I didn’t have anything against Soreel. The spider lady had tried to be rude to me for half a second before Rathal dismissed her. The incident was barely a blip on my radar. So I wasn’t entirely sure why the twins brought me here.
“Soreel hates your guts,” Hassa said, a bloodthirsty gleam in her eye. “Tonight is Champion’s Choice.”
“And now you are here,” Rixa finished.
“And who should she find in the front row, right next to the prestigious owners of the Pit?” Lor’ac asked, his smile growing wider.
“Why, however shall she cope? You and your sister are devious. This shall be so fun to watch!” Lor’az said, glancing my way with his black eyes wide.
Oh. Fuck.
“Oh, you two are dead. Why’d you bring me here—”
“It looks like our champion has spotted her prey! Will the contender accept?”
Fuck me.
My shoulders drew up towards my ears as I slowly turned in my seat to face the pit and found Soreel pointing at me with her two upper hands, her face twisted in a mask of bitter anger.
Ew. Jealousy wasn’t cute. Especially when the male in question didn’t even like her.
Great. I couldn’t refuse with this many witnesses. No one would respect me afterwards and it would make living on Erral difficult. You know what? Fuck it. I’ve had a really bad couple of days. I needed this.
I stood and the crowd stomped their feet, chanting and shouting.
“Walk around to the left and there are stairs that will take you down to the pit entrance. Good luck! And have fun!” Lor’ac explained, pointing the way.
“Tension relief. We told you so,” Hassa called.
I raised my middle finger into the air even though I knew she wouldn’t understand the gesture. She must have got the intent though because her rolling laughter followed me all the way down the long path towards the stairs.
I had a few things thrown at me as I walked. Just a few pieces of trash or maybe cloth, but it was enough to raise my proverbial hackles.
Assholes.
I came to the end of the sloped walkway where an open door and a bouncer waited for me. The female alien waved me through before shutting the door behind me. I was in a tunnel. To my left was darkness. To my right was the open archway that led onto the orange sand. The announcer and Soreel were waiting for me. I walked to them.
Sorreel drew up tall, her maroon fuzzy spider legs covered in sand and shifted restlessly underneath her.
I stopped in front of her. “You know, this isn’t going to end the way you want it to.”
Her pretty face twisted in a sneer. “I think it's going to go exactly how I want it to, human. Rathal shouldn’t have embarrassed me.”
Oh. So this wasn’t a jealousy thing. It was a pride thing. I could understand that, sort of.
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance while my heart raced and my muscles grew tense. Adrenaline flooded through me. The announcer drew me to a spot a few feet across from Soreel and raised his hands again.
“Pit rules are as follows. No death. To submission only. No edged weapons. No energy weapons. This is hand to hand or blunt weapons. Armor is acceptable. Shields are acceptable. Cheating is encouraged. ”
Damn. I wish I had Bitchhammer with me. I’d left it on the shuttle I blew up.
“Ready?”
Soreel drew a bronze baton over her shoulder and smacked it into her palm.
I raised my fist, called up my armor, and grinned.
“Begin!”
