The number of captives being kept in the facility dwindled every day, losers from the matches being sent off to baithaizan military bases some time in the night. An odd number of pair ups netted Pryseia an additional match before Elytra's next one, and by the time that rolled around again, there were less than ten left, herself included.
Elytra lost herself in the monotony of training during the day, while her evenings were spent going over strategy with Pryseia during socialization time. With the greatly diminished crowd of both prisoners and guards, and the warnings that Pryseia's artificial eye afforded them (Elytra thought herself foolish for not catching that sooner - the scar that ran down the left side of Pryseia's face was obviously deep enough to have taken her eye), the other woman had been able to fill her in on more details of her plans for escape.
"We're coming down to the choicest specimens," Pryseia has said on the thirteenth day of elimination rounds, nodding over at the others scattered on the chairs beyond them, "But none of them have advanced in skill enough to pose a threat to you."
Elytra glanced at the handful of captives that remained. Including the four from the two matches that had gone on earlier that day, there were none left from members of her own or Pryseia's races ("Deupazings, who come from the world Halija on the opposite end of the galaxy from this place." Pryseia had told her when asked).
"They don't have the lodestone of your guidance." Elytra had reasoned.
"They don't have your promise of escape." Pryseia shot back, "Why improve when you'll only be fighting on behalf of those who stole you? Instead, with your victory, you will steal yourself away."
They'd had to return to their commentary on the match when Pryseia's eye picked up on whatever systems the baithaizans were using to monitor them from a distance, but once she received whatever all-clear signal her mechanical eye provided, she turned to Elytra and whispered, "By my reckoning, we've only five days of matches ahead of us, and I don't know how much socialization we'll be afforded, so you'll have to commit what I now tell you to memory."
Pryseia's tone was deadly serious enough to set Elytra's pulse thundering in her veins, but she took a steadying breath and nodded for the other woman to go on.
"I watched several of these tournaments before I came here, and they all go the same. The victor of the final bout is immediately brought to the Odazaen, while the loser is carted off for transport. I need to be close at hand for our escape to succeed, so I will need you to precisely destroy the mech I will be in."
At the horrified look Elytra shot her, Pryseia continued, "Precisely, I said, not recklessly. Aim true, and I will be fine. You need to make it hard to pry open the mech, and the damage bad enough to not make the effort to dig me loose worth it."
"You trust my skill enough for this?!" Elytra had hissed, to which Pryseia simply responded, "Yes."
With her empathic abilities, Elytra could feel the other woman's iron-clad faith in her, and she didn't know how to respond to that. Thankfully, Pryseia hummed to mask her eye once more, so she was allowed a moment to gather her feelings on this revelation.
"If it eases your worry any," Pryseia went on once the coast was clear, "I will be working to ensure that my mech is in the exact spot to take so precise a blow. Regard the ones in the recording before us. The area on the torso, just below where the hatch opens to allow entry? That is where you must jam your blade."
"That's very close to where you'll be sitting." Elytra couldn't hide the worry in her voice.
"It has to be, in order to keep me where I need to be," Pryseia went on, before motioning to the left side of her body, what skin exposed there was smattered with scars, "I've been hurt far worse before, this won't even register to me."
That did very little to ease Elytra's worries.
"Once you're in the Odazaen, return to the arena and use it to crack open my mech. With luck it will not be far into the loading hangar we enter the matches from, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting to me. Then, we'll be able to leave this planet."
"How?" Elytra hissed, "And how can you be so certain that this Odazaen that works for no one will work for me?"
Pryseia let out a silent laugh, looking regretful as she said, "There isn't enough time to get into it now, but trust that I will explain all when we're free."
Pryseia's conviction rang so clear that Elytra would have been a fool not to trust her.
While koleopterans couldn't read minds, they could sense the emotional state of others. As no two people felt their feelings exactly alike, it was as easy - sometimes easier - to tell the difference between minds as it was to tell two people apart by sight or scent.
And with all the time she had spent with her, Elytra was familiar with the shape of Pryseia's thoughts.
While she should have been resting, Elytra was instead letting her sixth sense drift out as far as she could manage, searching for the mind of her friend.
Her abilities weren't so precise as to give her anything close to a mental location map, she could sense the general direction in which Pryseia lay sleeping.
The dreams of the handful of other remaining captives were like distant, muffled rumblings coming from behind closed doors, but familiarity had Pryseia's mind registering as close and clear as a thawing river on which she stood at the bank of.
Dead minds had no thoughts rattling around them to make such a noise. Elytra would just have to make sure she was careful enough to strike exactly where Pryseia needed her to, because if that mind blinked into silence, Elytra wasn't sure what she would do.
Hours later, the morning announcement arrived, and with it Elytra's second summons to compete in the arena. One other name was called along side hers, meaning that there would only be a single match that day.
A small mercy, as it meant she wouldn't be stuck in a holding cell, watching others fight while she waited her turn.
Breakfast was a silent affair, her opponent refusing to even so much as glance her way as they methodically powered through their meal of bland cubes. The nerves that had nearly drowned her before her first match were a far cry from the determination she felt today.
Soon enough, her collar led her into the hangars where the tournament mechs were held. She'd be in green once again.
As she climbed in the cockpit and was directed to the ready position once again, Elytra let her senses drift once more. Distantly, but sharper due to her alertness, she could feel the spring thaw of Pryseia's thoughts as she went about her training for the day.
In order for them both to escape, the other woman needed her to win.
And so, Elytra would win.