“Aaah..hah...hah.” Gabe sluggishly swung the blade, He was breathing was short and rapid.

Zara was cracking her neck while knocking every blow off to the side. “You’re gonna die like this.” she deadpanned. “For a ‘badass human,’ your endurance is pretty lacking.”

Gabe hunched over the sword’s tip slightly dipping into the sand, “Shut up! unlike you, I’m not hopped up on drugs!” His breathing started to stabilize from the short break. He took another lazy swing at Zara.

“Why don’t you?” She questioned knocking the sword back the same way it came in, “He takes Saz’k almost twice a day.”

“...” Gabe remained silent and didn’t move to attack.

Zara displayed a toothy grin, “It’ll hurt your ‘human’ pride! Hah! Haha!” She wasn’t exactly wrong, yes, he wouldn’t feel like he’s doing something on his own power, but, even before that Gabe had a strong opinion on drugs in general. He didn’t even like taking cough medicine, He preferred his body using its own strength to overcome the weakness.

Her laughter was making Gabe’s already sour mood go further south. He mustered, even more, strength and swung at the distracted female. She grabbed the blade with her hand, a very small amount of blood trickled out. Her expression changed drastically.

“You also have to be able to penetrate or scales, or else.” She grabbed the blade and threw it backward sending Gabe’s arms upward, she pointed her blade at his throat, ending the spar in her victory. “This wasn’t the same creature I fought yesterday.” She lowered her sword from his throat.

“It’s obvious that you had Saz’k in your body.”

“I did not inject anything into myself!” He protested.

“You might not have, but you were wet when you beat me, yes?”

Gabe thought back to the moment he drank and bathed in the liquid in the worm’s mouth, he nodded.

“The only creatures that were around that produced liquids were Salak’zak worms, You ingested Saz’k in its raw form.”

“...Why are you helping me, you could easily fight me and kill me.” Gabe decided to switch the topic, not wanting to think that something he did wasn’t of his own power.

She sat down on the sand, stabbing her sword into the soft surface, staring off to the ever calm sands. “I wondered that myself,” Gabe decided to sit down next to her, she turned her head to look at him, “I hated you for your victory against me, I even planned on killing you.”

“Thanks for not doing that.”

Ignoring his attempt at being comedic she continued. “After I was with you last night, I sat on the bed and wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it...but I can now see I would have been foolish to do so.”

She sat back up and extended a hand, “Come on, we have a lot of work before you face my father.”

Gabe looked at her face, She had a genuine smile. He grabbed her hand and pulled himself up, He was now feeling invigorated from the fact that someone believed in him, sort of. She plucked her sword out of the ground, Gabe got into what he assumed was a proper way to hold a sword. The two sparred most of the morning away, She allowed Gabe small breaks to recover stamina, those slowly diminished as they were a part of the training regime she had to increase his endurance.

By the time they finished the sun began to set, the once bright yellow sand now had a deep orange glow as the light reflected.

Gabe drank from a water pouch that Zara had brought with her, She sheathed the sword in the scabbard that was attached to a large reptilian bear creature known as a Kalik. “You’re still going to die.” She said while tightening the straps on the creature.

Almost struggling to not spit out the water that was currently holding in his mouth. He replied, “I thought you said I got better!”

“Better, yes. Stronger, no. even if you were trying you still couldn’t penetrate my skin. And that’s what would be your death.” She approached Gabe and extended her index finger, she lightly scratched the surface of his skin and drew blood.

“You, on the other hand, are very soft, even without a sword, I could kill you. Once he realizes that, he won’t hold back.”

“So, even after all that I have to rely on the drugs?” The slice didn’t exactly hurt, but he could feel his blood cooling down the outside of his skin, He took a piece of cloth that Zara handed him and wrapped it around.

“Yes.” She answered him, as she got on the creature’s saddled back, “Although you can survive if you get put on the defensive from the very start.”

Gabe got jumped onto the creature, wrapped his arm around Zara’s waist and they rode off back towards the tribe, the journey was almost done in silence. The mood was pretty heavy, even for Zara, since she belonged to Gabe, if he lost, she’d most likely be killed on the spot. Her father already disowned her once, he wasn’t going to forgive her failure he’d make sure to erase anything that reminded him of weakness.

In Fact, the ‘trials’ that he wanted to Gabe to perform was nothing more than simple brainwashing. It was simple but had a pretty high success rate in killing off-worlders who try to make a home in the tribe. The room would be filled with a toxin that would knock the victim unconscious, they’d throw a brain invading parasite into the room and allow it to nest inside the victim. The parasite would ‘borrow’ thoughts to bring the host to a submissive state where it would then take control. Very rarely would the host be able to break free from the control, but when it did they would emerge thinking they had perceived something that was regarded to as fate. And try something stupid that would get them killed. In Gabe’s case, it was challenging the chieftain.

The plan would have been a flawless success if Zara hadn’t decided to help Gabe out if she didn’t believe he was up to something big.

When they arrived they noticed something, the few amount of sand ships they had were doubled. The markings on the sides also differed from the ones of Zara’s tribe. This one had a white claw scratch going diagonally. They jumped off the Kalik, Something didn’t feel right to her, she grabbed the sword off the side and they headed inward to the tribe center. There was a bustle of activity, apparently, another clan came to watch the fight, probably to see who the strength of the newcomer who challenged one of the strongest war chiefs.

Gabe and Zara stood side by side as the crowd parted into a giant semi-circle.

“Offworlder! I hope you don’t mind, But we moved the execution to tonight!” the chieftain extended his arms standing at the furthest point in the circle.

“Hey, Zara.”

“Yeah?”

“Inject me.”

She gave him a smile and unlatched an injector from her waist. She stuck the injector underneath his neck and pulled the trigger, He flinched momentarily but stayed still, the liquid drained into his body. It then occurred to her that he wasn't a Cartollian, The amount in the vial could've been too much for his foreign body, Oh well, if whether he died because he couldn’t pierce the scales of her father or because his heart exploded she’d still be killed. She flipped the sword around catching it by her blade, presenting him the handle. He grabbed the handle and made his way towards the center.

Even if he did drink the stuff raw, this felt different, everything sounded louder, he could feel just about everything, the sand that was carried through the wind blowing past his exposed skin down to the insides of his boots.

Veins began to show up underneath his skin, they had been enlarged and pulsated. Anything that wasn’t within his direct eyesight blurred. His hearing had been enhanced so well that he could even hear his own heart beating away in his chest, the beats accelerated almost twice the amount they had already been going at, A form of anxious adrenaline was welling inside of his body. There was probably other ingredients mixed in with the refined solution that made him feel this different than just the Salak’zak saliva. He gripped the leathered handle of the blade tighter.

“That’s the spirit!” He roared walking in unison with Gabe to the middle.

The two met in the center of the circle but stayed a good meter away from each other. The chieftain was much taller than Gabe, only giving him a slight advantage over him, But the boy was still squishy removing that height difference.

Gabe’s eyesight cut everything that wasn’t the chief out of sight, to him there were only two people. The two waited for a few minutes, just playing mind games of who would strike first.

Somewhere in the crowd drums began to beat, they synchronized with Gabe’s throbbing ears, enticing that feeling to grow stronger, his heart to beat louder. The chief made the first move, He made an overhead swung towards him, Gabe ducked and rolled forward, standing back up at behind the chief. He turned around and also gave a swing of his own, It was blocked. The chieftain’s sword didn’t even budge, Gabe’s blow just deflected right off staggering him backward.

The chieftain laughed, “Even on the Saz’k you’re still weak!” He stomped forward, sand flew high in the air as he closed the small distance between him and Gabe. He had aimed towards his abdomen with a horizontal swing, Gabe managed to connect his blade but instead of doing the same and deflecting, he rode with the force propelling him closer to the crowd.

Zara was actually shocked, she assumed that juicing him up would be enough to defeat the war chief, but even with the possibly lethal dosage, he was still too much for Gabe to handle. That’s when she got the idea that they should play a little dirty.

Gabe rolled another one of his slashes, but this time he had followed-up with an attack, It was an overhead swing, Gabe brought the blade upward using both arms but the chieftains strength was far greater, He pushed down effortlessly, The blade was being redirected to the side but still managed slice a good chunk of flesh off his shoulder, It wasn’t too bad of a cut, but underneath the Saz’k’s effect made him vulnerable to any type of cuts, as he would bleed out from the enhance circulation.

Gabe backpedaled away from the chief, even trying to ride his attacks were still dangerous. Gabe kept his distance from the war chief. If he swung he would dive in the opposite direction and head to a different section of the circle.

Every now and then the war chieftain would taunt him telling him to stop being a coward. But those fell on deaf ears as Gabe continued to prolong his lifespan in the arena. But what Gabe did hear was a hissing whistle that grabbed his attention. It was Zara, she had been standing next to her mount. Gabe nodded, the current positioning was perfect. She gave her creature a stern clawed smack to the ass sending it into the crowd in a frenzy.

The beast rolled through the crowd, some managed to dodge, others were trampled. The beast was now in the center of the ring, clawing at both the attendants. Gabe was small enough that he managed to dodge a good amount of the swipes. But the much heavier chieftain took them all, He was covered in bleeding scratches before he drove his sword down on the beast’s neck, The blade went all the way through the neck and exposed itself on the other side of the throat. Gabe took the opportunity to sprint into a sliding dive, cleaving the chieftains leg in two. He fell to one side with a pained hiss. The now laying down opponent was ended swiftly when Gabe jabbed the sword straight into his throat, the initial stab didn’t kill the chieftain the blood pooling in his throat was the real culprit.

Now that the fight was over, His body started to push away the adrenaline, the first to subside was his hearing, The crowd had been cheering to almost thunderous levels, the blood, the carnage, everything. They were in love with the scene.

Gabe looked around, With the chieftain strongest chieftain dead, even by an unfair circumstance, no one dared to challenge Gabe’s ascendance to the tribe’s throne. The next feeling to come back was his touch, A warm clawed hand held onto him, looking to its owner, it was Zara. She had a predatory smile on her face, that’s when he realized he also had one, their eyes locked onto each other. Unblinking they both knew what they wanted, and it was very carnal, She led him off to her tent.