From one end of the sandy circle ten men came out, muscular bodies undressed to just the laced up pants, no boots and nothing above the waist, but they held items in their hands. Some had long knives or swords, others had batons or bats, but two had small black items they gripped tightly. She sucked in a breath. These men were magnificent, each one tall and muscular. Their legs stretched wide with tendons and muscles pumped to their extreme. Yet as they entered, they moved in graceful steps, continuing to shuffle, showing a pent up energy within those large bodies.

From the other end a single warrior entered, also wearing only the laced pants, showing a body any of those present would be proud to claim. She gasped as she recognized Whis. This young man who had carried her through the jungle, the youngest of the team who came with Jesso, was going to face these ten warriors. He had in his hands two small black rods about a foot in length that he gripped in the middle with his clenched hands. The ends sticking out from both sides made a dangerous protrusion of a black rod extending from both sides of each hand. They didn’t seem to be any type of weapon, having no points—just black wooden dowels.

She saw him gripping and flexing his fists around the rods as his thick arms expanded, showing his great natural strength. But there was something else. The men from Sho Sho Mil Dan ell were shifting, moving, even growling. They had fierce looks on their faces, drawing back their lips to show teeth, squinting eyes with eyebrows drawn down behind the black hair they’d pulled back with ties from their faces.

Whis had his hair loose, wild, short with different lengths, some barely touching his shoulders, the rest blooming out like a lion’s mane behind his head. But more important, he had no expression on his face. His eyes took in each movement of the ten men in front of him, but he hardly changed any portion of his body. His beautiful young face showed nothing. He seemed to be moving inward.

The audience quickly quieted as a man in black walked to the center. “The rules are simple, last man standing wins. Any man that falls must not rise and will not be harmed further, any man that surrenders by going down on one knee with his hands in the sand will not be harmed, but will be led from the center at the end of the challenge. If a man kneels then puts his hands in the sand to surrender but later rises to join again in the fight, he will be immediately removed by guards to be taken to a holding cell for dispensation by the opposing family. There will be no break, so the action will continue no matter how long the time for the challenge. When I reach the side, the challenge begins. Does everyone agree?” He looked at the men from Sho Sho Mil Dan ell and they gave yells. Then he looked at Whis, who simply nodded once. She now noticed there were men standing at various points around the outside of the sand center and they alternated between Jesso’s men and Tha’s men.

But before he could reach the edge of the circle Tha stood up to yell loudly. “Men from Sho Sho Mil Dan ell, whichever one of you succeeds in the final victory, you will be rewarded with an hour alone with the Freeler.” There was a war cry from the ten men. Tha looked up at Jesso. “Nothing to offer your champion, Prince?”

She noticed he never said My Prince, which almost everyone else did. An insult, probably, but Jesso was letting it slide.

“No offer, just an invitation.” Jesso’s voice could be heard all around the center. “When you are done with this, Whis, please spend tonight in my quarters.”

She jerked against him. Whis turned, went down on one knee, bringing his right hand across in a thump against his heart. Whis spoke calmly and clearly.

“To my Prince, my fighting arm and my mental strength.” He rose, watching the ten as the announcer left the center.

She flinched back as she wasn’t sure she wanted to see this battle. She didn’t want to see damage done to the beautiful body of the young Whis. She felt Jesso’s arm move so tight around her ribs, just barely brushing the bottom of her breasts as he pulled her against the heavy growth pushing against her ass and back. She felt him lean down to whisper in her ear, his hot breath moving the short hairs in front.

“Do you think my need is from you, or is your need from me?” She was confused as she realized she was feeling an ache between her legs, feeling a slight tremor of the lips around her clit, even some feeling of moisture. “I smell your interest. Maybe the fight, or having two men in your bed tonight, is what excites you?”

She jerked her legs, gathering strength to allow her to rise to run, but the muscular arm under her breasts just pulled tighter and the male member behind her moved within his pants. She decided to fight back in a different manner.

“Perhaps the men I will be with tonight will be of a different family. Perhaps I will enjoy being with someone who might use my body but cannot enter my mind or control me.” She straightened her shoulders when she heard him chuckle.

He spoke in that deep lazy voice he had recently adopted. “Don’t go there—this fight will not last very long.”

She looked up at him over her shoulder, surprised to see his silver eyes had turned to dark steel, but still liquid. This wasn’t something she wanted to meet so she turned around just in time to see the two men with the small items in their hands had moved forward to face Whis. The rest of the men had started to spread out to form a circle around him.

“See what I said, already they have made a mistake. They are relying on their new armament.” This was from Defa.

Without looking at him she asked, “You know they have developed a new weapon?” She watched, not wanting to see, but afraid to look away.

Defa spoke as he gripped her arm tighter. “We have watched them as they have tried to come up with weapons to bolster their strength. This will be their test. They mean for it to be a small show as they think they’ll just knock out a young mental. They think this will give a warning to others. As usual, their conceit has let them misjudge their opponent. Watch.”

She turned from Defa’s face to the arena. One of the men with the black object in his hand smiled a wicked grin, twisted and threw his arm as if he was tossing something at Whis, except instead of the object leaving his hand, a shaft of white light that she guessed must be electrical flew out to hit Whis knocking him backwards several steps.

She saw a burn appear on his upper shoulder and what happened next was almost too fast to see. She reran the scene later to make sure she understood what had transpired. Whis raised his arms, bringing them shoulder high, held outward from his body. He took two steps forward with a jump into the air, then twisted his body in a beautiful 360° turn, like the trick ice skaters performed from the shows on Earth, and sent out a blue light from both rods. The first ones hit were the men with the small electrical items and they were knocked backwards. They were down as their weapons flew from their fists. But his wild ballet twist brought his mental blue light in contact with each of the ten men, hitting on both sides of the circle. By the time he had landed down on one knee with his rods out at shoulder height, straight in the strong arms, all ten men were down flat on their backs without their weapons. Some of them moved a little and some moans could be heard, but most lay unconscious. As Whis rose, he slowly turned around, looking at the men first, then at the audience until he faced Jesso. He raised his fist again at his Prince, bringing his arm to his chest.

At first the action had happened so fast there was almost silence in the large Challenge Ring audience, but then a great cheer went up as Whis left the center. His teammates rushed to pound him on his back with laughter.

Jesso stood up, pulling her up in his arms. He looked at his Commander. “You train them well, Defa.”

“I’m lucky—the genes from your Fathers run deep in us. Of course I wasn’t entirely fair with the men from Sho Sho Mil Dan ell, because even though he is the youngest with us, the least trained, he is far from the weakest traveling with us on this trip. Tha sat his own trap. Whis will be strong when he is complete, perhaps joining the Federation if needed.” Then Defa looked at her, smiling. “Or perhaps it was the invitation.” He turned to lead the way down the tiers to leave the area.

Shit, she was so not looking forward to tonight.