SpoilerIf you want more to read, sider joining my Patreon! Or chey other inal works, Love Crafted (An iive story about a cute eldritch abominatioag things) or Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk magical girl story!) amon Bun (a wholesome LitRPG!) or Fluff (A superheroic LitRPG about cute girls doing cute things!)

  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Five - Altering the Deal

  “Have you been a, um, fighter for long?” I asked one of the big amazon-looking women.

  She sighed and turned away from me. “Talk to me once you’ve cut your teeth, kid,” she said.

  “I cut things with my teeth just fine!” I pouted, but there were plenty of others to chat to. I skipped over to the shadow-y-est part of the room. “Hello!” I said to the two people in dark cloaks hiding in the dark. “You guys look really sneaky. That’s cool!”

  They turowards each other, then edged deeper into the shadowed recesses of the room.

  Well, okay, that retty clear message.

  I rocked bad forth on the balls of my feet and took in all the people in the room getting ready to fight. Some were stretg, others were standing and chatting in low tones. Some seemed to be praying or slowly going through katas or practig with some magic, motes of mana swirling around them. A few of the calmer ones were reading or quietly smokio a window that en a crack.

  The crowds outside were gettied. I could hear the pop-pop of fireworks and what I suspected was Zac stoking the crowd into an uproar.

  I ted about sixty or so people across three rooms that were joiogether by some corridors. There was a fourth room, a sort of armoury, but it was guarded by a pair of big guys who only let people in for a minute or so before they exited with a on.

  Was I supposed to grab ooo?

  “Okay you nitwits!” someone called.

  I turo find a chubby man in a long coat standing by the door, arms in the air to catch people’s attention.

  “You should know how this works by now. But for our newers, and those of you who got too pstered and fot, let me expin right quick. We’re doing this by brackets. You get called up, you exit. A guard will bring you to your side of the arena. Zac says some hings about how pretty your eyes are, and you wave to the crowds. Make a show of it. Then it’s oage and when the bell tolls, you handle yressioween each other. You hear?” he asked.

  There was a mumble of assent. I nodded along. It sounded simple enough. I could do it.

  “Now remember, no decapitation!”

  What?

  “Broccoli, Arugu, you two are up!” the man shouted. He spun on a heel and stomped out of the building, the sounds of musid cheering loud for just a moment as the door opened and closed.

  I stood for a moment, feeling just a little faint.

  Then someone big and hard bumped my shoulder hard and I had to step fast not to fall. I looked up to a huge man wearing thick pauldrons and armreeves and little else. “Get going, girl,” he growled at me.

  I swallowed but resisted the temptation to shy away from him. I wasn’t someone just anyone could bully! And just because he was taller than I was... my eyes widened. With my new ears, I was teically taller than he was! I was now at model height!

  I followed Arugu out of the waiting area, then stopped as a wall of sound and sts hit me. There had to be some magic around the door keeping the worst of it out, because the sounds outside were crazy.

  We were behind one of the taller ptforms where rge trunk-sized pieces of wood held up the stalls that were trembling as people cheered. An explosion from above had me looking up in time to see a fireball the size of a house detonating some hundred meters up. Sparks and embers rained down from the sky, winking out a few doze off the ground.

  Then a spiralling pilr of water shot into the air and burst apart, turning into a huge flower for just a moment before the image broke apart.

  A few scattered drops dripped ay face.

  “Miss Broccoli?” a young man with a clipboard asked.

  “Oh, yeah!” I said, snapping my attention back to the ground. It was busy behind all of the crowds. There were little stalls where cooks were w up a frenzy to make little hot-dog like treats and popping . Others were quickly filling some bottles fre wine kegs and giving them to younger people in colourful outfits with bells on who were carrying boxes with priext to them.

  Guards were rushing around, and I saw a group of what had to be mages marg by. I caught a s about ‘magic fres’ and ‘illusions’ before they brushed by.

  “This way, miss!” the young man said. He tapped my shoulder and nodded ahead before he took off.

  I had to jog to keep up.

  I was he sort to get nervous in front of a crowd. In school, whenever we did group stuff, I often got to be the oo present things. I was a bit of arovert sometimes. Still, stepping out from between two of the stadium’s stalls only to see what had to be well over a thousand people standing up and cheering had my heart beating fast and my tummy flip-flopped a few times.

  “Whoa,” I said, but the sound was lost as a familiar voied out from above.

  Standing on a floating ptform lined by runes, with Zac, his outfit looking fresh and his smile radiant as he gestured for the crowd to be quieter. “Everyone! Wele to Rosenbells thirty-sed annual grand tour!”

  If I had thought it loud before, the noise now was ht deafening. I reached up and pulled my bun ears down. It helped a bit.

  The boy with the clipboard pced his hands on my shoulders and guided me to a ramp o the stage. “Go up when he calls you!” he shouted.

  I nodded.

  “Ladies alemen! We are about to begin! We will rotate until all sixty-four of hters across four brackets have cycled through! You will see legends born, blood spilled, arails spread out across the ground!”

  “What?” I asked the clipbuy. He bli me as if he didn’t uand. “I want to keep my entrails,” I expined.

  “Then win!” he shouted back before tapping my shoulder and walking off a half dozen steps.

  I was aloo the stage.

  When the cheering began to calm down a little, Zac gestured to the far end of the stage from me. “Our first brave warrior to ehe arena today! Arugu! The Bloodletter!”

  Arugu jumped onto the stage, spread his arms wide, the his batil he was fag the sky. He roared, a bestial sound that shook the air and that had some of the kids watg squeaking in terror.

  He beat his exposed chest and stomped around in a tight circle screaming to the crowds who screamed right back. He reached behind his belt and pulled out a foot-long piece of wood with a spikey ball at the end. A twist of his hand and the ball fell, only stopping when the braided cord holding it saut.

  He spun the fil around, then smacked it into his own hand. Blood spurted out of his palm, g the fil’s head and spshing onto the ground.

  “Magnifit!” Zac shouted. “It seems Arugu’s thirst for blood knows no bounds!”

  The man on stage wiped a bloody hand across his face, then roared again.

  I had a sudden pressio be elsewhere.

  Then someone shoved me from behind and I stumbled up the ramp and onto the stage. I turned, spotting the clipboard boy wearing a bnk expression as he betrayed me.

  A glowiransparent wall appeared before me, blog me from exiting the arena, then another appeared to one side, theher. Soon there were walls all around and I was stu the stage with a grinning Arugu.

  “Hailing from mysterious nds es today’s stra testant! The Dragons speaker, the happiest Bun in the West! Broccoli Bunch!”

  The crowd cheered.

  I smiled weakly and waved.

  “Aww, isn’t she just adorable?” Zac asked. “Like a bunny smiling at a wolf! Let us see how she fares!

  Arugu poi me with his bloody hand. “I am going to end you!” he shouted.

  “’t we just be friends?” I asked.

  AruguDesired Quality: A pung bag.Dream: To rip an oppo in half before a crowd of horrified onlookers.

  I wao run, but there were walls all around. Arugu didn’t seem keen oiating. I... I had to fight? No, there had to be a time limit. I could drag it out. But that would be hard. Really hard.

  But I could do it! People would see that I didn’t wanna fight, and they’d stop it!

  “Begin!” Zac shouted.

  I stared up at the man. Wasn’t he meant to expin the rules? To rile up the crowd some more?

  It was only the crowd screaming that gave me the time to react. I dove to the side, barely avoiding the head of the fil as it swiped through where I’d just been.

  Arugu twisted around and his fil spun a quick orbit around him to e whipping back at me. I hopped over the swing, then nded and rolled as far from the man as I could.

  “Just stand still!” he roared.

  Swallowing, I back up towards the middle of one wall, then tapped it with a closed fist. It was as hard as stone, but slicker.

  No good.

  Arugu ran at me, charging headlong like a mad bull. I jumped up, pnted a foot on his head, and skipped over him to nd in the middle of the arena. The extra shove at the back u’s head sent him sprawling into the wall with a dull thud.

  The crowd roared with ughter.

  “Oh hoh! The bunny is mog Arugu! Is he too weak for her tastes?” Zac asked. “We only hope that the man caught an eyeful from uhat pretty skirt in passing!”

  I gred up at Zac. That man was rude.

  My gre turned into wide-eyed shock as Arugu turned and came rushing back at me. His fil was glowing now.

  I spun out of its path, then gasped as I watched the head smato the ground so hard it left a crater. Some sort of fil skill? Oh, that wasn’t good.

  “Are your friends watg, little bunny?” Arugu growled as he began to pace around me, he held his fil by the rope, spinning in around and around with helicopter-beats.

  A gnce up and to the side showed Amaryllis, Awen and Booksie standing by the edge of their box. They looked worried.

  “I wonder, will they be disappoihat you’re so weak?” He grinned. “I could make it easy for you. No more dodging, just me, and your blood, and this arena covered in it.”

  I tightened my jaw. “You don’t want to be my friend, do you?” I asked.

  Arugu snorted. “Sure I do. You bee friends with my fil.”

  I felt a frown pulling my brows together. “No. That’s not what friendship is like. And this isn’t what I thought these fights would be like.”

  “Oh, did you think they’d be fun and ga--” Arugu paused mid word to lunge forwards, his fir a glowing lihat tried to ect with my gut.

  I danced around the head, spun closer tu, stepped around a poorly aimed kick, then ducked under an attempt to grab me by the throat. Another few quick steps and I was behind and past him. The crouded whooped and hollered.

  “Fine, I’ll show you that we fight, and have fun at the same time,” I said. “It might hurt a little, but there won’t be anything too bad. It’s like sparring, kinda,”

  Arugu rushed at me again.

  I shook my head. The man cked imagination, that was his biggest problem. Maybe I could show him a few tricks?