Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Three days later.

“It can't be that bad, can it?” Eris laughed and I glared at her. 

“The dwarf noble I have to deal with is a jackass.” I growled and looked back at the job board in front of me. “Come on… just something, anything close that'll just let me hit something.”

“Spoken like a true barbarian~”

“Shut up.” I spotted a stack of one particular job and looked it over. ‘E to B rank, guard training exercise this afternoon… interesting… bar fight scenario, food and beer provided… I can pass on the beer but if I can fight someone it would help how pent up I am?’ I sighed, glancing towards where my partners were sitting with Saerrei. ‘Just had to run into her too, that definitely doesn't help…’

“How did you get today off…?” Nicolas asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“I got really close to frying him,” I answered flatly, making sparks in my mouth for emphasis as I grabbed the quest I was looking at, “and the maid that trained us saw. Getting called ‘milkmaid’ with one of the other girls is one thing but he decided to grab my tail when I passed him earlier. He was so lucky she was the one that got onto him and she was nice enough to give us a fake errand to run today.”

“She was probably just making sure you don't end up killing him.” Eris laughed, peering over my shoulder at the paper in my hand. “Ooh, that looks like fun, let's do that!”

“You think so?”

“Free food, drink, and they're basically letting us start a bar fight,” she grinned and playfully grabbed Nicolas's arm. “If you don't go we'll just head over and do it ourselves.”

“Wait, what?” The cleric yelped, his face already turning red at her touch. 

“Come on. It'll be fun,” she insisted while I looked the job over again.

“They really won't just let people destroy a bar for a quest, right?”

“It's at the Colosseum, not a bar,” I pointed out.

“See? Nothing to worry about,” Eris laughed, still not noticing that she was hugging his arm.

“Uh huh…” I laughed softly. “Let's go see if the others want in on this too.”

“Saerrei too?” Nicolas asked as the two of them followed me over to the others “Can she even take quests?”

“... I've seen her grab a quest here before. She has to be allowed to.”

“You're not sure? I would have figured you'd know your newest girlfriend~” Eris teased.

“What? No? She's not my girlfriend.” I responded.

“I don't know, the way she looks at you is kind of like Max~ and the way you reacted when you saw her~”

“Maybe if you two weren't running off on dates so much the past couple days, you would've gotten to know her better…” I countered, glancing back in time to see her jump away from him. 

“W-we were just hanging out! He slows down too much if we practice for too long!” 

“Sure, sure… you two are still rooming together, right?” I pressed, grinning at her. 

“It's just cheaper that way! Right N-nick?”

“Yep… e-easier than finding another room…” he agreed.

“Mhmm…” ‘Nick, huh? Using a shortened name for him…’

“-been even helping her? You're her mates” I overheard Saerrei ask as we approached the table.

“Of course we have!” Max answered, his ears springing up to more alert as he stood up. “I-it's just that w-with the job…”

‘... Ok… what's going on…’ I sighed.

“Are you offering to help?” Kat added and the dragoness's face visibly turned red even in the shadow of her hood. “I thought so. Anyways I got a sur-”

“O-oh you're back” Saerrei interrupted as I hugged Max from behind.

“What did I just walk into?” I asked, looking at our girlfriend.

“She was getting onto us for not helping your heat enough. Maybe she should show us what we should be doing since she's the expert on dragonspawn heats~” She replied, smirking at the other girl. 

“Y-you were joking a-about that, right?” Max stammered, squirming a bit in my arms and his ears folding back cutely.

‘Wait, are you turned on by that??’ “You're a menace, Kat.” I sighed, pushing away the thought of her joining the three of us for that.

“You love me though~” 

“Somehow,” I stuck my tongue out at her as I put the job notice in front of her and Max.

“What's this?”

“A job that might help me vent a bit,” I shrugged and happily snuggled Max more. “You want to do it with us?”

“Us?” she looked back at Eris and Nicolas. “You're doing this?”

“Why not? It'll be fun” The fighter answered, still red from my teasing.

“I-I don't know if a ‘bar fight’ would be fun…” Max mumbled as he leaned over the paper. “You sure about t-this Alex? What if you get hurt?”

“Pup, I doubt it would be as dangerous as bandits or draugr,” I laughed, nuzzling into his back. Even though my sense of smell was weaker in this form, this action was still more than enough to make me feel warmth start up in me and I quickly had to stop. “Y-you don't have to join if you don't want to. It's at the colosseum so you can probably watch from the stands.”

“Ok… I'll probably do that…”

“Ok, that's fine, I'll just try to show off for you then~” I kissed at his shoulder and peeked up at our girlfriend. “What about you?”

“I think I'll sit out too, I can't exactly shoot people with my bow for a training exercise…” She shrugged. Saerrei shyly looked between the two of them before speaking up.

“I’ll go with you!” She half-blurted out and I saw Kat smiling ever so slightly out of the corner of my eye. The dragoness caught what she just said and quickly added: “I-I need to get back what I've been spending at the places you've been dragging me to anyways…”

“Dragging,” Kat scoffed, still smiling slightly. ”You didn't have to eat with us.”

“...” she looked away from my girlfriend. 

“Looks like she wanted to,” Eris teased. 

“S-stay out of this, noble.”

“Anyways,” I quickly said before Eris pushed more. Saerrei had more patience for Kat's teasing for some reason and it wasn't worth it to see what it took for Eris to make a dragon angry. “We have the rest of the morning before we have to go do this, if you tolerate being ‘dragged’ with us around town while we wait." 

“... It would be too much of a hassle to go back anyways,” She ‘ relented’ but it wasn't that convincing, she was in town earlier than she normally was in the first place, definitely more than willing to spend time with at least me and my partners.

 

---

‘Should've figured, mostly men,’ I thought with a sigh as I scanned over the couple dozen other adventurers in the steadily moving line in the competitors’ entrance of the colosseum. ‘We’re probably among the few girls that would do something like this…’ I glanced back at Nicolas, Eris, and Saerrei behind me. The dragoness was nervously shifting back and forth on her feet. “You ok?”

“Hmm? Oh… yes. I thought this was going to be outside, not in a tunnel.” she grumbled.

“It will be…” I tried to assure her with a smile.

“It better be… open air is much nicer than this…” she waved a hand at the surroundings and looked away from me.

“We're out of the sun at least,” Nicolas pointed out. 

“I suppose…” she sighed as she looked back the way we came in. The cleric gave me a ‘I tried’ look and resumed his conversion with Eris.

‘Definitely enough room for her to be her true form so it's not that she's cramped… is it that she feels trapped or something?’ I mused as I watched her. ‘Kind of cute that even a dragon can get nervous…’ Movement at her thighs made me glance down to find her clenching and unclenching her fists. “Hey, Saerrei?”

“I told you I was fine…” she sighed and quickly turned her attention back to me.

“And you're clenching your hands into fists,” I pointed out.

“It's nothing, just getting ready for this. I don't care for fighting like this for long,” She sighed, shyly walking past me and getting close enough that her scent made my heart beat a little faster. 

“Something wrong?” Eris asked teasingly as she and Nicolas followed Saerrei and the rest of the line moving. I sighed and pushed my heat-induced thoughts out of mind while catching up. 

“You're so lucky you're not part beast too,” I hissed to the fighter before going to the dragoness again. “What did you mean by that?” 

“It's just easier when I have claws… doesn't hurt as much if I don't use mana,” she answered quietly. 

“Wait, hurt… like your hands?” 

“What else would?” She gave me an incredulous look.

“You're probably not punching right." I laughed a little and she frowned a bit.

“Since when is there a right way?”

“And how would you know Alex?” Nicolas asked. “You use an ax.”

“Kempo, years ago,” I answered. “I… didn't make it to black belt but some stuff stuck.” I shrugged. “Like how easy it is to hurt yourself if you don't do it right.”

“If she's right, sounds like you had a bad teacher.” Eris giggled, looking at Saerrei.

“I never had one, I just watched others fight and I've been doing just fine,” she huffed. I sighed and pulled off my pack to search through my bag for linen wrapping similar to what I used to wrap my chest before.

“Is your ‘Friend’ even a monk?” 

“It's what it says on my card,” the dragoness growled, crossing her arms.

“Don't start, Eris, I'm sure you and Nicolas don't want me to start using what I have against you,” I warned then looked past the group to check the line ahead of us “Ok, we have some time. Saerrei?”

“Yes?” She calmed down slightly. 

“Hands please, I think I know something that can help you not hurt yourself.”

“I don't need help. I told you, I've been doing fine with what I've been doing.”

‘Fucking stubborn dragon…’ I sighed, my hands going to my hips in my frustration ‘So glad no one else is paying attention.' “It's to prevent them from hurting.”

“Maybe she just doesn't want to be touched,” Nicolas suggested. Saerrei tensed up ever so slightly and looked down at her hands.

“F-fine.” she huffed in draconic and thrust her hands out towards me. I smiled a little and gently grabbed one of her hands. For someone who was supposedly a monk, it definitely was surprisingly soft and lacked the callouses I expected on her knuckles. 

‘Guess she avoids making contact as much as possible…’ “Ok, how did this go again…” I mumbled to myself as I wrapped the cloth around it. It got easier to recall how to do boxers’ hand wraps were done after a couple attempts to start it. Having to keep moving in line didn't help but eventually I got both of her hands wrapped up. “There we go, should keep everything aligned and it shouldn't hurt as much.”

“Thanks I guess…” she mumbled, looking away and her face bright red. At that point I realized how close I was to her and her scent was starting to make me feel warm again.

“Oh I'm definitely right if that's how she reacts to just being touched.” I heard Eris laugh softly to Nick as I took a step back from Saerrei.

“I think you are too…” the cleric quietly agreed and I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore them.

“Next Party!” A gruff voice barked in front of us. I glanced that way to find that we were next in line. Turns out at the very front was a table that had a trio of guards sitting on the other side. The one that stood out the most was the one in the middle. He was an older, bearded human man with a scar down his nose and across his cheek and wore a more decorated armor than the other two. I also noticed that he had a scroll in front of him and a quill pen in hand.

‘Saved from that awkwardness,’ I thought thankfully as I stepped forward. Saerrei shyly stayed behind in line as Nicolas and Eris followed me.

“Party name and guild card?” The scarred guard requested. 

“Tempest,” I answered as I passed our card over.

“There's five names on this card, and…” He leaned slightly to look at Saerrei still in line. “Four...? Of you.”

“She's not in our party.” Nicolas responded. “A-and the others are just watching…”

“Yet.” Eris added with a slight laugh. “But yeah, she's a solo right now.” 

“You, in the hood!” The guard to the right of the scarred one, another human, called to our friend, making her flinch. “Up here too.”

“I-I'm not in their party…” she shyly tried to explain.

“We know.” The scarred one responded flatly but calmly. “Your guild card too… and the rest of you, your names.”

“Alex Steele,” I answered, Nicolas and Eris giving theirs as well as Saerrei gave her card.

“Third C rank party, and with a dragonspawn bloodrager at that.” He chuckled, writing something down on the scroll. “The new recruits are in for a surprise.”

“There's a B-rank Skald we checked in before you arrived, too, sir,” the other guard who spoke before added.

“More entertainment for the crowd.”

“Crowd?” I asked.

“These exercises are fairly popular to watch. Helps pay your reward for participating too.”

“So Katrina and Max…” Nicolas murmured.

“Had to pay to get in…” I sighed. “I'll just split mine with them. You guys can keep yours.”

“Before you head in, each of you need to take one of these stones.” The third guard, a dwarf man, spoke up, and passed out four quarter-sized smooth stones. “When the exercise starts your stone will be inscribed with an X or an I. If you get an I, it's your job to help instigate the brawl.”

“Also,” the scarred one added. “No lethal force. The brawl is excused but if you attempt to kill without good reason, you'll find yourself in a cell before Zyto's reapers claim the life you ended. Your weapons will be taken on your way in and locked up until the exercise is over.”

“A good reason being?” I asked, grabbing the stones. 

“An idiot tries to kill you first,” the second guard answered. 

“Fair enough… are we free to go in…?” The senior guard gave a curt nod and waved us to go ahead.

 

 

---

Threat Analysis Summary of detected entities :

Current form(Individual Combat):

Non-threats: 1,349

low-threats: 135

Moderate threats: 82

High threats: 23

Parameters: Non-lethal combat, Possible improvised weapons.

 

‘Dammit, not what I meant,’  I grumbled as I led the others away from the competitors’ entrance towards a wall-less faux tavern set up in the middle of the arena. 

“Never thought it was so easy to make dragons nervous,” Eris laughed softly as she nudged me. 

“Is it that obvious?”

“When you're messing with that collar like that, it is~”

“It's a necklace…” I corrected, pulling the hand I didn't realize was there away from it. “I really don't like attention like this, I didn't think it was this big of a thing…” I motioned to the quarter-full stands around us. She grinned at me, obviously wanting to tease more.

“What spell did you cast?” Saerrei asked, bounding up along-side me with a curious look on her face.

‘You're already in a better mood, you really don't like being inside, do you? “Not really a spell, but I was checking how dangerous the others were but I got everyone in the Colosseum… I didn't realize our magic sense picked up on that too…”

“We can do that?” Nicolas asked.

“Use Inspect enough and you'll get Threat Analysis on people and creatures, that's how I got it.” I shrugged. “Apparently you have to be specific or it reminds you there's fifteen hundred people around you…” 

“I… I didn't need to know that either…”

“You two,” Eris laughed. “We're going to be famous someday, what are you going to do when we get there?”

“-waiting! Someone crack open some of the barrels already!” A boisterous voice bellowed ahead, alerting me that we've arrived at the ‘tavern’ along with the rest of the noise.

“You're really looking forward to that,” I sighed before walking around the door erected at the edge of the area and starting my search for a place for us to sit. ‘Three spots there… two there… another three… hard to focus with all this noise…’

“Of course I am. If I get famous I wouldn't be expected to attend parties for my family in a stupid dress.”

“A party that you forced us to attend too,” I pointed out. “And what says that we won't be invited to parties if we're famous adventurers too?”

“I could get out of wearing a full dress at least…”

“I don't think it would be that bad with what you showed me, I think you'd look great in it,” Nicolas said and her face quickly turned red.

“I-it’s not about h-how I'd look in it…” she stammered. I smiled a little and went back to looking for a spot for us. “I-I just don't like being forced to wear a full one.”

“Alright, Alright, don't start the riot quite yet! I'll get the beer flowin’." Shouted a tattooed, burly human man with a lion's mane of sandy blond hair and full viking style beard to match, vaulting over the bar. Thanks to that sudden movement, I spotted an empty five-chair table right near the bar. I led the other three to it as a cheer erupted around us and grabbed a seat. Saerrei seemingly made sure she grabbed the one next to me and Eris and Nicolas on the opposite side of us.

“They were getting impatient,” I observed as I watched the viking drive a tap into one of the barrels stacked behind the bar with just his hand and a crowd rush to get a tankard of beer for themselves.

“There’s no way we're getting one right now,” Eris grumbled, resting her head on her hand.

“Probably not,” I agreed with a shrug. Now that we were seated, I took the time to pass the stones that the guard gave us out to the others. “It's probably the cheap stuff, though, princess, bet it doesn't even taste that good.”

“I… don't see the appeal of that drink,” Saerrei murmured. “Smells and tastes awful.”

“You didn't have to come,” Eris laughed. “Or did you do it because her harem didn't?”

“W-what?” The dragoness yelped, shyly pulling her hood down more. “I-I only came for the money, l-like I said…”

‘She's gotten way too brave with teasing dragons from me letting her do it to me,’ I thought. ‘She's lucky that Saerrei is calm for the most part…’

“Why did I have to then?” Nicolas asked.

“Because this is going to be fun and I wasn't going to let you miss out on it,” the fighter grinned at him.

“I probably would have just as much fun watching you from up there with Katrina and Max.”

“You're probably the main one that thinks fighting all the time is fun,” I pointed out, watching the crowd at the bar start to thin out.

“You're the one who picked this,” the noblewoman countered with a smile. 

“Because I wanted to hit something that wouldn't get me in trouble.” I grumbled and stretched a bit as I looked around the ‘tavern’. ‘Might as well try Threat Analysis again… this time only in this small area… um 50ft max?’

 

Threat Analysis Summary of detected entities (50ft):

Current form(Individual Combat):

low-threats: 35

Moderate threats: 17

High threats: 8

Parameters: Non-lethal combat, Possible improvised weapons.

 

‘The Moderate and high are probably us, the one B-rank, and the other Cs…’

“Sure, you seemed to have fun killing the draugr.”

“Because we made a competition of it, and they were undead. I didn't feel bad about killing them.” Behind her, I caught sight of some of the adventurers that already got drinks were downing them with reckless abandon. “Ugh there's going to be a second wave… I'm going to go up and get us some…” I looked at the fighter and lowered my voice “Eris, don't poke the dragon more while I'm gone.” 

“You're no fun,” she giggled.

“I’m getting you a drink, you can make do without teasing her.” I insisted, standing up and grabbing my stone just in case it started while I was up and stuffed it in a pocket. As I turned to go join the shrinking crowd by the bar, I swore I saw Saerrei stick her tongue out at Eris for a brief moment but I chose not to address it.

‘Ok, high threats are my biggest concern, need to find them so I can point them out to the others…’ I glanced around as I waited for my turn. A good quarter of the other participants were stereotypical barbarian types, 6ft plus (the non-dwarven ones) and burly if they were men and the few other women were best described as amazonian, and any one of them could be the high threats I was looking for. ‘Really don't want to check forty people individually…’

 

Highlighting highest threats.

 

‘Oh, so now you can interpret what I wanted?’ I quickly spotted seven of the people I was looking for with Inspect’s help, now with a red aura around them. Most were on the other side of the ‘tavern’ and were among the ones I had suspicions of being the threats. Some of them, however, I wasn't even considering yet. Saerrei was also highlighted but it was flickering on and off for her. ‘Where's the last one? They have to be here somewhere…’

“Well, well, what do we have here?” An annoyingly familiar voice said behind me right before an orange-furred arm went around my shoulder in a way-too friendly way, “It's the bitch in heat.”

‘God dammit.’ I growled and looked towards my other shoulder to find the Rakshasa who first hit on me two weeks ago leaned over it. Thankfully he wasn't the missing threat I was looking for. “You have two seconds to let go or I'm starting this riot by tossing you.”

“Just as friendly as before,” the tiger-man chuckled as he stood back up to his full height, towering over me, keeping a firm hand on my shoulder. “Where's the runt you were with before? Finally ditch him and came here to find a real man?”

“He's watching.” I snapped as I turned and swatted his hand away. My heart sank when I saw that gnoll that was shaking down Saerrei was right behind him.

“Hey, Red. Remember me?” She cackled with a toothy grin. 

“You met her too?” The other beastfolk asked.

“Cost me a mark, still owes me that.” 

“Figures you'd be in a thieves guild….” I growled softly at the tiger. 

“You want in? Play nice and I might put in a good word.” He replied.

“Fuck. Off.” 

“Careful, Meti, she has magic,” The gnoll warned.

“So do I, doesn't scare me. And I know how to handle a fiesty bitch,” he gave a lecherous grin as he got in my face. 

“Has this worked on any girl, cat?” I snarled, contemplating spraying his face with my fire. 

“A few. None as fiesty as you, though.” He kept that ridiculous smile as he made the mistake of hooking a claw under my necklace. Rage flared in me and in an instant, he wasn't in my face anymore and the knuckles of my right hand had a dull pain radiating out from them. 

“Don't you fucking touch it!” I hissed as I watched him sit up with a bloodied lip where I dropped him. I could feel my personal napalm dripping from the corners of my mouth as I stared him down, telling me I was plenty ready to torch him if I wanted.

 I nearly forgot where I was before a distant cheer started up around the stadium, making me look up. I quickly found that the gnoll had grabbed a nearby barstool and was approaching me with a murderous glint in her eyes. Before I could react, a voice boomed from behind the counter:

“Kneel!” The barstool clattered to the ground, followed by the gnoll dropping to her knees. My eyes snapped up to the source of the noise, the viking that volunteered to be bartender, who had both my magic detection and Threat Analysis auras going off around him. “Event hasn't started yet, leave the girl alone.”

‘Shit, didn't think to check him. What was that? Command?’ I tried to subtly spit then stamp out the remaining flaming fluid on the ground.

“She hit me!” Meti snarled, starting to stand up.

“I don't give a damn, I saw what happened and you had it coming.”

“Making friends?” Eris called over. I cast a glare her way and felt my heart sink again when I realized the entire ‘tavern’ was staring at me, silent. Some distant boos echoed from the stands as some audience members seemed to get disappointed that the brawl didn't start from my action.

“Gods damn it…” I grumbled. My rage shriveled up into a desire to disappear in an instant. I quickly moved to retreat back to my table checking my necklace with my hand to make sure it wasn't damaged.

“Once this starts up, we're coming after you, Red,” Shenzi growled as she struggled to her feet against whatever spell was on her. She roughly grabbed Meti's shirt once she was up and dragged him off to the corner of the arena, with some heckling from the other adventurers about someone my size laying him out like that.

“Hey, girl!” The viking barked and a slight yelp escaped me. I glanced back to him to find that he was giving me a friendly smile. “Forgetting something?” He held up an empty tankard. I took a breath and looked from him back to the relative safety of my table. Nicolas had a sympathetic look on his face, Eris had an amused grin and Saerrei looked like she was contemplating coming over or not.

“Come on, you earned it.” He continued then frowned at the rest of the adventurers. “The rest of ya, as you were until the real show starts.” Slowly the general chatter that filled the area before started back up. I sighed and reluctantly approached the bar. “Helluva arm you got. What's your class and rank?”

“Thanks, I guess…” I replied, watching as he filled the tankard from one of the tapped barrels. Now that I was closer, I could see grey hairs scattered across his mane of hair and beard. “Bloodrager, C-rank”

“Ah another barbarian,” he smiled at me and handed the cup over. “Should've figured one of us would throw the first punch.”

“You're one too?”

“Skald.” he answered simply.

‘So he's the B-rank the guards were talking about,’ I looked him over cautiously, ‘He's older, forties maybe early fifties but definitely a threat, probably don't want to fight him when this starts.’

“Ah don't give me that look, I know my class's reputation.” He chuckled. “Nearly as bad as bards, don't worry though, all my affections are for my wife. And seeing how you acted about that,” he pointed at my neck. “I'd bet you're taken too.”

“Yep… it was a gift from my boyfriend and girlfriend…”

“Two? Brave girl, hope they get along,” his chuckle turned into a laugh. “Careful with that though, could be messy.”

“It's something alright,” I admitted “They're dating too so everything is fine.” I paused. “I don't need to be telling you this though… why am I doing it…?”

“Magical thing about these,” he rapped his knuckles against the bar counter. “Compels all sorts of people to talk as if it's a Zone of Truth. First time for me on this side of it, though.”

“Weird.” I sighed and took a drink from the cup he gave me without thinking. It wasn't great tasting, I still hated the bitter, hoppy taste, but it wasn't as bad as the other times I tried beer. I glanced back towards my friends. “Actually… could I get three more of these please…?”

“Careful there, short stuff. You think you could handle all that?” I looked back at him when he called me that to find him still smiling jovially. I couldn't help but to joke with him as well.

“I could probably drink you under the table, old man, I might be small but even the Dwarven stuff barely works on me. It's for my friends anyways, it's why I came up.”

“Is that a challenge, girl?” He grinned, grabbing and filling three more tankards.

“Could be, if we had better drinks here, Stronger ones, I'm not going to fill up on this stuff just to not feel anything.” 

"True, say if we run into each other outside of this, let's see if you can back up what you claim,” he jokingly suggested as he passed the tankards to me one at a time as he filled them.

“Sounds good to me but I'd probably have my partners with me and my boyfriend is a lightweight.”

“Even more entertainment,” he chuckled.

“Until I have to carry him back to our room.” I carefully picked up the cups by their handles, two in each hand. “Alright, I'm going to bring these back to my friends, and no hard feelings if we have to fight each other”

“Same to you!” He called after me as I carried the drinks back to my table. 

Just as I reached it, though, and before any sarcastic greeting that I knew Eris had waiting for me, the three stones on the table and the one in my pocket vibrated in three short pulses. In the next moment, Xs were inscribed on the ones in front of Eris and a relieved Saerrei. Nicolas, however, went pale as the one in front of him was inscribed with an I.  

‘Shit, just had to start now.’

Cheering erupted from the crowd soon after chaos did on the other side of the “tavern”

“Look at what you did.” Eris teased as she snatched up the stone with the I on it. “I'll take that~”

“What? Me?” I asked as I set the drinks down to fish out my stone. Thankfully, I found that mine also had an X.

“Yes you, you got everyone excited so they probably started it early.”

“Are you ok, by the way?” Nicolas asked, watching the fighter as she chugged her beer.

“I wish I didn't have a stadium full of people staring at me when it happened but yeah I'm fine. Felt kind of good to hit him like that honestly,” I answered, cautiously watching the brawl spread and sipping my own drink. The audience certainly made their entertainment known by the increased cheering. 

“Should we get involved in this?” Saerrei murmured, sniffing at her cup, making a face and setting it back down.

“Eh… let it come to us. There's a few to look out for that are dangerous so-” I trailed off as I saw Eris pull her arm back and chuck her empty tankard across the “tavern”, striking the back of the head of one of the participants, a large barbarian-looking man. “Really? Eris.”

“What?” She laughed, flashing the stone with the I on it. “It's my job to start shit.”

“He's twice your size and coming this way now...” Our cleric pointed out.

“What was your plan?” I pressed.

“Dragon backup,” she grinned. I sighed and glanced back at the incoming combatant. 

“Uh-huh… I think this one might be on-” A flicker of movement caught my attention and I soon found a chair sailing through the air at me. I barely had time to cover my head with my arms before it crashed against me. I once again was thankful for my scales on my forearms acting as natural armor as the impact made me stumble back.

“Hey, Red~!” The hyena's cackle rang out through the noise and my anger flared up again. I dropped my arms back down and quickly spotted her in the middle of the area, shoving a human participant to the side. Saerrei popped up from her seat with a growl right away when she seemingly spotted the gnoll as well.

“Nicolas, Saerrei, help Eris with her issue.” I ordered flatly, starting to walk away from the table.

“What?!” the dragoness protested and quickly caught up with me. “Let me help.”

“Help them. I'm sure Eris is in ov-” I was interrupted by another tankard flying from our table at the same target as before.

“Come on big guy!” The fighter shouted.

“-er her head…” I sighed and kept walking toward my challenger, “She can just look out for herself then. Look out for the tiger, he's around some-”

“Hey, little red!” A man's voice barked nearby, sparking more annoyance in me over getting interrupted again. I looked back in front of me to find that some random human man had intercepted us on our way to Shenzi and he was already squaring up with me. 

“Little busy, someone threw a chair at me and I have a bone to pick with her first.”

“Nah, I want to see how strong you are first, come on, or am I scarier than a Rakshasa?” I looked him up and down incredulously. He was bigger than me, not that hard to be, but definitely not as big as the other humans I pegged as threats. He didn't even have any visible scars on his face or bare arms to show that he had experience fighting in the first place. On an off chance he was dangerous, I ran a quick Threat Analysis on him, just focusing on the last part of the notification.

 

Conclusion: Low threat in current form.

 

“You. Scary?” I scoffed as I made a move to go around him.

“Hey! Don't ignore me!” My head was suddenly wrenched back as my ponytail was snagged. I growled and whipped back around to blindly strike him. Saerrei beat me to it, however. The man was already doubled over from her first hit by the time my eyes focused on them and she was already going in for the second one to the back of his head right behind his ear. That one made him drop to the ground. She beamed up at me adorably as she shook the hand that struck his head.

“Thanks…” I sighed, looking away from her, only to find the gnoll charging at me. “Shit.”

Before we could react, Saerrei was tossed to the side and I was slammed into a table with a hand over my throat. The pain of hitting the table barely registered when a second source of it spread out from under my eye when she struck me with her free hand and made me see stars for a moment. Unfortunately her reach was much longer than mine and I couldn't take a swing at her face in return. Instead I dug my nails into her furry arm. 

“Fulgur ta- urk!” Her hand tightened around my throat before I could finish the spell.

“Not letting you zap me again, little bitch!” She snarled before striking me again. I gave a strangled growl as pain radiated out from my cheek as I watched her draw her arm back again. On instinct, I reached up and ended up intercepting her hand with my own and reminding myself of the results of the last time I used the skill on her: my strength was higher than hers. I felt myself smile a little, despite my pain, as I pulled my legs up then drove my boots hard into her stomach. That is what finally got her to get off of me and slammed her into the next table over. 

“Ok, where's Sae-” a flash of orange and black was sent flying between Shenzi and I, answering my question.

“Stupid cat!” The other dragoness shouted as I looked over at her. Her cloak was missing and she was now sporting a set of four cuts across her upper left arm that suspiciously looked like claw marks. I growled a bit at that observation and tried to track where he was sent, only to find the gnoll after me again.

“Don't worry about your girlfriend just yet!” She cackled and forced me to block another strike headed towards my face with my arm then a second that connected with the scales over my ribs. Slight blunt pain still registered there but she certainly felt it more than I did. “The fuck? You wearing plate under all that?”

“Like I'd tell you, mutt,” I replied. She snarled and tried a right hook that I was able to catch. With the opening, I made her reel back with an uppercut to the chin followed by an elbow to the stomach. I hooked my foot behind one of hers to trip her as she stumbled back and her breath was audibly knocked out of her once she hit the ground.

 Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to figure out a way to remove her from the fight before a sudden hit from the side left me seeing stars yet again as I was sent back into another table. I whipped around to find yet a different human man who decided to take a swing at me with a chair. He was definitely bigger than the last man that challenged me but he wasn't highlighted as one of the high threats. 

“Fucking really?” I quickly changed targets to this new challenger, blocking the return swing and relying on the scales on my arm to protect me from the hit. It still hurt and was hard enough that it slid me to the side a little but it didn't prevent me from returning with a strike to his jaw. However, I didn't expect for him to crumple right then and there and I was left stunned for a moment, looking between him and my slightly sore knuckles. It was a weird combination of satisfaction with myself and disappointment that he wasn't a challenge.

‘Back to Shenzi before she gets up I guess…’ I glanced to where I left the gnoll and cursed when I saw that she was already gone and instead I was starting to become surrounded by other fighters having their own matches,  ‘Dammit, where did they all come from?’ I sighed, lightning crackling in my mouth as I had to dodge a wayward punch. 

Now that the hyena-lady that was determined to beat me into a pulp was missing, hopefully getting her share of a beating with the tiger, I felt myself actually starting to enjoy the melee. Occasionally I still caught the attention of someone who just broke away from their last opponent and thought they could take me on, until I dropped them like the one that sucker-chaired me or if we were equivalent, a third party would eventually get shoved into the middle and break it up into new fighting pairs. 

I still made sure to avoid the ones that still had my Threat Analysis tracking, especially the bartender that was bellowing with laughter somewhere nearby. I ended up backing into someone else near the standalone door at the edge of the area and I whipped around, ready for another bout with someone else, but I found it was the other dragoness. She also seemed ready for a fight but quickly dropped out of her stance and wrapped me up in a hug, making me tense up from her scent coming so close.

“Alex!” She sighed, sounding relieved but still speaking in draconic.  “Sorry, these scaleless kept getting in the way.” She frowned a bit at me. “You're bleeding.”

“Huh?” I freed one of my hands and gently  touched my face, quickly finding cuts on my brow and cheek that were leaking blood down my face “I'm fine. What about you? Your arm looked like it was cut kind of bad…” her face turned red immediately.

“I'm fine. I was just making an observation, I wasn't worried about you. You fought the coastal terror and lived…” she rambled, pulling away from me. “I just wanted to watch you fight more…”

‘They’re right, aren't they? Eris and Kat…’ I thought and scanned the chaos around us. As I did so, one of the other participants started stumbling back toward us after a punch. I quickly grabbed Saerrei and pulled her out of the way of the fighter.

“Eep!” she yelped adorably as she fell against me, the cuteness making my cheeks grow warm beyond the inflammation of my injuries.

‘Dammit, this isn't helping either!’ She quickly pushed herself away from me and pointedly acted like she was paying attention to the chaos around us. There was no doubt that she noticed the man now laying on the ground where she was just standing but chose to ignore him.

“D-don't expect me to thank you for that!”

“Wasn't planning on it…” I said, side-stepping a thrown tankard I narrowly spotted. “Have you seen the other two?”

“Your humans? No,” She lit up from magic detection as she knocked a different man away from us. “The noble is probably fine… not sure about your cleric.”

‘Still sticking to draconic…’ “She's probably protecting him,” I shrugged, glancing around for anyone else that took notice of us. Instead, I noticed a baseball-sized orb of light come to a stop right next to us and another go flying by further into the crowd. ‘Weird… ’ “Hey Saerrei?

“Busy!” the other dragoness responded. My attention went back to her to see that a wolf man had challenged her. I tried to step forward to help, but that is when my vision was suddenly filled with white light. Surprised yells came from all over, revealing that others were caught in the flash, including Saerrei, who I heard cursing in draconic.

“Rookville guard! Surrender now or we will use force and magic!” A gruff voice barked somewhere behind me over by where I last remembered the odd door was standing.

‘Oh… almost forgot this was an exercise for the guard…’ I thought with a grumble, rubbing my eyes and trying to blink my vision back. ‘Fuck, was that a magic flashbang or something??”

“Fuck you, pig!” a different voice yelled back and a new round of chaos started.

‘Things don't change do they? Always someone who hates the cops… or are they playing into this exercise? Agh… should I comply or play into it too??’ A rough hand suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

“Make this- !” A man's voice started to order in my ear but I was already acting on instinct to protect myself. I grabbed the wrist and pulled the attacker against my back, noting that they were much bigger than me, before dropping my shoulder and flipping them over me. The thump their body made hitting the ground confirmed the size difference between us. “Urk!”

“Fucker.” I growled, then as my vision returned, my eyes focused on a minotaur in a guard's uniform on the ground, groaning a bit. ‘Shit I guess I'm playing into it. Oh well, might as well have fun with it…’   I glanced back to where I last saw Saerrei. Her would-be opponent was gone but instead there was another guard, this one human, attempting an ‘arrest’. I rushed up behind him and jumped up onto his back. Recalling  what I was taught years ago, I wrapped my arm around his neck in a ‘v’ and squeezed just tight enough to cut off bloodflow. The other dragoness scrambled away in the ensuing struggle.

“I was waiting for my own chance to get out, you know!" She huffed, just watching as the guard flailed and tried to tug my arm away but I just kept it locked in with my other arm.

“You're welcome,” I grunted in reply while focusing for the next few seconds to stay on the struggling man. As soon as he dropped, I let go, not wanting to actually hurt him.

“We have a strong one, second row from door, short redhead,” the minotaur groaned and my attention snapped back to him on the ground. He was speaking into something in his hand. Saerrei noticed as well and quickly snatched it away.

“Sending stone,” she sighed.

“Shit, now they're probably looking for me.” I groaned, glancing around. The scene was a lot different than before the flash. There were guards everywhere, still outnumbered by participants, but they seemed to be more interested in fighting them instead of each other. Interestingly, I spotted the ‘bartender’ among the others with one guard in a headlock and decking another with his free hand but he was on the far end from us. ‘He still looks like he's having fun’  A pair of pops behind me snapped me out of my thoughts and I glanced back to find a couple guards armed with staves standing there.

“This one gave you trouble, Akadios?” One, a rabbitfolk man, asked incredulously as he leveled his staff at me. My hand automatically went to the handle of the practice longsword I've failed to have drawn so far.

“She's stronger than she looks, knocked out Jason.” the minotaur grunted as he got back to his feet. “The training is more for you green officers than myself.”

“Oh so you aren't going to try again?” I joked, watching the mages. ‘So the veterans are mixed in looking for challenges for the rookies…’

“I'll step in-”

“We won't need the old man's help,” the other mage, a human woman, interrupted.

“So be it. I'll just keep the other ‘perps’ away until you have this handled.” He stretched, putting a hand on his back, probably the spot that hit the ground the hardest earlier. “Don't hold back you two.” It was hard to tell if he was talking to us or his younger officers. He quickly grabbed his sending stone back from Saerrei and went over to check on the guard I choked out.

“Martials are easy, still don't know why we need this,” The rabbit laughed, bringing my attention back to the mages. “Just make this easy and let us take you in.”

‘You’re cocky…’ Saerrei and I glanced at each other, her face showing she was thinking the same. 

“Looks like that's a no, guess we'll make it quick. Persona ad lapidé, ” a circle of runes appeared at the end of his staff and matching ones appeared under both of us, ethereal chains floating up from the edges. Before we could act, the chains snapped in a coil around us… and promptly shattered, the spell fizzling out.

“Was that supposed to do something?” I asked.

“Why didn't that work??” He yelped. “Hold Person always worked in training…” His confusion gave Saerrei and I a chance to rush the two of them. The rabbit yelped again and blinked out of existence right as I reached for his staff in an attempt to disarm him. The woman wasn't nearly as quick and Saerrei was able to blast her back into a table with a gust of air. While I watched the other dragoness follow her opponent, I heard another pop behind me and the rabbit speak again. “Fulgur tactus!”

I turned around in time to see him thrust his crackling staff in my direction. Without thinking I grabbed the end and re-directed it away from hitting me directly. I barely even felt the electricity, it might as well have been static compared to what I hit myself with in the ocean, and his eyes went wide as he realized it didn't really affect me as well. I playfully crackled my lightning in my mouth as I wrenched the staff out of his grasp.

“See her scales? Remember that we were briefed about a dragonspawn being present?” The minotaur called over, amused.

“Hold Person should work on them though!” Annoyingly, he blinked away again right after speaking.

‘Misty step or something… they don't have spell slots here so who knows how many times he can do this…’ I thought as I looked around for where he'd pop back up. As I did so, I noticed that the number of still active adventurers had dwindled quite a bit. The ones that were ‘arrested’ were being taken back to the door on the edge of the ‘tavern’, which was open now and definitely did not just lead to the arena, it was darker on the other side of the threshold as if it led to inside somewhere. Another pop behind me alerted me to my opponent's return. I spun around, the end of his staff low to the ground easily catching his heel and sweeping off his feet. ‘Kind of disappointing how easy this is, then again if Hold Person worked I would have been screwed… wonder why that failed…’

“Dormire!” The guard managed to squeak out.

 

User failed to resist affect, recent damage sustained lowered ability to resist.

 

‘What are you talking about? ’ Heavy fatigue suddenly hit me and I braced myself with the staff. I growled and jumped onto the guard, pinning him down and grabbing the mannacles off of his belt, intending to lock his arms with them “The hell was that?”

“S-shit that didn't work either!” 

“What was it?” I managed to get one of his wrists in the manacles. I didn't get an answer from him before another wave of fatigue hit me and my vision faded.