Page 3 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

There was no warning, one moment I was deeply asleep on my rock in the sun, the next something swatted me in the face, tangling with my wide set of horns. Struggling upright, I slid open my eyes—but not the nictitating membranes—as a precaution. What was going on? What was this stuff on my head?

Thick black strands—strong and flexible—did not break when I swatted at them with my claws.

I realized quickly that they were not natural; it was a net of some kind.

Immediately, I froze and scanned my surroundings, breath racing and my two hearts pounding.

I wasn’t alone, there was something was out there, and they had tried to trap me with this net.

“Akri,” I rumbled, “are you done with your diagnostics? Can you hear me?” I asked softly.

Scanning around me had revealed nothing, but I heard the sounds of muffled voices in the distance.

I flicked my mobile ears that way as I carefully lifted the knives on my spine and tail, only the very tip, a good foot, wasn’t covered by the spikes.

While my sharp but retractable claws were strong, they weren’t good for cutting so much as puncturing and tearing.

The blades that covered my spine, and the ones I could jut up from my lower arms, were extremely strong and sharp, to boot.

Indeed, the black fibrous net easily shredded on my blades, but I didn’t yet move to shake off what remained of it.

This was bad news. This net—it was too advanced for the planet’s primates—had to be from some outside source.

Which could only mean I wasn’t alone. “Akri, answer me, damn it,” I demanded again in a low tone.

The Lacerten tongue rolled off my lips with sharp growls and clicks.

Of course, now the AI was busy with its diagnostics and didn’t hear me.

My ears twitched when the sound of voices grew closer, and the advanced translator tech in my implant picked up the various spoken languages.

I could tell there were three different ones—not which, but I could hazard a guess anyway.

One of these voices had to belong to a Krektar.

It seemed I was wrong about nobody but me having any interest in the primates of this planet.

Slavers, come to pick up stock for the gladiator rings so prolific throughout the galaxy, scum that they were.

Feeling anger and rage build up in my chest, I finally flicked the netting off me.

I searched around, moving my ears to help me locate where they were coming from.

Yeah, there were three different species there, each speaking in their own language, likely aided by translator tech.

I thought I could discern at least seven different voices, but I wasn’t certain if there weren’t more.

They weren’t very quiet, though, they thought they had me trapped in this clearing and that I wouldn’t know how to deal with them.

I had a moment to realize that, as I was completely nude and of a species they couldn’t possibly know, they probably thought I was native to this planet.

Maybe, I considered, they thought I wasn’t sentient.

They had to have come here to catch some of the primates that were native, I could see how they might think those would be a welcome addition to the arena.

From their excited talking, they thought I was an even better one.

I had a short moment to contemplate the best course of action.

Seven was a large number to fight off, especially without my gun.

Thankfully, I had more than enough natural weapons of my own.

From the sounds of things, they were approaching me from three directions, and now that I was awake, I realized they’d used a silent drone to drop this damn net on top of me.

I could see it circling the clearing, high up in the sky, its cameras angling to keep me in view of whoever was controlling the thing. They’d know my every move.

Indeed, I heard one of the voices exclaim, “What a dumb beast. He hasn’t even tried to remove the netting.

Just sitting there, frozen in place.” I couldn’t be sure, but I thought that voice spoke in Asraian, which likely meant there were at least two of them.

I hadn’t yet personally met any Asrai, but I knew they were almost always in sibling pairs or groups, often even twins.

If I moved off the rock, they’d see I was free.

My gun and gear were across the clearing.

In my complacency, I hadn’t bothered to keep them near.

I felt heat scald the back of my neck in shame.

I’d been an idiot—thinking I was alone here, letting my damn guard down.

On my first mission, even—already screwing up.

Typical. It was no wonder no female had wanted to claim me.

Then I scoffed. No, I had made a mistake, but I had no way of knowing that slavers would choose to invade this planet at just this moment, and so near my location.

That was a stroke of extremely bad luck.

When the group of them started slipping out from beneath the trees, surrounding me, I knew my odds were bad, even if I’d had my gun.

These guys were all big and muscled, with tactical gear and weapons bristling all over them.

It was immediately clear that at least six of them were Krektar, and there were three Asrai.

A handful of others were of various races: a Tarkan, a Sune, and several I didn’t immediately recognize.

More than seven, which made the odds of fighting them off pretty bad.

I realized that even if I could somehow contact Akri at this point, it was too late.

My ship couldn’t come down here and fight them for me; it could only scan the planet and warn me of more incoming.

Resolved, I knew I had to fight them to the best of my ability, take out as many as I could before they caught me.

Then, I’d persevere and try to escape, but never could I expose my ship and let our advanced Lacerten tech fall into the hands of these degenerates.

So I sat still and watched through my nictitating membranes, allowing these bastards to think I was stunned or confused, lulling them into a false sense of bravado and confidence. I noted that a few held back, suspicious, but most of them closed in, stunners aimed my way.

When they got closer, I lunged, moving rapidly as I lashed out with my tail, blades raised.

My body leapt toward the nearest target while the net simply slid away, cut to pieces by my knives.

My tail found a target, slicing cleanly across a Krektar’s wart-covered throat.

My body landed heavily on the Krektar next to it, crushing the slaver into the ground, claws puncturing holes in his body.

Neither of them was going to get back up.

Pandemonium broke loose. Shouts, shocked screams, and the sound of stunners charging up and firing filled the room.

Their blasts hit my scales like spots of heat, but they couldn’t penetrate my thick hide.

I roared, spun around, and dropped into a defensive crouch before leaping at the next asshole who thought he had the right to enslave others.

I lost myself in the fight, enraged at their audacity.

They were not going to take me in without some serious casualties.

One of them had a huge gun with a thick barrel, and it launched another of those black nets at me, managing to tangle on my horns and briefly distract me as I struggled to slice free.

It was the opening they needed. I felt a spike of pain roar up my spine when one of the bastards hit me with some kind of shock baton.

Instinctively, I lashed out with my tail and managed to swipe the bastard off me.

The pain had weakened me; I struggled to stay on my feet, momentarily disoriented.

Another came at me from the front—another shock baton—sliding beneath my guard and hitting me in the side.

Howling in rage, I dipped my head and hit the guy in the chest so hard he flew head over heels across the clearing.

Then my vision swam, black spots dancing across my eyes.

Sharp pain lanced through my skull, and I stumbled to my knees.

I clicked my firestarter in my throat and exhaled a stream of fire just as another net came arcing across me, followed by rope and a blast from something much bigger than a regular stunner. Shit, this was it. I’m sorry, Akri.

As my body gave up the fight, collapsing on the soft, spongy grass that covered this clearing, I saw the carnage around me. Noting that I’d taken out more than half their number, I saw that they didn’t look cocky and confident now. They looked scared.

The guy with the big stunner shot me again, closer this time, and I felt the heat of the blast as it hit me in the face. I clicked my firestarter, willing another cone of air from my lungs, but my face had gone numb. Then another blast hit me in the chest, and everything went black.