Stepping Up

Surprising nearly everyone present, Mikoto extended a hand to the downed Vor, asking, "Can you stand?" with an awkward smile on her face. She hadn't expected Vor to pee herself, so, seeing the puddle of faintly golden liquid beneath the woman's body, the notion she had taken things a little too far briefly crossed her mind.

Staring at the hand proferred by Mikoto, a look of confusion flashed across Vor's face. Mercy wasn't exactly commonplace in the South. Compassion was even rarer. Thus, for a brief moment, Vor found herself sincerely confused by Mikoto's behavior.

With Vor staring at her hand, the awkwardness Mikoto was experiencing increased by several orders of magnitude. Fortunately, just as the tension increased to the point it could be cut with a knife, Vor reached out to grab her hand, stating, "It is the privilege of the strong to show mercy to the weak..." in a manner that sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than others.

Smiling awkwardly in response to Vor's remark, Mikoto pulled the much taller woman to her feet before shifting her attention to the ground. The previously steamy puddle was now nowhere to be seen. This caused Mikoto to feel considerably relieved while Vor, confused by the absence of liquid, briefly tensed as a tingling sensation spread across her body. In its wake, every trace of her accident had vanished.

Understanding what must have happened, Mikoto's smile became markedly more genuine as she said, "It looks like Vahn decided to spare you from additional embarrassment. Remember this if or when you decide to try and hunt him in the future."

Feeling much less awkward now that Vor was cleaned up, Mikoto gave the 185cm tall woman a pat on the shoulder before placing her hands into the pockets of her hoodie and returning to her seat. This left the ashen-haired Valkyrie staring at her back, an inordinately rare glimmer of appreciation contained in her amber eyes. She had no intentions of abandoning her mission but Mikoto's power and words had given her ample reason to reconsider her approach.

With that in mind, Vor elected to return to her seat. Her legs were still a little shaky, but, in spite of this, she managed to appear stoic and graceful as she slowly meandered past table after table of greedy, licentious-eyed Gods. Her beauty and power had left a deep impression on each of them, so, after seeing her defeated by Mikoto, they couldn't help harboring intentions toward her. After all, in the Divine Realm, it wasn't even remotely difficult to force someone's obedience...

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Returning to Vahn's side, Mikoto immediately returned to her Pikachu form as the former extended his hands to catch her. He understood, better than even Mikoto, how taxing her transformation was. It literally used the energy contained within her Ego as fuel. From the perspective of others, she was weaponizing her Soul to achieve feats that were otherwise impossible. As a result, decreasing in size was the least of her concerns. If she pushed herself, amnesia and other, far more serious side effects were possible.

Under normal circumstances, performing such a feat would take years, if not several millennia to fully recover. Fortunately, Mikoto was one of Vahn's Templates, so, with a steady supply of Source Energy, she was bound to recover in a few hours. She just needed a bit of rest, and, as strange as it sounded, an ample amount of headpats.

"You did well...I'll be sure to reward you plentily once we return..."

Though she was perfectly capable of speaking, Mikoto replied with a lazy, "Pikaaaa..." as she curled up in the spot previously occupied by the Jade Rabbit. Vahn had entrusted the pure white bunny to Fenrir when he intervened in Vor's attempt to bait Nezha into a deathmatch. As a result, both Jade and her master were currently trembling as Fenrir ran her soft yet exceptionally deadly paws across its head, back, and butt...

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In the wake of Mikoto's one-sided assault on Vor, the tensions within the banquet hall had become palpable. Many of the Gods couldn't even begin to understand what happened. They just knew that the power unleashed by Mikoto was something bordering the taboo.

Fortunately, before things could become too awkward, Huangdi spoke out to encourage the next set of combatants to proceed into the arena. His words were initially met with silence until a young woman with white hair and a matching qipao rose to her feet and said, "Well then, if everyone else is too afraid to step up, I'll gladly steal the spotlight."

At 165cm tall, the white-haired woman was somewhat tall for a female in the East Side. The traits that caused her to stand out, however, were the crimson streaks in her loosely ponytailed hair, her vibrant amethyst eyes, and elf-like ears. Of course, compared to the jagged crimson horns framing her head, the flame-tipped white tail protruding from her backside, and the crimson scales covering her forearms, they were relatively plain.

While the Gods and Goddesses around her were more than a little surprised, Huangdi adopted one of his grandfatherly smiles as he caressed his chin and remarked, "Nuuba...It's good to see that not every member of the younger generation has forgotten their filial responsibility..."

Giggling in response to Huangdi's words, the tail of the white-haired woman gently swayed back and forward as she covered the lower half of her face with a fan and said, "It's only natural that the children take care of their parents after retirement. Now then, who should I challenge~?"

Though she wasn't particularly famous outside of the Heavenly Domain, the white-haired woman, Nuuba, was actually the daughter of Huangdi. In other words, she was a direct descendant of the Yellow Dragon Emperor and the Imperial Princess of the Heavenly Dragon Clan.

As if she hadn't already decided on her opponent, Nuuba proceeded to pass her gaze over each of the Gods and Goddesses in her surroundings. She had never been given an official rank due to her responsibilities as Imperial Princess. Thus, if she felt so inclined, she could challenge anyone in the banquet hall. In the end, however, her glowing amethyst eyes settled on Vahn as she mused, "Oh~? This could be interesting. I've always wanted to see how I compare against a Pure-Blooded Dragon. I wonder if this Big Brother will do me the courtesy of accepting my challenge~?"

While he normally wouldn't mind accepting such an offer, it had only been a few minutes since Vahn refused a match against Vor. Since Nuuba was unranked, their match wouldn't really serve any purpose. Rather, due to her draconic heritage, he would basically be shooting himself in the foot by accepting her challenge.

"I'm afraid I must refuse. I promised my companions they would be given the chance to cut loose before I personally enter the arena. If you're serious about challenging me, you'll have to convince them you're worthy of my time."

Though Vahn's words may have sounded like an insult, none of the Gods or Goddesses present, Nuuba included, expressed anger or amazement. It was perfectly normal, at least in the Heavenly Domain, for powerful and high-ranking members of the court to send forth subordinates to deal with would-be challengers. After all, if a challenger couldn't even beat one of their subordinates, what meaning was there in fighting them directly?

Shifting her attention from Vahn to Fenrir, the corners of Nuuba's smile curled upward as she said, "Very well, then. Might I have the pleasure of hearing this Little Sister's name...?"

After returning the Jade Rabbit to Vahn, Fenrir rose to her feet before answering, "Fenrir Mason." in a curt, no-nonsense tone of voice. This was immediately noted by the majority of the Gods present, as, during Mikoto's introduction, she had also given the name Mason.

Nodding her head in approval, Nuuba snapped her fan shut before casually tossing it to one of her servants as she said, "Very well, Fenrir Mason. My name is Nuuba, Goddess of Droughts, Daughter of the Yellow Emperor, and Vice-Leader of the Heavenly Dragon Clan. I look forward to facing you on the field of battle."

With that said, Nuuba stepped out of her traditional Chinese silk slippers before turning into a blur that promptly appeared near the center of the arena. It wasn't the most extreme example of speed, but, considering she hadn't empowered her body in the slightest, it was pretty impressive.

While others might have struggled to follow Nuuba's movements, Fenrir was easily able to track the white-haired Goddess with her icy blue eyes. Her eyesight was currently sharper than ever, so, for a moment, Nuuba appeared to be moving in slow motion near the beginning and end of her feat.

Shifting her gaze to her Master, Fenrir telepathically asked, ("What do you want me to do, Master? She gives off an aura of arrogance but I don't think she's a bad person. Should I go easy on her?")

As if he was simply giving Fenrir permission to go, Vahn responded with a curt nod while internally answering, ("Let her control the pace and see how she chooses to escalate things. Even I'm not too sure about your current limits so it's best to play it safe. If anything happens, I'll step in.")

Returning a nod, Fenrir flexed her razor-sharp claws, which, after her ascension, resembled bluish-white, slightly transparent crystals. A similar translucence could be observed in her fur, which, due to the energy contained within, appeared icy near the tips and blacker than the night sky near the roots.

Following Nuuba's example, Fenrir ran forward before pouncing into the arena using raw speed. This earned her a marginally surprised look from the white-haired dragoness, who, understanding Fenrir's intentions, remarked, "Oh~?" before following it up with a smile and adding, "This is going to be fun."

Punctuating her words, Nuuba adopted a stance reminiscent of the Southern Dragon Style of Kung Fu. She brought her left foot forward, angled inward, while both of her hands came up in a relaxed stance that emphasized the sharp, shimmering red and green scales covering her forearms, hands, and fingers. At the same time, the flame on the tip of her tail began burning even more vibrantly, almost as if she were a Charizard preparing to use Blaze. The temperature around her body began to skyrocket, and, true to her name, the surrounding tiles began to dry up as if an extreme drought had spread through the area.

A stark contrast to the scene on Nuuba's side of the arena, a layer of pure white frost spread from the base of Fenrir's feet as she adopted a low, quadrupedal stance. This would have created quite a tantalizing sight under normal circumstances, but, thanks to the fur-covered waistcoat she donned prior to entering the arena, the spectating Gods could only glower as the fur across Fenrir's body shifted from a pale blue to a stark, snowy white.

Though she was tempted to comment on Fenrir's ridiculous stance, Nuuba never had the chance, as, the moment she opened her mouth to speak, the former lunged toward her with a speed that sent shivers up her spine. Her instincts were also screaming at her to avoid a direct confrontation, so, despite being supremely confident in her physical strength, Nuuba sidestepped Fenrir's charge like a matador, saying, "Dragon Plucks the Peaches of Immortality."

Empowered by her words, fiery runes manifested on the scales of Nuuba's right hand as she reached forward to try and grab Fenrir's leg as the latter zipped past her. To her surprise, a layer of ice immediately spread across the surface of her skin as icy cold energy invaded the inner channels of her arm.

Retracting her hand in an instant, Nuuba relied on her instincts to evade a remarkably swift kick from Fenrir's paw before using the same hand to send out a wave of red-ocher flames. When she saw even her flames get cover in ice, the pupils of her eyes contracted to thin slits as she promptly bounded away and muttered, "I may have spoken too soon..."

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Mikoto is a big softie...','Chang'e is experiencing a lot of firsts today...','When the drugs wear off and you have to face reality...')

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