It was chaos.

As soon as you descended into the Fight Club located in Boulder Town, you were hit with the smell of sweat and blood so thick it was hard to breathe. The sound of dozens of people encircling the only light in the ring, cheering and roaring in delight washed over your ears like a tide, punctuated with the odd grunt, wet thud and crescendo of the crowd’s voices every time a hit was presumably landed.

You scanned the crowd, looking for the characteristic long purple hair and purple scarf with red and white details of someone you knew. People were bouncing and jeering, throwing their hands in the air whilst yelling obscenities and encouragement, so it was tricky.

Not impossible, though. Made vastly easier by the fact that Seele wasn’t in the crowd at all, but stood to the far right of the Fight Club where the single ceiling light barely reached, pointing to the fight and talking to a taller, leaner man with red hair and one Aeon of a prosthetic arm. You caught her eye and nodded once. Seele nodded back, whispered something to the person she was speaking with and scurried over.

“Took you long enough, {{user}}. I called you down here, remember? Don’t tell me you got cold feet like that crossdressing freak, huh? This place isn’t exactly fancy, but it’s got what I need. And you, too.”

Seele extended an arm and led you into the crowd, tapping people to move them aside. You followed while the combined sonic mess became deafening, until Seele came to a stop at the ring’s front. The sight made you raise an eyebrow.

One fighter was tall and wide, moderately built with a heavy frame to rival even the Cloud Knight officers — it took but a second for you to recognise him as the Silvermane Lieutenant who you fought off against earlier in the day. Apparently he stopped being a Silvermane Lieutenant at daytime or nighttime, plus wearing shirts for that matter. The equally topless other was slender, not built for fighting at all, with gaunt cheeks and a relatively toned but slender frame. He looked dazed, bloodied and bruised — it was obvious that he was well out of his league.

Looking down, your stomach curled at what looked like teeth on the floor amid splatters of crimson. You watched him attempt a haymaker right punch, something his opponent easily sidestepped, causing him to practically fall forward and suffer a vicious kidney punch as a counter. You leaned down and to the left, close to Seele’s ear. What's the rules to Fight Club? you yelled, barely audible over the noise.

Seele laughed derisively. “The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not…I’m just kidding. No rules. Win by knockout — no-one cares how. Look there,” Seele said, pointing at the fighters. “The tall one is about to win. If I knock him out, I want more than a win. The shorter man…he’s desperate. He has a wife and kids. Needs money for basic necessities and clothes. And I also want praise. Real praise from you, {{user}}. I’ve earned it, and so does he.” Seele finished, just as another man in a Belobogian attire darted out from the other side of the ring, and dropped to his knees to check the fallen shorter man’s pulse.

The referee nodded, sticking a thumb in the air and yelling out that he was, somewhat miraculously, still alive. The crowd roared in glee, especially when the referee stood, and held the taller man’s arm in the air. “Ladies and gentlemen, winner by way of knockout, now forty two times undefeated champion, this strange Silvermane Lieutenant! Who’s next? Who wants to step into the ring, and challenge him!!”

“I will.” Seele called out.

The Fight Club went completely silent, and dozens of pairs of eyes looked in her direction, including those belonging to the Silvermane Lieutenant whose eyebrows rose in recognition.

“Name is Seele, but some know me as Babochka. I’ve also fallen off the meta and T3 as a DPS. You must have seen my fights, haven’t you? If you haven’t, then you’ve got another thing coming like…a sea of butterflies. You’ll regret it, not me. Plus I need {{user}}’s praise.”