***Kappa Temple, Toromaru Orange Rainforest Island, Bustia***
The beautiful *Kappa Temple* sat in the crook of a mountain's elbow with its ancient stones worn smooth by centuries of rain and *dwarvish* meddling.
Drums and string instruments send *tremors* through the thick bark trees, mist clings to the temple's wooden tiered roofs like a second layer of skin, and the rushing sound of the ginormous waterfall behind it was a constant, gentle, thunder.
*The voice of the mountain itself,* the Kappa monks like to say.
Every year, the temple hosts the *Spirit Battles,* and every year, the valley below is filled with pilgrims, gamblers, adventurers, and those who simply wanted to watch souls collide.
However, *Victor Wells* had never been one for big spectacles…
“Damnit! I can’t stop shaking…!”
He stood in a side hallway off the main arena, leaning against a weathered wooden pillar, trying to quiet his breathing and the trembling in his clenched fists.
Victor's chiseled features were *impressive* for a human man. The smooth, angular shapes of his shaven face juxtaposed with the wild tangle of brown hair streaming down his back. Delicate petals of *tattooed flowers* stretch across his broad shoulders, giving way to ancient gothic script in a language only a handful of people can read.
But it was his eyes that stopped you cold. Gray-blue and heavy with the weight of experience. The only hint of vulnerability is a crooked nose that had been broken one too many times and healed fast.
All testaments to a life spent fighting.
“Just *breathe*…you got this. *You* made it here. *You. Can. Do. This.”*
He controls his breathing and feels the shaking go away. The smooth stones were cold through his bare feet and the air smelled of incense and *something else*. Something sharp, like rain after an unexpected storm.
“You can win.” He finishes, opening his hands and feeling grounded again.
His *spiritual beast summon, Yue'lin,* stood beside him in her ethereal form. A ghostly shimmer of antlers and forest green light, always staying close by without her hooves needing to touch the floor.
She radiates warmth, and through her healing touch, he could feel the lingering aches in his cracked ribs and bruised scrotum from yesterday's semifinal finally fading.
“You won’t get kicked again…” he groans as he tries to push out the memory of a half orc woman’s heel kick smashing both of his balls up into his throat.
*‘You're nervous,’* Yue'lin observes. Her voice is like a breeze flowing through soft leaves.
"I'm always nervous," Victor mutters. "Nerves keep me alive though..."
*‘I’m struggling with understanding why. Your life isn’t on the line this time. Shouldn’t you be excited?’*
“Maybe not my life, but my career? I eat it bad out there and I’ll be the guy who almost got second place…if I don’t get past this round I’ll never get my real shot at being a Guardian.”
*‘I understand the tiger girl is strong, but strength isn't everything. Don’t doubt your own amazing set of skills. You can be as furious as this woman.’*
"Yeah? *Heh*, tell that to her *adoring fans."*
He rolls his stiff shoulders, feeling the familiar pull of old scar tissue. At *twenty-seven years* old, Victor spent twenty of those years chasing the heights of Bustia’s unique martial arts.
He’d trained in multiple dojos. Have fought the toughest men to get here. Broke himself over and over again to finally earn one of Bustia’s many wonderful gifts.
Unlike *Hexx energy that is unworldly chaos turned into supernatural phenomena and fuel,* to have a bond with a Spiritual Beast is a *sacred thing.* To have pure Soul energy is to be *divine* and *pure of heart…*
And now he’s one match away from possibly becoming the Next Kappa Temple's guardian. A position that would give him purpose, direction, and reason to stop wandering.
*A protector of a whole island.*
“We’ll make it...”
But he feels like everything is happening so suddenly…that is until light footsteps,not the heavy tread of a fighter psyching themselves up, causes Victor to look up.
The woman approaching was thin but decently tall, maybe around five-nine, but she moved like water finding its level. She has ghost-gray skin with a surprising shock of short pink hair, cut into a razor-sharp bob. And her eyes…they were simply pink.
No iris or unique pupil. Just glowing rose quartz set in a doll's face.
She wears a silky black haori under a long white jacket as well as a pair of leather black pants. And despite the temple's no-weapons policy, Victor had no doubt she was armed. The way her hands hung at her sides, loose and ready, it told him everything.
"Beautiful morning, yeah?" she says. Her voice is quiet, dry, like someone commenting on the weather. "The mist's thick today. I’ve been told it’s good for the soul. Is it?"
“Is *what* it?”
“Good for the soul?” The woman’s smile flashes a *silver* *canine* *tooth* that showed Victor his own tense reflection.
“The air on the island really does feel different. It’s like taking my first breath all over again.”
Victor feels bad for immediately thinking she’s up to no good. That she’s hunting for easy pickings or trying to catch him off guard. In a world like Bustia, being a squishy human can set you up for failure.
“I like the trees too. Orange is a cute color,” she continues, her footsteps echoing out of sync with the drums and cheers from outside.
“My first time actually being here. It’s been on my bucket list for some time and it feels good to finally cross it off. So, is the mist really good for the soul here?”
Yue'lin presses closer to Victor, her warmth intensifying as he straightens slowly.
"Not sure, I’m more of an indoor person actually…were you one of the former fighters?" he asks, his fists slowly curling into defensive signs. Just in case.
"I don't remember seeing you in the brackets."
"No, I wasn’t." The woman stops a few feet away, tilting her head as if studying a curious thing.
*‘I don’t like her,’* Yue'lin says, only to Victor who feels goosebumps rise on his neck.
“Hmm,” he subtly agrees with his Beast but tries to avoid being rude, “then why are you here?”
"I'm here for the art, actually.” She tilts her head towards the high wall and ceiling carvings.
Unfortunately, due to a weakness to a top heavy woman’s tits, Victor's gaze flickered downward, just for a second, to where the woman's gray skin disappeared beneath the low-cut silk of her top.
*‘Victor, don’t get distracted,’*
The curve of her cleavage was undeniable, soft and full against the tight fabric.
*Double D's at least,* his traitorous brain supplied before he could stop it. Then he notices something else: a thin, jagged scar running diagonally from her collarbone down into the shadowed divide, pale against the dusky gray.
Yue'lin's antlers flare brighter, her disapproval radiating more heat like a left on stove. The woman didn't seem to notice or care, her pink eyes looking everywhere and nowhere at once.
But they both knew she was fixed on Victor with unsettling intensity.
“There’s real beauty to all of this. Two souls, staking everything on a single moment. Gorgeous stuff, it really is."
“Yeah….it’s pretty cool.” He nods, being cautious and awkward. Is this why he doesn’t have fans? Because he’s not charming enough?
*Why am I always the one attracting the weirdos and creepy women?*
Victor shudders and feels his two heavy organs that dangle with a light sway, shrivel up at an old memory of his rookie dojo days. When one fan had grabbed a handful of his fat nuts during a photobomb and squeezed long enough to make him paranoid of giggly girls.
Her pink eyes drift to Yue'lin’s misty form. Her astral green eyes glowing in a similar irisless way.
"Wow, a Doe summon. That's a rare one to see these days. Healing, isn't it? As long as you're touching?"
Victor doesn’t answer. His hand moves closer to Yue'lin's ethereal flank. It makes the mysterious woman smirk just enough to engrave itself into his mind. It was a small thing, barely a twitch on her black lips.
"Smart. Don't give away free information to strangers."
She reaches into her sleeve and produces a slender Blue Clover cigarette, the paper shimmering blue-green like a dragonfly's wing in the dim hallway light.
“I’d actually like it if you didn’t—” He begins to say but she doesn’t let him finish.
***FISSS!***
Striking a match with her sharp thumbnail the big titty woman takes a big drag and the ember at the tip flare to life as she inhales, her eyes locking onto his with a raised eyebrow.
She eyes his strong body and stops at the subtle but large outlines hanging between his legs. Even in baggy and roomy black Gi pants, Victor’s hanging assets still draw attention to wandering looks.
"I'm ***Pinku-li,"*** she offers. "You don’t have to take this as advice or anything, but I want to do more than wish you good luck…”
Victor’s suspicions shook as other parts of himself got big thoughts of this pink eyed babe giving him a quickie before his battle. *Busting a nut to calm the nerves…how nice would that be?*
That idea was sounding perfect within those two seconds as Pinku-li moved within his guard, brushing through the misty summon to touch his chest and press her knee between his legs.
“Wah—?!”
Victor gasps but shudders in relief as he only feels her thigh nudge his heavy nuts to feel their weight.
“*Taiga*. The girl you’ll be fighting…she's very impressive for a runt who hasn’t trained under a big school. I watched her last three fights before she entered this year's tournament. She likes to go for big guys…well, I shouldn’t spoil the surprise, right?”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Victor asks, sweating a little.
He couldn’t handle another ballbuster…
He decided he doesn’t like this woman one bit. She’s giving witch vibes and yet was somehow making his dick hard and confused.
*Is she a Hexxer, Yue'lin?*
*‘I don’t sense anything from her. Her eyes though…she may be a Changling.’*
“Means she fights with a lot of anger. Has a thing against men. Something to prove, I think. Especially against cocky men with *a lot to lose.* Those guys she faced before getting here left them with *cracked jewels.* And I’m not talking about *rubies*.”
She exhales with a hint of a chuckle at her own joke. Victor didn’t find it as humorous.
“If she’s such a badass, why don’t you go bug her? I don’t need insight on my opponents beforehand.”
“That’s because you fight with a little more patience. You like to *learn in the moment.* That’s a more interesting art style I like to bet on."
*She’s freakier than a super fan…she may be a gambler.*
“You don’t think strength is what determines the outcome in the end?” He asks, his now *throbbing eight inches* pressing against her lower stomach.
He’d never slept with a changeling before…
Taking another deep drag, making her tits swell and jiggle beneath Victor’s nose, Pinku-li shrugs.
"Why would I? Patience is what usually wins."
*She’s so hot!*
Victor's instincts were screaming back and forth. Everything about this woman felt wrong. Not hostile…not exactly. But wrong in the way a perfectly still pond could hide a drowned body….
"Why…do you care who wins?"
Pinku-li considers the question as more smoke curls from her nose and she shifts her thigh side to side, getting a good feel for his thick apple testicles.
"I don't, really. I just appreciate good technique. And you have it. Saw one of your fights a few months ago. The way you flow from kickboxing to wing chun? Most grapplers are too stiff to transition. You're not."
She tapped ash onto the stone floor, a small breach of temple etiquette that somehow felt personal.
"Also, I needed to see you up close."
Victor's dick muscles tense at that and she hummed quietly to herself, delighted that she had him so worked up.
"S-See me for w-what?" He hates himself for how much she was making him feel nervous in a whole different way.
"For *confirmation*." Pinku-li's pink eyes meet his, and for a moment, he felt like he was looking into something very old and very mental. A cold scary gaze hidden in a colorful glow…
Victor has had some good fucks in the past but that didn’t usually end well…but who knows? Maybe this time, his luck is changing—
"Hm. *Damn*. Sorry, looks like *you're not my type* after all."
“H-Huh?!”
Pulling away, the changeling lets the human's full blue balls swing back between his legs without any trouble. Only now, his thick shaft was making itself easier to see thanks to the baggy clothes being tight in all the right places.
Victor didn’t believe her in the slightest. But it doesn’t matter as she flicks the cigarette away and it vanishes into mist.
"The match starts soon so don't lose yourself in there. You’re fun to talk to.”
“I…*Mmhm*…likewise,” Victor lies, scrunching his eyebrows but not too worried anymore. If she was going to do something she would have…right?
“Seriously though, look out for her left foot. That’s the move that won those last three matches.”
She turns and walks away, her footsteps already fading into silence. Victor stood frozen, Yue'lin's head nudging his shoulder.
*‘What do you think that was all about?’* Yue'lin asks, just as skeptical as her partner but not sure of others' inner hearts motives besides her champion.
"Damn, I don't know," he breathes,"but…as much as I hate to think so…I don't think she was here for me."
— - —
*The 100 drum band members all over the island began low. Replicating a heartbeat into the green and orange chest.*
Then faster. Harder. The monks line the arena's edge, their weathered hands striking stretched hides with sticks of aged oak. The sound rolls across the stone floors, up the tiered seatings, into the breezy mist that clung to the Kappa Temple's ancient eaves.
Eight thousand souls held their breaths.
Across the arena, the west entrance opens.
A blonde human woman walks out like she owns the world. Tight red t-shirt under a baggy white open jacket, the Gi hangs loose and untied. Her baggy white pants move with her, and already the golden stripes of her tiger spiritual spirit are bleeding across her bare arms, up her neck, framing her sharp grin.
Short spiky blonde hair. Two long side bangs framing an eager face.
Her misty beast, Shen, paces beside her in his yellow spirit-form. Massive and hungry. His stripes pattern matching hers.
Ask Victor and he’ll say she’s everyone’s favorite. Because for the last ten days she’s been an unstoppable force who seems to want to become the next guardian just as bad. And she’ll do whatever she needs to get it…
The crowd roars, excited and itching to see the end results of a wonderful event.
The announcer's voice booms through enchanted crystals placed around the arena. A half-orc with a shaved head and an older rough voice like collapsing ring announcer shouts,
***"PEOPLE OF BUSTIA! SPIRIT WARRIORS OF THE KAPPA TEMPLE!"***
More drums. More bells.
***"THIRTY YEARS AGO, SUN LINGBO CLAIMED THE MANTLE OF GUARDIAN! THIRTY YEARS OF TOROMARU PEACE UNDER HER WATCH!"***
The camera-crystals swung to the guardian's balcony. Sun Lingbo stood there with silver hair unbounded and her beautiful half-elf features a sight to behold.
She raises one hand and the crowd cheers.
***"TODAY—A NEW CHAPTER! TWO WARRIORS! ONE MASTER! ONE THRONE!"***
The floating crystal screens swing back.
***"ON THE EAST SIDE—VICTOR OF THE WANDERING ROAD! AGE TWENTY-SEVEN! HEIGHT FIVE-ELEVEN! RECORD: SEVENTEEN WINS, TWO LOSSES! HIS SPIRIT—THE FOREST DOE, YUE'LIN! HEALING AND WIND MANIPULATION!"***
Victor raises his chin and the crowd's response was polite. He was the underdog after all. The journeyman who made it this far.
***"ON THE WEST SIDE—TAIGA OF THE SUNNY CLAW! AGE TWENTY-THREE! HEIGHT FIVE-FOUR! RECORD: TWENTY-THREE WINS, ZERO LOSSES! HER SPIRIT—THE GOLD BREAKING TIGER, SHEN! STRENGTH AND SPEED ENHANCEMENT!"***
The crowd explodes again as Taiga waves. Shen roars loud enough that it shakes loose pollen from the trees.
***"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE! THE FIRST TO SURRENDER OR BE UNABLE TO BATTLE WILL LOSE. AND THE FIRST TO RISE—WINS! NO KILLING! THIS IS A TEST OF SPIRIT, NOT BLOOD! BESIDES THAT…ANYTHING. GOES."***
Victor and Taiga walk forward. The drums slow and the bells fade.
They met at the center of the arena, ten feet apart. Bow. The traditional gesture: hands pressed together, heads lowered, respect for the art and the opponent.
Then their eyes met.
“Whatever happens, it’s not personal. Okay?”
Winking after whispering, Taiga grin as Victor's jaw tightens.
“Yeah. May the best *MAN* win.”
He raises his curled hands and breaths heavy from his nose
*Here we go,* they all think right as the orc shouts:
***“FIGHT!”***
Taiga moves first, exploding forward, Shen's stripes blaze across her skin like flames. What should have taken two seconds took one. Her right leg came up in a blur—jumping heel axe kick, aimed at the crown of his skull!
“Crap!”
Victor's arms shoot up, forearms cross, he braces but—
***CRACKKK***!
The impact drives through his guard, through his arms, and into his shoulders. His knees buckle and pain flares up his elbows.
*Heavy!*
He’s shocked by how easily his guard is broken.
*She's five-four and built like a dancer without tits—Ugh! She shouldn't hit this hard!*
Taiga hangs in the air for a moment, her heel pressed against his guard. Ferally grinning down at him.
"Whoa, good block," she says. "Most people's arms break!"
*Something did crack,* he thinks but thanks to Yue'lin’s touch against his back he feels soul energy already knitting his bones back together.
She pushes off his guard, using him as leverage to flip backward. A controlled aerial twist that lands her in a crouch ten feet away. Showboating at its finest.
*‘She’s showing off,’* Yue'lin observes. *She wants you angry and sloppy. Let’s try not letting her distract you too, okay?’*
"I know," Victor breathes and shakes his arms.
Taiga straightens as Shen circles her, amber eyes fixed on Victor.
"My Beast thinks you’re tough," she calls out. "But I don’t know. You're already thinking too much. I can hear you muttering under your breath. Feel the fight, old man, and don’t go easy."
Victor is twenty-seven. She’s twenty-three. He lets the comment slide.
*She's observant,* he thinks. *She felt me try to use wind on the block and that's why she flipped. To show she could recover faster than I could follow…*
He settles into his stance again. Low with his weight forward. Hands loose.
*Can't give her space. Can't let her build momentum. I need to get inside—before she moves!*
Yue'lin shakes her head and swirls around his strong muscles. *‘Remember. You are just as dangerous. You’re a Storm Victor.’*
Taiga sees the shift and she bounces on the balls of her heels.
"There it is," she says, "The deer's finally going to charge. Come on and bring it!"
She throws a few practice jabs and Victor takes the chance and meets her again.
— - —
From the shadowed crossbeam, Pinku-li watches.
The fighters blur below. Taiga's tiger-striped fists hammer Victor’s fast jabs away from her face but his wind-enhanced dodges bend him around each follow up blow.
*His body is beautiful.*
She takes a slow drag of her cigarette as Victor’s knee rises to smash into the blonde’s stomach, just as he tilted to dodge a jab.
*Taiga's aggressiveness,* she notes, *is an overwhelming offense but she overcommits on left hooks when she needs to counter. He better see it before she makes an opening and goes for those big ol’ nuts of his...*
Smoke curls as Her pink eyes drift to the guardian's balcony. Sun Lingbo stood motionless, silver hair catching the mist-light. Watching and waiting.
*Thirty years of peace,* Pinku-li thinks. *How many threats have she turned away? How many hired assassins?*
She touches the wakizashi hidden in her sleeve.
*Today, I'll find out.*
— - —
Taiga's strong combination is a storm of female fury. A right hook, left uppercut, spinning back fist. But Victor absorbs, dodges, and deflects with his quick timing.
Yue'lin's wind curls around each blow, slowing them just enough and buying him fractions of seconds.
*‘She's testing,’* Yue'lin says. *‘Feeling for your rhythm.’*
"I know!" Victor grunts under his breath again, ducking a high kick.
*‘She'll switch soon. The tiger's telling her something.’*
As if on cue, Taiga changes.
“Dodge these *deer boy!”*
The aggression doesn’t stop. It simply reforms. Her strikes come lower and *FASTER* now. Targeting his bare feet, Victor barely registers the sudden shift in Taiga's stance before she catches him guard.
“Stop moving!” Her bare foot stomps down hard on his left instep, pinning him just long enough for her left hook to arc toward his gut.
“Uh!”
His arms snap down instinctively, deflecting the blow with a sharp wing chun block, but the real danger came half a heartbeat later. Her other fist, clenched with black stripes, drives upward between his legs like a brutal uppercut from hell.
***KRUUUNCH!***
The impact wasn't just pain. It’s a white-hot detonation that travels up his sperm banks and spine and turns his vision into tv static.
*“Ahhhh!!!”*
His body reacts before his brain could, knees jerking together as he leaps backward like a spooked deer, his heels skidding across the damp stone.
***“DID YOU SEE THAT FOLKS? TAIGA WENT FOR VICTORS FAMILY JEWELS!”***
The crowd's collective gasps, half horrified, half delighted, echoes in his victor’s burning ears as he hunches over, fighting the urge to vomit.
“My…balls…fuck!”
Victor's vision swims in nauseating bursts of white and gray as he staggers backward, his body curling inward protectively around the molten pain radiating from his shriveling sack. His knees threaten to buckle, but he locks them tight.
*If I go down now…Taiga will pounce before I can even blink….*
*‘Breathe,’* Yue'lin's voice slices through the haze, her antlers flaring emerald as she presses more spectral warmth through his body and down to his twitching testicles.
*‘I'm mending the damage, but you can't take another hit like that. She’ll keep targeting your center if your stance is too wide—stop giving her angles.’*
“Y-Yeah…I know…” Victor sucks air through clenched teeth as his hands hover protectively over his lap.
Taiga bounces a few paces away with a look that makes his huge testicles try to crawl back inside his body.
"See, *this* is why I love tournaments without strict rules," she chirps, flexing her fingers.
“Because you…like *c-cheating*?” Victor coughs out and Taiga laughs, making her small chest shake a little.
"That’s funny you say that. Because back in my town’s old dojo, Master Hideo would've smacked my knuckles raw for a cheap shot like that."
She wiggles her eyebrows, clearly enjoying herself.
“Uuhh…she got them both with just one punch…?”
Victor groans to himself but can feel the pain washing away thanks to his spiritual partner.
"But here? When I fight a guy with *big balls*, I make sure he leaves with them a little...*deflated*."
The crowd whoops at her bravado as Victor's stomach twists. Not just from the lingering nausea. There was something unnervingly practiced about the way she’d gone straight for his weakest point.
Like she'd done this a hundred times before…
Was that pink woman really giving him a heads up? He now thinks he understands why.
“Let’s pick things up, yeah?”
Her next surprise burst of speed makes her spinning kick land on the back of his right knee’s joint, buckling his stance and making Yue'lin's healing stunt itself as she prioritizes what was more important to fix.
He guards against a knee to his head and manages to tag her with a jamming graze to the cheek but his follow up backhand gets dodged with little effort.
“You’re moving slower. What’s wrong? *Can't hea*l your *achy balls fast enough?”* She asks and throws a high kick he sidesteps but almost trips underneath.
*She's smart,* Victor admits. *Too damn smart. She’s not letting me charge any wind attacks and my nuts are killing me.*
Taiga's stomping footwork is deceptive. Compact shuffles that look almost lazy or too forced until she explodes into movement.
Victor recognizes the blend instantly: the sharp angles of kickboxing layered over the circular redirections of taijutsu.
Every time he tries to close the distance, her hips will pivot just enough to make his wing chun punches glance off her forearms or her elbows will tuck inward to protect her small boobs and ribs like a boxer's guard.
*She has no openings!*
Taiga transitions seamlessly, using victor’s own momentum to throw him off-balance with a taijutsu sweep that shouldn't have worked at her height. Except it *does*, because she times it to the millisecond when his weight shifts and his dangling nuts slap against his thighs.
Victor adjusts by anchoring his stance lower, his wing chun blocks becoming tighter, sharper. He needs to disrupt her rhythm. So when she feints a right hook, he doesn’t bite. Instead, he sidesteps *into* her space, with his left hand snaking past her guard to clamp onto her wrist.
For a split second, her first two finger twitches against her palm: *A tell.*
*She has two abilities too. Enhanced speed which are her yellow energy stripes. And the black stripes that curl around her fingers increase her strength!*
Yue'lin's wind surges at his back, amplifying his pull as he yanks Taiga forward into a grappling clinch.
"That's a *big mistake!*" Taiga snarls as her free hand flares with black stripes and darts downward, right for his babymakers!
*No man can keep fighting if you smash his balls in a tight grip!* But Victor's already moving by *channeling* soul wind through his calves in a violent upward surge.
***WHOOSH!***
The wind-force jump catapults them both ten feet into the air, her grasping fingers brushing empty fabric where his sweaty sack had been half a second earlier.
For a heartbeat, they hang suspended above the arena, Taiga's side tails whipping upward like a golden serpent as her eyes widen. Victor releases her wrist midair, twisting his body to funnel a spiraling blast of concentrated wind directly into her chest!
“*Oof!!!”*
The impact *whoomps* audibly, Taiga's breath leaves her in a startled cough as the force slams her downward like a meteor.
*I’ll end it here!*
Victor pushes wind from above to fling himself downwards faster but Victor's knees hit empty stone with a thunderclap that splits the arena. The impact sends spiderweb fractures radiating outward, causing stone dust to burst upward where Taiga's ribs should have been.
She'd rolled at the last possible second, her striped body twisting like a corkscrew midair and her laughter ringing sharp against the arena's acoustics.
"Ooooh, *that* would've *hurt*!” she taunts, springing to her feet as Shen materializes beside her, cushioning her landing.
Victor doesn't let the miss rattle him. She’s durable and doesn’t sit still but he channels his leftover momentum into a sideways roll, his wind-enhance movements carrying him clear just as Taiga's retaliatory drop kick whiffs where his head was just at.
*He’s getting fast again!* She furrows her brow and bites at the air. *I need to crush his balls again. And this time, I’ll turn them into applesauce!*
Victor's wind-assisted rolls carry him into a low crouch just as Taiga's sudden heel stomp kicks up more shattered stone into the air.
“I can still win this!”
His lungs burn from the adrenaline flooding his system but he doesn’t care as intense wind currents surges through his arms like see waves. His fists became blurs that left stars in Taiga’s eyes.
His fast right jab, left cross, and left down hook uppercut each land with bone cracking power behind them, all blasting against Taiga's sternum.
“*Ghhhaa*!”
He felt the give of her ribs beneath his knuckles, heard her breath hitch as the impacts drove her backward.
His momentum peaks as he twists his hips and drives his elbow upward in a brutal arc toward her temple—
***WHAM!***
Victor's elbow connects with a sickening effect but Taiga's head doesn't snap back like it should've.
Instead, she grins through bloodied teeth and *pushes* into the blow, her forehead meeting his elbow with deliberate, terrifying force.
The recoil sends shockwaves up his arm, and in that split-second of stunned hesitation, Taiga's hands, now streaked with black tiger stripes, slams palm-first into his healthy testicles with ballbreaking intent.
***“Spirit Move: Double Fang Ball Crush!!!***
Victor’s huge balls make a sound everyone knows pretty well. *The sound* of someone *biting into an apple…*
*“Awwhuhhh!!!”*
The impact lifts Victor clean off his feet. Spit and air explodes from his lungs in a horrified wheeze as he sails backward, his vision tunneling. He hits the stone floor back-first, skidding several feet before coming to a stop near the arena's edge.
Gasping like a beached fish, he rolls onto his side just in time to see Taiga stagger to one knee.
Her triumphant grin falters as she clutches her ribs and trembles. Sweat drips from her chin onto the cracked stone between her feet.
"Finally…ughh…." she shouts, "I was…getting *bored* with all those…*light hits!"*
Shen roars and the yellow stripes on her arms blaze brighter.
*‘She's winded. I know you don’t…feel okay, right now, but you have to push through the ball pain. It’s not even that bad.’* Yue'lin observes quietly.
*‘I already am but even if I only focus on them you won’t be at full strength…She's going to come harder now.’*
"I a-already know that…"
*‘Can you take it?’*
Victor shakes but he slowly stands up as he feels all the inner *spirit energy combining with his soul* and helping knit together the *micro-tears* in manhood.
“…I have to."
— - —
The drums had stopped. The bells were silent. Eight thousand people watched without breathing.
Sun Lingbo watches from her balcony, her fingers tightening on the wooden railings.
*She's going to kill him,* she thinks. *Not on purpose. But she doesn't know her own strength when the tiger's fully awakened.*
She glances toward the shadowed beams above the arena to notice the pink-haired woman was gone.
Lingbo's blood goes cold…
— - —
Taiga came again and this time, there was no showboating. Just raw hands.
She was a golden blur now, Shen's full enhancement pouring into every muscle. Her fists were hammers. Her knees were spears. Her elbows were axes.
Victor weathered the golden tigress fury. Barely.
He catches a roundhouse on his forearms and the impact drives him back three feet. He dodges a gonad splattering knee by inches and even feels the wind of it part his baggy pants. He eats a hook to the ribs though and feels something fragile crack.
Yue'lin's warmth floods the break. Healing and holding him together but it makes the ache in his still bruised nads make him sick to his stomach.
*‘She's too fast,’* Yue'lin says. *‘I can't keep this up forever.’*
"Don't…need forever," Victor gasps, "Need…an opening."
*‘Where?’*
He watches her. The way her knees bent before each strike. The way her left foot angled out a split-second before her right cross. The way her hips—
*There!*
Her left hook. It was devastating—but she telegraphed it. A tiny dip of her right shoulder a half-second before.
Taiga winds back. Her shoulder dips.
Victor moves forward, Inside the arc of her punch. His shoulder slams into her flat chest and his arms wrap around her waist. Yue'lin's wind screams behind him as he leans backwards, propelling her headfirst into the ground.
“Oh shit! Taiga's eyes went wide.
**CRACK**.
The arena shook. Dust fills the air. And for a moment—absolutele silence.
Then Taiga laughs. A wild, unhinged, and delightful laugh.
"OKAY!" she barks, bucking beneath him. "OKAY, THAT WAS GOOD!"
She explodes upward, Shen's wavering strength hurling Victor off her like a ragdoll. He flies fifteen feet, twists, and lands on his stomach so bad he feels the world go ***black*** for a few seconds…
Taiga stood up though, Spitting blood with a grin that somehow kept getting bigger.
"For that, I’ll make sure to *break your balls really fast*, okay? If you wake up though I’ll be nice…and just *squeeze* your nads until you or they give up.”
Victor's return to consciousness came with three distinct realizations: the sharp taste of blood in his mouth, the cold press of stone against his cheek, and the warm weight straddling his lower back.
But before he could process any of these, slender fingers worm their way past the waistband of his baggy gi pants with practiced ease.
"Ah—*what the fuck?!"*
His voice cracks as Taiga's fingertips brushes against the sensitive skin between his thighs.
"*Shhh, just relax,"* Taiga cooes, shifting her weight to pin him more firmly.
Her thighs squeezed his hips with terrifying familiarity. "*We're almost done here."*
Victor's entire body jerks when her slightly long nails lightly scrap downward. He twists like a speared fish, but her knees dug into the small of his back, immobilizing him with painful pressure points.
Taiga hums thoughtfully, her fingers dipping *lower* till she finds her *hidden coins.*
Victor's entire body goes rigid when Taiga's fingers close around his scrotum with the insight of a butcher selecting cuts.
"Ah, *hereee* we go,"
She announces to the roaring crowd, her voice drips with mock reverence as she pushes his pants low to help lift his lengthy ball sack out slightly for emphasis.
"The legendary *twin orbs* that made this man think he could walk into my temple and—oh?" She pauses, kneading the flesh between her fingers with theatrical curiosity.
"Huh. They're...*bigger* than I expected. But they feel so damn *squishy and weak.”*
The crowd howls with laughter as Victor's face burns hotter than the pain radiating from his trapped balls.
"You—*Nngngh!! C-Can’t* do this!"
Victor grits out, his hips twitching involuntarily as Taiga's thumb traces the shape of his balls with terrifying gentleness.
“Didn’t you hear the announcer? *Anything. Goes.* So what will you do? *Tap out…or let me* ***break these fat fuckers?”***
Victor’s vision pulses red at the edges as Taiga’s fingers tightened experimentally. Not enough to rupture, just enough to make his spine arch off the stone like a bowstring.
“Aww gods! My nuts!”
His lips peel back in a whimpering snarl, muscles locking against the instinctive thrash that would only give her more leverage.
‘She’s bluffing,’ Yue’lin murmurs against his spine, her voice calm amidst the storm of panic thundering in his chest.
“Is she?!”
*‘The Guardian’s rules forbid permanent damage. She can’t crush your testicles without forfeiting. She* ***needs*** *you intact to win. Don’t let her scare you into submission.’*
Victor’s breath came in ragged gasps as Taiga’s fingers encircled his massive testicles like a jeweler measuring gemstones.
Logic didn’t stop his voice from pitching into a strangling squeal when Taiga’s thumbs press inward harshly, her palms cradling his scrotum like a pair of warm, sadistic mittens.
"O-Okay, okay—*shit*!!"
He yelps, toes scraping against stone as she *squeezes* just enough to make his vision sparkle with nut pain.
*Victor's fingers slap the stone floor three times in rapid succession,* The universal signal of ***surrender***, just as Taiga's left thumb pressed harder with crushing pressure to his largest right nut that turned his stomach inside out.
“No! My Ball! *You’re cracking IT!!!”* his voice cracks into something between a whimper and a prayer. "*T-Tap! Tap! I’m Tapping! Gods—Please!!!"*
The words dissolve into wet gasps as Taiga's other thumb press just *slightly harder,* giving lefty a dent as her grin widens at the tremor that runs through both of their bodies.
"I yield!" he wheezes, the words scraping raw against his throat. "*Don’t do it! Don't Crush My Freaking Balls!!!"*
“Hmmm…*fine*, I accept.”
The arena erupts in deafening cheers as Taiga releases her ball grip with a theatrical yell, leaping to her feet with her arms raised in victory.
Victor curls into the fetal position, his breath coming in ragged gasps while Yue'lin's emerald glow pulses against his spine, knitting damaged tissue back together at an accelerated rate.
***"AND WE HAVE OUR WINNER!"*** The half-orc announcer bellows as the floating crystal screens zoomed in on Taiga's grinning, blood-smeared face.
***"TAIGA OF THE SUNNY CLAW CLAIMS VICTORY BY BRUTAL SUBMISSION!"***
The crowd's roar reached deafening levels as Taiga gave Victor’s messy hair a mocking pat—like a chef tenderizing meat. Victor stays curled onto his side, knees drawn up protectively, his breath coming in shallow, shuddering bursts.
His fingers curl involuntarily toward his boys, as if to confirm his family jewels were still intact.
Taiga smirks down at him, flicking a bead of sweat off her brow.
"Good match," she lies, before raising her voice for the audience, "but let’s be honest—you got *crushed*."
She punctuates the last word by miming a fist closing around an invisible pair of testicles, her charm squeezing more laughter and cheer amongst her fans.
The floating crystal screens zoomed in on her gloating grin as she turned her attention to the high balcony where the former Guardian watched.
"Sun Lingbo! You seeing this?! I told you I’d make 'em tap!"
Taiga’s laughter echoed across the arena, sharp and victorious, as she flexed her fingers in the air—still warmed by the heat of Victor’s surrendered jewels.
The crowd chants her name, a tidal wave of adoration crashing over her. She turns in a slow circle, drinking it in, her golden side-tails whipping like flags in the wind.
"Who’s next?" she demands, tapping a fist against her palm. "Who else wants to test these hands? Bustia’s best ballbreaker ain’t done yet!"