Bright and early in the morning, not even two steps out of my room, and Lyra had rushed me with a lively greeting.

“Good morning, Volatis.” She bowed and spoke again before I had the chance to. “I want to challenge you to a fight.” She sounded well rested for having festered in a slave’s cell up until yesterday.

“I’ll accept, but please... let me wake up first.” My eyelids were half-closed as I made my way to get breakfast, still in the process of shaking my grogginess.

The way she hovered around in my vicinity caused me to feel like I was on a timer. Being rushed was a big pet peeve for me, that always led to forgetting something important or messing up. I almost wanted to rain check with her since the monster royale event was tonight along with Eris’s own fight against an Archie.

I decided to fish the thought out into the open after mulling it over as all of us gathered around the dining table to eat an assortment of breakfast items brought in by room service.

“I’ve got an event in the fighting pit tonight, it might not be the best time to have an all-out fight with you...” I noticed Lyra’s eyes downcast as if her anticipation was crushed into smithereens.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there to referee and heal any injuries.” Eris chimed in while eating her cereal beside us at the table.

“I wouldn’t want to ruin your free time before your match tonight.” It sounded like I was attempting to weasel my way out of the challenge.

“I might as well be there for when someone hurts themselves instead of being interrupted later on anyways.” There was a definite sting to her words, even though she placed no emphasis on it. It felt like putting me into a difficult situation satisfied her desire for revenge as she stared at us, waiting for an answer.

“Thank you for offering your time like that, Eris...” She returned a side-long glance before going back to eating her cereal. Putting all sarcasm aside, it was in my best interest to go all out against Lyra, and having Eris present as a healer would be extremely helpful. The chances of someone dying as a possible outcome were high with severe injuries as a given.

Lyra ended up thanking her as well and the tail wagging that accompanied it made me smile from how much she acted like an excited puppy. Her desire to become stronger through actual fights might even be greater than my own. My only objective now was to defeat her in such a one-sided manner as to secure her unwavering support in the future.

It wasn’t long until we were out the door and running into Rachel and the waiting guides out in front of our suite's door. I didn’t want a crowd to form and quietly told Rachel that only she could come with us, and even had Jade and Selka take the opportunity to enjoy a relaxing time off. Rachel spoke with the other guides and ended up having them assist Jade and Selka in anything they wanted to do for the day.

The last thing I wanted to do was to blatantly display Eris’s healing powers and the extent of our strength from the intense battle that was about to break out. I allowed Rachel to remain by our side in hopes of recruiting her eventually, in essence stealing one of the fighting pits dutiful employees.

Rachel secured us a private sparring room away from possible onlookers as all of us got into our places. Rachel stood beside Eris, heeding my advice that she would be safest next to her. I changed into normal training wear, storing my special battle gear inside of my ring, to turn this into a fair fight. Lyra wore tight-fitting workout clothes with a hole for her tail to wave unhindered. I couldn’t get over the appeal her body held over me, trying my best to peel my mind from mentally lewding her any further and focused on winning the battle.

“Ready?” I stretched my neck as a means to refocus.

“Yes!” Lyra returned to the low stance we witnessed her take last night. Her fingertips transformed into a heavy set of claws with sharp pearly whites appearing through her subtle growling.

“Begin!” Eris did her best to speak loudly but the only time she raised her voice to a level considered loud was whenever my life was in danger or we were in an argument.

Lyra took the initiate, letting rampant any previously held back passion, aiming right for my throat with a simple claw swipe. I responded by stepping in closer last second and countering with a quick jab directed at her chin. This match was meant to be a devastating loss on her end and I wasn’t going to let her adjust to my speed as I did for the others during the sparring matches.

Lyra surprised me by headbutting my fist in an attempt to avoid an instant knockout, following up with an upwards slash with her other hand. Her claws tore through my shirt, causing blood to spill from the multiple gashes across my abdomen.

She already made attempts at fleeing as if reading my next move to push her away with an open palm, avoiding it altogether and re-engaging immediately after. She was on all fours leaping around with calculated ease as she lunged for my legs.

I noticed the claws extending from her feet a tad bit too late as they allowed her to stop right before my countering leg sweep and in turn allowing her to swing around to nick my calf with her foot. The way she contorted her body was akin to the flexibility of having jelly for bones. Her unique low-to-the-ground fighting stance and longer reach made it hard to acclimate as fresh blood started splattering onto the floor.

Knowing that Eris was here to patch us up led me to take more risks than normal with cuts starting to cover me, even receiving a clean swipe to my backside. I took the time to study her attack pattern and learned that she was wary about staying within my range for too long, always pulling back to get away from my forceful hits.

There was only so much I was willing to allow before my nasty habit of going overboard came forth and all the blood loss only helped to increase the pace. All it took was a reminder of Eris standing on the sidelines, that I could let loose without consequences so long as it wasn't an instant death.