Plan D

“Gotta say, this is quite nice.”

From the shadows, Minerva was smirking at me.

“I could just wait like this until it’s dark out, you know. I wonder if you start squirming once your precious space of sunlight starts decreasing more and more. Maybe I do that if I don’t get my striptease.”

“P-please, don’t joke about this, Miss Margaret!”, Ben pleaded. “Sunset is still hours away!”

“Yeah, yeah...talk about a **** driver.”

Letting out a loud grunt, Minerva finally stood up again. This time forty minutes had passed and by now a part of the crowd has gotten visibly annoyed by her antics. Nobody was suicidal enough to actually file a complain against a Dark Lord but if Minerva wanted to keep the audience on her side she couldn’t just wait it out like this.

“Ready for the next round, boy?”, she asked, cracking her neck.

I didn’t answer.

“Frankly, at this point you’re just boring me.” The Dark Lord stretched her joints, creating a weird squishing noise in the process. “Never mind your secret plan. I think I just finish you now.” With her usual smirk Minerva came at me.

And once more the familiar dance continued. Me stuck completely on defense, avoiding her attacks and blocking only when needed.

But despite my best efforts, the sheer ferocity of Minerva’s **** eventually caused my second Hirara alloy dirk to crumble. I was now down to one single steel dirk as my last line of defense.

“...finally.” Losing my second dirk was enough of a milestone for the Dark Lord to stop. She was breathing heavily now and sweating a lot. “You’re...one slippery fuck, you know that?”

Minerva was still intend on not killing me. As such none of her attacks were lethal. But that didn’t mean I got out of this exchange unscathed. By now my body sported multiple cuts and bruises. None of them impeded my movement yet but the direction this was going was obvious.

“I have to give you credit”, The Dark Lord looked at my battered and bruised body. “Never had anyone last that long against me. Gotta applaud your tenacity, won’t amount for shit though.”

I used the opportunity to take a deep breath. I had no idea how much longer my stamina would hold out but I had to get close to my limit. Any moment, I might just collapse.

“But seriously. Why is it so fucking hot?” Minerva eventually cursed and wiped some dark sludge from her brow. She glared at the sun. By now it had finally started it’s long and slow descent. “Whelp, you know the drill, lemme take another break.”

And this time the already disgruntled audience had reached it’s boiling point.

“AGAIN?”

“FINISH HIM ALREADY!

“WE’RE FUCKING SWEATIN TOO!”

"I DIDN’T PAY TO WATCH YOU SLEEP, YOU LAZY CUNT!”

Minerva took the insults with a good natured smile and after a while, pointed towards various audience members.

“These are traitors. Kill them. I pay 10.000 gold for each head.”

It took only a few seconds for numerous people to jump the complainers, who cried out in outrage and naturally tried to defend themselves. Eventually some spectators rushed to their defense and before long a large part of the audience had devolved into an outright brawl. This time it was even worse then the previous riot.

All the while Minerva merely laughed.

“Stop this at once!”, Ben desperately shouted. “**** is not permitted! If you keep this behavior up, we will have **** but to suspend...”

Ben’s head exploded. Minerva had lazily thrust a spear towards him and this time it wasn’t a miss. “The match continues”, she growls. “Don’t butt in.”

Of course Ben came back alive immediately but he certainly was in no more position to oversee anything. Let alone keep the crowd contained. All he did was lay prone in the sand, not making a sound.

Security didn’t seem capable of that either. In fact, some of them appeared to have blatantly switched sides.

This only caused Minerva to laugh harder. Then, as if it was no bother to her at all she moved towards her, by now considerably extended, favorite shadowy spot and plopped herself down, watching the carnage.

The moment she did, somebody, intentional or not, threw a can of juice at her. Or at least tried. The can splattered against the blue barrier and coated it in its liquid. The liquid Dark Lord narrowed her eyes as she watched the spilled content. Then her eyes suddenly widened. There was shock and disbelief in that expression.

And realization.

“Boy…” She slowly turned her head towards me.

“You son of a bitch. Don’t tell me you…” It seemed difficult for her to even articulate it. “Are you trying to...dehydrate me?”

There was no reason to answer her.

After the initial shock, Minerva’s reaction to that revelation was laughter. “You...you’re fucking with me, right? Oi, referee?”

Ben only moaned in response.

“Pull yourself together you little shit”, the Dark Lord snapped. “Tell me what happens if a combatant dies of thirst.”

It was an absurd question.

Something that should never even come under consideration. And yet, Ben seemingly had the answer readily available, albeit it took him considerable effort to speak.

“suicide...”, he slurred weakly, reeling from his sudden ****. “Dead via exposure to elements not directly caused by the opponent is treated as a suicide.”

“Course it is”, Minerva groaned annoyed. “And when I turn into a blood soul I lose my invincibility field, meaning the spell will affect me.”

But despite that revelation the Dark Lord only chuckled. “That’s clever. Very clever, really. I’m actually impressed by the sheer audacity of it. Well, done, boy.”

I had little interest in humoring Minerva, so I remained silent.

“Very cute, but...”, she smirked. “You do see the massive flaw in your genius plan, right?”

…

“I take regular breaks in the shade. You burn in the sun. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out who breaks first.” Minerva flexed her body. “Look at you. You’re sweating like a Banbera!”

“I’m not the one who’s breathing heavy.”

She scoffed at that. And then immediately went back to smirking. “But you know, boy. Do you even have the luxury to wait until I shrivel up?”

Minerva glanced towards my tower.

Some of the rioters had successfully overwhelmed security, reached the base of my tower and formed a human ladder to get to the large panorama window.

“NO!” I screamed as the door in my mind slowly creaked opened again.

The highest rioter got about halfway up before the window shattered, followed by a loud explosion. The bomb detonated high enough to not injure anyone but it was still enough of a shock for the ladder to scream and collapse.

“ANYONE TRY TO GET UP HERE GETS ONE OF THESE SHOVED UP THEIR FUCKING ASS!”, Cassandra shouted, holding a bomb in each hand.

“Cass”, Minerva clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Just be a good girl and wait until I’m done working.”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU FUCKING CUNT!”, the huntress roared. “DADDY! DON’T WORRY ABOUT US AND FUCKING BUTCHER THE CUNT!”

She wasn’t the only one.

“Foolish Mari Beta! Cease your whining!”, my Queen shouted. “We order you to fight and win!”

“YES, MY QUEEN!”, I shouted back. I slammed the door shut again.

“Noisy peanut gallery”, Minerva grumbled and addressed her rather shaken fans. “What are you waiting for? Get up there already and capture them. It’s 30.000 Gold for each.”

The prospect of a ridiculous amount of gold seemed to eclipse self preservation and some of the rioters made attempts to restart their climb.

“YER NOT MOVING A SINGLE MORE STEP, YA MANGY ANIMALS!”

Fisti stepped to the window, but she wasn’t on her own. Kept secured safely with a Shibari rope, she dragged a naked Sylphid along.

“Heeelp! I am in need of assistance!”, Sylphid shouted. “I am getting molested against my will by this dangerous girl! Woe is me!”

“Anyone getting up here, SPEED LASS IS GONNA GET IT!”, Fisti roared, squeezing Sylphid’s breasts in the process.

It caused the tower climbers to freeze in fear.

“T-they subdued Speed Sylphid?”

“We stand no chance against them!”

“P-Please forgive us Mistress Minervaaaaa!”

…

“Useless shits”, The Dark Lord clicked her tongue and stood up again. “Ah, screw it. I finish you off now.”

I faced the Dark Lord. “I heard that one before.”

Cutting her rest short, Minerva resumed her attack once more. At first she came at me with her usual ferociousness but it didn’t took long to notice that something was wrong. She couldn’t even keep her pace up for thirty seconds before she was panting.

“Fuck? The hell?” Minerva grunted, holding her head.

“What’s wrong? Feeling a bit lightheaded? Experiencing a headache?”, I mocked her, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “That’s the first sign. From now it’s only getting worse.”

I need to rile her up, make her continue the attack.

“Shut up”, she growled back. “You cocky, little shit.” But then she angrily shook her head. And once more the Dark Lord moved back to the shadows to rest.

“What the hell?”, Minerva mumbled there. “It hasn’t even been four hours…this shouldn’t...”

That was certainly true. The clock stood a little before five. A human body can withstand considerably longer before feeling the effects of dehydration.

But that did not account for fighting under a blazing hot sun. Furthermore, Femto exhausted a large chunk of Minerva’s stamina.

And most importantly…

The base for Dark Lord Ithere was an Upy, an aquatic creature. It takes only one look at Minerva to tell how much these traits were still present.

In other words, Dark Lord Minerva requires a high amount of liquid to sustain herself.

…

This time, Minerva rested for fifty minutes in the shade. The sun was dipping in earnest now. I estimated that I had about two more hours before the entire arena was covered in shadows.

Minerva could just wait it out until then. Or perhaps she realized herself that she couldn’t. That she didn’t have two more hours. That she needed to end this now.

I, as well, took the time to mentally prepare myself. This would most likely be it.

This long fight was finally about to reach it’s climax.

Mari’s estimate on victory over Minerva

upgrade to high grade equipment (+10%/+5%)

mental anguish due to excessive spending (-5%/-2.5%)

Balance Breaker Lucky, trying really, really, hard(+10%/+5%)

Amber Dominator Mari Beta void training completed (+7%/+3.5%)

Rule VIII struck from the record (+1%/+0.5%)

true Dark Lord Minerva(greatly weakened) (-20%/-10%)

My Queen’s hypnosis LV 2, patched up (+7%/+3.5%)

Dark Lord Minerva reinvigorating (-8%/-4%)

minus one Hirara Dirk (-2%/-1%)

steel dirk (+0.2%/+0.1%)

Dark Lord Minerva reinvigorating (-4%/-2%)

Plan D (+8%/+4%)

minus two Hirara Dirks (-4%/-2%)

Dark Lord Minerva reinvigorating (-2%/-1%)

Plan Dehydration (+16%/+4%)

Minerva caught on (-8%/-4%)

chances of victory by kill: 0.2%

chances of victory via surrender: 0.1%