“… now that all the preliminary stuff is out of the way. Let’s get down to the real meat and potatoes, shall we?” The announcer said with an affable smile, after several minutes of recapping what they’d already learned. Turned out, this wasn’t everyone who’d been given crystallin bodies for this event, only the ones who knew about the lizard threat. Ronin couldn’t help but wonder just how many thousands of humans would soon be walking the earth’s surface. For perhaps the first time in centuries.

“Before I say any more, I’d just like to remind you all that killing aboard the ship will result in your immediate execution.” An ominous way to begin, that had the crowd rustling with agitation. “Right then. Now, as I said before, there isn’t enough room on the escape ship for everyone. Only about half of you will make the cut. So, look around you people. Each, and every one of those here are your competition. If any one of them does better than you at collecting resources, they get a seat. Understand?... Now, I’m not telling you all this, so you go on a killing spree to reduce the numbers.” He stopped at that to give a theatrical chuckle and a huge wink to the crowd.

“We really do need those resources, if we don’t get them, and fast, none of us will be going anywhere.” Ronin wasn’t sure how he did it, but the man could modulate his tone and his posture to really suck in the crowd. He knew, because it was working on him, until Elyria gave a loud snort and a few muttered comments to point out the manipulation. “So, if you have any grudges that need to be settled between you, that’s fine. All I’m saying is wait until after we’ve gathered what we need before you act on them, ok?... Now, each of you will be assigned a dropship. It’s extremely wasteful, and under any other circumstances we’d never do it, but… since it’s the end of the world and all, we figured why not go all out. That being said, I think we’ve covered everything, so off you go. Good luck and good hunting. There are guides waiting outside to take you to your ships.”

“It’s going to be a blood bath,” Leo said as they filed out of the giant metal building. He didn’t sound upset about that; Ronin noted as he looked at the smiling lion faced man.

“Try not to sound to upset about it,” Elyria joked as they followed a man dressed like an old English butler, towards an extensive line of dropships. Ronin heard the big lionid woman growling again, but it was so quiet the group chose to ignore it.

As they neared the beetle’s dropships, Ronin nearly stumbled on the uneven, bumped, and ridged floor, when he finally got an up-close look at them. They were huge. Each easily as big as the metal aircraft hangar they’d just left. Each brilliantly colored, in a myriad of reflective hues that caught every bit of the weak light in the hanger deck. Shocked for a moment, Ronin had to remind himself just how big the beetles were. As long as a school bus, but easily twice the diameter. If ten or more of those monsters were to fit comfortably into a dropship, it would have to be equally large in scale.

Leaving the bowing butler behind at the ramp, Ronin and Leo’s groups jogged up the long incline and into the ship’s troop compartment. It was just as big inside as it was outside, and similar to the beetle’s ship and the growth vats, the outside was hard and resembled multicolored crystal, while the inside looked to be made of living matter, with veins and arteries pulsating with fluid, along the muscle like walls, gently beating to some distant heartbeat. Looking around at the living, or at least alive, ship, Ronin took in the cavernous space.

There were ten swimming pool sized depressions, spaced evenly throughout the compartment, five on a side. Each depression had several of the large tentacle covered arms that had held them up in the growth vats, around its rim. Ronin frowned, wondering what they were for, until he realized they must be a sort of nest or cradle for the beetles to lay in while the ship flew. Sort of like the shock frames with their harnesses the kaldarr ships had in their troop compartments.

“Well, isn’t this cozy.” Leo said with a deep throated snort. “Gnash, take a few of the girls and patrol around the ship until we’re ready to leave. Don’t hurt anyone but keep the other contestants away from the ship.” After the big lionid woman, who’d growled at Elyria, bowed, and left, Leo turned and explained to Ronin. “Chancellor Nero made it clear that we weren’t to hurt each other on the ship, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t put a bomb or something in our engines.” A chilling thought Ronin hadn’t even considered.

“Now, tell me. Why did you show up with five fewer men then you could have brought? Your team looks well put together, but it would have been more effective if you’d have brought an entire team.” Leo asked, clearly not as worried about antagonizing Ronin now that they were outside the public eye. Ronin frowned, not happy about having to go back to playing a secondary role to this man, but under the circumstances…

“We were wrapping up a war when the summons came.” Ronin said, without any elaboration. “I didn’t want to bring anyone I didn’t trust completely, but a lot of my people died in the fighting. Of the ones left I trusted, most of them had to be left behind to run my syndicate. So, I chose to stick with who I knew I could rely on.” He made no mention of Xerox and his small team. No point risking an operation that was such a long shot anyway.

“Reasonable,” Leo said with a nod. “In your position, I’d have likely done the same. You, or your followers at least, seem so competent that I sometimes forget that you’ve only been on the ship for a handful of days, even with time dilation. Just remember, some of our competitors have been in their personal realms for up to two centuries. Add in their own time dilation, some of the people gunning for us are tens of thousands of years old.

That realization staggered Ronin, and he had to pause and do some mental math. Ten thousand years was a conservative estimate if they had the credits to burn. He was suddenly feeling much less confident. Still, he had been on the back foot since he’d entered this cutthroat world. What was another handicap? He had faith in his people, and knew they’d be able to pull through this, somehow.

“Now, the ship’s AI will do all the work of steering for us. I’ll get a destination put in… I think we should take a quick trip home. On the way down, you can tell me about your team composition, and we’ll find the best way to integrate our forces together. Looks like it was a good idea for me to bring so many gryphons, since the only arial unit in your squad is your fairy queen here.” Elyria, who’d been taking a drink of nutrient fluid from her canteen, began to cough heavily at the comment. Her eyes even teared up and she was forced to spit out a mouthful.

“Be careful with that stuff,” Leo said, mostly ignoring her. “We won’t get any more until we get down to the planet and harvest some from the trees.” Ronin winced in sympathy at elyria’s red face, hoping the nutrient fluid they’d been given in the canteens wasn’t awful. That would be a real bummer, after how good the pink enhanced fluid had been. As he sniffed at his own canteen, K3 gave out an exasperated sigh for some reason.

* * *

The trip to the planet didn’t take very long. Ronin was a little disappointed that he couldn’t watch as they dropped to the planet of his birth, but the dropships didn’t have windows. It seemed the Beetles counted on their advanced AIs to do nearly everything for them. Once they’d landed and the hatch had opened, however, a wave of nostalgia slammed into Ronin so hard he had to sit down, right there on the ship’s ramp.

He was home. The ship had set down halfway between the water filled entrance to the caves he’d lived in his whole life, and the crystal tree he’d spent so many years farming. The one that had given him the crystal tree seed that had gotten him crystalized in the first place. Tears filled his eyes as he breathed in the sweet, flower-scented air. Air, the last time he’d been here had been so toxic to him. Now, even breathing in the crystallin trees perfume filled his body with vitality. The crystal beetle’s translation of ‘breath of life tree’ made more sense to him now.

“Your home is beautiful.” Elyria said, taking a deep breath of the sweet air and smiling up at the brightly colored crystallin tree.

“This isn’t our home,” Leo said, spitting off the ramp. “Not anymore, this sickly-sweet scent is enough to kill one of my kind in just a few breaths, should they be foolish enough to expose themselves to it. No girl, our home is long dead. This is the beetle’s planet now… at least for a little while longer anyway.” Tilting back his head, Leo let out a mighty roar, one so powerful that ronin swore he’d felt it through the soles of his feet. “Come on, I’m sure that tree was your old stomping ground too, right boy? How bout we go clear it of the filth before we go down?”

Oddly enough, the idea of clearing that tree of the monstrous guardians, which had once thwarted so many of his attempts to gather the valuable materials hidden up there, filled Ronin with fierce determination. Wiping his eyes, he climbed to his feet and nodded.

“What do you say to a little competition?” He asked with a vicious grin, looking at the older man, who’d once led the community he’d grown up in. The man who’d taken his parents away with him, and even now hadn’t mentioned them to him. A man that Ronin both thought he needed to survive what was coming, and feared would be his own downfall should he lose focus. Now was as good a time as any to take the man’s measure. After all, Leo might have investigated Ronin’s pocket world, but Ronin had no idea of what Leo was capable of. The lion man stared at him for a second, as if he didn’t understand the question. Then his face split into a wide grin that showed a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“You’re on kid,” he said with another roar, taking his suit off. He undid one button at a time until he was standing there, dressed in the leather straps his people wore. “You and me, starting right here right now. One of your people will follow me and vice versa. The rest of our teams can follow to watch our backs and to count kills, but not to interfere. We go until there’s nothing left alive on that tree, whoever gets the most kills wins. Deal?” He asked, handing his suit to a nearby lionid. Ronin looked over at the Crystal tree, which was larger than any four pre fall skyscrapers stacked together. There must be thousands upon thousands of bugs up there. Yet all he could do was grin as he nodded.

“You heard?” He asked his team, who had gathered around at the lionid’s roar.

“We heard… but it sounds a little ridiculous.” Elyria said.

“You got it boss,” K3 said at the same time. Elyria rolled her eyes as the giant kaldarr had a quiet word with Karr, who began barking orders to the rest of the troops.

“K3, why don’t you shadow Leo and keep track of his kill count for me?” Ronin asked after a moment of consideration. K3 and Elyria were the only ones he felt comfortable detaching on a duty like that. One of the scouts would have also been a viable choice, but they were so much smaller than Leo he was afraid they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the seven-foot-tall humanoid lion. Since he couldn’t exactly order Elyria around, K3 was his only real choice. Besides, he trusted the kaldarr to observe Leo Dawson closely, to get an accurate understanding of his combat prowess.

“Yea boss, I’ll be happy too.” K3 said with a nod.

“Good, you can take Blue. She’s the largest of the gryphons and should have the least amount of trouble with your weight.” With a whistle, Leo had one of the winged lions trot over, it looked identical to the rest of the gryphons to Ronin, except it was wearing a blue collar around its neck. K3 looked at Ronin questioningly and at his nod, pet the lion a few times before climbing on her back. She was an impressive beast, thickly muscled and with powerful wings. Ronin couldn’t wait to see just how much damage one of these beasts could do in combat.

“One of my pride will fly behind you, she won’t get in your way, just count your kills. She’ll only step in if you need help, but I’ll consider that a loss.” Ronin nodded, understanding, and agreeing. Turning to Karr, who was overseeing his squad as they sorted equipment from the ship, he raised a brow.

“Go ahead my lord,” Karr said with a smile. “We have a few things to prepare, and we’ll be along.” Not sure what they were doing, but long passed ready to go, Ronin only nodded.

“Ok then, you ready?” Leo asked, at Ronin’s nod, he also smiled. “Go.”

Before the word had finished echoing through the sweet, mint scented air, the pair were off and running. Ronin felt his cloak billow out behind him as he ran, and he couldn’t help but laugh in exhilaration. He was running as fast as he’d ever run in his pocket world and was pleased to note that this body was at least as fast. That was, until he looked over and saw Leo racing away on all fours.

The man’s stride wasn’t that of a normal lion. It reminded Ronin more like how a rabbit ran. He’d leap forward on powerful legs, then slap the ground with his hands to propel himself forward, while his legs moved up under him again for another leap. It looked awkward, and inefficient, yet with each leap the man covered at least ten feet and was quickly leaving Ronin behind.

Cursing, Ronin increased his pace. It was no use though, there was just no way he could run faster than Leo could bound. Deciding that he would be learning how to run like that, and that now most definitely wasn’t the time to practice, Ronin did the next best thing and lengthened his stride. He was still running, but each step propelled him farther than the one before. He ran for everything he was worth, through the ankle-high grass that sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow, that now covered most of the planet. At least within the reach of the crystal tree’s branches. Outside their spread, Ronin had heard the ground was barren wasteland, devoid of all life. That thought spurred him on ever faster, and though he wasn’t catching up, he at least wasn’t losing ground anymore.

“This is silly, you know that right?” Elyria asked, from where she flew along in a near hover above him. “What will it prove if you go and get yourself killed in this tree?” Ronin had known she was there, thanks to the constant buzz of her wings, but hadn’t said anything since she hadn’t, but now that she had, he responded.

“By itself, nothing.” He panted, slightly out of breath. “But it’s a chance to bond a bit with our partner… and… I spent my entire life climbing this tree, Elyria.” He said, trying to say what he wanted to without sounding silly. “I couldn’t do anything but run, every time I met even an aphid, because I couldn’t defend myself… I, and Leo too I suspect… just want some of that power back.” Elyria eyed him as he bounded forward in silence for a while.

“Fair enough,” she said at last. “I’ve got you covered, White flame, so don’t hold anything back.” Having spoken her peace, Elyria moved back up to hover over his head. Strange as it was to admit, her approval gave him an extra burst of speed, his goat hide cloak billowing out behind him.

Leo reached the tree before Ronin did, and with his claws fully extended ascended the trunk almost as quickly as he’d run across the ground. Ronin cursed again at the speed the other man moved. He was a golden blur of motion that Ronin couldn’t hope to catch. As he dug his toe and knee spikes into the trunk, and pulled himself up with his blunted claws, Ronin decided he’d just have to make up the time in his killing speed. After all, he was armed, and the kanabo had much greater reach than Leo’s claws, no matter how fast the man was.

He kept right on thinking that, until an aphid rain began to fall around him. The black bugs ranged in size, from stone carver rats to the size of Owl five’s motorcycle. He flinched as he thought of Gunner but pushed the thought aside as soon as it surfaced. He could wallow later, right now, he had an enemy to fight, and a contest that he intended to win. Staggered, when an aphid the size of his torso slammed into his unprotected head, he only grunted and constricted the muscles that controlled the carapace helmet. It snapped into place, and he made a mental note to do that sooner. If that had been an enemy projectile, he might very well have died just then.

Ronin reached the first horizontal branch in under five minutes. A feat that had taken his human self of just a brief time ago several hours to accomplish. Doing a quick scan, Ronin saw quite a few aphids out on this limb. Leo had bypassed it, in a desire to climb higher. Ronin debated if he should do the same. There was no way higher from out on the branch, he’d have to run out along the limb, kill the aphids and then run back to get higher. Leo had clearly decided not to waste the time, but this was a contest to see who could kill the most enemies, not who could climb the fastest. Decision made, Ronin unslung his kanabo and ran at the hapless aphids, just standing around, unaware of what was coming.

Wading into the mass of black bugs, so busy eating that they didn’t even notice that death had arrived, Ronin swung his club. Moving the weapon in tight arcs, each stroke took the life of an aphid. By the time he’d reached the end of the group, Ronin thought he knew why Leo had skipped this branch. The aphids weren’t a challenge at all. It was literally as easy as squashing a bug. They didn’t fight back at all. Shaking his head, Ronin resolved to move higher up to fight the more dangerous ladybugs and the highly territorial wasps… Just as soon as he finished this swarm. No point in wasting the trip he’d made to the end of this branch after all.

Time passed, as Ronin climbed and killed. He’d lost sight of Leo a long time ago, but he occasionally caught a glimpse of K3 riding the gryphon blue, high above him. Elyria was still hovering above him. She’d stopped several times to rest her wings, but the lionid riding another gryphon wearing a green collar was never far away. He’d just finished off another batch of aphids, when he heard a noise, he’d been longing for. The low droning buzz that foretold the arrival of a ladybug.

Looking up expectantly, Ronin saw not one, but three of the car-sized monsters flying down from above. That was odd, he didn’t remember seeing them move in groups during the simulation. Not wanting to face all three at once, Ronin unclipped the PCP 1.0 from his carapace harness and sighted on the approaching bugs. He waited until they were almost upon him, then pulled the trigger. The sharp hiss of escaping air and a slight recoil being the only sign the gun had fired. Well, that, and the nearest bright red beetle dropping from the air, one of its elytra broken off and spinning away, shattered from the bullet’s impact.

Pumping the manual slide under the barrel, Ronin racked in another round, turning the gun on the next ladybug in line. This one was too close to drop, and once the round took it, the beetle fell to the wide branch Ronin was currently standing on. He leapt back, to avoid the still wildly flapping wings, reattaching his PCP 1.0 to his back and drawing his kanabo.

The third, and final, ladybug landed with a loud clattering as it shook its elytra and snapped its mandibles at Ronin repeatedly. He assumed this was a challenge, so he obliged with a war cry of his own, rushing forward with a downward swing of his club. He connected with a solid crunch, cracks spreading across the bright red shell. That hit alone wasn’t enough to put the beetle down, and it darted forward in a short-range burst of speed on its six legs. Catching Ronin in the mandibles that were large and strong enough to crunch one of the dog-sized aphids into small enough pieces to swallow.

He felt his armored exoskeleton creaking dangerously under the pressure, as he frantically tried to get in another blow. He’d been caught too close to the beast and didn’t have the room to swing the kanabo. So, he let go of the weapon and jabbed both his clawed hands into the beetle’s eyes. His hands swimming in the orange goo that served as the creature’s blood, Ronin felt around for anything vital to the ladybug. His fingers closed around something solid that was too big to get in his closed fist. Not finding anything else, Ronin tugged on the hard object.

It came clear of the ladybug’s eye with a sucking sound, and the beetle dropped the instant it was removed, like a puppet that had its strings cut. Not sure what had just happened, Ronin looked at the orange gore covered item in his hand. Wiping away some of the bug’s inner goop, he found that it was a softball sized roughly round crystal. That looked translucent on the outside but was pink inside. Like a geode, without the surrounding rock.

Unsure of what he was looking at, Ronin took a few steps over to the second dead ladybug on the branch and plunged his still gore covered hand into its eye, fishing around until he came out with a near identical crystal. The shape was off, and the pink interior was deeper in the center than the first one he’d grabbed. The body of an aphid dropping onto the branch from above reminded him of what he was supposed to be doing and he tossed the strange crystals into his bag, before curiosity got the best of him again. Approaching the aphid, he split the creature’s head between his hands and, sure enough, found a thumbnail sized crystal in its head as well. With a confused shake of his head, he added it to his bag, reloaded his rifle, gathered his kanabo, then began his climb once more.

Another pair of ladybugs were flying his way, but a new sound caught his ear. A rhythmic thumping, so reminiscent of helicopter blades, let him know there were wasps inbound.