Page 10 of Wrath

The large doors of the training room parted before me. As I stepped inside, the sound of shouts and of blasters firing drew my attention. In the holographic arena at the far-left side, Wrath, in his battle form, was being tag-teamed by Varnog and Dread, both flying overhead while launching a barrage of shots at our poor team leader. Without hesitation, I rushed towards the equipment stand to start donning the protective armor and combat nodes that attached to the suit. The special weapons the guys were using obviously didn’t fire real harmful shots. However, the nodes would give us a not so nice little zap whenever we got hit by a shot.

As soon as I was ready, I ran by Wrath’s side, my left fist raised before me as the energy shield formed around my armband. Gun blazing, I targeted Varnog who seemed to be having far too much fun picking on our leader. He was mostly staying either in Wrath’s blind spot or at the edge of his vision, making it nearly impossible for him to defend himself on two fronts. Despite that, Wrath was moving at an almost impossible speed, blocking some of the shots with his shield and dodging out of the path of the others.

For half a second, I feared he would tell me to piss off. But to my great delight, he welcomed me, adjusting his movements to take my presence into account. It was an amazing experience fighting alongside such a seasoned Warrior. It thrilled me all the more that our opponents didn’t lessen the intensity of their attacks, quite the opposite. I had feared they would coddle or lower the difficulty just because I had tits instead of a dick. But to this day, it had never been an issue within the Vanguard. Getting that same respect from my teammates, and especially from the male who claimed to be my soulmate, was exhilarating.

As if he’d heard my thoughts, Dread went all out on us. While he had not been flying in his battle form, the two scorpion tails that he also possessed on his shoulder blades extruded, curving over his shoulders. Unlike the ones that the Xian Warriors possessed, the tips of Dread’s stingers were hollow, allowing them to fire poisoned needles at his targets. When he started shooting them at us, I nearly freaked out.

“They are not poisoned,”Dread mind-spoke to me, just as he launched them our way.

Despite the relief that washed over me, that didn’t mean we could just lay back and chill. Instead, it stoked the fire in me. I could feel them bouncing off my shield while I dodged and rolled out of their path, shooting at our opponents the whole while. But a few blaster shots got through my defenses. The sharp sting of the electric shocks had me grinding my teeth. Wrath became even more savage, shooting at them both with his blaster and mouth darts. The first time I had seen his throat swell up while something bulging was coming back up and into his mouth had been scary. And then seeing him spit out that glistening black dart with the speed and force of a nail gun blew my mind.

In a bold move, Varnog dove towards me. I freaked out, realizing he intended to snatch me and take flight. But just as he was reaching for the grab, Wrath’s powerful hand closed around my wrist yanking me to the other side. My feet lifted off the ground as I spun around before he released me and slammed his shield into Varnog, sending him crashing on the floor near the wall. Flowing with the movement as I landed on my feet, I turned around and raised my shield in front of Wrath just as Dread was firing both his blaster and darts at him. My well-aimed shot—although lucky might have been more accurate—struck Dread right in the solar plexus, one of the most painful nodes, after the one on the forehead.

To my surprise, Dread landed, giving me a betrayed look while Varnog was flying back towards us, weapons down, and shaking his head at his partner. Confused, I looked at Wrath who was smiling smugly at our two opponents, before casting a proud glance my way. As terrifying as he looked in his battle form, I wasn’t frightened but awed.

“Thanks for winning it for us,” Wrath said to me while slowly reverting to his normal form.

The scythe-shaped extensions on his forearms began receding into his skin, as did the two scorpion tails on his shoulder blades and the fan-shaped frills on his back that looked like nightmarish fairy wings. The spikes along his forehead, arms, and legs—that would have inflicted a nasty wound to anyone foolish enough to try and hold him—resorbed as well.

“The winning condition was the first one to get a kill shot in,” Dread said.

“I would apologize for killing you so quickly,” I said teasingly, “but two against one wasn’t exactly fair.”

Wrath and Varnog snorted while I innocently batted my eyelashes at the Dragon without any remorse whatsoever.

He playfully glared at me. “He asked for it,” Dread said with a shrug. “Have no fear, I’ll get my revenge another time.”

“Looking forward to it,” I replied in a provoking tone.

Varnog chuckled. “Not bad for a newbie,” he said as we headed towards the equipment rack to remove our attachments and accessories. “Although you sure took your sweet time shooting down that one,” he mockingly added while gesturing with his head at Dread.

“You two were flying,” I countered. “That’s kind of a seriously unfair advantage.”

“We can level the playing field,” the Scelk replied with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. “We often organize dream walks with Dread and Myriam against Linette and me or Linette and Wrath. Nathalie isn’t too hot about all the shooting. You could partner up with our dear leader, no holds barred. And, you get to have wings, too.”

My eyes lit up with excitement. I was familiar with dream walks as they had been part of the intensive training Raven had subjected me to. However, the psychic simulations I had participated in had been purely meant for me to learn how to escape them should I fall under the mind control of an enemy. I had never experienced one purely for entertainment. It was like the ultimate virtual reality experience. You could become whatever you wanted for the duration of the simulation. With their tremendous psychic powers and my control abilities, Scelks like Varnog could create psychic simulations so realistic they could fool you into believing you were in the real world when they had you in fact trapped in your own mind. Under different circumstances, I’d be worried about allowing an intimidating Scelk to play with my head. But I implicitly trusted Varnog.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, assuming our dear leader can keep up with me,” I said, stunned by my own boldness even as the words came out of my mouth.

Wrath chuckled. “You may be an expert pilot, my dear Kwan,” he said with a smug smile, “but you are not experienced flying with real wings. I have a feeling I’ll be babysitting you more than anything else.”

“Challenge accepted,” I replied, holding his gaze with a dare.

“Good!” Varnog said. “I will schedule a session in the upcoming days. For now, I have homework to do before my evil taskmaster gives me an earful. I’ll see you all later.”

I cast a confused look at his receding back before looking questioningly at Wrath.

“Tabitha, Bane’s mate, is training Varnog to become an analyst like she is. She considers the long trip to the base for our mission as the perfect opportunity for him to keep busy with various tasks,” Wrath said with an amused expression. “Believe me, you do not want to be on the receiving end of a tongue lashing by our dear Tabitha.”

Dread chuckled. “I couldn’t agree more. My dear sister-in-law couldn’t have been a better match for Bane. But on this happy note, I am abandoning you as well to see what my own mate is up to.”

I turned to Wrath, suddenly feeling awkward. It had been a little reckless of me to jump into that battle without a proper warm-up. I’d likely pay for it later. But I couldn’t regret the experience. It had been a blast and we had naturally worked well together as a team.

“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” Wrath said teasingly. “But now, I am famished. I’m going to take a quick shower and then head out to the cafeteria. Would you care to join me for breakfast?”

“I would love to,” I said without hesitation, surprised by my reaction.

His face softened, and he beamed at me. “Excellent. See you in fifteen minutes.”

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