Chapter 52
Ryker
Opening my eyes, I found myself secured to the bottom of the Vren tank once again, floating next to Tetra's unconscious form. Even after her attempt to kill me, I couldn't help but marvel at the strange attraction I felt towards her. I shook my head, scolding myself for getting distracted. She was one of the aliens responsible for the death of billions of my kind and the destruction of my world.
As my thoughts spiraled into that familiar pit of despair, I felt my anger start to boil. The more time I spent looking at her beautiful face, the more hatred I felt building towards her. Before I knew it, I was pushing against the bonds that held me to the tank. A red light exploded out of me, and my muscles grew as I fought to reach the woman just outside my grasp. As the muscle-like strands of the suit began to fail, a stabbing pain pierced my heart, and the glow radiating out of me abruptly cut off. The suit tightened on my limbs, preventing me from moving an inch.
The forms of my three companions appeared between me and Tetra, and I mentally roared in protest. Ruby and Red both looked upset to see me in this state, but Silvar wasn't having it. He scowled in my direction and said, “Boy, you better snap out of it, or I will do it for you.”
The only response I could muster was to throw myself against the suit and silently yell in the dark liquid. Silvar nodded and said, “Alright, remember you asked for it.” He reached up with his walking stick and lightly tapped it against my forehead, and then I was standing in front of a giant cave.
I no longer felt the suit holding me hostage and turned around, looking for anyone or anything to take my anger out on. Then I heard a powerful voice, reminiscent of the sound of boulders breaking, say, “I am here, boy. Let the lesson begin!”
I looked towards the cave and found a 20-foot-tall version of Silvar’s Vren body crawling across the ground towards me. His many legs and segmented body reminded me of a vicious-looking centipede from hell, but I was unfazed in my current state and charged. A moment later, Silvar wrapped his body around mine and squeezed. I felt the bones in my legs being pulverized into powder, and my muscles being liquified under the overwhelming strength of my opponent. It was as if I couldn't even perceive the pain and slammed down on her carapace over and over with my fists, roaring incoherently.
Silvar quickly realized his mistake and tossed me against the cliff wall, pulling his bulk in on himself. In a few moments, the old man avatar was standing before me. I felt my lips drawing back, and I clawed towards my target with all the speed I could muster. Silvar nonchalantly raised his stick and lowered it on my head, and a pain unlike any I had ever felt before rushed into my psyche.
In that single moment, I experienced every ounce of sadness, fear, and mental anguish I had ever had throughout my entire life. In that instant, all of the fight was taken out of me, and I just lay there weaping. After a few minutes, I felt a roughly callused hand come to rest on the back of my head, and I turned to find Silvar's tear-streaked face kneeling next to me.
The shock of seeing the grumpy old worm in this state jarred me out of my introspection. He gave me a warm smile, grabbed me by the hand, and pulled. As our hands made contact, my body fully regenerated, and I stood to my feet, lowering my head in shame. “Silvar, I don't know what to say. I just can't control it.”
He placed his other hand on my shoulder and said, “I know it may be hard for you to see it, but you are making progress, Ryker. It took you a lifetime to build up the little control you had. It will take time, but with my help, you will master yourself in due time.”
I let out a long breath, enjoying the sense of relief I felt on hearing his words, then said, “Thank you. I think I am ready to go back now. I have a lot of questions that need answering and two A.I.s that need a kick in the rear.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Silvar's grumpy demeanor returned, and he said, “You can say that again. Hang on, I will send you back.” He clapped his hands together, and reality broke down the middle.
I was back in the tank, standing with my hands locked by my sides and my ankles wrapped together. I calmly looked over at Ruby and mentally said, “I am okay now. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to get out now.”
Ruby cautiously looked over at Silvar, and after he gave her a consenting look, I felt a metallic arm grab me and pull me from the tank. After clearing my lungs, I looked up at Red and said, “Okay Red, you owe me an explanation now. Why is she here, and why did she try and murder?”
Red went rigid and woodenly turned her head slowly towards Ruby, who was giving me and Red a look of pure malice. She lowered her head the second Ruby made eye contact with the girl and said, “Uh, well, you see. I brought Tetra here to meet you. Like I told you before during your awakening, Mom sorta caused a massive blackout throughout the fleet, and Tetra took advantage of that situation and tossed herself bodily into a Vren tank and awakened. Since then, she has been training day and night by herself but has made little progress. When she reached out to me and asked if I knew of any humans that could survive training with her, I told her yes and brought her here.”
I raised one eyebrow and said, “That's it? She's just looking for a training partner? Well, I don't know why I would accept such an arrangement, but that doesn't explain why Ruby is pissed.”
Ruby’s eyes started to give off a threatening glow, and she shot me a withering glare before shouting, “I'll tell you why I'm so pissed. It has nothing to do with that whore coming into my house and wanting to train with my man. I am pissed because, for some reason, you thought it was a good idea to propose to one of the highest-ranked people in the entire empire. What do you have to say for yourself, tramp!”
I drew back like I had been slapped and stared at Ruby before answering, “Tramp?!? What in the world are you talking about? I didn't propose anything to her.”
Red stepped forward with her head still down and said, “Well, technically you did. Like my mother told you earlier, Tetra is a Denary. Her kind are very traditional in the way they conduct themselves, and the only time someone in their society tries to make any non-violent contact with one another is during a courting proposal.”
My eyes grew to the size of saucers, and I quickly said, “Wait wait wait! So you're saying…”
Ruby burst into tears and screamed, “YES, YOU DUMB SLUT!” then disappeared.
Red’s shoulders slumped even more after seeing Ruby’s outburst and said, “Yea… when you bypassed the traditional greeting and brazenly approached her and tried to hold her hand, you basically asked her to marry you.”
I felt my legs getting weak and plopped down onto my butt and said, “Well, this is one big misunderstanding. There has to be a way to get out of this, Red!”
She nodded her head dejectedly then laid face down in the dirt next to me and said, “Of course there is, or rather there was.”
I shot Red a panicked look and said, “What do you mean there WAS!?!”
She dragged her face out of the dirt and peaked one eye at me and said, “Yea, all you had to do was lose the Ritual of Bonded Combat, which you did not.”
I started to feel nauseous and lay down next to Red before saying, “How does that make sense at all, Red? My handshake meant 'will you marry me,' and then I sealed the deal by beating her up?”
Red curled up into a ball and wrapped her arms around her knees then said, “That's about the gist of it. The Denary rule the galaxy because Viltrix conquered the Pyramid, but that was only possible because the Denary are strong fighters. They have practiced the selective breeding Ritual of Bonded Combat for thousands of years. The only way to get a mate is to win them in hand-to-hand combat. So congratulations, Dad, I guess I get to have two mommies now.”
The second she finished her last sentence, a roar of laughter erupted out of Silvar. I looked over and found the old worm doubled over gasping for breath with tears at the corner of his eyes. He kept this up for a full minute before he stood back up and wiped his eyes then said, “Woooooh! That's rich. Congratulations, boy! I didn't know you had it in you!”
Distantly, I could hear the sound of Ruby’s soul-wrenching wails cut off abruptly when something inside the tank stirred. She appeared instantly at the glass of the tank and growled menacingly, “Home wrecker!”