Branwen, the Dragon Warrior and former champion of the underground fighting arena was victorious against her lizard opponent. This was one step closer from freeing her chains that remain around her thigh and close from freedom. Branwen has been like this for some time now, with her pet dragon imprison, all thanks to her master Dogura, Branwen is now force to face many opponents and struggle so many times because of the handicap she was put by Dogura.
Dogura the goblin found the dragon Usher and enslave the dragon to his will. She was a mount to Branwen, and the imprisoning of this dragon made Branwen to submit to Dogura in order to keep her alive. He put her through so much pain possible by attaching electric cords to sensitive parts on her body and electrifying her so many times through battle and through times when it is just the two of them in a cell. He also left a mark on her thigh that resembles chain links, which is a spell he use to keep his fighters in check. The only way for Branwen to remove the chain is to win battles, but the more she loses then the more links are put onto her body. These are the rules she must follow.
After the victory in the arena, Branwen was sent back into her cell without her weapons and left to kneel down in front of Dogura with her hands behind her back. This was a thing she had to do all the time, by playing the submissive towards her master. Dogura would always enjoy this. He makes her suffer by activating the electric cords that are still attach to her sensitive spots and deliver excruciating pain of electricity across her body. Branwen remains moaning so loudly at this that it almost feels like she is actually enjoying this treatment she is getting from him.
"You've got yourself two more fights. You were getting sloppy before, but just because you won this fight, doesn't mean this is over between the two of us." Dogura says to her while continuing to hold the trigger down to keep electrifying her body.
As soon as he stops punishing her, Branwen stops moaning and collapses forward. Dogura moves around her and smiles at the sight of her butt held high off the ground and decides to rub her butt. "You're my pride and joy. You'll never break free from these chains."
And so the next day, Branwen got a chance away from Dogura and got to meet with her dragon mount Usher. She was a large blue dragon and left inside this small cell to keep her in a tight space. Branwen looks at her with unhappiness to see how bad they treat her mount, but also feeling guilty of the fact she fail to protect her when they came for the both of them.
"Worry not, for I shall have my revenge on those who have treated us like this." The dragon says to her through communications of the mind. "Stay strong to your path and you shall be free. We'll be free to travel high into the skies again."
"Two more victories is all I need." Branwen replies and moves her right hand in between the cell bars to reach out to touch the top head of Usher.
Branwen would have to take her leave and return to the arena to face her next opponent. She took her bronze sword that shows to have serious cuts that could easily be broken in two if she continues using it, a small round shield with also the same condition as the sword. Dogura was present here to stay behind Branwen and would activate the electrical cords that have just been put onto her body to make sure she fights properly.
Her opponent comes into the scene and reveals themselves to be Samara the half-orc. Thanks to Alaric signing her up and himself, she takes the lead first and face Branwen in the arena. She comes in as herself with her regular appearance and carrying her harden mace, ready to crush anyone's skull if they are not careful.
But she was not the only face here right now. As for the others, Shizuka plays as the shadow of this operation to blend in and quietly use her skills to the test as a thief and not an assassin. Echidna manage to join the crowd by finding a perfect victim to steal her dress and mask and join the others. Risty would join Alaric and Samara in the lower levels of the arena to find the secret doorway that would lead them to finding the secret vault. Risty would have to do this alone and leave Alaric to return to spectate the fight.
Another woman was stepping into the scene to watch with the audience, and it so happens to be Ivy Valentine. She comes down the steps with her gorgeous purple dress and a purple mask to cover only the top part of her face. Before she sits down, she stops and recognises Samara straight away when looking down at the arena to see her face to face against Branwen.
"You've got to be kidding me…." Ivy mutters and looks around the area, hoping to not find Alaric among the crowd. "That means he's nearby…" And so she sighs over this and remains standing among the crowd.
Samara stands ready and looks towards Branwen and her equipment. "That sword isn't going to help her for long. This'll be an easy fight."
When the battle begins, both of them charge without hesitation and puts on a show for everyone to watch. Both of them went in with quick speed and quick reflexes to avoid incoming swings from the other. Samara would finally land a blow by hitting against her shield to cause more damage to her shield, but it was enough for Branwen to plunge her sword forward for an attempt to stab her in the gut. She finally spills blood and forces Samara to step back, and finds only a small stab through her shirt.
As the fight continues between the two, Samara succeeds in shattering her shield and injuring her left arm because of that hard swing with her mace. Branwen did land a few cuts across her body, but none are fatal enough to force Samara back. Things also become a problem for Branwen when she swings her sword down at her and hits it against the mace, her sword finally breaks into two and leaves her with nothing to defend herself. The distraction of the sword was enough for Samara to land a hard blow against her gut with the mace and a good swing from her left arm across the face to knock her down to the floor.
"Hey! You're not done!" Dogura replies and activates the electrical cords to cause her to moan loudly over the feel of the electricity hitting her sensitive spots.
Samara stops her advance and looks confuse as to what is happening. "What kind of torture is this?"
Several seconds later, Branwen finally stands back up with still electricity hitting against her sensitive spots. Dogura stops harming her when she got back up, and Branwen looks back at Samara with the urge to continue the fight without using any weapon.
"Oh, you intend to fight me with just your fists?" Samara asks and smiles at this challenge. She surprises everyone by throwing her mace behind her and goes into a fighting stance. "Come at me! Warrior!"
And so Branwen charges straight at her yet again like before. Branwen got close enough to surprise Samara by swinging her leg high enough to use the ball and chain around her leg to strike a blow against her left arm. The hit by the hard ball was enough to push Samara to the side and stuns her for a short few seconds. This gives Branwen the chance to land another blow to Samara's body with a good punch against her chest and an uppercut punch to Samara's chin. After the hit, Samara still remains standing and smiles at the enjoyment she was getting from this fight. She fights back by punching Branwen across her face with her right fist, then charges at her and grabs a hold of her. She wraps her arms around Branwen, holds onto her body tightly and keeps her feet off the ground.
"I've got you now." Samara replies and continues to hold her tightly around her waist.
What happens next is a little help from Dogura again by electrifying her body and causing the electricity to hit Samara. Both of them start moaning in pain over the serious electricity flowing across their bodies that would eventually cause Samara to lose her grip against Branwen. Dogura would continue this way until the two breaks apart from one another. Before that happens, Branwen lifts her arms up and lands a few punches to Samara's face to finally get the two to back away from one another, then give them a breather when Dogura finally stops electrifying Branwen. After the damage has done, both of them remain breathing heavily over the electricity, Samara was still shaking from feeling that experience for twelve seconds, while Branwen still shows she still has the strength to continue this fight.
"To think that a slave like her could endure something like that for so long…" Samara replies and looks unhappy about this. She rubs her arm across her face to find a line of blood across her arm and realising both her bottom lip and her nose are badly damage from those attacks. Irritated by the interference, she turns her attention towards Dogura and was ready to charge towards him.
Branwen saw her plan and charges towards her to prevent any harm from Dogura. Samara faces forward towards Branwen and prepares herself to block against her incoming punches. Samara blocks two hits of her attack and counters by knocking her back with a good punch across her face.
Dogura moves away and remain staying at a distance behind Branwen. He decides to electrify Branwen again, which gives Samara a chance to target him again and rush towards him to stop him from doing anymore interference towards the two. However, while Branwen still twitches and moans over the electrify hitting her sensitive spots, she finally attacks while still enduring the shocks and surprise Samara with a hit in the back knee with her ball and chain. The hard hit from that large ball was enough to bring her down to her knees. Just as Samara looks back towards Branwen, she takes an incoming punch across her face and knocks her down to the floor.
The crowd applauds at the sight they are seeing here. Some people in the crowd would shout out to Branwen to finish her off. Dogura desires the same thing, so he orders Branwen to retrieve Samara's mace and use it against her. Branwen hesitates at first when she was told to kill her with her own weapon, but she would take her time by walking towards the mace to pick it up and walk back towards Samara. She was slowly getting herself back up, but the pain she felt from that hit against her leg was causing her legs to shake.
"Damn it…. I can't lose like this…" Samara mutters when looking towards Branwen
"That's it. Finish her off for the crowd. Make this monster bleed!"
Branwen stands over her with the weapon in her hand, but she remains standing there with no sign of any chance of swinging the mace down at her. Samara asks her "What are you waiting for?"
"I don't fight to make others happy." Branwen responds and tosses the mace to the floor "I fight to be free."
And out came an orange glow that surrounds her body. As soon as it consumes her body, Branwen lands a punch strong enough to send Samara collapsing hard on the floor and leaving her unconscious. She did not get up and leaves Branwen the winner of this fight.
The fight came to a close and both competitors could finally leave the arena from both doorways leading underground. Alaric would rush into the arena to find Dogura standing over Samara and liking the view of her on the ground unconscious. Alaric calls out to him to warn him to back off, then turn his eyes towards Branwen to see her standing in front of Dogura to protect him if something goes wrong. Alaric would walk around Branwen to pick up Samara and remain staring back at her to avoid any surprise attacks from one another. While Alaric did not like the condition Samara was, he remain unhappy and not angry towards Branwen.
"I saw what you did. Thank you sparing her life."
"If you're my final challenge, you'd best prepare yourself what is to come." Branwen replies and soon turns away from Alaric and leaves the arena with Dogura pulling her from the chords.
Alaric returns back underground to put Samara down on a bench to see the damages done to her. She suffers a few blows to the face and a bruise to the back of her leg, as well as a few scratches with some parts of her shirt was torn up thanks to the last attack Branwen did to her.
"Damn… To think that woman had more strength in her to bring you down." Alaric replies and slowly moves his hand across the side of her face.
Risty was present here and came towards them to see the condition Samara went through.
"Is she alright?"
Alaric looks back to her for a moment to reply "Yeah." Then looks back to her
"I'm sorry for her loss."
"You don't have to apologise. We would've taken part of this anyway if you didn't mention about any of this. She wanted to do this."
Suddenly, a goblin came towards Alaric and calls out to him "Hey! Alaric, right? You got your match, so get going!"
Alaric looks back to the goblin and replies "If something happens to her then I'm killing everyone." And so he looks at Samara one more time and finally goes into the arena to fight.
Alaric enters the arena and Ivy stares down at him. She mutters to herself "I figured he'd show up." Then proceeds to take a few steps back to avoid his eyes from finding her.
Suddenly, someone grabs her shoulder from behind "Surprised to see you here." It so happens to be Echidna. She wears a white elegant dress she stole from someone she desire to play with, so now she plays as one of the members of the crowd.
Ivy looks back at her and replies "Echidna? What are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Echidna leans against Ivy's back and slowly moves her left hand around her waist "Something big is about to happen soon."
Alaric was ready with his sword forward and faces off against an orc. He was much taller, muscular and wearing less protection like Alaric was, but carries a large axe. This was not the first time Alaric had to face an orc in battle, so he remain smiling at the sight of his opponent and ready himself to clash with just his regular strength and not the power of the sword.
"Let's hope you last longer than a minute." The orc replies "My opponent before was completely useless. She didn't last thirty seconds."
"Is that right."
"Wish I fought that orc woman and not you. She'd be mine after this."
Alaric's expression changes when he mentions about Samara. He looks to the orc in seriousness and was ready to begin this fight. The orc would make the first move and charge in with a good swing down with his axe at Alaric. Alaric swings back and easily deflects the axe, then quickly swings forward and strikes against his belly. The orc takes a few steps back and moans in pain over that serious blow he took. He keeps one arm around his belly and the other holding onto his axe. As soon as Alaric charges in, the orc kicks him back and swings again, but Alaric deflects it yet again and remains where he stands.
"Surely the woman must've lasted longer than thirty seconds." Alaric replies and got him angry
Irritated, the orc continues swinging and Alaric continues blocking. He finally decides to put the fight to a close by driving his sword straight through the belly of the orc and pierce his blade through the other side. He pulls the blade out of him and watches him take a few steps back with both hands pressing against his belly and leaving a trail of blood spilling down on the floor. He would eventually collapse backwards and leaves Alaric the winner of this battle.
"Hmmmm, that orc was nothing compare to what Alaric can really do." Echidna says to Ivy
Ivy pulls Echidna off of her and turns around to face her "Do not start this again. You know what happen last time we fought."
Echidna smiles and replies "It ended with you pledging yourself to Alaric. Remember?"
". . . ." Ivy turns her eyes away from Echidna's face and made her remember that day she lost to Alaric. She looks back towards the arena and comes closer to the edge of the balcony to watch Alaric enjoying the sight of the crowd cheering of his quick victory.
When Alaric was looking around in the arena, he stops when his eyes look towards Ivy. At first he would never suspect her to be here, but would see her the moment she decides to take off her mask to show her full face towards him. He comes closer to get a better look at Ivy that looks down at him. He smiles to her and she only smiles a little back at him. He would eventually turn away and return back underground to reunite with Samara and Risty.
"See, I know you like him. I look forward to seeing you again later." Echidna replies and softly hits her butt when turning around to walk away from the scene.
Samara was already awake and recovering somewhere else. She was already getting to work testing her strength against a training dummy by punching it hard enough to shatter it to pieces. Risty was present and watches her, then turns away to find Alaric approaching them.
"I see you've still got the fire in you." Alaric says to Samara
She looks back at him and replies "I've been through worst. It'll take more than that to kill me."
"But she could've killed you out there."
Samara scoffs and replies "Would you be sad if she did?"
"Well, I would've avenged you."
"How cute." Samara comes up to him and softly punches his chest
"You really took a lot of blows from that woman…" Alaric touches the side of her face and cause her to sighs a little in pain over the feel of his hand touching one of her bruises
"I blame that goblin for my defeat. I'll get my rematch against her when this is over."
Alaric looks back to Risty "By the way, how are things going with the search for the vault?"
"It's going according to plan." Shizuka appears nearby from the shadows and offers them a key "Echidna got this. You should thank her snake for this."
Risty shakes her head with signs of fear on her face at the mention of the snake. She replies "I am not going to apologise to that."
"We've got the key and the location. We don't have to be here anymore."
"Actually, I have some business to attend to with Samara's opponent." Alaric replies
"What?"
"Don't tell me you're going to claim her too." Samara replies and looking a little upset and jealous
Alaric smirks and looks back to Samara "If she joins us then you get your rematch."
"Hmmmmm."
"It'll be fine. I also have unfinished business with someone else." Alaric looks back to Risty "And this payment better be enough to have you join us."
Risty smiles "If there's a treasure trove of money inside that vault, then it'll be enough."
"I'm looking forward to having you join us." Alaric walks past them and makes his way back into the arena.
And so Alaric makes his return back inside the arena to face off against Branwen. She came out with her master and a new sword and shield with better quality than the ones she use against Samara. As soon as both sides stands ready, Alaric draws his sword and goes into a stance at the ready for a fight.
While this was going on, Shizuka, Echidna and Risty would team up together and make their way below to find the secret doorway to lead them to the vault. They had to knock out a few guards protecting the door, then unlocks the door with the key Echidna stole and proceed to move further ahead to the next door that leads to the treasure.
Back inside the arena, Alaric asks Branwen "Tell me something… How did that little creature get his hands on a warrior like you?"
"That's not important. What's important now is to win this last fight." Branwen replies
"Stop talking and get to fighting!" Dogura replies and activates the electric chords to electrify Branwen's sensitive spots.
Alaric raises both eyebrows with surprise to watch Branwen moaning so loudly over this. As soon as he was done electrifying her, she looks back at Alaric and charges straight at him with a hard swing of her sword hitting against his sword. The two begin the fight and Branwen starts hitting much stronger against Alaric.
While Alaric was holding back by not using the power of the King's Blade to defeat her, Branwen was using much of her strength and surprises against Alaric. She did damage to Alaric when she swings her leg to send the ball and chain to hit Alaric's fingers that almost made him drop his sword. He backs away from her in pain over that serious hit that cause his hands to bleed and shake over that serious hit by the ball. He lowers one hand down and keeps the other holding onto the sword. Alaric had to endure this and continues the fight by charging forward with his sword and forcing Branwen to retreat to avoid the heavy swings of his sword as her shield was not going to withstand a swing from that sword. Later in the fight, Alaric grabs onto the sword with both hands and swings down at her, targeting the chain connecting the ball and cuts straight through it to remove the problem in the future.
"There goes that problem…" Alaric replies and groans a little at the pain from his fingers.
"I don't need that anyway." Branwen replies and begins to show her aura, which is an orange flame that surrounds her body and expands upwards above her to take the form of a dragon.
"Now this is what I'm talking about." Alaric replies with a smile and raise his sword high in the air one hand to it and keeping the tip of the blade facing the ceiling. "If you want this fight to continue, you'd best dodge this attack."
Branwen stares at the blade to see it glowing brighter by the second in bluish energy. She slightly turns her head to the side to look with one eye towards Dogura that remains behind her, then back to Alaric and had a few seconds to decide what to do from here. Just as Alaric swings his sword down at her, Branwen decides to jump to the right and have the incoming attack come straight towards Dogura. The goblin panics and cries out at the incoming attack coming towards him and consumes him in this bluish light. The power Alaric release through the air was enough to leave a large cut through the ground and still have enough damage to cut through the wall behind him. Dogura was completely vaporize by the attack, the chords on Branwen are broken, and Branwen has an opportunity to see this to be her last match inside this arena. After that, Branwen continues this by charging towards Alaric with everything she got and clashes her sword against his sword. Both held out against one another until it was Alaric that forces Branwen back.
The two stands where they are and assess the situation. Branwen looks to where Dogura once was and smiles happily to find Dogura was dead. She looks down at her thigh to see the chain no longer there because Dogura that put it there is now gone. Her orange aura still surrounds her, but the energy was much smaller than before and remain surrounding her body.
"Warrior. Tell me your name." Branwen says to him
Alaric lowers his sword and introduces himself "It's Alaric."
"My name is Branwen. I want to postpone this fight."
"Really?" Alaric raises an eyebrow "What for?"
"As much as I want to finish this, there's something I must do first. There's a reason why I had to endure so much torture from that goblin."
Alaric leans his sword against his shoulder and replies "Alright. I'm looking forward seeing you again pretty soon."
Branwen nods and turns away to run to the exit. Before she leaves, Alaric says one last thing to her "By the way… Samara wants a rematch. She'll ask first."
Branwen looks back to him for a moment and looks forward and takes her leave from the arena.
Since the battle was put to a close, the crowd was unhappy about this outcome and demands bloodshed in the arena. Unfortunately the authority standing outside the arena have already been taken care of by Alaric's party, and Branwen takes care of the others by herself.
Alaric sighs and looks back at his bloody hands. He focuses on something else in the arena by looking at the crowd to search for Ivy again, but he found no sign of her anywhere. He finally turns away and walks out of the arena to search for Samara.
Everything went into chaos the moment Dogura was slain in the middle of the arena. He was second in charge of this entire operation, while the man in charge was nowhere to be seen. The crowd was already starting to leave the area and the guards are either abandoning their posts or fighting the beautiful fighters that are trying to either escape or breaking into places they are not supposed to go through. Branwen was one of them as she made her way below to reunite with her dragon mount and release her from captivity. At last the dragon could finally stretch out of the prison cell and make her way out of here with Branwen leading her to the surface.
The others are done clearing out the guards protecting the vault and gave them the chance to finally open up the vault to find a huge stash of gold that was almost the same size as the gold they found on Liliana's ship. Echidna would tear up her dress to use it as a bag to carry some of the gold, but Risty already got a large bag of her own to take every piece of it out of the vault and carry it out of here.
Risty was drooling over the sight of so much gold inside her bag. "This is heaven…"
"You haven't experienced the full pleasure of heaven." Echidna replies "You're definitely going to love Alaric."
Risty looks to Echidna "What makes you say that?"
"What do you think of the guy?"
"Well, he seems like a nice guy. What's he really like?"
Echidna smiles and replies "He plans to claim the queen and gather as many beautiful warriors by his side."
"For real?" Risty asks and both Echidna and Shizuka nods "I don't know if I should be worried or not."
"You don't need to worry a thing." Echidna comes closer and pinches Risty's butt to get her gasping with surprise "He'll take good care of you."
"Stop that!"
Echidna laughs and turns away and walks out of the vault with enough gold.
"Hey! That gold belongs to me! We had a deal."
"Take it up with Alaric."
Meanwhile, Alaric and Samara made it outside on the streets. The two and everyone outside would look up at the building when hearing an explosion coming from the roof. Out came a large dragon with Branwen on the back, letting off a terrifying roar and looking up at the sky in happiness to realise she is so very close of seeing freedom. Since it has been ages since the last time she took flight, the dragon slides down the building and crashes on the ground nearby, then attempts to try again and finally succeeds in flying high into the sky. It was the dream the both of them have long been waiting for. The cold breeze of air flying past the two as they fly high and fast across the city. Branwen held on tight and smiles happily to feel this again.
"There she goes…" Alaric watches the two fly out of here. He looks back to Samara, then looks behind her to see Ivy standing in the crowd looking back towards him.
"What's wrong?" Samara looks back at him
"Go find the others. I'll be back." Alaric walks straight towards Ivy, but she turns away and starts walking. He kept coming after her until she finally stops on a small stone bridge and looking back towards him.
"You're not really in a hurry to leave." Alaric says to her "I lost you after we left Amara."
"I doubt you were thinking about me when you were busy with someone else." Ivy replies and crosses her arms
Alaric scoffs and steps closer to her "Is that why you left? I wasn't paying attention towards you?"
"No. What I wanted was to get out of this. I saw a chance and I left."
"Hmmm." Alaric place his hands against his waist and turns his head away for a moment. He looks back to her and asks "Do you really hate me that much?"
"There were some moments…" Ivy said with a lower tone and looks away from him, but Alaric did hear what she said to him. She looks back to him and replies "But then I realise I'm nothing but a little plaything to you."
Alaric sighs and steps closer to her "When we first met, you were going to kill me and Echidna on that ship. I let you live because there was no way I would want to kill such a stunning woman as –" He stops when moving his hands out to place them around her waist, but he stops when looking at his bloody hands and not wishing to leave blood on her dress.
Ivy looks down at his hands and touches one of them with both her hands. Alaric says to her "You're important to me. All of you are. And I'll do anything to keep you all safe."
Ivy looks back at him with still a straight face to him. She lets go of his hand, turns around and replies "Come with me." Then proceeds to walk away from him off the bridge.