The feeling of her skull vibrating was the first sensation Elytra became aware of. Next came pain - every one of her muscles ached with a dull throb, but the headache blooming behind her eyes all but drowned out the rest of her discomfort. She tried to sit up out of her bed, and it took her a moment to realize that she was already seated.
And that she was very much not in her bed.
The vibrating became more insistent, the sound of it changing in pitch, and with that change came the realization that her right shoulder and head were leaning up against a metal wall. Her legs were curled beneath her, held in an uncomfortable angle thanks to the wall that they were pressed up against.
Panic was the next sensation that came to Elytra, because sight didn’t.
She blinked rapidly, trying to will her eyes to work, hoping it was darkness and not blindness that affected her. Reaching out with her hands, she felt walls both before and behind her, too close for comfort.
A rapid rasping sound filled the space, and it was only when a choked sob bubbled up her throat that she became aware that it was her own frantic breathing that was echoing around her.
Before she could spiral further, the pitch of the vibrations changed once more, this time accompanied by a distant roar that was steadily drawing closer. She had no time to ponder what could have been causing the sound, because something around her throat jerked her backwards and upwards, catching painfully on the plates of her carapace along her jaw. It was all she could do to force herself to stand so as to not be choked by whatever had her.
With her back pressed fully against the wall, the pressure eased off her throat. Elytra reached blindly in the dark for whatever had forced her upright, and found a moderately thick band of metal looped around her neck. It felt like a smooth, solid ring, loose enough that it wouldn’t hinder her, but not so wide that she could slip her head through it. It didn’t feel like it was attached to anything, but some force held it both completely horizontal and immobile.
The roaring was louder now, accompanied by the muffled words of someone’s exuberant announcements. The vibrations suddenly stopped, and with it came the sense of vertigo when an elevator finally comes to a halt. Light came next, blinding and painful as the walls around her began to sink down, and the roaring became deafening.
"-FRESHLY ACQUIRED FROM PRIMITIVE WORLDS BOTH NEAR AND FAR!" The voice, amplified, boomed out over the roar, overwhelming Elytra’s senses further, "I PRESENT TO YOU THE PRELIMINARY CONTESTANTS FOR THIS! THE FIFTY NINTH ODAZAEN TOURNAMENT!"
Blinking tears from her eyes, Elytra took in her surroundings. Stretching out before her was a vast open arena, the ground of which was a textured, off-white colour, and spaced equidistant around the perimeter were others who looked as collard and bewildered as she was. And not just her own race, but aliens too. And behind those imprisoned in the arena rose stands absolutely teeming with spectators, their roaring louder without the walls to muffle them.
"CONTESTANTS!" The voice called out again, and Elytra’s eyes were drawn further upwards to the holographic display that encompassed the entire upper dome of the arena, showing a vibrantly coloured alien wearing elaborate robes, two arms stretched wide while a smaller pair held a cylindrical device closer to the alien’s chest. Their skin was smooth and moist, bold bands of orange and teal along their throat standing out against the deep green of the rest of their skin. Piercing yellow eyes, wide set on their face with pupils that looked like beads on a line, danced over the assembled crowd, while their wide mouth curled into the indulgent smile of a parent looking fondly on their children.
"A GREAT HONOUR NOW BEFALLS YOU!" The alien continued, their voice carrying over the roar of the crowd, "BAITHAIZ CALLS UPON YOU TO DEFEND HER BORDERS! CITIZENSHIP UNTO OUR ILLUSTRIOUS REPUBLIC SHALL BE GRANTED TO THE VICTORS! ELEVATED FROM YOUR OWN SAVAGE WORLDS, YOU SHALL FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE RANKS OF OUR ARMIES! SOME TO SERVE, OTHERS TO FIGHT, AND FOR ONE OF YOU…"
The image of the alien vanished, replaced by what looked to be footage from some type of hangar bay. A few ships - single person fighter craft by the look of them - were parked in the distance, but prominently in the foreground stood a massive, bipedal mech. Though she had never seen one in person, Elytra knew that this machine could only be an Odazaen.
One of the few things left behind by the Hyttan Technocracy, these mechs, despite their age, were unmatched when it came to armoured combat. In the hands of even an unskilled pilot, an Odazaen could turn the tide on any battlefield. But in the hands of a skilled pilot? Wars had been all but single-handedly won through such might.
"THE GLORY OF BECOMING OUR CHAMPION!"
The crowd grew even more cacophonous at that, the frantic flailing of their distant shapes turning their mass into a kaleidoscope of colour.
"THE ROAD BEFORE YOU IS ONE OF FEAR, OF PAIN, AND YES, EVEN DEATH," the announcer continued as the image of the Odazaen faded away to reveal the alien, "BUT IN YOUR STRUGGLES AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, A PILOT WORTHY OF THIS INCREDIBLE MACHINE SHALL EMERGE. WE WISH YOU LUCK IN THE BOUTS TO COME!"
And with that, their secondary arms lifted the cylinder they carried to their lips, through which they blew a deep, resonating note.
Elytra stumbled as the force holding her collar upright vanished, and around her the aliens in the arena began to move.
The first kill happened before Elytra could even register what was going on. Across from her, one of the aliens turned to their right and sprinted at another, their clawed hand slashing down as soon as they neared. Lurid green blood splattered across the white floor as the clawed alien rushed on to their next target, not even waiting for the first's body to tumble to the ground. After that, chaos erupted.
Cheers and chants rose from the audience tucked safely away in the stands, while the arena below them was filled with screaming, the ground quickly filling with colour as it was doused in the blood of every new victim. All around her, the captured aliens ebbed and flowed, some trying to run, while others followed the bloody bidding of their captors. Elytra didn't have long to simmer in her indecision before an alien turned on her, murderous intent in their eyes.
Quicker than she could react, the alien lunged at her, their hands grasping for her throat. Acting with an instinct that felt foreign to her, she swatted the alien's hands away, delivering a shove to their chest so hard that they stumbled back into another alien, who immediately rounded on them with a vicious punch. Elytra had no time to think, as another alien entered her orbit, their intent to kill her writ clear as day.
Elytra moved with a skill she knew she shouldn't possess as she blocked or evaded the blows her assailant rained down upon her. Her left leg lashed out on its own accord, tripping the alien attacking her, and she followed them down with a brutal punch aimed straight at the softest part of their throat. They made a horrible gagging sound when the blow connected, writing in pain and frantically scrabbling at their throat as they tried and failed to draw in air.
Horror at what she'd done had no time to take root in Elytra, as another alien sprang upon her, claws tearing through the back of her shirt and catching on her carapace. She threw them off with an ease that shocked her, falling into a defensive stance she had no memory of learning.
She wasn't sure how much time passed as she lost herself in the chaos of combat, her thoughts as distant and formless as the crowd revelling in the bloodbath. It was kill or be killed, and some instinct that was alien to her was driving her onward.
Until a blow to the back of her knees sent her crashing to the ground.
She barely had enough time to roll onto her back, to register the clawed alien who had struck the first blow in this fight leaning over her, their arms caked in blood up to the shoulder, before they brought their hand down to finish her off.
They were prevented from doing so when a blue skinned alien came out of nowhere and delivered a fatal kick to their head with enough force that it sent their body crashing into a pair of other combatants.
"No time for napping!" The newcomer shot her a grin before pivoting away to toss another alien clearly intent on taking advantage of Elytra's supine state, her saviour's tail wrapping around her wrist and pulling her upright with the momentum of their turn.
There was no time for talking as Elytra found herself fighting back to back with the blue skinned alien, no time to ask why this stranger was clearly going out of their way to help her, when it was obviously an every person for themselves free for all. The struggle to survive overrode her every thought.
An eternity and an instant later, another resonant note rang out over the arena, and everyone left standing suddenly found themselves dragged backwards by their collars, once again leashed by some unseen force. With her back pressed against a wall again, Elytra saw that the rest of the survivors were in a similar state. The back walls of the elevators that had brought the combatants to the battleground were once again extended around the perimeter of the arena, only now half of them stood like tombstones for the bodies that lay scattered across the ground. In the dome above them, the image of the four armed alien returned.
"THUS CONCLUDES THE FIRST ROUND!"
Their proclamation was met with more wild cheering, and they smiled beatifically down on the crowd as they waited for the noise to dissipate.
"TO THE VICTORS OF THE DAY, CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER. YOU HAVE PROVEN YOURSELVES TO BE SURVIVORS, BUT NOW YOU MUST PROVE YOURSELVES TO BE FIGHTERS. REST, RECOVER, FOR SOON ENOUGH THE NEXT ROUND OF ELIMINATIONS WILL BEGIN!"
The screams of the crowd somehow grew louder than they'd been all day, and as the hologram vanished from the dome, three other walls began rising up around each of those left standing. Glancing frantically across the remaining combatants, Elytra spotted the blue skinned alien who had come to her rescue off to her left. The alien only had time enough to give her a brief nod and shoot her a smirk before the walls cut them off from sight, and some kind of ceiling closed up, enveloping Elytra in crushing darkness once more.
The force holding her collar vanishing and the sensation of the elevator descending were the only things Elytra had a chance to register before something rendered her unconscious.