Chapter 38: Guilty Until Proven Innocent.
The moment the words left Ryan's mouth the entire chamber erupted into chaos, but the mood in the room was completely conflicted, some of them were calling for it not to be allowed as he was a Dream Warrior and had an unfair advantage, others were calling for it to happen as it was a sacred tradition.
The clan leader banged his massive hand on the bench in front of him so loud the noise echoed around the room, "SILENCE!" he roared so loud that everyone in the room instantly fell silent and turned to face him, the clan leader rose to his feet and regarded Ryan with a suspicious eye, "Do you know what you're asking for boy?" he asked looking right at Ryan's eyes, Ryan nodded,
"I do, I am asking for you to uphold one of the most honored and sacred Yaujta traditions, if by executing me for merely existing and for daring to fall in love with a woman who loves me back with equal conviction you claim to be upholding sacred Yaujta ways then how can you if you deny me this most sacred of Yaujta rights?" he said loudly, there was an unsure murmur around the room, Ryan decided to push his advantage here, "Think about it, what more sacred is there among Yaujta tradition than to let Paya decide a person's innocence or guilt?" Ryan said, one of the front row Yaujta jumped to her feet and slammed her hands on the bench,
"You dare take our sacred goddess's name in vain?" she said loudly, Ryan turned to look at her,
"Quite the opposite actually, right now I am prepared to put my life in her hands, if my existence and way of life is true and right in her eyes then she will undoubtedly lead me to victory, if not then I will fall and you will know that you were right all along" he said calmly, the female clicked her mandibles a few times as she debated this in her own head, then she sat back down without saying another word, the clan leader clicked his mandibles curiously as he regarded the young hybrid, he couldn't decide if the young boy was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, Ryan looked around the room at the gathered people and spirits, there was a mixture of emotions circling around the room, some were downright angry at him for even daring to demand such rights, there were others that were curious of the young hybrid and some even let admiration show on their faces, strangely it seemed mainly the females in the room that seemed to be showing the admiration.
The clan leader looked around the room at the faces of those gathered and he sighed, he knew that the boy was right, he could not execute him in the name of upholding Yaujta tradition if he did not allow this boy's request, it was a sacred right under Yaujta law and tradition, "Very well Ryan of the clan Mason you will have your trial by combat, do you know the rules?" he said, quite a few sets of mandibles around the room dropped open at this, Ryan shook his head,
"Not fully no, I know that it is split into four parts, but that's it" he said, the clan leader nodded,
"That's right, you will have four different opponents, the first is a criminal like yourself, this is to symbolize your guilt, the second will be a beast from our hunting stores, this will symbolize your usefulness as a hunter, the third will be a beast of immense strength to prove the strength of your convictions, now the forth is optional, if after the other three trials are complete your accuser wishes to face you directly in one on one combat that will be granted to them" the clan leader, Ryan now turned to look at Shena's father who was sat there smugly with his arms crossed over his chest, he got the feeling that if he made it that far he was going all the way here, "If you succeed in defeating all opponents in your way, you will be granted your innocence and set free, do you understand these terms and accept them?" the clan leader asked looking at Ryan, the young boy turned to face him again and much to his surprise saw even more fire in his eyes than before he'd started speaking,
"I do" Ryan said calmly, the clan leader clicked his mandibles thoughtfully, then he nodded, he had to admit he was impressed by this youngster, never before had anyone brought before him demanded this right, most begged for their lives or stood there in silent defeat, but this young hybrid seemed to have determination surrounding him like a fire so bright that it almost appeared to make him shine, he'd also noticed the effect his words and defiance had one the crowd, where most of them had just come to see his execution now there was a mixture of emotions floating around the room, some were still wishing death on him, but then he could see others had taken the young boys words on board and seemed to either empathize with him or even silently support him, even he had to admit this youngsters bravery and charisma was infectious, well the trials would determine his innocence,
"Very well then, Ryan of the clan Mason you shall face your trial by combat, I hope you are ready as there will be no rest from this point, you will be led from here to the arena where you will face your first trial, may Paya have mercy on you young one" he said, with that he gestured to the Arbiters and they moved forwards took his chains and led him from the chambers, immediately there was a stampede from the court chambers, not a single person in the room was going to miss this for anything, this was the chance of a life time, a chance to see a hybrid Dream Warrior fight for his life and his freedom, even the clan leader had to resist the urge to run to the arena.
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The dock master checked his list as he looked at the large corvette that had just docked, this was strange as he hadn't been expecting any arrivals today, but then the clearance codes had matched up properly and he supposed hunters were rather unpredictable at the best of times, he was constantly having to deal with random whims of the various hunting parties aboard the clan ship, he ran the ship's ID codes through his lists but he couldn't see them anywhere, "Pauking piece of c'jit" he said banging the console with his hand as it gave him yet another set of error codes, he looked up at the ship from his office window below the loading gantry to the ship, it was sure a fine looking vessel obviously belonging to someone of high standing, it was fast sleek and looked like it was armed to the mandibles, it was at that point one of the dock workers shot passed his window screaming as he fell down towards the huge hanger, "What the pauk!?" the dock master yelled leaning forwards and closer to the window, the man who'd fell was swiftly joined by another screaming man also on his way head first to the bottom of the hanger, that's when he heard the plasma casters, "Pauk, Pauk, Pauk!" the dock master yelled to himself, he turned and ran towards the general alarm button, it was at that point he became aware of someone to his right he also became aware of the tri laser dots on his head, he froze with his hand above the button and turned slowly, stood to his right was a young female in full battle armor with two spun up plasma casters on her shoulders pointing at his head,
"Wish to live?" the young female asked in a rather distorted voice, the young cock master nodded slowly, he didn't want to be killed here he had a young son that he wanted to see grow up,
"Then take your hand away from that button and lay down on your face" she instructed, the young dock master stepped back from the button and did as she instructed, suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his right side, he looked down and saw that he'd been shot with a dart gun, that's when the world went black.
"I've secured the hanger office" Shena Black Crest said into her wrist comp,
"Good I'll be there momentarily just one more problem to deal with" Tik's voice came through the speaker in her mask, suddenly an armored guard came screaming passed the window head first.
As she turned to look the door behind her hissed open and Shena spun around with her wrist blades ready to engage, but the figure of Tik eleth in the doorway calmed her, she was looking at the unconscious dock master on the floor, sensing her curiosity Shena spoke, "I'll only kill those that attack me or try to stop me reaching my male, I'm not here to kill the innocent" she said, Tik eleth nodded at her without saying a word and moved passed her young companion to the main dock terminal, quickly she patched her wrist comp into it and started searching, the easy part was done now they were on board, now they had to find where they were holding her precious son and get him back, she was feeling pretty conflicted right at this moment, for years all she'd dreamed of was coming back here when she had been trapped on that planet, until he met her beloved mate, now she was here her mind was in a spin, part of her wanted to see her family again, the other part wanted to make them answer for the injustices that they inflicted on her, she shook her head to clear it, now was not the time for this nostalgia, her mission here was simple, get her son back.
Using her family's clearance code Tik was able to get into the Arbiter judicial computer, this is where all the records of judgements passed were kept, she searched for her son's her name and to her amazement she found it instantly, her eyes widened in shock and she stepped back almost falling until Shena grabbed her and steadied her, "What? What is it?" the young girl asked looking at her new clan Matriarch,
"He's been sentenced to a trial by combat" Tik said in a quiet and shocked voice,
"So? We'll just get in there and bust him out" Shena said defiantly, her senses realigned thanks to the defiance in the young girl's voice, she nodded and quickly downloaded the details, it was to be held in the ship's main arena right now,
"Come on we have to move!" Tik said and with that the pair of them turned and charged off deep into the ship.
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Ryan stood marveling at the arena he now found himself in, this place was absolutely huge, it had rows upon rows of seats stacked upon each other up in a huge column like structure, as he watched the spectator seats were filling up fast, he was currently in a small room that was attached to the main arena floor by was separated by bars that allowed him to see into but not enter the main arena, on the wall of the cell was a verity of melee weapons, from what looked like a Morningstar to a massive great sword, before they'd undone his chains leaving in him in the room alone both of the Arbiters had actually wished him luck.
As he stood looking at the weapons on the wall he felt a presence behind him and he turned to look, stood in the corner with grey smoke billowing around him was Tan sel eleth, he had his arms folded over his chest and was looking into the arena, he was still dressed in his ceremonial white armor and looked every bit the fierce Yaujta warrior that he had when Ryan had first seen him on the planet, now he turned and regarded the young teen and to Ryan's amazement his mandibles drew up into a smile, "So this is it huh?" Tan said in his deep gravelly voice, Ryan tilted his head in confusion, "The moment a hybrid Dream Warrior makes Yaujta history, there's a lot riding on the outcome of this" he continued,
"No pressure huh?" Ryan said quietly, Tan moved from the wall and walked over to him, it confused Ryan for a second how a warrior in full battle armor of Tan's size made no noise till he remembered he was a spirit, Tan placed one of his huge hand's on Ryan's shoulder and to his surprise it felt as real as his own,
"I can't pretend to know the mind of a goddess, but what I do know is that she has bet a lot on you here and for someone like her to have such faith in you, you won't fail, trust in her and in your Dream Warrior instincts, let them both guide you in this fight and you'll come out on top, of this I have no doubt" he said, Ryan felt his heart lift at the words of the old grizzled warrior, "Now get out there and show them what the best of both worlds can do" Tan said and Ryan felt his heart fire right up, he nodded and the grizzled old warrior grinned before fading into smoke again, Ryan turned to the weapon wall again and instantly pulled two long swords from it, twirling one in each hand he took a few deep breaths to steel his nerves, as he did he heard the voice of the clan leader boom from somewhere above him,
"You are gathered here to witness the trial by combat of the hybrid Ryan of the clan Mason, he is charged with being an abomination of nature being both ooman and Yaujta a product of deviancy and also of infecting another of our number with his deviancy, in the form of Shena formerly of the Black Crest family who has been exiled for her part in their deviancy, but Ryan here has opted for a trial by combat, now given this is one of our oldest and most sacred traditions I am honor bound to allow it, he will face the same trials that any full blooded Yaujta would with no difference for his obvious handicap of being part ooman, if he wishes to fight and die like a Yaujta then we will grant him that honor, now that having been said his status as a Dream Warrior cannot be ignored, they are supposed to be the best warriors among us so the trials have been adapted to reflect this" he said, Ryan gritted his teeth at being called an abomination again, his hands tightened around the sword hilts, he was going to show them what this abomination could do, "His first opponent will be a group criminals who have been offered their freedom if they defeat him, so without any further delay let the trial begin!" the clan leaders voice boomed, as his mind processed that the trials had been changed to reflect him being a Dream Warrior the bars separating the cell from the arena slid into the floor, no time to second guess himself time to act and with a deep breath Ryan charged out into the brightly lit arena.
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Tik eleth jumped forwards and grabbed the guard's arm right before he was able to push the alarm button, with a quick flourish of her wrist blade she was able to cut it off at the elbow, the guard screamed before she was able to turn and slam his own severed fist into his wide open mandibles and mouth silencing him, quickly she turned to see how her young companion was doing but as she turned she saw Shena leap from a guard rail with the sword of Perseus high above her head, with some serious force she was able to slam it straight through the second guard's chest so that it pierced not only his chest armor but his back armor as well as it appeared out of his back, then with the momentum of his falling body carrying her she rolled forwards off the body just as it hit the ground pulling the sword free and sprinting full tilt towards the third guard of the group, the guard readied his spear to defend himself but then something strange happened, as Shena readied the sword on the run it glowed blue and in a flash it changed shape, it went from being a 3ft long Katana sword to being a much shorter but wider bladed xiphos sword, Tik's eyes widened in surprise at this especially as Shena didn't even seem to notice, she just used it to bat the lunged spear harmlessly away from her before rolling in low and plunging it upwards into the guard's stomach.
Shena flicked the dead guard's blood from the sword's blade and to her surprise she appeared to have a totally different sword in her hand than she'd started with, then as she looked at it it flashed blue and changed back into the long Katana blade she remembered, "What the pauk just happened?" she said looking at the sword,
"I was about to ask you that same question" Tik said approaching her, Shena looked curiously at the sword,
"Well Jack did say that this was a Dream Warrior weapon right? So maybe it has some sort of Dream Warrior power infused into it?" Shena said looking curiously at the blade which for some reason seemed to be thrumming quite happily in her hand, it was like the sword was happy to be used again,
"I wouldn't doubt it, Dream Warriors have all sorts of mystery's surrounding them and given some of the stories I've heard about them and from the things I've seen my beloved do, shape shifting weapons are not out of the realm of imagination" Tik said looking at the shimmering blade, Shena looked at her,
"Well we'd better get moving Paya only knows what's happening to Ryan at this moment" she said her voice gaining an edge of very real haste to it that snapped Tik back to the present, the Matriarch huntress nodded and both of them charged off down the corridor they were currently following to the ship's main arena.
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Ryan stood watching as his five opponents circled him, his heart was hammering in his chest as he watched the group which consisted of three males and two female circled him trying to taunt him into making the first move, but he was trying to keep his mind calm and to remember Tan sel eleth's words, that's when an idea hit him, he closed his eyes.
The group circling Ryan watched in surprise as the young teen closed his eyes, they looked at each other in confusion, up until this they had being trying to taunt him into attacking one of them so that the others could get behind him and hit him in the back, they were hesitant to attack out right because they knew that this was a Dream Warrior that they were facing, but then when he closed his eyes on of the groups males got a shot of confidence, he raised his war hammer high above his head and he charged right at the young boy with a mighty roar.
The sound of the male's running feet echoed in Ryan's mind, it was like watching a stone skipping across a pond in slow motion, each step creating ripples of sound and pressure, then just when the ripples washed over him from close by his eyes snapped open and he moved.
The young teen moved so fast that not one of the others actually seen him move, he just seemed to shimmer and then suddenly he wasn't where he was originally, he was about twenty feet away looking like he just landed from a jump, then they all turned back to the male who had run at him just in time to see a verity of wounds open up on his body, one under each arm right in the pit and one at the back of each knee, the male yelled in pain and dropped to his knees but they wouldn't support him so he fell onto his face, then as they watched four huge jets of blood shot from the wounds on the male's body, it appeared that the cuts that the boy had inflicted had severed his arteries, this would cause him to bleed out in seconds, as their attention switched from the stricken male back to the boy they all discovered he'd gone, well not far, he was stood directly behind the second of the four in the semi-circle they were stood in, as the two furthest away watched he plunged both his swords through her back and then kicked off her body before sprinting so fast they could barely see him towards them, the fourth member of their group was just stood there as still as a statue as if frozen in fear, the teen reached the third one and easily batted aside the downward strike from his mace before turning on his axis and severing his arm at the elbow with one sword and then pivoting and plunging his other straight through his heart.
The fourth member of this team stood there staring at the young boy in disbelief, Dream Warrior or not moving like that was impossible surely? But then before he had chance to contemplate this Ryan appeared directly in front of him and his arms swung in a scissor motion across his chest, then slowly he turned and showed his back to the male and appeared to flick both of his swords to his sides to clear the blood from the blades, "How dare you show your pauking back to me!" the male roared but none of the words seemed to come out of his mouth, then he tried to reach for the boy but his arms didn't respond, suddenly he had a feeling of falling and he felt the impact on the floor of the arena, he had a strange feeling of rolling before he found himself looking up at a headless body stood over him, which was oddly familiar, then it collapsed on top of him and the world went black.
As the male behind him collapsed Ryan saw the first one he'd reached in the group after the male had attacked him start to fall, her head slowly peeled back from her body and fell down to the floor swiftly followed by her body, he glanced around and saw that all of the criminals sent to kill him lay dead around him, it was at that point that the world around him seemed to return to normal speed, up until that point everything seemed to have been moving in super slow motion for him, he looked up at the crowd in the arena and at first there was silence, then slowly a single solitary clap could be heard, this was swiftly joined by another and then another, swiftly cheering broke out and yelling as well. Ryan looked at this spectacle rather confused, here was a symbol of something that they were supposed to hate, in their eyes he was supposed to be an abomination a freak of nature, a product of an illicit union but here they were cheering at his victory, suddenly the voice of the clan leader boomed over the crowd, "It appears that the young Dream Warrior has passed his first trial, will he be as capable with his second?" he said, from behind him Ryan heard the sound of something opening and he turned to face it, a huge door slowly opened behind him like a giant mouth yawing open, out of it poured four huge lizards that looked like the Dragons that his father used to tell him stories of when he and Sela were little, they were all as black as the night sky with huge wings on their backs, they had to be at least at least twenty foot long tip to tail, they had huge oblong shaped mouths full of rows of razor sharp teeth, as Ryan readied himself, he just hoped like pauk that they couldn't breathe fire.
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"Pauk you!" Shena screamed as she leapt on to the guard's back plunging the spear that she was now apparently holding through his back, with enough force that it punched straight through him and into the second gaud that the impact of her hitting him in the back had shoved him into, as she tore it back the weapons switched forms again this time becoming a curved dagger that curved backwards down her forearm, as it turned out that this was perfect for deflecting an incoming hit from a third guard that swung his wrist blades at her, as the blades glanced along the blade a shower of sparks flew from both blades, Shena quickly ducked into the hit and a swift kick to his male pride brought him down to her level where she was able to grab his head and run the razor sharp blade across his throat causing bright green blood to spray out in every direction and for him to make a gurgling noise, to her left Tik had literally just torn a guard's head clean off her shoulders and thrown it at another with enough force to knock her off her feet, then while running at another Shena watched as without breaking her stride she plunged her wrist blades down through the fallen female's chest before continuing on to her now retreating target, neither of them wanted to use their plasma casters as they would trigger alarms all over the ship as the weapons fire was detected, this method while slower was much stealthier.
Shena watched as Tik eleth leapt full tilt onto the back of the retracting guard and slammed both of her dual wrist blades through his chest before performing a backwards flip off him and landing on her feet as he was kicked into the ground face first, watching the Mason clan Matriarch fight was something else, she really was the epitome of a proud Yaujta huntress, she was far more graceful than any of her opponents and faster as well, combine these with her sheer strength and determination and now she realized why they'd called her a force of nature, since both of them had started this they'd both barely suffered a wound between them there had been a few cuts here and there by a lucky strike from a guards blade, but pretty much nothing made it past the armor that Jack had made, Shena had never in her life fought in something so comfortable and easy to move in while being so strong that it could take a direct hit from a smart disc and deflect it away, which had happened to them two floors down, one of the door guards had thrown it at her before she'd had chance to react, but her shoulder pauldron had simply deflected the spinning disc harmlessly away to embed itself in a wall, as she stood back up properly she noticed that Tik was watching a screen that the guards had been looking at, she walked over and joined her new clan Matriarch, on the screen appeared to be a view of a massive arena, in the arena was what appeared to be four gigantic lizards, "Vexor lizards" Tik said through gritted mandibles, then the screen flicked to a sight that filled Shena with both hope and dread, it was Ryan, he was right in the middle of the four lizards, as they watched he rolled out of the way of a tail strike from one of the massive lizards before sprinting so fast that the camera couldn't follow him properly, he appeared to be running up the massive lizard's tail that had just swung at him, using the spiky ridges on its back for purchase he was able to springboard himself right up on the back of the head of the beast where he appeared to jam both of his swords into its eye sockets, the might lizard thrashed around and threw him off but it was too late for it the damage was done, in one last twirl it fell down dead.
Tik roared proudly as he watched her son fell the mighty lizard before racing across the arena directly towards another, by the speed and grace of his movements and by the way he was easily able to evade incoming attacks she knew that he was a true Dream Warrior, only one with the gifts that a Dream Warrior was blessed with could move like that, she watched him dodge attacks long before they had even begun leaving the rather confused lizards struggling to keep up with him movements as he danced and jumped around the arena, then just as one of the lizards lunged at him with a massive bite she watched him dodge left before springing back and jumping onto the back of its head, it tried to shrug him off but before it could he grabbed it's head with both hands, this time he didn't used his sword but his bare hands, then to her utter amazement the lizard's glowing red eyes flickered before changing to bright purple the same as Ryan's, then instead of jumping down Ryan was lowered softly to the ground by the massive lizard which then turned and roared at its two remaining companions, as she watched in sheer amazement the Vexor lizard charged at one of the two others while Ryan charged at the other, then she was startled back to reality by Shena's hand on her arm, "Come on we can't stay here" the young huntress said Tik nodded and with one last glance at the screen she and the young huntress turned and headed towards the arena again.
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To his left Ryan's new pet tackled one of the two remaining lizards, he didn't know where the idea had come from but when he'd jumped onto it's back he'd instantly been swamped by the creatures primitive feelings and thoughts, so instead of killing it he had decided to try melding his own thoughts with it's just like he would with a fully sentient being, to his amazement it had worked and now he could feel a connection formed between them, it allowed him to give the lizard instructions and it responded like a well-trained pet, so while it was fighting with the other lizard he was able to now take on the other remaining lizard, this one turned towards him and reared up spreading its huge wings in an attempt to intimidate him, that didn't work all it did was give Ryan an idea, just before the large lizard came crashing down he put on a burst of speed and shot right underneath it flipping himself into a roll which he stopped halfway and aimed both of his swords upwards, the large beast slammed down hard and with enough force for Ryan's twin swords to pierce it's hard under belly, this time it reared up not in display but in pain, as it did Ryan flicked himself up onto one of his swords and pulled the other free then with a mighty bound he kicked off the sword, this propelled him upwards towards his target, the creature's throat, but before he could land the killer blow the mighty lizard swatted him from the air like a fly.
The force of the blow sent Ryan sailing backwards through the air like an arrow straight into the arena wall, he hit it with enough force to knock the wind right out of him, it also caused him to become dizzy for a second, he felt warm blood trickling down his face and down his back from where his body had hit the wall, he regained his senses just in time to see the lizard that he'd attacked open it massive jaws in a huge bite, an idea struck him, instead of dodging out of the way Ryan propelled himself forwards and straight into the massive beast's mouth.
The crowd gasped and yelled as they saw the young Dream Warrior get eaten by the beast, but then to their shock they saw the beast that had eaten him start gagging and reaching for its throat, in an instant a small object appeared poking out of the creature's long neck and it moved downwards like a zipper, it took them a second to realize that Ryan had actually slit the beast's throat from the inside, that was until he appeared out of the hole he'd just made in its wind pipe, the massive lizard dropped onto the floor and rolled around gasping for air while it's blood sprayed in all directions, in fact he emerged just in time to see his new friend grab the other lizard by the neck and with a might whip like movement break its neck.
As the third and final hostile lizard fell Ryan walked over to his new friend, the massive lizard lowered its head to the young Dream Warrior who reached up and stroked its leathery scales around its face, the entire crowd erupted in huge cheers, Ryan could even hear some people chanting his name over and over again, he was exhausted now, keeping himself going at this pace was taking a huge toll on his body and he didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to keep this up, "Well it appears that our young Dream Warrior has made a friend in the arena, he's going to need it too because the next trial will be a test of his sheer will to survive and the strength of his convictions" the clan leader's voice boomed over the crowd, Ryan heard yet another door opening behind him and to his dread he heard a very familiar shrieking hissing noise coming from it, as he turned he was faced with not one not two but three kiande amedha queens heading slowly out of the door, he also became aware of rather a lot of plasma casters being trained on them, as his father would say, the c'jit really had hit the fan now.