“Oh hello there, beauty!”
Nyssi couldn’t help but smile as the colossal True Thrack glided from pillar to pillar. She’d helped capture the beast not too long ago, and was wondering when she’d finally see it in the Great Arena. She just didn’t think she’d be trapped in the same stadium as it was.
The stadium in particular was pretty dark and closed off, at least compared to most other battle arenas and stages. The whole stadium was sealed off, with a central concrete disc in the ceiling and glass plates surrounding it, mainly to keep flying beasts from, well, flying away. Camera drones skittered around, ready to film the action and beam it out to impatient viewers. The bottom of the arena was mostly long grass, with the odd rock or tree scattered around. On one side of the arena was the small bay where the team of four had entered, on the other was the large, metal cage which had previously been the Thrack’s place of imprisonment.
“You’re calling that… thing… a beauty?”
Tenuk looked nowhere near as confident as Nyssi did. After all, the creature they were tasked with fighting was large enough to swallow Tenuk in two bites. Which was why he was currently not in his normal Spast form, but in that of a large, black Temthan, hiding away his true colours so that he’d seem like less obvious prey. The second he’d stepped foot into the arena and seen that beast, he knew something was up.
That’s mostly because something WAS up. After all, the Great Arena had to fill 18 hours of televisual content a day, and some of that catered towards younger audiences. These shows would normally present teams of Temthans or Ksithan showing viewers how to capture or tame wild beasts, or host safer contests where fighters would have to get a large animal back inside a cage. Today, the Raptor had decided that her new favourite team needed to do something slightly less bloody.
“Definitely!” Nyssi beamed, straightening herself out. “Iridescent green scales, a 6m long wing span, powerful enough to soar for thousands of kilometres, what isn’t there to like? I’m glad we don’t have to kill it.”
The Thrack had realized it was no longer alone and was now circling above the team of four, watching them closely. It had seen some of these creatures before, the reptilians that had come in to feed it. But that had been a long time ago, and now the Thrack was getting hungry again.
“We’re not fighting it?” Kayel asked.
“No, we just need to get it back into its cage! Which shouldn’t be too hard, since I’ve done this before. Rettypoo, you got any experience in this sort of thing?”
Retvik grunted, very much disliking Nyssi’s nickname for him. “No, normally I am just told to beat them to a pulp. Do you have a plan?”
Nyssi nodded, then turned her attention back up at the Thrack. “I actually have a really simple one. It’s a large creature, but it’s not that heavy. So once it’s on the ground, we can just use these ropes to loop around its wings and pull it into the cage over there. The only problem is getting it down here in the first place.”
“That… sounds difficult…” Retvik grunted some more. “And we have to do this bloodless as well, so we cannot just shoot it down.”
“Is that why we only have our shields, a fuckton of rope and these snazzy yellow health meters?” Kayel was full of questions today. This caused the grumpy Rethan to snort and look down at his yellow-armoured cousin.
“Did you not read the tactical sheets you were given?”
“Uh, no.”
“Did you not read yesterday’s sheets either?”
Kayel quickly backed away, feeling more threatened by Retvik than he did by the large, scaly creature that was essentially a dragon, circling above them. “I did but I, uh, forgot.”
Retvik though simply tutted and turned back to Nyssi. “I suggest we use Kayel as food bait to bring it down to our level.”
“Thracks don’t eat Skyavok. Too much armour, too much effort, they like things they can easily bite through, which is why we used a goat and lots of blood. But honestly food bait is a risky idea anyway, we’re supposed to be doing this bloodless like you said…” Nyssi trailed off, then smirked, an idea forming. “Tenuk, just how good are you at shapeshifting?”
Tenuk’s red eyes widened. “No…”
“Yes!”
“I am not…”
“I think it’s female, you’ll be fine.”
“Oh. I thought you were going to ask me to shapeshift into a goat. You want me to shapeshift into a Thrack and… somehow seduce it?” Tenuk felt even more unsure now.
“Can you do that?” Nyssi asked. “Would make this really easy for the rest of us.”
Tenuk’s eyes split back into four as he stared upwards, analysing the beast. After a few moments, his eyes reformed back into Temthan eyes, and he turned back to Nyssi.
“So?”
“I can do it, but I’m gonna go into that cage over there and change in there, because it’s not stupid, if it sees me, a currently pitch black Temthan, suddenly turn into something it’s attracted to, it’s not going to fall for it. Also, if this doesn’t work, I say we go with Retvik’s plan and feed Kayel to it.”
“Cool. We’ll wait for you here!” Nyssi beamed, as she started picking up lengths of rope, then tying heavy knots on one end. She did this for three sets of rope, then handed a fourth rope with knots on both ends to Retvik. “Alright, Kayel and I, we’ll loop these around the Thrack’s wings, while Retvik, you throw this around its neck and try and get behind it. Once we’re all behind it, the only dangerous thing is its tail, and we can pull it into the cage. Got it?”
Retvik nodded. Kayel wondered if he was strong enough to do such a thing., but clearly Nyssi had faith in him. The three of them turned their attention upwards, watching the Thrack glide around effortlessly.
“So, uh, why hasn’t it attacked us yet?” Kayel muttered.
“It’s sizing us up! Actually, it’s probably sizing you and me up…” Nyssi paused, then glanced at Retvik. “You might want to back up back into the little area over there. Like Tenuk said, it’s not stupid. It knows you’re a member of the second scariest sapient species around, it’s not gonna mess with you directly.”
“I thought Thraki were the second scariest-”
Nyssi laughed awkwardly, watching Retvik move away before turning back to the Thrack. “You can knock an enraged Thraki from the sky with ease… Oh, looking good, Tenuk!”
A sapphire blue Thrack made its way out from the cage on the other side of the arena. It tiptoed almost nervously, making confused grunts that sounded like a cross between a roar and a tweet. Whether it was answering Nyssi or trying to communicate with the other Thrack, it wasn’t exactly clear, although this Thrack was a bit smaller than the Thrack hovering above.
This immediately caught the attention of the soaring Thrack, which swiftly started flying downwards. As it did so, Nyssi signalled for Retvik to move around the edge of the arena, to the cage behind where Tenuk had been hiding, while she and Kayel made their way closer to the two Thracks.
Rather awkwardly, the larger Thrack landed directly on top of the smaller Thrack. It was clearly very, very pleased to have some company. However, this didn’t last for very long, as a high pitched telepathic squeak hit the three other members.
“ABORT, ABORT, IT’S NOT FEMALE!” Tenuk screeched as he immediately turned himself into a small feline and scrambled away through the grass. The Thrack seemed rather confused at first, then let out an angry roar as ropes wrapped around its wings and neck.
“Alright, guys, pull!” Nyssi commanded, using a nearby rock to help stabilize herself. Really, Retvik was doing the majority of the work, having managed to loop around the Thrack, dragging it backwards through sheer willpower alone.
The Thrack tried to take off, but with Nyssi and Kayel tugging at its wings, it found itself unable to do so. It roared again, swinging its tail, then realized it couldn’t. Sure, the rope around its neck had loosened, but now Retvik was grabbing onto the Thrack’s tail, slowly inching backwards, towards the cage.
Something else though had appeared to help. The Thrack panicked as a colossal, blue Banikan, nearly as big as it was, charged into it, throwing it backwards into the cage. The gates of the cage swiftly sealed shut, trapping the confused beast inside.
Tenuk growled menacingly, before turning back to normal. As far as he was concerned, he’d done enough shapeshifting today and his head was beginning to hurt.
“Good job!” Nyssi chirped as she pranced over to him, dragging Kayel with her. “Uh, where’s Retvik?”
Tenuk peered past Nyssi and into the cage. The Thrack was struggling back to its feet, too dazed and confused to do much more than stare at the weird creature that had tricked it. Pulling himself out from underneath the beast was Retvik, who also looked a little dazed. Retvik awkwardly and quietly made his way to a small door in the side of the cage, meant for cleaning purposes.
“Oh… oops…”
“It is fine…” Retvik muttered as Kayel helped him out of the cage and closed the door up behind him. The situation was made more awkward by the fact that Retvik’s armour had gotten caught on the door’s edge.
As the team got back together and made their way to the arena’s exit, Kayel couldn’t help but let out a little laugh.
“So are we not going to talk about this one?”
Tenuk and Retvik both glanced at each other, then nodded.
“Heh, no worries!” Nyssi seemed happier than ever. “We did good though. Nice and clean.”
“Hmph, for you at least!” Tenuk snapped. “I need a shower, right now…”