“And in this corner—!”

Say what you want about Chad, he was a born showman. He stood in the middle of the arena, effortlessly addressing the crowd. The arena was in the shape of a circle and seating was arranged around it on all sides. Chad easily spun and danced from one direction to the other, making sure that all eyes were on him. He practically dared the crowd to tear their attention away for just a moment, for fear that if they did, they would miss something exciting! They were in the palm of his hand, and he knew it.

“— we have your favorite Head Tavern Mistress, the War Maiden herself, Noelle Magos!”

Noelle curtseyed and bowed her head slightly at the roar of the crowd. It was deafening. Chants of “War Maiden, War Maiden” pulsed from the crowd in between the various cheers and whooping. She was the local favorite, and it was obvious she had a massive fan base. The men loved her, the women and children loved her. Honestly it wouldn’t have surprised me if Roscoe was the only curmudgeon stuffing his hands in his pockets instead of clapping at her introduction.

Her family was directly behind her and extremely excited about the level of support she was getting from the town. All of them waved Noelle dolls and clapped excitedly. The youngest, Anya, had made a sort of makeshift poster with Noelle’s likeness on it and Ash waved their house banner about wildly. I smiled at the support from her personal family circle and felt a stab that I didn’t have my own personal cheering section.

Chad waved his arms to quiet the crowd so that his next introduction could take place. “And in the other corner—!” Did he know how circles worked? “We have your latest enigma! The purple haired demoness herself, the Amazon, Amelia!”

The roaring and cheering picked up again and, to my complete surprise, it was just as deafening as before. “Am-a-zon! Am-a-zon!” The crowd cheered my moniker with just as much as enthusiasm as they had Noelle’s. I was in awe as I took a moment to scan the crowd. I had never had this much attention paid to me before. If I was honest with myself and wasn’t filled with so much adrenaline anticipating what was to come next, I would have looked for the nearest opening to sprint off and hide.

It was only when I came to Noelle’s family in the crowd that I was truly dumbstruck. Gone were the Noelle dolls and family colors and banners. In their place, in each clenched fist, was an Amelia doll. Anya had swapped her Noelle poster for one that looked like me and Ash waved a banner of the most royal purple I had ever seen. Their faces were beet red as they cheered and hollered loudly.

For me!

I wasn’t their family and I stood in the way of their daughter and her dream of a better life. A better place for herself and her tavern girls. I had only briefly known and lived among them yet and they still treated me like I was one of their own. It took everything I had not to cry tears of joy.

I blinked some wetness away and turned my attention back to Noelle. Gone was the apron and maid headdress that she insisted on wearing even while we sparred during our training sessions. She was still wearing a maid outfit, as she had secretly also enjoyed her new nickname bestowed upon her, but the nearly full-length bottom dress was now gone. In it’s place was a much shorter skirt that would allow her better mobility. It was not the same scandalous length as the “standard” Wish attire, but it did show off some of her shapely legs before the skirt hid the forbidden treasure underneath. Her bottom half look was completed with laced knee-high leather boots that also served to protect her shins.

Up top, she sported a corset on the outside of her maid blouse to keep her clothes tight about her chest and had equipped some leather gauntlets and fingerless gloves. She had already adapted a fighting stance. Her mouth was drawn tight in concentration, her face set with determination. The tournament had stated the weapon of choice would be swords, but it was clear Noelle was more comfortable with what she knew.

I glanced down at the wooden practice sword in my hand. I would have an unfair advantage with this, and we both knew it. I looked back up at her and met her gaze. If she knew what I was thinking, she didn’t let on and merely waited for Chad’s signal to start.

“The matches will be decided by strikes!” Chad announced. “Any three to the core torso area or a single blow to the head will end the match!” He looked at both of us in acknowledgement, then shouted.

“Begin!”

I began by tossing my sword aside. “I want this to be a fair fight, Noelle. It would be cheap to beat you when you are unarmed.”

She smiled for the first time I could remember all day. She had been taking this very seriously. “Bold of you to assume you have already won!”

She charged at me and immediately started striking with alternating blows, aiming at my chest and head in an unpredictable rhythm. I barely got my hands up to block as her assault began. She was so fast! Did her normal maid attire slow her down that much? Or had she been going at a slower speed when we sparred so I could keep up with our lessons?

She stayed out of my reach, knowing from our previous engagements that I was stronger and could control the match if I was able to grab her. I deflected a blow down from her right hand and attempted to spin away to her left to get some distance to reset. She had me on the defensive early and I needed some space to regain my composure.

She didn’t allow me the moment and was on me immediately, landing a quick blow to the lower left side of my stomach and I stumbled backwards.

“That’s one!” roared Chad, from outside the ring.

The crowd loved it. First blood was metaphorically in the air. “War Maiden, War Maiden!”

I looked up from a crouched position in the dirt, coughing. Wow, that had stung! She barely missed my ribs, otherwise I was sure something would have been bruised at the very least. It would also have made breathing difficult. She had taught me to strike efficiently, and she was now following through.

Noelle had backed up and was allowing me to stand before continuing. I glanced sidelong at Roscoe before rising. I felt like I knew what I was doing and had the strength of the Goddess to boot. If this was the true force that Noelle could unleash when she put her mind to it, it was by her grace alone that Roscoe wasn’t a dead man.

I gathered myself and resumed a fighting stance. Smiling at Noelle, I commented, “Lucky shot!” I wanted her to think the punch hadn’t fazed me as much as it had. That everything she had thrown at me hadn’t caught me completely off guard. She lightly smiled back at me.

“Good! I didn’t want this to be over so soon myself!” At least she was smiling?

Not wanting to be on the defensive again, I charged at her and began a furious attack of my own. I followed quick strikes at her sides and stomach with some overhead blows to vary which direction each attack came from. She blocked each effortlessly and then countered with a kick from her right leg up at my head. I ducked at the last moment and carried the momentum into a back flip to get distance between us once again.

Noelle’s teachings flashed through my mind, “Your entire body is a weapon.” We had used anything and everything in our lessons. Elbows, knees, legs. Nothing had been off limits to strike at one another with, however I hadn’t realized that was going to extend to this tournament. I shook my head and smiled. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Going to be like that, huh?” I called out to her. She smiled back again,

“Like you wouldn’t have grappled or thrown me if you were given the chance?”

Fair point.

She moved in again, but this time I was ready. Her blows seemed to come slightly slower. Three alternating punches towards my face. Right, left, right, followed by two quick kicks on my left side. I blocked each of the punches with my forearms and saw her hips adjust her center of gravity to lift for the kicks. I blocked the first, then quickly moved to grab her leg with my left arm.

The counter worked. I had used this once or twice in the past, but each attempt to counter this type of attack previously had resulted in me still getting kicked in the ribs and I’d ended up just inadvertently trapping her leg between my body and arm. She was probably banking on me flubbing it up and getting a 2-0 lead.

Instead, her face was one of shock as I held her fast and pushed backwards to knock her off balance then struck her full on, open palmed, in her stomach with my right hand.

I released her after the blow and let her stumble and roll away.

“1-1! The Amazon strikes back!”

The crowd again went wild. I knew that other than my possible fight against Chad, this was probably the match everyone was looking forward to for the entire tourney. They loved our sparring sessions when we had them in our makeshift training area and now the stakes were higher.

“Am-a-zon! Am-a-zon!” Short of who each man had actually waged money on, I don’t think the crowd had a clear favorite. Everything each of us had done had elicited cheers and uproarious shouting and clinking of mugs. Even Noelle’s family hadn’t displayed a clear segregation between the two of us.

I allowed Noelle a moment to gather herself, as she had allowed me when she had landed her blow. She seemed agitated with herself, as if she was upset she had gambled the free hit with her kick that she knew probably would have resulted in the grab anyway. Due to that careless decision on her part, she had lost her edge in the score.

I readied myself. She wouldn’t make so reckless a mistake again. I would have to earn the rest of my points.

She engaged me again and we started trading blows, looking for even the smallest of openings. I thrashed a kick at her left leg, attempting to slow her down. She effortlessly lifted her leg in response to avoid my attack and simultaneously brought the knee up, attempting to strike me in my lower stomach. I quickly stuck my hand out and caught her knee to push it aside, only to have to turn my head to avoid a quick jab from her right hand.

It was only then I noticed her hand was glowing.

Suddenly she swung at me with both hands, each starting to intensify with a light. I squinted as I blocked both attacks, but as she continued her assault, her hands became too blinding to look at.

I realized too late what was happening. She was harnessing her powers of the Goddess as a weapon.

I became dazed with each block and my timing slipped. A force like that of a violently thrown brick nailed me again in my lower left side. The velocity of the strike threw me backwards and I tumbled away from Noelle, groaning in pain.

I grimaced while blinking furiously, trying to get my vision to clear. Noelle had, again, shown me the mercy of getting back on my feet. She only needed one more strike to win, and yet she didn’t press. Her hands had not stopped glowing, however. They looked as bright as stars in the night sky, white and hot.

I grasped my side, which ached furiously. She had connected with ribs that time, but I didn’t think anything was broken. I coughed and tasted copper. I spit into the ground and confirmed that it was blood. I looked back up at her.

She raised one of her hands and stared at it, her vision seemingly unaffected by it’s brilliance. “I didn’t want to reveal this technique so early in the tournament, but it became clear I needed the edge against you.” She looked back at me. “Besides, Dorian knows of it already. The only person I would have caught off guard with it would have been Prince Chadwick.”

Chad, indeed, looked surprised at Noelle’s little secret. The crowd had gone fairly silent as well. It only took Chad a moment to come to his senses and realize he needed to announce the update on the match.

“That’s two to the War Maiden! After the unveiling of this new technique, how will the Amazon respond now?”

I had no idea.

Her hands weren’t overwhelmingly difficult to see from a distance, but I still had to squint a bit and not look at them directly. Getting in hand-to-hand combat again with her would be another story.

And I still needed two strikes.

I groaned and held my side as I stood. I got myself back into a fighting stance and added her new ability to what I already knew about her fighting capabilities. My only edge that I could see would be to grab her and control the fight through a grapple or a throw. It would allow me to control the flow of the encounter and not have to stare at her hands directly, at least for a few moments. If I could land two strikes in quick succession, or a blow to her head…

I didn’t like the thought of hitting her head or face though, even though it might be the quickest and most sure path to victory. I would only do that if I had no other alternative. She had shown me respect and honor in this fight when she could have ended it a couple of different times already. I would attempt to do the same.

Now that I had readied myself, Noelle didn’t waste any time and charged forward, hands and arms extended in an obvious attempt to disorient me. I attempted to focus on her legs, both to avoid being blinded by her hands as well as to watch where she was moving and shifting her weight. I could only hope that would help me guess at her attacking angle to properly block what was coming next.

As I expected, she took aim at my head. She didn’t need to strike there to win now, as any scoring blow would do the trick. But by putting her hands close to my face, she increased the likelihood of blinding me again.

I took a gamble and grabbed for her arm and spun.

It worked! My mad attempt to grab her left arm as she stabbed at me with it scored home as I got my fingers caught in her sleeves. My twist to that side forced her to twist awkwardly and I quickly jabbed twice at her side, hoping to the Goddess I caught her off balance enough to strike with both blows.

I didn’t.

She got her right hand in to deflect my second shot and combined that counter with a burst of blinding light from her open palm.

I released her and quickly dove down and away and rolled in a direction I hoped was as far from her as possible.

I heard Chad cry out, “By the Gods, what a move! The next strike will decide the match!”

The crowd was roaring with the clashing of our techniques. Cheers and chants for both of us blended unintelligibly together. They now hungered for our next skirmish. The energy burning off of them was buzzing and dripping with anticipation of how the match would conclude.

I blinked again and my vision cleared enough to see what was going on. My connecting shot had winded Noelle enough that she was recovering herself and was not moving to take advantage of my disorientation. It had been a defensive gambit from her rather than an offensive one.

Both of us acknowledged each other. This had been an intense match. I definitely had taken Noelle for granted when I mistakenly thought I would skate through to Dorian in the next round. She had not been kidding when she had impressed to me how serious she had been about winning. Losing hadn’t even entered her mind.

Well, I wasn’t losing either. I hadn’t really entered this contest with a clear mindset. But that had changed, and I had Noelle to thank for it. I still wanted to win, but now I wanted to do it to prove it to myself. Noelle had showed me that I still had a lot to learn. Both about this world, the people that lived in it, and about myself.

We both nodded at each other and straightened up, knowing these next moves would decide this match. The crowd got quieter as we slowly started circling each other, arms and fists raised. Noelle burst forward suddenly, changing tactics again.

She started channeling her light in her fists into bursts, making her fists blink as she wove her strikes towards me in an elegant dance rather than quick jabs. The resulting effect was causing the light to blur across my vision, forcing my eyes to observe the scattered bleeding and burning pattern of the light in the air.

I had to end this fast, or I wouldn’t be able to prevent her next meaningful attack. Her weaving strikes weren’t arriving with a lot of force in them, as I had realized their main objective was to distract. Trying to sense a pattern, I blocked a waving overhead chop followed by a crossing swipe at my middle. My eyes were beginning to betray me again. I had to take my moment now!

She came at me again with another flowing gesture from opposite angles. I reached up with my right hand and grabbed at her wrist while lifting my left knee to bat at the direction of the lower oncoming blow. With my left free hand, I blindly swung at her chest and prayed.

And connected.

My open palm smashed her in her sternum and shoved her backwards. I hadn’t known if my move was going to be successful, so I had preemptively shoved myself back, just in case my attempt to block her lower blow with my knee had whiffed completely. Separated, we stared at each other in shock, not acknowledging anything around us. The adrenaline wore off enough that Chad’s voice dripped through, and I snapped back to reality.

The crowd erupted in excitement from the results of the match.

“Victory! The Amazon moves on! What a fight! What a show!” Chad cried out.

Ale was flung everywhere from mugs being smashed together and thrown. Everyone was on their feet. Noelle and I barely noticed all the goings on. We were still focused solely on each other.

It was only then that I realized we were both crying.

We rushed to each other and embraced, the emotions of the fight finally seeping through. Her tears started soaking through the front of my shirt, mine dripping down my face and onto hers.

“You were amazing, Noelle!” I cried.

We finished our embrace and parted, but still held each other’s hands. Noelle shook her head, smiling.

“You were incredible! I have nothing to be ashamed of with this loss. I held nothing back and you kept on, meeting my intensity with your own.” She reached up and held my cheek lovingly. “You took this fight as seriously as I did. I am glad to see that you discovered what you are fighting for.”

She leaned up and kissed my other cheek before hugging me again.

“I am proud to call you my sister,” she sobbed.

I joined her in crying some more, everyone else around us too excited to even really notice what was going on between us as they recounted and reenacted the fight they had just witnessed.

Noelle broke contact with me for a moment to nod over at Chad, still feeding off the energy of the crowd, then leaned back in and rested her forehead against mine. “We’re no one’s trophies.” she whispered. We held that connection for a few more moments before she pulled back again to look me straight in the face, her eyes still damp but shining fiercely.

“Now go show him that!”