“Ah, so are we to be taking bets then?” he purred to her. Excitement made his stomach flutter.
He could see her cocky swagger in his mind as her footsteps approached him in the dark. A small finger poked into his chest. “You’re on, big guy. Whoever gets the most kills gets oral first.”
Ah, but he adored this female.
“That is not exactly a good incentive for me to win.” He wanted to taste her cunt badly enough to cause an ache in his bones. He’d cut off all four of his arms if it meant he’d lose this game.
She snorted. “Alright, fine. Whoever wins gets togiveoral first. How bout that?”
He’d already stepped away and gotten another torch.
“Deal,” he agreed.
And crushed the Grekit that had crawled down the other side of the wall. He used his second torch to block the stinger as it stabbed towards him this time, so that the kill was solely his own. He looked to where he could feel she was standing in the dark, a smug smile making his cheeks ache.
“That is two to one. The last one would have killed me if you hadn’t interfered, so it is yours.”
“Show off.”
They stepped over the body, moving down the maze corridor with Patty in the lead. It was disconcerting to be blind, with his ears straining to make up for the lack of his sight. They had trained for this type of situation on the Solus, but that had been during fundamental training, when he’d first joined the Unity fleet. General Ohem At’ens had been a harsh teacher, believing that all of his officers should be able to lead and command underany circumstances, including the loss of any senses… or limbs. A very harsh teacher, indeed.
Still, he was grateful that Patty could see, even if only marginally. He wished that Lyees and the Queen had told them beforehand that the Founding and Challenge had been combined so he could have brought his plasma rifle.
The sound of crawling things came from all directions as they moved through the maze, though none came any closer until they entered an open space, a section of the maze that was used for quiet conversation when it wasn’t being used for courting challenges. If memory served, there would be a water feature in the center, with seating arranged around it.
As it was, being only blackness, it was the eerie feeling of openness after the enclosed sensation of the corridors, instead of the welcomed sight of tranquil comfort, that only highlighted the growing sense of coming danger. The skittering of a thousand feet closed in from every direction.
“Oh, an ambush! How fun! I’ll be the Gimli to your Legolas,” Patty said, giggling as the ominous slithering sound of many vines overpowered the sound of the swarm.
Movement to his right had him swinging the torch, knocking aside a Grekit with enough force to send it crashing into the stone wall with a wet crunch.
“I have no idea what that means, Patty, but that is two.”
Maniacal laughter answered him as the vine tying them together tugged several times as she moved around.
“I’m at ten!” she choked out around more hysterical laughter in the dark.
He grumbled about the unfairness of vines under his breath as he moved opposite of her and crushed another bug. Its stinger skidded across his armored thigh with a high pitch sound and he kicked it away from him before bashing its owner with the torch. That made four, but judging by the sound of crunching andwhoops of victory coming from Patty’s end of the vine, he was going to have to up his effort if he hoped to win. A particularly mischievous sensation crawled up his spine and he grinned to himself at the idea forming in his mind.
Flaring his wings wide and allowing the armor's golden nanos to melt over each individual feather to encase them in razor sharp metal, he dipped at the waist, throwing his weight sideways as he swept his wing out, cutting through several Grekit as he did. The vine between him and Patty pulled tight as he twisted against it, moving across the space with his wings sweeping outwards to catch any of the insects that came close to him, while keeping his awareness on Patty so he didn’t cut her on accident.
“Oh, fancy! But it’s not going to work,” she sang the words, making him grin in her direction.
“Such confidence, but I have been doing this much longer than you, Little Goddess, and I will win in the end.”
“Ha! We’ll see about that.”
Vines shot past him, their light fast passage blowing his hair away from his face, and skewered the Grekit that had been swarming at his back while his attention was on her.
“If I could see, you would be doomed, female,” he told her, his grin wide enough to hurt. How he loved her fighting nature.
Torches blazed to life all along the wall, and he sent a silent thanks to Lyees or whoever was monitoring the challenge.
Patty’s armor was covered in brown slime, her hair sticking to her face where it was saturated in Grekit guts, but her smile was bright. She was going to be very angry when she had to scrub all that residue out from under her scales later, especially when she was dealing with losing so badly.
He grinned back at her, picking up the vine that tied them together with a single claw, his eyebrow raising in challenge as he sliced it in two, flaring his wings at the same time. He flappedhis wings in two powerful waves and flew backwards into the heart of the swarm that was spilling down from the walls and onto the floor of the maze courtyard.
“That’s cheating!”
