Chapter 2.4: Battling Beauties

The time of battle upon them, the duelists moved to the proper location. The small outdoor battle area was a stadium roughly the size of a high school basketball court. Both of the battling tamers took up their positions and announced the Demi-Human they were sending out. An on duty tamer for the center acted as referee and announcer the match.

"Tamer John Dean will be represented by Kara, a Steel Valkyrie. She is a free Demi-human under contract. She is also the stake of her master's battle wager. Tamer Stan Kranz will be represented by Hana, a Gigas. The wager he has staked in this battle is Tera, a Blazine; and Mindi, a Kraken. Citizenship undisclosed."

Several thoughts arose within John's mind. The first was that the citizenship of the two Demi-Humans was cited as undisclosed. That could potentially be problematic. The second most prevalent thought was entered on his opponent's chosen combatant.

"Gigas?" asked John incredulously. He thought they were nigh impossible to tame due to size restrictions and personal sentiments toward the squishier race of man. There was also the lack of any giantess family Demi-humans apparent in the arena. The girl he saw across the way was fairly tall at around six feet, but by no means did she rate the name Gigas.

Stan nodded at him, a slow smirk forming on his lips. This caused John to scan the girl and then stare in shock at her available specifications. Her strength and durability ratings were staggeringly high. Somehow his opponent found a way to shrink the giantess down to relatively normal size while allowing her strength to remain in effect. He'd heard it was possible, but magic of that type should have been very difficult and possibly deadly for the Demi-human.

"Alright. It's time. Battle shield activation commencing!" cried out the referee from the safety of his control box. A crackling skirl of cyan blue energy raced around the edge of the arena just before a dynamic energy field snapped into place to protect bystanders from errant attacks.

"Kara, she's going to be hellishly fast at this size. Her strength and durability were meant for a creature five or six times larger. Stay out of her range. Do not close with her," instructed John.

Kara nodded at him and said, "Understood. Are there any other instructions master?"

"Aim for the eyes if you can. Your weaponry should be able to hurt her either way, but that's her weakest spot unless her master did some other weirdness to her."

The Steel Valkyrie nodded and took up a fighting stance with her twin pistols held at the low ready position. She would only use her plasma weapons if she was forced to do so. Her plasma drive was used to power both her weapons and her armor, at the moment, she would need all the defense she could manage.

"Ready?" asked the referee to both parties.

John glanced down at Kara. She took a deep breath then cried out in a strong voice, "Ahhhn!" Though most might have thought her vocalization was quite erotic, it led to something far sexier happening.

A powerful sphere of energy blazed out from the core of Kara's being. Her clothing dissolved into motes of light even as new garments appeared. First, a skin-tight body suit flowed along her generous curves to protect her flesh. Immediately afterward, a sculpted piece of armor appeared that perfectly conformed to the natural slopes and valleys of her torso, dark blue, with light blue highlights it accentuated her positives while perfectly covering her body. Dark blue gauntlets with vambraces, and boots with shin guards appeared next.

A circlet formed across her brow and a yellow visor dropped down. Winged embellishments rose up that would also allow her to amplify her sense of hearing. She did not deploy her wings, however. The environment was too cramped for proper usage and the system required a lot of power to maintain.

The armoring sequence took less than three seconds, but a great deal happened during that brief span of time. She looked up and nodded to her master. John nodded in kind then looked to the announced and signaled his readiness.

Both parties were in agreement, so the announced nodded his head as well then exclaimed, "Battle begins in four..." He continued to count down until he reached and then after saying it, he exclaimed, "Begin!"

Kara immediately launched into a quick burst of fire that tore across the arena with thunderous force. The giantess did not even bother to move until the gun fire ceased. Bullets skittered off of an invisible barrier surrounding her, only the impact zones showed any signs of with visible resistance.

"Fuck. He taught her magic, too?" groused John in annoyance. This day was just getting worse and worse for him. The gladiatorial rules for the contest were ridiculous. He did not much care in regards to who owned what Demi-Human before, but it seemed a strange custom to force people into ritualized combat scenarios when they had yet to even enter the wilderness properly for the first time.

How did a novice tamer become skilled and experienced if they were unable to avoid situations such as this? There should be an ironclad law that protected all new tamers from this sort of idiocy.

Kara quirked her eyebrow. She continued to fire while circling her opponent. Every shot she sent out pinged against the invisible barrier to no effect. Her standard firearms were not going to cut it.

She reloaded her weapons, and then put them away to change over to her plasma array. Her right arm glowed fiercely for a moment then the flesh of her forearm expanded and morphed into a conical shape. Her hand snapped apart before moving down along the barrel to create three short prongs. Soon, the conical shape broke into three barrels, each with its own prong uniting them at the center. A trio of bright blue glowing lights appeared at the center of each of her new gun arm's open barrels. Ready to fight, she rapidly fired three rounds toward the enemy in rapid succession.

Her shots, each the size of a large marble, also skittered across the shield uselessly. However, the barrage caused obvious, if minor, strain for the giantess to continually manifest her shield now.

The girl was at a loss, however. The shield was not going down and her plasma drive was using up its power quickly. At this rate she would run dry soon. Even her armor would falter.

John called out. "Keep pouring it on! Her shield can't last forever!"

Kara acknowledged the order, but she also noticed her opponent's master smirking at the suggestion. Still, an order was an order. She continued to barrage the invisible shield in the hope that whatever magic the Gigas used would run out of power before her plasma drive did.

The Steel Valkyrie circled her opponent slowly and unleashed a steady barrage of plasma fire from her tri-barreled arm blasters. When she was half empty she stopped and noticed that her opponent was largely unscathed. Some of the damage had slid through, but the Gigas’ natural toughness had absorbed most of it.

John frowned at this scenario. His Steel Valkyrie had no way of dispelling a shield. He could do it, but that might be considered a forfeit. He must check the rules thoroughly once more. A niggling thought about the rules entered his mind that continued to gnaw at him to discover its true meaning. "Kara! Keep her busy but let your energy recharge! I have to check something!"

"Understood!" exclaimed Kara as she rolled to the side to avoid a sudden charge by the surprisingly fast giantess. Her master was right about the speed. The shield became partially visible as she sped past in a blur.

John furiously searched through the listed rules in his scanner. There must be a way to win this situation, otherwise it would not be legal. He had to believe in the concept of a structured and ordered society. Otherwise, why create laws at all? Everything had a place, a purpose. All things abided by proper law and structure.

Certainly, people bent the rules and broke them every day. However, if there was one area of the law that was ironclad and mostly sensible, it was laws regarding taming. Nonsense about gladiatorial cockfighting with Demi-Humans outside of tournaments notwithstanding, the rules were designed to be fair and equitable. They were tweaked constantly to ensure that remained the case. Otherwise, taming and society would not function together. The rules, there must be something in the rules...

While john sought an answer in the rule book, Kara continued her battle. With each near miss she lost a little more energy. If something did not happen, and soon, this match would be over.