The Doubles event begins

"So, what's the tournament say we're up against?" Fenri asked, wiping the sweat off her brow as the duo stood outside the coliseum, ignoring the vast crowds shoving each other aside to get to the gambling booth. Verdi stood next to her, his eyes scanning the massive carved letters placed on the walls of the coliseum, scanning the letters for their name as they tried to get into the coliseum to start their doubles match. Every once in a while he had to stop reading and freeze the flask of water hanging on his waist. Rather than trying to cool himself off, he was using the ice to stab at random pickpockets who thought he was an easy mark or cut any of the men who were copping a feel of his ass who also assumed he was an easy mark. Behind them, Citrinas, Varrick, and Daria were scanning the board for any potential suspects who would be working for Tristiana.

"According to the board we're against the... The Artist?" Verdi said, unsure whether he was reading the board correctly.

"Isn't this a doubles match?" Fenri asked as Verdi nodded, trying to see if he was misreading something.

"That's what the board says. I'm just reading it." He said before squinting his eyes and tugging on Fenri's arm, pointing to their name, the small phrase next to them exciting him. "Hey, check it out, we got a team name!" He said happily, grinning ear to ear at their title as he committed it to memory. It was a name worthy of someone as great as him. For the first time, he had no complaints whatsoever, a rare occurrence considering how often things went wrong for him. Seeing his smile, Fenri flashed a grin of her own, excited to hear their title as she wiped another handful of sweat from her brow.

"Oh, so, what are we?" She asked as Verdi took a deep breath, giving her a dramatic pause as he read their team name.

"Beauty and The Beast." He answered, taking care to emphasize The Beast. Upon hearing the name Fenri flashed a toothy grin as she softly chuckled at the name.

"I like." She said, equally pleased by their assigned team name as her canines shined underneath the sweltering afternoon sunlight.

"Yeah. The Beast is way better of a nickname than ice princess. Adding "The" to my name makes me sound like I'm a **** of nature." Verdi said as Fenri turned to him with a frown, studying his face for the slightest trace of sarcasm. To her surprise, this was the one moment Verdi was not being sarcastic, being dead serious at his statement.

"What? No, I'm The Beast." She said as Verdi shook his head vigorously, unwilling to cede an inch of ground to her.

"No, I'm The Beast." He declared firmly, the sheer authority in his voice drawing the attention of several people nearby. Upon seeing him, several people snickered and stifled their smiles as Fenri rolled her eyes at him.

"Fuck off. I'm taller than you, so I'm more likely to be The Beast." She said, arrogantly patting Verdi on the head as he scoffed at her.

"You're only taller than me because I let you. If you haven't noticed, I'm about 80 feet tall." He countered before reaching up and grabbing Fenri by the chin. "Plus, I think you're more of a beauty than a beast." He said, doing his best to seem masculine and cause her to blush at the show of dominance. Instead, even he felt stupid as Fenri smirked at him, the height disparity between the pair serving to only make him seem like he was trying too hard. Even the crowd seemed to be stifling their laughter as Verdi's attempt at seeming suave only earned him amusement.

"I'm blushing." She said with a snicker as Verdi clicked his tongue.

"Fine, we'll ask the announcer after we beat the Artist. I'm telling you, I'm The Beast." He said, his words grabbing Citrinas' attention as she ran over and shook him like a rag doll.

"Verdi, please, please, please tell me you were lying just now." She said in a panic as Verdi shook his head.

"No, I am The Beast. I have zero doubts about that, and you'll have to fight me on this." He said firmly as she shook her head, the commotion summoning Daria and Varrick.

"I don't care about your title, I'm talking about your next opponent!" She said as she pointed to the coliseum. "Are you actually fighting The Sculptor!?" She asked as Verdi nodded, pointing upwards at the board.

"Yeah. Look, it says clearly Beauty and The Beast vs. The Artist." Verdi said, pointing up at the board as Daria gasped, the name likely ringing bells for a fellow undead. Though she didn't seem anywhere near as panicked as when she met Evangeline, she was still visibly concerned.

"The Artist is the-why do I waste my time warning you? I hope you die out there, get revived, and killed again." Daria sighed, giving up on convincing Verdi to see reality and letting him learn the lesson on his own.

"The Artist is one of the greatest necromancers in the world and another Great Terror." Varrick explained, already accustomed to Fenri's temperament and opting to work with the bloodlust rather than temper it. "Since he's undead-" Varrick said as Verdi sensed the movement within the arena slow to a halt. A half second later, uproarious cheers filled the air as the gambling booths were packed with another wave of people.

"Oh shit, Fenri, the guys before us won already. We gotta head to the arena NOW." Verdi said quickly, sensing the combatants in the arena leave as the tournament organizers got to work moving the corpses of the tournament's losers out. He felt a tinge of nausea as the arena was hosed down with water magic and the bodies tossed in wheelbarrows to be disposed of. Rather than focus on the gore, he opted to focus on his direct surroundings. Grabbing Fenri by the hand, he began shoving himself forward, not wanting to be disqualified for the simple act of being late.

"Hold on, I'm not done talking yet!" Varrick shouted as Verdi was shoved back by a large man with wolf ears and matching claws, the bulky warrior far too large for someone like Verdi to overpower. "We still need to talk about a battle plan and how to exploit his weaknesses!" He continued, his words falling on deaf ears as Verdi focused solely on moving forward.

"Shit! Out of the way! We're competitors you stupid fucks!" Verdi shouted, still holding Fenri's hand as he weakly pushed against a massive troll, the the muscular behemoth not even registering the tiny alchemist's presence. Eventually, Fenri clicked her tongue and tugged Verdi towards her, placing him directly in front of her as she shoved his face into her chest. Before long, he was pressed even harder into her, the crowd somehow thickening and sealing him in place. Though normally he'd be happy to be nestled between a pair of warm breasts, this time he was furious as he tried to claw his way to the coliseum.

"Fuck this. Fuck the line. Fuck that troll. Hold on tight." Fenri said as Verdi stopped struggling and looked up, puzzled at just what Fenri meant as she squatted down, placing herself at eye level with him. Reaching over, she placed one arm by his knee and held his shoulder tightly with her other arm. Suddenly, he lost his balance as the ground seemed to stretch away from him, his entire body twisting as he realized what was happening.

"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN FENRI!" He demanded as she scooped him up in a princess carry. Several people whistled at them while others blushed, treating Fenri's actions as something far more depraved than the prostitutes offering their bodies mere feet away from them. Though she did nothing else, a small gap of room built up around them, the crowd ogling them intently as Fenri she squatted down, gathering power in her legs.

"Shut it. You said we had to get to the arena, so I'm taking us there." She said as Verdi felt his heart sink, realizing what the hero was doing. He struggled harder in her arms, serving only to have her squeeze him tighter to avoid letting him squirm away.

"No, no, Fenri, please, please don't do what I think you're gonna do. Don't you fucking-" He said as Fenri leapt into the air, easily leaping above the crowd as tens of thousands of eyes looked up. "Oh god. Oh god, someone kill me. I wanna die." Verdi mumbled, hiding his face in his arms as everyone going to the coliseum saw an olive skinned beauty with pale white hair carrying an androgynous looking person blushing red and covering their face. Though she didn't fly as far or as fast as she did in Kolderia, she was still far faster than Verdi could ever hope to be as she landed on a nearby street lamp, the monster core within it enchanted to emit light at night. As she landed on the steel spire, she leapt forward once more, skipping the entire line as they made their way to the coliseum.

"Fenri, get back here! We need to plan! Why won't you ever-" Varrick's voice was drowned out by the crowd as Fenri leapt to the coliseum's outer walls. Rather than lower herself to the main gates, she pulled a knife out of her inventory and let go of Verdi's shoulders. Looking down, Verdi found himself looking at no less than a 80 foot drop, the prospect of landing far from painless as he instinctively hugged Fenri's shoulder.

"FENRI, JUST BECAUSE I CAN HEAL DOESN'T MEAN THIS ISN'T SCARY AS FUCK!" He shouted as Fenri threw the knife at the coliseum. Despite being made of stone, the knife flew forward, leaving a silver trail behind it as Verdi saw the length of piano wire tied to the base of the knife. Confused, he followed the line of piano wire to find that it was connected to a second knife in Fenri's hand, the hero pulling it out from her inventory in the blink of an eye.

"Stop whining." Fenri said kicking midair to spin the two of them as she threw the second knife at full speed in the opposite direction, imbuing it with her spirit power to maximize its weight. For a moment, Verdi was confused as he saw the piano wire tied to the knives go taut as the two knives flew in opposite directions. Even as they were falling, Verdi was too busy focusing on the rapidly approaching piano wire to be afraid of the absurd height they were falling from.

"What the fuck are you doing now-GYAAAH!" Verdi said, the piano wire going fully taut as Fenri placed her feet directly at the length of piano wire. Like a an overgrown rubber band, the two of them were sent flying upwards like a slingshot as Fenri stuffed the piano wire and knives back into her inventory. Midair, Verdi clung even tighter to Fenri as they flew above the 250 foot tall coliseum walls. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" He chanted, practically crying as he clung tightly to the hero's chest. Rather than land in the stands, they were heading straight towards the arena at breakneck speeds. Though they were falling at heights that would kill normal people, Fenri was still calm as ever as she pulled a knife from her inventory.

As they came close to slamming into the ground, she threw the knife straight into the air while coiling piano wire around the blade. Grabbing onto the wire, Verdi felt their descent slow ever so slightly from being lethal to mildly painful. Landing on both legs, a thick dust cloud accompanied their arrival as Verdi let out a sigh of relief at not being turned into a pile of chunky salsa as he gasped for air in Fenri's arms. For a moment, he wondered how he ever beat Fenri, considering she could use Spirit power to use borderline cartoon logic when fighting. By maximizing the weight of her knives after she threw them, she could throw a knife into the air and actually fly upwards with it. As Verdi clung to Fenri's chest like a scared child, he could hear uproarious cheers around him as people whistled and applauded them.

"And what an entrance folks! Can you feel the love tonight folks!?" The harpy announcer asked to the crowd as Verdi went pale. While his match against Evangeline had nothing more than an empty crowd, their current fight had no less than 400,000 people packed into it and watching him be humiliated by Fenri. "We call her The Beast, but I say she's a lovebird!" The announcer continued as Verdi's already terrible day became worse. He tried not to scream as he hopped off from Fenri's arms, his day now thoroughly ruined as he tried to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible.

"This is the worst day of my fucking life." Verdi said, wondering if a particularly malevolent genie had fulfilled his wish of fame.

"What's with you?" Fenri asked, not understanding a lick of what the harpy was saying as Verdi tried not to completely break down

"Announcer just referred to The Beast as a woman." He mumbled, realizing he was not, in fact, The Beast. "Today fucking sucks." He mumbled, only to feel dread in his heart as their opponent made his way to the arena. It seemed what he assumed to be a good day was going to get significantly worse.