“Shrale? But that means… You can’t be…”
“Can’t be what? One of the species that wiped Kren’s entire civilization off the map? Sure I can. The truth is, we feared them. Some powers are too much for a single species to have. They needed to be wiped out.”
“But you kept one alive.”
“For research and learning. One of the neb isn’t dangerous. But more than one…”
He shook his head and I wondered what he meant by that comment. How could more than one be dangerous?
I filed it away for later.
“Now, hold still,” the Supervisor said, reaching into his pocket and retrieving another vial of yellow liquid. “You’ve had quite enough excitement for one day.”
He was going to inject me with it again.
It was fly by the seat of my pants time.
Come on. Think. Think of something. Think!
There had to be a way out of this. There had to be.
I felt that tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach again. I took deep breaths and found my center.
My hands gripped the armrests of the chair I lay on.
I can do this.
And then what was I supposed to do?
The golden light glinted inside me, glowing brighter.
That’s when the idea hit me.
That glowing light might as well have been a lightbulb going off.
I knew what I was going to do.
I knew how I was going to help Kren.
Kren
The inferiti were a powerful species that harnessed fire. The one in the pit with me now summoned whips made of molten white that he slammed against my flimsy shield.
I could barely keep my feet.
I was still reeling from the glacial who hurled spears of ice at me in the previous round. One was still embedded in my leg and stung like raw fire, turning it numb.
I was in round number five. The record, if I could defeat him.
Hold on, Ivy. I’m coming.
The inferiti spun his whip around my shield, hooked it like a giant finger, and tore it from my grip. Then his other whip lashed around my body and pinned my arms to my sides.
The fire burned through my clothes and scorched my skin.
I yelled in pain despite myself.
The inferiti pulled on the whip, drawing me closer to him, closer…
Until we were face to face.
“Flesh bubbles and squeaks when it’s near molten fire,” he said.
“Really?” I said through gritted teeth. “What does it do with ice?”
I raised my leg and yanked the bolt of ice from my thigh. It was caked in my blood.
The inferiti’s eyes bulged as he realized what was about to happen.
I spun to one side and slammed my pinned shoulder into the creature. The ice pierced his leg and he bellowed in pain. With his molten body in contact with mine, so did I.
He lost concentration and the molten whips faded out of existence.
I used the inferiti’s own molten power against him and formed a short spear of fire. A spear through any creature’s head was going to come out with the same result.
“Yield,” I said.
“I yield! I yield!”
The audience hissed and booed and cheered in equal measure. None were on my side.
I backed away from the creature. My next opponent would be a—
Thunk!
A hammer slammed into my back and knocked me to the floor.
The thrall stood over me with his huge hammer in his muscular hands. Attacking before the previous opponent had been dragged from the pit wasn’t against the rules—there were no rules—but it broke common etiquette.
The thrall had seen just about enough and intended on claiming my crown for himself.
He grinned, his long and crooked teeth, like bodkin needles, protruded from his top and bottom lips.
“Me champion,” he grunted.
He swung the hammer up over his head.
The record would stand at four.
Ivy
The Supervisor slipped the vial in the machine and bent over me to administer it.
I quietened my mind and let my instinct—or that of the baby inside me—take over.
The chair shuddered.
The Supervisor paused and looked down at it. Then his attention shifted to my hands on the armrests.
“No…”
The chair spun and slammed into the Supervisor’s knees, knocking him onto his ass on the hard floor. The chair continued to spin and swept the guards’ legs out too.
They would be up again in an instant.
I got up and bolted to the observation window.
Kren was down there now. He’d just finished off a creature wreathed in fire. The flames winked out and the creature hit the floor. But there was another creature already running from another open gate.
“Look out!” I yelled, but of course, he couldn’t hear me.
I peered at the controls. There were so many switches and dials.
“Computer,” I said. “How do you deactivate all security systems?”
“You do not have the appropriate authority to deactivate the security systems.”
“I asked you how.”
“By speaking the command and pressing the ‘Deactivate’ button on the console. But you do not—”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”
“It’s no use,” the Supervisor said, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. “You can’t win.”
On the console, I spied a large red button with “Deactivate” written across it. Pressing it alone wouldn’t be enough.
I raised my hands as the Supervisor approached, blood-red murder etched into every wrinkle of his face.
“And what did you think you were going to do once you escaped the booth? There’s no way to save Kren.”
“Deactivate the security systems.”
The Supervisor snorted derisively.
“Deactivate the security systems,” he said sardonically.
“Request confirmed,” the Computer said. “Security systems deactivated.”
I sighed.
“Finally, a break,” I said.
The Supervisor’s eyes bulged.
I slammed my fist on the “Deactivate” button.
All at once, the power turned off and we were cast into darkness.
Kren
The hammer thudded into the pit floor one inch to one side of my head.
THUMP!
It was pitch dark but I still held the general outline of the thrall standing over me in the front of my mind. I lashed out with my foot at a sixty-degree angle. If I judged the angle right, it should land between his legs.
The figure grunted. He would fall to his knees and then crumple to the ground.
Right where I lay.
I rolled
