Chapter 103: A Solar Counter

Dionysus gave her a savage grin, likely thinking her slowly dissolving, anime-style military school uniform would be mostly dead by the time she could do anything about it with her super-enhanced selection for her second round.

"Unlike the first round, where one can select an item, these ones are only reserved for Item Enhancement. So, Enhancement: Solar Gauntlets, Solar Skies...the gloves can bathe the atmosphere in a veil of solar rays that blot out the heavens for up to an hour, once a month.

Rachel pulled her now pink-hued, white braid over her shoulder to examine it with a bored expression; she lived so rent-free in his mind with all the taunts. He wasn’t thinking about the future at all for Conner, only trying to make him a direct counter to her. Sure, it worked, but Rachel wanted something that would last, and Nia was that.

The shark made a few grunts, watery pools spinning the display until settling on an underwater temple arena of some kind, showing a giant, muscular man in the background with a trident and making Conner beam with excitement as the lesser god introduced the battle stage.

"Location: the Dwendran’s Temple of Poseidon, in the golden pools my older brother sanctified! Truly a memorable place for a contest!"

Conner laughed and smirked at her. "Looks like you’re on monster duty again. Penalty: I can only use one leg for the entire match!"

Rachel didn’t feed into the hype, spinning the holographic options in a swift cycle without much emotion, making Nia laugh. "Monster: whatever it lands on."

"Someone’s confident," Conner hummed, studying her. "Aren’t you relying a bit too much on chance?"

She flashed her teeth as the selection landed on a Baby Kraken, making Conner force a laugh. "Chance is more than enough in this kind of challenge. I’d say good luck, but I’m sure you’ll wrestle down the not-so-baby squid on one leg well enough."

Sent back to her booth so as not to draw more attention or love from the crowd due to her mouth, she kept her gaze on Conner. The stage was put into place, and while the earth was converted into water, her mind was pulled to Nike, near the corner of her vision.

This is such a strange competition. As competitors, we have to make sure our opponent survives to the end, or we both lose. If that is the case, then Conner has to be on my side, even if his god goes against me, and I can use that divide. We actually have a lot of power over the Arbiter, and if I get the crowd on my side, then I can isolate him.

Nia’s overcoat fell away, frayed completely through. It started on her tie and thigh-high stockings; soon, it would be her white dress shirt and skirt.

Hold on a bit longer, Nia. All you need is a little pick-me-up.

"Uh-huh..." Nia mumbled in a somewhat delirious state, growing weaker now that the virus was allowed to gnaw further at her spirit; the heat the outfit produced was now burning instead of warm and reassuring. "I trust you, Rach... I-I mean, Major..."

Call me Rach all you want, Captain.

"Ma’am... I’d like some more socks. I like socks..."

Letting her ramble about various clothing items she liked to chew on, most of which she really had no idea what they tasted like, Rachel debated entering her internal world to assign her levels. Her gut told her the lesser god would do something to speed up Conner’s battle to attempt to trap her.

Nia’s delirious right now and can’t keep watch of the match for me. Dionysus is already trying to punish me. I can’t tell how much time will pass, and if Conner’s enhanced powers are like my Blood Moon powers, I could miss the selection process. It would be better to maneuver myself in a way to level in the next round. If I play my cards right, Nia should be able to cover me while I do that... It’s still hard to wait...

A tad annoyed, she followed Conner’s battle, comforting herself that she did need to understand more about his powers and how he used them. He was good. Using one leg, he surfed on the golden liquid surrounding the stadium to manipulate it into weapons, cutting the towering behemoth of a baby kraken into sushi.

Sure, it wasn’t easy for him, and he actually dodged the poisonous barbs the creature threw at him instead of tanking them like normal, but he could still make a show out of it. Solar-charged punches from his gloves left scorch marks on the sea creature’s body that seemed challenging for it to heal.

Ten minutes of showboating and displays of his strength, and it was on to her second round. She could have probably leveled up in that time, yet what she’d learned in Conner’s fight had been worth the delay. If she could upgrade her Stats on her own turn, then she’d gained far more overall in the end.

Eostre’s arms were held anxiously against her chest, mumbling for the legend to get it over with already throughout the fight to give her a shot at stopping the soul item’s worsening decay. The woman was really growing on Rachel, and even MoonMoon had his strengths.

Rachel’s fingers lingered on the fraying edges of her dress shirt, showing her toned belly as it crawled up to her chest. Almost all of her clothing was nearly gone to some extent now, but Nia was doing her best to retain her undergarments, stubbornly holding on.

It wasn’t the loss of the clothes themselves that tightened Rachel’s chest but what they represented. She’d gotten to know Nia, mentally chatting with the young woman, and while there were clear differences between them—such as her sense of fashion—the headstrong Living Denier was the closest girl she’d met to having her own interests.

Finally, she sighed, appearing in the center as Dionysus gave her ruined outfit a smug grin.

"Haha! Ladies and gentlemen and everything in-between, around, and without, what will our lunar hare do to save herself from becoming a nudist?"

Conner chuckled. "We should at least give her a chance, right? She needs all the help she can get at this point. Will luck be in her favor?"

Rachel returned the smirk to the lesser god, her boldly gleaming eyes sparking doubt that made her heart soar as she reached out to grasp the die that appeared.

A beyond-handsome, golden-haired male angel appeared from the crowd, but she was wholly focused on the misfortune tightening around Dionysus’ throat; besides, if she’d learned one thing from all these unique moons she’d experienced thus far, she leaned a tad on the more Infernal side of the spectrum.

She tossed it into Dionysus’ roll box as everyone else threw it at the same time; the lesser god frowned as her die struck his, bouncing off the edges before coming to a stop.

Conner: 2

Rachel: 20

Dionysus: 1

Crowd: 10