"Give back the Sword of Light!" Rolan shouts and rushes forward to slash at Chandra.

"What do ya mean, 'give it back'? It's ours to begin with!" With an almost casual flick of her arm, he is sent tumbling across the ground. I rush in to take his place, but she nimbly avoids my cursed arm, before delivering a palm thrust to Gram's shield, as he comes from the side to tackle her with it. Although he stands his ground, his entire momentum is gone, and she turns away from him to sweep her arm at me. I dodge it by stepping backwards.

This has become a daily routine for a month now. We lost our first battle against Chandra miserably, and she has taken us prisoner atop her fortress. Now she allows us to challenge her to sparring matches every single day, in exchange for one promise after another. By now, we have practically lost everything we own, including our freedom, starting with Gram and ending with me.

Even though I said that I didn't want to lose anyone I care about to slavery, I myself am back in it. Still, Chandra at least doesn't lock us up in a cage, gives us proper food and shelter, and is practically giving us free training. But I think I'm the only one who has realized that, aside from maybe Sigurd, who barely even participates in our battles now, as he doesn't have the physicality to be of use. In the end, we are still prisoners atop her fortress, even if we are getting more out of it than she is. It seems that warriors of her clan are all stronger than any of us, so she shouldn't even have much fun fighting us all the time.

"Now for ya, lil' one." Chandra pushes Gram back and turns to me.

"Kamii." I say my name in a defiant tone.

"Sorry, I'm bad with names." She scratches her head and gives an apologetic smile. Yes, she's not a bad person, I can tell. In some places, she even reminds me of Onee-sama. That's why I can believe her when she says that she won't mistreat us. Except for Gram, I think. He would sometimes look really exhausted in the mornings, so she must be keeping him awake at night to do something to him. I don't know what it is, and he never tells me, either.

Chandra rushes forward and I meet her with my cursed arm. She takes the first hit and tackles me down, before mounting me and pinning my arms to the ground. It's her way to show me that I need to build up more strength, to make even my first hit count. Because if the opponent realizes the curse's effect and the fact that it falls off after a certain time limit, they will no longer fear taking the first hits, if they can stop me from attacking afterwards.

"Ya gotta be less reliant on that cursed arm." Saying with a toothy grin, she stands up again and slaps aside Rolan's blade, delivering a punch to his chest. His armor blocks it, but another dent forms in the chest plate. The force is still enough to send him stumbling backwards. Among all of us, he's the most frantic in battle. Sigurd told me that he wants to get back to the capital to see Luna, but we're being held up here for so long.

... I think of Onee-sama. I have no doubt in my mind that I'm going to see her again, but at this rate it will take a long time before that can happen. Yet, we live for so much longer than humans, that we have much more time in our lives. I was made aware of that by Chandra, too, who told me that her husband had left on journeys for tens of winters, during which they wouldn't see each other, before he returned with stories and curiosities from faraway places. He's been gone for eight winters again, and she doesn't know when he'll return the next time. But even then, she is sure that they will see each other again, and she isn't sad about his absence.

"Ya should learn from the big man." Chandra points at Gram, who has been fighting bare-chested and without any armor pieces for a while now. Not only does Rolan's equipment not help him, but its shape becomes worse with every battle, until it will eventually hinder his movements. And it helps train one's body to take the heavy blows sometimes; not that I've taken any so far, since I was always able to dodge them. Instead, she would always pin me or hold me down, maybe because she doesn't want to break my body.

"Raaah!" I swing my arm and hit Chandra's calf while still on the ground, then roll away as she tries to deliver a kick to my side. In the same motion, I sweep once more and hit her knee. It doesn't do much yet, but my basic strength has been steadily increasing. Gram tries to create an opening for me by charging at her with his shield, but she moves forward and tackles him mid-step, sending him off-balance. I land one more hit on her, but that's all I can do, before she shifts her attention back to me and I have to take my distance.

This is going nowhere at this rate...

"What's the plan, leader?" Gram asks while lying on his back. Next to him is Rolan in the very same pose, and I'm sitting in the dirt before them. We're all breathing hard after another half day of fruitless attempts to defeat Chandra. She is standing by our side and wiping the sweat and dust off her body while grinning.

"That was fun. Ya gettin' better." She teases, but it's clear that she's learning our moves and tactics at a faster rate than we can improve on them. But her attitude can't be taken as malicious, and everyone else already knows. Maybe except for Rolan, who glares at her. I'm sure he will come around eventually.

"We... we're not... done yet." Rolan pushes himself off the ground and shakily picks up his sword. Gram follows his example and stands up, but even he looks really exhausted. I'm actually not that tired yet, unlike how it was during the first few days. Maybe I'm growing at a faster rate than the humans because I'm a dark elf?

"Oh, ya got spirit. But that's enough for today, I'll have a visitor coming soon." Shrugging while crossing a pair of arms and pointing one hand at Rolan, Chandra performs several gestures at once, as always. "Ya should look presentable then, too. So get cleaned up." With this, she walks into the fortress, most likely to get washed and dressed. The surrounding warriors, who would come to watch but have decreased over time, disperse again and proceed to do their own things.

"... dammit!" Stomping his foot, the leader expresses his anger at having lost once again. Due to a lack of strength, he stumbles right after and lands on his backside. Gram holds out his hand and helps him up again.

"Do you want me to..." Sigurd, who has been settling with just watching ever since he lost his ineffective crossbow to try and get back Rolan's shiny sword, approaches and asks the leader.

"No." The latter answers immediately. It seems that the bard has some special power, maybe a strong magic spell, that might bring us victory. But it's possible that it has some grave drawback, which is why Rolan doesn't want him to use it. "We're learning her strength and we'll eventually defeat her..."

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I doubt that it's going to be as easy as he makes it seem. Growth is not limited to just us, Chandra is becoming stronger, too. But I feel like she has yet to show her full power against us, as she's clearly holding back against me. I look down at my cursed arm, then my normal hand, before clenching it into a fist. Still, I think I'm the one who has improved the fastest, and my right arm feels easier to swing than ever before.

Suddenly I'm picked up by my waist and as I look behind me, Chandra is the one who has me in her grasp. For a moment, the humans are speechless, and fear runs through my mind at the possible things she could intend to do with me.

"Let's take a bath together." The blue-skinned demon says and carries me off into the fortress.

"Ya have a lot of potential." Chandra states while I sit on her lap in the wooden bathtub. She's leaning back and relaxing, four of her arms submerged in the water, one adjusting the cold towel on her forehead and another patting my head. I'm not sure what this situation is, but I can only take it quietly for now. I don't really want to talk to her, so I keep silent. "Ya been growin' really fast."

She lifts my normal arm and looks at the muscles that have started to form under my dark skin. Maybe my progress is that fast because I never trained my body before, while Rolan and Gram were already physically quite fit when I first met them. So of course, I'd make more visible progress in this time of daily sparring. But I don't want to become like Chandra, whose arms are almost as thick as the big man's. I'm sure Onee-sama won't like me anymore, if I did.

"What say ya, stay with me and become stronger?" She lets go of my arm and asks. I know that she seems to have taken a liking to me, but I'll go where the humans go, until I meet Onee-sama again. "I know I can't keep 'em forever. They're humans, their lives are short. But a dark elf is different. Ya can never grow old, just like my kind."

"I have to go..." I say before standing up from the bath and looking into her eyes. Our gazes interlock for a while, before she looks away with a resigning smile. She understands that there is no way for her to keep me here, other than by force; and the fact that she asks me like this means she doesn't want to use that method forever.

"Then ya better work hard and beat me." Chandra says with a grin, while I step out of the wooden tub and leave.

"So, who is this guest?" Gram asks Shugra as they stand in less than perfect ceremony in front of Chandra's wooden fortress. I'm interested to see whom she is going through all this effort for, especially since she doesn't seem to be the type for formality.

"Dunno. She never really tells us nothin', 'specially when it comes to these things." The blue-skinned bald man responds. Seeing the two of them next to each other, I can't help but see a resemblance in them, and suppress a chuckle. "Could be a big shot from the demon army or 'nother clan's leader."

The sound of beating wings come from above and everyone looks up. A lone figure with bat-like wings is coming down in a circling descent. Squinting, I can make out that it's a woman with bluish gray skin, inverted eye colors and curved horns extending from her forehead. Her outfit is a tight black leather suit that emphasizes her curvaceous body, but seems to have been chosen for ease of movement rather than for fashion. She pinpoints her landing into the middle of the court in front of the fortress and when her feet touch the ground, her wings fold into themselves and disappear into her back.

I understand that she must be an incredibly strong demon, as I can see some of Chandra's warriors show a hint of nervousness. There are even some who seem to be suppressing their shaking from outright fear.

"Hello there!" Chandra greets her casually as she moves forward. Her clothes are also not the fashionable type, but at least she's covering her upper body. "Been a while, Pelomyx."

"Chandra, good to see you!" The woman named Pelomyx greets the owner of the fortress with a grin and the two approach each other as if going for an embrace. "The usual?"

"The usual!" And when they're in range, the six-armed clan leader plants herself firmly and punches Pelomyx with all three right arms at the same time. The latter, despite being more than a head smaller, blocks all of them with her forearm, not budging even the slightest. I stare in disbelief as her feet sink into the ground from the force of the downward swing.

Without a moment's hesitation, Chandra immediately draws back her other arms to follow up with a flurry of punches. But I feel my jaw dropping as Pelomyx grows an extra two pairs of arms from her sides and meets the six-armed woman's fists with her own. The two exchange an immensely powerful storm of blows that seem to shake the very air and the ground we stand on, but neither is giving way to the other.

I have to believe that this is Chandra's full power, something she hasn't shown even a hint of in our sparring matches. If she had fought like this from the very start, she could have easily overpowered all of us without trouble. This is clearly on a different level from anything I've seen before, and I have to wonder if even Onee-sama would be able to handle it.

"You are getting better each time we meet." Pelomyx states with a grin, while continuing the flurry of attacks unabated.

"And ya gettin' heavier." Chandra responds, looking like she's having a lot of fun.

"Do not tell a woman that she is heavy!" With a pout and an immensely heavy punch, she sends the six-armed woman with easily three times her weight flying, causing her to roll across the floor and stop at the feet of her followers. Who is this woman?!

"Bah, ya not just some simple woman!" Getting up again without a scratch, Chandra rushes forward once again and delivers a devastating straight punch right into Pelomyx' stomach. The shockwave from the impact can be felt even from where I stand, and I'm sure it would have dented Gram's shield. But the horned woman doesn't show a change in her smiling expression even as she took it without bracing herself. "Hah, pushed ya a lil' bit after all."

"Oh, you are right." Pelomyx looks down and finds that her feet have skidded back by half a step. "Come here, you big oaf!" She retracts her extra arms and jumps up into Chandra's arms, and the two embrace like friends.

"I still wonder how ya doin' it. When I hold ya, ya so light." The latter comments and swings Pelomyx around like a child.

This seems to have been the signal for the gathered warriors to disperse, as they speak about the short battle in awe or laughter. Some of them are completely silent at being shown the difference in strength between those at the top and those who serve them. Only Rolan, Gram, Sigurd and I remain, staring at the two women in non-comprehension. Shugra walks up to them and gives Pelomyx, who is set down on the ground again, a slight bow, before they come towards the entrance of the fortress. On the way, the horned woman notices the presence of the humans, but her eyes stop on me.

"Who are they?" She asks Chandra without averting her piercing white irises from mine.

"Oh, those are some humans who ended up here because of some demon's transportation magic. They bet against me and lost, now they're mine." With a grin, the blue-skinned demon introduces us. "This is Cammy... right?" She points at me, before asking me if she got my name right.

"Kamii." I say, returning Pelomyx' gaze without ever breaking eye contact. "Who are you?"

"Hey, show some respect! Ya talkin' to-" Shugra starts, but the woman raises her hand to interrupt him.

"I do not mind. She is a strong child. And I can smell something familiar on her." She steps forward and extends her hand towards me. I don't waver or flinch, even though I'm a little afraid. Then she pats my head and an incredibly familiar feeling washes over me. "I am Demon Queen Pelomyx. Tell me, have you perhaps met one of my children?"

Onee-sama's mother!