Lunette and Fore exit the tavern they have been staying at on the island, attempting to find God to free Gwendolyn and Kayde.
“Hey, I know you don’t understand me but I might as well try. We need to find God, the bad guy who is holding our friends, do you think you can help me?” Lunette asks Fore, knowing there is no way he can understand her.
Fore stares up at her blankly before turning his head and trotting off in a direction deeper into the city. As Lunette follows Fore through the streets, she draws the gazes of many captivated by her beauty. Women scold their husbands as they catch them sneaking a peek at the alluring woman.
“Hey, you interested in grabbing a drink with me, I was in the tournament yesterday. I can tell you all about it,” a man takes his chance in asking Lunette out.
Lunette looks the man up and down, trying to judge a couple things based on a glance before deciding, “No thank you. I am flattered by your offer but I’m afraid I’m looking for someone”.
She turns down a few more men before Fore brings her out of the city towards the jungle area near the tower where she knows Gwendolyn is being held. As they get deeper in, Lunette notices steam in the distance, she creeps forward until she sees a natural hot spring in the middle of the jungle with God sitting inside of it.
“Thanks buddy,” she whispers to Fore, patting him as a signal for him to get out of here. Fore runs off back towards the city as Lunette starts to plot how she will approach him. Once she has gotten herself into the right headspace, she emerges from behind the bushes into an area that would be in God’s view.
“Now that is odd, it would seem someone has wandered into my secret spot. Did you know about this place?” God calmly asks the strange woman that has come upon him while bathing.
“No, but I’m glad I found it. It’s a pleasant sight,” Lunette starts putting the moves on him.
“Oh, I see. What is your name? I would like to make your acquaintance,” God asks her as he begins to wade through the water towards her.
Lunette doesn’t really hear him, deciding that while in his presence she would space out more often, focusing on random things so he is unable to read her intentions. This time the random thing she is in her own head about is him.
“Settle down now, I know you are quite taken with me but I am not a piece of meat for you to admire. Well, at least for now. Why don’t you tell me how you found this place?” God tries a different question.
This attempt ends the same as the last, the only thoughts of Lunette’s he can read are about his body.
He gets out of the water and shakes her, “Come on now. I understand, I am very aware of how appealing I am to women but you can only go so far. A woman such as yourself should not let themselves be as mesmerized as you are with me. As much as I sympathize with your attraction to me, it makes men more interested if you put up some resistance,” God starts to lecture her, trying to get her to focus.
“Oh, sorry. I spaced out a little there,” Lunette apologizes, having snapped out of it.
“You made me cut my bath short, how about you make it up to me by joining me?” God requests, his motives shifting slightly.
“I should show more resistance right? That is what you said. So I’ll pass. Maybe next time,” she calmly refuses him jokingly.
“Come on, the water feels nice on your bare skin, I insist,” God runs his wet fingers along her exposed shoulder, knowing she won’t recoil given what she was thinking earlier.
“Nope, I’m kind of tired. I was walking for a while so I would like to rest,” she tells him, this honestly now what she is completely focused on, making it hard for God to read any deeper intentions from her.
“Ah, if that is the case let me bring you to a place you can find such rest. We can resume this tomorrow night if you wish to sleep,” God suggests, already knowing what he plans to do with her.
“Okay,” Lunette agrees, her bubbly tone amusing God, he hasn’t found a woman with such an attitude in a long time.
He puts on pants before leading her out of the jungle and back to the edge of the city, bringing her to the entrance of the very same tower where Gwendolyn and Kayde are being held. They ascend the stairs until they are at the very top, knocking on the door to give warning before he comes in.
Inside Lunette notices a few women, none of them she recognizes.
“I have found someone new to join all of you. She is tired so make sure she finds herself a bed to rest in,” God announces to the others before departing abruptly. Having to get back to his mansion to dine with those still in his tournament.
“Who are you?” A woman in an annoyed tone asks Lunette.
“Tired, now where are those beds?” Lunette answers, still playing the role of the airhead.
“In the other room, let me show you,” a different, more polite woman responds, getting up to show Lunette back there.
In the next room, Lunette finds a room full of dressers and beds, in one of the beds, already asleep, is Gwendolyn.
“I’m Klara by the way,” Klara introduces herself to the new woman.
“Do you know why God brought you here?” She asks, not sure if this new girl understands their situation.
“Yeah, because I’m tired,” Lunette lies, finding an empty bed before lying down in it.
“Okay, it's more complicated than that… but I guess it can wait until morning,” Klara admits, not wanting to disturb this new girl if she is tired.
The next morning, Lunette is the first to awaken out of the six women currently occupying the room. She slips out of bed, noticing that the bag she brought full of a few toiletries has been taken. Leaving her with only her dress… or so it would appear.
She smirks a little as she takes off her dress, laying it down on the bed she was sleeping in. Near the bottom she tears apart a seam in the skirt, finding a small knife. She uses it to cut small holes on the inside, taking out item after item that she carefully stashed in there, knowing they would take her things.
She puts everything into the bag of holding she had also sewn into the dress and hides it behind one of the other girl’s things that are starting to collect dust, assuming it is somewhere that isn’t accessed often.
Lunette slips the dress back on, getting herself decent before she leaves the room so she can start to ponder her plans alone. Sitting down on the couch, Lunette begins to brainstorm how she is going to escape this place with Gwendolyn and also how she can discover where Kayde is.
As she does this, she finds herself pacing back and forth, she knows she wants to execute the plan while the tournament is going on… but what if God drags along all of them to watch? She recalls Drakthar mentioning something along those lines even though they weren’t present for the first round.
Lunette curses to herself, judging that she probably has to act now. Just as she has determined this, confidently striding towards the back room where the women are sleeping, an odd-looking man with dark blue hair enters behind her.
“Ah, you must be the new girl. My name is Lazaro, I am here to get you all ready for the tournament. You will be attending alongside God later today,” Lazaro introduces himself.
“Do you need me to go get the others?” Lunette asks him, noting he mentioned all of them.
“Yes, that would be nice of you, I will start to get ready for you all out here,” Lazaro responds, finding himself glad that this one is not going to be much trouble like the last woman God found.
Lunette goes into the back room and quietly wakes up the welcoming one from yesterday.
“Hey, Klara you said your name was?”
“Huh? Yeah, oh the new girl. What is it?” Klara asks groggily as she comes to.
“Look, do you want to get out of here?” Lunette asks hastily, knowing if they are going to escape, it needs to happen now.
“What?” Klara asks, shocked this is even an option.
“Escape, I’m a friend of Gwendolyn’s. I’m going to get her out of here, do you want to come along. I could use some help,” Lunette explains hastily.
“We can’t, there are guards everywhere not to mention God himself. We won’t be able to make it,” Klara tries to talk some sense into her.
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“Nah, I got this. Everything we need is in this bag,” she grabs the bag she hid behind Klara’s things.
Klara ponders it for a minute, she looks over at Gwendolyn who is still sleeping, thinking of everything she has been through while trapped here.
“Fine, I’m in,” Klara agrees, knowing that even if it fails she will only end up back here. She just wants a chance to maybe return to a normal life for her and some of the others trapped here.
“Okay, grab Gwendolyn. I am going to take care of the guy outside,” Lunette whispers as she leaves the room.
“What did you say your name was again?” Lazaro asks as he notices Lunette come back into the room.
“Uhh, Gwen… near... “ Lunette fumbles around, not able to think of a fake name.
“Gwennear?” Lazaro asks skeptically, not sure that is even a real name.
“Ah fuck it,” Lunette curses, pulling a gun out of her bag of holding.
A capsule, with a needle on the tip of it, lodges in Lazaro’s neck. He lifts his hand up to it to feel what he was just injected with but it is too late. He falls to the ground with a dull thud, his body limp from the knock-out agent within the capsule.
The sound alerts the two men standing guard outside, they burst through the door to find Lunette standing over the passed out Lazaro. She quickly does the same to them as she did to the hairstylist before them, both of them finding themselves strewn on the floor.
“What was that?” Klara asks as she shows up in the room with Gwendolyn and another woman Lunette doesn’t know.
“Oh nothing, now have you guys seen a mechanical-looking guy in here?” Lunette asks them, trying to locate Kayde.
“No,” Klara and Francine answer.
“Damn, maybe I should have asked one of these guys before I knocked them out. Come on, let’s go,” Lunette tells them, the four of them stepping over the bodies of the guards near the door, making their way to the stairwell.
They descend the spiral steps quietly.
“There will be another set of guards about six floors down,” Klara whispers to Lunette, letting her know so she will be able to take care of them as well.
“Okay, you wait up here. I’ll come get you while I take care of them,” Lunette suggests as she slips off down the stairs. She spots the two of them just where Klara said they would be. She slinks down so she is laying flat on the steps, steading her pistol full of knock-out agent capsules, taking aim.
Both of her shots hit their marks, the two men finding the cold hard floor beneath them. Lunette heads back up and recollects the others.
When they get to the door the men were guarding, Lunette stops them, “I need to check in here. My friend is probably in there if they were guarding it. Keep watch, I’ll be right back”.
Lunette tries the door but it is locked.
“Hold on, let me check the guards for a key,” Klara whispers, prompting her and Francine to start checking their bodies.
“It’s fine, I can get in,” Lunette assures them as she pulls a key with no teeth from her bag.
The others look on confused as she inserts it into the door, unable to see the key changing shape to fit the lock within the hole. Lunette turns it once it is done taking shape and turns it so the door opens.
“I’ll be right back,” she tells the others as she disappears behind the door. Inside she finds Kayde, strapped to a chair on the other side of the room.
“Hey Lunette, had to come bail me out yourself? Sorry about this,” Kayde greets her with a wide smile.
“Yup, now come on. Go invisible and take out any up ahead while Gwendolyn and the other girls follow behind you,” Lunette orders while she starts to remove him from the chair, handing him a pistol full of knock-out capsules.
“Can’t, my invisibility doesn’t work, he busted my leg,” Kayde signals down towards the damage.
Lunette inspects it, asking, “Can you walk?”
“Barely,” Kayde responds, propping himself up out of the chair.
Lunette slips under his shoulder, “Come on, I’ll help you then”. The two of them exit the door back into the main room with the stairwell.
“Hello ladies,” Kayde greets them as they continue down.
“Do you know if there are any other guards in here?” Lunette asks Klara as they descend.
“I think just the two outside. But sometimes a set of them will come upstairs whenever they need to grab one of us,” Klara explains.
They make it to the ground floor, all of them crouch down while Lunette explains the plan once they leave the tower, “Once we knock them out, we will run to the treeline behind this place. We’ll stay in the trees and loop around the city so we can be on the opposite side of this one”.
Lunette also takes this moment to slip a ring onto Gwendolyn's finger, transforming her appearance to one of a Sacrosanct villager.
“I had mine taken from me too,” Kayde informs her.
“It’s okay, I have a backup,” Lunette notes cheerily as she hands him a new one.
Now that Kayde and Gwendolyn are in disguise, Lunette opens the door, prompting the two men outside to turn. Before their eyes can view those inside, they have already been injected, both Lunette and Kayde having disposed of them.
“Now,” Lunette whispers, the five of them make it into the trees, Lunette supporting Kayde and Klara dragging Gwendolyn the entire way. They lay low within the trees, moving swiftly out of the sight of any of God’s men.
Meanwhile, the fighters start to gather within God’s mansion. All of them clad in some sort of armor, except Xander who wears just a cloak. Their weapons at their side as someone approaches, the one that will guide them to the arena where they will once again fight in front of a crowd of people.
They arrive and head to the depths of the coliseum, where they wait for God to give his usual speech before the fights begin. To their surprise God is not the one doing the introductions, instead, a man’s voice they have never heard ushers them outside, introducing each of them in front of the crowd.
“He’s not here? Why?” Xenos asks, being the first of them to speak up about it. Xander looks up at the box God watches from, inside he sees empty chairs. He smirks, remembering God said Gwendolyn would be by his side as he watched the battles… but obviously, that has changed.
“I don’t know how but I think the others are causing God trouble right now,” Xander whispers to Drakthar and Kali.
“Good, now focus on the battle,” Drakthar notes, just glad there are fewer distractions.
“Now, can everyone except the first two combatants, Arua and Kali vacate the arena?” They hear the announcer request. Drakthar gives Kali a nod before leaving, causing the perpetual grin on Arua’s face to disappear as she notices.
She shifts her annoyed gaze to Kali, intending to take out her irritation on her.
Kali’s eyes meet Arua’s as they listen to the announcer continue, “Now, for what you have all been waiting for, in the first match is Kali, former guardian of the fountain of luck and hero of the Sacrosanct Empire. She will face off against Arua, a mighty warrior originating from the Marshlands. Without further ado, let the first battle begin”.
The loud cheers from the crowd overwhelm their sense of hearing but doesn’t deter Arua from starting things off. She flies forward, a quick first step propelling her towards Kali, her axe raised as she prepares to strike.
Kali judges this will be a powerful slash, knowing it would be more prudent to dodge but she is hit by a spark of competitiveness and decides to hold up her sword, blocking the attack head-on.
The clanging of steel rings out through the arena, silencing the crowd while they wordlessly watch sparks fly from where the two weapons are being held. Kali strains while holding the block, looking up to see that Arua’s usual grin has returned.
This pisses Kali off, she sheds the block by pulling back her sword and spinning around to attempt to strike Arua’s side. Arua senses the move, letting up the pressure on her attack to bat Kali’s blade away with her axe as she moves back.
Kali notices Arua’s smirk get wider at her failed attempt. She attacks again, this time feigning a strike from the left and quickly turning to attack from above, wanting to wipe that grin off Arua’s face.
Again she is too slow, Arua reading the movements of her opponent. This pattern continues for some time, Arua easily able to dodge Kali’s attacks, leading to Kali to start feeling exhausted. As she feels the sweat coating her body she notices the same isn’t true for Arua.
Kali knows she is slowly losing the battle of stamina but she cannot yield to this pushy woman, her pride won’t let her. Just as she is about to go in to attempt another swing of her sword, her and the crowd watch in confusion as Arua yawns and drops her axe to the ground.
Kali doesn’t care the reason, she wants to take advantage of this mistake while she can, charging in, sword raised. As Kali approaches, Arua swiftly picks up her axe and jumps, vaulting her body over Kali’s and burying her axe into her opponent's back while she is upside down in mid-air.
Kali hears her own armor crack, falling down into the dirt while her blood starts to pour out of the giant wound on her back. The wet feeling barely noticeable due to already being covered in sweat, the searing pain the only sensation that makes her realize this fight is over.
As Arua pulls her now blood-stained axe out of Kali’s back the announcer calls the end of the fight in Arua’s favor. Xander looks over to God’s men standing at the edge of the arena, realizing they are standing still, not even to feign an attempt to help the slowly bleeding out Kali.
Xander nudges Drakthar on the arm and the two of them run out into the arena, moving past Arua as they kneel down to assess the damage.
“Help me get her armor off,” Xander tells Drakthar as he digs through his bag for something to stem the bleeding.
The two of them pull the armor over her head. Xander grabs her blood-soaked shirt and rips the back open to expose the gash.
“Looks like it missed her spine,” Xander sighs in relief as he applies cloth to the wound.
“How are you doing Kali?” Xander asks her once he has a firm handle on the situation.
“I’ve been… better…” Kali barely gets out, starting to feel woozy from the lack of blood.
“Just relax, you are going to be okay,” Xander assures her as he continues to apply pressure to her back.
“Hey, you two. We are going to need you to vacate the arena so that we can have our next fight,” one of God’s men informs them in a haughty tone that irritates Xander in particular.
“Then how about you get us a stretcher so we can get her off the battlefield? Or… I don’t know, maybe just help us instead of watching from the sidelines like a bunch of dolts!” Xander starts to let him have it.
“God’s orders were to not help anyone if they lost. The crowd likes death more than just an injury,” the man explains in the same annoying tone. “How about this, get a stretcher and help the two of us carry her out of here or my friend and I kill all of you,” Xander threatens, the malice in his voice making it clear to the man he is not kidding.
The man quickly runs off, coming back in mere minutes with a stretcher in hand. They carefully lift the now incapacitated Kali onto it and the man and Drakthar pick up either side as Xander continues to focus on her wound.
“Drakthar, I think we’ve been too cocky. The others are much stronger than I could have anticipated,” Xander admits after watching Kali, who he holds in high regard, be bested so handily.
“Yeah,” Drakthar agrees, unable to suppress a wicked grin even while he is carrying an injured Kali out of the arena.