Viktor groaned, throwing his arms up in the air, "You, again?!" The crowd cheered at his battle cry.

Oorah raged against its cage, throwing itself against the bars in a feral frenzy. Its dark brown eyes bored into Viktor's, jaws snapping angrily. Viktor bared his own teeth in retaliation, slowly feeling himself fall into the state of mind he did when he fought. There was no need for human thoughts when he was fighting for his life. It was animal against animal out here.

The ringmaster gave a mighty shout and the barred door lifted. Viktor quickly ran to the nearest piece of debris. A large, rotted tree trunk quickly went under his worn hands and socked feet. His nails were broken from previous fights, ragged and blunt, but they did their job as he climbed on top of the trunk with ease. It was a little taller than Oorah, who could easily reach it if he jumped.

Viktor wasn't going to give it that chance.

In the half-year he had been here, he had not fought against Oorah since that first night. He was uneasy, but he had learned quite a bit during his time here. He would win, but this time, he would win with skill instead of luck.

Oorah charged the tree trunk, crouching to leap at him. Viktor let out a wordless yell at the beast, jumping off the trunk and over Oorah as the beast leaped at where he was. Twisting in the air, Viktor grabbed his whip-like tail, tugging hard and stalling the beast's momentum. His heels dug into the harsh sand as he was dragged forward, but the action did exactly what he wanted it to do.

Oorah leaped over the tree trunk and found himself stopped midair over it. He landed ungracefully on top of the trunk, clawing at the wood to get his feet underneath him. Viktor quickly let go of its tail as it started to thrash.

The crowd bellowed its approval, stamping its feet, tails, and claws. Viktor stalked around the arena, hands loose at his sides as he kept his eyes on the beast. Eventually, Oorah got to his feet, lashing around until he spotted Viktor. Growling low in the back of its throat, Oorah started stalking forward carefully, slowly, as if Viktor couldn't see it.

The teen rolled his eyes before crouching low to the ground and grabbing a fistful of sand. As soon as Oorah was close, he flung the sand into the beast's eyes. Oorah thrashed, pawing at its eyes as it howled in agony. Viktor launched at it, locking his arms around its large neck as his shoulder dug into the underside of its jaw.

He heard it choke pathetically for a moment before its front legs tried to reach up to claw at him. He gripped the beast's neck harder, repositioning his legs to be planted more firmly on the ground. Using all his strength, Viktor let out a strangled yell as he threw the beast to its side onto the ground beside where he was standing.

Panting, Viktor took a few steps back, wiping at the sweat that dotted his brow. He could feel his torn shirt sticking to his back. He shot a glance up at the ringmaster, who looked very pleased with how the fight was going. He was chatting with the two aliens, who were on either side of the ringmaster's chair. Relief flooded his system, and he took a deep breath, getting back into the fight just as Oorah got back to its paws once more.

Viktor bared his teeth, crouching into a more defensive stance. Oorah charged at him, anticipating Viktor's dodge to the left. The teen cursed as he felt the beast's tail lash against his ankles, but he moved his legs out of the way quickly enough so that the beast couldn't wrap it around him. Curling his hands into fists, Viktor quickly turned on his feet, spraying sand behind him and onto the wooden walls of the arena.

He swung his right fist into Oorah's face just as the beast opened its jaw to bite him. Viktor howled as it clamped down on his arm instead of his face. Oorah started thrashing with his teeth embedded into Viktor's arm, and the teen brought his other fist down into one of the beast's eyes. It yelped and let go, retreating to a safer distance. It ripped off half of his hoodie sleeve. It also ripped out a chunk of him. Viktor felt woozy when he looked at it.

The ringmaster must have thought it was enough fighting because the whistle that ended the arena's fights pierced the air. Oorah and Viktor both stilled, well-trained in the shocks that were handed out gleefully if they both did not stop fighting. Growling, the beast snapped its jaws at him threateningly. Viktor snarled back. Blood dripped down from the bite on his arm. It throbbed painfully.

When he looked up at the ringmaster, he had been expecting him to wave his employees to fetch Viktor and take him to be treated for the bite on his arm. He was expecting the ringmaster to be nonchalant in his stature, face relaxed, or perhaps a bit happy at the money he had surely received on the outcome of Kohgrash's fights.

What he was not expecting was a frantic alien shouting at the ringmaster, gesturing to the world outside of the arena. What he was not expecting was the whistle hanging from the ringmaster's mouth with a look of shock written on his face.

The ringmaster yelled one word, and pandemonium erupted.

The crowd started scrambling for the exits, stomping on each other in their haste to get out. The noise was unlike the level of chaos he was used to hearing. Everyone outside of the arena was fighting to exit the place. Employees and patrons alike scattered. The ringmaster himself was quickly getting escorted away, but the two aliens that were accompanying him quickly stopped him. They pulled out something from under their clothing and showed it to a shocked ringmaster.

Worried now, Viktor quickly turned away from the ringmaster, unconcerned with what those two aliens wanted with him. He needed to get back to the warehouse. This could be their chance to escape!

Feeling cold with nerves and sick with hope, Viktor quickly ran to the door he was always shoved through. By some divine luck, the door had been left wide open, no doubt in response to the quickly aborted whistle and subsequent panic. He shoved the heavy wooden door open, following the path he has taken hundreds of times to the warehouse. There was no one here. Viktor thought he was going to be sick with relief.

"Guys!" he shouted breathlessly as he ran into the warehouse. He skidded to a stop right outside the closest cage, sheltering Zach, a man he hardly knew. He inspected the door quickly, frantically looking for a lock, a handle, anything.

"Viktor? Where're the aliens?" Aiko yelled, rushing to the door of her cage. The others followed suit, confusion lacing their faces.

Nearly speechless with hope, Viktor explained what he had seen out in the arena. "I think those two alien guys were cops or something. Everyone left! We can get out of here!" He shook the door frantically, yelling in frustration. "Fuck!"

He moved on to the next door, but it was the same. There was no way to unlock the door. The remote. They were usually attached to the belts the employees wore. His hands traveled to his hair as he grit his teeth in dismay, feeling hot blood drip into his hair. The hope that he had in his chest was quickly getting snuffed out. "I don't have the key," he said miserably, looking at each of the others. They, too, had gotten their hopes up.

"Damn it," Ezekiel cursed, kicking his water trough and sending water spilling over the edge. "Fuck!"

There was a moment of silence, accented only by the commotion happening outside the walls.

"You said cops were out there?" Pedro asked after the silence became too unbearable.

Viktor shrugged helplessly, clutching his arm with the other hand. "It could've been another ring leader for all I know. I just ran here as fast as I could."

The commotion got louder, closer, but it was more of organized chaos than the frantic mess he had witnessed earlier. The ring's patrons must have all fled by now. Viktor stepped closer to the cage doors, feeling exposed as he stood on the wrong side of them. His heart leaped in his throat as the sounds of footsteps, dragging tails and shouting got closer to the warehouse. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the door opened.

Lilac was in the doorway, looking around a bit frantically. Her eyes landed on Viktor, standing in front of one of the cells with his hand wrapped around the bars, wide-eyed. "Kohgrash!" she yelled.

Viktor scrambled as Lilac started rushing at him. Suddenly very afraid of what she may do to him since he was out of his own cell, he frantically started running towards it, easily dodging her large hands as she tried to grab him. "Kohgrash," he heard Lilac say, exasperated as she followed him into his open cage. He glared at her from the corner, glancing at the warehouse door. He could run out. But he would have to leave the other humans behind. He couldn't do that.

"What?!" he shrieked at her. He was pressed against the cool wood wall behind him, feeling trapped. His heart was pounding out of his chest. "What do you want?!"

The others were speaking, but he could barely hear them over the rushing of his blood in his ears. His chest was heaving, but he could barely get any air in. He was feeling light-headed. He looked down at his arm, feeling a bit sick. His whole lower arm was covered with his blood, which seeped sluggishly out of the bite wound.

Lilac was shaking him roughly, grabbing his reddened wrist. When had she gotten hold of him? She was uncapping the ointment tin with her other hand, and he tugged his arm weakly, whimpering. "Please, no. I'll be good. Please," he begged to no avail. It wasn't like she understood him, anyways.

After needless squirming and hot searing pain, Lilac let go of his arm and capped the tin. She shouted something down the warehouse, and Viktor noted foggily that bigger aliens started to swarm in. They were hauling in carriers of all sizes. Some were big enough for Oorah and others were the sizes of cat carriers back on Earth.

He glanced at his arm, waving it around for a moment. It was still throbbing, but the sharp pain from the bite had dulled significantly. The wounds were closed, just barely, leaving raw red skin behind. Viktor didn't know when he had fallen onto the floor, but he sat up, pressing a hand to his head. Lilac looked down at him, a strange expression on her face. It took Viktor a moment to place it through his lightheadedness due to blood loss. Worried.

He couldn't protest when she scooped him up in her arms, though he did let out a grunt of protest at being carried. He was too dizzy to do anything drastic, and his adrenaline had left him when he had been slathered with ointment. He was placed carefully in one of the larger carriers, glad to be out of Lilac's arms but missing the warmth.

After a short moment, Viktor could feel a hand carding through his dirty hair. He cracked open an eye wearily, finding himself on the lap of Aiko. Pedro sat across from them. The floor beneath them was rumbling. "What...?"

The hand in his hair stilled for a moment. "Nice to see you, sleeping beauty," Aiko said, resuming her ministrations. "Lilac fixed you up and put you in this cage. She must've managed to convince those cops to stick us together because me and Pedro were put into this one. The others are in two other carriers. No idea where we're going."

"Huh," Viktor smacked his lips, feeling thirsty. "Maybe back'ta Ear'h?"

There was silence, a sigh. Viktor felt his foot getting patted by Pedro. "Sure hope so, kid. Doesn't look like it, though. Go back to sleep, you need the rest."

Viktor obeyed.