End it with a single strike! Aim for the throat!

I retreated all this time, she will never expect me to go on the offensive. Also, Aijuka is not trying to kill me. That gives me a tremendous advantage. Even if we exchange blows, I will ultimately emerge as the victor.

I lounged at her, using one of my dirks to strike her throat, expecting her to use the opening to attack my stomach.

But instead the cat girl moved her arm upward, catching my dirk with her bare hand. The dirk plunged deep into her paw, but Aijuka looked completely unfazed. No, she was grinning!

“Gotcha!”

I quickly brought my second dirk around but it was too late, Aijuka kicked me in the stomach

and we tumbled to the ground together. I tried to attack with my dirk again but she was faster and twisted my arm until I was **** to let it go. We wrestled a bit until she had me securely pinned to the ground.

A cheer went up as my loss was assured and a wave of disappointment washed over me. Once again, I failed.

I braced myself for the finishing strike, but it never came.

“Hurry Surrender!”, the catgirl demanded with a giddy grin on her face. Her tail was swerving from one side to the other in rapid succession. She was clearly very excited right now.

It goes without saying that I had no intention of indulging the catgirl, no matter how cute she was. There was barely a minute left on the clock. I would only have to endure whatever **** she had planned for me and we would be both disqualified. “I won't.” I calmly stated. “I admit defeat. Just kill me.” I closed my eyes, accepting what was about to happen.

To be frank, I had other worries on my mind. I failed my brother and my sister. I failed them in the qualifiers and I failed them now. I was not sure how I could face Zachs again.

“Not much time left, sorry this will hurt much.”

I barely registered the words or the fact that she grabbed my balls.

What she did then however, was impossible to ignore.

The pain was beyond anything I ever felt in my life. Perhaps it was foolish of me to ignore my bodies most obvious weak spot. Perhaps I should have trained against ****.

All that mattered little.

I screamed as the indescribable agony engulfed my body.

“Surrender!”, she demanded once more.

My nerves where assaulted from all directions. I knew that there was only a minute left. I knew that this would all go away in 60 seconds.

Then the pain came again and I didn't care if it was a minute or eternity. All my mind could focus on was to save me from this pain.

“I surrender! I surrender!”, I screamed.

Aijuka immediately let go and showed me a big grin. “My win, mate.”

“Mari has surrendered. The winner is Aijuka Zoroi!”

Ben shouted and immediately the spectators erupted in another round of cheers.

Meanwhile I felt a tingling sensation in my body as two things happened.

First, I felt a slight tightening around my neck. Whoever first created the spell of obedience hundreds of years ago certainly had an awful sense of humor. As it literally felt like a leash was tied around my neck.

Then, I was healed. The awful pain in my balls subsided as well as my overall fatigue. I felt strangely calm.

“Congratulations Mari Beta! You have the honor of becoming this tournaments very first ****!”

After that things moved very fast. We where both teleported out of the arena and found ourselves in a small office. There, a stern looking official informed me of my fate.

“As per your contract as a participant of the 129th Rasheul **** Tournament Mr. Mari Beta will hereby became a **** of Miss Aijuka Zoroi. This act will be magically enforced. Henceforth Mr. Beta is unable to disobey any order of Miss. Zoroi. Madam, would you please assure the validity of the transaction?”

“Umm...what I do?”

The official coughed. “Please give Mr. Beta an order to make sure that everything works as intended.”

“Oh..umm...crush your balls?”

To my horror my hands moved without my consent downwards. They grabbed my balls and...

“Just joke! Don't need to do that.” Aijuka said giggling just before I actually was applying pressure. I had trouble breathing. This was utterly horrifying.

The official got trough a number of confirmations, which I was too dazed to pay attention to.

“Everything seems in order then. A word of caution. Orders are often followed literally. They also have no expiration date. For your own safety and that of your **** please ensure that your wording is very accurate. This transaction is in accordance with the Free Cities Fair **** Trade Act of GI 764. Please be mindful of other nations laws if you decide to bring your **** abroad.”

“Hmmm.…” Aijuka didn't seem to understand half of that. The official didn't appear to care.

“In addition. We would recommend you to implement a number of what we like to call safety orders. Slaves do have a tendency of running away or trying to kill their master. This carefully curated list of orders will prevent that.”

“If mate runs away, he will regret it.” Aijuka gave me a toothy grin.

“Yes...however as a precaution...”

“Sure, sure....this is boring. Can I go now?”

The official nodded. “Almost, please repeat. Install safety orders.”

The catgirl pretty much just mumbled the words and I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head. I grunted and bend over.

The official gave me a sympathetic smile. “I apologize for that. You are currently receiving a couple of hundreds orders at once. Please bear with it for a couple more seconds.” He then addressed Aijuka again. “Here is a list of all the orders, please peruse them at your leisure. You are free to cancel any order that are not listed as essential.”

Aijuka halfheartedly grabbed the booklet, clearly not interested.

True, to what the official said, the pain in my head subsided. Not only that but the immense sense of dread I just felt a few seconds ago was gone. “Umm...Miss Zoroi? May I have a look?”

That got her grin back. “Not Miszoroi. Call me Aiju! And yes, you can have. Can't read anyway.”

She thrust the booklet in my lap.

“Excellent, your price money has already been wired to your fighter’s pass. Miss Zoroi, I wish you good fortune in your next match. Mr. Beta, you may keep using your room for the remainder of the tournament, if your Master so desires.”

And just with that we where ushered out of the office.

It took a bit for the realization to dawn on me. I just became a ****. Of course, this was always a possibility. But since you couldn't become a **** without surrendering I never thought it would actually happen to me.

Was I naive?

Aijuka did not allow me to go to my room. Instead she had me follow her to her own dorm room.

There, the cute catgirl looked at me with her usual big grin.

“Umm..so...what is happening now?”, I asked, somewhat unsure what this cat girl even does for a living.

“Mating!”, she screamed full of joy and pushed me on the bed.