After Johnson agreed to the match, the assistant prepped us for the fight by going over the few rules involved. Then he handed us off to a hostess who led us out into the arena.

The rules were simple. Fight until someone conceded or was unconscious. Weapons, magic, or racial abilities were not allowed. The fight was meant to be basic hand-to-hand combat. As far as fighting styles were concerned, there were no restrictions aside from not using fatal techniques.

I wondered if fighting in a transformed state counted as a breach in the rules regarding racial abilities. As we stepped up onto the platform that housed the cage, I took in the crowd around me. There were several hundred people watching the match from the arena floor. The Kraken drew a diverse crowd, being one of the larger establishments in Veridi that catered to tourists and those traveling for business. There were at least a dozen different races represented in the crowd. Most were humanoid, but there were many exceptions.

Bookies dressed in casual suits and waitstaff dressed in more formal attire ambled throughout the crowd with holo-tablets in hand, taking bids on the match and drink orders from guests, respectively. From my vantage point on the platform, I realized that the crowd was situated close enough to the fight to see the action clearly, yet they were far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to hear any verbal exchanges that took place inside the cage.

This was perfect for my agenda, as I intended to use the fight as a cover to press my opponent for answers.

I had noticed earlier that many of the local high-rollers preferred the privacy of the screened booths. Discretion would be extremely valuable for those operating locally and needing to keep a respectable appearance on whatever disreputable thing they happened to get into at the nightclub.

As we approached the cage and stepped through the opening in the metal mesh, the crowd erupted with applause. Apparently, Rorik had been successful hyping this up as a bonus one-time-only exhibition. The bright lights illuminating the cage platform obscured most of my vision of the crowd, but the hum of activity and noise of the audience dominated the atmosphere.

An oversized holographic projection of the MC appeared over the cage as the immaculately dressed Syreni man addressed the crowd.

“Honored guests of The Kraken, our esteemed host has arranged a late-night treat for your entertainment.”

The man suffered no lack of showmanship, and his projected voice carried easily over the crowd noise.

“Returning to the cage for the third time tonight, a man who is easy on the eyes but hard on his opponents, he has commanded respect on the mat for the second night in a row, and now looks to dominate his opponent in the cage one more time. Make some noise for your current heavy-hitter, MONSTER JOHNSON!!!”

The crowd roared with cheers as the man in question raised a fist in salute. He bounced on the balls of his feet a couple times and rolled his neck to loosen up his stance. He threw a sexy smirk and wink my way as he did so.

“And his final opponent for the night, a mysterious but beautiful newcomer, she looks to pit her wit and sleek fighting skills against his brute strength and towering stature. Will she fall under the indominable will of our up-and-coming champion? Or will he succumb to the combat prowess of this sultry challenger? Let’s give a fierce Kraken welcome to the alluring Outlaw, Skye Alnasi!!!”

As the crowd began to cheer, it had the distinct low timber of mostly male voices. Apparently, enjoying the idea of watching a woman, especially one who didn’t resemble a juiced-up body builder, fight it out in the cage was an exciting prospect for the audience.

Rather than pander to the crowd, I adopted a casual pose on my side of the platform. One hand was tucked loosely into my pocket while the other hung relaxed by my side. Eyeing my opponent and smiling roguishly, I, too, casually shrugged my shoulders to loosen them but added a little embellishment for the crowd. With a thought, I sent a pulse of energy cascading through the tattoos up and down my body. It was a trick I had perfected some years ago, but the effect was that, for a moment, it looked as if I sparkled as I shrugged.

I knew the move was a crowd-pleaser, and this time when the crowd roared, the arena vibrated as hands and feet pounded chairs and tables with enthusiasm.

Johnson smiled and shook his head at the display.

“No fair. How am I supposed to compete with sexy and sparkling?” he called.

“You’re just now figuring out how outmatched you are, then?” I said back, smiling.

The electronic tone signaling the beginning of the fight blared, and we circled closer to each other. My stance was no longer casual but rather tight and alert.

I jabbed at him several times with my fists. He deflected one, dodged another and caught the last one, using the leverage of my arm to pull me in close up against his body. The crowd roared in appreciation. They were enjoying the provocative tension of the matchup.

He winked at me again, and I smirked back, using the close proximity to wrap my leg around his calf. Throwing him off balance, I pushed my body forward into his larger frame and he toppled backwards. I used the momentum and his hold on my arm as a fulcrum to pivot into a midair somersault and land on the other side of his now supine body.

He wasn’t down for long, however, doing a kip-up back to his feet and turning around to meet my next barrage of kicks and punches. So far, he was only making defensive moves against my attacks, seemingly refusing to throw punches of his own.

“It’s going to be very hard to win a fight if you don’t actually hit me,” I teased as we separated and circled each other slowly again.

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

“You’ve definitely got me at a disadvantage, right?” he said. “You get to be all sleek and sexy while beating me up, but there’s nothing sexy about a man punching a woman. I do have an image to maintain.”

Seeing an opening to push my agenda and the advantage in the fight simultaneously, I launched another series of attacks at him.

“There’s an easy fix to your problem,” I said between hits. He countered most of them, again, not trying to fight back. “Transform into something female.”

His startled reaction was swift as he caught my leg mid round-house kick and flung me back across the cage. I landed lightly against the metal mesh side and braced myself against it to regain my balance.

He stared at me for a moment before answering in a casual tone, “That’s an odd suggestion.”

“Why? Is gender swapping outside of your skill set, Dick?” I pressed, not letting him shrug it off.

“Now, now, no need for name calling,” he quipped, again trying to ignore my accusation.

“How about: lying, sneaky, bastard who probably tried to murder us all?” I said.

“Did you set up this fight to settle some personal beef you’ve got with someone? And you think I’m him?” he said.

His tone was so convincing that I would have believed it were it not for our earlier interaction in the locker room. I knew he was Dick. He wasn’t going to persuade me otherwise.

“Fine, if you want to play dumb, I’ll just kick the shit out of you until you decide to stop playing games,” I said and launched toward him with fervor.

The crowd rallied at the new assault I was laying on him, but calls were coming out from the stands for him to start fighting back.

“I’m not going to fight you,” he said, failing to block several blows and taking one hit straight to the jaw.

“And I’m perfectly content to beat your ass senseless whether you fight back or not,” I challenged.

“I’m not whoever you think I am!” he growled in frustration as he took another hit to the knee.

“We’ll see,” I said.

I feigned a punch to his left side, which he intercepted with his left arm. Grabbing his now outstretched arm, I pivoted and round-house kicked him as hard as I could in his side. He went down hard to one knee with a gasp, and I let him go and backed away.

He looked up sharply at me in anger, his brown Centuri eyes flickering to a familiar shade of stormy grey briefly before recovering. Blood discolored his light brown shirt where I had kicked. The injury didn’t escape the crowd.

“It looks like our challenger has drawn first blood,” the MC announced. “But our champion has yet to throw a single punch at his beautiful opponent. Have we found the unstoppable Centuri’s fatal flaw?”

Catching his breath from the blow, the large Centuri man stood up and squared off in front of me.

“What’s this all about, Skye?” Dick asked, and I could tell he was done with the charade.

“You tell me,” I said, accusingly. “You’re the one who’s been running around pretending to be something else right under our noses.”

“It was Owen, wasn’t it?” he said with a tired sigh. “I’m not surprised. Once everyone started looking into what he is, I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone figured it out.”

The crowd was growing restless, so we circled each other to keep up appearances of the fight while we talked. Every now and then, one of us would throw a punch out to keep it looking convincing.

“What I don’t get,” Dick continued, “is why all this set-up, Skye? If you figured it out, why not just say something? What’s the purpose of going through all this?”

“Because it’s not the only thing I’m here to figure out,” I said, then spread my arms out to indicate our surroundings. “Look at where we are. In a cage with hundreds of witnesses. You’re not getting out of here until I’m convinced you didn’t try to kill me over whatever the hell is in our cargo bay floor.”

His gaze hardened as he intercepted another attack. This left me with my back to him as he clutched my arm and pulled me back against him, again.

“Two things,” he said quietly near my ear. “First, what makes you think this cage can hold me if I don’t want it to?”

He pushed me forward to throw me off balance, but I pivoted gracefully to face him.

“Second, are you so sure you can punch your way through every transformation at my disposal?”

“Go ahead,” I taunted. “But you should know that if you decide to go pulling out all the stops with your racial abilities, so will I.”

I made the tattoos on my arms pulse warningly to punctuate my words.

“What do you want from me?” he asked. “You want me to tell you I was on that ship to steal the thing in the cargo bay? Fine. I was.”

His candid answer threw me off guard for a moment, and he used that moment to press forward with an attack. Rather than hit me outright, he wrapped me up in a submission hold and pinned me face down to the mat.

“But I didn’t kill any pilots, and I damn sure didn’t send someone to attack and nearly kill everyone on our transport, myself included!” he said, raising his voice in frustration.

Angry at being pinned in such a helpless position and startled that he admitted he knew about the cargo all along, I lashed out with my free elbow and connected hard again with his wounded side. Then I pivoted onto my back and kicked him hard in the face, taking him down and rolling our bodies until I was perched on top of him.

“Dammit, stop that!” he growled.

Then a sharp and sudden spike of euphoria racked my body. The onslaught of his pheromones was stronger than I had ever experienced it, strong enough to be the finishing act in the bedroom. In fact, had I not already been in such an agitated and angry state, it might have had an equivalent outcome on me in the middle of the arena in front of hundreds of people. I flipped off him and backed away quickly as far as the cage would let me.

“Dickhead,” I spat.

“I keep telling people, it’s just Dick,” he said, sarcastically. “And you're not the only one who can play dirty, Skye.”

Pissed beyond words that he used his pheromones on me like that, I fought him with real intent to knock his ass out. My attacks turned savage, and he had no option but to fight back for real or get demolished.

Dick had always claimed he wasn’t a good fighter, and while that wasn’t exactly true, he obviously relied on the form he was in to give him the advantage. Stuck in the Centuri’s body, which proved ineffective against my fighting style, he was unable to adapt and losing the fight rapidly. Finally, I landed a hard kick to his temple that sent him reeling back and stumbling.

The crowd erupted in surprise. They had been getting increasingly more excited as our fight took an earnest turn.

“Why are you so determined to beat the shit out of me, Skye?” Dick finally asked, as he braced himself against the cage.

“Why should I believe that you knew about the secret cargo in our transport but had nothing to do with the attack that started all of this?!”

Even though I was shouting, I knew nobody else would be able to hear me over the din of the crowd.

“Because I can’t be here!” he yelled back.

I stopped, seeing real emotion twisting his face in pain.

“Right now, on the other side of the galaxy is someone I care deeply about who will die if I don’t make it back to them in time,” he said, the intensity of his feelings nearly choking out his voice as he spoke. “I nearly died in that attack, too, Skye. Yes, I was after the cargo. But the plan was to get my hands on it and get back as quickly as possible. Why would I do anything to jeopardize that?”

I felt the tension and anger drain from my body. I believed him. The emotion on his face and in his voice would have been enough for me to believe he was telling the truth. But that wasn’t the only reason I knew he was sincere.

The fervor of the crowd had quieted considerably by the time Dick finished his explanation, and a low mummer of confusion replaced the shouting.

Dick stared back at me with dark blue eyes, this time. He seemed unaware, or perhaps no longer cared, that he had slipped back into his human form in front of hundreds of people.