“In this corner—!”

Say what you want about Chad, he was a born showman. He stood in the middle of the arena, effortlessly addressing the crowd. The arena was in the shape of a circle and seating was arranged around it on all sides. Chad easily spun and danced from one direction to the other, making sure all eyes were on him. He practically dared the crowd to tear their attention away for just a moment, for fear that if they did, they would miss something exciting! They were in the palm of his hand, and he knew it.

“— we have your favorite Head Tavern Mistress, the War Maiden herself, Noelle Magos!”

Noelle curtseyed and bowed her head slightly to the roar of the crowd, which was deafening. Chants of, “War Maiden, War Maiden,” pulsated from the crowd in between the various cheers and applause. With her hefty preexisting Wish fanbase, she was the overwhelming crowd favorite. The men loved her, and the women and children admired her. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Roscoe was the only curmudgeon with his hands stuffed in his pockets and a nasty scowl on his face.

The Magos family had front row seats directly behind her, feeding off the crowd’s energy. All of them were waving Noelle dolls and clapping and cheering excitedly. All the daughters admired their eldest sister, but none more so than the youngest, Anya, who was like Noelle’s second shadow. She had made a poster with Noelle’s likeness on it and held it high for all to see. Ash sat next to Anya, waving a banner the shade of the Goddess’ blue hair, also their house colors, about wildly. The support from her family brought a happy smile to me but I felt a stab in my gut that I didn’t have my own personal cheering section.

Chad waved his arms to quiet the crowd for my introduction.

“And in the other corner—!” He did know how circles worked, right? “We have your latest enigma! The purple haired demoness herself, Amelia the Amazon!”

The roaring and cheering picked up again and, to my complete surprise, the crowd was just as deafening as before.

“Am-a-zon! Am-a-zon!”

The crowd chanted my nickname with just as much as enthusiasm as they had Noelle’s. I was in complete awe as I scanned the crowd. I had never been the center of this much attention of any kind before. If there hadn’t been so much adrenaline flooding my body in anticipation of what was next, I would have sprinted off to get away from it all.

However, when I came to Noelle’s family in the crowd, my sense of amazement turned to sheer joy. Gone were the Noelle dolls and family banners. In their place, in each clenched fist, was an Amelia doll. Anya had swapped her Noelle poster for an Amelia one, while Ash waved a banner of the deepest royal purple I had ever seen. Their faces were beet red as they cheered and hollered loudly.

For me!

I wasn’t family. I was a stranger they had only known for a few months. I also stood in the way of their daughter and her dreams of a better life. And yet they were still treating me like one of their own. It took everything I had not to cry tears of joy. I blinked away some wetness that had fought to the surface anyway and turned my attention back to Noelle.

For the first time, gone was her apron and maid headdress that she had worn even while training, however her hair still in its long and beautiful braid. An additional change was the color of ribbons in her hair. Replacing the standard black required of the Wish, her ribbons were now a beautiful light blue, the family color shared with the Goddess’ hair.

She was still wearing the rest of her maid uniform, as she had secretly enjoyed her new nickname, but Noelle had taken steps to modify it. The full-length dress was gone and in its place was a much shorter skirt that would allow her better mobility. While it was not the same scandalous length as the standard Wish attire, it did show off some of her shapely legs before the skirt hid the forbidden treasure underneath. She was now wearing laced knee-high leather boots that served to protect her shins during blocks and kicks. As she had constantly reminded me, all of her body was a weapon.

Up top, her uniform still sported the corset on the outside of a tight fighting blouse. She had no desire to have loose fitting clothes easily available for me to grab. Her lower arms were wrapped in leather gauntlets and hands slipped into fingerless gloves. She had already adapted a ready fighting stance, her mouth drawn tight and face set with determination. The tournament had stated the weapon of choice would be swords, but Noelle was going to stick with what she knew.

I glanced down at the wooden practice sword in my hand. It would offer me an unfair advantage against her, and she knew it. I looked back up and met her gaze. Her face did not betray what she was thinking as we waited for Chad’s signal that the match had begun.

“The matches will be decided by strikes!” Chad announced. “Any three to the core torso area or a single blow to the head will end the match!”

He looked at both of us in acknowledgement, then shouted.

“Begin!”

I tossed my sword aside. “I want this to be a fair fight, Noelle. It would feel cheap to win with you unarmed.”

She smiled for the first time I could remember all day. Her mood had been pretty intense since we had last spoke and she told me what she planned for the Wish.

“Bold of you to assume you’ve already won!”

She charged at me and immediately lead with her fists, striking with alternating blows at my chest and head in an unpredictable rhythm. She had caught me off guard with her speed and I barely was able to start blocking in time. She was much faster than she had ever been! Did her normal maid attire slow her down that much, or had she just been holding back during our lessons?

During our training, one of the things I consistently leaned on against her advanced skill was my superior strength, and I controlled matches by grabbing her. With her increased speed, she was more easily evading my grab attempts after a block, and I couldn’t get a bead on her.

I deflected a blow and attempted to spin away to get some distance and reset. She had me on the defensive early and I needed some space to regain my composure. My attempt to create space wasn’t enough and she was on me immediately, landing a quick blow to my lower left side and I stumbled further backwards.

“That’s one!” roared Chad, from outside the ring.

First blood was metaphorically in the air and the crowd loved it!

“War Maiden, War Maiden!”

Wincing and coughing from a crouched position in the dirt, I kept my eyes on Noelle. Wow, that had stung! I had gotten lucky, and she had barely missed my ribs. Any higher and she might have broken something. Breathing probably would have been tougher too. Everything with her lessons had been about striking efficiently, and now she was following through.

Noelle had backed off and was allowing me a moment, but her eyes still had their hard edge. I glanced sidelong at Roscoe before I stood. I had the strength of the Goddess in me but still felt like I had stepped into a cage with a bear. If this was her true nature within that she could unleash, it was by her grace alone that Roscoe wasn’t a dead man.

Smiling at Noelle, I called out, “Lucky shot!”

I needed her to think the punch hadn’t fazed me and that everything she had thrown at me hadn’t caught me completely off guard. She lightly smiled back at me.

“Good! I didn’t want this to be over so soon myself!”

At least she’s smiling again…

Not wanting to be on the defensive, I rushed her and began a furious assault of my own. I followed quick strikes at her sides and stomach with some at her head, varying the direction each attack came from. She blocked each effortlessly and countered with a high kick. I ducked at the last moment and sprung into a backflip to put distance between us once again.

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I shook my head and smiled. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Going to be like that, huh?”

She smiled back again, “Like you wouldn’t have grappled or thrown me, given the chance?”

Fair point.

Taking the offensive again, she dove towards me, but this time I was ready, and her blows felt a bit slower. Three alternating punches towards my face followed by two quick kicks to my left. I blocked each of the punches with my forearms and saw her hips adjust for the kicks. I blocked the first also with my forearm, then quickly grabbed her leg.

The counter worked!

I had tried this once or twice in the past, but each counter attempt resulted in me still getting kicked roughly in the ribs as I’d awkwardly trap her leg between my body and arm. Realizing I might try it here, she probably banked on me flubbing it up and getting a 2-0 lead. Instead, her face was one of shock, as I held her fast then struck her full on, open palmed, in the stomach with my right hand. I released her after my blow and let her fall back and roll away.

“1-1! The Amazon strrrrrrrrikes back!” Chad cried.

The crowd again went wild. I knew that other than a finals fight against Chad, this was the townsfolks’ most anticipated match for the entire tourney. They loved our sparring sessions during training and now the stakes were even higher.

“Am-a-zon! Am-a-zon!”

Short of who put money on whom, I don’t think there was a clear crowd favorite. Each of our moments in the match had elicited cheers and uproarious shouting and clinking of mugs. Even Noelle’s family didn’t appear to be cheering for a favorite between the two of us.

I allowed Noelle a moment to gather herself, as she had done for me. She appeared agitated with herself, gambling for the free hit that hadn’t worked in her favor and now, due to that careless decision, she had lost her edge in the score. She wouldn’t make such a reckless mistake again. I would have to earn the rest of my points.

We started trading blows, looking for even the smallest of openings. I thrashed out at her leg with a kick of my own, attempting to slow her down. She effortlessly lifted her leg in response while simultaneously lunging with the knee to strike my stomach. I stuck my hand out and pushed aside the attack, only to barely avoid another quick jab at my head.

Was her hand glowing??

She swung at me with both hands, and I had not imagined it. Both were starting to glow, and the light was intensifying. I squinted as I blocked both attacks, but her assault continued with her hands became too blinding to look at.

I realized too late what was happening. She was harnessing her powers of the Goddess as a weapon.

I became dazed with each block and my timing slipped. A force that felt like I had been hit with a bag of bricks nailed me in my lower left side again. The velocity of the strike threw me backwards and I tumbled and rolled in the dirt, away from Noelle and groaning in pain.

I held my side and grimaced while blinking furiously, trying to get my vision to clear. Noelle had, again, shown me the mercy of recovery and backed off. She only needed one more strike to win, and yet she didn’t press her advantage. Her hands had not stopped glowing, however. They looked as bright as stars in the night sky, white and hot.

My side throbbed furiously. I hadn’t been able to dodge and make it a glancing blow this time and she had connected directly with my ribs. I didn’t think anything was broken but it still hurt like hell. I coughed and tasted copper. I spit blood into the ground and looked back up at her.

She raised one of her hands and stared at it, her vision unaffected by its brilliance.

“I didn’t want to reveal this technique so early in the tournament, but it became clear I needed the edge against you.” She looked back to me, still reeling in the dirt.

“Besides, Dorian knows this trick already. The only other person I would have caught off guard would have been Prince Chadwick.”

Chad, indeed, looked surprised at Noelle’s little secret. The crowd had gone whisper quiet as well. It only took Chad a moment to come to his senses to announce the update on the match.

“That’s two to the War Maiden! After a surprise unveiling of a new technique, how will the Amazon respond now?”

I had no idea.

From a distance, my vision wasn’t overwhelmed with the brightness of her hands, but I still had to squint and avoid looking at them directly. Getting within punching distance of her again would be another story.

And I still needed two strikes.

I groaned and continued holding my side as I stood. I readied myself again and mentally added her new ability to what I already knew to expect from her. My only edge was to grab her and control her movement with brute strength like I had done in the past with her. It would allow me to control the flow of the encounter and not have to stare at her hands directly, at least for a few moments. If I could land two strikes in quick succession, or a blow to her head…

I hated that idea immediately and logged it away as a last resort. She had shown me respect and honor in this fight when she could have ended it easily more than once. That I had even considered it left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Seeing that I was back on my feet, Noelle didn’t waste any more time and charged forward, hands and arms extended in an obvious attempt to disorient me. I kept my eyes on her legs with her hands just in my peripheral, both to avoid being blinded as well as watching her dance and where she shifted her weight. I could only hope that would work like before and help me guess at a blocking angle.

As I expected her to, she took a shot at my head. She didn’t need to connect with a headshot to win, but by swinging her hands close to my face, she increased the likelihood of blinding me again.

I gambled again, grabbed for her arm, and spun.

And again, the gamble paid off!

My mad attempt to grab her left arm as she jabbed at me scored home and my fingers caught in her sleeves. My spin forced her to twist alongside me awkwardly and I quickly jabbed twice at her side, hoping to the Goddess I caught her off balance enough to strike with both blows.

I didn’t.

She got her free hand up just in time to deflect my second shot and combined that with a burst of blinding light erupting from her open palm. I released her and quickly dove away, rolling in a direction I hoped was as far from her as possible.

Chad and the crowd were going nuts in response.

“By the Gods, what a move! The next strike will decide the match!”

The crowd was roaring, feeding off the energy from our clash. Cheers and chants for both of us blended unintelligibly together and they now hungered for our next skirmish. The energy burning off them was buzzing and dripping with anticipation of how the match would conclude.

My vision finally cleared enough to see what was going on. The shot I had connected with winded Noelle enough that she also needed a moment, preventing her from taking advantage of my disorientation. The blinding flash had been a defensive gambit rather than an offensive one.

Both of us curtly nodded to each other. This had been an intense match. I had mistakenly taken Noelle for granted, already looking ahead to Dorian in the next round. She hadn’t been kidding when she told me how serious she was about winning. Losing hadn’t even entered her mind.

Well, I wasn’t losing either. I hadn’t really entered this contest as focused as I should have been, but that had now changed, and I had Noelle to thank for it. I wanted to win, but now I wanted to prove it to myself. Noelle had shown me I still had a lot to learn, both about this world, the people that lived in it, and about myself.

We both stood, knowing this next sequence would decide the match. The crowd quieted down as we slowly started circling each other, fists raised. Noelle leapt forward first, again changing her attack pattern. Her channeling of the light started coming in bursts, causing her fists to blink as she wove her strikes towards me in an elegant dance rather than direct quick jabs. The resulting effect was like looking at a rotating strobe light, spreading a scattered bleeding pattern of the light across my vision.

My eyes started to burn, but I couldn’t look away. I had to end this fast, or it would be too late. Her slower weaving jabs weren’t meant to win on their own, just to distract and create the opening for the killing blow. Trying to sense a pattern, I blocked at a waving overhead chop followed by a crossing swipe at my middle. My eyes were beginning to betray me again. I had to take my moment now!

She came at me again with another flowing gesture from opposite angles. I reached up with my right hand and grabbed at her wrist while lifting my left knee to bat at the direction of the lower oncoming blow. With my remaining free hand, I blindly swung at her chest and prayed…and felt it connect.

My open palm smashed her in her sternum and shoved her backwards. I hadn’t known if my plan was going to be successful, so I had preemptively jumped away, just in case my awkward knee block had whiffed completely. Separated, we stared at each other in shock, completely oblivious to everything else. My adrenaline wore off enough that Chad’s voice dripped through as I snapped back to reality.

The crowd erupted in excitement from the result of the match.

“Victory! The Amazon moves on! What a fight! What a show!” Chad’s voice bellowed above it all.

Ale was flying everywhere, everyone was on their feet, and Noelle and I barely noticed any of it. We were still at the center of our shared universe.

It was only then I realized we were both crying.

Finally, our emotions of the fight seeped through, and we ran to smother each other in a fierce hug. I picked her up and swung her around once before setting her down but still holding her close. Her tears soaked through the front of my shirt while mine dripped down my face and onto hers.

“You were amazing, Noelle!” I cried.

We finished our hug but still held each other’s hands tightly.

Noelle shook her head, smiling despite her tears, “You were incredible! I have no regrets. I held nothing back and you met my intensity with your own.”

She reached up and held my cheek lovingly. “You’ve started to take this tournament seriously. I’m glad to see you’ve discovered what you’re fighting for.”

She leaned up and kissed my other cheek before hugging me again.

“I am proud to call you my sister,” she sobbed.

I joined her in more crying, everyone else around us too excited to even notice our moment as they recounted and reenacted our emotionally charged fight.

Noelle finally let go and nodded over at Chad, who was still feeding off the energy from the crowd, then leaned back in and rested her forehead against mine.

“We’re no one’s trophies.”

We held that connection for a few moments before she looked me straight in the face, her eyes still damp but shining fiercely.

“Now go show him that!”