Nyssi, Tenuk and Kayel all glanced nervously at each other as Retvik paced back and forth, his tail swishing angrily from side to side.
They’d just finished a Capture the Flag match against a Temthan team, and had ended it swiftly despite the hideously bright lighting set up to prevent Kayel from shadow-jumping. Instead, Tenuk had shapeshifted himself into a Thraki and cast a shadow across large parts of the small arena, allowing Kayel to easily leap around, grab the Temthans’ flag and teleport back to the safety of his own base.
Throughout the whole match though, they’d noticed that Retvik had been weirdly aggressive, and had clearly taken out his anger on a couple of the Temthans on the opposing team. Sure, the crowds had loved it, they always loved a bit of additional violence, but the rest of the team felt bad, it wasn’t supposed to have been a particularly violent battle.
Now the match was over, Nyssi had demanded an explanation, and Retvik, to his credit, quickly explained why he was so upset. It turned out, he’d been challenged by another team, and hadn’t informed the rest of Xeno Dessaron One yet.
“So… we’re going to fight Retha Squad One?” Nyssi repeated herself somewhat nervously.
“Yes.” Retvik was still pacing back and forth.
“But they’re… literally the best Dessaron team currently around…” Kayel stuttered. “Even I know that, and I hardly followed arena stuff until I started doing arena stuff myself!”
“They had a 47 win streak at one point…” Nyssi added, far more versed in Dessaron Arena history than both Kayel and Tenuk. “The only team they’ve never beaten are the old Ksithan team Phovos herself used to fight in. And that’s mostly because all of them except the Raptor are old and retired now.”
Tenuk seemed slightly less upset. “Well, I’ll be honest, we kinda have a 100% win streak right now, I don’t see any shame in fighting and losing against literally the best current team!”
“We will not lose.”
Everyone turned back to Retvik.
“Pardon?”
“I will not let us lose.”
Kayel tutted. “Is your pride on the line here, Retvik? Because you kinda seem to be taking this personally. Way more personally than you did when we fought Retha Squad Three.”
Retvik simply nodded. “When Kayess-En challenged me, she also insulted me in the process. I understand that I am an exile, but for her to suggest that I am simply lying about who I am? I do not normally let the sneers from other Rethans get to me, but I had hoped that Kayess-En would be better.”
“Hang on!” Tenuk interrupted. “She? I thought you Rethavok all used ‘he’ like you do, despite being genderfluid or something?”
“The majority of Rethans use ‘they/their’ as their pronouns,” Retvik explained. “I have been separated from Rethan society for so long that most vok just refer to me as ‘he’ so I do so myself. Kayess-En was raised by Skyavok before returning to Rethan society, and thus uses her own pronoun, like a lot of Skyavok do.”
“Explains the weird name then…” Tenuk shrugged. “Still, do you have some sort of plan? Or, like, anything? I don’t mind losing, we gotta lose some day, but since it’s personal for you now, do you have some sort of plan?”
Retvik grunted, stopped pacing then eyed his team mates. Eventually, he spoke. “I am working on a plan, yes. And, as much as I do not like it, a lot of my plan hinges on Kayel.”
Kayel immediately sighed. “You do realise I’m, like, not that strong, right?”
“You’re a Phantasma!” Nyssi smiled. “Some sort of special elite assassin thing who clearly holds himself back the same way Retvik does!”
“Yeah but…” Kayel trailed off, still sighing. He always got like this, whenever someone mentioned his past. He glanced around the room awkwardly, double-checking that the four of them were definitely alone. “Yeah, I was an assassin. I have blood on my hands. But I escaped all of that, after something went… spectacularly wrong. Half my team is gone and the three of us that are left, we’re… we’re not quite right in the head.”
Nyssi realized she had upset Kayel, and leaned down to hug him. However, Kayel wriggled free, not wanting to be touched.
“I’m sorry…” Retvik also apologised. “I did not want to-”
“No, no, it’s fine!” Kayel snapped, then sighed some more, sitting down on the floor in an exhausted heap. He was clearly stressed out, the conversation having dug up some unwanted memories. “I can do this. I’ll do this for you three, because we’re friends, and you’re the best friends I’ve had in a long time. And, admittedly, it is kinda nice, being able to use my awful abilities in a… slightly less horrible setting. But I kinda need you all to kinda back off a little bit.”
Retvik frowned and sat down on the floor next to Kayel, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder. Again, Kayel wanted to move way and not be touched, but he relented. Tenuk and Nyssi both came over and sat down next to Kayel as well.
“Whatever it is you need, Kayel, we shall give it to you.”
Kayel sighed some more, then closed his eyes and took several sharp, short breaths, before changing the subject. “So, we’re fighting Retha Squad One.”
“Yes…” Retvik went back to grunting. “There is some good news though. Because Kayess-En challenged me, we get to pick the arena in which we fight. Meaning we can pick something like the Dasoudi arena, which is rather dark. Not only does this benefit Kayel completely, but it gives Nyssi an advantage, since she also has excellent night vision. Sure, it will put me at a disadvantage, but it will put the entirety of Kayess-En’s team at a disadvantage too. If we can hit them hard and fast, before they work out what is going on, we might have a chance at winning. Especially if we take Kayess-En out first.”
“I can give myself night vision too!” Tenuk beamed. “I know that you Rethans wise up to my shapeshifting quite easily, but if it’s partially vision-based, having two Retviks, one of which can see in the dark, would confuse the fuck out of them. Plus…” Tenuk paused, then smiled again. “There’s something I kinda want to try, but I’m gonna need to experiment.”
“Care to clue us in?” Nyssi asked, no longer feeling as worried about the upcoming battle, now that they had some sort of plan.
Tenuk shook his head. “Not right now. Also, uh, Retvik, is there, like, a private place where I can practice my shapeshifting without being watched? Because I kinda fucked up my Thraki impression this match and I don’t like it.”
“You looked like a perfectly fine Thraki to me!” Nyssi patted Tenuk on the back.
“Yeah but I flashed colours a few times. Plus, I still haven’t worked out how to mimic Banikan fire-breathing, which I know is organically done the same way Thraki do it, but… Well, I like to think I’m very, very good at what I do, but I could be better.”
Kayel couldn’t help but snort. “There are better shapeshifters than you? You, like, nail pretty much everything.”
Tenuk was still smiling, he appreciated the comment, but it wasn’t true. “You haven’t met my brother, Levik. Sure, I’m fast, and I don’t seem to get formified amnesia any more, but he can mimic Vohra almost flawlessly. The problem is, he’s absolutely fucking insane and doesn’t actually believe he’s a Spast at all.”
“Huh… sorry…”
“It’s fine. At least Kohra is perfectly sane. Even if he’s young and, uh, kinda the new heir to the throne now…” Tenuk’s words faded away, ruined by a pang of guilt. “But yeah, Retvik, can you, uh, get me somewhere private?”
Retvik nodded. “I will speak to the Raptor. And I must thank the three of you, I feel a lot more confident now.”
“Oh, trust me, if I can figure out how to do the thing I want to do, it’ll be fucking awesome!” Tenuk’s smile turned into a cheesy grin. “We can do this. I know it.”