"That was a valiant effort, girls. You cracked the top ten most difficult fights I had. But as always I´m victorious!" Arai said with a chuckle. "Your little tricks are no match for a master of Ch-"
"I think you are forgetting about someone!" Min replied, standing just a few steps back from Arai.
"You barely count as a person, vagabond. I suggest you run away to hide your shame while you still can."
"You know, you talk a lot of smack about my body, but as far as I can tell, yours are pretty much the same size as mine."
Arai frowned, remembering that her shirt was still pinned to the canyon wall. She just had the most tense duel of her life against an elf with her tits flopping out like a common harlot... Good thing no one else was around to see that.
"Well, look who´s talking," Arai replied, turning around. She folded one arm across her chest, the other still holding up her pants. "You have a lot of cheek for someone, ermm, showing a lot of cheek."
Min sent a hand to check out her behind. The leaf was still there, right? Yes, it was, although it did not cover the sides of her buttocks as well as she wished it did.
"Why, thank you for upgrading me from squalid to cheeky!" Min replied. "But, sad as I am to admit it, but my little buttocks don´t compare to your powerful cheeks!"
"How would you-"
"I saw you with your pants on the ground, remember?"
Arai took a deep breath. "You are not worth my time, girl, but keep poking, and I´ll be forced to take out the trash. Last chance to leave, vagabond."
"I won´t run away!" Min replied, tying the woman´s black belt like a bandana around her forehead. Surprisingly, she felt invigorated and slightly stronger than just seconds before. "Time for round two!"
"Pfft, what are you going to do, flash me to death?"
Min struck a fighting pose. "En garde!"
"You look like a complete idiot."
"So, it´s a mirror match then."
"Argh! You asked for it!"
Before Arai could do anything, Min was already giving her face a hard slap, followed by a punch to the stomach. Neither of these attacks did much damage to Arai, but they did sting a bit and made her recoil.
Min would like to say she moved with the skill of a kung fu master. Dodging with graze and striking fiercely. Transitioning from punch, to kick, to chop with such style and speed that Arai was not able to predict her movements.
The reality was that it was hard for Arai to keep up as she insisted on trying to maintain her belt-less pants above her legs, leaving her with only one hand to play keep away. As a result, she could scarcely block Min´s (admittedly weak) onslaught. To make the fight even more annoying, Min insisted on shouting a stupid attack name for every single one of her punches and kicks.
"Ow! You got lucky! If I could move both my arms, you-"
"What was that you were saying about beating us with your hands tied behind your back?"
"SHUT UP!"
"Wow, Min is going for it! She´s not giving Arai a chance to cast any spells," Peonie commented.
"I don´t know. I think Arai´s magic has gotten weaker."
"But why? Maybe embarrassment ruins her chi control?"
"Maybe… but, I think it´s something else." Celeria guessed. "Look at how Arai is holding up her pants for her dear life, even if it´s costing her the fight. I don´t think she is that big of a prude, so I wonder… By the way, Peonie? How are you holding up? Not too cold?"
"Eh, the snow isn´t so bad once you lose sensation on your skin!"
"Oh boy."
"And for the finishing touch, Flying Streak Kick!" Min took a couple of steps back and began to run to give momentum to her flying kick.
"Enough with this nonsense!" channeling the anger of her inner petulant child, Arai stomped on the ground. Two stalagmites rose right under Min´s feet as she jumped. Instead of injuring her, they helped propel the rising adventurer.
"Aah!" With the extra boost, Min rose higher in the air than she expected. Her feet no longer lined up with Arai´s stomach, but rather, her groin was directly at the bandit´s eye level. The momentum also made her hat-loincloth flutter upward, meaning there was nothing in between Min´s hairless crotch and Arai´s grimacing face.
"Noooo-" Arai squealed before being muffled by Min´s groin. The bandit was pushed towards the ground, with Min sitting atop her face.
"H-h-hey, s-stop squealing! That tickles!" Min complained.
"Min, remove her pants!" Celeria yelled.
"What?! Look, Cel, I know what this looks like, but I´m not going to start-"
"Trust me! The pants are the key to her power!"
"What? Then I have to destroy them!" Min grabbed one of the arrows littering the ground and ran its sharp head lengthwise across both legs of the pants, cutting the garment into four distinct pieces. Celeria could feel the strength of the stone around her ankles weakening. The magic was dissipating.
"It worked!" With a mighty pull, Celeria released her feet from the crumbling stone. She went to help Peonie get free of her prison as well.
"Yeah! Take that, pants!" Min celebrated.
"I meant to say that you should take them off, not destroy them. But this works too."
"What?! Oh man, I could have worn them…"
"Argh!" Arai finally gathered enough strength to push Min out of her face. She stood up, glaring up a storm at the naked woman. "Y-you, how dare you do that to ME?"
Arai pointed at Min, seeing her firm breasts bob at the edge of her peripheral vision. She took a glance down and crossed her legs, trying to hide the untamed jungle atop her sex. No way she was going to keep fighting butt-naked like a deviant. She began to retreat."You´ll pay for this, I promise!"
Celeria sauntered behind Arai and calmly pulled her arms behind her back.
"Release me, or I´ll conjure a lighting bolt so big that it will fry you all!"
"Go ahead."
"W-what?"
"I´m waiting for your lighting spell." Celeria pushed the woman away. "I´ll even give you a freebie. Go on."
"I, err, you have been warned!" Arai tried to run away, but Peonie caught her this time.
"Not so fast!"
"I don't get it. Why can´t she do magic anymore?" Min asked.
"Maybe embarrassment does mess with chi control!" Peonie suggested. "I mean, just look how much she is blushing!"
"I´m not blushing! I´m just angry!"
"Sure you are."
"No, there was no chi control. She has been using plain old magic this entire time," Celeria explained.
"Without a staff or wand? How´s that possible?"
"Her clothes," Celeria grabbed a strand of Arai´s former pants. "If you were an elf, you´d be able to feel the mana flowing across this garment. She made her clothes into an arcane conduit. I think…" Celeria closed her eyes and smelled the fabric. "Yep, they are imbued with oak somehow."
"I should have listened to my brother and magic gloves instead. No way you remove a glove in the middle of a fight..." Arai lamented.
"Nice trick!" Min said, her eyes gleaming with genuine curiosity. "That´s a pretty smart way to game the system! No wonder I felt stronger when I put on her belt. Does that mean I can shoot fireballs as well?" Min pointed at the black belt she tied around her forehead.
"N-no, I mean, you could cast a weak spell, but to do so, you would need to train as a wizard first. You can´t just improvise a fireball."
"So, if I keep the belt, I´ll eventually learn to shoot fireballs! Maybe when I level up?"
"That´s the opposite of what I said... what in the Sisters Graze is a level?"
"But there´s something I still don´t get. Why choose to imbue this flimsy cloth with arcane properties? Why not imbue armor or something more durable? Does it need to be cloth?"
"Y-yes, I think so. I wasn´t able to work my technique on metals."
"Then why not underwear? That would make it very hard for anyone to figure out your trick and even harder for anyone to accidetadly destroy your inner garments... Hell, why aren´t you wearing underwear, period?"
"I thought about that, but, well, I needed a cover story. If I started shooting lightning bolts out of my hands just like that, half the wizards and knight orders on this side of the continent would come to investigate how I was doing it. A passing western merchant told me the legend of the Chi masters, and well, I decided to look the part to avoid drawing more unwanted attention."
"That still doesn´t explain why you are going without underwear."
"This weird garment is the only thing Chi masters wear according to the merchant. He specifically said they wore no underwear or shoes. Now that I think about it, I think he was messing with me. No shoes on the damn mountains? Do you know how many pebbles are here?! It´s a royal pain just walking back to my tent!"
"Well, mystery solved!"
"Y-yes, and that is quite valuable knowledge. I´m sure you´ll agree that it is more valuable than the bounty on my head, yes? Can I please go?"
Celeria, Peonie, and Min all looked at each other. They shook their heads. "Sorry, but no."
---------------------
Arai closed her eyes, instinctually pulling against the metal bars even though she knew it was useless. The metal grill was rough on her bare feet, and the chilly mountain breeze kept her skin covered in goosebumps.
The least the barbarians in town could do was offer her a blanket or something. But no, those boors threw her straight into the cell without a second of hesitation or doubt.
The naked bandit was standing in a small cage hanging from the town´s entrance like she was a pet canary. She served as a warning to any potential bandits and an advert for passing caravans to show that the canyon was open for business once more.
The town was booming again, with stalls set on the streets, criers calling travelers and merchants, of which there were many now, to come into their establishment and rest.
Sure enough, any caravan across town wasted no time in booing Arai. Travelers all pointed at the naked outlaw, mocking her for her past transgressions. Some were even bold enough to toss a couple of fruits and eggs her way. Thankfully, the bars did offer some level of protection.
The only thought that gave Arai some respite in her dreary prison were images of her future vengeance, especially on that naked buffoon, Min.
Arai noticed a couple of travelers staring intently at her. They were unique, compared to the average merchants. They wore shining green armor and had pointy ears. "Great, even elves come out of their forests to mock me now."
"We are looking for her," a red-headed elf approached the cage and held up a lifelike drawing of Peonie. "Do you know her?"
"Hmm, I might. However, my information comes at a price. Namely, my freedom."
The red-headed elf scoffed. "You wish. We are knights. We will never help your ilk commit more crimes."
"Well then, you can go sod off."
"Wait," a black-haired elf stepped in front of Arai. "I understand that this woman and her party were the ones that captured you. Don´t you want to get some payback? We want to arrest her and bring her to justice. It might be your only chance to get revenge on seasoned adventurers like them."
"Great adventurers? Nah," a town´s guard butted into the conversation. "Didn´t you hear? Our bandit here was defeated by a naked girl."
"Yeah, she was beaten by Min the Vagrant! Min the Jester! Imagine that!"
"And to think we were scared of her!"
Arai grumbled. Being beaten was already bad enough, but being beaten by a nobody? That was unacceptable. If she had to stroke the woman´s legend to rectify that mistake, so be it.
"You are all wrong!" Arai yelled. "You think that a nobody can last a single day in the field naked? That she doesn´t have clothes because she can´t afford to buy some? NO. Min is a monster. She goes naked for the thrill. Because she would find no challenge otherwise!"
"Yeah right, you are only trying to save face by making her seem more scary than she is!"
"No." The elf captain interceded on Min´s behalf, for pretty much the same reasons as Arai. "Min the Jester? More like Min the Wild. My sword couldn't keep up with her! She shrugged off my fire attacks like they were little embers! She is a world-class adventurer!"
"Really, captain?" her lieutenant asked, her left eyebrow raised.
"R-really."
"Y-yeah, so you better respect the name Min the Wild. There´s no shame in being defeated by her."
"True, true." Roana leaned forward. "But there might be some glory in helping us beat her before someone else can prove the legend wrong. So, I ask again, have you seen this woman?"
"…Yes."