"I don't have a choice in the matter. I'll die if I don't do what you say. So, it really doesn’t matter, does it? I'm sure you'll do whatever you want, even if I'm against it, am I right? In any case, who are you? Why am I 'fighting' for you?"

"You'll fight for me, alright, but you’ll ‘fight’ as Asher Burell," the woman said very calmly.

"What?" I laughed in disbelieve, "do you know who carries that name?"

"Yes, I do. You know? I do. Get it? I'm Asher Burell," she gave an exaggerated bow.

I didn't believe her, "...you're Asher Burell?"

"Yeah, why not?" She asked, as if it was hard to understand why I found that claim to be ridiculous.

"You can't be. You know, by now two people were Asher Burell , a young warlock and an equitaur. You are neither a man nor a member of the beast-folk."

"Is it really so hard to believe that those were me? Or that a third person with that name would spring up?"

"I give up. I can clearly see that you lost some of your marbles. Why is it that I have to fight?"

"You look like me, well, you look like what I used to look like," she explained.

"You mean like him? Asher Burell? Well, that is news to me. Next to the equitaur, the description of how the warlock looked like still remains somewhat unclear."

"Get comfortable saying my name to me and in public generally. Say it with me," then she spelled out 'her' names multiple times. "A S H E R, Alright?"

I nodded, finally giving up.

"The tournament is at midday and that's just a one or two hours away. So let's think of a strategy. Faye, could you join us for a moment," she said into the air.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

A small, purple-haired woman appeared out of nowhere. She had a cold expression and touched down on the ground softly.

Somehow, I found it hard to look at her directly.

"What is it?" She said gently but very cold. I could feel the animosity between the both of them.

"That's the guy," the woman claiming to be Asher Burell said.

"It is," the small woman said, plainly.

The two of them disregarded me completely and a back and forth between them started.

"First. I don't think that either his SP or MP is high enough to cast any of the skills I have. How many skills raise them? Percentage-wise or just give flat-out increases."

"Of both categories, you have at least forty-three of each," the purple-haired woman said, calculatedly.

"Great. Could you open up a menu just with these skills alone?"

"If you request it."

"I do."

Different people couldn't see each other's menus, but it was clear that she was browsing one of hers.

"Let's see here, ...first, let's give you all the ones that raise all ability resources, not just SP or MP. Here are a few good ones.

[Conserve Power], gives you slowly increasing max mana while not casting a skill. [Spiritual Atonement] too, but it will always slowly increase your mana. You could technically use [Blood Ritual] but when I give you that one, then I have to give you something to increase your HP too or you'll die after casting too much.

[Pierce the Veil] reduced the effect of most magic-based barrier skills. Useful, sure, but it’s not what I'm looking for right now.

[Power Recirculation] is great too, increased mana regeneration and cool-down, scales with how many other skills are on cool-down, but also increases mana costs in general for extra damage. Is that what we're looking for right now?" She asked me, as if I would know.

"I don't know...?" I answered, uncertainly.

"[Pray for them] is useless too, you ain't got no party when in the arena," she said to me directly, "for the moment, let that be it. How about a few SP skills? Stuff like [Streamline], [Marathon], [Economy] and [Crashing Point] just gives you SP, no questions asked."

"That's good," I said sarcastically.

There she was for the next few minutes, picking and choosing what she would give me.

This was most likely the strangest hostage situation anyone had ever been in.

"Oh, I have an idea," Asher said, like she had the brightest idea that has ever graced someone's mind.

I dreaded what it was.

"We got equipment too. How could I have forgotten!"

A tear in the air appeared, and she put her hand into it, pulling out a sack of jewelry.

"These will, finally, come in handy. You got ten fingers, right?" She asked.

I lifted them to show her.

"Perfect, now do me a favor. Put on all of the rings."

"What do they do?" I asked.

"Oh, you know, just the normal passive resource increase that rings usually give. Plus a few spicy effects, but only if we need them."

"Are we done then?"

"Haha. No."