Round 1 Fight 3 Part 1

The Stick of Champions lead me once more to the next champion for the Tournament of Pleasure. I had already met new and exciting people on my trip, and I wondered then what exciting and new friends I should make. Once the choral light dissipated around me, I took in my surroundings, finding a strange familiarity with the woods of the Wildlands.

The fairy glade was the home of the Lily Nymph, a powerful fairy spirit that collected sexually frustrated or confused maids and women to add to her garden of flowers. I was almost among them myself. A friend of mine defeated the forest queen and captured her for the Baroness of Bergburg. Among the wilted flower throne, I remembered my time enraptured by the scents produced by the nymph. It is a feeling both nostalgic and worrisome, and it made me wonder just why the Stick sent me there.

A brush of branches behind me caught my attention, and I swiftly turned, attempting to prepare a spell, but fingers already grasped at my throat. Standing before me was a young woman, wearing a flower in her hair, and dressed much more considerably than the last time I saw her. “Luza?” I squeaked.

“Liza,” she responded.

“I’m Luza,” came the voice of her other half. She dropped from one of the branches. I was surrounded.

“You found each other!” I gasped, clapping my hands together, remembering their separation at the breaking of the Lily Nymph’s spell.

“So, you haven’t forgotten us,” Luza said, walking up behind Liza, wrapping her arms around the other woman. She rested her chin upon her sister monk’s shoulder, nuzzling her head against her cheek.

“Yes, Luza has found me,” Liza said. “We were brought together by the Lily Nymph and separated by the Dark Queen. But thanks to you, Tik Tik, we were able to reunite. What brings you here?”

I held the Stick of Champions aloft. “Tik Tik looking for participants in the Tournament of Pleasure! Gods want show. Tik Tik want see show, too! Good for all!”

“A tournament, you say?” Luza said, looking to Liza. “Just as we were hoping for.”

“A real chance to test our skills,” Liza agreed.

I tapped my chin with the Stick. “Since two, Tik Tik guess you will face each other sometime.”

“No,” a voice echoed through the Stick.

“W… what!?” I gasped, holding the Stick out.

“They shall be together,” the voice continued. It was of Hanioc, the Messenger of the Gods.

“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Liza said, reaching up and stroking Luza’s cheek.

“That cheat cheat!” I gasped.

“They are not what they seem,” the voice continued. “Two bodies, one heart. They are one champion.”

“Ooh!” I must admit I was quite enamored with the idea. What exactly did it mean? And how exactly would that work in this Tournament? I raised the Stick up high, and allowed it to take us to the next champion!

The three of us found ourselves in a dark chamber. The hum of magic continuously buzzed in my ears. The room around us glowed with a sinister ambiance that I knew was all-too-familiar, and standing across from us was a figure, cloaked and hooded. I held the Stick aloft, but it did not respond. This was not a champion. What could it be?

Luza and Liza stood on either side of me, taking up a defensive posture against this enigmatic figure. It held up a gloved hand and spoke in a smooth, feminine voice. “No need to be so aggressive, Tik Tik. I’m not the champion you seek, but I represent her.”

“How you!? How know Tournament?”

The stranger chuckled and stepped aside. “That’s a story for later, but to start, let me introduce you to my champion—Galenna!”

A beam of howling light shot down from the ceiling, and lowering down from it was the form of an elven woman, quite beautiful, save for the strangest part about her. She had no arms or legs.

Luza and Liza did not let up their stance, and I was inclined to agree that something strange was happening.

The elf smiled down at us, floating above us. “Are you surprised to see a pathetic being such as me here? Don’t worry. I am chosen.”

I consulted the Stick. Indeed, it resonated with the champion. “How you do pleasure without arms and legs?” I asked.

Galenna pouted. “Oh, that is a problem, isn’t it?” she said. “Whatever shall I do?”

I felt arms wrap around me, and Luza dived the two of us off to the side.. Liza spun around, deflecting an incoming projectile from behind us. The white thing flew past her and attached itself to Galenna’s shoulder stump. The missile was actually an arm. This arm was, in fact, quite well-crafted and artistically beautiful. Slowly floating up behind her are three other limbs, each as wonderfully constructed as the last. To me, they seemed like something from the Order of Love, and the story this elf had to tell became much more intriguing. However, I couldn’t let something slide.

“You attacked Tik Tik!” I snapped.

“Merely a show for our audience,” Galenna waved me off, brushing her lips with her false fingers. “I assure you, I wouldn’t have hurt you unless your bodyguards are not worth my time. Two of you, ha! You should have gathered four!”

Luza and Liza stood, staring down the elf who towers over the two of them with her Amazonian height. The hooded figure behind her stepped up between the combatants and extended a gloved hand to me. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Tik Tik, and I assure you that my champion will put your champions to shame. Isn’t that right?”

“Anything for you, my lady,” Galenna said, her smile widening to a grin that could break her face in half and made my own cheeks hurt just by looking at it. Whoever these two were, they were making the Tournament much higher stakes than I could have imagined.