Meet Your Fighter, Kotori.
They call her the Fox. She’s an illusionist and she hates rookies. She’s Roxanne’s new sensei. This is how Roxy meets her:
I felt a little sick to my stomach. “Cage fights to the death? That’s your entertainment?”
Samuel snorted. “This? This is just a little fun and games. You’ll see.”
I eyed the weapons inside the cage. All of them had the heavy look of deadly intent. I remembered what Stef had said. “What are the rules?”
My uncle ticked off his fingers as he spoke. “Anyone can fight. Only one on one fights. No killing. No rules.”
“Wait. No rules?”
“Anything goes in the cage other than fatal blows. And no rules from the surface apply here. Grudges, bad blood, all that stays up top. Down here, everyone just wants to see a good fight. You can come down here, beat the snot out of your boss and go back to work the next day without a care in the world.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really.”
“If you could beat him.”
The crowd hushed as the plume of dust settled and the view of the cage slowly returned. The werewolf stood in a fighting crouch in the center of the cage. She swept her leg in a roundhouse kick and the burst of wind cleared the rest of the dust. The crowd roared as the woman in red clambered up the walls of the cage, apparently unhurt.
My eyes bugged out. Not one woman, but six identical women in red crawled up the cage walls, nimble as mice. The werewolf spun in place, trying to keep all of them in sight. Each one of the women raced to one of the weapons and tore the weapon off the walls by brute force. One of the women finally reached a two-handed hammer hanging from the ceiling. As one they leapt off the walls. The noise from the crowd swelled to fill the room with frenzied cheers.
The werewolf made her choice and jumped to meet the one with the battle hammer. My uncle tsked and shook his head.
I flinched as the werewolf’s claws slashed at the woman’s midsection … and passed through with no effect. The illusion frayed to wisps of light and disappeared. With no resistance, the werewolf over swung, her body twisting in the air. She landed on the dirty floor with a shriek of straining metal. The other five women converged and all but one disappeared. The last one held no weapons and landed astride the werewolf’s chest, her hand held like a blade to her opponent’s neck.
“Yield.”