If there was ever a situation Natalie would be justified in using [Empower], a one-on-one against a al Boss would be it.

  The problem was, Natalie didn't know how long this fight would st. She thought she could win naturally, without leveraging the skill. And if she were to use it, she had pns for it during phase two. Not phase ohe everyday physical fight.

  She couldn't waste all her mana in normal bat when the sex portion was equally, if not more, important. Victory came from making the Hellhound submit to her. Perhaps that was also possible by knog her around the arena with her warhammer the old-fashioned way, but Natalie suspected her other hammer would do the job much better.

  Or, at a minimum, she wao give it her best shot.

  Ily motivated by what vieant, Natalie moved around the small stone arena like a whirlwind, taking forward tempo and keeping her oppo on the back-foot. She used her momentum to her advantage. Oalie got going, she was extremely difficult to stop—both a be ariment to her style.

  The Hellhound didn't have the advantage of making the first move, this time. Natalie didn't let her get up close and personal, which would make her own maneuvering difficult. Swinging her gigantic two-handed hammer around, she battered the fme-based martial artist from one end of the arena to the other.

  Tactical uses of [Illusion] further kept the Hellhound from reading Natalie's iions and slipping intuard. One particurly devastating misdire resulted in the woman being flung from one side of the arena to the other, smming into the shimmering forcefield that kept them caged in together.

  She recovered fast, not seemingly remotely worse for wear, but only because damage didn't e in the form of health. The shield symbol jumped nearly a full twenty-five pert from the blow.

  By the annoyed growl that ripped from the woman's throat—too animalistic to have ever e from a normal human—Natalie could tell she was making a good showing. Far better than the first round. She might have embarrassed herself in that bout, but this time, she would break her oppo's guard, not the other way around.

  That said, the fight was far from easy. Natalie pushed herself to her limit, utilizing every ounce of practice she'd gotten at Te—and every ounce of practice she'd gotten since she'd first started training, so many years ago.

  Even while pletely in the zone, feeling in tuh the movements of her body and her on in a way she rarely did, she was hard-pressed to find openings, to score critical blows. The two of them were well-matched. Both in skill and strength. The teique of a level two boss couldn't be uated.

  And Natalie was thrilled about that. There were few things she loved more than a petent oppo.

  Finally, the end closed in. With o devastating blow catg the Hellhound directly on her forearms—she had tried to block it in a st-ditch effort—the Hellhound staggered to the side, the shield symbol filling all the . She colpsed on her ass, the fight going out of her. Her expression wasn't surprised, as Natalie's had been, her first guard break. Instead, the wolfgirl gred up at Natalie, ed by her defeat.

  To the left of the shield symbol, a heart symbol shimmered, eighty-five pert filled with pink light. Even perf that well, Natalie had only been fifteen pert away from losing.

  Which meant she had to take this opportunity seriously. To put her hard-earned guard break to good use.

  But, she couldn't go too fast, either. Forepy was important.

  Though, hiriously, Natalie retty sure the fighting itself ted as that, to this woman.

  Maybe to Natalie too, if she was being ho.

  Still, eager as her twitg cock was—which was still exposed and glistening with the Hellhound's saliva from earlier—simply pinning the Hellhound down and g her pussy was too fast, too direatalie needed a more strategic approach.

  "You're better with that thing than I expected," the Hellhound said begrudgingly, gring up at her. "But don't get too fident, human. This is far from over."

  Natalie abruptly dropped her hammer—the on cttering loudly against the stone floor of the arena. Natalie stalked toward her prey. The Hellhound's eyes widened, breathing growing heavier as Natalie approached.

  Because she reized what was ing.

  Her e eyes flicked down to Natalie's cock, which throbbed excitedly between her legs, having stiffened in seds. Natalie stopped in front of her, t over the downed woman, and simply stared for a long moment. Drinking her curves in. Basking in her victory. What she now got to do.

  The Hellhou her gaze, but behind fident e eyes, Natalie could see her mind rag. Readying herself for what Natalie had prying not to grow too excited herself, probably. Because Natalie could see the suppressed lust building in her. She wao be dominated by a stronger oppo. But only if it was deserved. And Natalie's victory had proved her deserving.

  Natalie crouched dowing her eyes level to the Hellhound's. Her oppo stared defiantly back.

  "Do what you want," the Hellhound scoffed. "But you won't break me."

  She wouldn't, would she?

  Natalie leaned in closer. The Hellhound's breath came faster by the sed, chest heaving up and down, and not from the exertion of the fight. Her eyes dited as Natalie's face approached hers.

  Then, inches away, she grabbed the Hellhound's face between both her hands, aly pressed their lips together.

  The wolfgirl froze. She clearly hadn't expected that to be Natalie's choseor of attack. She'd braced herself for something more direct. Something more intimidating, dominating. For Natalie to prove a point or set the tempo.

  But no.

  A kiss.

  Natalie kept it going. Short and sweet, not heated and passionate. A lover's kiss. Amusingly, the wolfgirl barely sted a sed before she melted into Natalie, seemingly against her own will.

  "W-What are you doing?" the Hellhound gasped out at the first opportunity. Natalie tinued w kisses down the woman's cheek, then onto her neck, worshiping soft skin with her lips.

  Instead of answering the question, Natalie instead asked her own.

  "Do you have a name?"

  "A—A name?"

  "It's not just 'Hellhound', is it? That's what the description says."

  "What are you talking about?" the Hellhound demanded. "You're not supposed to be asking for my name! You're supposed to be—" she hesitated briefly, "Fug me!"

  Natalie ran the back of her haly down the side of the wolfgirl's face, caressing her. She kissed her again, to the woman's flustered e.

  "I do whatever I want with my guard break, 't I? Isn't that the point?"

  "Well, yes," the wolfgirl said. "But—"

  "And what I want to do is kiss you," Natalie said. She emphasized that point by stealing another from the woman. "And also, ask you your name."

  The Hellhound stared at Natalie, mouth hanging slightly ajar. Her face went from pink to red to bzing red. If Natalie was being ho, this hadn't even been her pe her initial decision to take things slowly. She'd simply been struck by an urge to kiss the woman. Natalie had always been a person who worked on instinct, so she hadn't resisted.

  Besides, fug a girl without even knowing her name felt wrong, their strange and urgent circumstanotwithstanding. Though she didn't know much about this Hellhound, Natalie had instantly respected her for her bat prowess alone. She wao know more about her in general—a name was the least of it.

  A part of Natalie reized that maybe she should be treating this sed phase with far more urgency, but then again, based on how flustered the Hellhound was being, maybe Natalie had doly the right thing. The kisses seemed to have taken her apart far more than prying the woman's legs open would have—even sidering that the Hellhound seemed more than eager to get to that, behind the facade.

  For a while lohe Hellhound blushed at her while Natalie waited for an answer. Finally, she gnced bashfully away.

  "It's ... Malice," she mumbled out.

  "Malice?"

  "Yes."

  "That's a pretty name," Natalie said. She kissed her again. "I'm Natalie." She ran a gentle hand through Malice's hair. "It's o meet you, Malice. And if it's fih you, I'll be making you my bitow."