by Luna Hunter
“I signed up to defeat the verran that has scarred me,” Pala responds. “And to bring honor to House Strand .”
“And when you defeat the verran? What then?”
“Then I’ll face more and more monsters until I am overwhelmed,” he says casually. “The honor comes from being the fighter who survives the longest. This time, I won’t suffer the insult of being injured, and having to face the shame of being carted off like a rookie. This time, I’ll die a glorious death.”
Damn.
These pale aliens are even more fucked up than I thought.
“What’s the record?”
Pala laughs. “What, you intend to break it?”
“Name the record.”
“Five waves,” he says. “No one has ever gotten past five.”
“How many waves are there?”
“Have you not listened to a word I just said?” he sighs. “I feel like I’m talking to a wall here. There is no ‘end’.”
“There has to be,” I say. “You don’t have a limitless supply of beasts. There’s got to be some end to it all.”
“Fine. There’s the Demogorgon,” he says. “The meanest, toughest son of a bitch that ever set foot on this planet. You kill him, well, technically you’ll be crowned the new Czar.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“Really?”
“Technically,” he stresses. “No one’s ever survived more a minute when faced with the Demogorgon. Besides, you won’t even make it past the first round.”
“We’ll see about that.”
The soldiers return and read out another name.
“That’s my call,” Pala says.
“Good luck,” I growl. “And thank you.”
“See you on the other side, Zoran,” he smirks before wandering off.
I turn to Sarah, whose face is now decidedly more white than before, when we were in our cell together.
“To the death?” she stammers. “M-monsters?”
I grab her shoulders and crouch down so that we’re eye-to-eye.
“Focus, Sarah,” I growl. “Remember what you said earlier? No matter what happens, what they throw at us, we’ll survive.”
She nods.
“We’ve got our way out. The Demogorgon. That’s all we have to overcome. These Nezdek underestimate my power. We kill that, and we’re free to go.”
“Are you sure?” she says.
“We’ll be crowned their new leaders,” I say. “Which might give us enough time to escape this barren rock.”
I’m convincing myself as much as Sarah by this point. It’s a stretch, a longshot, but we have to take it. It’s all we got.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her. Tears roll down her cheeks, as she grips me tightly.
“Kazim,” she whispers. “No matter what happens, I want you to know that… I love you.”
I tilt her chin up and kiss her deeply, and for a brief moment, the gravity of our situation fades away and we’re just two souls, connected.
“I love you, too, Sarah,” I answer. “You are my mate, in this life and the next. Nothing will change that.”
She smiles through her tears. “Let’s make it this life, okay?”
“That’s a promise.”
We wait. One by one, the other warriors are led away by the soldiers, until we are the only two left. Adrenaline is coursing through my veins, and Sarah is trembling with anticipation.
The soldiers return.
“Sarah Granger,” the man says. “Step forward.”
She looks up at me, her eyes wide.
“We’re a unit,” I growl.
“It says just Sarah Granger here,” the soldier responds.
I take a step forward, towering over the man. “And I’m telling you we’re a unit,” I growl.
The man takes a step back. “Fine,” he says.
“Are you sure?” another soldier asks. “It’s not according to protocol…”
“Who cares,” he responds, “they’ll be dead within a minute anyway. I’ve got dinner at home waiting, I don’t have time to fight with aliens.”
He grabs my wrist and Sarah’s and chains us together.
“There,” he says. “You’re a unit now. Now go.”
I take one last look at Sarah. Her trembling is gone. Her lips are pulled into a tight line and her shoulders are pushed back. The determined warrior is back.
This is it.
18
Sarah
We stride out into the blood-soaked arena. The giant colosseum is filled to the very last seat with Nezdek men, who stare, jeer, scream at us, their white eyes filled with hatred.
All these men want to see me die.
At the far end of the stadium is a balcony. I recognize the Czar instantly, surrounded by his flock of slaves, including S’eu.
A ball of pain forms in my gut, and seeing her back in chains makes me more determined than ever. We’re fighting our way out of this. Not just for me or Kazim, but for her, for her sisters, for Suuna everywhere who have suffered at the hands of these aliens.
The vision she showed me still with me. I can still feel how Nezdek hands felt on my skin, how it felt to watch my homeworld burn, to see my kin being slaughtered like animals in front of me. They were S’eu’s memories, but they felt like mine.
The ground is made of hard rock, and it’s littered with weapons, blood, and corpses. These are the men who came before us — or what’s left of them. I try not to look, but it’s hard.
Kazim bends down and picks up a sword. It’s curved, it’s handle made of gold.
That’s the sword of Pala.
His lifeless body lies in front of us, his stomach ripped open, his guts spilling out. I hope this is the ‘glorious death’ he was searching for.
No glory for me, thank you very much. Not like this.
“Ladies and gentleman,” the speaker says. “Last but not least, the Czar has a special treat for you! Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you! The famed, the fabled, the mythical Zoran is here! He has brought with him a human, and together, they will die for you!”
The crowd erupts in thunderous applause. I can’t wait to disappoint them all.
“Ready?” Kazim asks.
I have no idea what’s coming. No idea what horrors await us. How can I ever be prepared for this?
“Ready,” I say.
A bell sounds, and a gate at the far end of the arena opens. From the darkness a beast rises, and it instantly charges towards us.
It’s shaped like a wolf, but longer, with big red eyes, two horns protruding from its skull, and scales running down it’s back, ending in a long, club-like tail.
“From the depths of Archon, I present to you the verran!” the announcer says.
The crowd cheers as the beasts runs towards me.
“Wait,” Kazim says. “Wait… wait… now!”
Kazim jumps to the side and pulls his arm back. Our wrists are chained together, so I fly up into the air and out of the path of the verran that is barreling towards me — but only barely. My white gown gets caught by its horns, creating a long tear.
The beasts slows down and glances around, confused, before it sees us behind him. It paws at the ground and charges again.
“How are we going to defeat it?” I ask. “It’s going to keep attacking!”
“Get behind me,” Kazim growls, raising his sword. “I got this.”
The beast runs towards us at full speed. I hide behind Kazim, peeking from his side to see what’s happening. The verran runs straight at Kazim and lunges at him, opening it’s wide maw. Its mouth is filled with sharp, deadly fangs.
“Duck!” Kazim cries.
I drop to the floor while Kazim slices upwards.
The Verran yelps in pain as it flies overhead, and I feel warm drops of blood splash down on me.
The crowd gasps in surprise, and then cheers for us. We’ve given them their first taste of blood.
“The Verran falls!” the announcer says.
<
br /> The beast is lying on the ground behind us, cowering, trying to dig into the stone floor with its paws, while blood seeps from its sliced neck.
“Yet it still lives! Finish him off, Zoran!”
I slowly walk toward the wounded creature, Kazim right besides me. Now that it is lying on the floor, the animal does not so much resemble a wolf as it does a dog. Even though it just tried to kill us, I feel sympathy for the creature. It didn’t ask to be here, to be subjected to this cruelty.
I kneel down and pet the Verran, stroking its forehead.
“Ssh,” I say. “It’ll be okay.”
“Careful,” Kazim says.
The animal wags its tail, the club at the end striking the ground with force.
“He’s just a big dog,” I say. “He just wants a cuddle, right, boy?”
The crowd cheers turn to boos. This is not what they came to see.
The Verran looks up at me with sad, puppy dog eyes, and my heart melts.
And a moment later, my heart breaks.
An arrow whizzes through the air and pierces the animals abdomen. It howls in pain, which is abruptly silenced when another arrow strikes. Its head hits the ground with a thud.
The Verran is dead.
My eyes follow the trajectory the arrow made. It leads back to — who else — the Czar.
“Kill,” he shouts, his voice being carried through the stadium, “or be killed!”
“They don’t want us to make friends with the local wildlife,” Kazim growls when he pulls me to my feet.
“I never played by their rules.”
“Send in the Druan fiend!” the Czar says.
An excited murmur travels through the crowd — that can’t be good.
A horrible, six-legged scaly creature saunters forwards from the darkness, it’s many legs clicking on the ground. The sound sends shivers up my spine, and I grab Kazim’s hand.
“The Czar demands the fiend, so the fiend it’ll be! This horrible creature haunts Drua, where the first Nezdek landing party met their grisly deaths! The fiend prefers to tear its prey apart, limb from limb, before devouring them whole, one body part at a time. Will the Zoran suffer the same fate as those proud explorers? We can only hope!”
The noise of the crowd swells once more, and I feel sick to my stomach as this horrible, nightmare-like being approaches. It circles us, and we press our backs to each other. It’s almost as if this being, this monster is studying us. It’s more intelligent than that Verran — and way less cuddly. There’s no love, no recognition in this being’s pitch-black insect-like eyes.
There’s only death.
“What do we do?” I whisper.
“We wait,” Kazim responds, “and we strike.”
The beast raises two its paws and jumps forward, slashing at me with the sharp ends of its legs. We jump backward, barely dodging it. The fiend keeps slashing away at us with its sharp, knife-like paws. Every time they hit the stone floor I flinch — it’s like nails on a chalkboard. All we can do is move back — but the outer ring of the arena is fast approaching.
“There!” I say to Kazim. “It’s soft underbelly!”
The fiend is covered from head to toe in impenetrable scales, but every time it raises its legs to strike, it exposes its soft, fleshy belly. Kazim is too tall to fit underneath the monster, but I’m not.
Oh god.
I can’t believe what I’m about to do.
“Give me your sword,” I whisper.
“But—”
“Just do it!”
Kazim hands me the sword. We’re both standing with our backs pressed against the cold, stone wall of the arena. Above us the Nezdek crowd is cheering, laughing, having the time of their lives. The fiend raises its paws to strike again, and at that moment, I jump forward and slide on my knees, jabbing the scimitar up into the air.
A high-pitched cry that makes shivers run down my spine echoes throughout the giant colosseum, and the crowd falls silent. I look up and see I’ve managed to lodge the sword halfway into the fiend’s belly. It stumbles back, the sword falling out. It sways, as if the being is drunk, before collapsing in a heap of scaly limbs.
“Are you okay?” Kazim asks as if he lifts me to my feet. “Quick thinking!”
My knees are scraped and some of the beings blood has dripped down on my gown, but besides that I’m perfectly fine.
“I’m okay,” I say, dusting myself off.
I just killed a monster! One that could have walked right out of a nightmare. I feel a little proud and guilty at the same time. I know it’s either kill or be killed, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
The crowd whispers amongst themselves, and even from where we’re standing I can see the Czar’s scowl. We’re defying him, one alien monstrosity at a time.
“Is that all?” Kazim says to the crowd, spreading his blue arms wide. “Is that all you’ve got?”
“What are you doing?” I whisper. “Do you want to piss them off?”
“I’m bating the Czar,” he replies, “into sending out the Demogorgon. The sooner we face that being, the better.”
Kazim turns his attention back to the crowd.
“Your games are nothing to a Zoran, or a human!” he says. “Your fabled fiend, the terror that has haunted so many Nezdek, lies dead at our feet!”
The Czar rises up, his white face grown red with anger.
“Send in the Demogorgon!” he thunders. “End this blasphemy!”
The crowd erupts with a mixture of surprise, shock and delight.
“What a momentous day!” the announcer says, his voice dripping with glee. “What a historical, momentous day! The Demogorgon! The beast, the terror, the destroyer will be roused from his slumber, for you! Not since the days of Camira has the Demogorgon been seen in the arena! Centuries have passed, worlds have been conquered, foes vanquished, and the Demogorgon has remained in the deep, deep depths of the world, waiting, biding his time… which has now come! A truly momentous day!”
Kazim grabs my hand and squeezes it.
“Don’t let their little speech get to you,” he says. “It’s just another beast.”
“Yeah, one as old as this world, apparently.”
“Perhaps. But if it breathes, we can kill it.”
The floor trembles, and my heart leaps into my throat. It’s like a drum from the deeps, a foreboding sound.
And then it shows itself, and my mouth falls open. The being rises from the darkness, and I don’t know where to look, for every aspect of it defies my expectations of what’s possible.
The tall monster has two heads, each one with a pair of red eyes that stare at me, and with giant fangs that curl upwards. It’s body is green, covered in both scales and fur. Instead of arms it has two giant, swaying tentacles, that drag across the floor.
“Uhh,” I say. “What the?”
“Hm,” Kazim says. “This might be a challenge.”
All I can think is fuck.
The crowd chants the beasts name as it makes its way into the middle of the arena. It beats its chest with its two tentacles, belting out an ear-shattering growl that reverbs around the colosseum, and just about makes my stomach turn upside down.
Then, it turn its two heads towards us.
This is it.
It lumbers towards us, the ground trembling with every step. The tentacles seem to grow as they slither across the floor. I press my back against Kazim, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself.
Just when I think I have a handle on things, when I think that I might be able to face this monstrosity, this ungodly being… it belts out an earth-shattering, primal scream that makes the entire colosseum rumbles and its chests opens like a flower, exposing its insides and what I can only describe as a giant tongue.
The tongue, wet and dripping, flies towards me like an arrow. I duck as fast as I can, and I hear this awful, throaty noise behind me. I look up and see that the beast has wrapped its tongue around Kazim’s neck, and is choking the
life out of him.
Kazim’s sword falls to the floor. He raises his hands to pull the appendage away, but the two tentacled-arms shoot forward and wrap themselves around my mate’s wrists, forcing his arms away. Kazim’s blue face turns purple, and his arms go limp.
No.
No no no.
This can’t be happening.
He’s my protector, my bodyguard. My hero.
The thing is supposed to attack me, and Kazim is supposed to save me, and then we’ll ride off into the sunset. That’s how this was all supposed to play out.
The sounds make my stomach turn upside down. This can’t be happening. It can’t.
But it is.
Fuck this.
A rage unlike anything I’ve ever felt takes control of me. I grab the scimitar from the floor and with strength I didn’t know I had, slice the beast’s tongue right off. Two strikes later and its tentacles lie whirring on the stone floor, dancing and squirming like headless eels.
Kazim falls to the floor, clawing at his throat. I pull the writhing tongue from around his neck, and he gasps for air.
“Are you okay?!”
He nods, coughing, doubling over.
I turn back to the Demogorgon, which severed tentacles are regrowing themselves on the spot, like some twisted plant.
“Oh fuck that,” I say as I take a step forward.
The beasts renewed tentacles try to strike at me, but I block it with the sword, chopping and cutting and severing its tendrils with every step I take. I channel my inner Jedi as I attack it, over and over again. It felt like an out-of-body experience, as if I’m not even really there as this monster’s tentacles assault me.
I do it for Kazim. For Ava. For S’eu. For everyone on the Spearhead, for all the Suuna.
Too long have I lived in fear. Too long have I held myself back, and let what-if’s rule my life. Kazim has given me strength — he’s showed me how beautiful life can be, if I let it into my heart.
I never would have thought a Zoran warrior would be my one true mate. I never imagined a scarred, tatted brawler like him had anything to teach me — but I was wrong.
And now that knowledge, that feeling, that love gives me strength I didn’t know I had.
I run headfirst towards the alien monster, cutting off its tentacles as I go. The monsters chest is still opened like a wilted flower, and with a mighty roar I jab the scimitar all the way into its chest.
