Rita strut into the room and stood right before Melinda with a smirk until she seemed to notice something different about her,

"Your eyes, your hair..." Rita began with a gasp.

"Story for another time. Why did you barge in?" Melinda asked with a smirk of her own.

Rita cleared her throat and released the pressure of her cultivation base to reveal that she had finally broken through to the mid-stage of the Cosmic Armament Realm.

"Suck it. Haha. Who's the genius now?"

Rita was incredibly jubilant and just like the 'cruel' woman she was, Melinda did not bring her down to earth until she was completely lost in the joy of accomplishment.

Rita turned to Hal who had simply changed his position on the bed and watched the proceedings,

"So what do you think?" She asked him.

Hal smiled,

"Very impressive"

*Rustle*

Melinda stood from the bed and out of the sheets to stand in front of her self-proclaimed rival naked as she could be.

Rita looked her up and down and saw that whatever had caused changes in Melinda's eye color and hair length had made some subtle changes in her other features.

Melinda on the other hand was a little surprised that Rita was not that far off from her in terms of beauty. She had obviously been refining Hal's essence while Melinda had been unconscious.

Just as she was not ashamed to stand before Rita naked she was also secure enough to accept that as far as beauty went, Rita was top-notch.

With one hand on her waist, Melinda let out the pressure of her cultivation to show, -to Rita's dismay-, that she was also at the mid-stage of the Cosmic Armament Realm.

Rita was downhearted for barely a second before she said,

"Then there's only one way to settle this"

"And what would that be?" Melinda asked

"A duel. Or more like a practice spar"

Melinda folded her arms below her breasts and took a deep breath as though she was pausing to consider it but Hal knew she had already decided to accept,

"As wonderful as a spar between the two of you will be, I think it's only fair I point out Melinda now has full control of her Bloodline hence the eye and hair changes"

Hal told in a leisurely manner but Rita just smiled,

"It doesn't matter. That's the whole point. Whatever she uses, I'll still win"

"That's some impressive confidence you've got. Not to worry though I don't plan on making use of my Bloodline unless you push me too hard and I doubt you can"

Melinda said with a smile as she put on a lotus patterned tight-fitting clothes that did not constrain her movements.

"Mmph. We'll see"

Rita snorted and walked out of the room but not before blowing a kiss to Hal who was still lounging in the bed with his hands behind his head.

There was a tent firming under the sheets,

"Is it weird that the thought of you two battling it out combined with your quick trash talk is turning me on?" He said with a mild chuckle.

"Not in the slightest" Melinda shrugged with a smile and she left the room as well.

Hal put on robes as well and went after them. On the way, he met Marla who followed to watch the duel.

"Are you feeling good about this duel?"

Marla asked as they walked to the courtyard where the duel would take place.

Hal chuckled at the thought that said courtyard had only just been fixed but it would most likely be damaged again.

"If they want to duel, they should. What I feel is barely consequential in the scheme of things. And I have to admit, it would be interesting to watch."

Marla nodded with a smile. She had spent her time in the Time warped Chamber attempting to form her Cosmic Pearl and finally advance to the Cosmic Pearl realm. She was much closer now but doubted she could breakthrough in one go so she took a break.

The ladies from Pleasure inn, most especially Camilla and Irina had busied themselves with advancement. It seemed as though Marla's speech had a suitable effect.

In the courtyard...

Both ladies faced off with smiles ever-present, if not for the obvious tension in the air, you would have thought they were sharing the good news.

Although that wasn't far off, after all, they had both advanced to the mid-stage of the Cosmic Armament realm and that also counted as good news.

"Practice swords?" Melinda asked with a smile.

"Nope"

Rita replied and summoned her Cosmic Armament, a Sky-blue longsword.

"Oh so this is the serious kind of duel"

Melinda said with a nod and summoned her Cosmic Armament as well.

If Rita was intimidated by the crisscrossing golden veins on the white Sword, she let nothing show.

Hal sealed the courtyard off with an array and provide them with total privacy.

As he watched the two flex their weapons, Hal was sure he was not going to find their duel as comfortable as he had beforehand thought or maybe even hoped.

There was such intensity in their stare that he knew this was going to be, by all counts, serious. The only thing they would not go for is the kill.

"Whoever wins will get Hal for a week. No interference from the loser. What do you think?" Melinda said with a smile

"Sounds reasonable" Rita nodded with a smile.

"Hold on. This all seems well and good but don't use me as a price. It seems more like you are punishing me"

Hal said and all three ladies turned to him,

"How so?" Marla asked the question that they all wanted to ask.

"You are not just cutting the loser off, you are cutting me off too, Regardless of who wins," Hal said with a shrug.

How could they even suggest such a thing, he would not be denied of his beauties regardless of the result of their ego.

All three of them nodded. It seemed reasonable.

"Then bragging rights?" Rita asked.

Melinda nodded before adding "...and dominance over the other in a future threesome or moresome"

"Nice" Rita said with a glint in her eyes...

*Bam!*

...before she dashed forward at Melinda who watched her quick approach and smirked.

Melinda swung her sword, seemingly in an offhand manner but made contact with Rita's as the two were quickly at a standoff with blades crossed.

"Did you think you could catch me off guard?"

Melinda laughed at how ludicrous it seemed to her for Rita to even contemplate such an obvious impossibility.

"It was worth a try. Dominating you in bed while Hal thrusts his wonderful cock into my hungry snatch is much too high stakes for me to not be impulsive"

Rita smirked and pushed Melinda back so that the two separated but were still very balanced. Before long they were crossing blades again...

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

There was an obvious difference in both of their styles. Melinda's movement and thrust were warlike. They carried a hint of brutality and a drive to dominate her opponent.

She had been taught by a male but had added her unique flair.

Every swing of her sword seemed light and casual but when they made contact, the strain on the opponent's hand, in this case, Rita's, made it obvious that they packed maximum force.

Even though the moves were meant to be brute, she executed them with impressive grace that Rita could not help but admire.

Speaking of Rita...

Her moves were completely different. She did not fight with Melinda's style of brutality but a tricky and wily type.

She was the kind of opponent you always needed to keep an eye out for.

Her attacks were never direct and her feints were not always obvious, but when they hit their mark, they carried lethality and Melinda did not doubt that had this fight been to the death it would have carried fatality as well.

Even as the two danced and made jabs at each other's body parts, it was clear that Rita had marked her targets which were mostly spots that would incapacitate her opponent and end this swiftly.

On the other hand, Melinda was taking it as a marathon, one in which to deal the maximum amount of damage while simultaneously weakening her opponent.

At some point, their swords were crossed again but instead of aiming for separation as she had done before, Rita grabbed Melinda's sword arm with her left and pulled her closer.

After which she sunk her knees into her midsection.

Melinda groaned but had the presence of mind to take advantage of the proximity and sink her left fist into Rita's side.

The two immediately broke apart and rubbed their sore spots. Just a quick rub of course before they were back to crossing blades.

This time was different, however.

It was as though they had been playing it safe before but had both decided to become serious.

Melinda stretched her hand and sent a Cosmic attack to Rita who reciprocated in kind.

The two attacks canceled each other out but also caused an eruption of dust that was just what Melinda had been after.

Taking advantage of a split second momentary lapse in reaction speed due to the loss of ability to use her sight, Melinda went into the cloud of dust to attack Rita before the other lady resorted to her perception as a cultivator for direction.

When she arrived at the spot where Rita should have been she found it empty.

With a sinking feeling in her gut, Melinda looked up to see Rita standing on the two ring circle of updraft...

"Don't tell me you thought you were the only one who thought of it"

... Rita smirked before descending from the sky with her sword pointed right at Melinda's head.