Drelix

In direct defiance of their orders, the Gryn have done their job of driving the zigurex up to the Uhatx's private viewing platform. However, although I shift as it rises, becoming my Haisarkarnii form and having one of my heads drive its envenomated fangs through the impossibly tough skin of the creature, I'm not fast enough to stop the thing writhing and toppling towards the crowd.

No one else is quick enough to increase the forcefield, meaning the tech-phobic skin of the zigurex pierces from this side and in less than a quarter seccari, we're through, spectators running in every direction as the creature I'm tangling with releases poisoned barbs in an attempt to get rid of me. None of which hit home, all of which land in places they shouldn't.

"Get back!" I roar at the Gryn. "This is no longer your fight!"

I need them to stay clear because no one else can suffer for my cause. The Gryn will have enough difficulties explaining themselves to their masters for this one indiscretion. They do not need to get injured in the process.

An injured gladiator is a dead one, in the end.

I swing my second head around and thump it into the side of the zigurex which rears and then falls, crashing into the viewing platform as I shift back and leap free of the thing.

The entire place is in disarray, but it is my mate I'm looking for. Her scent is strong here, and as the zigurex rears away, I make a sweep of the room. Phxt is plastered against the wall at the far end.

"What did you do?" he spits.

"What I need to. Did you really think I'd leave things to chance in order to get what I want, what my mate wants?"

There is the scent of Crystal, but it's mixed with something else, something bitter, and there's no sign of her anywhere.

"I came here for information, and you tried to play me, Phxt," I snarl. "You chose the wrong battle ground. I know Tatatunga, and I know Trefa. You may have the credits, but I have the compatriots." I hold out my hand, claws fully extended. "Give me the vid-screen and my mate, and maybe I'll let you live."

Phxt's tentacles writhe, and he produces the vid-screen. Outside the ruined platform, the zigurex roars its high-pitched roar as it searches for its opponents. The Gryn have, at least for the time being, confused it.

But it would take little to attract it back to me. I snatch the screen from Phxt and wrap my free hand around his throat.

"Where is my mate?" I growl.

He chokes out a laugh. It grows in intensity in a way I dislike very much. I press harder, wanting to squeeze the life out of him.

I lift my head and roar out my frustration.

"Don't…" he wheezes. "The zigurex."

"Where is my mate?"

"She…the Habosu…the zigurex."

It hits me harder than being slapped in the face by a zigurex barbel. The scent here, it's Crystal and it's her blood.

It's her blood mixed with zigurex venom.

"Where. Is. She?" I grind.

"They took her," he pants. "Off world."

"She is injured?"

"Yes."

His neck clicks and Phxt slumps in my grip. My rage blights my vision. I can't even see his body. They have Crystal.

She is injured.

I have lost her.

Every single cell in my body, every one which makes my accelerant, increases the capacity of my flight lungs, helps me shift, helps me produce venom, allows me to rut, every single last one burns with the intensity of a thousand million stars.

My mate is gone. Taken.

The zigurex slams into the platform once again, jaws widening. I turn to face it, all my rage, all my rut ready to do what is necessary.

It shuts its jaws. In my body, I feel a pulsing which radiates out and out.

Mate?

The word drops into my head like a piece of space debris. It takes me a seccari to realize it is coming from the zigurex.

"Gone." It's the only word I can force past my fangs.

Sarkarnii, mate?

"She is gone," I grit.

Find her. Leave him.

I look down at the body of the Uhatx in my hands as if I've forgotten him. Without taking my eyes from the zigurex, I gently bow to it and then fling the body across the floor.

In a single gulp, it is consumed, and I am leaving the dome in full shifted form.

Woe betide any creature who gets between me and Crystal. They will not survive to see another blink of starlight.