Welldark B1 Ch. 07

"I hope you don't mind my interruption," the succubus added, winking at me.

Esther's voice cut in before I could think of a well-balanced response. "I do," she stated outright. The hostility in those words was evident, but only underlying to the firmness of her tone. Esther was approaching this 'threat' to our relationship more measuredly than before. Wherever her ability to handle this situation with relative calm suddenly came from, I highly appreciated it. "My Karitas is currently on a date with me." I also fully embraced the use of possessive language like that. "Your presence is not wanted."

"Stuck up as always," Karona walked towards Esther and used the slight edge in height that she had to give a demeaning glance. "I'm sure 'your' Karitas can handle both of us."

"An unrelated topic," the lady of my desires said dismissively. "Your presence is not wanted. Shut your mouth and find yourself another man to shallowly flaunt your sexuality towards." Well, her tone was less hostile, but we had now officially crossed into confrontation territory.

"And what if I don't?" Karona hissed.

There was a moment of silence, the two of them just glaring at each other. Bowing down to her ear, I asked Esther, "Do you want me to get involved in this?" I didn't know what I could do, but I would do something if necessary. Esther turned her eyes to me, the amber reflecting annoyance and calm.

"I will solve this," she assured me and I, with a small nod, backed off. The raven-haired lady smiled thankfully for just a moment and then turned her attention back to Karona. "As time flows right now you have but two choices," Esther answered the succubus' question. "Wait until Karitas and I decide our relationship or be put in your place at this very moment."

"Oh? How about we make it a bet then?" Karona asked, her usual teasing mixing with her anger. "Let's have a match. If you win, sure, I'll back off. If you lose, I get to do whatever I please around Karitas."

This whole situation had escalated beyond my control now. I did not like it. I wasn't a control freak, or at least I hoped I wasn't. Hard to be truly aware of such things. Regardless, I did want to have some influence on the why and how two gorgeous babes were fighting over me. A blowjob match would have been my prefered method of solving this.

The irony of the situation being that Karona was quite likely to agree to such a thing and Esther, the girl I was actually more interested in, was currently solving things through diplomacy (and its extension: warfare). Went to show how little I knew about what I actually wanted from life.

Intervening in this affair was still an option. However, if I was to trust Esther as my Queen in the future then I had to trust her in this now. Little as I liked it on a gut level, it was best if I relinquished some control here and let the chips fall as they may.

"I accept that wager," the raven-haired lady decided. "You may fight with your bare hands. Karitas informed me you prefer it that way."

'That's a not-so-subtle hint that I talk to her about everything...' I thought as the two, without another word, entered the ring. I took off the boxing gloves, just to scratch my head and sigh. This spontaneous date had turned out to be a lot more complicated than I had bargained for.

"You're students, right?" the shopkeeper, a muscular man in his forties, asked me. His approach caught me a bit off-guard. My usual awareness was compromised by the focus on the two girls in the ring.

"Yeah... why?" I asked.

"Because I don't want anyone bleeding over my ring," he answered, smiled and crossed his arms. "You Astral Body types don't splatter around and since that girl's nails look rather sharp, I just wondered if I had to charge you extra."

"Fair enough," I responded, a bit shorter on words than usual. I also adjusted my posture a bit. Another pointer towards me being a bit of an immoral person was the fact that the approaching catfight was giving me a respectable half-mast. I didn't enjoy why this was happening, I very much enjoyed that it was happening. Girls fighting over me played right into my desires as a sadist, a dom and a guy whose dream in life was a sizable harem.

"Wanna bet on who is going to win?" the shopkeeper asked in a quiet tone. I felt reinforced in my theory that it was indeed the drama fights that made him keep his shop up at this hour.

I shook my head. "Wouldn't be much of a bet," I explained and then we shifted our attention to the ring.

Esther was slowly raising and lowering her fist, gauging the change in weight to her limb. On the right side of the ring, Karona was making her own preparations, circling her wrists and moving her fingers individually to get them relaxed.

"Last chance to be a good girl without getting humiliated," Karona's tone was one of mocking friendliness. "Seriously, you think you can just declare yourself his sole interest? Do you have any idea where we are?"

Esther kept her answer short, "Yes. I am coming to terms with it." Planting her feet properly, she raised her arms in a standard martial art stance. One fist was pointed at her opponent as an immediate threat, the other was held low and ready to strike.

Karona's tail came to a standstill, curving in a threatening fashion. Sharp, short spikes sprouted from its black, smooth surface and her backwards bent horns, giving both a more aggressive look (and doubtlessly making them more dangerous in general). My suspicion that she was a Thornborne succubus was finally confirmed.

The red-headed demon lowered her posture, kept her knees bent and ready. Fingers tensing, presenting her pointy nails as claws. Neither party moved immediately. The usual calm before the fight.

Esther was the one who started things, taking a single step in Karona's direction. All the succubus did in reaction was move to the side. The raised right kept pointing at her head. Her dark red eyes kept track of my desired lady's movement. Esther took a second step. Then a third.

At the fourth, when the distance between them had more than halved, Karona stormed forwards. She was fast. Much faster than I had expected. A feeling Esther must have shared, as the succubus successfully weaved around the raised fist and got on her left. The best defence Esther had was to hastily draw the extended arm back and aim her elbow at Karona.

Having anticipated this, the succubus tilted her head into the direction of the attack. What would have been a terrible idea for most people was exactly the right answer for someone that had an incomplete horn halo covering most of their head. The counter bounced off the crown of thorns, pricked Esther's elbow, and left Karona to continue the offensive.

A quick twist of the succubus' torso and the consequent slash went in the direction of Esther's head. Bending backwards, she saved her face, but not the tricorne. The attack sent the hat flying out of the ring.

"You're going to regret this," Karona giggled gleefully, evidently sure of her victory. "You should have fought me in a duel with your Artefact. You would have had better chances then."

Again, Esther didn't honour that with a response. Instead, she tried to swipe Karona's feet away under her. Another thing that the succubus saw coming. Rather than try to intercept it, she decided to use it to her advantage. The hand still raised suddenly clawed into my lady's raven-haired scalp and dropped down.

With one leg in motion Esther had no choice but to drop along. Two bodies hit the floor and the shopkeeper whistled. "Guess you were right, it wouldn't be much of a bet. That succubus is way better."

Somehow, that hit me in my personal pride. "Just give it a second," I stated, staying calm and confident outwardly. The basic primate in me said I should hope that Karona, with all of her lust and directness, won. However, the reasonable part of me knew that an Anomalia, a harem, was more than a gathering of sexual acquaintances. It was a whole group of girls around me that also had to get along with each other. For my future mental health, it was important that I had a Queen who was happy with what she was the foremost member of. More than that, I needed a Queen who complimented my personal tastes by reigning in my excesses.

I took some time to enjoy the display. Although the grunts and yelps were not at the pitch I enjoyed to hear from women, the aggressive winding of their bodies was sexy despite the affiliated violence. They rolled over one after another, trying to get on top. Esther's clothes were torn numerous times by Karona's spiked thorn-covered tail. As thin as it was, the extra limb was quite useful in this situation. As was the fact that her horns made it harder to grapple her head. It was almost like succubi had evolved in order to have advantages in catfights like this.

Given the demon kinds' favourite source of nourishment and the likely stiff competition over high-quality meals, that explanation wasn't as absurd as it might seem at first.

As much as I liked what I saw, I did take a pause in leering to walk over to where Esther's tricorne had fallen. I picked it up, only for a familiar white band to flutter right past me when I straightened back up. Plucking it out of the air, I recognized it as Esther's hair ribbon. 'Well, I guess that's that,' I thought and looked back into the ring.

The two women had parted and were quickly getting back on their feet. Karona was breathing quickly, while Esther kept hers slow and controlled. Both looked unharmed, minor damage to clothes aside. Minor damage to yoga pants meant holes out of which their juicy thighs could partly spill. A wonderful look. Endurance was another topic, but both hid their state of exhaustion well.

Esther's open hair fell past her shoulders in a fashion beyond wild. The silky-smooth strands ran criss-cross in their beautiful volume. She seemed as if she had been through a very, very wild and wonderful night. Combined with her lightly ruined clothes, it gave her a delinquent look of the sexiest variety. Something that I loved, but knew for a fact was part of the reason why Esther didn't leave her room for hours in the morning.

I circled back to where the shopkeeper stood to identify my desired lady's sulfuric yellow eyes. 'Yup, this is over,' I thought again upon identifying the tell-tale mark of her angered state.

Keeping her annoyance under control, Esther resumed the earlier martial arts stance. Karona must have hoped for a simple repetition of the earlier engagement. Sure enough, the raven-haired lady took slow steps towards her opponent again. It was the Thornborne succubus' mistake to assume the same cautious intent lay in those steps.

Letting her approach five steps this time, Karona nevertheless charged towards Esther for the second time. She was fast, I had noted this earlier. It was only too bad that speed alone wasn't enough. The moment the Thornborne succubus started sprinting, Esther threw her punch. To her credit, Karona managed to dodge that with ease. She failed to realize the feint or her own physical inferiority, however.

The right hook turned into a grab, pulling Karona into a suddenly raised knee. From what I could see, it was doubtlessly true that Karona had more experience in hand to hand combat. She also had a knack for analysing her opponent's strategy ahead of time. Karona was a good fighter.

The problem was that Esther was formidable.

The knee got buried in Karona's stomach, who let out a tormented rattle. Letting go, Esther gave the succubus the space to stumble backwards. An instinct she followed. Two stumbling steps by Karona, one firm one by Esther in pursuit. The succubus' Astral Body kicked in, the pain diminished and she straightened up. Just in time for her to put up potential resistance against Esther.

Which was all the raven-haired lady had waited for. With a precise left jab, she cut right through Karona's defences and landed a blow on her shoulder. Again, the succubus stumbled backwards. Again, Esther waited until she recovered. Then another swing.

Karona was good at reading her opponent. Esther learned their behaviour patterns. For someone who could turn back any injuries they received, slow and methodical study would naturally be an option. Now that the lady of my desires had figured out the basics of Karona's approach, she wouldn't be surprised again.

Before long, Karona found herself pushed against the ropes and lashed out with a desperate shout. Both clawed hands aimed at Esther's face, but never found their target. After turning out of the way, Esther delivered a powerful blow to the side of Karona's own visage. The impact smashed her against the floor. Although the daze would have been cleared rather quickly, Esther prevented her opponent from recovering by placing a heel on Karona's shoulder.

"Fix your arrogance." Having won her battle, Esther handed out basic (if unwanted) advice, just like she had done with Aclysia. "And never touch my hair."

Esther raised her foot and turned to leave. Until she had left the ring, my body was tensed up. I feared that Karona would do something stupid. Her red gaze betrayed that her previous animosity had changed into unyielding anger, one step short of hate. However, that was all she showed for the moment.

"Thank you, patient Karitas," Esther said, when I handed over her hat and ribbon. She bound her hair back together quickly and put the tricorne on top to hide her sexy, dishevelled chaos. A shame, but an expected one. "Let us leave," she then declared and was already heading for the exit before I could make a response.

I took a moment to look back at Karona. "If you hear her advice, I'd be happy to hang out some more," I let her know, equally trying to reinforce Esther's point and keep that bridge lowered. On the slight chance that she did eat this humble pie, Karona could still be someone fun to have around. Whether she was a candidate for my harem was more questionable.

"I'll keep it in mind," Karona hissed. Her tone betrayed that those chances were very slim indeed.

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