11:00 AT, Day Thirty Five | Dragon Queen’s Arena

  “Foolish hoomans. You shall die. No one defies me!”

  A great pulse of energy runs through the arena as Shadow activates another skill, {Life of Termination}.

  Shadow vanishes, and suddenly dozens of soldiers drop dead, instantly, seemingly at random.

  Beside me, Emil drops to the floor, his body contorting in pain. I quickly grab a health pack and inject it into him. After a few moments, he seems to stop writhing in pain, and he gives me a grim smile and motions for me to go on.

  I rush to a nearby group and quickly inject them with healthpacks. It seems the only way to counter the effect is by healing.

  After about three groups, I feel a massive surge of energy and impulsively dodge out of the way, just as a claw comes arching right past my throat.

  I immediately dodge another claw and then move to block the next with my spear, creating a resounding crash around the arena. Shadow and I stand, claw and spear interlocked.

  I peer into her deep black eyes, seemingly filled with a rage that can only be held by a cat. A rage that pushes one to cause nothing but pain and suffering to all those around them.

  I quickly flip my spear around in a feint and then kick at Shadow, who goes flying with a yowl of pain.

  The skill deactivates and all the screams of pain stop. But, I can't imagine this cat doesn't have any other nasty tricks up its fur coat. It is a cat after all.

  Shadow stands up with a growl. “Puny beings! Just die already!”

  Shadow moves into the center of the arena and then sits down, curling up into a tight ball. Some might call it cute. But we know better. That pose can only be one of its skills, {Life of Blood}. A truly devastating attack that lures people in, only to decimate them.

  A strange voice whispers in the back of my mind.

  Pet her, you must pet her.

  I feel a strange pull, almost as if something is yanking me towards the center of the arena. It's strange, some sort of compulsion. I must go pet shadow. After all, she is fluffy, it's only natural. I must offer her my very blood and being.

  I dash into the center of the room, only to be abruptly stopped halfway by someone grabbing my arm. A different voice whispers in my ear, “where the klack do you think you're going? You are only allowed to pet one person, ya hear me?”

  I snap out of Shadow’s compulsion, only to find Ray holding onto my arm, a gaze of unbridled fury in her eyes. I have a feeling that I am going to be paying for this at a later date. Oh well, it should be fun, at least a little bit.

  Ray releases me and then quickly takes her railgun and fires a projectile right at Shadow, who is curled up at the center of the arena, with several soldiers swarming around her. Including Yuin unfortunately, they might be in need of a talking to later on.

  The projectile smashes into Shadow, breaking whatever compulsion was placed across the arena. The nearby soldiers quickly regain their senses and either jump away or slice at Shadow, many of them landing nice hits.

  “Filthy hoomans. You shall bow before me, your rightful Queen!” Shadow screams, seemingly quite agitated at this point. She activates her seventh life, {Life of Obedience}.

  Immediately, she attacks all those nearby. Several manage to deflect her attacks and escape, but most do not. Several dozen soldiers fall victim to her claws as she gets one after the other.

  Strangely enough, rather than die, they simply seem to stand there for a few moments. Then Shadow lets out a meow, and their eyes go wide and they all fall to the ground, their beings ripped from their vessels.

  What’s worse is that each death also creates an extra cat, that seem to be even more angry than those before.

  This klacking cat. It's really the pure incarnation of evil. Just what have these game masters created? I wonder if they are seeing this fight and realizing the mistakes they made.

  Or perhaps their intent was this, to completely and utterly traumatize us. Show us that ruling means suffering and committing horrible atrocities? But that really doesn't make sense, so far they have taken far different approaches to testing us.

  My eyes lock with Ray’s. Her blue eyes seem to portray a calm confidence. But I know that a raging fury burns just behind that, just waiting to be unleashed upon any who dare to prevent her receiving headrubs.

  Ray rushes off, intercepting Shadow’s rampage. Blades and claws clash in a flash of light. An immovable object and unstoppable force colliding with poor Shadow.

  Ray slices Shadow into several dozen pieces. Quick, efficient. The cat, even empowered by the blood and screams of our soldiers, stands no chance. Not against a girl that really wants to go home and get some headrubs.

  Shadow disappears and the bar goes down and the skill deactivates. Thankfully, those that were clawed are freed from the control. But those that died stay dead. What a cruel and evil cat.

  I rush over and give Ray a nice hug. Which she rewards with a kiss and headpats. My girlfriend is so cute, it's unbelievable. If we weren't in the middle of a raid, I would definitely just cuddle up with her.

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  That shall have to wait until later though. We've got ourselves a cat to slay.

  After a few minutes of rest, Shadow speaks again, though is nowhere to be seen. “Hoomans. Die.”

  {Life of Death} activates and the arena suddenly fills with cats. It's like every single of the cats that were slain have been resurrected. There must be at least 300 of them, it's insane.

  Instead of going crazy like normal, all of the cats seem to cluster around the center of the arena, decimating anyone that gets anywhere close. We quickly organize and command people to stay at distance.

  Ray flies back to me and basically drags me away from the deadly mob of cats. Its almost like she is worried that Ill do something crazy and suicidal again. How rude, I've only done that twice. But she gives me a few headpats with her free hand, so all is well and she is very much forgiven.

  She basically drags me down to the floor and places me firmly in her lap, then begins to gently brush my hair, being sure to get any bits of cat fur out of it.

  This really is the best life. My super duper cute girlfriend gives me lots of headrubs, kisses and such. Meanwhile our soldiers fight an army of very evil cats. Being a ruler sure is nice.

  Speaking of cats, it seems that the high-levels have been held back. The bunch of great-levels are working in tandem to slowly thin the cat horde. I would watch, but I've got much better things to do.

  I enjoy the wonderful sights as I look up at Ray’s beautiful face. Her mouth is formed into a beautiful smile that seems to sap all of my energy away.

  After a few minutes, Ray stands up and helps me to my feet. It seems the skill has ended. It was a quite nice skill. I am glad the cat used this life to allow us a brief rest. After all, mid-battle headrubs and kisses are important. They boost not only our morale, but that of all our soldiers.

  I wrap my arms around Ray and give her a quick hug and a kiss right before Shadow speaks once more.

  “How? Hoomans. Must die. Kneel before your Queen and perish. Scream your beautiful songs.”

  Shadow appears at the center of the arena. Though this time she appears to be far larger, at least 5x the size. Her claws look very scary, and hungry for human flesh.

  She lets out a grand meow and activates a skill, the last one she has left, {Life of Pain}.

  Suddenly, half of the soldiers start screaming in pain and writhing on the floor. Many of them seem to simply die from the pain. Many of the remaining soldiers grit their teeth, obviously in pain.

  For some reason, it seems Ray and I aren't affected. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am holding her hand in mine. Or we simply have been hardened by Initae’s training.

  Emil and Rigar also seem to be fine, though they are frantically trying to command people to maintain some semblance of order. Glad they are here to handle everyone. Ray and I definitely couldn't do as well commanding on the battlefield. After all, we are the rulers. We make the plans and others follow them, we don't have time to manage every single part of the plan.

  Several of the great-levels work together and charge in at Shadow. But she just stands in the center of the arena and takes it. Or rather, is not harmed by them. All attacks seem to just bounce off her.

  Everyone just sits dumbfounded. Some try to attack her, but she just stands there. An expression that I can only describe as a smile is on her face as people scream all around her.

  Truly the incarnation of evil itself.

  “Darling, what if she cannot be harmed while people are still in pain?” Ray asks.

  “Hmm, that would make sense. It is the life of pain after all. Her very lifeforce must be sustained by the pain of others.”

  “Thats.. Horrific. I cant believe they thought creating such a beast was a good idea.”

  “All in the efforts of ‘testing’ us contestants I suppose. The reward better be worth this klakery. I wanna breathe fire or something crazy.” I say, “So darling, you wanna handle the pain problem?”

  “Gladly.”

  Ray then proceeds to give a speech. A mighty one. In fact, im sure it will go down in history as one of the best speeches ever. After all, Ray is super duper cute.

  In summary it amounts to, “you worthless soldiers, get off your klacking assess and stop being babies.” A truly beautiful speech, very refined and elegant.

  After a few minutes, most of the people seem to grit their teeth and stand up, even though they are still in immense pain.

  I grip Ray’s hand tighter and she gives me a nice smile.

  We walk towards the center of the arena, to the Queen. She looks quite panicked, if evil beings can panic that is.

  When we get close enough she yowls, “Die, die. Why won't you scream your brilliant song? Why won't it continue? Just die already!"

  As the last soldiers stand up, she begins to shrink in size rapidly until she is just the size of a normal housecat.

  I let go of Ray’s hand and calmly walk the remaining distance to Shadow, who seems to be unable to stand up anymore.

  I pick her up by the scruff.

  I once again gaze into her eyes, this time though they seem to lack a certain fury that I once saw.

  “Impossible.. Mere hoomans have bested me. This cannot be, yet it is.” Shadow says.

  “Well of course we bested you. Have you seen how cute Ray is?” I say, smiling at the cat.

  Suddenly, she seems to change quite a bit. Almost as though whatever was driving her stops. “Hoomans, you have done well to best me, the Queen of dragons. You have proven yourselves worthy leaders. Take these crowns as symbols of your strength. May you have many great adventures that surpass even my own.”

  The floor opens up and two crowns, seemingly made out of the same black rock as the building, float up into the air.

  I take one of the crowns and gently set it on Ray’s head, just as she does the same for me with the other.

  “Darling, weren't we already King and Queen? Does this make us double monarchs?” Ray asks, a smirk on her face.

  “I guess it does. There are two of us, so I'm sure we can handle the burden. Ray and Ko, rulers of humans and dragons. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it, darling?”

  “That it does, my super duper cute boyfriend. Now, whaddya say we go deal with our other problems, then we can have lots of headrubs!”

  I toss Shadow away, and she seems to basically dematerialize. Some sort of advanced holographic projection, I don't think she was ever actually physically alive.

  I place my hands on Ray’s face and lean down for a nice kiss. A long kiss. After all, she is super duper cute.

  I am not quite sure what will come of this fight, or this trial. But I am sure that whatever comes, Ray and I will conquer it together. All in the name of headrubs of course. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 125

  Next: Chapter 126 | Lords & Subjects

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  Skills for Shadow, The Dragon Queen

  {Life of Termination}: the beast rapidly moves around the arena, leaving behind tiny cuts that cause unimaginable pain, but not death. This serves to massively boost the power of the beast unless the cuts are cured via healing effects.

  {Life of Blood}: The beast goes into a meditative state, enticing people to come towards it and offer their blood. Upon activation, the beast decimates all opponents and uses their blood to empower itself.

  {Life of Obedience}: the beast goes into a frenzy, clawing anything in range. Gaining control of all who are attacked while this skill is underway, she causes them to immediately die and spawn evil cats.

  {Life of Death}: the beast harnesses the power of all fallen evil cats. They are resurrected and become an army that the beast can fully control.

  {Life of Pain}: the beast grows in size and power drastically by absorbing the energy of its fallen subjects. The beast’s roaring meow turns into a sound that causes excruciating pain to all those who hear it. Only those with the strongest of wills will resist. As long as a single combatant remains in pain, the beast cannot be stopped.