James Somers - Heir to the King

They might have killed him, but that didn't appear to be their plan. Evidently he was meant to fight for their sport; and unfortunately with no way of escape apparent to him right now, he had little choice but to comply.

Tiet retrieved the spiked bow. He raised it into the air with his right hand and started it spinning rapidly. The battle robots locked on target as Tiet sent the spinning bow into one of them like a buzz saw. The laser cannons that made up one of the robot's hands were smashed to pieces as the bow ricocheted into its head, sending metal shrapnel in all directions.

The others quickly opened fire on him. He only had time for an instinctive move. Without even realizing it, he formed a bubble of intensely vibrating charged air that repelled the blasts from the robots. They were raining down a firestorm upon him, yet he remained untouched. The pulse blasts were disrupted as they impacted the kinetically-formed bubble.

The robots continued to fire, trying to penetrate the mental defense. Grod looked on with intense pleasure. He had not expected the Barudii to have this much power over the elements. He knew of no such incidence recorded about the Barudii of old times. This was even better than he had expected. His eyes were fixed on the young warrior through the refraction of light and image the charged bubble was creating.

Tiet quickly regained his composure and caused the bubble to swiftly expand with great force behind it; smashing into the five working robots around him. Each one was slammed into the inner mirrored wall of the dome with enough force to crush their exoskeletons and leave them as piles of twisted metal upon the floor. Once again he was left standing alone within the arena.

"Impressive power, is it not?!" demanded Grod to his technicians within the control room. "I really wasn't expecting him to survive the battle robots."

"Shall we open the last dome with the teragore sir?" asked one of the control techs.

Grod punched a key pad on the arm of his command chair. "Varen, do we have a viable sample of DNA?"

"Yes, General. The samples we extracted should work well for what you have requested," said the Vorn scientist from a nearby laboratory.

"Very good then. Proceed according to schedule. And Varen…remember your family would not want to see you compromise the procedure and get them killed."

"I understand, sir."

Grod tapped the communication switch off. "Golon, retract the last dome!"

The Horva technician did as he was ordered and switched the control to retract the final inner dome wall.

ORIN was trying to follow the loudest sounds he was hearing. The ventilation system was not very difficult to move through; the tunnels were fairly wide to accommodate the large volume of air that moved in and out of the facility.

He came to a branch that veered off to his right. The sounds were definitely coming from somewhere off of this branch. The shaft narrowed considerably but he could get through on his belly.

He continued on for another fifty feet until he came to a side vent that had a lot of light coming through it, and the noises intensified. Orin crawled up to it and peered through. Within his sight line was a huge creature that stood about fifty feet high. From what he could see the room was a great dome and a smaller semitransparent dome was in the center. Tiet could be seen inside it.

The inner dome was quite large also but not in comparison to the dome without that held this great beast. It was reptilian in nature and had four stubby powerful legs. A long tail, thick, with a cluster of large spikes on the end curled around the animal. Its head was fierce-looking with needle-like teeth proportional to the creature's size.

Tiet did not seem to be acknowledging the presence of the beast in the outer dome. Scattered around him were several smashed robots and a number of dead Horva men. It all looked like some deadly sport for these clones of the Vorn, and he was sure they must be watching from somewhere.

Suddenly the dome around Tiet began to separate in two and fold down into the floor. He looked in horror at the beast being exposed to him now. The creature also reacted to the dome dropping before it. Now the prey was exposed.

It began to step toward Tiet's position, and lunged at him with its long neck, propelling the deadly head and teeth right at him. He got out of the way fast, taking to the air. The creature lunged for him again as he landed. He threw out his hands and sent a massive kinetic blast at the predator's incoming face; knocking it away.

The beast reeled for a moment, and then regained its composure with more fury. A chemical spray issued from its mouth, which ignited in the air on its way toward Tiet. He formed another kinetic bubble to repel the flame that engulfed him. The flame was disrupted, but not the heat. It was too hot to repel this way; and he sent the bubble outward and into the creature with massive force. The animal was hurt, but only became more enraged by Tiet's counterattacks.

Grod was completely enthralled by the display. He wanted this kind of power for himself, and he intended to have it. The teragore opened its great mouth again and a long whip-like tongue shot out toward Tiet. He flipped over its strike, as the beast tried to catch him.

The long tongue darted back and forth trying to capture its prey as he continued his acrobatic evasive maneuvers. Orin cried out to Tiet from behind the vent in the dome wall. He heard him and tried to pause as much as he could to locate his voice. He could see Orin's hands coming through the vent in the wall.

This was a tight place to try and maneuver. The vent was quite thick and blended right into the rest of the wall materials. He couldn't get enough room to cut through. Orin pulled a kemstick from his thigh clip and brought it through the vent space with his hand, as Tiet tried to evade the whipping tongue of the teragore.

"Tiet!! Take it!!" cried Orin.

Tiet saw the weapon in Orin's hand and leapt upward after it. The kemstick leapt away to meet him in the air. He caught the weapon just as the tongue of the teragore found purchase around his legs. It brought him full body into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the kemstick out of his hand.

The great tongue began to retract quickly, dragging him toward the beast's mouth. He realized the kemstick was not in his hand and reached out with his mind to retrieve it, as he was pulled across the ground. The kemstick obeyed and rolled after him; leaping into the air to find his hand as Tiet was lifted upside down toward the gaping mouth of the creature. He caught the weapon as the creature pulled him inside and the jaw closed after him. The teragore raised its great head and swallowed the young warrior whole.

Grod was grinning from ear to ear as the lump of flesh began to slide visibly down the creature's throat. Orin's heart was about to leap from his chest as he watched the heir of his king devoured by the animal. Suddenly the visible lump stopped its descent within the teragore's throat. A rod of bright orange light erupted from the creature's neck and quickly whirled around in a great circle from within. The teragore's massive head pitched forward as the neck separated from the rest of the animal's body. He leapt out of the orifice within, landing near the severed head covered in the creature's secretions.

"Unbelievable!" shouted Grod.

He was out of his chair on his feet in amazement. "I have never seen such a display of power and skill!"

Suddenly Tiet sprang into the air and caught a hold of the vent where Orin was located.

"Get back!"

Orin was still in amazement himself at the wonderful escape his protege had just executed. He slid backward fast to allow Tiet to gain entrance. Tiet stabbed the ignited kemstick into the armor plated grating and cut through it with ease. The hot piece fell out and landed on the floor of the dome below as Tiet crawled inside.