vs. Beatrice

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..

.

There she was.

Beatrice, the witch of miracles stood in front of me with her usual smug grin. “Well, well, well. I bid you a splendid good morning, Mari Beta. I hope you had a good night's rest. After today you won't spend many nights sleeping, after all.”

I ignored her taunts while I got in position. If I want to have any chance of victory I couldn't waste a second.

This time Ben opted for a slutty devil girl outfit. I couldn’t help but think his sole existence is to mock me.

“Bracket A, Third Round, match one The amber assassin Mari vs The witch of miracles Beatrice!”

“Begin!”

I rushed at Beatrice right away. If she attempted to blast me with her magic all the better, but I doubt she would make it this easy. Closing the distance between us quickly, the witch merely cackled and teleported herself to safety.

“So, this is your decision then, eh, Mari Beeeeta! Well! Let us start this sabbath properly with some appropriate ambiance then!”

Snapping her finger, booming music engulfed the arena. Ugh, how obnoxiously extra.

I dashed towards the witch again. This time she did not deign to teleport away again. Instead, the cackling witch effortlessly repelled my attack with a magic barrier.

Beatrice led out a chuckle and mockingly curtsied. “How very nice that you want to give the audience a spectacle, but it is not too late, you know? Strip naked and grovel at my feet for forgiveness and I might still go easy on you.”

Dismissing the witches threats, I slashed again. Naturally my attack bounced off, but that was all well and good. If Beatrice wants to waste her mana on keeping this barrier up, all the better.

But of course things could never be that easy. The witch soon grew tired of being passive and hit me with a magic wind spell that send me flying.

Luckily I managed to stick the landing.

Beatrice wasn't about to let up though. Next, a couple of Fire Arrows homed in on me. Low level fire spells. These wouldn't do much damage, but obviously I should avoid them all the same and so I did. Beatrice kept her barrage up and I kept avoiding her arrows.

“How amusing!”, the witch cackled. “Dance for me, my puppet!”

It certainly felt like she was just toying with me, hounding me all over the arena. I won’t even get close to her like this.

Assuming there was a strategy to this mockery, it seemed not unlike my own. Get me to deplete my stamina. However that was all fine by me. Just avoid for now, In this trade between stamina and mana I will come out ahead.

That was until I stepped on a particularly black shadow and stopped in place.

“Huh?”

I tried to move but was unable to.

“Gotcha!”

Then I started to sink in a dark abyss, very rapidly so. I struggled with all my might to free myself but it was hopeless. Soon I was engulfed in pitch darkness. Was this portal magic? I could only pray that this wasn't already Femto's doing.

For a brief moment I panicked. Then I regained my vision. I found myself in some sort of dimly lit, wooden container. Numerous...things where sprawled all across the floor.

Toys?

“Welcome to my toybox! I am most delighted to have you as my guest!”

Beatrice’s cackling voice boomed from above.

“Get me out of here!”, I shouted towards the ceiling.

“You wish to leave so soon? Well, who am I to deny you that?”

Suddenly eight huge objects came crashing down towards me. I screamed and shielded my head, but to my surprise these things landed in a perfect circle around me.

“Choose one!”, Beatrice's immaterial voice demanded. “Or stay my little puppet forever!”

Do I have another choice?

"No,pick a door kekekekekekeke"