19. Fighting Arena
FIGHTING ARENA
VERONICA
R athgar moved like a one-alien killing machine. There was blood all over his body. He killed the guards who opposed us, while others ran away. I didn’t know how many lives he would take on the way to getting Gairo at the full moon rite. I grabbed a small hand-blaster from one of the killed guards who never got a chance to even get it out of its holster.
We got to the arena, and I could see that Gairo and Magdorian were locked in battle. They were covered in blood, as they both had weapons in their hands. It was clear that they were both trained for combat, though Gairo was skinnier than he had been when we first arrived on this continent. I could see that he had his own cheering section. Some of them considered him their prince.
Rathgar was carried away from me inside of the crowd. I could feel more than one pair of hands lifting me into the arena. Gairo screamed my name, but I jumped towards Zyloxia, out of the arena again. I could see my blaster where they had pulled me into the arena. Rathgar was bellowing something a little bit away from me.
“I’m sick of your shit,” I said to Zyloxia. Zyloxia charged at me, and I dove to get out of the way, pregnant or not. Zyloxia had a lot more status here than I did. All I was was a rebellious human thief.
“Why don’t you fight with honor, human?” sneered Zyloxia.
Finally, I got the blaster back.
“Fuck honor,” I shouted back. I shot Zyloxia in the center of the mass, the way that my aunt had taught me back in our human colony.
The crowd roared. Did they care that much about Zyloxia? But they kept roaring, and I felt something wet fall on me.
It was Magdorian’s head.