Vaa was delightfully shaky-legged when they climbed to their feet. More than that, seeing the long strands of white she'd pumped onto the girl's body made Natalie dizzy—and eager to jump into a round two, even if they no longer had a stake to fulfill. Vaa looked down at herself, running a finger up across her stomach to collect a glob.

  "Seriously. You cum way too much."

  "Thank you?"

  "It wasn't a pliment."

  Natalie ughed and handed over the vial of ing liquid. She'd have poured some out into her own hands and thered the girl up, but she didn't want to make too many assumptions. Vaa seemed to reciprocate her advances—but that didn't mean she could do whatever she wanted. Moving too fast could put her off.

  Once again, they ed themselves up and got dressed. Cataloging their tokens, they discovered ten more s had been ented. Which meant nearly their full colle had been verted. They were making excellent time.

  "I'm—I'm not sure if I'm up for a third series, though," Vaa finally mumbled, cheeks c.

  Natalie blihen worried whether she had gooo fast. Natalie gave her a ed look, but Vaa didn't seem upset, just wrung out. That hadbeen her first time with anirl, Natalie reminded herself. And she'd pulled out three climaxes in a handful of minutes. Of course she was a little overwhelmed and ime to cool down.

  "At least, with a stake," Vaa crified, clearihroat and not meeting Natalie's eyes. "One more run to squeeze out a few more tokens is fine. We'll bail when it gets too hard."

  And this time, it sounded like she meant it. "Sounds like a pn. I think we should check out the Coliseum after. See how long we o stay to get a token ented, passively. To do that, we'd o keep some pin tokens anyway."

  Vaa seemed grateful for the pragmatic excuse.

  They headed out into the City, striding through the exit passageway, and Natalie tried not to be too smug about how Vaa seemed a little unsteady as she walked. She'd done a number on the girl. They might have to sit down and take a break before their series.

  They did just that, then proceeded into the Arena for the third time, seleg the lowest stake and having no iion of paying it off. Indeed, when the fights became difficult, they bailed. Their efforts ented four more tokens, leaving only three non-ented ones.

  As it turned out, not dying in the are she wasn't given the magical restoration effect, so she was tired and sweaty when they left. Unpleasant as dying was, it did e with its bes. Another subtle encement from the City of Eros to see their tasks through.

  But Vaa had gotten her fill, at least for now, and Natalie had meant what she said: she didn't care about effiearly as much as her teammates being fortable.

  They left for the Coliseum afterward. The huge structure of white marble, pilrs, and yered seating was the seost dominant building iy, behind only the Pace. The Coliseum was the premier assighat a city ght hope for—at least by some perspectives. Apparently, it paid out ludicrous amounts of ented tokens, but not only were assigs rare, the assig itself was … not everyone's cup of tea. After all, letting loose one's inhibitions in private was ohing, but fug in front of an arena's worth of people? Yeah. Even Natalie was leery of that.

  But irely. She'd figure out how she felt about it when the day arrived.

  Like with every other building, there was a receptioo greet them wherode in. Wide and spacious, though not luxuriously furhe area taiwo items of i. The first: the huge schedule framed in the ter of the room listing off the ten fights that would be this twelve-hour period. One fight per hour, with none scheduled for the first and st blocks.

  Each line included two names, a time, aher a 'FIRMED' or 'DENIED' written afterward, presumably indig those individuals who had decided to participate. An arrow indicated which fight was ongoing. Their names read: 'Brooklyn' and 'Catarina.'

  Two women. Lucky timing. Natalie wouldn't have wao watch the stakes being paid out if men were involved. Though she would have taken a peek out of raw curiosity.

  Along with the massive schedule, there was a desk off to the side with a sign beled 'PLACE BETS HERE.' Natalie's eyebrows went up, seeing it.

  "Bets? There's gambling?"

  "Seems so," Vaa said. "Regur tokens, or is it for enting?"

  "Let's find out."

  This most ret automatoionist had a darker blue skin tohan most. She was tall, slim, with shoulder-length hair. She greeted them brightly as was the wont of all automatons.

  "Wele, misses. bat has already begun for this round, but you're wele to pce bets on any other time slot."

  "Uh—no, thank you. We're new here. You bet on the fights?"

  "Yes, ma'am. The odds are listed above." She gestured at the sign situated over her head. Sure enough, one of the pieces of text on each line was a ratio. The one for the current fight read '1:1.75.' Apparently Catarina was the favored batant.

  "What do you bet? Tokens?"

  "Of either denomination, empowered or not," the automaton said with a nod.

  "Huh." So that was another way to avoid 'stakes' or simir sexual sarios and still gain ented tokens. But gambling wasly reliable. "How are the odds decided? Does the house take a portion of profits?"

  "No, ma'am. All proceeds go eo the winners."

  That put them head and shoulders above most gambling anizations. And made it more likely to turn a profit.

  "As for the odds, the City itself decides," the automaton tinued. "I assure you they're generally accurate—but not perfect, since odds are rouo the number."

  Wow. Fasating. So a clever individual could evaluate whether, for example, the one-point-five odds should actually be one-point-four, and gamble accly. There was wiggle room to genuinely make profits with the betting system.

  Still …

  "But how are we supposed to make an informed bet?" Natalie asked. "I don't know any of these names." She gestured at the list of today's fighters.

  "On request, we'll inform you about any given partit's skill set and preferred fighting style. But it's up to you to make the final decision, of course."

  Mm. That was as much as she could hope for, she supposed. In regur arena gambling, a person would have a much clearer idea of who the two fighters were going in, at least in high-level matches where the individuals were known quantities. It seemed it would be much more luck-based here, since everyone was a retive unknown.

  With careful deaking and prior research, it could be worthwhile, though. But Natalie wasn't ied. She would earn tokens the normal way.

  "What about match-fixing?" Natalie asked curiously. "What if someohrows a match for their friends?"

  "That would be a pillory offe a minimum," the automaton said cheerfully. "And earnings wouldn't be paid out. The City would know, after all."

  Natalie paused, then shivered. It would be rather idiotic to cheat the dungeo could read minds. Or something simir to reading minds.

  "Iing," Natalie said, sparing a gnce for Vaa, whose eyebrows had also raised. "Thanks for the info." She might have stood around and asked more questions, but the fight arently underway, and she didn't want to miss it. "Through that door to the viewing area, right?" she asked, gesturing toward the most obvious entrance.

  "Quite right, miss."

  She nodded her thanks, the off for the Coliseum interior.