Fell Champions

Sami swore.

Otter started. It was a rare enough event that it caught her by surprise. She looked at Sami intently, and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I didn’t expect him to survive,” Sami said. “Worse, I didn’t expect to feel good that he did. Feelings are complicated.”

“Well, I don’t,” Rua said darkly. “I was hoping the kid would kill him.”

“Same,” Kir added.

Everett, sitting off to the side, said nothing. But both she and Sami knew what he was thinking. That more than any of them, he was glad that Il-Su was still alive. Otter moved and gave him a quick hug. He leaned into it, making a snort of contentment.

The shields separating all the various cliques in the crowd dropped. Holt began making proclamations through a series of screens surrounding his floating island, thanking the various fighters for their valiant efforts, although his tone turned acid whenever his eyes landed on Il-Su, whose wound was being tended to by Pegacorn.

“Our winners are Pegacorn, Brock Garcia, Vanyar, and… Il-Su. All four have secured the final points required to return back to the game. Brock clinching all the ones required of him with his one kill. Timely, too. I wasn’t looking forward to having to remove him. Where would we all go to for beauty routines if he was gone? I wouldn’t be able to do eyeliner ever again with the guilt I’d feel.”

Holt gave a small laugh, as if he’d said something funny. No one laughed in response.

“Mingle, everyone, have fun, play,” Holt continued. “Make alliances. You have until those below gather their soul crystals. Although that could be a while. That Slider kid came pretty close to solving my Il-Su problem, and he might need a minute.”

Again, his face on the screen paused, as if expecting people to laugh, and when no one did, he scowled, waved a hand, and the screen went black.

“What do you think Il-Su did?” Otter asked idly.

She shook her fingertips. That stupid drumming sensation from her Fate Sense was still going absolutely wild, and she had no idea why. Whatever it was, it was unconnected to Holt’s silly tournament.

“To piss off Holt?” Sami asked. “Likely had a conversation with him. He has that effect on people.”

“Fair.”

“No,” Everett said. “It’s not that. I know the look people get when Il-Su angers them. When he taunts them. When he sneers at them, or looks down on them. That wasn’t the look Holt had.”

“Oh yeah? And what look did Holt have?”

“Like he lost something,” Everett said. He didn’t elaborate, and didn’t look like he wanted to come out of his shell any further to explain. Otter didn’t push. Everett was the most empathetic of them, but that was also his greatest weakness. He was hurting, and prodding at him wouldn’t help.

“Company’s coming,” Sami called.

Otter glanced up, and saw a bunch of people migrating between the various sections of the arena. One small group was led by a woman who was… sniffing? That was weird. But she didn’t seem to be coming towards them. Instead, the one sole person who was looked like a pale girl with black hair, devil horns, and steel grey eyes, and was practically running at them full tilt.

Otter stood, ready to face Pandemona, and it was a good thing she did, because next thing she knew, she was being tackled to the ground.

“Hi!” Pandemona said from on top of her.

Otter tried to say back. It mostly came out as a struggle for breath.

“Oh, sorry,” Pandemona said. “I should probably get off you, huh?”

Otter let out a wheeze. Despite that, she could very much feel blood rushing to her nether regions, and her cock beginning to push out from inside her to poke at Pan’s thigh.

Pandemona scrambled up, brushing her clothes off and looking suitably embarrassed.

“And who is this?” Kir asked.

“Hi, I’m Pandemona. Who are you? Did Otter get another girlfriend for her harem?”

Kir blushed, her cheeks turning that lovely glacial blue of hers. “Most certainly not.”

“Not a harem,” Otter said by rote, standing up. “Polycule. And no, she’s not in it. Yet.”

“There is no ‘yet’,” Kir said. “I have no desire-”

“Lie,” Rua said, flicking her nose.

Kir sighed and suddenly found the ground very interesting to stare at.

“She’s very repressed,” Otter whispered conspiratorially, loud enough to not really be a whisper at all. “Also, I’m annoyed with her right now. Because she stole my girlfriend via trickery and mind control. I’d spank her if I didn’t think she’d get off on it.”

Pandemona looked about with a confused look on her face. Kir blushed even harder. Sami suddenly looked very interested in the conversation, no longer moping about her conflicted feelings on Il-Su.

“So, where’ve you been?” Otter asked. “Haven’t heard from you in a bit. You almost to the Islands yet?”

“Oh. Uh. About that. I might be learning like some mystical Kung Fu from an old sailor as I tap into a Dreamer’s blood. So, yeah, been kind of busy.”

Otter blinked, and both Kir and Rua made surprised noises.

“You drank from the waters of the Belt?” Kir asked. “Or are you in the Islands? The southern portion?”

Pan shrugged. “Drank them, breathed them in, did a whole thing. Holt told me to. Said if I did… well, uh, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk–”

“But you’re alive,” Kir said. “You’re a real life Saiku practitioner. There’s maybe a dozen in the entire world. No one’s stupid enough to try the waters, and most of those that do die. And you said you have a teacher?”

“Yeah, an old guy named Gorin. He’s a bit of a dick. He hits me a lot during training.”

“Gorin’s your instructor?” Rua said in a startled voice. “Gorin Shore-Ender?”

“Maybe? I dunno. He’s a jerk and is super old and keeps criticizing my footwork and basically beats me up all day and calls it training. Like, how am I supposed to get good footing when the stupid boat we’re on is moving all the time? I really want a new instructor, but he’s what I’m stuck with.”

Rua looked like she was alternating between rage and despair. Kir put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close, making soothing noises.

“They’re all so stupid,” Rua said. “Every single one of them.”

“What? Even me?” Otter asked, pointing to herself.

“Especially you. But luckily, it’s not you I’m annoyed with, it’s this particularly dumb one.”

“What’d I do?” Pan asked.

“You’re being trained by Gorin Shore-Ender, one of the most powerful Silayan fighters to ever be born. Someone who hasn’t taken on a disciple since the Occupation ended - and believe me, I tried, I begged, Kir begged, Juala especially begged - because he thought we were all talentless sea slugs who were better off scraping bird shit from his vessel than wielding a weapon in his presence, and you’re not only being trained by him, you’re being trained how to channel Saiku by him as well?”

“Oh. So… he’s kind of a big deal?”

Rua made another frustrated noise.

“It’s okay, she’s an ignorant off-worlder,” Kir said.

“I mean, he’s mostly just a crusty old pirate these days. He can’t be that good, can he?”

Rua looked about to throw something, and Otter stepped in the way. “She’s trolling you. Trying to get a rise out of you.”

Pan blinked innocently. “I would never.”

Rua winced in pain, and Pan quickly apologized.

“Okay, so, you’re learning some kind of mystic martial arts,” Otter said. “What can you…”

Otter trailed off, noticing that the woman who had been busy sniffing the air on the other side of the arena seemed to be coming up to them now. She looked like a mess. Like a crazy homeless woman, her hair matted and messy, wearing animal skins and covered in grime. Behind her, two others followed her, Fitzkim and LoneRunMan. Both looked too nervous to say anything to her, but also didn’t seem to want to part from her.

“MoonCutter,” Sami said. “Haven’t seen you in a while. Are you… okay?”

MoonCutter tilted her head at the sound, like an animal that had heard a noise and hadn’t identified if it was predator or prey. She sniffed at the air again, now facing Sami.

Otter, ever the friendly type, walked up to her. “Hi. MoonCutter, is it? I don’t think we’ve ever met. I’m Otter.”

She held out her hand to shake. As she did, the pulsing drumbeat in her hand beat even harder.

MoonCutter blinked at the offered hand, seemingly unsure what to do with it, but after a slight jostle from Fitzkim behind her, she took it. Otter gave it a firm, friendly shake.

MoonCutter sniffed at her. And then suddenly wrenched her hand forward.

The sound of Otter’s Tenacity breaking filled her ears. And suddenly, the feeling of her Fate Sense buzzing throughout her hands and fingertips felt muted. But only on one side.

“What just happened?” she asked, confused.

And then she realized MoonCutter was still holding Otter’s hand. Despite her own arm dropping to her side. That didn’t look right. How was…

The blood loss was getting to her, some distant part of her brain said. That this was what the Fate Sense had been warning her about all along. Something witty and self-deprecating flashed in her mind, some pithy remark, but Otter couldn’t understand her own thoughts suddenly.

Behind her, she could hear shouts of surprise, of Sami drawing a sword. Vex shouting to get Otter away from this MoonCutter person, whose face was just blank of all expression.

And Otter dimly was aware that MoonCutter was still holding her hand. Her whole arm in fact.

That didn’t seem right.

Otter looked at her shoulder, which was fountaining blood everywhere. She looked back at MoonCutter, confused, not understanding what had happened. And then MoonCutter reared back, her arm swinging - her arm, holding Otter’s own severed arm, torn directly from Otter’s socket as easily as you’d pull apart plasticine - and smacked Otter full on in the face with her own arm.