In the backyard of stately Blackthorne Manor, four people gathered for the showdown of the century. Two fighters, each battling for pride and possible girlfriend status, squared off in the uncut grass. A red haired oddity who loved every moment of the spectacle clapped her hands together and grinned like a fool, while one small black dragon who happily munched on popcorn.

The road that Scott called home was not one traveled frequently. It lead nowhere in particular, and did not act as a quick access between popular locales. Quite frankly, he chose the place specifically because precious few people ever felt the need to go there. Those individuals either lived on the road, or were lost. If more than two or three cars passed through the road in a day, he would have been surprised.

Even so, as the fresh air began to work its magic, the pheromones which clouded his mind began to alleviate. Scott slowly realized that he was outside in the early morning light, and in the shape of a dragon.

While Sonja and Ashton glared angrily at each other from a short-distance away, Scott drew back against the house and hid himself partially beside a pile of cinder blocks that he often swore would be used for a sweet outdoor grill one day. It wasn't like someone from the road would be able to see him anyway, but there was no reason not to at least try to hide himself.

"Woohoo!" cried Shara excitedly. "Battle for the Bae, Round One!"

Scott threw up his little dragon paw up in the air and shouted, "Fight!" through a mouthful of popcorn. If they were going to do this, he might as well be supportive. Right?

Ashton and Sonja ignored the peanut gallery for a moment. They continued to glare at each other while they simultaneously sized each other up.

"You still have time to walk away from this," said Sonja. "It would be shameful and prove your weakness, but it would show the quality of your intelligence."

The fox girl sneered at Sonja. "Please."

"Begging already, flea ba—" began Sonja only to stop mid-sentence and immediately leap to the side. In that split second, a slight disturbance in the air signaled something strong. Where she once stood, Ashton suddenly appeared. The sharpened nails of her right hand were extended into powerful claws. Where she once stood, the image of Ashton faded quickly from sight.

Sonja's eyes widened and then narrowed. Ashton hurled herself to the side then offered the Valkyrie a wide toothsome smirk. "I'm surprised you dodged that, this should be fun."

Narrowed eyes widened quickly as a slightly amused smile crossed Sonja's lips. However, that mask of good humor hid her true intention. She exploded forward with tremendous speed. Her fist tore through Ashton like she was made of tissue paper.

A loud grunt spilled from the Valkyrie's lips as blood spattered from her back. Her hoody torn away in four distinct lines, blood trickled down from her shallow wounds.

"So, it's like that?" asked Sonja without bothering to look back at the fox girl.

Sonja closed her eyes, then leapt sideways to avoid another strike. The eyes could be fooled. Ashton mentioned it earlier, illusion powers. Her opponent was a highly agile fighter who clouded the mind and fooled the senses. The eyes were especially vulnerable to such manipulations.

The disturbance in the air, the scent of her opponent, they came to her clearly now. Fierce claws tore through the air, but she leaned back just enough to avoid the path they cut through the air, then slammed her elbow forward. A slight smirk on her lips soon gave way to frustration as her attack caught only air.

"Cute," said Ashton with a cheerfully snide laugh. "Closing your eyes isn't going to save you."

Sonja danced away from several rapid-fire strikes, but not without cost. Her hoody was a mass of tears, and blood trickle from a dozen shallow wounds.

"Awoo!" cried Ashton as she suddenly faded into view just before unleashing a powerful uppercut. A pillar of flame whirled around her then whipped outward. Sonja growled angrily as the flames seared her flesh.

"Enough!" roared Sonja. A thunderclap erupted from the Valkyrie as she clapped her hands together. A brilliant white energy erupted from her body that dispersed the flames.

"Ooh! She can use celestial banishment techniques," said Shara lightly. "Looks like Ashton's going to have to work harder."

Scott looked to her briefly then back to the fight. "Banishment?"

"Yeah," said Shara before she threw a fist into the air and cried out, "Right in the kidney! Yay, Sonja!" when the Valkyrie managed to punch Ashton in the lower back.

He was torn between asking for further information and the ongoing battle. The choice was soon taken from him as a strangely excited yelp caught his attention. He looked back to the fight, intrigued by the chance to see both of the girls in action.

The difference in physical strength was painfully obvious in that moment. While Ashton was fast, agile, and had the advantage with illusions, her physical attacks were not strong enough to do much damage individually to Sonja due to her raw physicality. However, a single blow from the war maiden was enough to nearly drive the business fox to her knees.

A growl of pure pain and frustration erupted from Ashton's throat as she tried to do something that apparently failed. Her momentary shock provided a painful lesson as Sonja was able to grip her by the tail. The first truly girlish shriek of the match occurred when Sonja spun sideways and ripped Ashton from the ground. She whirled in place briefly then leapt obscenely high into the air. Well beyond the roof of the house, the warrior maiden continued her whirling windup.

Ashton spinning with the centrifugal force of her opponent's movements found it impossible to move as gravitational forces overwhelmed her slightly above human strength.

Sonja roared majestically then shifted angles mid-air and hurled Ashton downward. Like a comet streaking toward the earth, she slammed into the ground with enough force to form a depression. Had this fight taken place prior to the dream, or she had still been human for that matter, it would have ended right then and there.

Ashton, though her pain was intense and her body battered, slapped her hands downward then kicked herself back up into the air in a fraction of a second. She howled loudly, flipped around, and kicked straight upward with the heel of her right foot. Ice crystals trailed through the air, though for some reason the air itself did not seem to grow noticeable colder.

Unable to correct her course any further, Sonja gritted her teeth and prepared to receive the attack at the last moment. The duo collided mid-air, one flaring divine light while the other radiated pure ferocity and an visual image of intense cold.

The frosty after-image of Ashton's attack was dispelled in that moment, but her foot was all too real. Sonja was forced to tank an attack that her opponent's natural strength should not have provided. Clearly enhanced by her life force via some skill or other, Ashton's heel slammed into Sonja's abdomen with the force of a cannonball.

Unfortunately for both fighters this came at great cost. Striking Sonja was akin to kicking a brick wall for Ashton. Sure, she could do it without breaking her foot, but the shock of the impact numbed her leg nearly to the knee for a moment. Sonja hurtled back through the air, a massive angry bruise rapidly beginning to form across her stomach, though it remained unseen due to her hoody.

They both struck the ground and remained immobile for a brief moment as they tried to catch their wind. The rapid usage of skills depleted their life force, but neither was done. Not yet.

"I should stop this," said Scott. The sight of the two girls, obviously in pain and injured, was too much. Smacking each other around a bit while they worked out their aggressions was one thing. At this rate one of them could be killed.

"You sure about that?" asked Shara. "I mean they're a little hurt, but neither of them is out of the fight. Look."

Sonja raised her hand up then laughed loudly, "Little fox. Do you really think that hurt me?"

"You bitch," said Ashton between panted breaths. "What's with the light show?"

"Fox repellent," said Sonja with an amused cackle. She rolled over to the side then forced herself to her knees.

The numbness in Ashton's leg had faded to the point that she too could stand. The fighter's stared at each other from across the grassy backyard.

"The lightshow, you can't keep doing it," said Ashton, her eyes narrowing as she spoke.

"I'll go longer than you, little fox," said Sonja a confident quirk to her lips. Her breaths came heavier after a moment and her face became slightly flush.

"The hell?" asked Scott. His thoughts immediately shifted gears as he noticed the rise and fall of Sonja's chest, and the flush of her cheeks. 'No... Is she getting turned-on by this?'

The Valkyrie strode forward, a slightly exaggerated sway in her hips. "Shall we dispense with the foreplay and get to the climax?"

Ashton drew back a little due the unsettling way that Sonja had stated the situation, "Yeah. Let's do that."

Light shined in Sonja's eyes just before she roared out a passionate war cry and burst forward. She cleared the distance with ridiculous speed that nearly caught Ashton off-guard. However, the fox girl was not out of tricks, yet.

Ashton hurled herself forward and rolled like a barrel then rose to her feet in one fluid motion. It was a move that caused great annoyance to rise up within Sonja's warrior heart. Her eyebrow rose in consternation and she shot Scott a disapproving look. "Again with this foolishness?"

"Works in Dark Souls," he said blithely.

"I do not know what that is..." mumbled Sonja, but she paid for her momentary distraction. Ashton was once again nowhere in sight.

"The same old trick, little fox?" asked Sonja. She raised her hands in preparation to destroy whatever illusionary force the girl would send her way, only to discover that her power would not come to her.

"What?" she asked as pale blue flames sprang up along her arms and soon covered her entire body.

"Go ahead. Try your little trick again," said Ashton as she faded into view.

"What did you do?" asked Sonja curiously.

"Awoo!" cried Ashton from behind Sonja. The Valkyrie turned sideways and noticed that there were two of her opponent now.

"You think I'd tell you?" asked a third Ashton that appeared behind her once more.

"Yeah, right." A fourth Ashton appeared.

"So many Ashton's," said Scott lightly.

Shara nodded her head happily. "It's a good trick," she said quietly. "I have something similar to it, but I use body duplicates. These are probably just illusionary copies."

"Can the world withstand more than one Shara at a time?" asked Scott curiously. He also wondered at why she only thought them to be illusionary copies. In his eyes they were clearly semi-transparent.

She winked at him. "Getting ideas?"

"Hell no," said Scott in a cheerful tone of voice.

Shara puffed her cheeks out at him. "That's not the right answer at all!"

While the side characters yammered ceaselessly about nothing important, the main protagonists of the tale continued their epic battle for the bae. Sonja tried to use her celestial banishment skill once more, but the blue flames on her body grew stronger. Her life force flowed away as though she had properly used the skill.

"So that's it!" she exclaimed. It was a brilliant tactic, actually. Somehow the flames stole her life away before her skill could be completed, and in so doing made the flames stronger. Effectively, she was denied her specialty skills. If she were primarily a magic user, it would be devastating. As things stood, it merely leveled the playing field once more.

The Ashtons laughed simultaneously then raced forward in a complicated zig-zagging manner that forced Sonja on the defensive with a flurry of rapid strikes that tore at her physical superiority. Unable to dispel the images that assaulted her mind, each of the strikes were weak but they quickly grew in number to the point that Sonja was in danger of losing all of her life force, and thus falling to the ground in exhaustion.

It should be said, however, that Sonja was of a race created for battle. The moment she was born, she was a warrior. Illusions were a common tactic of the weak, or at least they often proved to be a tool of the sneaky. Normally, celestial banishment was more than enough to dispel illusions or cast off certain status afflictions. Now she was forced to rely on less esoteric means in order to survive.

Instead of making the attempt to dodge the incoming strikes, she chose to focus on her growing anger and frustration. There was an inherent ability among her people, one born not of the celestial realm but of their innate connection to the heart of battle itself. It was rarely used in actual battle as it nearly destroyed all reactive defensive ability. Instead, for a short time she would feel no pain even as her physical capacity increased tremendously.

There was a downside, however. She would also lose her intellectual prowess to a great degree, and she might even become something akin to a frothing beast if she went too far down into the depths of the madness that sometimes came with the ability. It was a gamble, her elder sisters of the tribe had warned against use of such an ability as it could become a crutch if abused.

Sonja stopped moving altogether. Ashtons whipped by her while tearing at her clothing and lightly cutting her flesh. In the space of a single second, over a dozen wounds appeared on her body as the Ashton squad did its work.

Suddenly, she threw her head back and screamed to the sky. Scott's popcorn flew up out of his bowl then partially landed back inside. "The hell?" he cried, just before the blue flames flickering along Sonja's skin were snuffed out by an unseen wind.

One of the Ashtons went for her exposed neck, but to her great surprise not only did Sonja not bother to dodge, she rushed into the attack. Her eyes wide, but pupils shrunken to tiny pin pricks, the warrior maiden slammed her shoulder into Ashton. Her illusory form ruptured then faded from existence.

Instead of turning to fight the other five clones, the raging Valkyrie rushed headlong directly toward Scott. The dragon barely had time to back up against the house before she screamed once more then performed a ridiculous looking lateral leap at the last second. A formerly invisible fox girl cried out in shock as Sonja tackled her to the ground.

A strange noise, part laughter and part scream, erupted from Sonja's throat as she punching the ever loving shit out of the surprised store manager. Seated atop the fox girl's chest, her powerful thighs holding her in place, Ashton could do nothing but feebly attempt to fend off the enraged Valkyrie with her arms.

Scott hopped forward and started to shout for them to stop the fight, but there was no need. Ashton, heavily beaten and badly bruised, managed to instinctively realize a way out of her situation. She rocked backwards and threw her legs upward. Unable to think properly, and completely unconcerned with defense, Sonja did not even bother to block the business fox from her next combat investment. Ashton's leg's wrapped around Sonja's neck and she snapped her enraged foe backwards.

Briefly, her attempt to counter seemed a thing of beauty. However, less than a second later the result was an inexpert tangle of screaming female flesh that writhed in a twisted heap on the ground.

What happened next could only be considered an outdoor barroom brawl. Sonja showed no sense of pain as Ashton lashed out with everything that she had left. Meanwhile, the warrior maiden laughed madly and took the blows as though they were nothing. Her own strikes were more akin to flailing tentacles than actual skilled movements as she hurled her limbs forward with insane glee.

However, the battle was decided within a scant few seconds. Ashton attempted a head butt, but she immediately knew that she had chosen wrong. The adrenaline pumping through her veins caused the world to slow down as Sonja's open palm seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Sonja's open-palmed strike slapped against the fox girl's face faster than her mind could properly process the pain caused by the assault. In the same slow-motion sense of awareness the force of the blow generated a shockwave across her face which caused her cheeks to quiver and her eyes to widen spastically. Like the peal of thunder, Sonja's slap collided with Ashton's face and sent her sprawling.

The Valkyrie threw back her head and screamed, but the manic light in her eyes suddenly died even as the scream echoed onward. She fell to her knees as weakness stole across her body. The last reserves of her strength had been taken by the self-same madness and all of the injuries received were taking their toll. She soon fell sideways into the grass.

Barely able to move, let alone speak, the girls panted for breath while their non-existent life force attempted to regenerate. Scott and Shara rushed forward, now that the fight was clearly over, to see if the girls needed help.

It did not take long for them to gain a bit of strength, however. Neither were human, and both were tougher than the average person by a great margin.

Scott made certain Ashton was alright since Shara had made a bee-line for Sonja. Once the fox girl was able to sit up, she panted for air while she offered her opponent a hot glare.

Sonja glanced at Scott and he ambled over to her, but she waved him off. Which, was admittedly better than the hard shove she gave Shara. The ninja girl playfully fell on her ass to emphasize Sonja's annoyance. "Oof!"

Ashton panted heavily and stared at her opponent. Sonja's equally angry gaze soon softened into a cool mask. Slowly, her tongue slid out and she lightly licked her busted lip. At some point during the final flurry of blows exchanged, the fox girl managed to split her lip with a punch.

A similar trickle of blood could be seen on Ashton's lips as well, not to mention her raccoon eyes due to the pummeling that she took. Sonja gazed thoughtfully at her for a moment then her cheeks reddened. She bit her lower lip lightly and murmured at the stinging pain of it.

Sonja's sudden change in expression caused Ashton to draw back slightly, her eyes widening slightly despite the fact that they were busily trying to swell shut. She squealed in surprise when the Valkyrie hurled herself forward and tackled her to the ground.

"Sonja, no!" cried Scott aghast that she would try to continue the fight. However, his shocked outcry turned into a strangled yelp when the former slave chef kissed Ashton solidly on the lips. Their blood intermingled slightly even as their noses softly brushed against each other.

Raccoon eyes or not, Ashton's shocked expression could not be denied. Her eyes open as wide as anyone might believe possible in her condition, she used her failing strength to shove the other girl away then kicked at the ground with her feet. Surprised and more than a little concerned, the wide-eyed girl skidded backwards on her ass then came to a stop a short distance away. She pulled her tail around used it to cover her mouth and breasts while she peeked at the strange girl over the top of her exquisite fluffiness.

Sonja, who had been lying face down on the ground, raised her head then lightly touched her lips with her finger. Her face thoroughly flush, she laughed merrily. Playfully, she arched her back and kicked one foot up so that her heel hovered above her ass. "Sweet merciful goddess, I think I'm in love."

Ashton, surprised even herself when her eyes widened even further. She yelped cutely then hugged her tail tightly to her chest. It was like college all over again!