There was always something about the Raptor that unsettled Retvik. Sure, he had fought a multitude of beings in all the years he had been working for her, heck, he had even been face to face with literal deities, but the Raptor had an unusual, almost ancient aura to her. One that Retvik now felt was somewhat familiar.
“Sit down please, Retvik.”
As they stepped into the Raptor’s office, that feeling of unease made Retvik feel worse. Or maybe he was slightly hungover, he wasn’t sure. It didn’t help that the office was tiny, not meant for someone who stood at 2.5m tall, but also lined with a multitude of skulls, trophies the Raptor had collected over the decades. One of the skulls did look rather Rethan in shape, but it couldn’t have been, could it? Either way, Retvik made his way to the only seat in the room that wasn’t for the Raptor herself, a small, wooden stool.
“First off, Lightbearer, I am glad you are alive.”
Retvik lowered his head slightly. “Thank you, Kyr Raptor.”
“Do you have an official story yet, or are you still working on it?” The Raptor was often straight to the point.
“I, uh, am working on it.”
“You smell drunk.”
“We did have… a few celebratory drinks…” Retvik hesitated. Part of him would have preferred facing the Thantophor again over his boss. At least he took the form of a totally not scary Skyavok. The Raptor was a Ksithan, but seemed to have too many teeth and a pair of horns underneath her hood. She was also very muscular, and her clothing, a jacket, t-shirt and jeans, struggled to contain said muscles. But her fur was rather messy and unkempt, knotty and even matted in some places. The worst thing though was her eyes. Icy blue, capable of staring deep into one’s soul.
“Mhm. What do you mean by ‘we’, Retvik?”
“My new team.”
The Raptor seemed to smile, and grabbed a folder that was lying on her desk. Clearly she’d had it there on purpose.
“Yes, your team. Your decidedly non-Rethan team.”
“We both know that I do not have much… allegiance to my own kind. I am an exile, after all.”
With a crooked grin, the Raptor flicked through the folder, pulling out three pages. “I hope you don’t mind, but we did do a bit of… spying on you. After all, you ARE one of my greatest assets, and the fact that the mighty Lightbearer was targeted by what we all believe to be the leader of a powerful Temthan cult that reaches the blessed Allbirther, while also having been spotted in the Arksini hospital waiting on a Skyavok… There are a lot of questions here, Retvik. A bit of a mess. Who ARE your new friends, and why did the Temthans want you?”
Retvik sighed. “It was not a cult. It was the Allbirther herself who attacked you then kidnapped the four of us.”
The Raptor raised her hood, her icy blue eyes now focused on Retvik. “Really?”
“She was, uh, upset that we had visited her brother. Did you know the Thantophor lives in the Skyan district of Salla?”
“You are pulling my leg.”
“I really wish I was not. I could have done without everything that happened. But we needed answers after we had all survived those disasters, injury-free, and capable of-”
The Raptor suddenly lunged forward, grabbing Retvik by his armoured collar. “The Allbirther blessed you with Akairon Healing?”
“No.”
“The… Thantophor… blessed you…”
“He called it an accident.” Retvik didn’t feel particularly scared now that the Raptor was up close and personal. After all, how could she really physically hurt him? “One the Allbirther wished to capitalize on. Which is why she attacked us, kidnapped us and started experimenting on us. She also made me say something very embarrassing to the Thantophor, one of those awkward memories that will certainly keep me up at night for decades to come.”
The Raptor grunted, then let go of Retvik, returning to her side of the desk. “Well, I guess I am no longer… alone in that aspect… And that also makes the retirement age clause of your contract to me… rather awkward. If what you said is true, you will never reach a point where you are too old to fight.”
“That is…” Retvik grunted. “That is troublesome, yes, assuming I cannot normally and naturally age. But you also seem very concerned about my team.”
That toothy grin returned. The Raptor was glad to have brought the conversation back to what she wanted to originally discuss. “Ah yes, your team. A team led by the Lightbearer. The same Rethan who said he never wanted to fight in a team, because he hated the almost required use of telepathy and was unable to use it himself.”
“I have… adapted to it. At least, I have with my friends.”
“Well, I have two problems with your team. Outside of the fact that mixed species teams almost always seem to fail. The first is that you having a challenger team is a breach of contract. If you want to have a team, you HAVE to do so as house fighters, since your contract states that you can only fight in the Arena as a house fighter. The second problem is…” The Raptor took a deep breath. “You convinced a fucking SPAST to fight with you?”
“Tenuk is a very skilled shapeshifter and a quick thinker.”
The Raptor threw down the folder in irritation. “I get the other two. Nyssi, I have actually heard of, she’s part of the team that’s captured some of the best arena beasts we’ve had. Kayel is, as we discovered, former K-Class, so he does have plenty of combat experience. But this Tenuk fellow, we have found nothing on him. Who is he?”
“He, uh, does not know himself. Permanent amnesia, from shapeshifting too hard to escape danger…” Retvik grunted, then decided to add some plausible deniability. “Or something like that. He is a Spast after all, we do not know much about his kind in general. But the idea of him being the first Spast to grace the Great Dessaron Arena made him very excited.”
“So he actually wants to do this?”
“Yes. Otherwise I would not have come here today with this stupid idea of mine.”
The Raptor closed her eyes, thinking to herself. Retvik remained where he was, fiddling with his shoulder plating and rather unsure what to do with himself. Eventually, the Raptor opened her eyes again.
“Fine. You can have your team. There are several conditions though.”
“We have to be a house fighter team, yes?”
“Yes, you do. I will give you time to train, so you don’t instantly get beaten by some third tier team right out the bat. But I want you to do this not as the Lightbearer. I don’t want anyone on this team to have a public name. You’ll all be members of Xenon Dessaron Team One and will be known only by… I am not sure yet, some sort of code name. Because, if you train hard enough, you might be unstoppable.”
“How comes?”
“I have been looking for other Akairon Healers my entire life, and suddenly four show up on my doorstep. You have no idea how powerful you now are. And I need to keep an eye on you.”
“You know, Arkay said that as well.”
The Raptor smiled slightly. “Our blessed Lord of Decay is a wise one. A being I wish to meet one day, and preferably not on my deathbed. Either way, Retvik, I need to arrange some contracts for you and your team. If things go well, we could make, well, even more money. But for now, I will put aside a private training area for you. I want you to have something ready to show me by the end of next week.”
Retvik lowered his head in a slight bow, then stood up. “Of course, thank you, Raptor.”
“No worries, kid. Have a good one.”