Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) by B.T. Narro Page A

to try a hug.
    He knelt down and put his arms around her stomach, pushing his cheek against her back—it felt awkward with her being on all fours…like he was squeezing a dog. Still, he stuck with it.
    “It’s alright,” he said. “I’m not mad.”
    It was the truth. He’d completely forgotten about Leonard anyway. How could he hold a grudge? But he did need to know what happened.
    “What could’ve caused you to kill him?” Steffen let go and stood back up. His awkward embrace hadn’t improved her mood.
    “He’d always been so mellow,” Marratrice said, her voice unstable, as if the words were wobbling their way out. “So I’d been opening his cage to feed him. But yesterday he attacked me. I think he wanted to kill me.” She shook her head. “I know it doesn’t sound possible. I mean, what kind of rat wants to kill a person? But he wouldn’t stop biting me, even when I kicked him. My roommate heard my screams. She came to help me, but we didn’t know what to do to stop Leonard from trying to bite me. He obviously wasn’t afraid of us. So we…” Her hands flew to cover her face. “It was so terrible!”
    “Unrelenting aggression…this must be a side effect of the growth potion,” Steffen realized. “He was calm because of a powerful psychic spell from Vithos, but it must’ve worn off.” Steffen didn’t know enough about psyche to be sure that was correct, but now wasn’t the time to speculate. “Was your roommate hurt as well?” Steffen asked.
    “No, fortunately. The rat was only after me.”
    Blind rage, another side effect. “Anything else Leonard did that was unlike other rats?”
    “I don’t know…” Marratrice muttered to the ground.
    Steffen studied the side of her face to find her eyes squinted. He decided to put himself in her position. What would he have done if Leonard had attacked him and showed no signs of stopping? How would he have killed Leonard?
    “Did you feed him a sleep potion to stop him?” Steffen asked.
    “No.” Marratrice seemed as if she wanted him to keep guessing so she wouldn’t have to say it aloud.
    Steffen was quiet as he thought. A terrible image came to mind. He couldn’t even suggest it. His stomach was starting to turn in on itself. His appetite was gone.
    Finally he managed to whisper, “You killed him with your feet and hands?”
    “We had to.” Marratrice started to weep again. “He was biting me so hard. We had to stop him.”
    Leonard was huge. The thought of crushing the rat was too much for him to consider, so he decided not to.
    “I’m truly sorry,” he said.
    “Me, too.” Marratrice wiped away her tears. “Do you want to come by and get his cage?”
    “I will, although I’m not going to be buying any more rats for experiments.”
    “I think that would be wise.”

 
     
    Chapter 11:
    STEFFEN
     
    By the time lunch service was open, Steffen’s appetite had returned. After waiting in line and receiving his food, he found Zoke sitting with Alarex. It was impossible not to notice the shirtless Krepp amid the dining hall packed with Humans. Zoke was the only one with dark gray skin and a long head that nearly came to a point at its front, just like a lizard’s.
    Steffen often forgot how different the Krepp really looked compared to Humans, especially when Zoke was speaking their language. But being the only Krepp in the room made him look like a fish on land.
    Still unused to the Krepp’s natural musk, Steffen sat next to Alarex instead.
    “Hi, Alex,” he said. But then Steffen noticed the cuts all over Zoke. “What happened?”
    “Sneaky Human bastards.” Zoke grunted and went back to his food, as if expecting Steffen to understand what that meant.
    Looking over to Alex, Steffen saw he was smiling. “Zoke had some trouble on Warrior’s Field.”
    “Only during team combat,” Zoke added. “I can beat anyone when it’s just them and me.”
    “You haven’t fought Cleve yet,” Alex said. “They say no one has