Rave ran as fast as her feet could carry her. Which was, admittedly, quite fast. So fast, in fact, that Copernicus had trouble keeping up with her. The suncat wasn’t hooked up to Rave in the same way John’s elementals were. Sure, they had their mental communication, but the equal distribution of power was just another aspect of her boyfriend’s bullshit overpowered abilities.

At the start, Copernicus had been vastly ahead of her. At level 76, he had outclassed her by several multitudes. Not that it had mattered most of the time, as the solar feline didn’t care much for joining fights. Although that contract had increased Rave’s own power at the time, by sheer virtue of being connected to such a powerful entity, that was about as far as it went. By now, their roles had largely reversed.

Rave was about level 150 at this point, she didn’t quite remember the number John had told her last time she asked and she didn’t really feel the need to open her own Stat Screen to check. She could, thanks to being in a party with the Gamer, but seeing her own capabilities as numbers always made her scratch her head a little. She just liked the rough gauging of powers between people by the level, that was good enough for her. To that extent, Copernicus now benefited slightly, having reached the low eighties.

Slightly was as far as that went though. Sure, he would be pulled slightly up along her, but in all likelihood, Copernicus would be stuck somewhere under half her level eventually. He could still fight along with her, but only was effectively at her level when he unleashed. Even then, he was better holding back most of the time, as any expenditure of energy on his part shortened the duration she could benefit from her cat-eared form. Her buffed state was more of a stalemate breaker than an extra pair of claws were, most of the time.

“Three… two…” the countdown reached near its end as Rave leapt over the barrier that separated the seating from the drop and the arena below. She soared right over the sandy field that was the earth area of the second ring and landed in the central fighting pit. “One. Mistress, I must request that you keep within schedule for future fights.”

“Aw, don’t be like that, sweet cheeks,” Rave joked back and slapped the maid on the ass. “I’ll give ya something nice later, alright?”

Aclysia blushed a little bit, not because of the publicity, but just because even that little tap got her Libido going. Clearing her throat, she continued on, “The rules of the tournament have been stated. To remind everyone, however, I will repeat. Using any outside items that get teleported or thrown in will lead to immediate disqualification. Using lethal force is prohibited. Attacking candidates outside the ring is prohibited. The fight may not leave the confinement of this arena. That is it. Begin once I have left the premise.”

While Aclysia walked off, she brushed her hand past Rave’s and gave the Gamer’s girlfriend a quick glance. It was a pretty clear signal that she wanted to talk. The Lightbearer acknowledged it with a quick nod, turning the motion into a rolling of her neck. “Ya should just give up, ya know? Make this quicker and all that,” she suggested, doing a couple of stretches. They didn’t reveal any more skin; what she was wearing was sitting tight and was pretty minimal.

For reasons of efficiency, of course. With the hot weather and her ability to regenerate mana from sunlight while in catgirl form, revealing a lot of skin was just better. Although she very much enjoyed the stares that came along with that tasteful reason. Over a week ago she would have denied that bit. Felt pretty good to be in the clear with herself.

If she wanted to go for peak performance, she would have put on her bodysuit anyway. That thing was optimized to allow sunray absorption through it. It would also have eaten her current clothes. Putting it on was very unlikely to prove necessary.

“Pffff, why give up if these sissy rules are in place?” her opponent mocked. “You’re just the Gamer dude’s main bitch anyway.”

Copernicus took offense to that, hissing from his place at the ground. “Did you just refer to her as a female dog?”

“What if I did?”

“Then I am going to claw your face off.”

“Cappy, that’s not necessary,” Rave assured, kneeling down to scratch her elemental behind the ear. “Ya so cute when ya actually care about me.” Aclysia must have stepped out of the arena at that moment, as her enemy raised his foot off the ground and then aimed a kick at her head. Continuing to scratch the solar feline with the right, she caught that foot effortlessly in her left hand. “See, that’s a bitch move,” she yawned.

Surprised, the guy tried to pull his foot back. He somewhat succeeded, but only by pulling his heel out of his shoe. “Oh my Father Light,” Copernicus meowled miserably as he jumped back, spine arched and golden, copper striped fur puffed up, “Take a shower!”

Rave reacted like every human. The conscious mind thought, ‘Oh, so it stinks? Better not test that…’ while her lungs were instinctually drawing fresh air through the nose. Well, supposedly fresh air; it really had the acrid stench of old, sweaty sucks to it. “Gaia almighty, ewww,” she exclaimed, pulled the shoe off and threw it full force against her enemy’s head.

It hit perfectly, the sole plastering across his face and then ricocheting back. Copernicus was evidently ready to follow that up, getting into a pouncing stance. Instead, both her contractor and he looked as the guy slowly, comedically, tilted backwards and ultimately dropped to the floor.

“Yo, ya there?” Rave asked, walking over and gently stubbing the guy in the side. “…did I just throw a shoe hard enough to knock someone out?”

“It might as well have been him being confronted with his own stench,” Copernicus commented as they stepped away. A few of the maids hurried over to drag the fallen contestant out of the way and announce the next fight. “It should be expected that the weaklings drop by the wayside rather quickly.”

“Hey, he could’ve been some super strong dude in hiding,” Rave argued.

“He could have been,” Copernicus agreed as he let himself be picked up by the Lightbearer, only to decide he liked walking himself better and immediately jumping out of her embrace the moment he had been pat once. Then, without any further words, he began strutting away.

Rave reached out mentally, but bounced off a wall. Keeping his privacy was something the suncat had always practiced. Practically every time they had a mental conversation, it was because he started it. ‘He’s a bit of a mean cat, but he’s fluffy,’ she thought, having signed up for this knowingly when she picked him over the other light elementals that had advertised themselves. ‘Something is irking him though… well, don’t think he’ll pull an Undine… don’t even know if he can pull an Undine,’ she thought as she made her way over to Aclysia. “So, whaddup?” she asked.

That little brush of their hands was a kind of secret signal between them. Basically, it meant that Aclysia wanted to talk to Rave without John involved. Siena also appeared on the scene, elegantly dropping out of the shadow cast on the short tunnel’s wall. “We need to have a quick chat,” the shadow spirit announced in her overly sensual tone, running her blade-like fingers over each other in a sharpening motion.

“Okay, if the chaos brigade sends someone over, it must be kinda important,” Rave joked. Chaos brigade was the name she used for the quartet of Eliza, Undine, Salamander and Siena. Those four formed the clique of more or less insane individuals in the harem. Of course, those then interconnected with the other cliques. Rave knew all of them by heart.

Salamander was best friends with Sylph, even if both of them would vehemently deny that (depending on the day for the latter), Sylph, in turn, got supremely well along with Stirwin (not a harem member but harem adjacent), Copernicus (same status applied) and Nia. Nia was one of the people Undine liked to be around because they could just sit together in silence when the ocean elemental had reached her word maximum of 200 for the day. Undine and Nia formed another clique with Lydia that Rave had simply titled the quiet ones.

Lydia had a lot of contact with Siena of all people, just because the shadow spirit liked to entangle her in debates. As the queen was rather susceptible to being intellectually challenged, she basically always bit, which amused Siena greatly and caused the two of them to become frenemies. For some reason or another, Gnome tended to be the mediator in those cases.

Gnome was also part of a lot of household discussions with Aclysia and Beatrice. While Beatrice kind of belonged to all cliques and none, her neutrality making her equally easy to get along with, the people she standardly spent the most time with were Metra and Aclysia. The weaponized maid was also similarly interconnected with anyone, being one of the main information nodes within the harem.

Of all people, Aclysia had the most contact with Rave and Lydia, though. Rave herself was in the group that she knew John called the ‘hot heads’ being herself, Metra and Nathalia, the dragoness herself also being a bit of an equally contentious and liked member of the harem. When she was around, anyway.

And all of that only scratched on the surface of the complicated web of interpersonal relationships that had been created over the many months, every new member adding a wider layer of complexity.

They were all friends in some shape or form. Sure, at first glance, the only thing they had in common was that they all loved the same man, but there was no reason that had to be the only connecting thing between them. Often unseen by the Gamer, they had their own little dramas and talks. It wasn’t like a group of over a dozen girls (or people in general) could continuously get along without any bumps whatsoever.

“Is this about convincing Scarlett that we should have a party over at her place again?” Rave asked. It was a plan proposed by her and agreed on by most girls, since the Technomancer was currently a bit left out. She got along with John just fine, but she wasn’t really integrated in the core harem and that was something the Gamer’s girlfriend didn’t like. Not that Scarlett needed to be best friends with any or all of them, but they should know each other outside of ending up in the same room (or bed) every now and again.

That wasn’t a problem for someone like Cindy, who clearly wasn’t someone John wanted to get romantically involved with, but for Scarlett they would go the extra effort. Problem was that the redhead was a terrible recluse. Most of the time they had spent together had been on the short sail from New York to DC.

This whole thing would have been a lot easier if Momo had been around. Sure, the support was a bit bratty, but she sure knew how to break the ice with people and talk them into social activities. Rave was pretty good with that herself, except for the intellectual and stern types. Scarlett definitely fit in the former and largely in the latter category.

“No, I have put that on the program for the next meeting,” Aclysia responded.

“Oh, should check the chat, shouldn’t I?” Rave had forgotten to look in there today. They had scheduled talks every now and again. Most of the time they just devolved into bantering and talking about this and that. Sometimes they devolved even further into some lesbian fun. Fewer times they actually had important stuff to talk about. Like someone needing to blow off some steam about another girl or John doing something they found stupid.

Those meetings were something Rave told her boyfriend about and he had quickly distanced himself and said something along the lines of, “Pretty sure it’s healthiest if you girls have somewhere to get that off your chest. You’re always welcome to complain to me directly though.”

Despite that, Rave sometimes dragged him to those sessions. Just to keep the mood light.

Harem management wasn’t always easy, but she found it fun pretty much all the time. It really helped that everyone knew that they were stuck with each other through whatever would come up in the future. Also, that there was a clearly established pecking order, with Rave and Aclysia firmly at the top. Not just because they had the longest history with John, but also because they were the most reliable and connected of the bunch. Basically, Rave handled the talking and Aclysia the scheduling and that smoothed over almost every issue before they could become any real problems.

“Yes, you should,” Aclysia remarked. “This, however, is about Master’s birthday. We are a mere two weeks away.”

“Ah, right, that could be a bit of a problem,” Rave admitted. “The plans kinda involve us being home, don’t they?”

“Yes, we need to make alternative preparations,” the weaponized maid agreed. “At the current trajectory of events, Master’s schemes will come to fruition here on Wednesday. It is not guaranteed that we will be able to finish our dealing with the Amacat before then.”

“Would kinda suck… can’t really get Metra to drive all the way up here. Also Eliza can’t leave New York…” Rave sighed, scratching her head. “Really hoped his first b-day since he got his powers would be really special, ya know?”

“Yes… I am currently compiling a list of alternative measures. We will discuss this further when the tournament has ended for the day,” Aclysia clearly wanted to get to something else. “The reason for this sudden meeting is a proposal by Siena, which she has insisted to be confidential and immediate.”

Rave glanced over to the nightmare elemental that had been uncharacteristically quiet. ‘Well, not that she talks a lot in general, just when she’s out in the open,’ the pink-haired harem leader corrected herself. “Waddup, Sinny?”

“I…” Siena lowered her voice. “This will be confidential and neither of you will laugh,” she stated as if they had already promised, Aclysia and Rave who nodded slowly. “I would like an hour alone with John on his birthday, towards midnight.” Her yellow eyes averted and the shadow spirit seemed flustered. “I want to-”

Rave interrupted by raising her hand. “Ya got it,” she promised and patted the shadow spirit on the shoulder.

“Jane, I must request to think about Master’s precious time a little more carefully,” Aclysia reacted before the shadow spirit actually could.

“Nah, if Siena is actually willing to ask for something, instead of just, ya know, taking what she wants like usual,” Rave was reminded of a particular egregious accident involving missing candy, a hungry Sylph and the blowing of half the fuses in the Boating Seaquence from the subsequent temper tantrum, “then I am willing to give her like one hour towards midnight. Can’t really guarantee John won’t be completely overfucked by then though.”

Siena let out a snide laugh, “As if he could ever be satisfied completely. His lust is the only sin he carries bigger than his pride.”