Soreel was lightning fast. Her eight powerful legs propelled her over the short distance between us like a rocket. I rolled out of the way of her swing a fraction of a second before her baton would have caved my head in. I imagined I felt the passage of wind as it skimmed my armored shoulder, sparks flying off where metal grazed metal.
Popping to my feet and darting to the side to avoid the slash of one of her legs, I kicked out at the joint. It was like kicking a brick pylon. The kick reverberated up my leg to rattle the teeth in my skull.
Soreel trilled out a laugh and flicked me with her leg. I shot across the arena, my back slapping into the metal wall like a bug against a high speed windshield.
I shook my head with a groan, looking up just in time to see Soreel skittering towards me like a speeding train and I rolled tothe side just as two of her front legs slammed into the wall where I’d just been.
“Hey! That would have killed me!” I shouted as I lunged to the side when she swept out her leg trying to take my legs out from under me.
“A tragic accident, to be sure,” she said, stabbing at me with her baton. She advanced fast. Hitting and swinging that damn metal baton as hard as she could. If she made contact it would kill me. This fight felt a little unfair.
Not for the first time, I wished I could wolf out and tear her limb from limb like Jack. Life wasn’t fair.
Alright. What was it that Aga said about fighting an opponent larger and heavier than you? Oh yeah. Shoot them in the face. Not very helpful in this situation.
What I did have was claws now gauntleted in Rijiteran metal, fast reflexes, and pent up trauma. That would have to be enough.
I darted under her swing, stepping in closer to her body and slashed with my claws to the inside of her elbow. It felt like I was cutting through the toughest gristle imaginable. There was a wet tearing sound and then blood gushed and her arm went limp, dropping the baton onto the sand.
Soreel howled, sweeping her lower left arm out to body check me but I jumped back and away.
The big spider woman’s blood was bright orange. It trickled in a steady stream down her arm where she cradled the damaged limb against her chest, her bright eyes promising me my death.
I held up my hand, fingers bending. “Bring it, bitch.”
Soreel snarled and lunged forward, her eight legs stabbing into the ground as she bore down on me like a storm. I let her come, waiting until the last second before twisting out of the way. She’d bent her upper body forward for better momentum, her three functional hands held out to grab me so when I raked my claws down her side I hit her ribs and lower thorax. If she’d stayedupright, I’d have only been able to damage her legs but she was mad now and not thinking straight.
But then neither was I. The past few weeks... months, days, years… whatever the amount of time was—I had been kidnapped, threatened, injured, and changed. I had fought in a war I didn’t belong in, killed people I didn’t know and now I found myself, once again, in a situation not of my making with no way out and another goddamned alien in the way of my exit.
It was about time I started going through people. The Rijiteran way.
I turned, ducked, and slid between slashing legs until I was under her. I made blades with my fingers and stabbed upwards twice before diving out of the way of her stomps.
Her pain filled screech made me smile.
When she came for me again, I reached out, hooking my claws into the second joint of her leg and pulled with all my new strength. There was a crunchy pop. The leg went limp. The lower half of it stuck out at an odd angle and what passed for her knee joint looked crushed. Soreel screeched again.
This time I laughed.
She came again. I raked at her face, furrows of bright orange erupting in my claw's wake. One of her eyes was a soupy ruined mess.
I laughed harder.
She became a furious frenzy of striking limbs and swirling sand.
I dodged most, but not all—not feeling any of the damage in my own furious state—and slashed, stabbed, and crushed anything I could reach, darting back and forth like a hunting wolf taking down larger prey.
Soreel finally collapsed to her three remaining functional legs, her body shaking with each billowing breath and stared at me in disbelief. Two of her four arms were non-functional and bloody.Her face was a torn gory mess while the rest of her had countless slashes.
I stood over her, breathing hard and grinning.
“I yield," she ground out, her head falling forward so that the bloody strands of her lavender hair obscured her face.
The crowd surged to their feet, screaming and pounding their feet onto the metal floors. The noise broke the battle trance I’d sunk into. I huffed out a breath and looked around. Hassa and Rixa had come to their feet with the rest of the onlookers, their smiles savage. Their tall, colorful mates were hollering and waving their arms.
I felt good. My body was sore, sure, but a giddy sort of laugh bubbled up and I waved at the stands. I took a bow, laughing when it sent the noise into another level.
The stubby announcer toddled over to me, his weird little eyes bright.“Behold! Our new champion! A great fight! What a great fight!
