The Tainted Fangs were a menace even compared to other Temthan teams. Vicious and somewhat cruel, they openly used pheromones and toxins to knock their challengers out. Unfortunately, it seemed that Kayel hadn’t read the tactics sheet that Retvik had printed out for his team mates, and now he was struggling to stay on his feet.
The bite hadn’t punctured too deep. Already, Kayel’s injury was healing up, even if his health meter said otherwise. But that Temthan had bitten Kayel on the arm, and his elevated heartbeat meant his sedatives were already coursing through Kayel’s comparatively small body. Sure, Kayel had brutally stabbed that Temthan in the face, to the point that he’d emptied more than half their health meter, but now everything was spinning.
Dilitir knew that this weird Skyavok was struggling. While the Skyaok had helped carry Xeno Dessaron One in their first match, Dilitir wasn’t going to let his team get caught out in the same way. His team mates, Kataprev, Ypnan and Irem were working on doing the same thing, trying to get their poisonous touch on the Spast and Rethavok team members as well. Not that they were able to pin down the Spast, the tricky little creature had turned itself into something even smaller, darting around the arena like a wild animal. That didn’t matter though, the Spast was basically out of the picture, and so was the Skyavok, once Dilitir’s sedative finally took hold.
Unfortunately though, before Dilitir could take out that Skyavok, his attention was drawn away by Xeno Dessaron One’s own Temthan member. Dilitir felt a bit weird, hitting a female, but underneath all that armour, he didn’t want to take any chances. She’d slipped out of Irem’s grip, having tripped him up then rushed over to Dilitir’s position, knocking him away from the Skyavok with her shield.
“What, no swords? No pistols?” Dilitir taunted the female. “Using Rethavok weaponry of all things?”
He didn’t get a response. The Temthan fired at him with her gunstaff, drawing him away from the Skyavok, who had fallen to their knees. Now this Temthan had proven herself to be a threat, Dilitir’s worries about punching her fell away completely, as he fired a pistol shot at her feet, making her stagger long enough to land a gut punch. This didn’t seem to wind his opponent as much as Dilitir expected. All he needed to do was run down the clockand keep this Temthan distracted enough for the rest of his team to take down the Rethavok and Spast. And, from the looks of things, that was already happening. Especially as the Skyavok finally collapsed and found themselves teleported to the recovery bay.
On the other side of the arena, Tenuk found himself getting caught out. It turned out, it wasn’t just the Tainted Fangs’ teeth that were covered in toxins. The Temthan he was fighting, the smallest of the bunch and a bright blue being by the name of Ypnan, was emitting pheromones that were really messing with Tenuk’s senses. One minute he’d be panicking, the next he’d have all the confidence in the world, then suddenly he’d be panicking again. Worse, while Tenuk had been dodging the tranquilliser darts from Ypnan’s pistol, he knew that the instant he got hit, he’d be out for the count. And Ypnan’s accuracy was improving.
“Come on, Spast, turn into something big already so I can hit you!” Ypnan was enjoying this. And Tenuk’s worst fears were realized as something scratched him across the cheek. He’d been hit. However, Tenuk had an idea. He wasn’t out yet. He was also clearly on the confidence side of Ypan’s pheromones.
“You want something big, you sure about that?”
Tenuk’s eyes flickered to blue briefly as he began to expand, changing his form into that of a Rethavok that was probably a little too big. Ypnan had expected a Thraki or a Banikan, something that was less armoured. While a second dart did briefly connect, the sedatives were suddenly not enough. Tenuk grabbed Ypnan by the arm and twisted it. However, he didn’t realize just how strong he was and kinda ended up breaking Ypnan’s arm in the process rather than just disarming him. It didn’t matter, Tenuk needed to move fast, as he could already feel the sedatives sinking in. The larger form just meant it would take longer for said sedatives to rush through his body.
“I changed my mind!” Ypnan pleaded. “Go back to being a Spast!”
“Nah, this is fun!” Tenuk smiled, lifting Ypnan off the ground. He spotted Ypnan’s sword, still holstered, and decided to take it for himself. In a single motion, Tenuk pulled the sword from its sheath and stabbed it through Ypnan’s side. The bright blue Temthan screamed, then vanished, instantly teleporting to the medical bay. Just in time as well, as Ypnan’s sedatives were beginning to affect Tenuk more and more now.
While the battle was now on more equal terms, Retvik was still struggling. He’d fought the Tainted Fangs before, he’d fought a lot of beings in 1v1 battles over the last two decades, so he’d developed a resistance to their sedatives. However, since he was currently fighting both Irem and Kataprev, he was starting to struggle. Retvik had managed to throw Irem into the ground, bashing him with his shield and taking a large chunk off Irem’s health meter, but in the process, Kataprev had managed to get his jaws around Retvik’s arm, one of the Temthan’s fangs plunging into his elbow, one of the few places where Retvik didn’t have armour.
Flexing his arm, Retvik managed to break free from Kataprev’s jaws, breaking quite a few of his teeth in the process. Retvik knew that he was on a timer now, from experience, he knew he had about three minutes before those sedatives would begin to properly impair him. Luckily, Tenuk was on hand to assist, and he rather nonchalantly rushed over, kicked Kataprev away from Retvik and stabbed the toxic Temthan in the side.
“Are you alright, Tenuk?” Retvik shot him a telepathic message, but Tenuk responded by talking normally.
“Uh, I think I’m about to pass out.”
“Just try and stay awake.”
“I’m trying.”
Tenuk’s movements definitely started to slow down. He hardly flinched as Kataprev managed to get back up and shoot him in the arm, forcing Tenuk to drop his sword. Both Kataprev and Irem managed to get back to their feet.
“Yeah, no, I’m out…” Tenuk wobbled, then fell to his knees, shrinking back to his normal Spast form. He weakly grabbed onto Retvik’s leg to steady himself. “You’re gonna… have to protect me or something…”
The two Temthans laughed.
“Protect you? I bit you, Rethan. In a couple of minutes, you’ll be out too!” Kataprev grinned evilly. Irem though stepped back a bit, realising that they may have just made a small mistake.
Back on the other side of the arena, Dilitir was enjoying himself. He was basically playing with this female Temthan. Sure, he hadn’t managed to sink his fangs into her flesh, but she wasn’t too much of a threat. She did just punch him in the face, but Dilitir used his strength and height against her, kicking her downwards towards the ground. A quick glance at his health meter suggested that maybe he’d taken a little too much damage, but he had health to spare. This female on the other hand, she must have been on only about a quarter health. The female staggered, then struggled as Dilitir wrapped his claw around her neck, lifting her back up and close to his face.
“You’re not too bad, but not good enough. Could do with more training. More training I am willing to give you, for a price.”
Before Dilitir could finish the female off though, he heard a sickening crunch. He turned around just in time to see his team mate Kataprev being punched repeatedly into the ground by a very angry Rethavok. Irem had run off, looking for help and safety, only for the Rethan to grab him as well and throw him repeatedly into a nearby column, before chucking him in Dilitir’s direction.
Luckily, Irem was okay, despite having lost three thirds of his health meter, but Kataprev was swiftly teleported to the safety of the recovery bay.
“Uh, Irem, what did you do?”
“Prev triggered it!”
“Are they bitten?”
“Yeah but you wouldn’t know by looking!”
Dilitir straightened himself out. He noticed that the Spast was no longer in the fight, having passed out. Irem glanced at Dilitir, hoping he had a plan, then drew his pistol, emptying an entire clip in the Rethavok’s direction. This just seemed to anger the Rethavok further.
“What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t know!”
Irem didn’t have a chance to respond. Two hundred kilos of heavily armoured Rethavok charged into them both, knocking all of them off their feet. Dilitir managed to somehow roll away, but Irem didn’t stand a chance as Retvik bit down hard on his arm, breaking both forearm bones through sheer jaw strength alone. This was enough to trigger the teleportation system, and Irem vanished, despite his lingering screams.
Dilitir struggled to his feet, not really sure what to do. In a 1v1 fight, Dilitir had taken down a few Rethavok before, but he’d managed to sedate them first. Not that it mattered. Dilitir didn’t get a chance to move as the Rethan charged again, leaping on top of him, smashing Dilitir’s face with its fists. There was nothing Dilitir could do but take this onslaught, no way to protect himself, especially as his helmet essentially shattered. As he was teleported away to the recovery bay, Dilitir was glad that the female Temthan had already taken a chunk off his health meter, otherwise he would have been stuck there for way too long.
Back in the arena, Retvik was still pounding the ground where Dilitir had been lying. He didn’t stop until he felt a friendly hand on his shoulder.
“It’s alright, Ret, you can stop now.”
Retvik blinked several times, his hands resting on the ground, the cuts and bruises from his attack already healing up. The crowds were cheering, bringing him back to his senses, but the sedative coursing through his veins was also slowing him down now.
“I could not… protect him…” Retvik eventually muttered.
Nyssi realized what had triggered Retvik. A failure to defend others. That may have been part of the reason why Retvik had always avoided team battles in the past. “It’s alright. You avenged him. Plus, we won, which is nice.”
“Huh…” Retvik tried to get up, but couldn’t, so he remained where he was. “I guess we did.”