Duinir found Vect in a nearby restroom pacing back and forth. The place seemed empty save the 2 elves.
"Hey Vect, are you going to be ok?"
Vect whirled around and gave a Duinir a hard stare before sighing and softening his expression. "Maybe....give me a little while...." he looked down at the floor. Duinir slowly walked over to him and put his hand on Vect's shoulder. "You need to talk?"
"I....I wasn't expecting to get this sudden feeling after seeing a dark elf."
"Feelings like anger, hatred, a desire to see them hurt," Duinir asked knowingly.
Surprised Vect met his former teacher's gaze. "Yeah exactly that."
"I know how you feel. I've felt the same way ever since that day," he pulled Vect closer to him in a comforting hug.
"I still miss them."
"Me too."
They heard the sound of the horn signaling the next fight. "We should probably get back, I understand your friend Jack is up next, and you should be there to cheer him on."
When they got back to the arena, Jack was dodge rolling from his opponent's attack. The female naga was about 20 feet long, shorter than Vesper, who was coiled up tightly to take up as little room as possible and was analyzing the fight intently. Her head had a human female face, but was surrounded by a cobra's hood, with a long forked tongue that occasionally flicked out and a pair of long fangs than no doubt were filled with venom. Her black scales shined in the sunlight like obsidian. Jack was bleeding slightly on his unarmored right arm, possibly from one of the 4 scimitars she was holding in each of her 4 arms.
"Sorry what did I miss," asked Vect anxiously as he sat down next to Sara.
"Not too much," responded Vesper, never taking his eyes off the fight. "Jack broke Neisha's bow early on with a quick throwing knife and got 2 hits with his kopesh. However, he hasn't been able to do much else with those 4 scimitars and his buckler getting destroyed."
'Ok, no shield, and I'm our number 2 to 1 in the arms department,' Jack's mind was racing, looking for either an opening or a solution. He glanced at the battered and scratched plating on his left arm. His sword wasn't doing much better, the flurry of attacks he had to party were taking their toll on the metal.
"Just surrender," Neisha Greenscale said, startling Jack from his musings. "You've done good, but you can't beat me here and now. I really don't wanna mess up that cute body of yours," she winked.
"Uh..." he blushed.
Up in the stands, Celine could feel Lelu seated next to her tense up and growl slightly. 'Huh, I guess her hearing is just as good as mine,' she thought.
Jack shook his head to try and compose himself. "Sorry, but giving up isn't an option. I need to see how I measure up to everyone else."
The naga shrugged. "Ok if you insist," she stowed away 2 of her scimitars and began to cast a spell. She pointed at Jack and shouted: "shatter." A flash of light and a sound of breaking glass later, and Jack opened his eyes to see the broken handle of his kopesh in his hand. His armour had broken off in places, and his clothing didn't fare much better as it was in tatters.
Jack kept his eyes fixed on his broken weapon, speechless. Then his shock turned to anger, he reached to his belt and began hurling throwing knives as quickly as possible. The naga was able to parry some of the projectiles, but a number got through her defenses. One lucky shot hit her wrist and caused her to Yelp and throw her scimitar by accident, landing a few feet away. Jack took his chance and dove for the weapon, rolling with the landing and come up in a crouch facing the angry ranger.
"Looks like I'm not out of this fight yet," he smirked.
"Ha. Cute and funny. I like you," she flirted.
Back in the stands, Celine slid away from Lelu as the latter's jealousy grew.
Jack hated to reveal the surprise he had planned for Vect when they were to fight, but he didn't have much choice. He reached into one pouch and retrieved a small reddish- brown orb a little smaller than a lemon and threw it at the (feet? Naga's don't have legs) of Neisha. Is broke on impact and sent up a redish- brown gas cloud around the naga. She coughed as she inhaled some of the gasses. "Poison? only the most potent can affect my race."
"True, but it's not poison."
Neisha caught something on one of her scimitars and turned her attention to it. The metal was rapidly rusting before her eyes.
"Breath of rust monster orb. Very useful....and very expensive," he sulked.
Neisha took her remaining 3 scimitars and threw them as far away from the cloud as she could to save them knowing she wouldn't clear the cloud herself fast enough. Her breastplate crumbled to dust in seconds along with the buckles on her belt, quiver and buttons on her shirt. She was left with just her unbuttoned tunic, offering a decent view of her cleavage. She blushed when she realized how exposed she was and used one set of hands to hold her shirt closed. She quickly slithered forward, sending several fire bolts at Jack as she went. Jack narrowly rolled out of the way of one when he felt the coolness of scales wrapping around him. He had the sword knocked away with a quick tug by Neisha's tail. He felt her coils slowly tightening around him, making it harder to breathe. "Yield. Please yield." She pleaded as she tightened her grip. "No." She tightened a little more. Jack tried with all his strength to push out, but her tail was much stronger. She leaned in close. "You did well, don't push yourself further."
He only shook his head in reply. Neisha could feel his ribs beginning to give out, the lowest pair already breaking. Jack couldn't get any air and blacked out.
Jack heard voices and slowly opened his eyes, realizing he was in a bed.
"Oh look. The dumbass is awake," said the tending healer. "If you'd just surrendered, I wouldn't have had to heal you." He got up and left. Jack glared at him as he left, then swept his eyes across the room at his gathered friends; Vect, Sara, and Lelu. He also saw Neisha in the back avoiding eye contact. He sat up and felt a pain hit his chest and laid back down. "Healer said he didn't want to waste a more powerful spell, so he just gave a moderate spell to make sure your life wasn't in danger," explained Sara. Lelu threw herself at her injured boyfriend, almost crushing him herself accidentally with a hug. He withdrew quickly when Jack yelled at her to get off.
"The rejuvenation spell the healers gave you should speed up your recovery, but you'll still be out for a day or two. 'Teach him to know when to quit' were his exact words," said Vect. "What was that brown cloud thing anyway?"
Jack chuckled slightly then winced from the pain it caused his taped up ribs. "A rust monster breath grenade. Cost me 500 gold and a favor for the one. I was gonna use it for our fight Vect if I needed it. Guess I won't be now," he stared at the ceiling. Vect tilted his head to one side. "Against me?"
"Yeah, put your sword out of commission for a little while, you tend to rely on it a bit."
"While I'm not thrilled about you planning to break my favorite weapon, I'm going to burst your bubble here. It wouldn't have worked anyway." He crossed his arms.
Jack looked at Vect curiously. "Why not?"
Vect lifted the wrapped weapon from his back and held the unwrapped item in front on him one handed, causing Neisha's jaw to drop at his strength. "Because its enchanted firstly, and secondly its silver." As if to emphasize his point, the blade seemed to shine brighter in the light for a moment.
"So?"
"Silver doesn't rust. It might tarnish on the surface slightly, but it won't rust."
Jack lay back down and sighed. "Oh well."
"Plus if you did break it, I'd punch you so hard, your ribs would be the least of your worries."
"He's got a mean hook I can vouch for," Sara felt her jawline.
"I really am sorry about that," Vect apologized again.
Sara smiled. "It was a fair fight and besides..." she grabbed Vect's rear, "you can make it up to me tonight."
Vect began turning red as all eyes were on him now.
Neisha slithered up to Jack and placed the hilt of the broken sword beside him.
The naga looked down sheepishly. "Sorry, I kinda went overboard. Magic isn't very easy for me to control. Guess I should have paid more attention when I was going through the bard school."
"Wait, you play," asked Sara.
"Yep, flute and lute." She crossed both pairs of arms proudly.
"Where is everyone else?"
"They're waiting for Vesper's fight to begin."
"You should probably go join them. I'll meet up with you at the hotel."
"I'll stay with Jack," Lelu stated.
The 2 left leaving Neisha, Lelu, and Jack alone.
"I'll try to make it up to you," she said. "Was it sentimental? You looked devastated when it broke."
"Nah, I just liked using it. I'd never seen a weapon like it before and wielding it felt right you know?"
"In my home it is a common weapon. You should visit it sometime. It's warm almost year round."
Lelu raised an eyebrow at her.
"I should probably apologize for the flirting. I didn't realize you were someone else's." She glanced at Lelu cautiously. "She kindly filled me in on your relationship while you were out."
"You didn't know so I can't fault you for that I guess. I do want to hear you play if that's possible. You could join us tonight at the tavern," Lelu offered.
Neisha seemed to think on it for a bit before accepting the offer.
"I should probably go back to the arena, I don't wanna miss the next fight."
Lelu called after her. "You know I hear Vesper is single if you're interested."
Neisha seemed to pause for a moment before continuing on. 'Oh really.' She pondered.