“Hit me.”
The four very different beings stood in the middle of the hall. The floor was made from a springy, wood-like substance, while the walls were insulated, to protect from loud noises. Along one wall was a wide array of various blunted weapons and equipment, all meant for practice and training. But right now, Retvik didn’t need any of that.
“Hit me.”
Nyssi, Tenuk and Kayel all glanced at each other. Between the three of them, Nyssi was the tallest, standing at just over 2m tall. Kayel proudly considered himself to be 1.69m tall, while Tenuk didn’t even make it to a meter and a half, standing at 1.35m in height. Very tall for a Spast, but tiny compared to everyone else. And almost insignificant compared to the hulking Rethan standing in front of them. While Retvik did constantly claim that he was only slightly above the average height for a Rethavok, he was still a well-built wall of muscle and organic plating. But he was also covered head to toe in his fancy Lightbearer armour set. They were all wearing armour, however Retvik’s armour had been tailor made for him, and he’d been wearing it for about a decade now.
“Are any of you going to react?” Retvik grunted.
“How the fuck am I supposed to hit you?” Tenuk immediately snapped back. “And why? We’re supposed to be friends!”
“We are friends, Tenuk. I just want to get a feel for how hard you can hit, before we get started with training proper. Hit me. As hard as you can.”
Again, Nyssi, Tenuk and Kayel all glanced at each other. Finally, Nyssi stepped forward. She approached Retvik, curling her clawed hand into a ball, then struck Retvik, punching him squarely on the side of his face. To her surprise, Retvik hardly moved.
“Is that the best you can do?” the Rethan taunted her.
Nyssi didn’t like that in the slightest. She snarled, then moved backwards, taking a run up. This time, she did the same thing but with far more force, throwing everything she had into her punch. Several things snapped in the process. She was pretty sure she had briefly broken a finger, but her new healing powers almost instantly sorted that problem out. Annoyingly though, aside from a small piece of broken armour on Retvik’s jaw, again, the mighty Lightbearer had barely flinched.
“Not bad. Not bad at all. Tenuk, Kayel?”
“Okay, sure, I’ll give it a go.”
The Temthan stepped back, giving Tenuk some room. The first thing Tenuk tried was to kick Retvik in the shin, forgetting that Rethavok had natural plating there. If anything, Tenuk had hurt himself more than he’d hurt Retvik. On his second attempt, Tenuk decided to try and tackle into Retvik, only to bounce harmlessly off him.
“Keep on trying.”
Tenuk thought for a moment, then blinked several times. With a wave of his hand, he began to change shape, mimicking the Rethan standing in front of him, but in two shades of blue, rather than Retvik’s shades of grey-red skin and red armour plating. Just as Nyssi had done, he took a bit of a run up, then planted his now Rethan-sized fist into Retvik’s face. Retvik staggered slightly, but quickly shook off the blow.
“Want to try that again?”
“Yeah…”
The shape-shifted Spast went for another shot, only for Retvik to dodge out of the way, grab Tenuk’s arm and throw him to the ground. While Tenuk had clearly matched Retvik’s shape, he’d forgotten that he didn’t match the gladiator’s experience.
“You’re just fucking around with us now!” Tenuk snarled, his colours briefly flashing red and silver, before turning back to blue as he shapeshifted back into his normal Spast self.
“No, I just want to see how hard you can hit me. That was actually pretty good…” Retvik turned his attention to Kayel. “Your turn.”
“Are you sure?” Kayel muttered.
“Yes. I can take whatever you can throw at me.”
“Are you suuuuure?” Kayel repeated himself.
“Yes.”
“Well, alright then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Retvik stifled a laugh, keeping his eye on the Skyavok. Kayel rolled his eyes, then, just as Nyssi and Tenuk had done, gave himself a small run up. However, rather than going for the head, Kayel however went for the chest, leaping into the air and using his entire weight (and a little bit of Phantasma energy) to attack Retvik. This time round, Retvik fell backwards, not at all expecting to have been hit so hard, landing harshly on his back.
“You… did warn me…” Retvik didn’t stay down for long, and quickly sat back up, looking both pleased and impressed. “Alright. I can see who definitely needs far less training here. That kick could have knocked out a damn Banikan.”
Nyssi crossed her arms. “That’s not fair. He’s got magic shadow powers! And Tenuk can shapeshift! What do I have?”
“Speed and inch-long talons on the end of each of your fingers!” Retvik immediately started explaining. “You also have a lot more durability than they both do.”
Nyssi watched as Retvik wandered over to the wall of equipment and grabbed a medium-sized shield. Well, it was medium to Nyssi, a little large for Kayel and colossal compared to Tenuk, but as Retvik shoved it into Kayel’s hands, she couldn’t help but wonder what Retvik was about to do.
“Use that shield to block my strike.”
Kayel hesitated, then nodded. Without hesitation, Retvik kicked the shield, sending both it and Kayel flying backwards. He then stomped over to where Kayel was lying, picked up the shield and handed it to Nyssi.
“You are not holding back.”
“I am, a little. But we will be house fighters, no one will hold back against us.”
Nyssi adjusted her stance, holding her tail against the ground for extra support. She closed her eyes as Retvik punched her shield. However, unlike Kayel, she only really staggered backwards, having braced herself.
“See? Durability. And your Temthan flexibility will help a lot as well!” Retvik continued to explain. “I am strong and durable, and I am also rather fast, especially for a Rethan. But I am not flexible in the slightest. That springiness will help you stay on your toes and get you back to your feet, Nyssi. Plus, what do you have to worry about? You are a beast catcher, you already know you are strong.”
“That’s all well and good!” Tenuk interrupted, crossing his arms angrily. “What the fuck can I do? I can’t just spend my entire time shapeshifting into other creatures. You might as well just, I dunno, hire another Rethavok or something.”
“Mate!” Kayel had picked himself up and put an arm around Tenuk. “You can fucking shapeshift into a Thraki and breathe fire! And THEN shapeshift into a Rethan and beat the snot out of someone. You’re like, ten different vok all rolled up into one.”
“And you have a Temthan, Skyan and Rethan all available to teach you their own styles of fighting…” Retvik explained further. “If anything, Tenuk, you are probably the biggest asset on our team, once you have some more training and experience. Really though, right now, I think weapon training might be a little more important. After all, weapons are what everyone else will be using.”
“But why have us attack you in the first place?” Tenuk asked.
“It helps me figure things out…” Retvik trailed off, returning to the wall of weapons. Normally, most gladiators used two weapons, a ranged pistol or shotgun (with specially made fake bullets for the Arena) and some sort of melee weapon. But Retvik had always used a gun-staff, a traditional Rethan weapon, and he was beginning to think his team could do with the same. Kayel and Nyssi at least would do well with a gun-staff. Tenuk probably would have been better off with a pistol and sword.
“So, when will we be fighting something alive?” Kayel’s voice snapped Retvik back.
“Some time next week. The Raptor said she wants to trial us on a True Thrack they brought in recently…” Retvik paused, eyeing Nyssi. “Are you well, dear?”
Nyssi stared somewhat blankly at her team mates. “That is… one heck of an… opening challenge…” she stuttered. “Can we do it?”
“Yes, of course!” Retvik smiled. “We will be fine.”