Page 17 of Akur

“Hey, big guy,” Kon-stahns whispered, her breath tickling his neck where his skin was exposed.

“Fine, female,” he grumbled, gripping her tighter as he hobbled forward. “I accept…your pass of freedom…for this job of blows.” Two more Hedgeruds got cut down as he made his way. He just needed to get to that building. Put some distance between himself and the constant attacks. He only needed a few minutes. He’d regenerate. He would.

“A hedgehog or whatever you call them is coming behind us.” Kon-stahns giggled again, a snort echoing in her nose. “Hedgehog.”

He turned just in time to see the pilot of the downed shuttle stagger from the vessel. He’d hoped the brute had died. Was that too much to ask?

He’d have continued on, ignored the idiot if he didn’t see the Hedgerud lift a blaster. Even with the distance between them, he recognized the model. It’s one he’d seen used before.

Oh, qrak. Had they given up on that whole thing of wanting the human alive? Because that weapon was definitely going to harm her. Probably even kill her.

As the brute engaged the weapon, a bright beam of energy hurtled towards them. This wasn’t one he could deflect or take in the back and hope for the best. Those blasters were charged for elimination on contact. They’d fry his cells. Even he couldn’t regenerate such damage. And he had her. Kon-stahns. The human couldn’t regenerate at all.

The warrior in him took over, pulling Kon-stahns close as he dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the searing heat of the blast. They tumbled to the ground, his body protesting enough for him to see stars. They landed next to the unmoving form of a downed Hedgerud. The beast’s body partially blocked them from a shower of blaster shots coming their way, each one singeing flesh and dissolving bone.

This would only buy them a few moments at best.

“Stay down,” he growled, pushing himself up on one knee to scan the area. Hedgeruds were advancing on all sides. Only the towering building that loomed behind them offered any refuge. If they could just make it inside…

“Hey, I wanna play too.” Delicate hands reached for the blaster still attached to his hip.

He looked down at the female beneath him, unconvinced. But did he have a choice? Negative.

Metal sang against metal as he yanked the second blade from his back, crossing it with the first just as a Hedgerud’s weapon slammed down.The impact jarred his arms, the qeffer’s strength nearly driving him to the ground. But his blades held.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kon-stahns lift the blaster from his hip.

“How does this even work?” She was grinning with her tongue out, clenched between her teeth in an act that looked painful. The blast that released from the barrel went right through the skull of the Hedgerud bearing down on him.

He stopped breathing as he watched the male fall.

“Surprise, mother-fuhker!” Kon-stahns cheered.

“That could have been me.” He looked back at her.

She shrugged, a grin on her face that made her look more mischievous than harmless now. “I have good aim.”

As if that was the end of that, she activated the weapon again, releasing more charges at the rising number of Hedgeruds coming their way. Her aim was terrible. Miraculously, some got hit. Others dove for cover. But there were too many. They couldn’t win like this.

More blaster fire came at them, some hitting the sand far too close to the human for his liking.

It was two against too many, and when he glanced behind them, unease crept up his spine. More were closing in from behind the building, too.

“Don’t hit the human, you fools!” One of them shouted. “We need it alive! Tear the Shum’ai limb from limb if you want, but the human must remain intact!”

Sheathing one blade, he gripped the female again, throwing her over his shoulder in a move that almost made his knees buckle. Almost. He wasn’t about to kneel before these vermin. He stumbled, but that didn’t stop him from throwing his body forward into a charging Hedgerud. This one fought back, his blade slicing across the muscles in Akur’s chest. Lifeblood soaked the ground, but eh, a little lifeblood was nothing. He’d lost more than that the moment the Tasqals had arrived on his planet.

“Try again,scum.” His mouth filled with lifeblood, too, and he spat it out as he thrust his blade forward, rending the Hedgerud in theirway. That one went down, but another took his place. Retreat was slow.

“Mint Man!” Kon-stahns yelled. “Little help?”

Glancing over his shoulder, he only had a moment to catch the eyes of the shuttle pilot as he dropped the blaster and took out another weapon Akur couldn’t recognize. Whatever it was, they were too far away now. Certainly, whatever it was—

And that’s when he heard the zing.

It was a sound he’d heard before. A sound other rebels had told him about. A weapon the Hedgeruds had used on his brothers time and time again.

There was little time to release the female. Little time to push her out of the way before he saw the fiery sparks of the shock rod appear before him. Coming from above, the wielder launched himself from the very building he was heading toward.

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