Characters: Lucilla, Cara, Siarra, Kim, Tony, Gena, Roxanne, Aisha, Grandpa, Isaac, Quentin, Mundo, Robin Hobb, and Little John
“What in the Light happened here?” Lucilla muttered as she and Cara walked through the arena amongst the bloody corpses of Men and Women alike. There was still fighting going on along the sides, but they were headed towards the middle, where Gena and Roxanne lay sprawled on top of one another.
Siarra glanced over her shoulder to see two armed Paladins, their swords unsheathed, strolling towards them. She looked back down at Tony. “Please, GM Tony, you have to believe me. Kim and I would never put a virus into this game. We love it too much.”
“What are you all talking about!?” Aisha whined. “Is this some sort of code? Why won’t you tell me?”
Tony put his hand to his head. “We’ll get this straightened out later. Right now, I’m pulling all you girls out of Neverquest. Did you get that, Sophia?”
There was no response.
“Sophia?” he repeated. “…My sugary Sophia doll, where are you? Neil? Neil, little buddy, are you there? Pip? Anybody? …Hello? Shit! The connection is dead. The virus must’ve overtaken it.”
“Oh, great,” Kim muttered. “You’re about as helpful as every GM I’ve seen.”
“Quiet, little Missy, or I’ll take away your platinum.”
Clearing her throat, Lucilla stepped between Tony and Kim. “Excuse me, what’s going on here?”
“Ah, Lady Lucilla, right,” Tony said, holding up a finger. The girls stared at him. “She’s the captain of the Paladins, of course. I made her that way. Modeled her after my ex, you know?” He grinned. “How are you, Lucilla?”
“I don’t know how you know so much about me, but I don’t find your antics amusing. Queen Isabella would like to know what’s going on down here.”
“Why don’t you ask them?” Tony said, jerking a thumb at Kim and Siarra. “They know more than me.”
Siarra raised her hands. “Look, I can explain everything.”
“I don’t believe you’re one of the contestants. Any of you, in fact. Your faces are all new—except yours, Sister Aisha.”
“Yeah, hi,” Aisha said unsurely.
“Would you mind explain this to me?”
“I’m…not so sure I can. I’m terribly confused about everything right now.”
Sighing, Lucilla pointed to Siarra and Kim with her sword and then pointed towards the royal box section. “You two, start walking. Queen Isabella will have a word with you.” The tip of her sword was then thrust down into the face of a no longer grinning Tony. “You go with them. I don’t like your attitude.”
“Oh, I’ll carry him…with pleasure,” Siarra said. She bent down, wrapping each finger around Tony as tight as a boa constrictor, and stormed away. “At least the Queen will be able to take care of this since you obviously can’t.”
“Don’t make me go GM ninja on you, little Missy.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Lucilla combed a hand through her hair and stared down at the bodies of Gena and Roxanne. “Aisha, can you revive these two? As much as I hate them, I know Queen Isabella would like to see them again.”
“Well, I don’t have my scepter, but I can try.” She closed her eyes and raised her right hand slowly.
Before she could do anything, though, Gena leapt to her feet. “Thanks, Aisha! Wow, that magic worked miracles on my bones.”
Roxanne stood up too and stretched, her heavy armor clanging against her body.
“But I didn’t even do anything…” Aisha started to say, but Lucilla interrupted her.
“Alright, we have to clean up this mess. Cara, take Gena and Roxanne and gather up all the Men and bring them to the royal box section.”
“You’re actually going to trust us with an assignment?” Gena sneered.
“This isn’t a matter of trust. I have to return to my position and you’ve already made a mockery out of this tournament by letting the Men have a chance at winning. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
“I would like to get even…” Gena said. “What do you say, Luci? We’re both in the arena. You want to go a round with your superior?”
“As much as I would love to cut that snake tongue out of your mouth, I don’t have time. But we’ll have our day yet.” She sheathed her sword. “I’m putting you with Cara now. I trust she’ll take good care of you.”
Gena looked down at the timid brunette next to Lucilla and grinned. “Of course. Hi there, Cara.”
“Hello,” she said meekly.
“Make sure you get all the Men,” Lucilla said as she turned to walk away. “Queen Isabella is not very happy.”
“Does that mean the Men have been spared?” Aisha asked. She jogged to catch up to Lucilla.
“Spared?”
“From death. I…well, you know me. I don’t like to see anybody die.”
“I know, Sister Aisha.”
“So, do you think they’ll be spared?”
“…I think they’re going to get it worse now than if you had just let them die naturally. What were you thinking, Aisha? Did you really think you could save them?”
Her eyes fell to her feet. “I hoped so.”
But Lucilla’s smile was warm for once and she put a comforting hand on Aisha’s cheek, lifting her head up. “Sister Aisha, you haven’t changed, have you? You always did care about everybody else.”
“Yes…”
“Well, come now. You know this is for the best. Everybody gets what they deserve, right?”
“I don’t know…”
“That’s what it means to be a crusader of the Light. You and I, we both bring justice and hope to this world. That was our pledge back at the School of Light, was it not?”
“Justice was your pledge,” she said slowly. “Hope was mine. …Is there still hope?”
Lucilla smiled. “Of course. There is always hope in the Light. You believe, don’t you?”
“With all my heart.”
“Then you should already know the answer.”
Meanwhile, Gena and Roxanne were making their way around the outside of the arena, stomping on all the Men they could see.
“I think Lady Lucilla wanted them alive,” Cara said, squealing as she almost stepped on a bloody carcass. “Oh, gross! I don’t want to be out here.”
“Stop whining and pick them up if you don’t want them to get squashed,” Gena said.
Cara watched a Man run past her leg. With a shaky hand, she reached down and tried to pluck him up. But her fingers closed around his ears and only caused his head to be torn off as his body continued running forward. She shrieked and dropped his head.
“Oh, I’m no good at this!” she moaned, reaching for another Man. He fainted at the sight of her.
Meanwhile, Grandpa had led his army around the perimeter of the arena and Cara was in his sights. He hobbled towards her, shining his staff of light, but her back was to him. The sound of footsteps must have caught her attention, though, because she suddenly stood up and turned around. Still glowing, the ray of light struck the silver metal of her shoulder pads and reflected back at Grandpa. He howled as his eyes turned to fire. Blinded for a moment, he tripped and rolled through the sand like tumbleweed, coming to a stop at Cara’s feet. The light of his staff flickered and then disappeared.
“Oh, dear,” Cara said as she watched the other Men—Isaac, Quentin, Mundo, Robin Hobb, and Little John—slow down to a halt next to Grandpa as they realized their main source of power had just fizzled out. For a moment, they had a staring contest, as if they were trying to judge the others’ actions.
Then the Men attacked.
“Kill her!” Robin Hobb shouted, stringing three arrows in his bow at once and releasing them at Cara. She screamed and took cover as all three arrows bounced weakly off her metal armor. “Don’t let her get away!”
But the other Men just stood and watched as Robin Hobb continued shooting until he was out of arrows. It was then that he reached into his quiver, only to find it empty.
“What are you doing!?” he yelled back to his companions. “We have to kill the enemy!”
“Dude,” Mundo said. “Look at her.”
Robin Hobb looked over at Cara, where she was trembling on the ground with her head tucked between her knees in some sort of strange fetal position. A graveyard of arrows lay all around her.
“…Oh,” he said, dropping his bow. He slowly walked over to her and put a hand on her cold vambraces. “Uh… I’m sorry if I scared you.”
“That was really mean,” she cried. “I was just trying to save you.”
“From who?”
She pointed to Gena and Roxanne, who were merrily dancing with each other through a pool of blood and screaming Men. The audience was cheering and laughing.
“…Yeah, I think we better go with her,” Mundo said. “I don’t see Frankie anyway. Gena must’ve put him down somewhere.”
Like a cautious turtle poking its head out of its shell, Cara looked up from between her legs. “Really? I promise I won’t hurt you. I’m only supposed to take you to the Queen.”
“Just the chick we wanted to speak to,” Isaac said. “Alright, sweet thing, take us away. The Queen can’t be as bad as those two.”
Giantess World
