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Dodge, Dodge, Strike.

His fist hit the Samalians' side with enough force it would have broken bones in a human. The Samalian, an Older woman named Urtarel simply grunted and tried to hit him. He ducked under the closed fist.

"Use your damned claws," Alex muttered under his breath. Didn't any one of them understand he wanted this to feel like a real fight? He'd told them to try to hurt him in practices, they'd seen he could take it, but they kept holding back. He punched her across the muzzle and she spun away, staggering.

She wiped the blood from her lips and grinned. "Strong," She said, in heavily accented Grr'ler'nia, She was originally from a river town, a long way from here. She'd moved here to be with her two lovers.

"Taken," He replied. She threw herself at him. They went down, he felt claws dig in his arm and for a moment he could imagine he was fighting with Tristan. Then he'd kicked her off him, rolled to his feet and was about to roundhouse kick her in the head when she tapped the ground twice. The signal he'd taught them to indicate they were defeated.

He backed away and turned to one of the other. He didn't want to stop. He was too angry with what was going on, he needed to hit something. He'd left his knives in the hover to ensure he wouldn't be tempted to resort to them. His fingers itched for them.

The Infection problem had been resolved a week ago, he'd managed to combine a seeker, replicating and his counter-infection program, and let it backtrack its way to the origin point. It was still going, but now the computers here were usable. And it turned out his program also cleared computers around the planet. These hadn't been the only ones that had been infected.

The bulky man came at him moving slowly, but Alex knew he compensated with strength. He focused on dodging, the few times he had to block the blows he had to step back to keep his balance and he lost sensation in that arm for a few seconds.

He caught the arm on the next swing, turned and threw the man over. The impact stole the man's breath. Alex looked down at him, they locked eyes. The man didn't move. Alex Slowly raised his leg, foot over his face.

The man tapped the ground twice. He'd pushed him once, thinking Alex wouldn't bring his foot down. His muzzle was still not fully healed from that.

Alex turned and looked for another sparring partner.

The last attack, two weeks ago had been painful for the townsfolk, not that they'd lost many people, only one dead this time, but enough injuries to send the younger folks to the forest for what they needed to make the healing unguent. Alex hadn't bothered with the hover this time. He'd thrown himself into the fight, losing himself in it. Tristan had joined in. And watching him decimate the human mercs Alex felt like everything was alright for a moment.

It hadn't lasted, Tristan had caught his gaze, and then hurriedly looked away. And Alex had vented his rage on whichever mercs were the closest.

A younger Samalian stepped forward. He was one of the news trainees and wanted to prove himself, Alex knew. When he attacked it was uncoordinated, without any thought to it. Alex had him on the ground with two punch. One to the chest and the other to the side of his head. The youth barely managed to tap the ground.

Rig'Irik had approached him again after that battle, wisely waiting until Tristan had gone back to the House, halfway through the celebration. He'd tried to make his case, that he was a better choice over Tristan. He couldn't understand that Alex didn't care what Rig'Irik thought. There had been shouting on Rig'Irik's part and Alex had left before he planted a knife in the Samalian's chest and end the argument permanently.

Alex looked at the assembled Samalians, expecting one to step out of the group, but they were looking up.

"Jacoby! Incoming!" he ran to the hover to grab his knives.

He had the harness on and was partially through attaching all the sheaths to his body when two hovers flew over them. He saw Tristan, already running after them, part of the wall crumbling down in his wake.

He left the rest of the knives in the hover and ran after Tristan. In the last attack there had been almost forty mercs in one such hover. Now two of them, possibly eighty mercs. No matter how good Tristan was, he couldn't survive that on his own, and the bulk of the militia was behind Alex, leaving only the patrols who were closest to where the hover landed to handle them.

The hovers were on the other side of the town already, going down. If the mercs didn't stay by the hovers, they'd be in the town by the time Tristan and he got there. He cursed. They'd come in hard and fast this time, either knowing Samalians would hear them coming, or just wanting to get this done and over as fast as possible.

Before he reached the edge of town, he could see blaster fire between buildings. The townsfolk had been instructed to stay inside, but that wouldn't keep them safe if the mercs kicked in doors.

Tristan had already vanished in the town. A roar indicating he'd made contact with the enemy. Alex a knife in head hand. Mono edge in his left, vibro in his right. A merc came around a building. Alex slashed cutting through the armor and the flesh. Shots erupted around him and he used the dying man as cover, lifting him and running toward the shots.

He collided with them and rolled to the side, slashing and stabbing. He felt the burns of blaster shots, the sting of knives, but he didn't stop moving, not giving them a time to aim. When one of his knives got stuck in a body, he pulled another one.

And then nothing moved around him. Fighting was still happening in the distance, but here things were quiet. He grabbed knives and refilled his harness. He didn't pay attention if they were his or theirs. If they fit in a sheath, he kept them.

He ran deeper in the town. Came across a lot of bodies, most humans. The town center was the loudest fight, but he caught movement to his left. A group of mercs sneaking past, trying to flank them? Heading for a specific target?

Alex went after them. He flanked them, and had the throat of the woman at the back cut before the others realized he was there, but her gurgling announced his presence. He threw himself aside as shots were fired at him. He had to pull his is gun this time and return fire as he scrambled around the building, looking for an opening.

One of the mercs stepped in front of him and leveled his gun at Alex.

Instead of stopping, Alex picked up speed, a grin on his face. He dropped the gun, felt the burn of the shot in his side. He grabbed a knife, saw the horror on the man's face as he realized Alex wasn't stopping.

They collided, the knife going in the chest, getting stuck between armors plates as Alex tried to shove it down. Some plain regular knife then. He grabbed another one and cut the man's throat before standing. The others had come around the corner, but frozen in surprise.

Mercs saw a lot, got used to a lot, but Alex knew a grinning maniac who'd just killed a comrade, possibly a friend. Tended to unnerve even experienced soldiers.

They regained their senses as Alex threw himself at them, but their shots were wild and he was in the middle of them, laughing as he felt his blades sink into flesh.

And then it was over. He grabbed knives and ran toward the next battle.

The next time he saw mercs, their backs were to him, running.

Running away.

He made it out of the town, joining a group of Samalian also chasing them, to see two of the mercs get into one of the hovers. The third one dropped as he was shot in the back from somewhere behind Alex. The Hover took off. Alex stopped and looked around. Fighting was still happening in the town, but there were no mercs around, but more might try to escape.

He ran for the hover and climbed in. He was about to sit when he noticed the readings on the display. He jumped out and ran as fast as he could, screaming "Danger!" as loud as he could, but they either didn't understand or realize where the danger was.

The explosion picked Alex up and threw him down a few feet later. He rolled on his back, spitting out grass and looked at the crater the hover had left, and at the Samalians caught in the blast. Only a few of them were getting up.