Kylara stood dancing in her corner of the ring, her long, emerald green hair spiraling around her shoulders, and the red pupils in the center of her golden eyes tainted with fury. She let out a screech and clawed at the air in front of her as sweat dripped from her forehead and ran over her orange, scaly skin.
She was always one of the favorites in any tournament, but this was only the first bout , and she was already taking a beating from a lesser opponent. She had cuts on her chest just above the white cloth wrapped around her perky breasts, and she scratched at her face with one hand as blood flowed freely from under her left eye and her top lip was swollen to three times its normal size, but she vehemently refused any attempt I had made to patch her up.
The tiny lady in the corner, wearing the square pink hat, smacked three separate gongs signaling the third round, and the fighter on the other side of the ring dropped to all fours and bounded toward Ky in full attack mode, growling viciously as she came.
Toria was one of the newest fighters in the circuit, but it was becoming obvious to the critics and fans that even though she had minimal talent she made up for it with heart.
Ky met her in the center of the ring with a thunderous spin kick to the rib cage, it connected, but Toria's momentum sent them both tumbling to the ground as her teeth tore through the skin of Ky's thigh.
Ky hit the ground fairly hard, but popped back up immediately, and towered over the smaller girl as she lay sprawled out on the ground holding her side. Ky glared down at her knowing she could finish her right then with one crushing kick to her skull. She lifted her leg, cocked it at the knee and pointed her toes at Toria's jaw as the crowd erupted and begged for blood.
"Get back to your corner!" I screamed but she pretended not to hear me. She raised her shoulders and her foot exploded downward. Toria tried to twist away but she didn't have the strength, or presence of mind. Her eyes bulged out and she howled painfully as Kylara's foot tore through the bottom of her face, crushing bone and tearing tissue.
The tall skinny man with the floppy hair in the center of the ring raised his hands calling the fight, but Ky added one more kick, a blow to the midsection that left her opponent motionless on the ground. The crowd exploded with appreciation as Ky hoisted her trembling opponent into the air by the scruff of her neck, then booed as the official lunged across the ring, wrapped his wiry arms around her and wrestled her back to her corner.
On the inside I was bursting with pride, but I couldn't let Ky know that, not yet anyway. I secured her collar and shackles and led her back to the cage.
When I first found Kylara crying uncontrollably over the bodies of her fallen family members in the ashes of their hut on my maiden trip to the planet Nechteria, she was shy and small, with a remarkable anger problem. Most Nechtrins seem cold, incapable of deep emotion, but Ky was different her sense of feeling seemed to be at an extreme high.
The first word she ever said to me was "Bah". At first I understood the interpretation to mean "father", but under deeper investigation I found it to mean "dear one" or "adored one", something you would say to a romantic partner. Despite the endearing words, she had kept herself distant, both physically and emotionally from me, only approaching when I was slicing up lemon or lime rinds for my daily brew.