Tim reappeared a moment later in his sitting room, narrowly avoiding the latest torrent of sharp objects that had been hurled at him. This is the worst. I keep training, and Scipio even said I'm getting better, but I don't even have anyone to fight! What the fuck am I doing here? He let out a sigh. Is there even a point to this if I already know I'm going to win?

He gave himself a few seconds to be annoyed before he began plotting his next schedule. "Sc—Vol, you still here?" he called as he moved to check the clock again. There was no reply, and he set a timer for five hours according to the countdown, then removed his armor. She sure left in a hurry. Assuming it hasn't been years since I left from her perspective. Hopefully she's still around. Seemed like we were getting somewhere, and she was feeling a little…dangerous when I first saw her. If that's even the right word for it.

When he opened the door, he narrowly managed to stifle a deep, soul-wrenching, thousand-out-of-ten groan.

"Hey, you're back!" Kazuto said from just outside. His clothes, the same two-out-of-ten ones from earlier, had seen better days, with fraying visible at the edges, and parts of his face and neck were covered by spots of varying sizes like the kind that could be made from applying and tearing off powerful suction cups too quickly. "I just got back too and was about to knock. That's a real coincidence, isn't it?"

"Sure is," Tim said. He muscled his way into the hall in spite of the kid who had a one-out-of-ten understanding of personal space and pulled the door shut behind himself. "Uh…"

His surroundings changed, and he was unable to stifle the groan that followed as a suspicion of what was about to happen arose in his mind.

"Whoa, where are we? What just happened?" Kazuto exclaimed.

This is the actual worst use of god powers in history.

"Drake!" came a squeal from his side, followed almost immediately by a tackle that knocked him completely off his feet and onto the hard, stone-covered ground. "You really came! Igyn said she'd—You're really here!"

"Uh, hi, Rai," he said as the blue-eyed dragon-woman nuzzled his face while laying heavily on top of him.

"Cindriz's been teasing us forever about how much fun she had with you," Railleth huffed. She sat back up to straddle his legs and brought a clawed hand to her mouth. "Um, sorry, I might've gotten a little excited," she said more demurely.

"Let him up, Railleth," called Lekthi's voice from somewhere nearby. "And who are you?"

"Drake, do you have a harem of monster girls?" Kazuto said, sounding eleven-out-of-ten amazed. "That's fucking awesome!"

"What's he saying?" Rai whispered.

Tim grimaced deeply. If this really works the same as New Era's translation thing, that means everyone can always understand what I say. Which is really…not very convenient right now. He pushed himself up until his head was closer to hers, and she tilted her snout down to nuzzle him. As he sat there thinking at a nine-out-of-ten speed to figure out what to say, he came to a realization. She feels lighter?

Experimentally, he planted his feet beneath himself and pushed off.

Rai gave a surprised hiss and clamped her legs around his waist, hanging off him with one hand clawed firmly onto the scales of his back and completely obscuring his view with her size that dwarfed his own. "I didn't know you were this strong!" she whispered.

Me neither? Tim frowned inwardly for a moment before he forced out a grin. "Obviously I'd have to be at least this strong if I'm part dragon," he said quietly as he squeezed her eight-point-nine butt through her dress.

"Not now!" she hissed, pushing away and hopping down to tower over him, determinedly not meeting his eyes.

"You can like, understand them?" Kazuto asked.

Tim's grimace returned.

"Drake Storm, is this your companion?" Lekthi asked, sounding annoyed.

He stepped around Rai, glancing at the dragonkin-ogling Kazuto before giving his attention to the oldest of the dragonkin he'd met and forcing his expression back to something more neutral. "Sort of, but not…really?" he said, hoping she'd understand.

Kazuto reached over and poked the shorter dragon-woman in her scaled shoulder, and she glared at him, letting out a deep, dragonesque rumble to match as a small amount of smoke poured from her nostrils. "Do. Not. Touch. Me." she said, enunciating each word very clearly.

"She really doesn't want you to touch her," Tim said, turning his attention to the annoying kid.

"That's fine, that's fine," Kazuto said with a dismissive wave of a hand. "I'm not really into giant girls anyway, and monster girls like her—Or lizard girls, I guess—I mean, how can they even give you blowjobs with all those teeth? It'd be like—"

"What's he saying?" Lekthi demanded, continuing to glare.

"He, uh, says…he won't do it again?" Tim tried.

"Yeah, no way," Kazuto agreed quickly with a shake of his head. "It'd be different if, you know, she really wanted to," he said, his gaze dropping from Lekthi's aggravated stare to her chest, which was barely visible within the formless, white dress she always wore, "or maybe if she had…" He leaned a little closer to Tim. "Do lizard-girls have, you know," he whispered, cupping his hands over his chest.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Maybe if I kill him out here it doesn't count? Tim looked around, taking in the narrow dimly-lit passage they were standing in. "Where are we anyway?" he asked in a ten-out-of-ten unsubtle attempt to change the topic.

"Under one of the arenas," Rai said. She brought one hand up to point. "I wanted to watch one of the matches, and Lekthi agreed as long as she could choose which one." She hooked one arm around his and started pulling him along. "It's already started, and we still have to walk a little ways. Where have you been, anyway? Enzi's been pleading with Igyn to have you come back all week."

"Drake, tell your companion to stop staring at me," Lekthi called from behind.

"Hey, Drake, I mean, not that I'm trying to get between a guy and his harem, obviously, but do they have any sisters? Maybe one that's a little smaller?" Kazuto asked. "Just curious, you know?"

I take it back, Sateus is just a prick. Why the fuck did he get sent along? "Kazuto, why don't you come up here if you want to talk," he called over his shoulder. At least maybe I can keep Lekthi from killing him. A little funny though since she's the smallest of them. "Uh, this is Kazuto, another…champion of Sateus," he said in a belated introduction as he walked, turning his head to look up at Rai's still-curious face. "Kazuto, this is Railleth, and that's Lekthi. They're champions of Igyn and are very strong."

"Oh," Kazuto said as he pulled up right next to him, their shoulders brushing together as the boy slotted himself into the tight space between Tim and the wall.

Tim glanced at the kid out of the corner of his eye, stopping just short of gawking. Does he really just not understand the idea of personal space?

"How strong are we talking?" Kazuto asked in a near-whisper. "I'm not super into femdom stuff, but if it's like, you know, starts out as femdom and then—"

"Oh, look, we're almost there," Tim called out in a loud voice as the end of the corridor came into view. "Lekthi, what are we going to see anyway?"

"Where are we?" Kazuto asked.

"Arena," Tim murmured.

"I'm a champion of the mind, so I wanted to see who I might've faced if we hadn't all forfeited," she said in response, her tone growing more interested. "Especially, of course, the champion of Sateus, since victory has never been defeated."

"Is it even possible to beat victory?" Tim asked as Rai used her arm to gently steer him around the corner and onto a short flight of stairs. "Wouldn't that also be victory?"

"Well, sure, but is it… Does it still count?" Lekthi asked. "It's never happened, so nobody knows."

"That's pretty philosophical," he remarked.

"Lekthi really likes thinking about all kinds of things," Rai said. She brought her other hand around and started drawing her claws over his upper arm. "What kinds of things do you like to think about, Drake?"

They emerged into the bustling stands of the arena, and Tim squinted from the increased light that was being given off by the massive, but somehow not that bright sun which covered most of the sky. The stands were completely full as far as he could see, with chairs, sofas, and benches holding creatures of all types, shapes, and distinctness filling… He frowned as he tried to look more closely, but the closer he looked, the farther each row of seating seemed to extend.

"Look, it's her!" Kazuto exclaimed excitedly, reaching up to shake Tim's left shoulder while he pointed to the arena's grounds. "It's my girl! Hey! Do your best!" he shouted, waving his other hand wildly over his head. "Have to show her I'm not about to give up!" he said at a more normal volume.

Indeed as Tim surveyed the floor of the arena, which looked like it was far too close to him considering how far away he knew it had to be with the number of rows of seating in front of him, he immediately recognized Emma seated at one side of a table across from a much shorter man with a green beard that wrapped completely around his head. She wore another form-fitting dress, this one a bright white, that ended just below her knees beneath the table, atop which was a game board holding dozens of pieces. Somehow, despite the angle and the distance, he could see the entire board as though it was tilted vertically right in front of him.

Rai tugged on his arm. "Let's sit, and you can answer my question," she said, gesturing to two sets of three seats next to them which were split between a pair of rows, surrounded on all sides by strange creatures chatting among themselves.

"Right," Tim said as he jogged himself out of whatever ten-out-of-ten perspective trick was being used and took the middle seat next to her. He looked back towards the stairs. "Kazuto, come sit," he called, patting the aisle seat. No telling what he might do if I don't keep an eye on him. Are there rules or something here? Why am I a fucking babysitter anyway?

"She's so hot," Kazuto said with a sigh of longing as he took the offered seat, his attention completely captured while he continued to stare.

Lekthi took the seat directly behind Tim. "What's Kazuto saying?" she asked quietly into his right ear, her too-hot breath causing him to shiver slightly.

"He's…" Tim began as he twisted his head around. He grimaced. "He's…sort of admiring our champion's beauty?" If she's had guys like him creeping on her all the time, I sort of get where she was coming from when she flipped out.

"She's beautiful by the standards of his race?" Rai asked.

"Very," Tim said with a nod.

"Between her and me, who do you think is more beautiful?" she asked in a quiet voice, running her claws softly up his forearm.

"I'd much rather be here with you than anywhere near her," he replied without hesitation. Been there, done that, way too fucked up and crazy.

Rai leaned down and tilted her head to snuggle in between shoulder and neck. "Thanks, Drake," she said softly. "You're…kind. I know you said this is strange for you, and it's strange for us too. Thanks for being…normal about it."

Tim tried to hold back a laugh, but he ended up snorting loudly, and he felt the woman next to him tense. "I've been thinking the whole time about how normal you all are," he murmured, knowing by now how sensitive her hearing was. "So thanks for that too."

She relaxed, and her head moved back and forth a little, nuzzling his neck with the nine-point-seven softness of her head-fin. Her hand came down on top of his on top of the armrest between them, and she began drawing patterns on the back of his hand with her claws.

"I…should also say thanks, Drake," Lekthi said near his ear. "I witnessed your last match, and I know the power of your weapons. Thank you for not killing Railleth outright, even when it would've been easy."

"Uh, well," Tim began.

"He was obviously captivated by my beauty," Rai said, digging her claws comfortably into the scales on the back of his hand as she leaned her shoulder more closely into him. "You could tell through my armor, couldn't you?" she asked in a playful tone.

He sighed, then smiled a little unwillingly. "Yeah, you're right."