Kali stood to the side, just watching people go in and out of the venue for Baska City Tournaments. They are small-scale fights organized by the local people where anyone can join to test their strengths and gain some rewards while at it. Kali, however, was here on a mission to defeat the current champion along with a companion who should be joining her sometime soon. She wasn’t in a hurry. The tournaments lasted all day and the registration wasn’t even closed yet.

So she took this time to just stand back and observe everyone in the area, zeroing in on the target sitting opposite to her while at it. He was a big, muscular guy who reminded her of Godfrey the blacksmith whom she had gotten acquainted with more times than she would like. Gauging from pure outer appearance alone, the reigning champion was most likely a mage as well. He carried no weapons that she could see and physical strength alone only took you so far even in small tournaments like these.

She wondered why her client wanted him dead though. Jealousy? Rivalry? Some sort of revenge? She couldn’t care less. What mattered was that she is getting paid to kill him and the tournament rules allowed it.

210/1875

Having taken a few quests already since her awakening, Kaiser felt ready to accept missions of a higher difficulty. She was still in Baska City, and she would be for a few more days, maybe even a week. Dressed in a casual Joyan fit, the vampire entered the tournament arena—the location of her mission—in search of her quest partner. She wondered if the true challenge of this mission was to get through it with the partner, rather than defeating the champion. It wasn’t like her to take missions with someone else, but it seemed like the client wanted it this way. Kaiser had set her mind on killing the champion, since the rewards were better if she managed to do that, and all she hoped was for the partner to not be a hindrance.

The arena was packed but luckily registrations were still open. The weather was nice and it was a gazetted holiday so there were a lot of spectators. Kaiser slipped through the masses towards the registration booth and stood next to a thick marble pillar. While she was on her way, she spotted a girl with short, dark hair seemingly expecting something or someone. Maybe that was her partner. Wasting no time to find out, she tapped her on the shoulder and asked, “Are you here for the request?”

Kali was starting to feel a little impatient when she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she came face to face with a classic beauty, the kind that would be praised to heavens in poetry if it were ancient times. Her eyes visibly widened for a narrow second before they turned back to indifference. “Yes, I am,” She confirmed before subtly pointing her finger to the target sitting opposite to them.

“And that would be our target. He often goes last in the tournament so we will have to register and beat a bunch of them before we can get to him,” she spoke as she moved, off the wall she was leaning on and to the registration booth right beside them. “I will get us signed in. Your name?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

Kali finally took some time to size her partner up. She couldn’t tell who is stronger amongst the two yet but in terms of aura, there was something about this woman that made her feel as if she is someone who has lived for a long time. Also, something felt familiar. Just instinctively familiar but yet again, Kali couldn’t exactly tell what it was. ‘Why do I feel like I know her…’ Kali muttered in a sound barely audible to herself.

429/1875

Good news, the person she asked was the person she was looking for, and the moment she turned to face Kaiser, the vampire immediately thought that she had to be a foreigner. “Yeah, okay good,” Kaiser muttered, taking a seat on the bench beside them. Her partner then continued to point out their target who was so conveniently right in front of them. Giving her a nod, she took her time picking out a cigarette from its pack and lighting it up. Kaiser was glad that she was willing to do all the menial tasks like signing them up for the fight and stuff. “It’s Kaiser,” she replied when Kali asked her for her name. “And what’s yours?” she wanted to know.

While Kali was at the registration booth, the vampire took a good look at their target and made some notes in her head of what might possibly be his weak points. He did not wield a weapon like some fighters she saw along her way inside. According to Kali, they would have to fight a few contestants before getting matched with the champion at last. Kaiser took a long drag from her cigarette before dropping it to the concrete floor and killing it with her boot. Her eyes rested on Kali’s back as she did the registration for them both.

Kaiser...even the name felt familiar but Kali was not too keen on worrying too much about it. Even if it was familiar, even if she knew this person once, it was probably a long time ago before she lost her memories and Kali had decided long ago to never look back no matter what her past could be. It did not need to be dug up and she would rather just go about her days in silence like this.

“It’s Kali,” She replied back while filling up the registration form, ignoring the smoke curling up from the cigarette Kaiser held. She wasn’t fond of their taste nor their smell but she was also not one to tell others what to do and not to do. One could jump straight in front of a moving train and Kali would easily watch them get run over. It was just not her style to exert that much effort on anyone.

“Alright. It’s done,” She held up their pass and tiny badges with numbers carved into them. Taking number 15 for herself, she gave number 14 to Kaiser and motioned for them to move towards the arena. Contestants inside were already waiting inside in front of a lacrima screen that would match them up. Lucky for them, they wouldn’t have to wait too long either.

651/1875

‘Kali’ sounded strangely familiar to the vampire, but she could not say from where she might have heard such a name. It was definitely not someone she had known before. In fact, it sounded more like a name that belonged in the myths. Perhaps the name of a mythical hero in one of the other countries; she could not be sure. Registration was done in a few minutes which satisfied the vampire. Kali brought a pass and a badge for each of them. While she took the number fifteen for herself and handed the number fourteen to Kaiser, the vampire felt a pang of annoyance. It was just her OCD of numbers kicking in for a moment there, nothing serious. She just preferred numbers that were divisible by five.

Once all that was done, they just needed to join the queue of contestants waiting to be matched up. Luckily, it wasn’t a very long queue. “Alright then, let’s go,” the vampire mumbled and stood up first to go queue, expecting Kali to follow her lead. Patience was not a strong suit of hers so she wanted to get in the queue as soon as possible and get matched fast. Towering above most people in the queue, Kaiser stared at the lacrima screen above as it displayed the upcoming matchups one after another.

This one was just as impatient as her.

Kali watched Kaiser standing almost first in line, a head taller than the rest of them, to get matched up and followed suit. She wanted to get this thing over with just as quickly as Kaiser did. Patience was not her strongest virtue either. As her eyes followed her partner’s up to the screen, Kali searched for number 14 only to find it paired with number 9 whom she had no clue of. “I found mine,” She informed Kaiser.

Once the numbers were matched, the fight would begin almost immediately. The tournament was set up in a way that they had a number of different arenas where multiple matches could occur at once. So, while she would be fighting whoever number 9 is, Kaiser could be fighting someone else. It was convenient and saved a lot of time, especially for people like herself and Kaiser who were not very willing to wait.

Number 9 turned out to be a tall dude with pink heart shaped specs and lots of silver piercings all over his face. He took one look at Kali and let out a long wolf whistle while his friends snickered next to him. The void mage showed no change in expressions. She found it too tiring to go down to the same level as them. Besides, he wouldn’t be laughing for too long.

884/ 1875

The lacrima screen finally matched them up. Kali was matched up with some funny looking man. He seemed to be dressed up for a circus show rather than a fight. Kaiser’s opponent showed up in a less flashy attire, although appearing similarly weird. What do these people take these tournaments for? The contestant she was about to face had a beastly hairdo adorned with a myriad of accessories to make it look like he was competing for Fiore’s best hairstyle—and Kaiser could already tell he was going to lose with that monstrosity he had on his head. Apart from that, his physique suggested that he was not eating well or malnutritioned. How was he lifting the weight of his giant hair like that?

“Have fun,” she told her partner and headed to where her opponent was waiting, beckoning her forward with his bony fingers. There were two circles where the two opponents would have to stand on, and the vampire took her spot in the vacant circle. They were roughly ten meters apart. Kaiser rolled her eyes and waited for the whistle or whatever it was that was going to signal the start of the fight. Once the signal was given, Kaiser wasted no time to open her palm to face the opponent, blasting a beam of invisible shockwaves in his face.

A sound was heard signaling the start of the tournament. Number 9 lunged forward at Kali who easily sidestepped the dude causing him to stumble for a while and yell profanities at her face. The same actions repeated for a few seconds with the man trying to land a punch or kick on her while she easily avoided him. ‘Too tiring,’ Kali thought as she kept stepping backward and forwards and sideways to just let the man attack thin air. ‘He would get tired of it soon…’

And he did. Not even five minutes into the fight and number 9 was heaving with hands on his knees. “Are we done?” She asked him with a slight tilt of her head. It would be great if it was. She did not want to waste even a drop of her mana on trash like this. He obviously had no other abilities except for his speed and even that wasn’t much of a match against Kali’s.

To her dismay, however, the man threw his hands up in frustration and produced a dagger out of nowhere. He moved again but due to losing too much stamina, his moves were careless and a hazard to his own life than hers. When the man tried to stab forward into her stomach, Kali finally grabbed the wrist holding the dagger and pulled him to the side before raising her foot to his crotch.

“Din din dinnn Number 15 wins!” The announcement came soon enough and Kali returned to the area with the lacrima screen, wondering if Kaiser was done with her match too.

1150/2500

Once the dust and debris that was caused by her spell had settled, it came to every spectator’s attention that the opponent was simply gone. He was no longer standing on the starting circle or anywhere in the arena. Kaiser peeped over the edge and saw that he had fallen off the arena and landed in a pile, face first. She could not help but let out a soft chuckle as the announcer spoke into the microphone after a few seconds of shocked hesitation, “Number 14 is the winner!” Kaiser stepped out of the arena and headed back towards the matchup area to get her second matchup. She wondered how many pipsqueaks she would have to face before the real deal.

The vampires arrived at the matchup area almost at the same time. Kaiser nodded at Kali while taking her place in the queue once again. Even though the reward was already quite desirable, honestly she wanted more compensation for having to go back and forth like this. She didn’t really think there was a need for conversation during this time, so she just waited for her next matchup. Luckily the vampire had been in hibernation for so long that it would take a while for people to start to recognize her again and put up alerts and notices if she was around.

Kali found Kaiser almost immediately. It was hard to not notice the tall woman in this crowd anyway. After returning the nod, Kali’s eyes went back up to the screen again. The number of contestants was dropping faster than she expected and she guessed that it wouldn’t take too long to get to the actual fight. If the rest of the matchups would be anything like number nine, she decided to just stop wasting time and blast them out of the arena. Maybe if they got the job done before lunchtime, she could go grab something more delicious from the restaurant downtown and do a bit of shopping.

“Who is number 15?” Kali heard someone ask from behind when she finally noticed the new matchups on the screen above. Number 3? She read the words briefly before looking back to where the voice earlier came from. This time, she found a shorter, rounder man with a beard larger than his face who reminded her of some fictional character in some fictional book about wizards and witches in a magical school. Wild.

“That would be me,” she replied to his earlier question before walking back to the indicated arena for their fight. ‘I wonder what this guy’s magic is. He looks like someone who would produce squirrels from that giant beard of his.’

1373/2500

It did not take long for the next matchups. Kali’s number was called first and Kaiser watched her partner go for her second fight. Once the number fourteen was matched on screen, she also headed back in for hers. Kaiser’s opponent this time reminded her of someone who was a part of her previous guild. She was not one of the core members, but she was a member nonetheless. It was Wabbit Kuwosawki, one of the quiet but large ones, always mistaken for a man dressed like a woman. She was normally on escort duty, so a lot of visitors were intimidated to enter the guildhall most of the time when she was on duty. Anyway, Kaiser's current opponent resembled a lot like Wabbit. She was also quite tall, maybe an inch or even two taller than Kaiser, which was rare to find in most women, not that it was going to be a problem for her.

Wabbit 2.0 beat her chest, alarming the vampire and bringing her out of her reminiscence. They had both taken their places on their respective starting circles and were waiting for the starting signal. Kaiser didn’t have an opportunity to take a look around during her first fight because she was too focused on the guy’s hair, but now after she realized that, she stole a quick glance around. There had to be over thousands of spectators in the seats, but not all of them were watching one single fight. Since there were a few fights going on at the same time, it was really up to them to watch whatever fight they wanted. Roars of cheers echoed throughout the venue right after the announcement of who won blared through the speakers. A whistle was blown to signal the start of their match, and Kaiser immediately kicked her foot on the ground beneath, concentrating a mass of crash energy at the exact spot that the opponent was standing in and aiming to explode in his face.

Hagrid 2.0, no, she meant number 3 followed her back into the arena while trying to strike up a friendly conversation. He laughed with his round stomach and tried multiple times to get at least one word out of the void mage’s mouth. Just when it became awfully clear that she wouldn’t give him her time of the day, the short man seemed to huff in displeasure and almost knocked her down to deliberately walk in front of her.

‘Childish,’ Kali thought as they stepped into the big rectangular arena. There was someone by the side announcing the matchups and every other detail, but Kali ignored it all -even the amused cheers from the crowd- to keep her eyes on the target. She really did not want to waste any more time on these small fries.

So, once the signal went off for them to start the fight, Kali had formed a concentrated ball of void energy in her palms ready to shoot it at the man when her eyes caught something actually moving within his beard. ‘Wait, for real? Squirrels?’ she wondered for a moment until some creatures with spiny legs started crawling out. ‘Oh, never mind, spiders…’ Kali chuckled in amazement. That was a rather unique magic she hasn’t seen before. Perhaps he was one of those beastmasters she has been hearing all about. Well, regardless of spiders of squirrels, Kali was truly determined to get this thing over with.

So, stepping on some of those bugs as she rushed forward, Kali wasted no time in sending the void magic ball to the man’s overgrown stomach, watching it make ripples as he let out a painful breath and fall back on his place. The spiders, detecting the mana tying them gone, also quickly dispersed to somewhere down the arena to the much chagrin of people present.

“Ughhh Number 15 wins!” The announcement came a lot late this time as the dude carrying the mic was busy playing hopscotch with the spiders.

1706/2500

Woops, mistake there. Even Kaiser could not help herself from thinking of the opponent as a male in her head. Anyway, her concentration of crash energy formed at the feet of her opponent as planned and detonated upon contact with Wabbit 2.0’s feet. That was not a trigger for the spell to explode. It was just coincidental that the timing of it exploding and Wabbit’s feet coming into contact with it were the exact same moment. At this point of the mission, Kaiser was already thinking about the full body oil massage she planned on having later in the evening, with some hot jasmine tea and oriental music. Oh and guess who would be giving her the massage. A professional at a fancy and expensive spa? No. It was the maid she hired to take care of her villa, Nona. Turned out that she had some massage tricks up her sleeve and was half Sinese, so she knew how to brew good tea and used to listen to oriental Sinese music during her younger years. It was the perfect package to look forward to when Kaiser went back home. Not to forget, a little bit of feeding in the process to make it even better.

Once again, her opponent was blasted off the arena with her spell and Kaiser was announced as the winner for the match. Both of the matches she had participated in had gone pretty quickly and smoothly. The vampire left the arena for the second time to queue up in front of the lacrima screen for the third time. How many more, she wondered. Upon arriving at the queue area, she looked for her partner Kali. Speaking of, could Kali be part of a guild? Kaiser herself was no longer affiliated to a guild anymore after Daeva Eye was gone. She made a mental note to ask. It would not take long for the vampire to finally find her partner and pop the question. “So are you part of a guild or something?”

Kali was startled. With the way the two mages were keeping to themselves throughout this entire mission, she did not expect her aloof partner to suddenly come up and ask a question. Not to mention it is quite a personal one, too.

Being in a guild; Kali’s thoughts took a turn to her past -the little bit she knew- and there was no way Kali could be sure. By the time she woke up in that village in the middle of nowhere, all traces of her past had been wiped clean off both her body and mind. She was found suffering -at the foot of a mountain- from all sorts of wounds by an old lady who fortunately knew a bit of about all sorts of potions. According to her, Kali had very deep cuts across her face, chest, and back; anything regarding her appearance was completely unrecognizable with blood flowing between the thick wounds. To the old woman’s surprise, Kali accepted her situation quite easily and neither asked her anything more nor made a move to find anything out. For a while, Kali was just like an empty shell; as empty as her magic.

Brushing off the surprise from her face, Kali answered the question with a little shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she deadpanned. “I may have been in one? I may have not,” she turned her face with a self-deprecating smile. “Maybe I was even a master of some guild? What do you think?”

Chuckling at the funny yet not very funny joke she made herself, Kali turned back to the screen which displayed the matchups and her eyes lit up. “Oh…I think we can go home early today, after all.” On the screen was Kaiser’s number matched up against the previous champion’s number. “Looks like the coin fell on your side.”

2014/2500

Kaiser noticed the expression of surprise flash over Kali’s beautiful features for the shortest of moments once she registered the question in her head. Her response however...triggered a flood of emotions in the form of a warm fuzziness in the vampire’s chest. She assumed that Kali was leaning more to the guildless side as of right now, though, from what she said. Kaiser didn’t think it would be of any use to mention that she herself had been a guild mistress before, although she did mention, “I’ll go with guildless, because I am, too, although I was part of a family. We called ourselves Daeva Eye.” Her statement was punctuated by the sudden gasp of people around her as the lacrima screen displayed the ugly face of their mission target side by side with a decent image of hers. Perfect. She was hoping to have to fight him at least in the next or the next, next match. Kaiser responded with a triumphant smirk to Kali’s remark about going home early. The goal was to finish him off so that they could reap the full rewards of the mission. Besides that, this would be one way people would start to notice her return. Going around town secretly exploding mines was one thing, but killing off a champion on screen in front of a huge audience was sure to get her the exposure. The vampire was not worried about any of that though. She no longer cared about maintaining a positive reputation since the only reason she had to before was because she cared about her guild.

“Wish me luck,” she joked as she entered the arena for the third time. She could feel all eyes on her and understood the reason for that. How could someone who came out of nowhere beat everyone so fast and so easily to the point that she was matched up with the champion in a day? Kaiser took her position on a vacant starting circle and watched her opponent do the same. He was big and muscular, just like Wabbit and brought no weapons into the arena, so Kaiser assumed that he was either going to use his brute force or had some magic tricks to show. Since he was the latest champion, she didn’t want to make the mistake of underestimating him. Naturally, there were a lot more spectators on this side of the arena now than before to see if the champion would remain the champion or if there would be a new one. There was a moment of thrilling suspense as everyone waited for the starting signal. As soon as the signal was given, Kaiser covered the fifteen meters between them in a swift lunge and opened her palm wide, which would come into contact with the opponent’s face. Once she had a firm grip on his head, she would slam him down backwards with full force so that he fell backwards headfirst. At the same time his head would connect with the arena floor, a mass of crash energy would explode from the palm of her hand, shattering any bones in his head and neck since that was the direct point of contact, and from the shattering of his skull, pieces of bone would cause his brains to pretty much explode on the arena floor and splatter all over. Kaiser removed her hand from his face, wiping any blood on her hands on his shirt and stood up. Silence filled the entire arena and it was so quiet that she thought she could hear a pin drop.

Daeva Eye, what a strangely familiar yet unique for a guild name. Kali felt she had heard it from somewhere but couldn’t exactly pinpoint exactly where that might be. It was there in the back of her mind but refused to surface as if something was firmly holding it down and away from her consciousness. Though it felt a bit eerie and uncomfortable not to know, Kali herself did not put too much thought into it. Perhaps it was part of her past? But they got buried a long time ago and Kali was not too keen on digging things up unless it comes finding her instead.

Yet, going by the very audible gasps and look of both horror and respect mixed with a trace of pity in the eyes of people, Kali read that something unfortunate must have happened to Kaiser’s guild. She wanted to ask more about it but before she could, it was time for the match to start and everyone including the event organizers was looking forward to this match between this powerful dark horse and the currently reigning champion.

In between all of that, Kali also noticed her own number displayed on the screen along with some others that at this point, she did not even bother to read. That could not be said for her opponent, however, because the small girl with neon-colored hoop earrings had found Kali and loudly proclaimed the void mage as her next opponent. With a tilt of her head and a shrug of her shoulder, Kali smiled harmlessly before ripping the number badge off of her. “Sorry, but I don’t like wasting too much energy on meaningless shit,” she told them before walking off.

Since their mission target was about to be met, Kali honestly found no reason in continuing with those meaningless fights. It was a waste of mana and energy that she could spend somewhere else such as shopping or drinking.

So, after rudely yet not so rudely brushing off the girl, Kali left to spectate the match between Kaiser and their target. To be honest, she was not surprised at the kind of power Kaiser displayed. Somewhere between their first encounter and interaction, Kali had already ascertained that Kaiser is quite a few levels above herself and perhaps many others. The speed and technique displayed were not ordinary and her magic was even scarier. It was almost invisible and unpredictable. After watching the fight for a while, Kali just knew that this mission would be written down as successful.

With a smile on her face and a lot of mental notes on this mission partner, Kali decided that she can just leave and grab her share of the rewards a bit earlier. That restaurant she wanted to go to would be open soon and it really had been a while since she spent a relaxing day. She briefly questioned whether she should wait and invite Kaiser for a meal as well but decided that perhaps if fate willed it, they could just meet again later.


2520/2500
-Exit-

The match was over in less than a minute from its start. Thanks to her spell, the opponent’s half of the arena was going to need some fixing, that is if they wanted to use it again of course. The vampire was announced to be the final champion of the day although she didn’t wait to be congratulated or stayed longer to bask in her victory. Kaiser left the arena as quickly as she came and then headed out to look for her partner, in case she was still there. Upon finding out that she was no longer present at the venue, Kaiser headed back to where the client said he would be to distribute the reward. Keen on getting the moolah in her hands, she hurried over to the arranged spot and collected the full reward after informing the client that the champion had been killed. They were supposed to get extra for that.

With a thick wallet in her pocket, Kaiser returned to her villa and took a nice, relaxing shower. She had already asked Nona to prepare the oils and candles for the massage while she was washing down the dirt from today off her body first. Afterwards, she entered her bedroom that looked like a hotel room for a honeymoon and let her silk robes fall off her curvaceous body. Her long awaited spa time has come!