“Gyahahaha! Truly wonderful!”

A giant, hulking lady stands across the field, a smile on her face and the familiar glint of excitement in her gleaming yellow eyes. Her booming laughter punches across the entire stadium, forcing any previous sounds of confused chatter into an apprehensive silence as the swelling crowds across the stands come to realize who it is that just walked onto the field, as well as the gravity of what that could mean for them.

Watching strong fighters in the arena is one thing, but knowing there’s a walking natural disaster lying dormant in the same building as you and tens of thousands of other people is a fact that seems to have put a real damper on the crowd’s excitement levels, judging by the general level of silent anxiousness clouding the stadium right now.

The one standing on the field in front of me is none other than one of the Seven herself. One I’ve fought against before. And one I’ve lost against too. The one standing across the dirt from me is...

“Lust...” Staring in shock, I collapse to my knees at the sight of the woman in front of me. “Dammit, why is Lust...? Why is Lust...?”

I slam my fist into the dirt in frustrated disbelief. I can’t believe my eyes...

“Pepper!” Mash calls from nearby. “Are you okay? I’ve never seen you like this before...”

From my side, an equally concerned Biscuit answers the plumpy slaver’s worries as she rubs my back.

“I d-didn’t see it myself...” she begins. “But I heard Lust beat her pretty bad in the Spire b-before I had the chance to meet up with them again... If only I had been there. Maybe I could have d-done something...”

“I didn’t realize...” Mash answers back, clearly in shock himself. “Pepper’s always been so carefree. To think even she could be traumatized this badly...”

I continue to pound my fist against the dirt again and again.

“Why is Lust...? Why is Lust...?” Stumbling slowly to my feet to face the hulking woman once more, I find my feelings of distress bubbling up from my heart and out from my mouth.

“Why is Lust wearing clothes?!”

She has clothes on! Why, dammit?! The last time I saw her, she was completely naked! I didn’t have the chance to fully appreciate her nakedness back then due to trying to escape the Spire and all, so why’s she have to go and wear clothes now that I have all the time in the world?!

Well, I guess the clothes she’s wearing aren’t really covering much anyway. It’s just a bunch of rough leather and animal furs wrapped tightly around her chest and waist. I know it can be pretty difficult for someone of that size to find fitting clothes. Everyone in my family is really tall, after all. And any clothes they manage to get a hold of have to be re-tailored to fit them. Usually by Olive. Olive’s really good at stuff like that. Sewing, cooking, cleaning—that woman is pretty much the perfect wife in all regards! Super cute too! I’m definitely going to marry that sister of mine one day. Whether she agrees to it or not.

As well as the tight-fitting clothes, there’s also a binding of bloodied bandages wrapped around her body, just below her chest. Something must’ve got her pretty bad it looks like.

Dusting the dirt off my hands, I shoot Lust a wave and a wide grin, ignoring the strangely blank looks Biscuit and Mash are giving me as I leave them behind to make my way over to her. I like Lust! I’m glad I’m getting to see her again!

“Fwah! Lust! I didn’t know you were fighting in the arena too! You should’ve told me you were here!”

Lust’s grin widens at my enthusiastic greeting and she too makes her way across the field, meeting me in the centre of the arena. As we both stop in front of each other—barely an arm’s length away—Lust beams down at me, puffing out her chest with hands on her hips.

“Gyahaha! My apologies! If I had known you were here, I would surely have done so!”

From this close, I can hear the whine of creaking leather as the tight bindings around her chest threaten to tear under the strain of her rippling physique with every hearty chuckle.

“What’re you doing here anyway?” I ask. “I mean, what happened after all the Spire stuff? What happened to Wrath?”

“’Twas simply my own whims that led me here! Perhaps the whims of Mistress Cinnamon as well. As for Wrath, I do not know his whereabouts. Perhaps he is still trapped beneath the ruins of the Spire. Or perhaps he too is in this very stadium along with us! Gyahaha! Now that would be truly amusing indeed!”

Cinnamon, huh? I wonder when these two even met. Maybe Lust is in the same boat as me and got plucked up by slavers having washed up on the shore of Surstrom Lake after the Spire’s collapse.

Oh, right. I almost forgot. About the Spire’s collapse...

“Ah, did you happen to run into Mom back at the Spire? I saw her show up just after I left and I didn’t get the chance to talk to her.”

At the mention of my beloved mother, Lust’s smile only grows wider.

“Behold!” Reaching up, she grips the bloodied bandages wrapped around her body and rips them away, tossing the torn cloth aside and revealing the wound beneath.

“Fwah...” Even I have to wince a little at the sight I’m being shown. “That’s bad.”

It’s bad.

A festering, fist-sized hole sits just below her chest. Now exposed to the fresh air, blood and pus begin to ooze out from it, rolling down her body and dripping to the floor in viscous globs.

“Mom did that?” I ask, leaning in to inspect the wound.

“She did!” Lust beams back at me, proudly showing off her gruesome injury. She doesn’t seem fazed by it one bit, despite it being the kind of wound even a demon would wince at. “’Tis the proof of our passionate reunion! Even now I can feel her warmth burning deep inside me! Gyahaha—!”

Interrupting her laughter, Lust suddenly begins to cough and hack up bloodied chunks onto the dirt, and every violent shake of her body sends more of the cloudy globs of crimson out from the gaping wound.

Eventually coming to a stop, she wipes the blood from her mouth and returns to her jolly laughter, the smile not once leaving her lips.

I don’t know if she’s just ignoring it, or she just doesn’t realize it, but—though she appears unfazed on the outside—that wound is definitely messing her up on the inside.

Well, as long as she’s fine with it, it’s probably okay...

“Brothers and sisters, I, uh...” The announcer’s voice suddenly calls over the loudspeaker, drawing mine and Lust’s attention up into the stands. “I’ve just been notified that the finale of the tournament has been postponed until further notice. If everyone could please make their way to the exits in an orderly fashion and follow the directions of the knights on duty while we work to resolve this current issue...”

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“... Fweh? How come?” Shocked by the sudden news, I watch as the crowds across the audience begin to shift and move towards the exits. There are some murmurs of complaints, but a lot of them look like they’re in a real hurry to leave, every now and then giving worried glances down towards the arena at their backs.

“Gyahaha! It seems my presence in this city is an unwelcome one.” Lust laughs, before gesturing across to the edges of the arena. “’Twould appear they wish to apprehend me. Look.”

Following her gaze, I watch as swarms of silver knights begin to spill from the tunnels along the edges of the arena, marching out onto the field and advancing towards us in the distance.

“Twas an expected reaction, of course,” Lust continues. “’Though it is regrettable I had to interrupt your tournament like this. ‘Twas not my intention to spoil your fun, Daughter of Gluttony.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” I turn my attention back to the large woman in front of me with a wide smile on my face. “It was ending anyway, and meeting you here instead is probably just as great as fighting an oni.”

“Gyahaha! I’m pleased to hear it!”

Interrupting our idle chatter, a sharp voice cries out at Lust’s back.

“What are you doing?! Hurry up and kill her!”

It’s Cinnamon. Still standing on her side of the field, the blonde, leather-clad slave master snaps angrily at her chosen combatant, egging her to fight.

Fwah... Even though the tournament’s been postponed for today, it seems she still wants to go through with it. I totally get it too! Calling it quits now after all this hype would be way too anti-climactic.

“Gyahaha! So very impatient! Though I too am finding it hard to contain myself any further...” Giving one last glance across the arena at all the people still slowly filing their way out of the exits—as well as the knights cautiously advancing towards us on the field— Lust finally rests her attention on me. “I suppose we should begin while we still have an audience. Not that it matters too much. Once I am finished here, the entirety of Gran Torte shall have a front-row seat to the destruction of their grand city as I turn it to rubble! Much the same as my beloved Gluttony did those twenty-four years ago!”

“Fwahaha! Sounds fun!” I reply, grinning up at her. “I’d like to see that.”

“Gyahahaha! Indeed it does!” Lust grins back. “‘Tis a shame one of us will not be there to enjoy it.”

And on that note, Lust makes her move.

Her movements are a blur as she takes a single step towards me and raises the other leg high into the air in one swift motion.

She plans on driving her foot down and slamming me into the dirt. It’s exactly the same as when we first fought in the Spire. Last time, she overpowered my guard and ended up kicking me through the floor. So this time...

I avoid it.

Usually I like to fight with the assumption that I can block any strike, break any guard, and absolutely out-muscle any opponent that gets thrown at me through brute force alone. However, I had to learn the hard way that Lust is not one of those opponents. When it comes to brute force, I gotta admit that she’s got me beat. This woman’s a real brute with a whole lot of force!

So this time I’m going to play it smart. Because Pepper Black is a woman who is good at playing things smart! Sometimes!

Leaping to the side, I feel a rush of wind tear down the side of my body as Lust’s leg slices through the space I was just in and plunges into the dirt. It didn’t even touch me and yet the pressure from her downward kick alone feels as though it’s going to tear my skin off.

As her foot connects with the floor, the ground quakes and rumbles from the force of her strike. Tremors begin to spread across the field, sending deep cracks stretching far across the dirt and snaking their way up the inner walls of the arena and out into the stands themselves.

Shouting and screaming quickly fills the air as many in the crowds are shaken off their feet, toppling over the crumbling edges of the viewing ring and into the arena below, spilling out across the sea of silver knights now struggling to keep their balance across the quaking foundations of the stadium. The upper levels of the viewing stands too begin to collapse, sending people plummeting into the panicking crowds below. The cries for help seem to stretch even further than the arena itself, echoing across the entirety of the stadium, across every floor, room, and corridor within its grand walls.

“Gyahaha! ‘Tis indeed much better with an audience after all!”

With just a single kick, Lust had crumbled the Krumbledome from the inside out, trapping the tens of thousands of fleeing people within its stone walls in a shower of debris and rubble, as well as throwing many of them out onto the field itself.

With her foot still rooted in the ground, I make use of the opening to launch a counterattack of my own. Stepping forward, I deliver a solid uppercut straight into her abdomen.

“Gyuu~!” An odd, high-pitched noise escapes Lust’s lips as she reels from my punch, stumbling backwards while clutching at her stomach.

O-oh?! It actually worked this time! Last time I tried to punch her, my blows would only glance off of her hardened muscles. However, this time I made sure to stock up on plenty of protein beforehand! Though, the noise she made just now wasn’t completely reassuring. It sounded less like the moans of someone in pain, and more like the moans of someone in... whatever the opposite of pain is.

“Ah... Truly wonderful...” she pants under her breath, and then lunges at me once again.

Ducking and diving beneath every hefty swing of her thick legs, I deftly dodge each one of her kicks while carefully pummelling at her body with every open opportunity that I get.

Lust is strong, but she makes no effort to mask her attacks. Each one of her swings is simple and straightforward, with the full force of her unbridled power behind them. As long as I keep a careful eye on the movement of her legs, I can definitely weave my way around each predictably head-on attack and slowly wear her down with some of my own.

Yes, as long as I keep a careful eye on her legs...

Dipping beneath another hefty high-kick aimed directly at my head, I jab my fist at her exposed side, aiming to deliver the kind of body blow that would de-liver most others. However—

“... Fweh?”

—Lust catches my arm mid-swing in one of her large hands, holding me firmly in place.

Ah. I was too focused on the woman’s feet, I forgot she could still use her hands!

I quickly lash out with my other arm in an attempt to free myself from her grasp, but all that does is allow her the opportunity to snatch that one up as well...

With both arms now held tightly in Lust’s iron grip, the woman swiftly forces me to the ground. Pinning my hands to the dirt, the hulking woman climbs atop me, locking my body in place with her legs as she straddles my waist.

Ah! It happened again!

It’s not her kicks I should’ve been worried about! It was being straddled mid-fight and having my face beaten into the floor! This is the exact same situation as in the Spire, dammit! The one that left me with a bloody nose and a nasty headache afterwards. She hasn’t even hit me yet and I can already feel that my nose has started bleeding! Definitely a pre-emptive reaction from the trauma of my loss to her at the Spire, and definitely not because I’m over-excited by the fact that a huge buff lady in tight clothing is straddling me and pinning me to the floor! Definitely the trauma thing!

With a grin on her face and an ecstatic glint in her bright, yellow eyes, Lust pulls her massive fist back, eager to continue her session of face-pummelling from all those weeks ago.

As she swings it down at my face, I close my eyes as I brace for the heavy impact. However...

It doesn’t come. In fact, I can’t even feel the weight of her body on top of me anymore, and I’m no longer being pinned to the ground. Peeking out from one eye, I spot Lust’s body tumbling across the field in the distance, kicking up clouds of dirt as she attempts to grind to a stop.

“... Fweh?”

Above me, the hulking figure of Lust has been replaced by an even bigger one, awkwardly swaying from side to side as they seemingly struggle to keep their balance.

It’s the troll. The one Mei-Mei wanted to buy. The one that is most definitely—without a doubt—dead. Its discoloured body is clearly rotting, and its head is hanging limply to its side. Not to mention the giant gaping hole embedded in its stomach from where the Queen's golden knight struck it. Despite that though, it’s actually moving. And not only is it moving, it seems to have attacked Lust and swatted her off of me somehow.

From somewhere inside the apparently-not-dead troll, I can just about hear the muffled but familiar voice of somebody shouting out in triumph.

“Keh-heh! I think I’m starting to get the hang of this!”