But before we could start. “Oh Pelladonis. Is this what you do with your days?”

The crowd parted again and four lamia came in carrying a palanquin with a bunyip lounging underneath a sheer canopy.

“Get out. The match is about to start. Bets are already being placed.”

“That’s fine.” The bunyip came fully into view. Her face below the eyes was covered by a veil, but when she snapped out a fan to blow away the desert heat, I could see a wide smile on her face. “I’ll just challenge him after you’re defeated.”

“Shut your mouth, Beatrix, the serpents can’t hold a candle to the roses.”

“Maybe when your family hands off the trading company to you, you can speak to me like that, but for now don’t you dare.” Beatrix leaned over the platform and glared at Pelladonis before she turned to me. “However, you. Oh my, you are a specimen. If you beat this naughty girl, I’ll come down there and wrap you up and make you more comfortable than you could ever imagine.

She pulled at her fluffy tail, pressing it into her chest making it push up and swell to ridiculous proportions.

I was temped to say the least.

“I might just take you up on that.” I teased.

“Oh my!” She blushed and held her tail tighter. “500 for his next match.”

Fi-five hundred. Holy shit. Claire suddenly was red in the face and covering the mic, clearing her throat. We have a bid for five hundred, but it’s already too late. We’ll hold that bid for the next round if there is one.

“I heard there was a party, but I didn’t realize it had gotten quite so lively.” A clear voice rang out among the crowd and room was made yet again for another important character coming into the conversation.

A beautiful blue skinned monster girl stepped forward. She had fin like ears and dripped on the stone like she’d just come out of the water. “Beatrix, Pella, it’s rare the three of us are in one place.”

Pelladonis was grinding her teeth at the new arrival. “Oceana, what are you doing here. I don’t often see you out of the water.”

“Someone came and alerted me that you were giving a show dear Pella.” She flipped her wet hair over her shoulder. “Is this the man that’s caused such a commotion?”

I cleared my throat. “If you’d pardon me, I’d like to get this over with.”

“Oh of course, I just came to watch.” Oceana sat down on the lip of the arena and let her feet dangle down into the pit.

“Pelladonis, I believe you were blustering that you were going to win. Care to get started?” I drew upon my sorceries and help them at the tip of my fingers.

She snorted and spun her mancatcher. “You’re going to regret not taking what time you can.”

I threw blades of wind at her in a probing attack.

Pelladonis twirled her mancatcher, blasting apart the blades of wind. “Going to have to do better than that.”

I was impressed. That mancatcher held up against my magic, even if simple magic. But I far more in store for her.

Stepping forward, I launched a pillar of earth underneath her and threw her high into the air.

She twirled and her scorpion tail curled out, balancing her. But I wasn’t done yet. I sent a jet of air crashing down on her, slamming her to the earth.

I tried to summon a set of shackles from the earth, but Pelladonis was back on her feet in a heartbeat and charging me with that mancatcher in her hands and fury in her eyes.

A wall of earth blocked her from me as I stepped back and used the wind to carry me several feet away as she whipped around the earthen wall.

That’s when I dropped it on her and brought it around, tying down her feet and tail.

“Fight me you coward.” She growled and swung the mancatcher far short of me.

“I’m a mage. I am fighting you. Is that the best you got?”

She struggled against my earthen bindings. I knew they wouldn’t hold her for long, but that’s why I was preparing another trap.

My earth sorcery flowed from me far faster than it had before. I smirked at the change. But I still needed some time. “Really now, you could just give up. No shame in losing from time to time.”

“Ha, yes Pella, please just give up so I can have my turn.” Beatrix taunted from the sideline.

It seems our colonel might yet have another victory on his hands. Pelladonis is struggling to break free of those bindings.

But the scorpia was only further encouraged by that, and with a scream wrenched her feet from the bindings and charged me.

Right into my trap.

I’d been stalling to hollow out the earth before me, and just as her mancatcher was about to touch me, the ground gave way and she fell four feet down into the pit.

Releasing the second half, I buried her up to her shoulders in the arena floor with a smirk and packed the earth in around her. “I believe that’s the end of our fight.”

I crouched down to look her in the face. “You know you’re kind of cute when you’re angry.”

She snapped her teeth at me, and I backed away, looking up to Claire for confirmation.

And it appears that Pelladonis is down for the count. This rounds winner is the Colonel, but can he really fight Beatrix, the bunyip are known for their resistance to magic, he might have just met his match in the next fight.

I backed up and released Pelladonis before taking my earthen lift back up to the booth with Claire. My earth magic was feeling stronger than ever. I was convinced it was from sex with Cleopatra, but that brought so many more questions to mind.

Would it keep working with her, and what would happen with other monster girls?

“Claire, how did my bet turn out?”

The bunnygirl beamed at me. “Brilliantly, of course there’s a house cut on all the bets, but you tripled your first fifty and stacked in another 300. Don’t suppose I could get you to bet on yourself again?”

“Yes, all in on me again if you can tell me what to expect from a bunyip.”

Kelly snorted from the side. “Extremely strong, and resistance to magic. She’ll disrupt your magic if she’s close and be careful about her fur, it’ll lull you into complacency.”

“Got it. Then all in on me again.” I smirked and stepped back out and rode the pillar of earth back down.

“Oh good. I was worried you were going to run away.” Beatrix came out of her palanquin and slithered down into the arena.

I couldn’t help but notice that Pelladonis was off to the side, glaring daggers at me. I’d have to watch my back.

Turning my attention back to Beatrix, I gave her my full attention. “Just settling up with the host.”

Alright Ladies! Beatrix already went down. But the bidding has yet to begin. We are starting with her offer of 500 gold. Any takers?

There was a pause as the whole stadium waited for someone to speak up. I however, was getting a good look at Beatrix. She almost looked like a cat girl from the waist up, with fluffy white ears sticking out the top of her head and a thin coat of fur that ran from the edge of her breasts to the tips of her fingers. Yet from the waist down she was lamia, if covered in the same white fur. Only from her hips to her face was there a strip of skin almost like a woman who was wearing nothing but an open fur coat.

“Like what you see?” She grinned.

“You’re beautiful. Won’t stop what is about to happen though.” I smiled back.

She shifted back, her eyes wide at my comment, but anything she had to say was drowned out by Claire.

Then let the fight begin!

Beatrix shot forward like a striking snake. I threw up a wall of earth. But when she impacted it, it was like it melted around her and my magic was unable to hold the wall together.

It was enough for me to get out of the way, though.

“Tisk tisk. You should know better.” She brought her tail back under her so she could strike again.

I remained quiet and focused. She was going to be much harder than Pelladonis. Not only was she far more composed, her resistance to magic was going to be a pain.

She sprang forward again, and this time I shifted myself out of the way with a blast of air and grabbed one of her hands, pulling her forward into a toss, using her own momentum.

But the second my hand touched her fur, I wanted nothing but to run my fingers through it and press it against my face. My fingers lingered a touch too long, and we both went down in a tumble.

Oh no. The colonel has gone down with Beatrix. Will he be able to get back up?

I rolled with her coming out on top, but she didn’t seem perturbed at all as she tried to tangle me up with her tail. That was bad news, and I bailed, jumping off of her and using my wind to carry me away.

A shudder ran through me as I felt a craving to run my hands through her fur again.

“Hehe. I know that look.” Beatrix curled back in on herself to come upright.

“I’ll admit your fur is quite potent.”

“You could just submit, come I’ll let you feel it as long as you’d like.” She swished her tail like an offering.

I couldn’t let the sensation distract me. I drew on my life sorcery and tamped down any physical reaction I was having and tried to push out my urges. “Sadly winning is my priority, though I’m more tempted than you know.”

There was another moment of surprise from her before her lips curled up into a smile. “Oh yes. I think I’ll savor you.”

Instead of springing at me, she slithered towards me, flexing her hands.

I started to empty out a pocket of earth like I had Pelladonis but Beatrix shot forward and her hand sank into the arena floor, disrupting my magic.

“I’m insulted you thought that would work on me.”

She sensed my magic working? That added a new difficulty. But a thought came to me. If my earth magic was so improved, could I use it in ways they might not be used to?

Beatrix came again, and I let the earth beneath my feet swallow me. Sinking several feet under and bringing more and more earth to me, packing it in and forming a hard shell around me before bringing me and my earthen armor back to the surface.

“That’s new.”

The colonel is back after disappearing into the ground, only this time he’s wearing armor made from the earth. Can he hold an advantage against Beatrix with this trick?

I charged, barreling into Beatrix and knocking her to the ground with my enhanced weight. My armor started to lose cohesion now that it was touching her, but I used the moment to thud two heavy blows into her stomach and jumping off and stepping away.

My armor was melting off me, but that was okay.

She gasped, but wasn’t able to pull in any air. That earthen armor had been heavy, and those blows were far more than a human could deliver, apparently enough to knock the wind out of her.

I tried to form binding around her, but they all just became mounds of dirt over her and she shook them off as she got her bearings again.

“I want to see how many times you can do that.” Beatrix was serious now.

But I felt like my earthen sorcery was still bursting with energy, and so I did it again. And again and again.

Until Beatrix was having trouble pulling herself off the arena floor.

I stood over her as another round of earthen arm slid off me onto the ground. “We done, or do you still want to go?”

She sighed. “I surrender.”

An amazing turn of events; the current owner of the Serpent’s Trading Company has been bested in the arena. Girls and singular man. This might be the strongest man we’ve ever had in here.

I looked down at the Bunyip splayed out in front of me and straddled her lap. “Good fight, I was pretty hard pressed.”

She huffed at looking away with a blush. But I wasn’t done yet.

Using my life sorcery I fed a trickle into her and healed the bruising on her torso causing her to look back at me with a frown.

“What are you doing?”

“I won, so I’m taking my spoils.” I slid off my pants and straddled her again, letting my legs feel that heavenly comfortable fur of hers and sinking my fingers into it. “I said you were beautiful. Not to mention I wanted to touch your fur.”

My erection was poking into her stomach.

What’s going on? Is he…? No.

“Say you 're my good little snek.” I looked into Beatrix’s eyes.