I have

I couldn't lose here. As much as I did not want to resort to this, I was out of options

As I quickly felt my remaining strength fading I grabbed the familiar object and held it in front of me.

Cassandra scowled at the black box. Too cautious to advance when something unfamiliar had entered the equation. “And what's this now, boy?”

For a few seconds, my mind was too muddled to understand what I had do to. But there was a seal. I tore it open and right away black smoke emerged, surrounding me.

“What?” Cassandra's instincts kicked in and she jumped back.

The smoke slowly cleared and suddenly…

There stood another person in the arena.

There was something otherworldly about this intruder. Her skin had a greyish hue and her Kalar like ears twitched as she appraised me with deep emerald eyes.

Her most striking features however, where no doubt the two horns that poked out of her head.

Then the girl started clapping.

“Congratulations, Sir! You made a wonderful choice today!”

My head was pounding. I wasn't sure if it was from the poison or the smoke. I coughed a few times.

The horned girl gasped. “Geez golly, you don't seem to be in a particularly fit state, Sir. Would you prefer if we dispense with the formalities and get right to business?”

I was just about to answer as I found something hard slamming into me.

Cassandra knocked me off my feet.

“You stupid, fucking idiot!”, she screamed, while brandishing her knife. She aimed for my throat. I tried to defend myself but I could barely move and so I braced myself for impact.

Except it never came.

“Oh dear”, the weird girl sighed and shook her head. “That one was on the house, but I'm afraid this is a limited time offer, Sir. Hehe, get it?”

“What?”

“Sir! You are one lucky man! Because, oh boy, a deal like this don’t come around every day, no Sir. This is the chance of a lifetime! A real life changer! Sometimes you just gotta grab the devil by the horns. Show them tournament fat cats you’re the man! And I can tell from your no nonsense hard boiled attitude, this is someone who makes the hard choices. Sir, you are a go getter! A maker! An alpha!”

“What?” I croaked, starring between this girl and Cassandra. The later appeared to be frozen in place. No, that wasn't quite correct. She was moving, just extremely slowly. But nonetheless, her knife was still continuing her downward trajectory.

“You seem a bit confused, Sir But that’s not a problem, Sir! Not at all! We offer a complete ultra all inclusive no worries package! Wow, we must be crazy! But it gets even better!” The horned, girl gave me a bright smile. “Luckily for you, Sir, the contents of the contract have already been laid out. I only need your consent. Verbally is acceptable. So, Sir, are you ready to make the single most important decision of your life?”

“What?”, I repeated. I tried to move myself but found out that I was in the exact same predicament.

The odd girl let out sigh although her smile never wavered. “Valued Sir, I would love to answer every single one of your inquires until you are fully satisfied, believe me, I do. If your not satisfied, I’m not satisfied. But!” She glanced to Cassandra’s knife.”You have exactly 8.2 seconds before this fine lady here slits your throat. So, Sir, I’m afraid I need an answer from you right here, right now. Yes or no to the contract?”

I had no idea what was going on, but the grey girls estimate seemed accurate. The knife was slowly gaining speed.

“3 seconds”, she urged. “Just say yes.”

“Yes”, I finally cried out.

“And we have a deal!” The horned girl let out a hearty chuckle and suddenly everything seemed to move at normal speed once more. But Cassandra was no longer attacking me, instead it seemed like an invincible **** pushed her towards the far end of the arena.

Cassandra winced and struggled to regain her footing.

Meanwhile the girl from the box was looking at her with an amused grin on her face.

“Cassandra, hm? Mind if I call you Cass? So, Cass, nice meeting you, I’m the legal representative of Mr. Mari Beta. Let me cut to the chase: I will need you to surrender to my valued customer. Oh, don't worry He is still your opponent, you still surrender to him, not me. Lucky you!”

“T-this is against the rules! This is a clear violation!”, Cassandra screamed. “Referee!”

“Sorry, but nope!”, Ben shut her down. “Any items brought into the arena are allowed for use.”

“Are you insane? How the hell is a Devil an item? This is additional organic matter!” Despite her anger, I could sense a growing fear creeping up in Cassandra’s voice.

But Ben merely shook his head with his perpetual friendly smile. “This only applies to organic matter transported through the teleporter.” And for a brief second Ben’s smile almost turned cruel. “But you are aware of that, Cassandra.”

“Don't bullshit me, you corrupt faggot!”

“Please refrain from insulting the referee. This is your first warning.”

“Wow, Cass, really? Stay classy.”, the devil grinned. “I would love to do some connection building with you but we are both professionals, so mind if we get the neg’s back on track?”

Cassandra let out a loud howl, she was close to her discarded bow so she ran towards it, snatched it up and notched an arrow. It was an impressive display given her injured arm, but all the while the devil girls smile never wavered, nor did she make any move to prevent that.

The arrow flew directly at the devil only to be suspended in the air.

With a smile, the devil poked the sharp end of the suspended arrow. “I'm afraid, this won't work on me. Time magic and all that, you know.”

“This will though!”

Even though I was barely conscious, I noticed that the mines have closed in on me. Of course, killing me would certainly be the easier option for Cassandra. I already mentally prepared myself and closed my eyes.

The explosion happened and I didn't feel a thing. Was that how it felt to die? No, the nauseous pain from the poison was still there. Except now, It was accompanied with a feeling of vertigo.

I was floating in the air.

In my underwear.

“Oops, I am sorry, Sir. Void Teleportation does tend to sometimes miss things.” She giggled. “Hope I'm not too forward but you look very fetching like that, Sir. Top notch breeding material.”

I was in no position to care about anything that was happening right now.

“Sooooooo, Cass”, I heard the devil say. “About that surrender...”

Cassandra let out another roar and charged the devil, abandoning all pretenses of strategy.

In contrast, the devil merely chuckled. Without even moving away her tail whipped once and smacked Cassandra across the face sending her to the arena floor.

The Huntress tried to get up but her opponent was faster and mounted her.

“Cass, dear, I'm afraid my customers terms are not flexible. This is a zero sum negotiation and your gonna be the zero. The only remaining question here is, do you want to do this the easy or the hard way?”

“Fuck you!”, Cassandra screamed.

“I love it when negotiations are short!” A giggle followed. “I do not wish to leave my valued customer waiting, and your perfume, no offense, it is rather pungent. So, lets continue this somewhere more private.”

The devil snapped her fingers and a small black sphere appeared at her fingertip. It grew rapidly and started to engulf Cassandra who screamed in terror. The devil gave me a small wink before the sphere swallowed her as well.

For two eternal seconds the arena fell into the silence. Then the two reemerged from the void. Cassandra was completely naked and drenched in sweat.

“Now then, Cass. You know what you have to say”, the devil demanded.

“Go fuck yourself, you stupid piece of shit devil bitch.”

The devil replied to that with a loud sigh.“So unprofessional. My deepest apologies, Sir. The other party is very uncooperative. But, I get the deal closed. No worries.”

The two where engulfed in the black void once more this time for four seconds.

“I surrender! I surrender! Stop! Stop! Stoooooop!”, Cassandra screamed upon appearing again.

“I know we would see eye to eye.” The devil snapped her finger and Cassandra received what I can only imagine was the most powerful orgasm in her life.

Ben for some reason didn’t miss a single beat.

“Cassandra has surrendered! The victor is Mari Beta!”

And that was how I “won” my second fight.