"WAIT! TIME OUT!" I immediately jumped in between the two girls and waved my hands frantically. "You don't want to fight each other! We're still on a quest! What if a bunch of slime monsters drops down from the ceiling and attack while you guys duel?" I tried to reason with them. I already knew the girls didn't like each other but I didn't want the situation to get out of hand. Why couldn't we just get along until Alsaj's quest was completed?

"Oh, don't worry about that, silly!" Alsaj waved her hand dismissively. "If we have new guests in this room, we'll stop the duel immediately. Right, kitty?"

Kalistra's eyes burned at being called a "kitty." "We're professionals. We can pause our duel and take care of business first. Right, tiny?" she replied.

"Who are you calling 'tiny?' We're practically the same height!" the monk retorted angrily while putting her fists on her hips.

"Hit a nerve, did we?" the evil minx grinned.

The two stared at each other's eyes and I could see almost see smoke coming out because of the intensity of their staredown.

I had to take control of the situation immediately! I cleared my throat and said, "Kalistra, as my servant I ORDER you to stand down! Alsaj, if you continue messing around with my servant, then I'm afraid I will have to drop your quest."

The cat girl glared at me but kept silent. She made her displeasure known by the way her tail whiplashed furiously back and forth. Technically, she WAS my servant since we were no longer at the dojo and I was a nobleman traveling with an animal person.

The sister chuckled at my threat. "Oh, you silly Lord! We are trapped in this room under a mountain. If you wish to leave and reach Bristol in time for your tournament, you will have to finish the quest," she pointed out. "Of course, you're also free to take the cowardly way out by allowing the next slime monster to appear to devour you and suffocate you to death. The gods may deem your act unworthy of a candidate for the crown, disqualify you and return you back to Planet Earth. You will spend the rest of your life seeing yourself as a cowardly loser. But you are certainly entitled to make that choice. Either way, I'm going to have a friendly duel with your servant," she announced with a sense of finality.

GAH! The fiendish sister flipped my cherished freedom around, and used it as a cudgel against me! Damn! Sister Alsaj was turning out to be as evil as Kalistra! My hands involuntarily balled into fists. I kept my mouth shut because clearly, Alsaj was trying to provoke me into attacking her, thereby implicitly giving the cat girl permission to join in and attack the monk as well. The best thing to do was to keep my anger in check; it was an automatic win for me if I managed to do just that.

I took a deep breath and then addressed the two girls calmly. "I will permit you to duel each other on certain conditions. First, I will serve as judge and you will obey my instructions during the duel. Second, if I decide to stop the fight, you will end the fight immediately. Third, no lethal techniques will be permitted. And that's it. How you choose to duel is up to you," I said. With that, I stepped aside and leaned against the wall.

"How . . . generous of you, milord," Alsaj giggled. "I will agree to your terms." And then the monk did something for the first time: she gave me a formal bow, with her fist against palm in front of her chest and her head dipped slightly.

I turned toward Kalistra and asked, "Well?"

My master's eyes glowed as her long tail wavered slowly back and forth.

If I read her mood accurately, the cat girl was intrigued by my rules and giving it some serious thought.

After a long moment of silence, she finally answered my question. "Yes, Master." Kalistra's head also dipped in my direction.

The two would-be duelists eyed each other cautiously and then the monk spoke first. "Per Lord Mulligan's conditions, we will not utilize any lethal technique during this duel. For me, this means I will be at a major disadvantage if I cannot utilize my void skills. Thus, I would like to propose some 'adjustments' to our duel. First, I agree not to use my null palm during this match. As you saw in my fight against the female drow back in Tregome, the technique can disintegrate flesh and blood on physical contact. So instead of a three-hits duel, I propose a one-hit match. In other words, the first duelist to land a successful hit will be the winner. Second, instead of a blow against you, I want to grab your tail." Alsaj grinned.

I facepalmed and groaned. There we have it, ladies and gentlemen! Alsaj was as crazy as Kalistra! First, the drows and now Alsaj. Why were Chaotic beings so insane? My master never allowed me to touch her tail, no matter how much I wanted to. And now, that crazy sister told the cat girl flat out what the monk will aim for during the duel? Alsaj was absolutely crazy!

"Kekeke."

The chuckle was very slight and only I had heard it. I looked up at the ceiling, as that was the only place where an invisible Lord Bane could be standing as a spectator.

However, the demigod gave no further sign of his presence.

The cat girl hissed and her ears flattened. "What makes you think I will let you grab my tail?" she growled at the monk.

"Because I've wanted to touch and play with your tail ever since I laid my eyes on it back in Tregome," Alsaj blushed as she admitted to her fetish publicly. "I'm not going to hurt your tail, okay?" she said reassuringly.

"You won't," Kalistra nodded in agreement, "because I'm going to knock you out first!" She tapped the end of her scabbard on the ground. Crack!

Alsaj pointed an index finger at the cat girl, inverted the finger to face up, and gestured for Kalistra to approach.

My master sprang right in with a horizontal cut from left to right across her opponent's chest.

The diminutive monk gamely ducked under the swing and reached out with her left arm to grab the base of her opponent's tail.

Reading the move, Kalistra thrust her hip out and smacked into Alsaj's elbow.

Undeterred, the monk tried to wrap her arms around the cat girl's hips.

Unfortunately, my master read THAT move as well. She hopped over the arm-wrap and tried to smash the scabbard against the suddenly prone monk's back.

The sister felt the air movement above her and knew exactly what the cat girl was going to do. Alsaj used her forward momentum and propelled her body forward in a somersault roll on the ground. Clang! She sprang back to her feet, turned and tried to grab the tail, which was now directly in front of her.

However, Kalistra wrapped her tail around her waist, performed a forward somersault in the air while holding out her scabbard like a buzz saw.

The unexpected strike forced Alsaj to pull her arm back to avoid the hit, and she stomped her foot on the ground in frustration as her prey created some distance from the monk.

The evil minx slowly turned around and grinned. While the exchange with the mysterious monk had been fast and furious, Kalistra already came up with a strategy to defeat her opponent. And the key word was "reach." While the cat girl and the monk were almost the same size and build physically, the scabbard gave Kalistra an extended reach. The monk was an in-fighter and relied on her overwhelming speed and agility to fight. Against most opponents, this strategy was fine because Alsaj could end a fight with her "null palm" technique. Without access to this skill, though, she was just an in-fighter with a short reach.

During this pause in the duel, I had to blink my eyes several times. The fight between Kalistra and Khaz was NOTHING compared to this fight! The two combatants were moving so fast that my eyes could barely comprehend what was happening. As far as I could tell, neither duelist was successful. My master was her usual, overly-aggressive self and went on hyper-attack mode. Her reach with the scabbard gave her a clear advantage and she should have won the duel easily. Yet, the fact that Alsaj was able to avoid my master's attacks spoke glowingly of the human monk's fighting abilities, too. "Are you guys satisfied?" I interrupted the inadvertent staredown between the two girls. "You guys are even," I observed.

"Even?" the cat girl hissed. "This little brat needs to be spanked," she retorted.

Alsaj giggled. "Yet, you haven't been able to do that," she smirked. "She must be a lousy instructor at your dojo, eh Lawrence?" the monk quipped.

"Less talking. More fighting," Kalistra grumbled and charged at her opponent.

"And the bull charges again!" the sister said as she easily sidestepped the charge.

My master took another swing with her backhand as she passed by the human.

Alsaj bent her back and the scabbard swung over her abdomen. She stretched out her arm to grab the tail again.

But the cat girl retained amazing control of her sword and tried to whack the monk's arm with her scabbard.

"Nice trap," Alsaj giggled as she pulled back her arm in time to avoid the hit.

"Thank you," Kalistra replied as the duelists faced each other once more.

Suddenly, I noticed something. The two were actually SMILING at each other now. I was astonished and confused by their sudden change in mood.

"This duel is taking far too long," Kalistra noted with disgust and wiggled her pink nose. "Let's take one last pass at each other. Winner takes the match," she proposed.

"I accept," Alsaj nodded.

The two combatants began circling each other clockwise. Their eyes were locked together and the makeshift circle began to shrink. It was a battle of wills: who will blink first? Who will lose confidence? Who will attack and who will defend?

"What the heck is going on?" I wondered aloud as the two deadly fighters drew closer and closer in their tight circle. By now, my master could easily hit the monk with her scabbard; but the converse was not true as the sister's arm wasn't long enough to reach her opponent without lounging and becoming off-balanced. Yet, the cat girl refused to attack. Didn't Kalistra want to win this match? If so, why wait when she had the clear advantage at this moment? Was some weird code of Honor preventing my master from attacking? With no answer forthcoming, I could only watch in silence as the two partners drew ever closer in their deadly tango.

When the duelists were only one foot apart, Alsaj finally made her move! She pushed on her right heel and lounged forward on her left foot to attack the cat girl's right. At the same time, the human monk twisted her waist so that she was facing her opponent, and reached out to the base of the furry tail with her left hand. Knowing that the cat girl will try to attack from above, Alsaj held up her right forearm to block.

Kalistra's eyes glowed furiously. She shouldn't have waited for the monk to make her move because it was a doozy! The cat girl cursed her sense of Honor in allowing her opponent to come within reach of her tail. Now forced to defend, Kalistra tried to hop away from Alsaj's outstretched hand. At the same time, the cat girl turned her right elbow and tried to direct the end of her scabbard under the monk's guard.

The three of us were frozen as the result of the duel was finally revealed: Alsaj's outstretched fingers grabbed Kalistra's tail, while the end of the scabbard touched the side of the monk's ribs.

I raised my hands and yelled, "DRAW!"