The reptilian girl swung wide, He managed to block the hit, compared to Anaya this chick was amateurish, pretty much just swinging her fists at him. She threw another clawed fist at him his shoulder took the hit. She had also been a lot weaker compared to her, the fight was actually fair.

He swung back at her. She ducked the punch and retaliated with a jabbed towards his stomach. He gasped as he was forced to take a few steps backward from the strike. She wasn’t going to allow him time to recover she recklessly charged inward leaping into the air to deliver a downward kick.

Her body telegraphed her movements, Gabe ducked. The kick left her awkwardly positioned as she was coming down. He sent a shoulder to bash her way before she managed to land. Now she was the one on the ground.

“Take that you bitch!” The fight had obviously enraged Gabe. His vision was nearly red with fury, there was a quiet thumping somewhere in the back of his head.

She got up on her knees. Gabe swung towards her face. She blocked it with an arm and headbutted him in the groin. He was now in excruciating pain he hunched over in reaction.

She was now in the advantageous position. She delivered a knee to his face. His body twisted and he fell into the sand. The crowd was obviously loving the fight, if they weren't cheering their hardest, they were now.

Her clawed hand gripped Gabe’s hair, she pulled him upward to face her. She headbutted him once more. He fell to the ground again. At this point, blood began to flow from his abused forehead.

Gabe’s vision began to double. Two version of his opponent appeared. She showed that she posed for the crowd. She threw her arms upward, facing entirely away from him. The fight had been no more than two untrained fighters flailing around in the sand for ten minutes. And the crowd was loving every second of this brutal deathmatch.

His breathing was haggard and shallow. There was a throbbing that beat with the sound of a thousand drums going through his skull.

Using what he could muster from his straining muscles he managed to get on his feet. She threw a left punch and then a right punch. He was able to avoid both of these punches by moving backward.

His back one of the savage watchers, to preserve the one on one, the watcher shoved him back into the makeshift arena. He stumbled forward, she kicked his leg from underneath him. He fell to one knee.

Then one of the crowd handed her a crudely made looking sword, Its handle was made of leather, the blade looked to just be a sharpened piece of metal that was jagged in almost every direction. She was planning on ending the fight here and now.

She stopped just short of a few feet from Gabe. He looked upward into her slitted eyes. She gripped the sword in two hands. She brought the sword high into the air and swung downward. Gabe closed his eyes.

But he felt nothing. His head still felt attached to his body. He could still hear the crowd cheering. He reopened his eyes. Instead of being directly right in front of him she was just now approaching.

“What?” Gabe was utterly confused, he was sure that he was decapitated. She began her now familiar movements. She gripped the handle with both hands and brought the blade high.

Now that he had known what she was doing dropped lower to the ground, narrowly missing the blade. The miss left her entirely open to a counter. Gabe reached forward wrapped his arms around her legs and pulled forward causing her to drop and release the sword, flinging it in the sand. Gabe put almost everything he had into a punch aimed at her stomach. She actively flinched from the hit. Gabe peeled himself away from her. He stood away from her still writhing body on the ground, he spit out his blood into the sand.

His body was exhausted. He sauntered over to the fallen sword, picking it up he approached the downed girl. He stood there hesitantly. Then he noticed, the crowd was actually silent. They had been silent since he made his comeback.

Every single one of the lizard people waited in anticipation suspense. Not a single one of them thought he was going to make it out of that situation alive. He looked around the crowd. It was like he was being surrounded by statues. The stares got to him, he was able to snap back to his normalcy, He dropped the sword, the blade sunk into the sand leaving the handle sticking upward into the air. He did not exactly want to kill her, but he was technically just acting out of self-defense, a trait he’s learned that saves his life on a daily basis.

Besides, killing someone with a blaster is one thing, decapitating a head is another. He knew from experience just how gruesome it could be. Actually, know that he wasn’t constantly getting punched, He finally got a good look at the girl. She bore similar appearances to Zelgrek, not all but some. Perhaps the two species are related.

He wiped his forehead the best he could to clear the blood.

The crowd was quiet for several more minutes, but burst into the loudest cheers he heard that day. In a testosterone filled excitement most of the savages headbutted, locked hands in a shake. Apparently, this was something unexpected yet welcoming.

One arm was wrapped around his shoulder. “Hey, get-” another was wrapped around his other shoulder. Then one was touching his head and rubbed the top, scruffing up his hair even further. The creatures picked him up and began carrying him to one of the sand ships.

“Put me down!” He struggled within their embraces, but he was too tired to be any effect. “Let go of me!”

In his movements he was able to get a look behind him, the lizard girl he was fighting was now getting up clutching her stomach, slightly hunched over. It seems just like the reptiles of Earth, the belly was their ultimate weakness.

Her face was red, redder than her hair had been. She stared at Gabe with an expression of anger.

He was practically thrown onto the vehicle. A lot of the savages hung onto the sides of the railing or joined him on the outer deck.

The red headed girl also joined him in the same ship, she was leaning on the railing, giving Gabe a death stare.

Fortunately for him, his body hurt too much for him to really care about her or anything else. One of the lizard men banged on the side of the cockpit, The ships began to levitate and took off. The ship behind them was dragging the massive worm through the sands.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He looked over the side occasionally to see anything new, sadly it was just sands and an occasional giant rock.

The ride took maybe a half hour to stop, by then the sun was already starting to set. The destination was a large tribal village, The buildings all around them were made from bits of random metal and cloths. As soon as they approached the ships were surrounded by others of the same race, they unhooked the worm and took it somewhere, presumably to be cut up and served as food.

The few remaining lizard people helped some of the injured ones off. A few helped the lizard women who for the entirety of the ride said nothing and stared.

Gabe was left alone by everyone, the others were either talking or walking away with others. The lizard girl bumped past him, He followed her movements as she approached a muscular caped individual.

He looked at Gabe condescendingly, then back to the female, she told him something, she was obviously pissed. He backhanded her. She put her hand to her face and backed off. He walked to Gabe.

“Offworlder…” He spoke in Claloricean, his voice was hoarse and his accent was terrible but he still spoke it. He put a hand on the hilt of his sword. “You spared my daughter’s life after combat?”

Gabe was much shorter than him, His head reached the around the man’s chest. It was safe to safe he was one of the physically stronger one’s, he was a little frightening “Ye-yeah?”

He eyed Gabe up and down, “Weak.” He snorted and spit at Gabe’s feet. He turned to his daughter and jerk his head upward. She walked towards them both. “She’s yours.” He turned his back and walked away. Leaving the two to awkwardly to stand next to each other.

Gabe scratched the back of his neck. “So uh, do you speak Caloricean?”

She nodded. “Most can, They trade with us.”

“Why didn’t you speak it earlier?” Gabe questioned her.

She gave him a serious look. “Do you speak to insects that you kill?” Her voice was noticeable hoarse speaking it, but not as bad as her father’s. “Now my life is forfeited to you, my father already disowned me.”

He clapped his hands together, “Alright! This is going to be fun!” His tone was full of sarcasm.

In the distance an orange glow started to rise, the sound of drums being rapidly beat dominated the area.

“Come, Time for the feast.” She walked past him in the direction of where the sound was. The area they had come to was pretty clear, A few metal tents with cloth tarps hanging overhead. Several long tables were laid in the sand. A lot of the residents of the village were already there, drinking or eating soups of yellow flesh.

A massive bonfire sat off to the side, headless corpses of dog-like animals were skewered all around the sides. There had been a few fight’s in the sand, apparently fighting was something so deeply ingrained in their psychological culture that was how everything was settled, somehow stole something of yours? Fight them, Someone wanted one of your many wives, Fight them for it. If death occurred it would have been chalked up to the hazards of fighting someone much stronger than you.

But in Gabe’s case, he was an outworlder that fought and won against a member of one of the most influential of tribes, this meant he gained instant acceptance to whatever tribe he fought. In the terms of a deathmatch when lives were put up for the reward, the act of sparing the other’s life meant you wanted to have them as your subordinate. A life for a life in many aspects.

Gabe was seated at a table with the lizard girl, whose name he found out later to be ‘Sala’zara’. Their language was heavily based off words that rolled off their long, forked tongues. Apparently, she had been one of the chieftain's daughters.

Sala’zara had a total of seven siblings, four sisters, and three brothers. Apparently, the chieftains were supposed to marry off their children to other tribes to cement relations. So it was understandable why he was so pissed that she wasn’t killed, returning home as a slave to someone else was worse since he could see her as if she was a mark of shame upon his bloodline.

Gabe learned many other things about them, apparently their race was known as Cartollians, the planet was Cartol, apparently they did loads of trades with other races because of a toxin that is produced in the worm’s saliva that causes the brain to release a vast amount of chemicals, but when induced to the body in a low amount can enable the release of pain, making it very popular amongst mercenaries...and would explain why Gabe didn’t think to immediately pull out his blaster to shoot her.

Gabe watched Sala’zara tear into the animal flesh, her sharp fang-like teeth easily pierced the rough exterior of the meat. Upon closer inspection of her face revealed she didn’t quite have skin like him. There were tiny segmented lines going around everywhere, her flesh had been covered in dark colored scales. Then something clicked in Gabe’s head, he reached into his pocket and felt around for V.V.A, even though he was inactive Gabe would have all the time he needed to make something for the small chip.

“Zara.”

She tore a chunk of the meat from the bone. “What?” Her tone of voice was still pretty agitated.

Gabe ignored her obviously rude behavior. “Can you fly one of those?” He pointed to the sand ship.

She gulped down the food that was in her mouth and looked at him. “Yeah.” She paused and looked him in the eyes before asking the remaining ‘why’.

He smirked. “Just wanted to know.” He took a bite from the meat. Surprisingly it was strangely delicious, reminded him of grilled chicken.

The rest of the night was spent without saying anything else to the lizard girl. She probably wouldn’t have been guaranteed to do anything for him anyway, salty bitch.

Since there wasn’t a tent for him to sleep in he had to spend the night with Zara in her’s. Being the equal to a princess, she had a pretty cozy set up. It was a large bed with animal furs strewn about probably all from the animals she hunted.

Upon entering Zara grabbed an injector that was sitting on a table near her bed, a neon blue liquid swished in the vial underneath the trigger. She injected the liquid straight into her neck. Apparently, this was her normal nightly routine, injecting the toxin straight into her bloodstream to avoid going through the withdrawal of the worm saliva stimulate.

The stimulate was highly addictive, so if she injected it at night before she fell asleep she wouldn’t get into unnecessary fights while at the peak of her high. Unfortunately, Gabe was now in a room with a drugged out lizard women.

Her eyes began to dilate, the colors looked more vibrant. She stared at Gabe hungrily, her tongue fanned out of her mouth she licked her fangs. She got real close to behind him and threw him on the bed.

He managed to get out an ‘oof’ from the impact, He turned around to face her but she had been too quick, She pushed him down with one arm laying him down on his back, she gained a clawed grip on the front of his pants and torn them off, everything below the pants waist belt was now exposed.

“Uhhh, Zara...”

She climbed overtop of him and began to straddle him. She leaned upward and undid her armored vest and tossed it over to the side, Her breasts weren’t very large but they were very firm they were practically glistening with sweat, she glided her hands upward feeling every curve of her body ending at her breasts where she played with her nipples.

She reached downward and removed her own pants. Taking his now stiffening member in her hands she guided it’s head to her entrance. She pushed it “Aaahn~” she released a small moan.

Gabe’s mind started to go primal, the feeling of being inside of her was much different than a human, Her insides contracted much more than he thought was possible. His arms that were previously on bed found their way to her body and up to her medium sized breasts.

She bounced up and down as he thrust deeper into her. She let out more lewd noises the harder he went into her. Eventually, he found his way up to her neck. He gripped her throat between his hand. Her expression changed from one of pure pleasure to one of befuddlement. She still continued to moan loudly as he flipped the position, she was now underneath him her hands were wrapped around his hand that was lightly choking her.

They continued for half an hour in the drug-fueled sex before he pumped her full of his seed. By then they both had been exhausted and they fell asleep next to one another. Perhaps having her loyal to him wasn’t going to be so bad.