Drelix

"What did you have to go and agree to fight the zigurex for?" Sylas says as he spreads out a selection of weapons.

"Why? Hoping to get the glory for yourselves?" I query.

There's a chorus of grunts and growls from the rest of the Gryn, or at least the three who have been recaptured and placed in the holding cell with me. Blayn and the worst of the lot, Kylnn, are still missing. It'll be a while before those two are found, I suspect.

"It's suicide," Sylas says with a curl of his lip.

For all their indentured servitude, the Gryn value living over anything else. They have to, given what they have to do to survive.

"For you maybe, not for me."

"Zigurex can and will take down a fully shifted Sarkarnii."

"We'll see." I pick a short sword, something the Gryn refer to as a Grynus, given they designed it. "This'll do."

I walk over to the door to the cell, slamming the hilt against the metal, and I look up to where the camera is recording our movements. "I'm ready. Tell Phxt."

Sylas gives me one of his unhinged smiles. "You should join us in the dome, brother. You'd be formidable and we'd make quite the team."

"The Gryn were never a team, and I don't fancy being bitten by Blayn anytime soon." I nod at Sylas' shoulder where he's sporting a set of fang marks.

He shrugs. "I expect you'd bite back."

"I would."

Across from us, a door slides open, and the stench of the dome's arena floods in.

"Only the Sarkarnii," a metallic voice rings out. "any other species will be stunned."

"Go, warrior," Sylas says. "Meet your fate." He slaps a scarred arm over his scarred chest and drops his head briefly.

"As the ancestors would wish." I slam my fist over my chest in salute to the gladiators of the Gryn and walk down the passage, through the sizzling DNA forcefield, and out onto the sand.

All around, the noise level ramps up to more than maximum. For a fight which is not on the regular schedule and has been arranged at the last nova-minute, the dome has a big audience.

"Tonight!" The sound of the Uhatx's voice reverberates around the dome. "For one night and one fight, we have Drelix of the Sarkarnii,"

There is a muted roar which doesn't bode well.

"And we have the zigurex."

This time, the crowd goes wild and not in a good way. Items rain down on me from above so I have to shift out a wing in order not to get covered by a significant amount of discarded food. Somewhere among the terraform of the arena's surface, a low, guttural groan emerges, followed by the sound of a thousand feet.

I fling the sword up as high as I can until it buries itself in the wall of the arena pit. I'd prefer to stay in my biped form for as long as I can, but depending on the size and maturity of the zigurex, that may not be possible. Unsheathing my claws, the crowd increases in volume and the flow of debris from above reduces.

Not that the crowd should be concerned. While they might be able to toss what they wish into the arena, the forcefield is one way, and I cannot return the favor, no matter whether I want to or not.

A scrape of bio metal over stone alerts me to the first of the snub-nosed heads. The zigurex has no eyes—it has no need for them given it searches out its prey, or makes its way through the universe, using the second sight which is contained within its bulbous second head, sat some way back on the matte black body. The skin of a zigurex, correctly cured, is highly prized in some quarters as it can be used as a stealth shield, the blackness soaking in light and technology with ease.

They're also highly prized because zigurex are almost impossible to kill.

I don't want to kill this one either. Rarity recognizes rarity and for all I know, this could be the last zigurex in the galaxy.

The main head rears up, long barbels on either side of the snout quivering as it gets my scent. If lifts the head and warbles a noise so loud I think my ears might bleed.

And then, without any further warning, it attacks.

"For my mate and the ancestors," I say through gritted teeth as I launch myself in the air. "May both forgive me for what I must do."