The first night

Aiju was indeed still asleep, but that changed the moment I entered my room. I suppose, the catgirl must have smelled the fish on sticks I brought, because she was on me within seconds, demanding food for the heinous crime of putting her to sleep.

I tended to my own dinner(much diminished, thanks to a greedy catgirl) while turning on magic vision.

The battles where still in progress, but it was probably a good idea to study the fight of my next opponent.

Luckily, magic vision allowed for that sort of comfort. With a bit of grumbling I paid the ridiculous high fee of one gold coin with my fighter pass and selected the match from the records.

Bracket A Fight 4 The Huntress Cassandra vs. Hot-blooded Fisti Cuffs

It was easy to tell the two combatants apart. Cassandra was a tall and athletic figure shouldering a huge bow. Her hair was very short, almost a buzz cut even and her skin ebony. It was hard to get a read on her age, but given that she’s a veteran I would put her in the mid to late twenties.

Meanwhile her plucky opponent with the unfortunate name was a head shorter and appeared to be unarmed. Another martial artist I recalled. Her style actually reminded me of Sylphid.

Of course I already know the result, but you can't help but wonder how Cassandra managed to pull this off. A bow was certainly a powerful weapon but an awful choice for these type of arena matches. From that range, Cassandra would get only one shot of before Fisti would **** the huntress in close quarter combat. Certainly, that first shot was dangerous but Fisti should be aware of that and as long as she dodged that first arrow...In a sense this was the complete opposite setup of Sylphid’s match. The martial artist had every advantage.

The bout started and neither fighter made a move. Cassandra had her bow trained exactly on Fisti’s head, while the martial artist stood her ground, ready to evade that very dangerous first shot at a moments notice.

That stalemate continued for a few seconds, before Cassandra finally started to edge backwards, putting more distance between the two. Fisti obviously couldn't allow that and so she edged forward herself. But even then, she never left her eyes from that bow.

When the attack finally came it wasn't from Cassandra but from the ground. A loud explosion occurred and Fisti screamed in agony. A mine? When did she...? I rewinded the footage, trying to find the point where Cassandra prepped the explosive.

Even knowing what happened the mine was extremely difficult to spot. A tiny stealth model, that crept out of Cassandra's pants and buried itself in the sand of the arena. Of course Fisti was completely focused on the bow and did not pay attention to anything else. That mistake would prove fatal.

The explosion itself wasn’t too powerful but it was still enough to tear Fisti’s left foot to pieces. Cassandra did not waste any time, she shot her arrow and pierced Fisti in the other leg.

What followed was ****. Fisti would have only needed to endure for 10 Minutes, but by the seven minute mark she was reduced to a shrieking begging wreck and surrendered, thus dooming herself to slavery.

It was hard to witness, and clearly no exception, as Sylphid's fight proved. And this would only become more severe in the later rounds. My fight against Cassandra would take 20 minutes. Do I really have the mental strength to survive 20 Minutes of that? I'd like to think I do but...

Aiju curled up on my lap and hissed clearly not liking what she saw on screen. Well I suppose the huntress is almost something like a natural predator to her.

“Mari...”, she murmured. “I'm scared...”

“Don't worry”, I answered, stroking her head. “I will protect you.”

“Not that. If you lose, won't be able to mate with you.”

“Oh.” Well, thanks for the confidence boost.

“Let's mate now, alright? Just in case.”, Aiju purred.