“And there he is,” John grinned, tapping against the window, causing Rave to strut close and look over his shoulder.

“John, that’s just the garden.”

“Oh, sorry, am looking through the sphere, in the same direction.” In his satisfaction, he had gestured without thinking. He was looking at an attractive, early twenties guy with dark hair, a stubby beard and a masculine face. Jeremiah Arter, the same guy that had met John to make the declaration of war from the Lake Alliance official, had just arrived. “Anyway, told you Jeremiah would come.”

“Barely in time,” Rave noted. It was Monday, 9:30 AM. Tournament sign-ups were going to end in thirty minutes and fighting would start quickly after that.

“He brought a nice ship too,” John added, seeing it through the eyes of a curiously darting around Sylph. “It’s not a yacht or anything, but compared to the motorboats everyone around here is using, it’s pretty good.”

“Where did they get all of those from anyway?” Rave wondered. “Not like people just have mobile barrier generators lying around.”

“They don’t have mobile barriers,” John told her. “Apparently the island barriers themselves are designed to let vehicles in with the people who enter them. No idea how that exactly works, but I guess it’s an extension of how you don’t lose your clothes when entering a Protected Space.”

“Guess that makes sense,” the Lightbearer hummed and giggled, putting her arms around John. “I know that face,” she stated teasingly. “You’re waiting for me to ask: ‘oh, great wise Gamer, how did ya know he would be the one coming along? While you explain this to this, your totally lovestruck girlfriend, and stroke your ego, do you also want me to suck your dick?’, aren’t ya?”

“Without all the honorifics and I was just hoping for the first question, but if you’re offering…” John looked at her all hopeful. Boasting about a plan in motion while getting a blowjob was his definition of a pretty good morning.

“Nein,” Rave denied in German, “I ain’t asking either of those things.” She made a playful noise and began nibbling on his ear.

“You’re only doing that because you know it makes me suffer!”

“I AM a bit of a sadist,” Rave purred into his ear, her right hand harmlessly clawing up and down his back. “And aside from having ya beg for release, this is the second best way to torture ya a little bit, ya know?”

“I could just blabber about it without being asked!” he protested.

“But’cha won’t,” her seductive voice in his ear was joined by her other hand creeping down to his pants and grabbing his crotch in a domineering way. “’Cause John Newman hates it when people don’t take his bait.”

“You know, with how well you know me, I should never let you go anywhere without me,” he grumbled, then couldn’t help but moan when Rave found the most sensitive spot on his dick even through two layers of cloth.

“Ya know ya don’t have to worry about that,” Rave giggled, “because I love you, tiger. I have loved you for a while now and it’s not fading anytime soon. I love your mind,” she caressed the back of his head, her nimble fingers parting his short hair, “and your body,” the touch on his groin turned into a softly circulating motion.

John turned his head to kiss her, escalate this whole thing so he could have a quick way to have fun with and get rid of this quickly forming erection. Seemingly reciprocating the intent, Rave leaned up to him. Then, when only a sheet of paper would have fit between their lips, she immediately drew back. “Oh, come on!” the Gamer complained, left quite bothered.

Rave stuck out her tongue as she took another dancing step backwards. “So how did ya know that he would be coming?” she asked.

Grumbling something unflattering while trying to shut out the needy pulsating in his pants, the Gamer briefly considered calling for any of his elementals to quickly take care of this problem. The way his girlfriend grinned at him, however, made it clear that she would consider that a win for her. Which not doing anything also would have been.

In the end, the fact that he was limited in time to a quickie made him decide to grit his teeth and wait for this hard-on to pass. “You’re evil!” John did need to make that clear.

“I’m the harem-leader, girlfriend and future fiancé of the guy who is conquering the USA in the name of his pride,” she winked at him while leaning onto the nearby dinner table. “Being a lil’ bit evil is part of the description.”

“One, I don’t enjoy you putting it like that, and two, TOTALLY evil!” John corrected her. “I am not -just- doing this for my pride! I expect you to respect that!”

“And I expect a very nice ring, like, the best ring when ya get on one knee,” Rave countered, twirled back over and booped him on the nose. “I bit the bait, tiger, ya can start rambling about your victory now.”

John barely managed to not spill the beans on his current progress on making such a ring. Instead, he said, “Well, maybe I just keep acting annoyed because I know you like watching me squirm so much?” he suggested.

“Hmmm, maybe ya do,” Rave admitted. “I mean, ya do love me.”

“I do… most of the time,” the Gamer felt more blood return to his brain and sighed one more time in exasperation. “Alright so, here is why I knew he was going to be the one coming here,” John started. “Because it’s him.”

Rave, half-amused, half-annoyed, shook her head in short bursts. “And ya wonder why I would tease ya.”

“I didn’t wonder, I was frustrated,” the Gamer clarified.

“Smartass.”

“Bubble-butt.”

“Ya know it, now, get on with that explanation. Guess that was the hook that bait was hanging on.”

“Okay then. The situation I created when announcing that tournament, especially after clarifying I allowed a contestant from their side to enter, put the Lake Alliance in a place where they HAD to make a move,” John elaborated. “Not doing anything would’ve been a massive PR loss. I don’t expect a leadership that declares war in a fashion as aggressive as they did to take such a thing.”

“I get that bit,” Rave answered. “Can’t have us gain such a huge chunk of territory, particularly filled with people they struggled to take over for decades, in a matter of weeks. Would look very bad.”

“Yeah and I would use that continuously against them,” John looked back outside; Jeremiah had long vanished from the field of view, now in the arena and properly writing his name on the list of contestants. “Fusion has upped at least the appearance of its strength tremendously recently. The Lake Alliance now looking weak would give me a pretty big stick to hammer them with diplomatically. Real numbers don’t even matter at that point.”

“Alrighty, that’s the motivation for WHY they come here covered,” Rave played along, pulling the information from his nose. “So can ya demonstrate to me why it was HIM exactly who would come here?”

“I have scraped together information on every single high-level individual in the Lake Alliance and surmised a list of six that I would deem dangerous or close to dangerous to me at my current level and state of health,” John gestured towards his eyes. “So this part was a bit more speculation than I’m usually comfortable with, given that all I had was third-party info about most of them. I took my gamble that Jeremiah would be the most… let’s call it ‘explosive’ amongst them. People like that need time to be reined in and convinced that another course of action would be the smartest.”

“Ah, I get it,” Rave chimed in, “that’s why ya announced the tournament on such a short notice!”

“Yup,” John chirped back, quite happy. “It’s so simple. They HAD to make some move and amongst the six people that could even attempt to spoil my plans, Jeremiah both has the personality to jump on such an occasion and dislikes me heavily. In other words, they sent the guy the most motivated, because I didn’t give them the time to think this over and pick who was most fitting instead.”

“Ya sure he hates ya that much?” Rave asked. “I mean, what did ya do to him?”

“I called his dick small.”

“That’s it?”

“It’s 9 centimetres.”

“Oh wow!”

“First time I could actually do something with THAT bit of Observe’s intel,” John joked. “Did you know he only fucked once? Poor guy must have been so embarrassed, he hasn’t tried since.”

“That almost makes me feel bad for him,” Rave pointed out. “I mean, only almost. To be that under-boned must be terrible.”

“I can somewhat sympathize, being that I didn’t use to be the most well-endowed myself-”

“Thankfully, you only grew over the months, had enough problems sucking ya off when your dick was smaller,” Rave jokingly interjected. “Practice over time equals profit!”

“-But,” John continued almost without pause, “he threatened to eat Aclysia and Beatrice and my empathy is very finite for people that threaten what I own.”

“Understandable… do ya say it like that cause ya made them or because it tickles your dominance fetish?”

“Yes,” his answer came as swift as it was cheeky

“Figured,” Rave stuck out her tongue. “Still, one encounter weeks backs seems a bit much to base that much hatred on.”

“Well… you remember that livestream?”

“No, Johnny, I forgot about me embarrassing myself and encountering a new fetish in the process within a week,” she answered dryly, tapping her feet to a steady rhythm. That John could read out of that her current mood, being only fake-annoyed, told him that he was spending just enough time with the love of his life.

“Don’t know how much of the pre-porn segment you noticed, but I got a question about showing my ‘tiny dick’ to Cindy already. The person sending it was called ‘Devourer of Exhibits’.”

“And?”

“And Jeremiah’s official title is Art Eater.”

“…That’s super uncreative though.”

“Said the light mage using Neonlights to the Gamer using the Gamer,” John laughed at the minor irony. “Anyway, I had that hunch checked by Scarlett and she put it under pretty likely. Given that he still cared then and what happened after the question, I am absolutely sure he despises me.” Jeremiah emerged from behind a pillar of the arena. “And new, personal grudges can often supersede old, societal ones.”

Seemingly random, Zensie walked near the Lake Alliance’s fighter. The former number two’s steps slowed while passing Jeremiah. John couldn’t hear anything; the sphere through which he was looking was keeping its distance as to not cause any suspicion.

He could see lips moving a few times though, then Zensie dropped something, which Jeremiah stepped on to hide it. At that exact moment, a voice rung in John’s head. ‘So, uhm, the targets have met…’ Gnome reported, having followed the tremors of the earth around Jeremiah, Siena hiding in Zensie’s shadow, with both of them supported by Sylph and Salamander’s aerial coverage and all of it coordinated by Undine.

‘Yeah, I happened to see it myself,’ he answered. He wouldn’t have relied on such a chance thing to get confirmation on his plans going on. When using all his elementals, he could track things quite reliably, especially in a controlled environment like an island with a limited amount of people on it.

‘O-ooh…’ Gnome sounded a bit disappointed. ‘Uhm, I’ll just… stay here and wait for you?’

‘Gnome, you did a good job, very timely report,’ he praised her, as his luck shouldn’t mean that her efforts should go unrewarded. ‘I’ll give you a very nice hug later, alright?’

‘Yay!’ the soil elemental exclaimed, not even hiding her enthusiasm behind any embarrassment.

‘I wanna get in on that, I wanna, I wanna!’ Sylph chanted, and before John knew it they had agreed to some sort of group hug.

“Well, things are moving according to plan so far,” John stated and stretched. “Let’s get to the arena.” Rave offered her arm, and the Gamer gladly relied on her.

“Just one last question,” Rave said when they were walking down the pathway. “What would ya have done if they had sent someone else after all?”

“I had contingencies for the other five… ultimately, Jeremiah is just the one I think I can fight the easiest. Him being the one who comes here isn’t necessary for the plan to work in its entirety. Just the easiest way to control for the desired outcomes,” the Gamer answered. “If they hid someone and threw something ridiculous on the table… things may have gotten dicey. Sadly, there is no such thing as a riskless scheme. At least not on this scale.”

“So ya would just have pulled something out of your butt?”

“Just because I like to plan everything ahead of time, doesn’t mean I can’t improvise,” John smirked and they continued their little back and forth until they arrived at the arena. He made sure that Jeremiah saw him, then braced himself to let go of Rave’s arm and for the inevitable fall that would follow.

He didn’t have to do any of that as a lightning girl ripped him away the second he let go of his girlfriend. “Yay, cuddles!” Sylph exclaimed, having evidently decided that now was the time for the plan made a few minutes earlier. “John is narrow but has broad chest to rub face on! Sylph recharging her affection batteries!”

“N-no fair!” Gnome hurried over. For a moment, John feared the soil elemental would jump on his half lying body. He was pretty sturdy, but having an Asian-hottie shaped boulder crash on him would have still shaved some HP off. Luckily, she stopped herself and, admittedly awkwardly, just walked up to him, laid down next to him, slowly embraced him and nuzzled close.

She was holding onto him with wide open eyes and a deeply uncomfortable look on her flushing face. Yet, the cuddle rock only hugged his chest tighter.

“I… wanted to start that hug,” Gnome mumbled and followed up with a quiet, “Uwuwuwuwuwu,” when both John and Sylph got enticed by her cuteness and deeply embraced her in return.

As the group hug slowly shifted into a sitting position, Salamander arrived on the scene. “Everyone having fun, huh?” she cackled, the buzzcut, redheaded redskin joining the fun through a forceful motion, cushioned in large part by her breasts, smothering Sylph’s face and causing her chattering to be muffled for the moment. The bra of flames didn’t even hurt the air spirit, Salamander had gained more than enough control of herself in that department.

“Eeeeep!” Gnome made a sudden sound, looking back over her shoulder, where Undine had appeared out of nowhere and lifted the skirt of the first contracted elemental’s yellow summer dress. “What’re you doing?”

“Once more, no panties,” Undine noted in her typically calm voice, causing the soil elemental to go from red to crimson. “Not even with all these people watching.”

If Gnome could have turned into lava, she would have turned into a molten puddle right now. “S-stop showing them my butt, youuuu-“ she whined but was interrupted when Undine flowed into the group hug.

John was now surrounded by a four-elemental sandwich. Salamander’s hot breasts smothered his chest, even with an empty head in the way. Sylph’s short and light curves were enthusiastically pressing against him. Gnome was holding onto him with the strength of the earth (and the embarrassment), while he couldn’t help but grab at her still semi-exposed butt, soft as mud. Undine was encapsulating all of them in her cold squishiness, her own breasts supporting John’s neck as the quiet ocean elemental kept her arms around him.

It was a very nice group hug.

Just a bit bad placing wise.

From the arena, he heard Aclysia’s voice, who started the tournament right on schedule. “Alright, the fight order has been decided. First contestants please enter the arena.” John didn’t really need to care about that. Most of the match-ups were randomly decided. The Gamer had only done some minor fixing to make absolutely certain there was no way he faced Jeremiah anytime soon in the tournament. The finals would have been too suspicious, so the semi-finals was where they were designed to face each other.

He also knew that he was in the second half of the brackets because of this. There was no way he even cared about who was fighting in this first round. He hugged more intensely rather than listening to the names. The first one passed, some random from the Small Lake Pact. “… versus Mistress Jane ‘Rave’ Hollmey, participating in the name of Collide.”

John was stunned, Rave giggled. “She still calls me that.”

“No, wait, that’s not the issue here!” John exclaimed. “When did you enter the tournament, how, I mean, why, I mean…”

“Ya said, and I quote: ‘aside from myself and the people of the Small Lake Pact, I invite the surrounding guilds to participate’ and one per guild,” she smirked. “Well, ya didn’t say ya were here for Fusion and as Collide is technically the leader of Fusion, I’m gonna do that.” She booped his nose; her boyfriend’s arms were still stuck under slime and cuddles. “Did you think I would just stay out of the action? Come on, tiger, ya should’ve known something like that was coming.”

“I am honestly impressed you figured out such a blatantly unintended logic hole,” John blinked rapidly. “I don’t like the PR damage you’re doing to my brand by effectively doubling Fusion’s victory chances though.”

“Don’t ya worry, when we face off in the finale, I am gonna punch ya so hard nobody is going to think of that anymore,” Rave promised. By the way of the bracket design, the finale was indeed the only time they could face.

“Jane, please stop flirting with Master,” Aclysia, who could follow all of this by just checking her mental connection to her creator, spoke out loud, her voice echoing through the speakers as she continued to stand in the heart of the arena. “I understand the sentiment, but we’re short on time anyway and I will have to disqualify you in fifteen… fourteen… thirteen...”