Null Space

I was steadily becoming surrounded by aliens of all shapes and sizes. There were humanoids, aliens with no legs, aliens with no arms, aliens with three legs and seven arms. All sorts of bodily configurations, and they were all muttering under their breaths about me.

Before any of them could ask me any questions or make a move to attack me, if that's what they wanted to do, I made a break for it.

I pushed my way through the crowd, using my enhanced strength to shove the extraterrestrial beings out of my way. I figured that, since these aliens weren't attempting to get into the guard, they'd likely be on the weaker side of things where manna and physical strength was concerned. That was a theory that seemed to be holding up.

I broke into a light jog and darted toward the Megacity building to my left. There were holographic advertisements on the outside of the building, but considering how big the structure was and how many advertisements littered its surface they didn't really give me much of an indication of what I would find inside.

The inside of the Megabuilding was just as impressive as everything else I had encountered so far. The area I had emerged into was an entryway littered with restaurants, clubs and shops. It seemed to basically be the equivalent of a high street back on Earth.

Outside of every establishment, there was a small hologram advertisement explaining exactly what the business was all about, meaning the entire area was lit up in an array of neon colours. It was also incredibly busy, with a bunch of aliens of every shape and size bustling around to get to wherever it was they were going. While the outside had seemed relatively quiet, this part of the megabuilding was positively heaving with activity.

That meant there were even more aliens who would be able to realise that I was a human, and if I was really unlucky, exactly which human I was.

<Told you this was a bad idea, kiddo,> BB said, <Still time to head back, you know.>

I didn't know why I was being so stubborn, but for some reason BB's words just made me feel even less enamoured with the idea of returning to the Guard dorms so quickly. Instead, I popped the hood of my tan jacket and pulled it down low, hopefully making it near impossible for any of the nearby aliens to realise who exactly I was.

I stuck my hands in my pockets, kept my head down, and weaved my way through the hundreds, if not thousands, of people that were making their way through the district. There seemed to be two flows of traffic, one stream going in the same way that I was and another going the opposite.

I decided to follow the stream of aliens that was heading in the direction I was already travelling, moving ever deeper into the Megabuilding. I travelled away from the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded shopping district that was located directly within the entranceway and down a series of winding paths. Slowly but surely more and more of the aliens split off until, before I new it, I was left completely alone.

<You have absolutely no idea how to get out of here, do you?> BB asked the sigh in his voice was obvious. I didn't bother to respond, he lived in my head, he knew how lost I was.

I turned on my heel and started to come back the way that I came, but within a single corner turn, I had arrived at a junction of three different paths, one going forward, one to the right and one to the left. I had no idea which one I had arrived through.

My solution for picking the direction I'd go was simple.

Eenie.

Meenie.

Miney.

Mo.

I ducked down the leftmost path and followed it for a couple of hundred meters. By then it was obvious that I had no idea where I was going or where I had ended up. Fortunately I could hear something from further up ahead the alleyway I had chosen. People were shouting, not in an angry way, but in the excited and happy way that you would expect from someone watching a high octane sport.

I jogged around yet another corner and was surprised to see the alleyway open up into a wide area, not too dissimilar from the coliseum I'd competed in earlier that day, only on a much smaller scale.

Aliens were scattered around the viewing area, jeering and yelling as two others were battling one another down in the pit.

One of the two life forms in the fight was small and fast. They ran circles around the other and lashed out with flurrys of manna enhanced punches and kicks, staggering the other each time they landed.

The other creature was perhaps one of the most dangerous-looking beings that I had seen so far. Much like a human it had two arms and legs, but that was about where the similarities ended. Its legs ended in three toed feet, shaped in much the same way as you would see on a bird or a dinosaur. At the top of its legs, where they joined the body, there were a series of sharp, long spikes. Its arms were incredibly muscly, and much like the legs, ended in hansd that had three distinct, sharp claws.

The head was more spiderlike than human. Four glowing green eyes sat on a heavy brow, surrounded by four incredibly large spikes that jutted out from the head. Its mouth was a slathering mess of fangs, dripping with saliva. Occasionally the alien would screech, its mouth opening up like an insects, its fangs retracting like mandibles to reveal a squirming tongue. Furthering its insectoid appearance, a carapace of black bone covered a majority of its body, cracking in some places to reveal the raw red flesh beneath.

<Why the hell is there a Null Space Invader here?> BB asked, completely taken aback.

That was why something deep and primal inside me has identified this creature as such a threat. It was the ultimate threat, the threat that the whole guard had supposedly been brought together to help defeat. And it was right here, on the planet that a group of guard initiates were training on.