Flora jogged to the battle ring on the Clan Riverstones compound. It looked like another bamboo hut on the outside, but inside was a 25-meter big ring surrounded by benches. During their tour a few days ago, Lana had explained they used it for duels but also performances and seminars.

Speaking of Lana, she waited on the entrance of the hut together with a chubby brown-haired woman, who was a good head smaller than Flora.

"Hello, Auntie Flow. You are early. All excited about the duel?"

"Hi, Lana. Actually, I'm running late."

Flora explained the situation, and Lana introduced her to the other woman after she suffered an elbow to her side. Her name was Honeystream Land, she was married to Lana and assisted her with the administrative issues of the clan.

"I heard so much of you. I'm happy to meet you finally," Honey said with a little giggle. "Thank you for everything you have done for the jerkies, especially Lana."

While they chatted, Robby and Hub joined them.

"Please keep the commentary civil, Lana. I'm keyed up as it is." Robby ordered.

Flora gave him a quick hug and kiss. Her poor boy looked stressed. Now she felt guilty for foisting the duel on him. She consoled herself that mastering conflicts strengthened relationships.

"I make sure of it, Boss," Honey promised.

"Ressa seems to be-" Lana began, but Honey put her hand over her mouth, proving her commitment.

Tigressa was nowhere in sight. However, Mia and Eddie arrived. Mia gave a polite nod, while Eddie hugged Robby and knocked on his bald head.

"What were you thinking, young man? Getting eloped? Not telling your mother and your favorite uncle about life-changing decisions!" Eddie ranted. "Not to forget about making me get up in the middle of the night!"

Silently, Flora cheered him on; only her gleeful smile gave her away.

"You have already chewed me out before, Uncle Eddie. Please have mercy. I know I'm in the wrong, and I should have told both of you sooner. I just thought how precious life is because Mum almost killed herself in a fire... I mulled it over for some time but then seized the moment to propose."

Struck, Flora didn't know what to think. Robby proposed because of her? She hadn't put the thing on a specific date; she had just assumed he had hidden it for a while. The revelation that she found out soon after it had happened was a game-changer. The last bits of lingering anger evaporated.

"I forgive you." She blurted out.

"Really, and no bringing it up the next time, you are miffed?"

"You deny me all the fun!"

The group laughed, and Flora saw some tension leaving Robby's shoulders.

The bass sound of Ressa's bike announced her arrival. This time, she stopped at a polite distance.

"Quite an audience," she said instead of a greeting.

Honey covered Lana's mouth again, some nodded, and Robby walked to her, but Eddie beat him to her.

"Hello, dear. I'm Eddie, I'm Robby's uncle and practically raised him. So nice to finally meet you."

Ressa smiled at him and shook his hand, but hurried to Robby's side, snuggling to him.

"You did a great job. I like the result." Petting Robby's chest, she smiled at Eddie as they exchanged pleasantries.

Flora felt like puking. 'I raised Robby! I achieved great results! Robby is mine, mine, mine! And don't you dare to charm Eddie as well!'

With exercising all her willpower, Flora concentrated on breathing. She stared at the floor, not daring to look up and give away her rage.

'Calm down. Calm down. You want Robby to find a partner. You want grandkids. And if you descended into a hissy fit, every time Eddie smiled at somebody, you would have died of a heart attack a long time ago. They love you. They love me. Everything else is white noise.'

Flora's gaze wandered to the Octopussy at her feet. It displayed a lake with gently moving water, which further calmed her down. But then a long tentacle appeared and reached out to the shore. It picked up a ginger tabby cat and dunked it into the water.

A low growl notified Flora of Ahoncathyr watching. She snorted.

"Play nice, Aito. But thank you for cheering me up."

"Beep."

"Let's get this farce rolling," Robby grumbled and led the group inside.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ Tigressa Flameante

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ressa felt uncomfortable with the assembled group. No need to talk about Lana, she hated her.

She had issues with Hub, as well, because Robby spent too much time with him. She should be Robby's number one priority!

Then, there was the mousy kiddie who had smashed her in a duel. Ressa was sure the girl was fishy. Besides, the advantages people got from the kiddie server were unfair!

While Ressa was thankful for the smiling face of Robby's uncle, she didn't trust him. Robby had told her he was an actor. Maybe he wanted to lull her and then backstab her on behalf of her future mother-in-law. His outfit integrated a skin of a raging maelstrom. Clearly, it was a message to her and her pet. Water was their nemesis.

And at last, there was the mother-in-law. Robby had bungled up their first meeting, but she didn't give him a hard time about it. Most of it was Lana's fault anyway.

When meeting Flora today, the hag hadn't looked up. Probably, she was frightened out of her mind as it was proper for a B-rated newbie.

Ressa had spent the whole morning thinking about how to conduct the duel. Of course, she couldn't let the hag win, Lana would never allow her to see the end of it. But maybe by pretending it was a challenging fight instead of the massacre it ought to be, she could score some points with the monster-in-law and Robby.

In the PvP-Antechamber, she checked her outfit in a full-length mirror. The orange leather cat-suit suited her orange hair and emphasized the red and yellow strands in it. The color would make a European look pale but harmonized well with her golden skin color.

"Don't underestimate them, little one. The squid smells dangerous." Anhoncarthyr growled. "I'll take care of it. Distract Flowing Flowers until I have finished it off."

Ressa snorted. "Distract her? I'll kill her myself."

"Look at her antechamber."

The screen blurred the details, but Ressa could see a lot of reflecting surfaces.

"Mirrors!"

Frantically, she searched in her inventory for her plasma rifles and guns. Naturally, she carried a backup for enemies resistant to her usual laser load out. But the plasma equipment was level 200 and only B rated. When it got squeezed down the rating stayed the same. She lost a good chunk of damage per shot in contrast to her level 1 S-rated equipment.

"Good move, hag. Good move. I wonder who told you about that trick... "

The timer reached zero just when she had put everything in place.

After she ported to the floor, she immediately activated stealth and dived to her right. Laying on her stomach, she aimed her rifle at the hag—three seconds to go for Aimed Shot.

The granny was running towards Ahoncarthyr at full speed. She had to suppress a snicker. Not only was Ahoncarthyr shielding her from stray shots, but it also presented her with an easy target because she positioned herself behind him.

Something flew into her direction. She hadn't any time to understand what it was before it exploded.

The shockwave rattled her, and she lost sight of the hag for just a second. The next thing she saw was a wave crashing into her and then a foot hitting her face.

"You are defeated." The clan AI, Camus, announced.

"You have to-" She wanted to demand revenge from Ahoncarthyr, but got interrupted.

"First round winner: Flowing Flowers."

"You are dead? " Ressa snapped at the tiger. " How can this be? I gave you the mana to raise you to sergeant, and what do I get for it? Nothing! I might be better off if I switch to a hero-players style."

"Silence!"

"And don't tell me what to do! I'm the boss!"

"So what do you suggest for round two, boss." His voice laced with mockery, Ahoncarthyr flicked his tail.

Only now, it sank in. She had been defeated without dealing a single point of damage to the hag. Before she had lost sight of the tiger, he was a few meters away from the enemy camp and directly in front of the hag.

"Did she, did you..." Ressa didn't bring it over herself to ask if it was a perfect victory for Flora, a complete victory without having lost a single health point.

"We have 22 seconds left until the next round. Listen to me-"

"I quit!" Ressa screeched. "I've never been so humiliated all my life!"

"If you quit, I will leave you forever."

"You can't bail on me! I have tamed you!"

"I'm a boss level tiger. There is a limit to the cowardice, incompetence, disloyalty, and arrogance I'm forced to endure. By the way, you already claimed on several prior occasions to have reached a new highpoint in humiliation. At least two of them have been worse."

"We do it your way." Ressa gritted her teeth.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ RadBear Stone - Hub

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clan-mates had placed themselves on the benches in the middle of the circle around the arena.

Hub arrived late but managed to get a seat next to Lana. He enjoyed seeing her getting mistreated by her wife.

As the countdown ticked down to zero, he had to yawn. Last night had been too long, with preparing for the big job today. He hadn't gotten enough shut-eye.

When he looked back at the arena, he saw a mech-suit riding on a wave and Ahoncarthy dying in the spray.

He rubbed his eyes.

Now, he saw the timer ticking again.

"I just had a crazy vision. Auntie Flora was drowning Ahoncathyr." He chuckled. "Oh, man. When is the duel finally going to start? This timer ticks forever."

Silence. Nobody but the new recruit looked at him or reacted in any way to his dope vision. Lana tried to say something, but Honey had covered her mouth.

"Ey, guys?"

Lana struggled but was unable to respond.

"Shut up," Rob said. His voice was devoid of any emotion.

"What? Can't a paladin have a vision now and then? But a bit strange it was about the duel, maybe because Auntie is a champion?"

"It wasn't a vision, dolt. Mama decimated Ressa in under 10 seconds."

"7.3 seconds to be precise." Honey chimed in cheerfully.

"At least you caught the best part." Eddie consoled him. "Flora looked fabulous, riding the wave in her shiny armor, like a water goddess soaring from the sea to extinguish the fires of the world. When she was on top of the tiger, and the laser beams from her turrets converged onto him, she resembled a shooting star; as if the turret's shots were lights trailing her. I want to write a poem about it!"

"Flora caving in Ressa's face with a kick was my highlight," Mia said.

The gagged Lana flashed her a thumbs up.

Hub vowed to keep his eyes open in the next round.

"From a technical standpoint, the little octopus was the most valued player of the bout. It generated more than half of the entire damage." Honey had used her right hand to aggregate the data. With half of her shackles occupied, Lana managed to free herself from the other hand and could finally join the conversation.

"Your mother is awesome. Ressa can't-" Honey recaptured her mouth.

Robby groaned. "Is anybody rooting for my fiancée?"

Mia simply shook her head, Honey regretfully, Lana tried to, Eddie as a matter of course, and Hub while shrugging.

Robby covered his face with both hands, "I'm not even sure if I do," he whispered.

The countdown hit zero, and the second round started.