Sparring can be like making love.

I still can’t figure out why she wants to fight me.

Some say ignorance is bliss, but from what I’ve seen, what you don’t know gets you killed.

“The... bear and the snake...?”

“That’s what we call it in the village! Bearhug versus bodyscissors, d’yget it? That way, we’re evenly matched! Men have overdeveloped upper bodies, but women are more powerful below. If you **** me to submit, t-then you can knock me up or whatever. I’ll be your personal property. Obviously, when I win, your ass is grass.”

“... Very well. I could use the practice.”

“That’s the spirit! Show me what you’ve packin’… huh.”

People had a variety of reactions the first time they saw that his left arm was metal. Some did their best to look away and pretend they didn't see the glint of steel, others offered perfunctory sympathy that rolled right off his back. In some ways, he preferred the cruel honesty of children that pointed and laughed. Lily, surprisingly, wasn’t one of those types.

“Neither Miki nor you got away scot free. Must have been some war.”

“It was.”

“But ya made it, when so many others didn’t.”

For the second time, this prideful firecracker sank to her knees before him, eyes full of anger. Apparently just at him for surviving when countless others met their end on the battlefield. Sasha had no deathwish, but also no drive to survive; it wasn’t his fault the shells always landed elsewhere.

Feeling a spike of rare, genuine annoyance as memories of the church came flooding back, he followed her down onto the mat spread out for them, although the height difference meant they weren’t going to see eye-to-eye. Him, with bare, rock-hard abs, and her, with nothing up top but a straining triangle of a flame-decal bikini. It was quite intimate when their chests met, and then she wrapped those enormous thighs around his lower waist.

He only held her with one arm, though. The organic right.

“W-What are you doing?!”

“I’m not going to use my metal arm, that’s unfair. Besides, I don’t need two arms to squeeze you ****.” Sasha sent a pulse of strength into the arm holding up Lily, and heard the air **** from her thin, trim waist. She was crushed against him, and knew it was time to retaliate.

“Bastard… you’re… making fun of me…” Her voice was thin, and her pretty face bright red. Just as he had her, though, she had him. Lily flexed her massive thighs, and Sasha felt pain lance up his back and sides. He was being compressed by a pair of living tree trunks, driven by a single minded desire to crush him.

He had to become just as stubborn, and focus everything he had into his arm.

“I was trying… to be respectful before. You’ve... never made the effort.”

Lily scoffed, through she regretted losing the precious lungful of air when she was pulled that bit tighter. Her huge breasts finally, as she was squeezed like a tube of toothpaste, burst out of that bikini top, squishing into Sasha’s rock-hard chest. Without a scrap of clothing between them, they pressed together in the way men and women had since time immemorial.

“You have to earn my… nnng… respect. Only one guy ever has.”

To some, respect was owed to everyone. Others viewed it like a resource to be rationed. Approaching one with the other’s logic was simply ignorant. It was time to stop holding back, and give Lily Spellmeyer the ‘strong man’ she needed.

“Who is this lucky boy?” He asked, careful to appear casual in manner even as she squeezed the life from him, the way she was doubtless familiar with doing to criminals. All her muscles down there worked together to form scissors that had him clamped by the waist. In truth, it hurt like hell and breathing wasn’t easy. Still, he kept his voice level. “Do tell.”

“Nnnnngh!”

She was in no position to say a thing, since that would require access to air. Sasha’s fire-forged muscular body was tightening around her just as hard. She had no idea she’d been provoking a monster.

Feeling such strength caused her to instinctively thrash like an animal.

She even used both her arms to try and pry his flexing bicep loose, which was certainly against the rules, but it had no effect either way. She couldn’t even budge him now. Those lethal thighs felt earlier like they were going to mulch his guts and slice him in half, but now, their grip was fading. She was accomplishing nothing more than feebly clinging to a man.

“Father? Mentor? Brother?”

“... F-Fiance…”

Lily managed to whisper a single word into his ear, voice a breathless whisper now that was purely intimate. She looked aside, and recognizing the darkness tightening in around her, she put a hand upon his broad, muscular shoulder.

Before she could tap out, the bearhug turned into a more tender embrace, and Sasha released the pressure, letting precious, needed air come back in. Her bare breasts expanded against him, rubbing their soft heft into his flatter chest. He did not release her, this was merely a reprieve. Now he was the one awash with useless sympathy.

Miki was the only one to come back.

What was the right outcome of this match? What would offer Lily some peace of mind, and let her settle down and deal with her pain? Just because she hadn’t gone herself didn’t mean that the war hadn’t taken deeply from her. That wasn’t all, though. Sasha’s heart was thundering and his blood was pumping.

It was hard to deny temptation, with them locked together so intimately. He was definitely hard, and pressing against his bulge made her red eyes go wide. Lily’s cute reaction was at odds with her aggression, suggesting she was inexperienced with those sorts of matters.

It was clear that with his superior strength, will, and conditioning, the match would go any way he wished. Lily was stubborn enough to accept even a marginal victory when the stakes were so high.