The livisk male turned to look at me. His mouth turned up in a cruel smile. I know talking about the livisk it was easy to assume every smile was a cruel smile. But the smile this one was hitting me with? That was the textbook definition of a cruel smile.

I got a guarded feeling from Varis. And was that just a hint of worry coming through the link?

I wasn't sure I liked a guarded feeling and a hint of worry coming through the link. That seemed like the kind of thing that couldn't mean anything good for yours truly.

"My apologies, General," the man said, sketching a quick bow. But as he looked between the two of us I got the feeling he didn't actually mean that for an apology.

"I wouldn't want to get in the way of your pet human here. I've heard he's good when flying a fighter. No doubt his skills would be valuable when we're trying to fight off an invasion from the empress herself."

"I've never fired anti-aircraft before," I said with a shrug. "I thought anti-aircraft might be fun thing to try. As you said, most of my experience is either in a command chair or behind the controls of a fighter."

"But, of course," he said. That grin still there as he stared at me.

I wondered what his deal was. He wasn't acting at all like I'd expect from somebody who was trying to be on their best behavior because their general and the head of the noble house they were sworn to was standing right in front of him. No. If anything, it seemed like he was challenging me.

I wondered if I'd stumbled into a bit of livisk cultural bullshit here that was going to get me in trouble. Maybe I should've spent more time trying to brush up on some of that cultural bullshit now that I had Arvie to tell me about these potential pitfalls rather than brushing up on their nobility and the web of supply chains and allegiances that made up politics in Imperial Seat.

But it was too late to worry about that now.

"I'll also note that I was good enough behind a fighter to destroy multiple ships the empress sent at us. I also managed to best the general here in hand-to-hand combat on a few occasions. Most notably when I killed her brother who was banging the empress."

His face moved into a snarl. Varis had been surprisingly cool at the idea of me killing her brother. I got the impression he was more of a liability than an asset to Varis. Other than his ability to stick his dick in the empress and gain her favor. That maybe she was more relieved than anything that I'd taken care of her family problem.

"You dare speak about Varik like that," he growled.

"I'm not speaking about him like anything," I said with a shrug. "I'm just pointing out I was the one who fired the weapons that ended up fragging him and an entire station."

"You stand for this, General?"

"I stand with the human," she said, raising her chin.

The guy let out another growl. "Well, perhaps it's time we show you something of the error of your ways, human."

And before I could say infinite diversity in infinite combinations he tried to hit me with one sequel trilogy of a haymaker.

I'd been doing all that combat sparring with Varis, but I still didn't think it would be enough to take out a livisk warrior without power armor. This one looked like he was a full warrior. He wasn't one of their civilians. He didn't even look like he was retired. No. He looked like he was ground forces, and he was ready for trouble.

I brought my arm up more out of instinct than anything. It was something I'd trained time and again. If a fist was coming at my face then I brought my arm up in a face block.

I was fully prepared for that fist to make contact with my face despite my attempt to face block. I was convinced Varis had been pulling her punches when we were sparring. It's the only explanation for how I was able to hold my own with her.

Only my arm hit his fist and moved up. I was able to easily bat his punch out of the way. He let out another growl. Or maybe it was something that was somewhere between a laugh and a growl. And he tried to punch me again.

I moved into a sparring stance and brought my arm up again. Only this time I followed up with a sidekick that hit him in the gut.

It was almost a pity there were shields up all around us. For all that those shields were what was keeping us alive. Because he slammed into the railing and would've tumbled off with his momentum and fallen down to his death far below if the shields weren't there to stop him.

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I also stopped to wonder at that kind of thought. I was looking forward to him tumbling to his death down below? What in the sequel trilogy was wrong with me thinking like that?

This guy was an asshole, but presumably he was still on my side. I usually wasn't a fan of killing unless it was absolutely necessary.

I shook my head and got back in the game. I didn't give him a chance to recover. I stepped forward and hit him with a punch to the nose. There was a crack. He stumbled back, but didn't miss a step otherwise. He moved into a combat stance of his own, though this looked more like a wrestling stance than a martial arts fighting stance. He had his arms out to the side, and he let out a low growl as he started to move around me.

I glanced over to Varis. She merely smiled and nodded at me. Like she was enjoying the show.

"I'm glad you're getting so much amusement from me fighting one of your soldiers," I growled as he threw himself at me.

Only this time it was more precise. He wasn't simply throwing himself at me with a haymaker like he had before. Now he moved like he thought I was an actual threat. Imagine the ancient meme of somebody with a controller suddenly leaning forward because they realized they needed to pay attention to the current fight.

I ducked to one side as he punched at me, and then to the other. I brought my own fist up for an uppercut as he brought his fist around to hit me. There was a flash of light that had me blinking in surprise, but then my fist connected under his chin and sent him flying back.

There was a spurt of blue blood that came out of his mouth. It looked for all the world like something out of a VR version of Mortal Kombat. I saw a tooth go flying out of his mouth, which had me wincing.

I was so distracted by watching all the damage I'd done to the asshole that I didn't notice when a punch came right for my gut. It slammed home, and the wind was knocked out of me.

Though it could've been much worse. I had visions of having all the bones in my ribcage breaking simultaneously, or something even more catastrophic. Like him hitting me in the heart and making the damn thing stop.

And then I realized I was being all kinds of an idiot. He was standing there in civilian clothing. When I'd fought Varis on the ship? Back when we were fighting for real rather than the sparring? Or the time I'd sort of threatened to kill her with a plasma cutter bread knife with no intention of actually killing her with a plasma cutter bread knife?

I'd been pulling my punches with the bread knife, and she'd had armor on the ship. Armor that protected her hearts in particular. This guy didn't have any of that.

He grinned as I looked up at him. I coughed, almost expecting to see some blood coming out, but it didn't happen.

"That's right, human," he growled. "I'm going to show the general what it means to find a true mate."

I glanced over to her, wondering what in the sequel trilogy he was talking about. Again, I figured there was some weird livisk cultural bullshit I was missing here. Maybe they did trial by combat if they were interested in stealing somebody's girlfriend rather than going out and getting drunk and making some poor decisions.

And if anything, that made me more angry than before. I let out an angry cry as I felt her confidence moving through the link. I threw myself at him, trying to look like I was doing the same drunken master uncoordinated and undisciplined fighting he'd been doing earlier.

The dude was swaying a little. Like maybe he'd been enjoying a dinner that involved a touch more alcohol than was appropriate for somebody who was about to get in a fight.

I was thankful I hadn't had a drink. We'd barely gotten our salad, or whatever the local equivalent of salad was.

He chuckled as he brought a fist back, no doubt intending to hit me in the face and take me out in a single punch. I marveled that he was even still up after I hit him with that uppercut.

He brought his own arm around again, going back to the haymakers he'd preferred during this whole fight.

Only I was ready. His fist moved through the air where my head was, only it wasn't there any longer. I ducked at the last moment, and I punched. There was another flash of light that seemed to come from my hand for a moment. I had a breath to wonder where that was coming from, and then it slammed over where his two hearts were.

It wasn't enough to kill him. They had the two hearts, which was a bit of a redundancy thing. At least that's what our intel pukes thought it meant.

Still, it was a convenient off button for the livisk. Like an actual off button that caused their whole system to restart. Not a fake off button like hitting someone in the head. Which knocked them out in the movies, but could cause serious brain trauma or death when you did it in real life.

His eyes went wide in surprise and then they rolled into the back of his head as he lost consciousness and crumpled down to the ground.

That resulted in some murmuring from the livisk all around us. I looked around and saw some were hitting me with approving looks, but more were hitting me with disapproving looks. They didn't like the human winning this fight

They could go fuck themselves. This guy tried fighting me for no good reason. Sure he had his reasons, but they weren't good. So he could go fuck himself.

"Why are they all upset?" I asked, turning to Varis.

"Hitting somebody over the hearts to disable them is considered poor form," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah, well, I don't give a shit about poor form as long as I win," I said. "That's all that really matters. Especially if you were on the line."

She stared at me for a long moment, and then amusement bloomed across the link. She threw her head back and laughed, flipping her head from side to side as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder and moved over to the anti-aircraft plasma cannon that was still waiting for us.

"You honestly thought I was on the line? Like he wins a fight and he gets me?"

"I've heard of stranger traditions," I said, shaking and looking at the guy. He was starting to stir and come around. I worried that maybe he was going to try something, and I held myself ready for yet another fight.

Even as I marveled that I was able to hold my own in a fight with a livisk warrior. This asshole definitely wasn't holding back.

What was happening to me?

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