Tama

  Saki began pacing back and forth as the goblins in the stands screamed and cheered. My ears flattened at the sound as it reached a whole other level. Tristy was enjoying herself and shooting fireballs into the air that exploded and screaming with the crowd, ramping them up even more.

  I turned and looked at Tristy, then smiled. I summoned a water dagger and threw it hard at her. She quickly dodged to the right and fired a fireball back at me. I sidestepped and blinked to her in an instant. She already had her hand at my chest and I felt the warmth as the fire was summoned. She wasn't fast enough. My hand was on her chest too, and I pushed as I summoned a powerful torrent of water directly on her. I felt a light singe as she burnt me a little.

  S he was swept away under the water and slammed hard against the wall repeatedly by the wave of water, which then lifted her and, with my control, threw her forcefully onto the ground. She coughed up blood but instantly jumped up and turned left just in time to dodge my dagger at her throat.

  She tried to throw a punch but missed as I shifted my footing and steadied myself by using my tail as leverage. I blinked back at the same time she did. We stared at each other for a long moment, then I blinked into the air and instantly blanched left as a fireball almost hit me and singed Anna slightly.

  Anna, now upset, ejected herself off me and threw herself as a ball towards Tristy. I blinked directly above while roll ing into a ball and launching myself behind her. Anna reached her a few seconds after I did. Tristy went scorched earth and created a lava plume around her, causing both me and Anna to jump back or get burnt to a crisp.

  Tristy went after Anna first and after multiple blinks managed to grab the core of Anna, only for it to slip out of her grasp barely as my dagger missed Tristy by inches with a twist of her torso.

  As she twisted, she faced her free hand towards me and I pulled back as hard as I could and missed a fire blast to the face. Anna meanwhile had recovered and launched herself at Tristy again.

  Tristy flipped as Anna launched herself, causing Anna to go under her. As she did, I blinked into the air, aimed myself, and launched down. Tristy tried to dodge, but I was faster and my feet met her chest head-on and slammed her down hard on the dirt as she coughed up more blood.

  She smiled and grabbed my foot. I couldn't pull away in time and I felt an extreme heat as my foot began to melt. I managed to jerk it away, but it was a burnt mess and unusable now. I scowled and blinked back while leaning against a wall.

  Tristy tried to rise, then fell to her knees and passed out. I won again, but only barely. Tristy was getting very good. Soon, I would up her training. I gently put my mostly healed foot on the ground. It was still tender, but my water would have it good as new in a few moments. I blinked to Tristy and leaned in. She was already healing.

  Her flames covered her body and started knitting wounds shut and cleaning her skin of bruises and welts. Most of the damage was internal and it would take time for her fire to cleanse that. I waited a few seconds and then kicked Tristy hard on the side. She didn't respond and I sighed. Nope, she was out of it.

  I gently picked her up now that I knew she wasn't playing dead and blinked over to Saki, carrying her. Saki had been pacing and had finally stopped. She looked up at me and said, "Why is Tristy knocked out and why are you naked?"

  I shrugged and said, "Tama needs to increase Tristy's training. Anna should be back soon."

  Saki looked at me, then Tristy for a long moment, then sighed. We had agreed to let Tristy choose, and she had. "Okay, well I have a plan to get us out of this mess, but you need to follow it perfectly for it to work." Saki said as she made her way to the arena exit.

  I followed. I watched as goblin workers came out of the sides of the arena and started cleaning updragging corpses and sweeping sand over blood. I ignored them and we made our way out of the arena and back to the building with Trixua.

  Trixua once again stood, bowed, and repeated her earlier phrase: "Empress Tamaneko, how may I serve my kingdom today?"

  Once again, I pointed to Saki, who began to speak. "Okay, so the slaver is dealt with and gone. Finish the paperwork. Empress Tama and I will be leaving the city. You are to keep things running during our absence."

  Trixua nodded and bowed again. She was super weird for a goblin. Saki turned and looked at me. "Okay, this is where things get tricky." She brought up a finger and said, "Listen very closely." She turned and I followed her out of the building.

  I wanted to blink around like normal, but she kept me at her side and kept talking. "Your aunt sent the royal guard here. If they reach this city, it will be obvious what happened here. We can't let that happen.

  We need to reach the exit, and maybe even Drestor if possible. If we can reach Talia before the royal guards find us, we have a fighting chance."

  I nodded along as I summoned a water ball and launched it at a passing goblin. Saki rolled her eyes but ignored it and continued. "Based on what I've been able to gather from the little rodent that is Anna..."

  She glared at my gi and continued, "Two weeks to get here from the capitol means the staff sent us almost directly underground.

  That means Drestor is directly above us, or very close to it. Since Drestor is two weeks' travel from the capitol."

  Anna shimmered and responded out loud, "Yeah, but good luck finding a way up in time."

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  Saki smiled at that and said, "Oh little water spirit, you are going to help us with that whether you want to or not."

  I wondered how Saki was going to make Anna listen. Then Saki's grin turned really wide and condescending, her tone took on an almost falsetto voice as she spoke. "Anna! Let's play a super fun game called "Find the city!"

  She wagged her tail forcefully and twitched her ears playfully. Anna shimmered excitedly and jumped off of me, turning into her little girl form. She jumped up and down super excited and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah! I want to play lots of fun games with everyone!" Her eyes were dilated and she looked ecstatic.

  I smiled at Saki's cleverness. Saki continued, her smile as wide as possible clearly fake to anyone with two brain cells, but that didn't matter.

  It was the emotion behind it that overwrote Anna. "Okay, Anna, let's go to Drestor! Do you know where Drestor is? I bet you can't find it!"

  Anna jumped up and down excitedly and said loudly, "I will show you exactly where Drestor is! I even know a shortcut!!!" She then turned and started running down the street.

  Saki's fake smile shifted to a smirk and she muttered, "Too easy."

  We made our way out of the goblin city, with Saki citing we could sleep on the road and we had no time. Also, she mentioned goblin beds were uncomfortable. I agreed, to be honest the city concrete was somehow more comfortable than those beds. We made our way down the destroyed road and towards more buildings.

  As we reached the edge, there was movement and I drew Serenity. Tristy behind me instantly jumped next to me and summoned a fireball, looking around and at me. Saki bumped into me, clearly lost in thought.

  She quickly noticed my tense stance and readied herself for combat; she grew two more tails and coated all three in earthen spikes. We waited patiently for a long moment, then it came. A massive tentacle that arced over the buildings and came down to attempt to crush us.

  Tristy shot her fireball as I blinked just under it and sliced left, cutting clean through the tentacle and causing the dissected half to fall to the ground while the rest recoiled. Two more tentacles appeared, but Tristy instantly blinked over and latched onto one.

  She set herself on fire and began burning the tentacle through, using her body as the dagger. Saki began to shift to her Kitsune combat form and I stepped in front of her and sliced the second tentacle down the middle to protect her. I yelled out, "Reedril, your child is attacking us! We will kill them if you don't come here now!"

  The voice of Reedril entered my mind with a calm tone. "If my child attacks and dies, it deserves its fate."

  I nodded to myself and grinned before blinking into the air and looked down. I watched where the tentacle receded and noticed that it was hiding behind the turn in the road up ahead. It looked like the dead one earlier, even now its tentacles were regrowing. Couldn't have that, could we? I blinked towards the creature. I saw Tristy already there.

  She had apparently taken the tentacle express and was currently flambéing the creature as it made telepathic screeches at us. I landed on its head, the bulbous octopus-like head giving way slightly under my feet.

  It was slimy and slippery. But as a Nekojin, I did not fear such slipperiness! And Tristy was burning any slime off as she gave the big squid a hug! Screams erupted from the creature and caused Tristy's eyes to glaze over and she fell off of its body.

  I blinked down and grabbed her. She was staring blankly and I knew she had just been stunned. I blinked to a nearby building and put Tristy gently down on it.

  Turning, I pulsed my water through Serenity and she became ephemeral for a second. I paused and smiled before blinking directly into the creature's face and stabbing hard into the eye.

  Before I did, I made my blade ephemeral so it could go all the way in with no resistance. Then I started to slice left through the massive eyeball. The screech was mentally deafening and I giggled. Saki finally showed up, so slow! She quickly fired off all nine of her tails and pierced random places on the octopus's body.

  It instantly began writhing and shaking uncontrollably. It suddenly jerked hard and stopped moving. Saki retracted her tails and began to shift back to her F oxkin form. I turned and blinked off the now dead octopus and checked on Tristyshe was sitting up holding her head with tears in her eyes. She saw me and quickly wiped the tears away as she forced herself to stand.

  "I am sorry, Mistress, I have failed you!" She bowed and shook slightly.

  I rolled my eyes at her antics and grabbed her before blinking down to Saki without a word.

  Saki had finished shifting and was saying something: "And that's why if you aim directly at its core organs and attack them all at once before any can recover, its death is imminent."

  I nodded at her as she spoke and she just smiled at me before saying, "Stab the octopus in the places I did next time super fast and they will die."

  I smiled and nodded more vigorously. "Tama attacks the weak spots that Saki pointed out!"

  Saki nodded and rolled her eyes at me before looking at Tristy . "That psionic wave was extremely painful. It reminded me of how the void felt. I was able to ignore it cause I am used to the constant whispers. It seems for most, however, that it is an extremely powerful stunning effect."