Among The Stars: Phantom and Mercenary

Chapter 2 - The Trio

Staring down at the fallen body, Gahtan checked the unconscious yautja male. Then he struck the back of his hand across the male's face, hard enough to wake him up after he had finished his work. When his amber eyes fluttered open to consciousness, Gahtan's clawed hand choked him by the neck.

"Where is it?" Gahtan asked threateningly.

Consciousness came back grudgingly to Ra'toth as he opened his eyes, he saw the green hunter landed on top of him with his knee driving into his chest, as well as a hand on his throat, pinning him in place. He struggled madly in a futile effort to get up, but it only made his hold on him grew stronger. Ra'toth hissed at him, tusks tightening.

"Tell me where it is." Gahtan asked again while applying more pressure to his knee to inflict maximum pain on the yautja male.

"Never." Ra'toth finally croaked out, preparing for his impending death.

"Very well. I will not deny you the chance of an honorable death, bad blood." Knowing he would never get an answer out of him, Gahtan released his hand then moved away, retrieving his glaive that he'd dropped during their earlier fight. He made sure he turned his back to the bad blood long enough for him to get back up.

Like he'd expected, Ra'toth sprang to his feet the moment Gahtan turned his back to him, moving so quickly that everything around him become a blur. Ra'toth slammed his body into the green hunter from behind, the impact of his sudden attack knocking the wind from his lungs and leaving Gahtan on the ground.

Caught completely off guard by the sneak attack. Gahtan was now reaching for the nearby glaive, he only had enough time to bring his weapon up before Ra'toth yanked it out from his grasp. Gahtan shifted aside when Ra'toth swung the glaive at him, it nearly missed his throat, but the blade still made a contact with his upper arm. For a second, Gahtan was bleeding profusely.

Taking advantage of the initial shock of the unexpected attack, Ra'toth charged at him again, this time Gahtan managed to block the attack with a good arm. They grappled at close quarters briefly, then Ra'toth suddenly gripped his hand on Gahtan's wound, causing him to growl in pain. He headbutted the green hunter again and again, disorienting his senses until his bio-mask came off. Gahtan cursed as they fought to gain leverage, he staggered backwards, shook his head to regain focus. Ra'toth seized the opportunity, attacking him with a flying tackle, knocked them both on the ground, but Ra'toth was on top of him, giving him advantage to bring the weapon up.

Gahtan managed to get him in an elbow lock, pinning his opponent in place so he couldn't raise the weapon. He took the chance to apply more pressure to the arm, bending it until the bad blood's arm snapped at an awkward angle.

Screaming in pain, Ra'toth dropped the glaive and punched Gahtan with an unharmed hand until he released his tight grip on him. Once he was free, Ra'toth leapt away from Gahtan and engaged his cloaking as he raced into the woods. Luckily, he was able to escape.

Gahtan watched him disappeared with a grunt, he made no attempt to pursuit the bad blood. His task was already completed - the bad blood had escaped - all he had to do was wait. Picking up his glaive and bio-mask from the ground, he cloaked and disappeared into the night, silently leaving the place like nothing had happened here. Though he hoped his act was convincing enough, Gahtan thought.

When his opponent was unconscious earlier, Gahtan made sure the bad blood had swallowed the tracking device that he had prepared for him. The outer casing of the device would protect itself from stomach acid, if Gahtan releases the casing, then the tracking device would be dissolved within twelve hours and ultimately be flushed out through his digestive system without a trace. But that's not going to happen until Gahtan had learned the location of his clan.