The ship flew wildly in an attempt to throw Ronan off. He managed to hold on, just about, but the hole in the hull he'd created to do so was widening. Hopefully it didn't cause any long term damage. About twenty seconds later there was a soft bang as the hangar roof doors closed, only a tiny crack caused by one of the doors being bent letting in the sunlight.

He had succeeded in keeping the ship grounded. Now he just had to figure out how to take control of it without destroying it.

Ronan stared at the inside of the ship. The front had looked the same as the rest of the hull from the outside, but inside it was a transparent window that allowed the pilot to see outside and guide the repair ship.

He frowned as he looked around the ship and realised that it was basically just a metal box with a bunch of marked storage containers that held various repair tools and supplies. He didn't know what half of them were, even with his skill translating the Grathen script into English for him.

What he couldn't see was a control panel, steering wheel, or absolutely anything that might be used to control the ship. He cursed aloud and kicked the hull, denting it slightly.

The conclusion was obvious. In order to fly the ship he needed one of the neural links that all of the Grathen possessed. Unfortunately Ronan still had no desire to let the alien tech anywhere near his brain, so taking the ship was off the table.

Pissed off, he blew the repair ship up before leaving the hangar. The two Grathen who had occupied the ship and the one that had been operating the roof doors watched in dismay as he did so, cursing him under their breath.

Guess I'm taking the scenic route. He tried not to be annoyed, but it was hard to push down his frustration at the weird alien technology.

Ronan exited the spaceport in a foul mood. He only had one more enemy to bring down in order to conquer the entire planet and complete the first step of the Path of the Gladiator, but he would need to either walk to the city the Governor was in. Or would he?

The worker he'd originally interrogated mentioned something about the difficulty of taming and handling the strange raptor-like creatures, but the child in Ronan thought nothing of it. What could be cooler than riding a dinosaur?

Unfortunately he had no idea where to find one. His best bet was heading into the civilian parts of the city. That was where all of the people with the creatures had gone after entering Kayir through the gate. Hopefully they hadn't already all left due to the chaos he'd caused.

In the end Ronan found a merchant trying to leave the city who had been apprehended by a group of workers and technicians. While they were busy harassing him and arguing over something—he overheard some of it but couldn't decipher the reason—he wandered over to the bored-looking raptor.

It had beady black eyes that snapped to him the moment the creature realised it was being approached. They followed him as he walked closer and closer to the creature. It wasn't startled even when he stood right in front of it and started to reach out a hand.

He touched the scaly head and started to run a hand along it when suddenly the creature's jaw blurred. The next moment he felt a burning pain in his hand as it was seized in the raptor's jaw and clamped tight by its fangs.

The actual damage from the bite was minimal—the creature was only level 58. However, he knew that he couldn't show weakness to an animal if he wanted it to listen to his commands. At least, that was the logic with dogs. Ronan had no idea if the same would be true for the raptor but it was the best he had.

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The raptor looked back into his eyes as it realised its fangs were failing to penetrate beyond the upper layer of skin. It didn't release its bite. Ronan stared back, unmoving.

After about a ten second stare-off, the raptor slowly released its jaws and raised its head, taking a step back from Ronan. It stared at him for another few seconds before lowering its head.

Ronan lifted his hand and placed it against the top of the scaly creature's skull. It was softer than he'd expected, and not at all slimy. He ran a hand gently along its head and neck. "Good girl," he purred. Wait, is it a girl? How am I supposed to tell?

The raptor didn't complain. He wasn't sure it understood him, but at the very least he'd leapt over the first hurdle of getting to Grathamor. He'd mostly seen these creatures pulling carriages, but that wasn't really his style. It would also be slower than just riding the raptor.

It was a little taller than him and its two legs were fairly muscular. Ronan had no idea how much he weighed at the moment—all the metal in his bones and the increased stats had given him a crazy physique—but hopefully it wouldn't strain the creature. Once he stopped stroking it the raptor raised its head and tilted it at him.

Ronan walked to its back and gently gripped the top of its torso with both hands before leaping up and straddling its back. The raptor bucked as he left the ground and put all of his weight onto its legs, but a moment later it stabilised itself and stood back up. It turned around to look at him and then shimmied slightly.

Ronan looked down and saw that he was sitting on a slightly squidgy part of its back. "You don't want me on that?" The raptor shimmied again.

Ronan let himself slide a little further down its back until he was no longer squashing that part of the raptor and it hopped in place, seemingly satisfied. It turned to look at him again, head tilted.

Ah, it wants me to tell it where we're going. He wondered how he could communicate that information to the creature. "Grathamor?" The raptor immediately turned around and started moving, almost throwing Ronan off.

A sudden shout from behind startled him again when he'd just managed to get his grip. "Hey, don't steal my fucking Chagra!" The merchant somehow had time to get enraged at him borrowing the creature when he was in the middle of being attacked by a crowd of workers.

Ronan shook his head and continued riding forwards. The raptor seemed unbothered by the fact that its previous owner was annoyed at it being stolen and continued running towards the gate that left Kayir.

The shouts faded behind him and he no longer had to worry about anything but the breeze on his face. It was intense. The Chagra—or was Chagra its name? Ronan didn't know but whatever the case it ran damn fast. Even with his stats he couldn't fully resist the force of the wind.

They raced through the gate, past a line of Grathen who were fleeing the city. He wasn't sure where they were going or what they hoped to find elsewhere but clearly he'd terrified the population.

Once they left the city behind they entered the plains. The hills that held the military compound he'd first arrived on the planet at were to the left, but the raptor-like creature veered to the right instead, taking them across some flat plains.

The plains ended after an hour of travel. Ronan used the map to estimate the distance, putting it at around eighty kilometres. That meant the raptor was pretty damn fast. As fast as a car, in fact.

They entered a desert, almost devoid of life save for a strange species of blue plant that looked like dry tentacles. They snaked out of the sand and rose into the air in odd formations that seemed like floating seaweed. The raptor never went close, giving every plant they spotted a wide berth.

Ronan realised why when they accidentally went near one and three dark shapes suddenly shot out of the sand towards the raptor. The creature shrieked and turned sharply away, but the creatures that had jumped out of the sand were faster, landing in a triangle around them.

They were like a strange hybrid between scorpions and snakes, with segmented bodies that had about seven sections and legs on each one, with twin stingers at the back and two pairs of glowing blue eyes in front.

Ronan didn't even bother reading the tags. His bow came out of the inventory the moment they'd appeared and he let his first arrow fly.

The creature tried to dart sideways in a strange rolling step, but the arrow pierced right through its head and pinned it to the sand. When the arrow exploded a moment later the corpse fell still, the sand drenched in blue blood.

The other two charged the moment they saw their ally's dead body, causing the raptor to scream and start running towards it, as that was its only path of escape. "Calm down, you're fine." Ronan's attempt to soothe it while he killed the other two failed. On the plus side, it meant he had an opportunity to become a horse—well, raptor—archer.

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