Standing in front of me is an over 300 lb giant pain in my butt. This prick has been harassing me ever since I got here. Chucking bottles at me, knocking the rocks out of my hand and nearly breaking my foot, and sabotaging my cabin. I tried ignoring him, but he wouldn't give up. He wants my attention, he'll have it.

The clan is watching us. Best show in centuries. Wrex begged me to surrender. I wouldn't have it. Despite my confidence, he's scared I won't make it. I don't expect to come out unscathed, but I will hurt my tormenter. I don't even know his name. Doesn't really matter.

The shaman explained the rules to me. Basically, anything goes as long as the other has a chance of fighting back. No throwing dirt in the eye, evading and hitting the back, other examples. Killing is permitted. The shaman strikes a ceremonial bell and the Krogan huff three times in unison. My opponent stares at me sadistically and licks his lips. My plan is to evade his attacks, studies his moves, pretend to be a sloppy fighter and ######. Crap. Spent too much time thinking and not enough paying attention. He struck my left temple. My mind feels dull. I swiftly strike his lower ribs. He felt pain. Good he should feel enough irritation sensations to equal what I felt.

Wrex tells from the crowd "you don't need to do this *********!"

"I know Wrex" I replied, in a tone conveying my annoyance.

"You should have listened to him tadpole. Urdnot has no place for weak pretenders" I headbutt him with all my might and a volley of punches into his eyes. I can feel the anger welling up in my core and leaving through my fists. Anyone who said fighting doesn't make things feel better hasn't done it right. Too be fair, I'm going to feel sore afterwards. It also doesn't solve problems in the long term. Don't care right now.

He sends a powerful kick my way. I use both hands to slow down the velocity and lean with the force. Extending impact time helps to reduce the blow. Still hurts though. I maintain my hold on his foot and lift upwards. He falls into his back. The crowd goes wild.

Wrex yells again "you don't need to prove yourself. You've done plenty!"

"Not now Wrex" I need my focus on the fight.

"How dare you humiliate me like that. My quad is bigger than your skull. I'm going to enjoy killing you" he should have stood up before he threatened me. I tried to drop and elbow on him. The big lug is more maneuverable than he looks. My right elbow slams into the dirt. It sends a mild shock of pain throughout my arm, which is ignored by the punch to my nose. Almost enough to break it. I'm lucky he didn't have enough room to pull his arm all the way back. I can't tell if my nose is bleeding or not. I don't feel a wet sensation above my lips. We both stand and take a moment to catch our breaths. Our bodies need to regenerate more energy to continue the fight.

Wrex yells again "you've done enough. You helped me recover my family armor. You have nothing to prove. End this" he begs. Great now I got to deal with him now in the middle of my catharsis exercise. I flatten my fists and use the tips of the index and rude finger to jab my opponent in the space above his chest, at the base of his neck. A very sensitive area. He goes down and tries to recover from the unexpected sensations. I use that technique to settle fights quickly. He'll recover and continue the match. That technique is used for when I do not want to fell aggression and end fights, however he continuously pisses me off and can handle it. I address my friend.

"Yeah Wrex I know. I don't need yours or anyone's approval anymore. I'm doing this because I'm mad and don't want to keep things bottled up and explode anymore. If he doesn't like it, he shouldn't have poked the bear, or in your case the thresher maw. It's fun when you think I won't fight back. I'm patient and forgiving, not a pacifist. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my therapy" I punch will all the strength I have, only to have it caught. Uh oh.

"Did you really help get his armor back?" I nod.

"Why?" Might as well answer honestly.

"I know the feeling of not having my family. How it sucks. I can't do much about it. I helped Wrex because… I would want someone to help me If I was in his place" the hand holding my punch in a vice loosens.

"You never talk much about your family. What happened?" Wrex asks.

"My mom died in her sleep and my dad had a hard attack a few years later" WAY TO GO GUYS! 94 and 97. Good genes.

"What about siblings?" Wrex asks.

"An older sister and younger brother. We got separated and I haven't seen them since. I can't see them even if I wanted to" it was fucking bullshit I died before them. With all the work I put into being healthy and they have the gale to outlive me? Nothing amazing happened. No heroic sacrifice to save my country. No badass fight with a grizzly bear who will kill each other from sheer exhaustion. I just dropped dead. Actually, I just died. Didn't even hit the ground. My funeral was nice. I do miss them. I should send them a message. My family is in the primordial well. I haven't reached that place yet. So hard to climb. Got a roadblock.

"There we done? Will we go back to fighting?" I grit my teeth and tense my brow. He… he lets go of my hand. Does he no longer want to fight?

"I didn't realize. I'm sor… I'll stop doing what I did" he said.

"Huh?"

"We share a skewer from that spear. I thought you abandoned your family" he said. Oh. Something happened to him. Whatever he thought about me resonated with him.

"Hmpp. Life wasn't easy for me I'll tell you that. I had to put in a lot of work to get where I'm at now. I'm mostly fine now" I mention.

"Was it worth it?" He asks.

"Yes. Absolutely. Now I'm still a bit angry. If you didn't want to hear the whole song you shouldn't have inserted a quarter in the jukebox. We're still fighting" I kick his jaw and send his undersized cranium sky high. I fight and fight until the embers in my heart slowly die. We must have fought for over an hour. We tore through some run-down shacks. Looked like a demolition crew came through after we were done.

I stand gasping for air. Every single muscle involved in respiration and a couple not designed for that is recruited to fill my chest with air. My body demands oxygen, oddly I feel like I can keep going. The food from tuchunka is giving me a lot of energy. I'm barely sweating. It was hard for my body to sweat before; I thought the warmer temperatures and humidity would have me soaking. I have the sexy armpit stains and a thin layer of masculine sweat on my forehead. My torso is generating a lot of heat which warms the air around. The skin of my face and neck can feel this familiar heat.

'huh..huh… most.. of my anger is gone. I can keep going if you want to" please don't take me up on my offer.

"I can use a break. Technically the rules state there must be a winner. There is nothing about taking a break… indefinitely" I look towards the shaman.

"I'll allow it" he continues reading his scripture.

Wrex comes up and speaks to me for a moment.

"You had me pretty worried kid" he said.

"I'm going to feel these wounds for a couple of weeks. It better be worth it. Know that the clan knows what I'm capable of, they'll leave me alone" I explain.

"Some might want to fight you. See what it's like fighting a human. Before the fight, I never heard you speak like that before" ah my swearing.

"It is pretty rare. I will allow myself to unwind as long as I maintain self-control. It probably won't happen again for a long time. Haley's comet will probably complete its orbit before I curse again" I said.

"Or you being able to drive an asteroid" Wrex smriks.

"Don't bring that back up. I'm still mad I missed that. Every little human boy dreams of riding one of those and I actually had a chance and YOU MADE ME MISS IT!"

I drag my tired body over to the best and only bar in clan urdnot. I ask the guy at the counter for a water and tell him he needs to get a sexy bar maid. A thin brunette. I rest my eyes in my palms. A slam on the table notifies my drink has arrived. I almost swallow the liquid when I spot flakes of something, and is that an insect wing? Screw it I'll get my water from eating grass. It's probably cleaner. I pour the water down my back and enjoy the soothing sensation.

"Take this *********" I grab the ice pack and hold it on my cheek like it's the universe's greatest pillow.

"You guys have ice?" I ask the Krogan who isn't my bud Wrex. The one who gave me the package is named Eukark. He's sort of a friend. He doesn't harass me like the others and would help me with my side projects sometimes. He has a soft spot for humans since one at the citadel stood up for him. A turian C-sec officer wanted to arrest him after an asari claimed he did something at a bar. The human said he saw the whole thing and he was falsely being accused. The turian still tried to get him to leave and the human threatened to call his superior. Eukark came back shortly afterwards. He's young by Krogan standards. 154 years old. I'm not sure how many years that is in human time, still much younger than I am.

"Fights happen alot here. Not as intense as you two went. And it happens after dark. Your usually asleep by then" he explains.

"Sun's up get up. Sun's down lay down" I said. I love winters.

"Whatever. You had my back I have yours" We went on a hunting party. The two of us were paired to find something I don't remember the name of because I never saw it. Eukark accidentally scared it off. The party leader for pissed and I took the blame. He's young and still cares what his elders think. I took the hit and was banned from hunting for a while, well with them. I still went off on my own much to Wrex's annoyance. He doesn't complain when I pay my rent on time. I give him most of the meet, but keep the hide, and other features. I got the stinger of the giant scorpion, the armor boar hide, some claws from a faint vaguely pray mantis sort of thing that was too easy to kill. I gotta do something with these parts one of these days.

The guy who's butt I kicked for the past hour sat beside and glugs down 6 servings of rynecol. His stinky breath barrages into my noise when he leans over and whispers in my ear.

"I misjudged you human. I thought you gave up what I could never have. I'm that bleeekkk uh word humans used when I upmh I did something wrong. Now that I know, there's no issue between us" I gently push him away. He vomits over the counter and into a bucket. Something I feel is very common around here. God this place needs to be turned around. My omnitool beeps off. I see it's from the group chat. It's from Kaiden. I haven't heard from him in ages. I open his text.

...

... It

... it's gone already?