“I don’t know.” I studied the woman from afar.
She was grinning.
“Then we kill her,” Ella said bluntly.
“No. We’re not murdering anyone, and I’m disappointed you would suggest it, to be frank.”
“Who is Frank?”
“It means to be blatantly honest. The point is we aren’t killing her.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Ella asked. She was becoming flustered.
“We can decide in the morning. She’s not going anywhere with those cuffs on her ankles.”
When we returned, Valenkren studied the women closely. “You have decided not to kill me,” she said and grinned.
“I told you we weren’t going to.”
“Then what are you going to do instead?” She smirked and looked me up and down. “Make me your plaything, like you have these women?”
“No, I’m going to eat the rations we got off your dead friends.”
“They were not my friends. We understood that once it was down to the three of us, it was every woman for themselves.”
“That’s not how we do it around here.” I sat by the fire ring and began building a fire. “Purshia tells me that your people do not lie.”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?” She laughed.
“Tell me, do you intend to kill us if we let you go?”
Valenkren looked us in the eye and shrugged. “I have not decided yet.”
It was my turn to laugh. “I guess she’s being honest,” I said to Purshia. I picked up the rope and approached Val. “Do you really need to piss?”
“No.”
A ruse then, to get me to release her. I’d figured as much. I tied Valenkren’s arms behind her back. I wasn’t going to take any chances with her. Ella made a fire, and we boiled four food packets. By the time the sun was down, it was ready.
“Why aren’t you hunting down the rest of the fighters?” Val asked.
“Because we’re getting the hell out of here, and we’re not waiting until the others are dead. If you’re not going to join us, we’ll leave you here. Maybe we’ll die trying to escape. Then you won’t have so many opponents to worry about.”
“Congratulations, warriors!” Gray’s voice echoed through the land, and my heart leapt.
I looked at Ella and Purshia with a widening grin. “If that sky door opens, we’re going to blow this popsicle stand!”
I walked out from under the rock shelf and looked up. Purshia and Ella came with me, and Val yelled to us to bring her out so she could see. We ignored her.
Gray’s hologram smiled down at the world. He looked like an anorexic turtle.
“How exciting it must be for you to have made it so far. Ah, the thrill of battle. You have proven yourselves to be excellent warriors, but there can be only one winner.”
I swear he looked our way when he said it.
“Now, my brave warriors, the real fun begins.”
He laughed cryptically, and it made me want to slap that smile right off his ugly face. The hologram disappeared, and the sky darkened. There was a lightning flash, a crack of thunder, and rain poured down in heavy droplets.
“Damn it! I thought they were going to open the sky door. Why would they follow up a flock of drogans with rain?”
“They’re going to flood us out.” Ella pointed to the lowest part of the valley. Water was already pooling around the hill where this shit show had started.
If the water flooded the valley and forest around that hill, it would force the other players creatures into a tighter space in the arena.
“What is happening?” Valenkren said in frustration.
“The grays are flooding the arena,” Purshia replied.
The drogan growled when a fire burst to life on the other side of the area, high up in the hills.
“You two see that?”
“The other team,” said Ella.
“Why would they give away their location?” Purshia asked.
“To lure us into their territory,” Ella replied.
The water was rising fast, but something wasn’t right. The hill we had started on appeared to be growing.
“I think they’re going to force a king of the hill battle.” I pointed at the expanding hill.
“What’s going on?” Val called.
We returned to her, and I told her our theory.
“Let me help you.” She looked at us with her steely gaze.
I tried to read her eyes, but she remained stone-faced.
“You said ten minutes ago you hadn’t decided whether you would kill us if you got the chance,” I reminded her.
“I have changed my mind.”
“Sure you have.” Ella scoffed.
Val nodded at Purshia. “You know my kind does not lie.”
“That doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of it, especially if you think it will save your life,” I said.
“Your kind are very paranoid, aren’t they?”
“I’d call it healthy skepticism.”
“You asked me to join you, and I have decided to do so,” she said.
“I think we’ll sleep on it.”
“Sleep on what?”
“It means we’ll make up our minds in the morning.”
The rain continued to fall through the night, but due to the angle of the shelf over our camp, it didn’t flood us out. The drogan remained at his perch, scouring the landscape for threats, and we tried to get what rest we could.
I had a feeling the next day was going to be a long one, but try as I might, I couldn’t get to sleep for a long time.
It didn’t help that Val stared at me the entire time. Didn’t that woman ever rest her eyes?
I took my turn as lookout and watched the water slowly rising in the valley. The fake lightning continued, and the thunder rolled hard and long. The hill we had started near was now an island rising above a new silver lake.
Eventually that island was going to be the only landmass in the entire arena, and I assumed the other players would be trekking to it soon.
I finally got some sleep after my shift and dreamed about Ella and Purshia. But the strange part of it was that it took place on Earth, and the two women were my wives. We were in bed fooling around, and the two women disappeared beneath the sheets.
Then I woke up, or I thought I did. Someone was giving me a blowjob, but when I looked down, I saw only morning wood sticking straight up.
Purshia opened her eyes, morphing out of invisibility mode with me in her mouth. She grinned at me and pulled off me. “I felt it against me when I was sleeping, and I couldn’t just let it go to waste.”
“Quit talking,” I said and guided her head back down.
I enjoyed the morning BJ and noticed Val watching, which was fine by me. She seemed to be enjoying herself.
Purshia kissed her way to my neck and slowly settled onto my shaft. She purred and clung to me as I made love to her. Her hair had a sweet floral scent, and her skin was soft and warm. I gripped her ass and pumped faster, quickly moving toward the brink. Purshia was close too. She gripped my shoulders, and her moans echoed off the rock.
Ella appeared over Purshia’s right shoulder. I couldn’t see her very well in the early morning light, but I could tell she was undressing.
I held Purshia tight and tried to hold back my orgasm. A moment later, Purshia trembled and her breathing quickened. She clung to me and cried out.
“I have never had such a lover,” she said, panting.
“I get that a lot,” I joked.
“Your turn to stand guard,” Ella told her, and she replaced Purshia.
“Good morning,” I said with a smile, hands behind my head and my shaft as hard as steel.
“A very good morning.”
She was naked, and her blue-skinned body was sleek and wet with rain. She sank onto my cock with a contented moan and hung her big breasts in my face. Val had a front-row seat to the show, and the idea of her watching turned me on. It must have
had the same effect on Ella, because after a few minutes of riding me, she switched to reverse cowgirl.
I watched her blue ass bounce in my lap, and the view of her tight pussy squeezing my rod sent me over the top. We came together hard and long, and when she finally collapsed beside me, she did so with musical laughter.
“I will miss you when we part ways,” she said and kissed my cheek.
“I know,” I said in jest, and she slapped my cock.
I laughed.
“Take these shackles off and untie me,” Val said alluringly. “I will show you what a Nozama woman can do with a tool like that.”
“Sorry, babe, not going to happen.” I stood up and dressed, and Val offered me a grin that told me she was impressed.
After I stuffed myself into my pants, she blinked as though she had come out of a trance.
“Are all men of Earth as well-endowed as you are, Harry?”
“They wish.”
“Are you going to release me?” she asked and arched her back, which made her huge tits look even more appealing.
“Are you going to kill us if I do?”
“What a waste that would be.” She glanced at my crotch. “I have decided your plan is worth trying. You are right about being the gray’s slaves. I will join you, and together we shall make them wish they had left us on our planets.”
“I think she is telling the truth,” Ella said.
“You do?” I was surprised, as she had been the most skeptical of us all.
“I had a dream about us escaping this place.” The way she said it, I knew she was serious.
“Do you often have dreams that come true?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes. I have the gift.”
I couldn’t rule it out, and I wanted it to be true, but I wasn’t about to bet everything on an alien chick’s dream.
“How can I prove myself?” Val asked, seemingly reading my mind, which I couldn’t rule out either. I had no idea what kind of mental abilities she had—or any of them, for that matter.
“I don’t like to make big decisions before breakfast.”
It was still raining like a bitch outside, but we had gathered enough dry wood to get a fire started. I cooked eight pouches, two for each of us.
After we ate, we gathered our supplies and strapped them to the drogan. The beast didn’t seem to mind the load, and he didn’t give me any trouble.
Water still poured from the sky, likely from sprinklers in the dome. The valley was completely flooded now, and the river that ran a circle around the arena through the forest had breached its banks. Soon the water would rise to the hills, and with it would come the apex predators and other creatures seeking higher ground. I was surprised we hadn’t had any trouble yet but assumed it was on account of the drogan guarding our camp.
The fire still burned across the arena, and I wondered if anyone was actually using it or if it was indeed a decoy.
As players traveled to the hill, maybe others had their sights set on the spot, ready to pick us off when we arrived.
“What are we doing with Valenkren?” Ella asked as she came to stand beside me.
The drogan roared and catapulted off the ledge. Ella and I hurried to see where it had gone. Below was a pack of apex predators, six to be exact, and they were headed up the steep cliffs.
They shrieked as the drogan flew by and nipped at one of them. Ella and I enabled our nano gun arms and fired at the predators, but that only caused them to scramble in different directions.
“I think I hit one,” said Ella.
The drogan went after one on the left, swooping down and disappearing behind a ridge.
“Back under the shelf,” I said and quickly checked my four video feeds.
“Give me a weapon and give me a chance to prove myself!” Val yelled.
Purshia was attaching a nano arm, and she held one of the other canisters up for my consideration.
“Laser sword?” I asked.
Purshia nodded.
I looked at Ella for her opinion.
“If she tries anything, we can always shoot her.”
I took the key out of my pocket and approached Val, who stood. Her ankles looked irritated from the cuffs.
“Don’t make me regret this,” I said and knelt, ready to deflect a kick. I unlocked the cuffs and pulled them off, then turned her around and untied the rope.
When she was free, and turned and offered a small bow. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I tossed her the laser sword nano arm and took a few steps back. Thunder rolled through the hills.
Val attached the nano arm, flexed the metal fingers, and activated the laser sword. It flared with a crackling hum that gave my inner Star Wars fan a woody.
With a grin, she marched to the edge of the shelf.
“What is she doing?” Ella asked.
“Proving herself, I guess,” I said with a shrug.
An apex predator dropped from the right side of the overhang. To my surprise, Val let out a war cry and charged the beast. The predator jabbed at her with its scorpion-like tail, but Val went right, kicked off the wall, and slashed the thing’s neck with one powerful stroke.
The beast reared as blood sprayed from the wound like water from a Yellowstone geyser, and Val struck again, slashing one of its skinny front legs in half with the powerful weapon. Another predator landed to her left, and she immediately charged.
“She’s nuts.” Purshia smiled as the alien queen slayed the second beast. “I like her.”
More predators were coming on my video feeds, and a moment later two more jumped down from the overhang.
I fired at the one that landed farthest from Val. The girls joined in, and we drove the beast off the ledge. It fell, screaming. Val had already defeated the other one, and she pulled the blade from its skull and grinned at me.
Something sped by one of my video feeds, and a moment later a tentacle wrapped around Val’s ankle and yanked her off her feet. Purshia sailed through the air and landed beside Val. She unloaded her gun on the tentacle, and there was a distant squeal as the appendage was turned to minced meat.
Purshia pulled Val to her feet as another tentacle shot toward them. Val severed it with the laser sword, and the two women ran toward us. Ella and I covered them with our nano guns, unloading into the tentacles that were now reaching over the ledge by the dozens. Gore and green blood sprayed everywhere as bullets ripped through the slimy appendages.
The beast screamed but continued to climb. First I saw a pair of eyes at the end of long stocks cresting the ledge and then a head that was all mouth emerged. The thing floated across the stone like fog, propelled by dozens of long skinny tentacles.
We put about two hundred rounds into the monster’s mouth, and by the time it dropped dead at our feet, we were backed up all the way to the inner wall.
My drogan landed beside the corpse as we emerged. It had a few long gashes on its neck, and a chunk was missing from one of its shoulders, but it was alive and functional.
A flash of light across the arena caught my eye. There was gunfire in the hills.
“Mount up!” I said to the girls. “It’s time to take out the rest of the competition and get the hell out of here.”
The drogan gave us no trouble when we climbed on its back, and I mentally commanded the beast to fly. Three quick steps, and we were soaring.
The forest was now completely under water, and the new lake was less than twenty feet from our camp and still rising. Monsters were emerging everywhere I looked, and a large group of them had settled on the island.
I did a flyby of the fire, which somehow still burned despite the rain. Two figures were near it, and one of them was aiming a nano gun at us.
“Higher!” I commanded the drogan, and a moment later there was a flash from the nano arm.
“They’ve launched a missile!” Val warned.
“Hold on!” I told the girls, then screamed at the drogan. “Dive!”
The beast
put its nose down and the rest of the body followed. To my horror, it was a smart missile. It turned and followed us. The drogan was aware of the threat, and it needed no direction. It tucked in its wings and fell like a rock, straight toward the water.
Gunfire erupted behind me. Ella and Purshia were firing at the missile, which was quickly gaining.
The drogan pulled up before it was too late, and we skimmed across the water, throwing a huge spray in our wake. The maneuver worked, and the missile plunked into the lake with a hiss.
I cheered, but my celebratory roar turned into a scream when something that looked like a cross between a flying fish and a gremlin shot out of the water and sailed straight toward us. The drogan barrel-rolled, and somehow we all managed to stay on its back.
“Do you know how to fly this thing?” Val yelled.
A second flying gremlin fish, with more teeth than good looks, had a go at us, but we were too high.
“Get us down there, and we’ll take care of that damned missile-launching droogle,” Ella told me.
“What’s a droogle?” Purshia asked.
We couldn’t do another fly-by. We’d been lucky with the first missile, and I wasn’t about to creep into their camp. They were on their home turf, they had the high ground, and they had heavy firepower. It just wasn’t worth it.
“Screw those guys.” I had to yell loud for them to even hear me. “We need to clear out the hill. Let them come to us.”
I mentally commanded the drogan to do a flyby of the island. The other team was going to have to cross the lake to get to it, and I didn’t think the odds were good if they swam across.
“It’s swarming with sea monsters!” Purshia yelled.
“We can see that,” said Val.
“It’s our only shot,” I said and raised my nano arm. “So we need to clear this bitch out.”
I brought the drogan low over the little island, which was about thirty feet wide, and fired at the ugly-ass sea monsters. Ella and Purshia joined in, their nano guns barking mechanically, like something out of a sci-fi movie.
That thought made me laugh.
I must have looked like a maniac, flying on the back of a space dragon with my sheriff’s uniform on, sporting a nano machine gun arm, with three hot alien chicks riding behind me.
Warwick: Galactic Arena Page 12
