, a powerful one, she just needed to retake the initiative. "I'll dance!"

The crowd choked into silence. "What?" Sadarth asked.

"That's what you wanted, wasn't it?" Fiora demanded. "Just … just stop poking me with that thing!" She faced the dark elf and began a nervous jig, keeping her arms in place.

Sadarth laughed. "Is that all you got? The crowd wants a real dance! Shake what your mother gave you! Wave your hands in the air like you just do not care! Dance, darn it!"

Fiora didn't think her face could blush any redder, but she complied. She pulled her arms away from her body and shook her hips, letting her breasts bounce up and down for all the world to see. In the crowd, a bard pulled out his flute and starting playing music for her. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend this wasn't happening. With her eyes closed, she could still feel her invisible clothes on her body, and she could pretend that she was perfectly covered and the the crowd was laughing at something else.

Or at least she could try. It didn't work. This was still the worst experience of her life. Still, it kept that cursed sword away from her booty long enough for her to get another spell ready. "Stoneskin!" Stoneskin was an essential page in every mage's spell book, making the caster immune to a certain number of physical attacks, whether they came from an axe, a bow, or a magical, floating sword. Now she'd like to see the sadistic dark elf try to poke her in the butt with her … she couldn't move. Oh, what now?

She looked down at herself, and found that her clothes were visible again. They were also turned to stone, the cotton and wool transformed into heavy, abrasive stone. She was covered again, but she couldn't move more than a hobble. "Stupid clothes! Quit hogging my spells!"

Sadarth shook her head in fake pity. "Oh, dear. You seem to be over encumbered. You can't dance like that, can you? Come now, let me lighten your load." The magical sword pressed against her stone blouse and tipped her over. Fiora fell like a lopsided tower, and when she hit the ground her stone dress shattered. She was naked for real now, covered in nothing but her skin and stone dust.

"There, that's better now, isn't it?" Sadarth asked. "Now, would you like to keep dancing? Or would you like to try a spell? So far, everything you've done has worked out so well for me, I'll let you try to cast anything you like."