Rupegia

Chapter 32: Titans – Part 3

Today is the 3rd. Ne, day of Water.

After Alissa's meal Roxanne uses her to get off. A mass of red and light brown covers my eyes and I immediately feel it rising again. Hana sits down on me and we slowly have our fun paying sole attention to the two girls to our side.

After Roxanne is done with Alissa, she is used to clean Hana and I have to use Roxanne as I watch.

"Guuys, I'm hungry!" Ciel appears on the doorway.

"Kweh!"

"Gih!"

Lina stands still looking disappointed but soon after her stomach growls and she joins the famished faction.

This morning is spent again naked with Ciel while we practice [Holy Spirit]. Roxanne only needs an occasional demonstration of [Heart of Fire] so I can split my focus between the two.

We hang our painting/picture at the wall on top of the fireplace. It gives a refreshing vibe to the room, it makes it really feel like "home". I was never one to care about pictures, but the lack of a mirror or a camera made me value the little things, you only notice how you miss something when you can't have it anymore.

"Behold! Lightning!" Lyle strikes his sword on the dummy and electricity runs through its straw body. Smoke rises and it catches fire, the professor [Rush]'es to the dummy and [Conjures Water] on top of it.

"I told you to use very little mana," he growls at Lyle, his red leather mask only makes him look more threatening.

All I need is a chair and some tea and I will be quite comfy watching this comedy routine unfold.

This actually shows how talented Lyle really is, he learned the level 30 spell [Charge] while having only 15 points in [Electric Magic].

Class ends and right outside of the university a beautiful carriage is waiting for us. On the outside it's a small carriage, on the inside it's a large room capable of transporting 20 people. Roxanne, Hana, and Ciel are already inside eating some snacks.

The windows are thick and do not open. The carriage needs a strong base to endure such strong enchantment.

The dresses are back, everyone switched to formal clothing and a magic-tool powered [Clean] is enough to make the faces look fresh.

Nononya looks adorable with her simple puffy and frilly white dress. Silvane is enchanting as her loose sleeveless silver silk dress shows the contour of her small breasts, if I look closely I can even see the form of the nipple. Hatara is more modest with a sleeveless black dress and a green shawl, her loose hair gives her a more mature look.

Alissa is using a puffy and thin yellow top with a long summer skirt, her toned midriff is showing. Roxanne is on her gothic-lolita-looking black dress with a huge cleavage and also knee high socks. Hana is on a sleeveless tube red dress that shows the contour of her entire body; her nipples are already hard, I will choose her for tonight. Ciel has her flowery dress, thought it's much shorter this time, showing a few centimeters of her thick thighs. Lina has a simple black dress that reaches her knees and a small white tie, she also uses a red bow tie headband.

The male side is rather boring. We are all using velvet pants, a thick doublet and a cloak. Even in fantasy we cannot escape the lack of fashion for men. I'm actually envious, all I want is to look fabulous.

Garanae has trouble finding where to look, he does not even want to stare at his own woman due to respect. Hana deliberately stretches, making her nipples poke through the dress fabric. Lyle turns red and keeps his head down while Garanae's eyes gloss over and lose focus.

Ciel pinches Hana's arm and she stops her teasing but gives both young boys a hungry smile that give them shivers.

"So I heard every race has its specialty, how are the spectacles on other Coliseums?" I ask.

"Spirit battle royal or team spirit battles," Roxanne says.

"Jousting with all sorts of mounts," Silvane says.

Hana snorts.

"We do horseless jousting with only our wings."

"Ei, Ronti jousting is really fun to watch," Lyle pouts.

"Yeah but it's always the same thing, wing jousting has much more breadth of movement."

"I know, right," Nononya leans forward and grins. "We do [Fly] battles and they are so awesome, I miss them so much."

"Now that's something interesting," Roxanne says, "[Wind Spirit] battles are quite hard to see."

"Hmph! It's not about the spectacle, Ronti jousting is about precision," Lyle says with pride.

"And elven jousting is about animal training and control," Silvane says.

"I am sorry, Grand ones but I believe it is boring," Hana says, straining herself not to swear.

Lyle sighs and chuckles, "Just call me by my first name, no 'Mr.'"

"Same, no 'Miss'," Silvane says.

"Anyway, we also do greatsword duels," Hana continues, "without armor they are quite entertaining."

"And bloody," Roxanne adds.

Hana shrugs.

"When you have healers at your side it's very rare for someone to die, no need to go easy."

"Weren't you born at Sommerland? What do they do there?" I ask.

"Eh, the ape wereanimals like [Alchemicism] too much, it makes the battles quite confusing."

Roxanne snorts, "What's the use of alchemy if you can't reproduce the same result twice," she wrinkles her nose.

"Uh, what? You have to explain that one to me," I say.

"A part of [Alchemicism] is trying to extract the abstract concepts of things. The problem is it rarely works the same way twice, you are basically asking the God of Luck to give you the spell you want!" Roxanne throws her hands in the air. "It's fine if you want to use it to extract the more complex things out of materials but the wereapes go a step too far."

Another rift between scholars, how amusing.

"Aanyway... what about the Misty Fox clan?" I ask.

"We don't duel much, just some archery contests. The more popular contest is hunting the most dangerous monster you can, alone," Alissa says.

"What about the dwarves?" Lyle asks to Lina.

"I never saw but I heard they like to duel with full plate and clubs until one passes out, then there's the men-of-the-line team combat. I'm not sure how true it is but there's drunk duels where you are not allowed to use [Spirit of Gaia]."

"Now that's something interesting," Hana smirks.

We reach our destination and get out of the wagon.

The Colosseum is a large circular building made of blue-gray bricks. It has a tall ceiling between each of the 3 floors with huge windows where statues of overly muscular men, women, and large monsters peek out from. Floating on top of it is a mini-sun called [Spirit Light].

We are on the "noble" side so other carriages and the usual carnival of fashion flock in direction of the entrance.

Our group simply strolls through the line and we pass by the guard with merely a nod from Silvane. We pass through wide halls full of murals of glorious battles that elicit a nod of approval from Lina. Stalls of assorted goodies can be seen, sweets, snacks, meats on sticks, keepsakes, plushies, and even fake gladiator armor for children.

After a stair we reach our room, it's a covered balcony protruding forward towards the middle of the ring. A feast of fruits, sweets, meats, and other savory snacks are in front of us on a table. Beyond that Haaran awaits on a very comfy looking sofa, his feet up on an ottoman footstool.

"Hey Silf," he waves towards us, his piercing gaze nowhere to be found.

She smiles at him and plops on the sofa at his side, Nononya then plops besides her. After some quick introductions my group picks a wide sofa while Lyle's picks a smaller one at the middle.

"Vanea is not coming?" Silvane asks.

"No, she's with mother and Lai," Haaran answers.

Conversation is thrown away as they discuss the best gladiator and who's going to win this time. There's also some mentions about the summoning battle but not much information about it was revealed to keep the mystery.

The golems are pulled out by Ciel, now that they are self-sufficient they are kept outside most of the time.

"How adorable!" Nononya grabs Ted and hugs him tight, the little golem already learned that resistance is futile and his destiny is to be smothered by women.

Once she gets her share of hugging she puts the golem down and Roxanne tells them to dance, causing Nono and Hatara to cough blood.

"Amazing, Mr. Ryder," Silvane says. "They look so incredibly smart... and cute..."

"So, so cute!" Hatara gushes, her green eyes suddenly turn into one of a hunter. "So envious! Sell one to me one day."

Haaran raises an eyebrow and Garanae rolls his eyes.

The mini-sun glows green and the entire Colosseum goes quiet.

"Gentlemen and Gentlewomen!" Announces a magically-enhanced voice. "Welcome to the 110th spectacle of the year!"

The crowd cheers.

"Our schedule for tonight is first a Battle Royal, then a duel between Baal and Taal, the twins of anger and scorn!" The crowd gives a "hurray!". "And finally, the SUMMONER BATTLE!"

The crowd cheers again.

"Start returning to your seats, folks! The bets are going to close down in a minute and the battle will start in five!"

I look to Ciel and grab her hand.

"What do the gods say about betting?" I ask.

"The God of Luck says it's a waste of time," she answers.

"So why do people do it?"

"The God of War tells people not to foolishly charge to your deaths but people still do it all the time. It's simply because people are fools," she smiles bitterly.

"More like they want some excitement," Hana says.

"They are still fools if they don't know when it's appropriate to make a bet," Ciel smiles smugly.

Hana shows her tongue at her and Ciel snorts.

A minute later a large amount of mostly men and some women come out of the first floor into the dirt arena. They wear typical gladiator armor that exposes a lot of the body but protects the more important organs like the heart and brains.

A beautiful dragonkin woman appears and the crowd goes wild. She's taller than all the men, she must be at least 2,1 meters tall. Her pure white skin in contrast with her abyss black hair and scales, her armor is minimal, it could barely be considered a bikini since she even exposes a massive breast with a ghost nipple.

The male side of our group becomes a little uncomfortable as the female side tries to catch back our attention. Lyle's posture shrinks as he looks incredibly solitaire in his awkwardness.

Lina casually drills her ass on my crotch as she pets Aoi. Alissa latches my hand in the middle of her crotch, which I feel get warm by the second. Hana latches my other hand on her crotch, which is already warmer than Alissa's. Roxanne and Ciel reach over and painfully squeeze my thigh for a second.

The shameless dragonkin pulls out a greatsword with a light blue sheen. Lina's grinding stops as she admires the sword.

"Kanal..." She mutters.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Metal perfect for enchanting," Hana answers, "not the best at cutting but you can make some interesting weapons with it."

After the carnival of gladiators is done coming out, a large amount of robed priests fill the ring wall of the arena and lower themselves behind barricades.

"It is time!" The announcer suddenly speaks, "Without further ado, LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"

*PUOINNN~!* A gong is hit and the warriors start to fight.

The shameless dragonkin flies towards the nearest man and bashes him, he loses his posture and she slashes with all her strength. Her sword buries itself halfway through the exposed leg of a man, then a ghost of her appears and strikes again, this time the leg is cut through.

Interesting indeed.

"[Double Strike]..." Lina mutters again, completely entranced on the woman.

The crowd "ooh's" in sympathy. The now legless man and his legs are quickly recovered by the priests and immediately his leg gets reattached, though he doesn't return to battle.

"She swings that sword like a club," Hana says. "It works but..."

"It's completely inefficient, ridiculous even," Haaran says.

"They are performers after all," Silvane says with a shrug.

The shameless dragonkin skewers another man through his stomach and with a monstrous grunt, throws him into another opponent. Both men break bones from the impact, an arm is twisted on the wrong way.

"Wow..." Haaran mutters, his eyes gleam with admiriation.

The men decide to gang up on her. One tries to thrust but has his sword blocked by the black scales at the back of her hand; another cuts one of wings off; a third slashes at her thigh, drawing blood; a fourth comes for a killing blow at her exposed shoulder but stops when her sword flashes light and blinds everyone nearby. The light even hurt our eyes a little.

She crouches low and cuts off the feet of her attackers with a sweep. She immediately awkwardly flies to the side when the biggest man of the arena slashes down at her with his own greatsword.

The man is a muscular, bronze skinned man with the biggest mustache I have ever seen, and he's only wearing a tight red thong. He's just as bloodied as her.

"SABLE, SABLE, SABLE!" Half the crowd cries.

"MONS, MONS, MONS!" The other half cries in response.

They trade blows, nicking each other little by little. Each cut causes a short gush of blood to come out, dyeing the sand of the arena red.

The rest of the battles ended, bringing calm to the arena besides the two. In a split second they part ways and cleave the few remaining men, finally leaving them as the last two standing.

They rush back to each other and the clash restarts, but there's a clear winner approaching.

Mons kicks Sable away, she weakly stands up and walks forward. Mons leans forward and is stopped by Sable's hand. She holds him still, gives him a peck on the lips and pushes him back. He falls on the ground, unconscious.

"RAAAAAahh..." Her victory scream fades as she falls backwards, also unconscious.

"SABLE WINS!" The announcer screams.

The woman is healed by the priests and immediately runs a victory lap. The crowd throws flowers, coins, and marriage proposals from men and women.

The priests quickly clean the arena out of body parts, participants, and blood. In a few minutes everything is back to normal.

"Gentlemen and Gentlewomen!" The announcer talks again. "The bets for the next spectacle have closed! Sit down and watch as the twins settle who's the best swordsman of Rabanara!"

From opposite sides two handsome men with chiseled faces and statuesque bodies come out, I feel an instinctual need to cover the eyes of all women. Both of them have a half neck guard that only protects the spine, a shoulder guard that covers the heart, and short leather pants, their muscular chests are exposed and oiled. One has a ball of fire engraved on his metal kite shield and the other has a crystal of ice. One is a red skinned devil-type and the other is a blue skinned oni-type.

Their faces look the same even though they have different races, the devil-type has two small protusions on his forehead while the other has two short yellow horns coming out. They put their identical helmets on and draw their identical steel swords.

"Brother!" The blue oni yells, "Let your chaotic ways end here! Your swordsmanship brings nothing but blood and death, you will waste your life by dying by your sword due to your recklessness!"

"Brother!" The red devil yells, "Let your decaying ways end here! Your swordsmanship brings nothing but meekness and stagnation, you will waste your life by withering away without accomplishing anything!"

"Let the Gods decide who is right! You will be defeated here, Baal!"

"Let the Gods decide who is stronger! You will be defeated here, Taal!"

They point their swords at each other and charge.

Baal strikes first and keeps his momentum. His sword does not stop as he strikes again and again. Taal defends with his shield, using minimal movements to deflect each blow.

"Now this looks like proper swordsmanship," Hana says.

Haaran nods in approval.

Baal flourishes with a spin attack, it strikes so hard Taal's shield that even I wince at the damage to the blade. The sound of metal hitting metal reverberates through the arena, bringing the crowd to higher levels of excitement.

Haaran sighs and smiles bitterly. "Can't forget we are still at the Colosseum," he says.

The battle picks up pace not in speed but in showmanship, each fighter flourishes with increasing frequency. It's a beauty to watch but it's not one a show of expert swordsmanship.

Baal nicks Taal with more frequency than the inverse. The blue skin of the oni gets slowly died in his blood as the wounds increase yet his posture never crumbles or his speed decreases. Baal on the contrary looks increasingly haggard and with more difficulty to breathe with each attack.

"JUST... DIE... ALREADY!" Baal yells between each strike.

"YOU... ARE... FOOLISH!"

Taal bashes and counters, his strength pushes Baal away and his sword jabs the stomach of his brother. He continues with his momentum, a rhythm of bashing and countering pushes Baal away and soon he's going to touch the wall.

Baal sinks his foot on the ground and takes a bash on his body. He hugs Taal's shield and jabs at his collarbone from above.

Taal sinks low and sweeps his brother's feet off the ground. He leans forward as Baal's body hits the ground and forces him down with his shield.

Taal's sword flashes and Baal drops his weapons, his hand goes to cover the new wound at his throat, a futile attempt to stop the flood of blood.

Taal kicks the ground and lands a meter away from his brother, in a moment a priest is already healing Baal. Taal lifts his bloodied sword to the sky and closes his eyes in meditation.

"TAAL WINS!"

The crowd explodes in cheers again and Taal makes a victory lap. The crowd throws flowers, coins, letters of love, and used panties.

"You said dragonkin duels are more bloody?" Alissa asks Hana.

"Oh yes, a slashed throat or a missing arm are not enough to stop a fight," she answers.

The cleanup is quicker this time so in a minute the announcer is speaking again.

"Gentlemen and Gentlewomen! The bets for the next spectacle have closed! Sit down and watch our final spectacle! The SUMMONER BATTLEEEE~!"

"TITAN, TITAN, TITAN, TITAN!" The crowd chants.

"Ohoh..." Roxanne murmurs.

Nononya's whiskers twitch repeatedly.

Everyone leans forward waiting for the next duelists.

Out of opposite sides, two lithe robed figures come out. One is in white robes, the other in black . A krampus-type demon with brown hair and a wereowl woman with white hair with streaks of grey.

"KROSSUS VERSUS OROONA!"

Both of them start to chant and after 2 minutes a 10-meter tall earth elemental forms on each side. Their bodies are made of floating blocks of stone while the joints are round balls. Stone grinds on stone loudly with every movement.

The elementals step forward in slow motion, each step sending a tremor through the arena.

"Oh, wow," I let the wonder escape my lips.

"Impressive but I believe it's borderline unpractical, right?" Silvane asks.

Nononya has her mouth hanging in wonder but still manages to nod repeatedly.

"The mana efficiency is going to be horrible," I say.

Krossus' elemental is made of yellow stone while Oroona's is made of black stone.

"LET THE BEST SUMMONER BEGIN! FIGHT!"

The elementals crush the ground as they charge forward. The yellow titan aims a right hook while the black titan leans low and opens his arms wide.

"Yellow opens with a punch while Black bets it all on a bear hug!" The announcer yells.

Yellow fires his slow-motion punch and grazes the arm of Black, who deflects the blow with his own arm. Black slams his front foot on the ground to stop and aims an uppercut with his left arm.

*DROOM~* A low rumble as stone hits stone and piece of yellow rock flies. Yellow's head block spins wildly, his balance is broken and he falls backwards.

"OH! A perfect parry followed by a hit!"

Yellow uses his arms to hook on Black's arms and pull him down. Yellow's body twists and suddenly, as "sudden" as a 10 seconds fall can be, Black hits the ground first, followed by Yellow's knee.

*DOOOOMSHH~...* Dust lifts from the ground as both titans fall like rocks, literally.

"Yellow reverses it up and drags Black down with it!"

A 3-meters tall dominatrix made of fire burst alive besides Oroona. A 3-meters tall angel of light in a frilly dress blooms out of a flower besides Krossus.

The dominatrix flies forward and her whip of fire curls around Yellow's neck. She grunts as she pulls him away from Black.

Long blades appear out of the back of the hand of the angel and she flies forward towards the dominatrix.

"Dame of Pain and the Saintess make their appeareances! Will their rivalry finally end here!?"

Yellow staggers up, his hands claw at his face trying to remove the whip in vain. Black hits the ground with his arm and his other flies upwards, the outer layer explodes revealing a much thinner, and faster, arm below.

Saintess is nicked by Black's new arm and is diverted away from the fight. Her hands rub her eyes as dust must have entered them.

"The Saintess is taken in surprise by a layer discard from Black!"

Dame of Pain raises her other hand and a large ball of fire starts to form.

Yellow turns around and tries to move towards the Dame but his legs are swiped by Black and he falls face first on the ground.

*DOOOOMSHH~...* More dust is lifted. The Dame cackles an evil laugh and prepares to throw her spell.

A flying blade pierces the ball of fire and glows. The fire grows wild and the ball starts to lose shape.

"The Saintess interrupts the spell with the mana from her sword!"

The Dame scowls and throws the unstable spell at Yellow.

The Saintess flies into the spell and buries her other blade at it. She screams as the flame licks her "skin". Yellow pulls her away and the spell explodes, chunks of yellow rock fly around the arena.

Bursts of wind prevent the rock from reaching the stands. A particularly large piece of rock floats in front of us, wind flowing all around it, keeping it still. Another gust of wind takes the rock away back into the arena.

"Now that was scary as hell," I say.

Haaran chuckles. "That's the point of using [Wind Shield]," he says.

"It really makes it more exciting," Lyle says.

"Yellow sacrificed his hand to save Saintess, but oh no...!" The announcer yells.

Black jumps into Yellow and crashes down on him. Yellow sinks into the dirt as it compresses under the ridiculous weight. Black lifts his fist up.

A new sun appears on the arena. Saintess opens her mouth and a beam of light hits the flank of Black, sending him a meter away from Yellow. Her spell ends and she looks depleted with her shoulder slumped.

The Dame retreats her whip and coils it on Saintess, making her scream. She pulls the whip back and sinks a fire claw on the belly of Saintess.

"THE SAINTESS IS CAUGHT ON THE EVIL CLAWS OF THE DAME!"

The crowd groans in pain, clear favoritism towards the light elemental.

The Saintess struggles and wrenches free, she flies away and collapses on the ground. White shining "blood" stains the claws of the Dame, which slowly return to being a "normal" hand.

A tornado quickly forms besides Oroona. In a few seconds it dissipates and a 5-meters tall, transparent, green woman is left behind. You can see sharp features and an air (heh) of self-importance on her.

Besides Krossus it suddenly starts to rain. Quickly the drops of rain freeze in the form of a throne, after that a blob of floating water takes the shape of a 5-meters tall man. He has similar facial features and the same air about him.

"THE LAST SUMMONS APPEARS! SISTER TEMPEST AND BROTHER MAELSTROM ARE CALLED TO BATTLE!"

The ants that are Krossus and Oroona hunch over and breathe quickly, their mana is exhausted.

Suddenly Yellow explodes and the arena is filled with dust again.

A woman screams and a gust of air sweeps the dust. A skeleton of Yellow is moving at incredible speed back towards Maelstrom. Dame is on his clutches, being squeezed alive by him.

"Yellow shows his final form and captures the Dame!"

Maelstrom calls forth a jet of water that he fires towards Dame, steam fills the air and obscures our vision again.

A large tremor runs through the arena and Tempest clears the air again. A skeleton of Black is on top of Yellow, his foot is crushing the rib cage of the fallen titan. Dame is being encased in ice, she desperately tries to melt her prison down while shrieking.

Black cracks the spine of Yellow along his rib cage, breaking his body into two. Suddenly dame starts to glow. The ice prison shatters and a gush of water throws Dame back towards Black.

*BOOOOM!* Rock flies towards every direction again and [Wind Shield] keeps us all safe. The air clears and we see Black is standing still, the skeleton above his hip is missing, black rock fills grounds of the arena.

"THE SUICIDE BACKFIRED! MAELSTROM USED DAME TO FINISH OF BLACK!"

The crowd goes crazy, children have meltdowns, Aoi flaps her wings in excitement.

Maelstrom forms a spear of ice while Tempest forms one of air.

They charge at each other and a "bloody" battle begins. Water drips down multiple holes on Maelstrom and green smoke comes out of Tempest's body.

They pierce each other in a display of savagery more than spearmanship as they forgo defense.

Tempest is faster and is filling Maelstrom with more holes than he can dish out in counter. He's pushed back and Tempest smiles sadistically. The man of water has a stern expression but pain slowly seeps into his face.

"Maelstrom is being pushed back! The brother cannot compete with his sister's speed!"

Suddenly Yellow gains a burst of speed and grabs the legs of Tempest. She sneers at him and crushes his head, finishing him. A moment later light escapes from his ribcage, then the ground turns white and Tempest screams.

"THE TRAP HAS BEEN TRIGGERED! TEMPEST HAS FORGOTTEN THE SAINTESS!"

Her movements slow as [Sanctuary] attacks her every being.

Maelstrom booms a laugh and strikes back at his sister. She cowers and tries to leave the sacred ground but every move takes away her power. She barely manages to defend herself.

With a final laugh Maelstrom pierces his ice spear on the head of Tempest. She shrieks and becomes invisible, suddenly a tornado blasts through the arena and the elemental is no more.

Oroona kneels.

"KROSSUS WINS!"

The elementals dissipate in a rainbow smoke and Krossus makes his victory lap. The crowd throws flowers, coins, lewd drawings of his summons, and proposals for summoning brothels.

"Now that was a spectacle," I say.

"Can you do things like this, Wolf?" Garanae asks.

"I think I can get to 5 meters tall, but the efficiency of it is ridiculous, it's impractical for combat," I answer.

"What a shame, sieges would be so much more interesting if we had 10-meters tall titans taking front row."

"Maybe if we had someone dedicate their lives to it the efficiency could be improved," Nononya says.

"Oh?" Lyle turns his head to her, his eyes gleam with hope.

"You still have to deal with catapults and earth mages using huge [Earth Bullets], simply not feasible," Haaran says.

"Oh..." Lyle and Garanae drop their heads.

We spend a little longer and fill our bellies with more snacks. Since it's well into the night we are taken home after that. A new carriage was waiting for my group.

I enter the bath and push Hana on the wall, she bends over and lifts her dress for me, one toned leg up on a stool. I immediately penetrate her from behind. She's a mild exhibitionist, she would get warmer every time someone glanced at her nipples.

The prolongued teasing took its toll on us. Soon I pull it out and finish all over her dress, ruining it.

We take a quick bath to clean the sweat and then go to sleep.