Much time had passed as I sat there watching the light in the hallway fade. The bright sun that shined went away as sunlight to sunset. I patiently continued waiting for the Battle-mage to finish up healing the two injured ladies I held in my arms. I could feel them kicking and shaking in pain, sweating profusely. Once done, the battle-mage got up and then left the room, saying to me, “If you care about these two, you should not make them fight such high levels.” After they finished speaking, they did not say another word to me as they packed up. Occasionally giving me a look of disappointment while they did.

It was now just the three of us alone. Within a few minutes, the girls started to get up from their sleeping slumber. Jacosta looked a little bit like a sleeping beauty in my eyes at that moment. Her soft white hair was brushed over her head and tucked behind her ears. But the moment was ruined when she began rolling over and fell off my lap and onto the floor. I could hear a loud ‘thud’ as she hit the cold hard floor; the noise echoed in the silent room. I could tell the floor was very hard from the way she began to rub her bum. Then, getting back upright, she sat there. I assumed that must have woken her right up.’

Reena just laid there looking up at the ceiling, and then she looked at me in the eyes while staring up at me said, “Did we win?”

It was beginning to become awkward as Reena did not say anything after and just stared ideally up. Finally, getting up off my lap slowly, Reena reached over to Jacosta, who was still rubbing her butt. I watched as Reena tapped Jacosta on the shoulder, and they got up together and back to their feet. Jacosta getting off the floor with Reena's help they began to walk back over to one of the benches, and both took a seat on it. The mood in the room was depressing as they gathered their weapons and equipment from the same bench they were sitting on; it was starting to get weird,’

Unable to keep it in any longer, I turned to them and asked them, “Hey, what is wrong? Are you still hurt? Say something to me?”

Reena shook her head. 'No,' as did Jacosta, without saying a word to me. Confused, I continued to ask them, hoping they would answer, “Well, Can you tell me what is wrong then?”

Both of them started shaking their heads, ‘No once again.’ I did not know how to respond to this treatment. It was weird...Trying to think of the right thing to say as I imagined what those words could be, Reena walked over and started healing the cuts on my body. Now she began to activate the regenerate spell she used while we were inside the arena, as a bright green light shot from her hand. The spell felt warm and soothing as the mana flowed over my body, healing the cuts. It was like hot water running over my body after a long day in a nice bath. I could not help but begin to close my eyes and relax, allowing my stressed body to slouch. I turned to face Reena and thanked her, “Thank you, Reena, this feels amazing.” Then Jacosta for their help in the Arena, “You two did great, by the way, thank you for your help.”

Jacosta was still holding her stuff in her hands from the bench earlier. With bandages covering her body, she then slowly started to unwrap them, exposing her slender figure—the room's light shining off her pale white skin. Jacostas's skin began to sparkle like the reflection of the snow when the sun shined down on the ice. Reaching down, she slowly started to pull up her black panties and slide back on her armour as I blushed and looked away. Reena then spoke her first words to me after the scrimmage and said to me in a pouty voice that sounded childish in nature, "You better not look at me like that Azurith when I change."

When I gained the courage to look her in the eyes, I could see her face and cheeks red puffed out, and she was blushing. So I looked away and decided to be a gentleman.

Within a few minutes, they informed me I could look again; turning my head over towards them, I could see both of them had their armour on and were dressed again; Jacosta took a seat beside me while her sister continued to heal my minor wounds. Reena was standing off to the right with a sad look on her face. Looking at the look on Reena, she had a worried look to her. Then, grabbing her wrist, she paused as I said to her and Jacosta next, “Hey guys, I think It is a smarter idea if we don’t participate in the tournament tomorrow, okay. I am sorry if I rushed things and you got hurt. I never wanted any of that to happen to either of you.”

Reena and Jacosta both now looked a little sadder than before, which confused me. ‘This is not what they want? Not saying anything while they stared at each other in a silent awkwardness, I could see their tails wagging slower and slower till they came to a stop as Reena's ear twitched a little when she replied, “That’s not it. It’s just. We are so useless next to you. We can’t help you at all. We are just dead weight.”

Grabbing Reena and Jacosta by the handpicking them both up off the bench, helping them to their feet. I looked over now with the sweetest look on my face as we were all standing up, looking at them both while I gripped their hands tightly in mine. I said to them, “Don't think for a minute either one of you are useless; you saved me after all common let us get something to eat. It will be on me again, of course, my treat.”

Jacosta's tail began to pick up speed and wag fast. After spending the last few days with her, Jacosta would always be so happy whenever I mentioned food. She then quickly turned her head towards her sister and said to Reena, “Well, let us not get too upset over what had just happened. We can always get better, right Azurith!” Looking happily at Jacosta, who I could tell was still bothered, but she clearly wanted to eat, I responded to her with a smile on my face, “You are absolutely right, Jacosta, and I promise to help you two achieve your goals.”

I could hear Reena begin to cry a little before wiping her eyes clear; she then picked herself up and calmed down before she asked me in a quiet tone, “What are your plans then, Azurith, are we done with the tournament?”

Thinking on the question a little, I told her and Jacosta, who we’re eagerly awaiting my response, tails both wagging as I told them,

“To be honest, girls, I would not mind finding out some more answers about why it was or who it was who brought me here; maybe we should participate but then again. I mean, perhaps we will create a guild. I seemed to be happy doing that in my life. Just maybe it would be nice to start over again.”

I could not for the life of me think of a better plan for myself. Still, lately, all the goals I set for myself seem to fall flat, so perhaps going back to the basics like when I was a child and just doing what I wanted was the best way to go about things here until I figured out what the heck it was that sent me here. I could see Jacosta looking at her sister, who now had a rather weird frown on her face. I could see she did not mean that when she asked about plans. But I did not say anything more about it.

Lifting my head now up returning to reality, I could see them getting closer and closer as they grew larger in my vision until they were both face to face with me. Letting go of my hand, they threw their arms around me and held onto me in the changing area there; we all stood in each other's arms; it was nice. Once they let go, they both looked up at me and placed their head on my chest and shoulder. Then Jacosta said with her head pressed against my chest in a muffled voice, “Well, we believe in you. But that sounds like a dumb plan you could do so much better for yourself but, after all, you promised to help us, and we promised to help you,”

Reena started adding to the conversation with a smile on her face after her Sister said that she tilted her head with a cute posture to her now Reena said towards me, lifting her head off my shoulder, “We should go to the pub and see Maria, and I am sure she will be excited to hear you did so well against those two Slayers, Jacosta.”

When Reena finished talking, Jacosta, now like a kid remembering the fight, jumped up a little, kicking off me in the process, and I could see the sparkles in her eyes light up. Her moments, from pure disappointment to eureka moments, were cute. I admired her for that Jacosta had such a bright take on life I was jealous of. Jacosta looked up again towards me, but now she had that cute glow in her eyes. I noticed her eyes now were like little starlight's in the night's sky, precious and priceless. Then she went on to say to me with her face lit up, “Was I not amazing, Azurith? I really was, wasn’t I?”

Patting her on the head, I agreed with her, “Yes, you were; you almost put me to shame.” Jacosta and her sister laughed after I replied and said that, causing me to as well. Something about the way those two laughed and smiled always made me feel alright, like everything would be okay. I wondered if they would believe at times we were normal people like I would. Putting the feeling aside together, we left the arena's change room and headed down the same corridor we took to enter and exited the arena.

Walking as a group through the large entrance we entered earlier in the day, we started to walk towards the pub to see Maria again and get something to eat. So much time had passed while we were fighting inside the arena and when they got fully healed. I could see the sun was slowly starting to set as we walked.

The sun could be seen in the background slowly setting in the distance as, one by one, all the lights were beginning to dim throughout the streets and started turning off as our group walked towards Shaunty's Brewpub.

When the oil lamps started flicking on throughout the street, I could tell it was getting late. The once large crowd gathered for the arena fight could no longer be seen around the area as well, and the streets were reasonably quiet now compared to before.

The ladies and I started walking towards Shauntys brewpub, but I began to notice that there was a strange slender dark figure slowly following closely behind us everywhere we went. They were trying their best not to be seen, but they were doing a poor job hiding whoever they were as I spotted them almost immediately. Turning around, I now spotted the figure and shouted at the mysterious stranger behind us, “Who are you? I am really not in the mood for this, and I can see you. Are you here for a fight...”

The person following us seemed generally shocked as they made a suspicious movement crouching, then acting like I could not see them. Finally, they turned and ran behind a lantern... I yelled at them once again, " You have 10 seconds to show yourself." Now stepping out from behind the lantern, they lowered their headgear. I should have guessed who It was; it was the girl from earlier named Seira. As she slowly began to walk over towards us, her hips swaying back and forth as she walked, the wind began blowing, causing her hair to wave around widely. Then Seira started to say while golf clapping her hands together towards us, “You guys really showed those champions who were the boss, huh, also you did a good job, white-haired girl. It is not every day some of the best Slayers in the city lose so badly to a little girl.”

I could see Jacosta looked very happy once she heard that coming from the Ranger. She then stepped a little forward, shaking her fist while she answered her, “I did, didn’t I?”

Now Jocasta quickly turned back towards me, clearly looking at me for another few words of appraisal. However, I just ran my hands through her hair and smiled. After I did that, I then looked back over towards Seira and asked, “So, why are you following us?”

Seira’s response caught me off guard a little bit as she went on to tell me, ”Well, you are an inquisitive individual, Azurith, plus earlier, I told you I was going to see if you were a Master-Enchanter after your little fight. You are strong. Have you forgotten already due to all the damage you took to your head?”

Seira went on for a little bit longer, insulting me with insults about me being dumb or brained damaged...I did not understand why it did, but it made the ladies laugh, "Demon this, and bat brought in that. Or I slept wrong in a coffin as a kid." I finally cut her off, having enough, and told her, “Fine, whatever comes along, I really am not feeling like an argument with you right now. So what do I have to do to make you believe me and for you to leave me alone? Do you want me to write you down some awakening scrolls or enchant something more than once? Would that be sufficient?”

I could tell this kind of thing confused the ladies I was with, as I noticed Jacosta and Reena looked at each other confused, while Seira and myself got into a heated argument.

'Reena thought it was funny after what Azurith had just said about, ‘Not wanting to argue.’ Azurith and Seira argued about what would be required, which I never even knew existed before today, with Seira at one point saying to Azurith, ‘I want a triple, not a double, with a large fireball and ice, shot enchantment on every single arrow fired.' Whatever that meant.

I heard so many dumb ideas come from Seira in such a short time my head hurt a little. Not able to contain myself after hearing the last thing she asked for. I started screaming back at her, telling Seira, “This is not a restaurant. I do not do orders, Seira!!”

I could hear Jacosta started crying out loud, laughing after hearing that. It was becoming a common thing Jacosta would do when she would find things funny it was cute. But listening to Seira was driving me insane.

'Reena, trying my best to control the situation, I continued to try my best to calm Azurith down, who was holding his head, disagreeing with every single word that was now coming out of Seira's mouth. Finally, Jacosta’s belly rumbled, and everyone looked at her. Jacosta finally had enough and said to the both of them, “The two of you shut up!” Catching Azurith completely off guard, he’s never heard her be so mean before to him, he almost cried. She then looked all cute at Azurith after seeing how upset he got and asked him,” let us get some food now, Azurith?” before lifting her hand and making a cat's paw gesture towards him.'

I turned around after Jacosta got angry with me, then I turned my back to Seira and followed Reena and Jacosta, noticing that Seira was not following us. I felt bad...Looking back now, I started saying towards Seira, “Aren’t you coming?”

I saw her lift her head and look at me with puppy dog eyes. Then, surprised, she came running over towards me, replying, “Really, I mean yeah, okay yeah, let us get some food and continue our talk.”

Next, she started running right past me towards the girls as I thought, anything but the talk.'

I could not help but try and begin to think to myself. “What her angle was.” That was when I saw Seira run past me and start moving in between the ladies I would normally be walking with and proceeded on taking my spot. Once she was there, she then looked at me right in the eyes with her tongue out while pulling her eyelid down. I could not help begin mouthing the words,” That bitch!” Somehow Seira managed to pull this all off without anyone noticing her doing it. Before I could say anything about it, Seira started to talk to them, completely ruining my window of opportunity to mention it.

All I could do was start walking with my head down as I followed the girls to the pub, kicking a rock along the way angrily. Once we got there, the girls ran towards a free table while I followed closely behind them. I noticed nobody this time inside the bar was giving us a hard time which I thought was super funny.

I could not help but notice the same waitress who was rude towards us a few days ago; come walking over to our table; however, this time, when she walked over, there was an extra amount of kiss ass to her. After she spoke and took our order, I began thinking; the Human woman was extremely polite to the girls and me today. Perhaps people can change.'

After we ordered, I heard a familiar voice, and not soon after hearing it; It was Maria. Maria came running over from where I thought it came from, the kitchen. Once in sight, she jumped on me, using me as her seat, wiggling around on my crouch, trying to get comfortable. But, of course, it had the opposite effect on me. Then when my lap relaxed her, Maria started talking to everyone at the table, “I heard about the arena fight. Are you guys alright?”

I could hear Jacosta laugh like a maniac and stand up before announcing, “Aahaha, yes, we are!” Jacosta then jumped on the table and began recreating some moves she used. At the same time, Reena sat beside her sister with a cute look on her face. As time passed, Jacosta was still ranting and acting out moves towards Maria, even at some points acting out jumping around to make her moves more clear. So much time passed before I could then hear Reena then say to her friend Maria, “We are fine. I’d be lying if I said it did not hurt a little more than usual, but it’s nothing we aren’t used to. We’ve been through a lot worse right Jacosta. “Right, Reena,” Jacosta replied.

Then, Maria said to Reena,” But I hear Azurith really was something else when you guys lost.”

Seira cutting into the conversation, now started speaking while we were seated at the table. “Yeah, well, you girls did well.” Now looking over towards me, I could tell something was on her mind, and then Seira asked me a question that caused me to choke on my food, “So, what class are you anyway, Azurith? And what were those moves you used? They were like physical magical attack’s they were something else. I have never seen anything like that used before with swords.”

Knowing Seira would not believe me even if I told her the truth about my class and the skills I used. I decided to be straightforward. It was becoming clear what little information I gathered in the last few days. Slayers used a shield as a secondary and not a sword, plus their skills were nothing like mine; from what I heard from Jacosta, she used magic. So, I decided to go the honest route as I was tired of this little Elf and her stupid questions. At this point, I just wanted her to leave me alone...As I went on to tell her, knowing she wouldn’t believe me,

“I am a Blade Master. One of the skills I used was called Delorose swords. It is down the Sword-Master skill tree, and you learn it at level 50. Another one I used was called Assassinate and cross strikes, and then there are my buff's demonic eyes and presence. You would learn those at level 35 if you went the right route. In contrast, the other skill twirling strikes is a basic Blade-Master skill that blade-masters can use with any two weapons equipped. Anyone can learn that skill at any level, same with distance close those are common melee skill where I am from.”

Surprised, Seira stood up and said,” Um, you wouldn’t be lying to me now, would you. A Blade-Master common skills from where you are from?”

Looking at her with my hand over my eyes, I replied in a dull tone, “Yep,” now looking towards Reena; I started saying to her,” Please invite her to the party Reena, I am hungry and don’t feel like explaining myself this is getting dumb.” Reena looked shocked and then asked me,” Are you sure?”

I was surprised when she asked normally, this is not a huge deal in video games, so I started telling her now,” Yes, please invite her so she can see my class.”

I completely forgot she could also see my level at the time. Reena then turned to Seira and invited her, saying,” Here, Seira.”

‘Seira accepted the invite.’ AUTHOR INSERT FOR TEXT”

Then next time I looked over towards her, I could see her full name and level. She was who she said she was. Then I saw her jaw dropped, in her vision now was indeed a Blade-Master, confused Seira now answered and said,

“I knew it! You were indeed an extraordinary individual, and I can see now your not lying. Huh, well alright,”

With that, I saw in my vision seconds later,’ Now Seira left the party.’ A.I.F.T”

Maria seemed a little out of place on my lap. Maria kept looking around the table back and forth. I Just remembered now I forgot to introduce Seira to Maria, and with that, I began to say to Maria, “Hey Maria, sorry I was a little distracted by this little woman. Her name is Seira shes an Elven Ranger from the arena we were fighting in early.”

Maria smiling, said,” Hey, my name is Maria. Nice to meet you, Seira.”

Seira looked over and blushed at Maria. I mean, Maria was adorable beautiful, not to mention perfect, but still, I began to think that was a little weird. A girl blushing at another girl? But I did not look into it too much at the time, as everything attached to Seira was just so bothersome. Seira then went on to reply to Maria after she introduced herself, saying, "Very nice to meet you. Maria, has anyone told you, Maria, you're gorgeous.”

Laughing now, she brushed up suggestively on me as usual, which made Seira red in anger. Ah, I was starting to get the picture. Seira could not help but look over at me. As she looked over at me with jealous eyes, I winked at Seira. Then making the same gesture she did towards me while no one was looking, I taunted her. I could hear her now begin crying out in a furious rage, catching the attention of everyone around the bar; she started to scream towards me out loud,” If you weren’t so strong, I’d kick your ass.”

Upon hearing that, everyone at the table and in the room could not help but laugh at the high pitch volume of her voice when getting angry at me. I found it sort of adorable. Now, as the waitress brought out our next set of meals, she slowly gathered the courage and walked over towards me. I noticed that she had the Apple cider wine that I had ordered the other day in her opposite hand and did not receive it. The female waitress now looked directly at me before offering the wine to apologize for her behaviour yesterday. Afterwards, she smiled and left us to eat, saying, “If there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask.”

I saw Seira looked over at the wine. She then had a grin appear on her face as she went on to say towards me with a sadistic look on her face while pointing at the wine, “I challenge you Azurith to a drink of!”

Jacosta looked at me and had the evilest grin on her face as well. Reena was about to go to decline it for me, remembering that last time almost killed me, but Jacosta quickly covered her mouth, and then she for me, “He accepts!”

“Jacosta!” I screamed.

Just like that, now Seira quickly called over another waitress to bring over several bottles of expensive hard liquor, throwing her the gold for it. The waitress quickly ran away to the back to grab what she could. Jacosta then grabbed the apple wine brought to our table and began to pour the shots out for us. Jacosta looked like a real professional bartender sliding them over to Seira and me I. Seira did not hesitate the moment the glass slid to her. Seira grabbed the little glass and took it to the head, and then she looked at me and said. “That’s one nothing. Are you going to quit already, wussy?”

Hearing that my pride as a man was on the line, and I was not going to be defeated by this little eleven woman. Standing up now from my seat, Maria fell off me, and I started looking down at the small shot glass. Then, picking it up, I took it to the head, and the night began for our drinking games.