“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow!”
Rethais grunted, hiding their confusion. Panos had challenged them to battle, despite being a rather frail old Torr. Torr themselves weren’t weak, but Panos was definitely old, and the old Torr was definitely not as strong as one of the prime specimens for the Rethavok. Rethais was, genetically, one of the best Rethans alive.
“Yep. Tomorrow. Armed with nothing more than two daggers each. In case you drop one. Because you’re stupid. Oh, I’ll have my power suit as well. You get whatever fancy stupid armour you want. Either way, we’re going to get this fight out of the way before anyone notices or gets too excited.”
“Well, it is a little too late for that…” Rethais tutted, eyeing Panos some more. “I have told everyone already that I will be fighting you. Also, I wanted to fight without weapons.”
“Well fuck you, we’re not. You have massive talons, a long tail and sharp teeth, I trim my nails like a civilised being and I’ve lost half my team from old age.”
Rethais shrugged. “If you say so. But I will tell you now, you have a chance to turn this around. You do not have to fight me.”
“I thought you wanted to fight me?” Panos hesitantly asked. “You’re here after all.”
“Oh, I definitely do!” Rethais smiled. “You challenged me. I want to hold you to that challenge. And I want to… let out some of my grievances. However, you are an old, broken, corrupt little Torr. I am happy for you to renounce your challenge, if you so desire, as long as you do so publicly, in front of a live audience, using a script my staff have written for you. You do not even need to bribe me with money or gifts. A simple, live apology via my words spoken from your mouth, would be enough, if you are willing.”
Panos glared at Rethais. “You have to be joking.”
“No, not at all. You are an old Torr. I do not want to accidentally kill you or shorten your life span. I just want to hit you. I want to hit you really, really hard. As you deserve. But I am a good, honourable person, and I am giving you a chance to turn things around, say you are sorry and continue on with your pitiful life.”
“Oh, honourable, are you?” Panos hissed, raising his hand briefly before lowering it again. “You just fucking called me pitiful.”
Rethais shrugged some more “Well, by Rethan standards, you are a pitiful person. Us Rethans are guardians and protectors, regardless of who we want to protect. We serve others, you only serve yourself and the powerful, those who only need protection from the consequences of their own actions. At the same time, you are the one who initiated all of this. You went on a minute long rant about how weak I am and challenged me to a fight. Am I really dishonourable when you started all of this? Would be dishonourable of me to NOT accept your challenge.”
Panos growled somewhat. It wasn’t at all threatening to Rethais. “Whatever. I’m going to kick you in the bollocks tomorrow. Midday, in the melee combat arena. Two daggers each. Armour and nothing else-”
A small snicker interrupted Panos. Both he and Rethais glanced to Rethais’s side, to see that Rethais’s head captain Prostar had laughed a little, and were suddenly trying to hide the fact they had laughed.
“Prostar, please explain why you are snickering. It is… a little inappropriate.”
“Sorry, Kyr Rethais… But Kyr Panos says “armour and nothing else”? Those silly power suits are more than armour. And they are so reliant on them. If Kyr Panos really wished to prove their strength, they would not use a power suit and wear normal armour like everyone else does!”
Rethais smiled too. “You are correct, but please, save your amusement and mockery until after I have beaten Panos.”
“Oh, you think it’ll be easy, do you?” Panos sneered. “You think victory is guaranteed? I’ll fucking show you. I’m going to hurt you, physically and emotionally, and I’m going to shove your honour up your ass. You’re going to regret being born!”
With that, Panos stormed out of the room, dragging his staff with him. The room quickly emptied out, leaving Rethais and their troops in silence.
“We are not born, we hatch from eggs…” one of Rethais’s captains muttered. “Surely the Torr know that?”
“More proof that Kyr Panos is dumb!” Prostar tutted. “I do not think we have anything to be concerned about. However, Kyr Rethais, we do need to speed things up, we need to get some armour sorted out for you, as well as some daggers. It would be almost improper to fight in the armour we brought with us. You said that yourself.”
Rethais continued to smile. “I actually already have chosen all of that out.”
“You have?”
“I have, yes. I just need to speak to the new Raptor and request permission, but we were about to do that before this meeting anyway. Shall we get going?”
Rethais’s captains all glanced at each other. They all seemed rather uncertain.
“Uh, what armour are you going to wear?”
“There is a lot of interesting armour, much of it Rethan, in the Arena museum. Lord Tromos did say that Panos and I are allowed to use stuff from the Great Arenas, both the museum and the armoury, and I intend to do just that. I have been thinking about all of this the entire time, ever since Panos challenged me.”
“Yes, but you did not answer my question!” Prostar protested. “We did bring your ceremonial High General armour but you said you do not want to wear that, so what armour are we going to use? Especially since it is unlikely anything will fit you.”
Rethais hesitated, then smiled. “Of course something will fit me!”
“How comes?”
“I am going to wear the armour of the Lightbearer…”