Mr. Kainyu's lizard body slammed hard into the sand. The ground was soft, but his attacker had yanked and thrown him with such force that the impact nearly took half his life. His head spun, and he felt as if he might throw up the sand rat he'd just eaten, which he hadn't even finished digesting.
Through the haze, Mr. Kainyu could just make out his attacker. It wasn't some powerful psychic passing by. It was a troll soldier, his whole body smeared with dirt and blood.
The troll's armor was damaged, and his helmet had long since vanished. His worst wound was on his shoulder, where a huge chunk of flesh had been sliced away, exposing gleaming white bone. His ugly, savage face was so caked in dirt and blood that his features were impossible to make out. All Kainyu could see were tiny, beadlike eyes brimming with greed and bloodlust, and a gaping maw, missing several tusks, that breathed out a rancid stench.
This guy was hungry! So hungry he'd lost all reason, hungry enough to digest even steel.
Yes, this guy had to be one of the raiders' stragglers. By now, their forces had been routed on both the northern and southern fronts. But trolls were among the most resilient species in the universe, and they had enormous appetites. Even as stragglers, they'd surely play the part of an invasive species, a menace to the local ecosystem, or something of the sort on this planet for a long time.
And now this invasive species was about to prey on him, a local lizard?
No, the important thing was, how could the great "Master Dramatist" be hunted by an invasive species?
Mr. Kainyu was a scholarly terrorist leader well versed in Earth culture, so at that moment, he