As Lelu walked out into the arena, reflecting on Shaman Gratz's advice to her.
"I recommend you don't transform for this tournament. You may tell the registration officials, but should you show everyone in the audience your form be prepared for trouble. Many have lost a loved one to a feral werewolf and you might become the surrogate to their wrath. I know it seems wrong to hide what you are, but they don't know you yet. Good luck."
She strode out into the arena head held high. Her leather armor shown through the open mages robe she wore, the cloth tailored to fit her larger size from when she first arrived at the camp.
'Its strange,' she thought, 'how small it still feels.' Looking down at her hand and arm, she flexed her arms and felt the cloth hug her bulging biceps. 'I've changed so much since I was here last. Since i last fought you.' She looked up from her hand and narrowed her eyes at the opponent approaching from the opposite end.
Taegan Sutton walked calmly from the west entrance confidently. The man was clad head to toe in platemail armour, a kite shield strapped to his left and a longsword hung at his hip. In the intervening year he had appeared to have etched some runes into the design, what for Lelu couldn't say. Through the dark eye holes in the helm, she could see Taegan's eyes staring back intently. Even though she knew she had improved significantly since last time, Lelu felt a twinge of fear as she eyed her opponent. They stopped a few feet from each other in the center of the arena.
"Well, well, well. I see you've been busy this past year. Very nice," Taegan said, sounding amused. His platemail shined in the evening light.
Lelu didn't respond, only stared at him in anger for the humiliation he gave her last year.
"I can wait to see if you'll give me a little challenge this time." He drew his sword and readied his shield. "That leather will be a little harder to cut off than that tunic you wore last time," he taunted.
Lelu felt that little bit of instinct she had begin to surface as she bared her teeth and growled.
And then the horn sounded. Surprisingly, neither one immediately began to attack. Instead the 2 circled each other, waiting for the other to initiate. Finally Lelu made the first move and threw a fireball at the man. Before it reached him however, the fire fizzled out and disappeared before it even reached its target.
The armoured figure began to laugh hysterically, the armour causing his voice to echo unsettlingly. "Evidently you still didn't learn anything from the last time we played. Well, I'll just have to rededicate you." He began to walk forward confidently. Lelu sent multiple different spells flying at the man, all of them fizzled out when they got close.
Up in the stands Gabriel turned to Theodore Milton questioningly. "Wanna fill me in here?"
Milton sighed. "It seems that this Taegan Sutton can nullify any spell sent at him. It's not his armour from what I've heard. Its him. The armour is just his insurance from any attack that might get through his defenses. Divine or mana based, he stops it. Lord Dupree is calling him a prodigy. The boy has beaten many of his seniors in single combat. A few nobles are already vying for him to join them as a personal guard. What's more, he utterly humiliated miss Lelu last year by toying with her and using his weapon to 'accidentally' cut off her clothing in front of everyone. Whatever she learned up north, we'll soon see it in action."
Lelu gave up casting spells and ran forward in a sudden dash, hoping that he would let down his guard as he advanced on her supposedly ineffective spells. Suddenly his shield appeared between them, stopping her punch. "Ooo. Too slow." She jumped away when he pushed her away with his shield. He stabbed with his longsword missing her leg barely, however she felt strangly uneasy at the weapon's close proximity. She jumped back further to put some distance between them. As he closed the distance, armour clanking as he moved, Lelu kept forward and tried to find an opening. His shield met her right punch, and flat of his blade deflected the left. He then kicked her stomach and pushed her away. As she stumbled, she felt a burning in her left thigh. She saw the red on his blade and knew he had gotten in a hit, but it felt like acid was poured into the wound.
"Awww, did that sting a little?" He gave a casual flourish of his blade. "Never seen smoke come from a wound before. You allergic to silver," his question almost seemed concerned, but then the arrogant tone returned, "ahh, no matter. I'll finish this soon enough." He swung again, cutting down the center of Lelu's leather chest piece as she tried to dodge the strike.
She recovered from her maneuver and took a moment to examine the damage, seeing a clear view of between her breasts down to her navel, then raised an eyebrow at Taegan. "Really? You are such a pervert." She then began to grin. "Well it's not going to work this time." She removed her robe and tossed it aside. This seemed to stagger Taegan for a moment. Lelu heard some hoops and hollering from the stands as she then removed her ruined chest piece and tossed it aside letting everyone see her. Lelu had found clothing to be so much trouble ever since her encounter with the werewolves, but she wore it for everyone else's benefit.
"Uhh, I wasn't expecting you to remove it yourself. Now it's no fun."
She only lunged forward, feeling free as she attacked. As the shield blocked 2 punches, she kicked, hitting his helm with a resounding clang. The knight-in-training stumbled as the sound reverberated for a few seconds. Lelu's foot hurt slightly, but her satisfaction at his misery eclipsed it. She sought to capitalize on her success and plunged her left hand spikes into the gap between his breastplate and arm. He grunted at the impact, a small trickle of blood began to pour out of the wound. As Lelu retracted her arm however Taegan brought his shield up and prevented her from withdrawing. His laugh began to echo out of his helmet unsettlingly.
"Good work, but its over." He then thrust his sword into her stomach and twisted, adding her cries of pain to his elation.
Lelu awoke to the feeling of her skin being pulled back together by the cleric on hand.
"Ow," was all she could muster at that moment.
"Try not to speak, you've had a busy day," said the cleric calmly.
"What happened?"
"Before or after he had you pinned? That seemed when you lost control."
Her questioning look answered for her.
"After Mr. Sutton ran you through you screamed for a bit, but then went lax. Then you took your other bracer spike and stabbed into one of his eye slits. He let you go and then the pair of you went at it again and again for a few minutes. Both of you were battered and bloody, but it was you that collapsed from blood loss in the end. He is in another room being treated mainly for the damaged eye. He will get full use by tomorrow, and you might be able to leave by tonight. Your friends came by while you were out."
"Thank you."
"Just part of the job. I'm done here, try to get some rest and you should be right as rain by tonight."
(Final results: Winners: Freed, Vect, Mai, Celine, Vesper, Irann, Neisha, Taegan.)