The two women were standing in the ring. A sadistic smile slowly spread across Ivy's face in anticipation, but Tira's remained serious. She was too furious at Ivy to even think about how good it was going to feel to fight her.
Ivy unsheathed her sword with great flourish, causing cheers from the audience. She'd come to learn what the crowd liked to see, and enjoyed it when she was being cheered. Tira's ring blade was slung on her body, and she removed it. Her body slipped into the stance of her fighting style, and Ivy did the same.
Without yet raising their weapons into position, the two warriors circled each other. The crowd grew as silent as death, in a state of suspense they'd rarely felt. Once the two warriors had reached a certain proximity, they finally raised their weapons.
Now in position, they no longer circled each other, but instead moved forward, closer and closer to each other, one baby step at a time. Virtually every member of the crowd was on the edge of their seat, leaning forward and waiting for the moment when one warrior struck another.
At the exact moment that no one in the arena could take the suspense, both women swung their weapons. The two blades of very different make clashed, then were pulled back, and then were swung and clashed again.
Each of them stood their ground, not taking so much as a single step backwards or to any side, striking and defending repeatedly at an insanely close proximity. And, then, at the exact same moment, they stopped - and when they did so, neither of them had even been touched by the other's weapon.
The two women, weapons in attack position, stared across at the other one, as they each prepared for their next attack. Now, they begin to circle again, their feet making a circular walk even closer to one another. Once, their weapons were touching each other, they stopped walking, and both women pressed their weapon against the other's. Both woman stared at the other with intense hatred and poured all of that hatred into their grip on their weapon and the pressure with which they pressed it against the other. Soon, they were exerting so much force that the metal of their weapons was grinding, they were gritting they teeth, and droplets of sweat were dripping down their faces. Although they were breathing laboriously, neither one of them faltered.
The crowd, of course, was going wild - but in complete silence.
And, then, Ivy's eyes looked down, at Tira's breasts.
She smirked.
She quickly took one of her hands off of her sword's hilt, sent it darting straight at Tira's chest, grabbed ahold of the thin strip of fabric in the middle, and pulled hard on it. It ripped, and Tira's top flew open, exposing her breasts.
Tira quickly looked down, seeing the fabric of her clothing hanging loosely while her breasts jutted out, unrestrained. Her eyes and mouth flew wide open.
"...You BITCH!"
She looked back at Ivy just in time to see a fist slam into her face.
Tira went flying backward, and landed on her back - she completely lost her grip on her ringblade, and it went flying away. Ivy stood above her, sword poised to stab into her neck. Tira swung her feet, kicking Ivy's legs and knocking her down. When she fell, she landed on her elbow, and the pain caused her to let go of her sword, which clattered off to the side.
Tira rolled her body to her right, rolling on top of Ivy. She grabbed a hold of the woman's hair, and began to slam her fist into Ivy's head. After recovering from the shock, Ivy reached back, and grabbed Tira's hair. Then she pulled down hard, causing Tira's head to slam into the arena floor.
Ivy rolled out from underneath Tira, and jumped to her feet. Tira did the same. They both lunged forward, swinging their fists at each other frantically.
Eventually, Tira's hand found the fabric of Ivy's top, and she pulled it down, exposing her breasts as well. In response, Ivy grabbed a hold of Tira's hair and yanked hard, but Tira did the same. The two of them became locked together via this grip, and once again the only thing they could do was to throw punches.
Eventually, Ivy's grip slipped. Tira punched her hard, and she fell backwards. She moved quickly to get on top of Ivy, but Ivy pushed her off. She tried again, but this time the two of them gripped each other's hair, causing them to fall back into the same deadlock.
Ivy brought up her leg, and yanked on Tira's hair, bringing Tira's head slamming into her knee, but the momentum carried her on top of Ivy, and now Tira had Ivy pinned down. Now Tira was in the perfect position to unleash a flurry of punches at Ivy. Ivy held back one of Tira's hands, and tried to use her free arm as a shield, but Tira punched Ivy's head over and over with her other hand.
Meanwhile, nearly every single person in the crowd was roaring like an animal. They had all piled out of their seats and swarming around the edge of the moat around the ring, wanting to get as close a look as possible at the two topless grappling women, and finding extreme entertainment in the twist that had taken place.
And as this happened, Siegfried watched from the back of the stands, shaking his head in dismay. I cannot believe this. This is the most foolish thing I have ever seen. That is not even a battle anymore. That is two women who just want to kill each other. There is not even a point to what they are doing. Do they intend to simply rip each other's hair out until they're both bald and rip each other's clothing off until they're both naked?
Now that the 'battle' had digressed to a point at which one woman was simply holding up her arms in defense, and the other woman was simply punching the other in the head, both of them slowly began to realize that the fight was going nowhere - but neither of them knew how to end it.
As Ivy was the one in the weaker position, and Tira was poised to continue hitting her until she was knocked out, she made a decision that was horribly embarrassing, but the only wise decision there was to make.
She raised her finger into the air.
This gesture reminded Tire that they were in an arena conducting a match, or were supposed to be, and looked up to see the gazes of dozens of people just a few feet away from her, cheering madly, and holding their thumbs pointing upward.
Tira's face flushed bright red, and she quickly slipped off of Ivy. Facing away from the audience, she slipped off her top and put it on backwards so that it was her back, not her chest, that was bare. Meanwhile, Ivy folded her top back into place so that it covered her.
The crowd didn't stop cheering, or staring. They were ecstatic. It was the best match they had ever seen. Siegfried predicted that a new 'secret sport' was going to be born from this that involved two females grappling with one another and were wearing minimal clothing, if any at all.
With their weapons in hand again, Tira and Ivy exited the ring, rushing off in different directions, too embarrassed to look at one another, or be looked at by anyone. Siegfried sighed. I think I've made a mistake. After a mess like this, they're bound to hate each other more, not less.
Siegfried was left alone, and without a clue what to do. Although the most prudent choice would be to gather the two girls and leave, he knew that Tira and Ivy would not want to be spoken to, and he did not feel like talking to anyone at that moment, either. In any case, the next battle - Siegfried versus Tira - would soon be announced, and then Tira would have to come forth, or be dropped from the tournament. He was hoping for her to withdraw, anyway, but the announcement would probably cause her to show up, and then they could get on with things.
At the moment, however, Siegfried turned his attention to something else. During the entire tournament, he had sensed many aggressive wills from all around him. However, one will in particular was different from the rest, in a way that Siegfried could not name. As each participant was defeated, the number of aggressive wills had gone down, and he was able to single out that one will slightly better. Now that virtually no warriors remained, that will stuck out obtrusively, and Siegfried was able to determine what made this will so different.
It was not coming from a living creature.
If it had been, then Siegfried would have been able to sense both the will and the presence of the being. But what he sensed was a will without a body. A ghost? Could that be it?
Suddenly, the situation changed. The will was rapidly approaching him from behind, and increasing in aggressiveness. Siegfried whirled around, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword. And someone had, indeed, been approaching him from behind. Or, rather, something.
It was dressed in a green hat with a ridiculously large red feather sticking out of it. It wore a frilly white collar that looked like something a monarch would wear. The shoulders of its clothing were puffy and red, and the pants it wore were green with purple stripes, reminding Siegfried of a court jester. In addition to this clownish attire, it was wearing a plate of armor on its chest and rough-looking gauntlets and boots. Siegfried would have found its appearance humorous if it were not for two things. First, it was holding two giant wavy blades in each hand, and second, it did not have a face. For a head, it merely had a skull. It emitted low growling sounds.
"...Who are you?" Siegfried demanded.
The monstrosity said nothing that Siegfried could understand.
"What do you want from me?"
Again, Siegfried could not understand this being's speech. It readied its weapons. It looked like a revenant - like one who had returned to life after death.
"Very well, Revenant." Siegfried muttered under his breath. "You are not a living being, so I will give you no mercy."
The being growled, and then lunged.
---
Tira didn't want to fight her Master. She planned to withdraw from the tournament. She thought that her Master would be okay with this idea, because he wanted to leave the arena, anyway, and simply withdrawing would make Siegfried the champion by default and net him the prize money, which would benefit them all, anyway.
Tira was summoned, and she began to trudge to the ring. She felt ashamed of what she'd done. At the moment, it had felt so good to just fight and swing away at that stupid bitch - but the aftermath wasn't so good. She didn't know how she'd ever look Ivy in the eyes again. And everyone had seen her breasts!
Tira centered her thoughts on her Master, instead. She wondered if he would be angry with her...
When she reached the ring, her Master was not there. There was confusion, especially in Tira, because she had seen herself forfeiting, not her Master. She went off to look for him.
And when she did, she saw him standing before a corpse.
"M-Master!!" She exclaimed. "Did you kill this man?"
"No." Siegfried replied. "He was already dead."
"What...?"
"A skeleton animated with spiritual energy." He explained. "It was just a puppet. And a weak one, at that. But there are not many who can perform magic feats such as this one…It might be best for us to assume that my possession of the cursed sword is no longer secret."
"It was a puppet? ...But whose puppet? Who sent it after you?"
"I can trace the remaining energy to find out. Whoever it is, we should consider that man an enemy."
"Funny. That's exactly what you said about him the last time."
These words came from Ivy.
"...Ivy. What do you mean, that's exactly what I said about him the last time?"
"I came because I felt the spiritual energy - I recognized it."
"You know whose energy this is?"
"Yes. I could never forget him." Ivy hissed. Siegfried quickly figured out whom she was talking about.
"...The man who broke into your mansion and burnt that book."
"Yes. His energy was very powerful, and so was his magic. This energy is his, there is no doubt. And he is adept enough at magic for a feat like this one."
"He is definitely attempting to impede upon my progress - first setting you against me, then sending this thing after me. This cannot go on any further. He must be stopped."
Tira was curious. "Do you mean - kill him?"
"...If there is no other way." Siegfried said. "A threat to us is a threat to Soul Edge falling into the wrong hands."
Ivy scoffed upon hearing Siegfried's words, but said no more.
"...Oh, yeah, I almost forgot!" Tira said. "Master, they want us at the ring. Should I withdraw so you get the prize money?"
"Yes, that would be a good idea. ...It has been a long day. We will rest. But tomorrow, we will track down the man responsible for... " He looked down at the remains of the Revenant. "…this."