Inn at Pirman

"Wait!? You took Mari with you through all that!" Gwyn yelled at Blake, holding him up by his collar over the table the two were sitting at. "Reiner's gonna kill you! Then if I'm around, he's gonna kill me!"

"Aww! Don't worry, Gwyn! It's been a few months, and I'm still alive...for now..." Blake nervously tried to brush it off. "Not like you're any better! Some little girl owns you!" He and Gywn were sharing some of their stories with eachother.

"Ugh! Don't remind me!" Gwyn groaned, dropping Blake back down with a slightly ticked off look to her face as she went for an ale mug. "Hey, but I got a title didn't I?"

In Gwyn's case, after making it to Gorz, she went around looking for a guild to join. But all the ones she had her eyes on didn't want some no name sellsword from some far off town. So, she just took up quests and arena fights to gather up her reputation...until she ran into some money issues leaving her broke right around the time a little girl and her freak show of knights, were on the hunt for some new saps.

"Yea, Du, The Strong, black knight of the Rainbow Knights, huh? Granted, it's not willingly, and it's not a king but either way it looks like you're a knight now." Blake muttered, reaching for his neck to get at his pendant and showed it off to Gwyn. "Good, I wasn't hoping to win by you fucking up."

"And you made something better than that old man's damn sword, and that makes you a smith." Gwyn did the same as Blake showing off her pendant to him. "Or should I say Smith-knight? That's pushing it, don't you think?" She shifted her eyes to Risabeel and Baba at a table over along with Lu, Rena, Nathan, and Mordecai.

"It just means I'm amazing but let's stop with the chit-chat and get down to why we're here shall we?" Blake put his pendant away and got up with Gwyn.

"..." The air around the two was thick with tension as the two stood in silence for a few short moments.

"Oh, good! I thought you two would never stop talking." Appearing with his face between the two rivals was Weiss.

"Ah! Don't do that!" Both Blake and Gwyn took a swing at the white knight. "Guah!" And ended up hitting eachother when Weiss disappeared.

"You even have similar reaction times? In sync is an understatement for people like you two," Weiss commented on, with a soft smile coming to his face while having daggers sent at him by Blake and Gwyn. "By the by, need I remind you two that we are here today to settle a dispute between our guild owners?"

"Tch, I was trying to forget about that. Kind of dumb that we're fighting for a bunch of noble asses, right?" Blake muttered, looking up at Weiss and couldn't find a hint of likemindedness from him. "Okay...? Since, you guys have been at this guild thing longer than us how about you set the rules, Mr. White."

"Oh? Giving your opponent the right to set the terms, eh? That's a big advantage you gave us, don't you know?" Weiss pointed out, lightly chuckling at the offer. "You might just regret it..." He winked with a flash of light coming off his eye.

"That's only once everything said and done." Blake shot back, eyeing Weiss more closely now as he was thinking up the rules to their fight. "If Gwyn's following this guy that means his stronger than her..." He pulled away from Weiss to take a side glance at Gwyn.

"Hmm? I think I've worked out something!" Weiss snapped his fingers, bringing everyone's attention to him. "We will have a set of battles wherein in which each of our guilds will send out one member at a time. The winner of a match is barred from taking part in another match to keep either of us from only use our strongest members. Whichever guild comes out with the most matches taken by them wins, any issue with that, smith?"

"None here," Blake answered, not finding anything wrong with Weiss' set up.

However, someone did. "Hold it!" That being Rena still inside of Risabeel's hood. "How is this going to work for Blake and Lu!"

"What do you mean, gnat?" Blake asked, trying to guess what so bad about it.

"You and Lu and are useless without us girls!" Rena flew between Risabeel and Baba. "That's like Nathan fighting without his books!"

"Shit," Blake turned to Weiss still softly smiling at him as if nothing was wrong and glared at the 'white' knight. "If I get Saffire and Baba to fight, then we can make it, but that means fighting Gwyn with only Risabeel..." His gaze shifted to Gwyn.

"Wiess, that's a kind of low for a knight, isn't it?" Gwyn asked her captain with arms crossed. "I knew you were listening to us a bit too closely, and all the time you were coming up with a way of crippling him."

"If it means upholding Lady Angelica's honor, I would gladly dirty my hands a bit, Du. Which should you be doing as well..." Weiss smirked at Gwyn as she turned away. "...and what's so wrong about those rules, smith? Don't you have the right numbers to enter? Or are you worried about the outcomes if you divide up your fighting power?" The knight asked, circling around Blake as he spoke. "But if you forgo using your items and in the Elf's case the Fairy to gain more numbers the possibly of them losing a fight only makes matters worse..." He stopped in front of Blake and leaned in. "...of course, you could also fight at your best and hope that your team wins every fight."

"Heh! Stop yapping like you've got me in some masterful plan," Blake smirked at Weiss' ever-smiling face which did not falter at his remark. "Like you said we just have to win all of our fights, right?"

"You have a lot of faith in your guild, don't you?" Weiss lightly padded Blake's shoulder and pulled away from him. "But I also have faith in mine." He fanned his cape at his knights all of them there minus Geel currently outside with Nash.

"And we shall not sully that faith today or any other! Captain Weiss!" Rouge roared, slamming a foot down on a table making Greenbit and Azul step away from him as a cloud of red smoke appeared behind the knight. "And I shall be the first of us to show these vile evildoers the might of the Rainbow Knights!"

"Vile evildoers? What actions have we taken to be given such titles?" Risabeel asked, waving a hand at herself and the rest of her friends.

"Hah! Says the Demon! Anywho go against us righteous knights must have some evil within them that must be purified by the almighty power of justice!" The smoke cloud behind Rogue leveled up to fiery blaze quickly put out by Azul with a bucket of water before things got out of hand.

"Does that mean when you fought us you were bad to the bone?" Azul asked, seeing as Rogue was the newest member of the guild only being a member a few months after Gwyn joined.

"Ah, yes! I was...? But, I was saved by the light that was captain Weiss! And now I am a weapon of justice! Who will strike all evil down!" Rogue made a fist in one hand and used the other to point at Blake's guild with his flaming axe. "Now who shall be the first to be put down?"

"Okay. He was cool at first, but now he's just being annoying, Lu!" Rena zipped into Lu's face. "As your princess, I will forget your words from earlier as long as you help me show this idiot his place at my feet."

"Yes, your highness." Lu gave her a bow of his head as he got up with Rena jumping into his quiver. "But what was so bad about what I said in the first place?"

"I see right through you!" Rouge dramatically declared to Lu and Rena. "You merely played a part in finding my poses excellent only to trick me into a sense of friendship. But I, Rouge, The Just! Shall not be fooled by you vile Fairy witch!"

"I am Nature's Princes! Not a witch! If you want to take this personally let's take it outside! LU!" Rena ordered, poking her head out of Lu's quiver then dived back in. "I've got something special planned for this pesky knight, Mahahaha!" With a fit of evil laughter and a dash of Fairy dust something was cooking up inside there with Lu shrugging it off as he went for the door.

"Hmph! My axe shall see you cut down and burned!" Rouge, on the other hand, proceded to crash through a window instead of the broken one he made earlier.

"Loser covers the damages?" Blake muttered to Wiess while walking outside with everyone else.

"Agreed..." Weiss muttered right back at Blake, staring at Rouge surrounded by broken glass. "..." Then looked at Lu, checking his bow and a few of his arrows. "...since the both of you look ready, would you like to do the honors, Blake."

"Fine by me," Blake shrugged as he stood between the two of them. "The first match of our guild battle will begin! Use everything you got to win, but we aren't here to kill eachother, got it!?" Once Rouge and Lu nodded, Blake held an arm up. "Fig-"

The moment Blake tried to bring his arm down, a massive ball of fire crashed down right where Lu and Rouge were standing. Flames and earth were sent flying into the air as the fireball lashed out with a red scale covered claw followed by a pair of wings, a tail, another claw until finally, Saffire's head came out of it with some birds roasting between her jaws.

"Hey, Saffire, had a nice time up there?" Blake waved up at her covered in smoke and some dirt but otherwise fine.

"Yea and I got lunch too." Saffire kept eating as she brought her head down to Blake. "Find that other guild yet?"

"Yea, we did! We were about to get the fight started when you landed," Blake answered, waving a hand at the Rainbow Knights looking at the towering Dragon before them.

"That's them?" Saffire looked down at them, giving each one a quick look over stopping at Gwyn. "So that's her, huh?"

"Geel, that's a Dragon, right?" Azul whispered, standing next to Geel.

"Yep..." The yellow giant answered, looking up at Saffire.

"I thought he was joking when he was talking about most of that shit! What else does this guy have!" Azul's gaze shifted to Blake standing next to Saffire like it was an everyday thing for him.

"Hmm? Okay, leaving this one to Weiss and Du." Azul drew his eyes away from Saffire to look at the rest of her or the damage she caused on her landing. "Huh?" And he found Rouge's hand holding his axe while the rest of him was covered by one of Saffire's hind legs. "Uhmm? You stepped on something the-ah!" He shouted up at the Dragon then ducked behind Geel when Saffire's head snapped his way.

"Like what!?" Saffire growled, bringing her leg up and there inside her footprint was Rouge flatten into the earth. "Is that with you?" She looked back at Azul, noting that the armor looked like his.

"Ouch, what about Lu?" Blake turned to where Lu was stand and saw nothing.

"Up here." Lu was sitting on a nearby building. "I heard her coming." He pointed to his ears before jumping back down.

"But mind giving some warning next time! Just cause your big doesn't mean you're easy to spot in a tense situation!" Rena yelled, waving her arms around frantically. "EEEP!" Then ducked back down when Saffire turned to the Fairy. "Oh, wow! This one's coming around nicely! Hahaha!"

"Hmph!" Saffire snorted out a cloud of smoke from her nose before transforming to her human form covered in scales. "Huh?" Only to get looked at by the Rainbow Knights and any onlookers there that heard everything. "What!?" She snarled at them then went to Risabeel's and Baba's side.

"Well, then that was highly unexpected." Weiss came up to Rouge still face down in a footprint bigger than himself. "Can you stand and fight?"

"For...jus...tice..." Rouge groaned, bringing up a thumb only for it to go limp along with the rest of him.

"That would be a 'no' then," Weiss said in a monotone before lifting the red knight up and over his shoulder. "Well, it looks like your chances have now gone up since we lost a member..." He said, walking past Blake to hand Rouge off to Geel. "Greenbit, you'll be taking on the Elf and Fairy."

"Good, they're worth the meal, kukukuku!" Greenbit chuckled with dips of spit raining down as he wobbled up to take Rouge's place. "Been a while since I sank my teeth into an Elf!"

"Huh? Hey, captain, isn't this a use of underhanded tactics? I mean a Dragon just fell on him that belongs to that guy." Azul said, pointing at Blake currently trying to stop Saffire from glaring at the town's people. "In which case shouldn't we count this as a draw with the Elf and Fairy sitting the rest of this out?" He added, acting like a good judge, but really he was. "Heh! I had a feeling Rouge would get his ass kicked by them so like this we keep the numbers advantage while they're down two!"

"I just came down to say 'hi' nothing unhanded about that little boy blue." Saffire sent a gaze at the blue knight. "And I don't belong to this Scaleless idiot!" She added, pushing Blake out of the way as he was trying to stop her from going after Azul. "!" But jumped back when Gwyn took a swing at her. "Problem, charcoal?!"

"Just wait your turn, and you'll find out." Gwyn grinned and set her sword on her shoulder.

"Now, now, there will be a time for fire and slashes soon..." Weiss appeared between them with his spear pointed at Saffire's neck before she knew it "...I've had my run-ins with one's older and bigger than you, so watch your tongue with my men." He warned, pulling his spear away. "And Azul while her entrance may have been foul play but what can you say about my set of the rules?"

"Hmm? Completely in our favor?" Azul answered after thinking about it. "Hmm?" Then he thought his words over and realized something. "Oh, no! He made me say it!"

"Which was an unhanded tactic in itself. So, they were simply fighting fire with fire a bit literally through, heh!" Weiss laughed at his own joke then turned to Blake. "As long as you don't mind me changing players, I'll allow you a free win, and the Elf and Fairy still get to fight."

"Heh! You're a white knight when you feel like it, huh?" Blake muttered, walking up Lu and Greenbit staring at eachother. "Whatever just means we only need three wins to beat you color freaks!" He raised an arm to the two of them as they got ready. "Fight!"

"HA!" Greenbit lashed out first suddenly shooting forward and got right up to Lu, striking at the Elf with an upward swing of his claw-like hand. "Grrr!" And got dodged by Lu jumping back. "Light feet!" The green knight swung with his other hand, and this time, he got sidestepped. "Well? So do I!" Keeping his swing going Greenbit span around to throw a reverse roundhouse kick at the Elf's head. "!?"

"I don't like fighting up close..." Lu blocked the kick with his bow then caught Greebit's leg in it to pull the knight closer. "...but if I have too..." Letting him land a kick of his own to Greenbit's chin tossing him back. "...I'll play until I get you off." From there he drew an arrow on his bow and took aim before letting it fly.

"Agh!" Greenbit bent backward, bashing his head into the ground then came up leaping at Lu. "Doesn't matter if you can't hit me!" He screamed, twisting around as an arrow came his way. "Ssssseeee!" He hissed as a pair of snake tongues came out of his mouth. "Hmm?" Then he felt a tug on his leg and was stuck in place.

"Snare Vine Shot." The second arrow was a trap, as a thick vine had wrapped around Greenbit's leg. "Surrender, and we can make this quick." He offered, aiming at Greenbit's head as he twisted his leg around, trying to get free.

"Oh, salad!" Greenbit chomped down the snake-like vine and with a pull of his head, he ripped it apart, freeing himself as he did. "Ugh!" But the amount he was two more arrows landed at his feet and a pair of vines quickly wrapped around him. "Mmm! Mmmh!" A vine wrapping around his mouth muffled his screams.

"Hah, looks like things are done already." Mordecai chuckled, watching Greenbit thrash around. "I guess I should get ready to show my stuff, eh, leader?" He winked at Blake about to step up.

"Easy there, friend," Azul stopped him there flicking his copper coin up high. "Greenbit doesn't get going until he's gotten something in his stomach." He explained after catching his coin.

"Huh? What does that mean?" Mordecai turned back to Greenbit still wrapped up tight but eating the vine in his mouth. "Wait? What's up with his neck?!" From what he and the others could see it looked like Greenbit's neck was bulging out as if it was growing.

"Now time for the meat!" Greenbit roared as his neck suddenly stretched and shot out towards Lu like a snake striking at its prey.

"A snake Lizardfolk?" Lu thought, preparing to jump away. "Wha?!" When something caught his legs. "!" Looking down, he found small vines working their way up his legs pinning him down. "Damnit!" Before he could even figure out how that happened, he swung at Greenbit's head with his bow.

"I said; ' time for the meat'!" Greenbit snapped his head to one side and sunk his teeth into Lu's right forearm and was already tugging his head back to rip a chuck out it. "RRGGAAH!" If it wasn't for Lu pulling out a dagger from behind his back and stabbed it into his cheeks, forcing him to let go a retreat back to his body.

"That was close." Lu slashed at vines on his legs and jumped back, putting some distance between him and Greenbit. "?" Looking at the vines, Lu found them started to wilt away and followed them right back to Greenbit's feet turned into a bed of grass. "A Druid? But why not make my snare vines let go instead?" Lu was trying to guess what Greenbit. "No blood?" While putting his dagger away, he noticed the only thing on it was sap from the vines. "Then some kind of plant monster?" He stared at Greenbit, who was hanging his head with his face low unseen by anyone.

"What's wrong, confused Elf boy?" Greenbit spoke up, slowly bringing his head up as his voice was starting to change.

"Lu? Why are you talking to yourself?" Lu came out of the quiver, staring up at Lu, but his eyes were too focused on something in front of him. "Huh? What're you looking a-" As she following the Elf's gaze, she stopped speaking and stared off like him.

There standing before them was a perfect copy of Lu's face on Greenbit's body. "Aww, issssn't that a bad way to look at a familiar face like thissssss?" He asked, using Lu's voice yet still hissed with a pair of snake tongue then blades made of bone shot out of his body tearing apart the vines holding him down. "Let's have a mirror match shall we! Kukukuku!" His left arm morphed into a bow made of bone and skin and out his back grew feathers that when pulled turned into bone arrows. "Draw!" He pulled back and waited for Lu to do the same.

"Huh? Huh! Huh!?" Rena kept switching between the two Lutwigs with her's readying an arrow as well. "Ugh? Lu! Go kick, your...ass?" She tilted her head at the whole thing before diving back down.

"Will do!" Lu let his arrow fly first.

"Try me!" Greenbit followed suit and with perfect aim as he pinged Lu's arrow off target. "Let's trying rapid fire, eh?" From there he went on to fire off a volley of shots while dodging the ones Lu rained down him with the same style, speed, and technique. "Kukukuku! Elf bods are one of the best!" Greenbit let out a burst of crazed laughter on Lu's face.

Chapter End