Retvik took a shallow, almost unwanted breath, then regretted it, an unfamiliar taste in his mouth. One he hadn’t experienced in a long, long time. He was lying in a bed in the recovery bay for his team, a screen to his right, three beds to his left. As Retvik sat up, his eyes shifted focus to a wall of glass and the being cruelly smiling behind it.
With a sigh, Retvik began to recount his mistakes. Starting with accepting this challenge in the first place.
They had a plan. The plan was to hit hard and fast, while Retha Squad One floundered in the dark. The Dasoudi Arena was set in a dark but sparse, boggy forest, and was normally designed for a different type of battle featuring more individuals. This was the first Dessaron battle to take place in this battlefield for a long time, and it only added to the waves of sheer excitement that exploded from the crowds, watching both live and at home. The only downside was that it was hard to see the detail, as it was particularly dark, and the sun had set about half an hour ago.
But the opposing team wasn’t stupid, they’d equipped themselves with torches, rather bright ones. They could see fine. They also knew to taunt Retvik. Normally taunts wouldn’t bother him, but these rude words? Coming from an otherwise honourable team? They got to Retvik. Made him angry, made him sloppy.
Still, Retvik stuck to the plan. He charged at Kayess-En, knocking the goliath purple and gold Rethan off her feet, while Kayel, Nyssi and Tenuk, shapeshifted into Retvik’s form, held off the rest of the team with their gunstaffs. Of course, Kograh, a grey and blue Rethan, and Kazik, another purple and gold Rethan with unfitting blue eyes, had immediately fired back, clipping Nyssi in the process. But Gathin, a marbled blue and red Rethan, had other ideas, and opened fire on both Retvik and Kayess-En.
While Retvik had brutally and painfully stabbed Kayess-En repeatedly, finishing her off with a blade through her throat, Gathin’s attack had caught Retvik unaware, and he took far, far too much damage, all at once. Kayel managed to disorientate Gathin with a couple of low-powered sniper shots, but it was too late, Kayess-En had sent one final telepathic command to her team before she was teleported out of the arena, ordering them to all attack Retvik at once. Unable to reach his shield in time, Retvik took one too many shots and found himself teleported to the recovery bay as well.
“Admit it, you lost. To us.”
Kayess-En, despite her injuries, was gloating. A mixture of Ksithan medical expertise and Spast drone technology had already patched up a lot of the wounds Retvik had caused, starting with the large gash in her throat. Retvik climbed out of bed, his injuries already healed up thanks to his… unholy blessing, and approached the glass, staring weakly at Kayess-En.
“We have not lost yet.”
“Yet.”
Kayess-En turned her attention back to the screen on her side of the recovery bay, where she watched the rest of her team slowly take Xeno Dessaron One apart. Retvik though remained standing. He didn’t want to watch. He couldn’t.
Back outside, things weren’t going well. While the presence of a second Retvik had confused Kazik and Kograh enough for Kayel to land more shots on them both, Gathin was acting as the team’s telepathic backup and had seen straight through Tenuk’s disguise, managing to disarm the Spast and force him to back away. Sure, they were unable to focus on Kayel, who somehow seemed to not even be visible, but Nyssi was a much more open target, and she wasn’t nearly as accurate as Kayel was.
“Guys, I think it’s time to-” Nyssi didn’t finish her sentence. Without any hint of a warning, Kazik had suddenly targeted her, hitting her directly in the head with a well-placed gunstaff shot. The brute smiled as they deflected a sniper shot from Kayel with their shield and watched as Nyssi’s body toppled over, before fading from view, the Temthan being sent straight to the recovery bay.
Kazik’s glee didn’t last long though, and it quickly turned to confusion and disorientation, as they found themselves halfway across the arena. Kayel had shadowjumped them, dragging them away from their team mates and their weapons and directly into Tenuk’s still-shapeshifted fist. Kazik though shrugged off the blow and pushed the Spast-turned Rethan back, putting some space between them. Scanning their new target, Kazik noted that Tenuk was unarmed, then smiled again. They’d have to beat this one up himself.
Tenuk though had other ideas. He took a long, deep breath, before opening up his jaws. A torrent of flames erupted from the fake Rethavok’s maw, almost incinerating Kazik. As pain flowed across Kazik’s body, they were immediately teleported away to the recovery bay. It would have taken longer than normal for those burns to heal.
However, Tenuk’s attack had exhausted him. Combined with the damage Tenuk had already taken, he found he could no longer hold his form, and he turned back into a Spast proper, pausing to check to make sure he was the right colours. In hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have paused, but Kayel only just managed to shadowjump the pair of them to relative safety as Kograh and Gathin again opened fire.
“You alright, Kayel?” Tenuk asked as he shapeshifted himself into something small, a tiny, furry feline, so that he was harder to hit. In the dim light, Tenuk spotted an injury, Kayel had been shot in the upper arm and had lost his rifle in the process. But there was something else too. Kayel’s organic armour, what little that could be seen underneath his gladiator armour, was no longer yellow. Heck, his gladiator armour no longer looked green either. “Uh… Kayel?”
“De sas ‘stateps.”
Whatever Kayel just said, Tenuk could tell something definitely wasn’t right. The light had drained from Kayel’s eyes, they somehow now glowed black. He brushed off the injury and pointed at the ground, signalling for Tenuk to remain small and hidden, before disappearing through a nearby shadow.
Having lost their targets, Gathin and Kograh grouped up, somewhat unsure what to do. Neither of them felt like they were in danger. After all, they’d taken out the mighty Lightbearer with relative ease, the Temthan hardly stood a chance and it seemed the Spast was too weak to repeat what it had done to Kazik. A voice in the darkness though sent chills down their necks.
“Tha ipoferte. Ekete ‘Martiste.”
Suddenly, Kograh was no longer by Gathin’s side. Gathin’s eyes immediately scanned the area, struggling in the darkness, trying to find the light from Kograh’s torch in the gloom. To their dismay though, their own torch abruptly died, plunging them into darkness and awkward silence.
That silence though was ruined by a garbled scream. Rethavok were not known for screaming unless they were in deep, deep agony, but that was exactly what was going on.
“Get off me!” Kograh flailed in the darkness. “You unholy beast!”
Somewhat panicked, Gath fired two shots in the direction of Kograh’s voice, before making their way towards them. They quickly realized though that they were too late. Kograh’s body collapsed by Gathin’s feet, covered in stab wounds, the final one being through Kograh’s throat, the blade still present.
After perhaps a little too long, Kograh teleported away, but not before their eyes met Gathin’s. That look… Gathin couldn’t shake it. Sheer terror.
Terror that Gathin was now feeling. Especially as they felt themselves briefly falling downwards, then not falling at all. Something sharp punctured Gathin’s side, just underneath his armour, but they took a deep breath, calming themselves down. It was one Skyavok. One with powers that were a complete antithesis to the Rethavok, but a small, weak being nonethele-
“Argh! You little monster!” Gathin couldn’t help but shout as another blade dug deep into their leg. With a snarl, Gathin tapped a band on their arm and a small shield formed, which he used to knock the Skyavok to the ground. To their surprise though, the Skyavok landed on their feet, snarling back at him.
“Ia, teras eim.”
Gathin grunted, then pulled out a pistol, glad that they always had too many weapons on them. The Skyavok was armed with nothing more than a dagger.
“Whatever. Monsters still bleed.”
Suddenly, Gathin paused and braced themselves. Something rubbed up against their feet. Something that felt out of place. They prepared to be shadowjumped again, only to find nothing happened. And as Gathin looked back up, they realized the Skyavok was gone. In their place was a cat.
Gathin blinked, then gasped for air. In that single moment of hesitation, the Skyavok had sneaked up on them and plunged their dagger into Gathin’s throat. Before Gathin could retaliate, they found themselves in the recovery bay, with the rest of their team.
It took a moment for Kayel to calm down and start breathing again. But once his head cleared, he began to settle down.
“I timi katavlyth. Thanto kat’olon…”
The shadows began to fade from Kayel’s body, and the colour returned to his eyes. Kayel felt something brush up against his leg. It was Tenuk, still in cat form.
“You’re terrifying, you know. Also didn’t know you were bilingual.” Tenuk purred, sending a telepathic message. “You okay, mate?”
“Yeah…” Kayel didn’t offer much more of a response. He was blankly staring at the plating on his arms, which were yellow once more. “I should be ecstatic, but I feel awful.”
Tenuk leaped up and perched on Kayel’s shoulder, nuzzling up against him. “Probably just the low once the sugar and adrenaline fade away. Come on, let’s get out of here. I can’t wait to see the look on everyone’s faces…”