Shouts of combat filled the air deep inside the prisoner compound. Humans and Drogar both practiced fighting against each other in little groups inside each sparring circle.
Watching over all of them was Admiral Chase, who was still pondering Retholis’ warning. Next to her was a stern-looking brown-scaled Drogar with short facial spines. His uniform was as plain and simple as the rest of the guards, except the markings on his collar revealed he had an officer’s rank.
And the scowl on his face revealed his displeasure at the sight before him.
“Thank you for helping us with this, Shieldmaster Toreth,” said the Admiral.
Toreth looked at the Admiral with a wary eye and harrumphed lightly.
“Save your
Well, it’s time to stir up the pot, yeah?
The dark room slowly spun around Mack as he lay in a small, unfamiliar bed. Opposite Mack was the only door into the room, and a plain white wall clock hung above it. The clock itself was a blur, and he could barely tell what time it was.But he could hear each second TICK as though it was right next to his ear.Sometimes it felt like it was spinning way too fast, and other times it looked like it wasn’t even moving. But no matter what, the ticking remained the same beat over and over and over.His entire body shivered and shook, but not because he was cold or afraid. Rather, he just couldn’t help it. His body needed something it didn’t have and it literally went insane on him. His muscles spasmed as his nerves randomly shot out signals.It was simply t
Miko’s eyes gleamed as she toyed with a partially dismantled armor. It was laid out on a metal workbench, which was littered with parts and plates of armor, as well as all sorts of tools and gadgets. The armor itself didn’t look too complex. It was covered in a number of scales, some larger, some smaller. All of them were interlocked with some sort of flexible mesh underneath, which caused the armor to articulate with very natural movements. A dozen or so wires splayed out from inside the main chest, each of which had hand-written Drogarii labels stuck onto them. It appeared each of the wires fed power to the various parts of the armor itself - arms, legs, repair systems, sensors, and so on. Although it was taken apart and in pieces, she could easily imagine that when put back together, it would have been close t
Daylight spilled across Lacroseth City as Taloren’s sun crested over the horizon. Life all over the city began to stir and wake up for their day. A flock of vicious Avicii Raptors took to the skies inside the dome, and circled around in search of prey.As a wing of them flew around, they spotted some movement on a small patch of land near the edge of the dome. It was simply a glint of metal accompanied by a blur of shadow.They swooped down closer to the movement, drawn to the promise of a tantalizing morning meal. But they knew that simply diving down was unwise, and that watching their prey was best. So most perched themselves on nearby trees to watch, while others stayed in the sky to keep a wider view.Eva breathed heavily as she stood in her favorite sparring circle and worked on her bladedancing te
Team Ra’ventrii descended down below the dome via special tubular highways that connected the city’s Upper Dome to its Lower Dome. The truth was, every single dome on the planet was actually only half visible.Half of it floated above the surface, while the other half was constantly submerged. This was necessary for its own stability, locomotion, and even energy. Multiple giant hydroturbines dotted all over the Lower Dome kept the city geographically positioned and powered at the same time.In fact, most of the city’s power was stored and distributed through the Lower Dome. But it wasn’t the only thing that was down there. In fact, nearly a third of the city’s Drogar lived and worked down there.When they first arrived, Eva, Miko, and all the other humans were briefed on the basic layou
Eva hopped down from her opponent’s lifeless corpse, her breaths hot and heavy. Her little stunt had easily eaten away half of her stamina, and her breathing had become incredibly labored to compensate. What she needed was some extra time to get as much as she could back, at least before her next fight.She walked over to the side of the ring, where Szereth and Severas were standing.“You know,” said Severas, “more than half these thugs didn’t understand you, right?”“What? Ugh! But I had my pose down and everything!”“Not every Drogar’s equipped with translation nanites,” added Szereth. “Usually only traders, politicians, soldiers, mercs, and so on. People who deal with the border. Deep in the core,
Szereth slumped down in his seat next to Alevos, and emitted something between a grunt and a groan.“Not enjoying the view?” asked Alevos. “Or are first level box seats not to your liking?”Szereth looked around the box seats that Alevos had secured, somehow. It was small, cozy, and most importantly private. A large window in front of them revealed the rest of the arena, both its fighting floor and the rest of the stands.The surrounding stands were filled with a great many Drogar of all kinds. Tens of thousands, it seemed. There were dozens of levels, each one with multiple box seats scattered all around.He estimated there was enough room to fill the coliseum with 200,000 Drogar.They had a com
Rezhathii’s fans erupted in wild cheers when she saw her slam her opponent a dozen meters away, but soon quieted when they saw Eva recover quickly. Those cheering fans quickly turned to jeer at her, as though she had cheated them of her defeat.A few were astounded by what they saw.“D-did you see what that human did?”“So what? It’s just another frail ape! It’s only gotten lucky so far - just you watch!”To some, it was unthinkable that any Drogar would fall to any human and did their best to reinforce that idea among those around them. A few were completely unconvinced and realized that there was more to humans than frailty.Rezhathii was one of those Drogar. She now understood that
Eva stumbled slightly as the platform hit the bottom of the Pit. As she ambled out into the preparatory floor, the corpse of her dead opponent was dragged off to who knows where.She grasped at her abdomen, which dripped blood out of her two puncture wounds.“That was really kinda dumb of me,” Eva muttered.“Yeah, it was,” Severas said.She had made her way to Eva’s side quickly the moment the platform hit the bottom. The Justicar placed a hand on her shoulder and helped steady her.“Armor got dinged up a bit,” said Eva, “and I gotta get it patched up.”“No,” replied Severas. “We need to get you to the clinic