"You're a fucking idiot and you're going to get creamed!" Psii shouted back at Sam. Didn't Sam remember that he was human, that the stings would penetrate his skin that much more easily?

Psii couldn't make out the words of the new arrival, with the zaps from Sam's wand exploding bats so close to him. All he knew was the thrum of a bowstring and something hitting the back wall so very close to his head. The tracker jackers buzzed even more angrily.

He doubled the sparking shield around Sam, afraid he was next. All he wanted was to save a friend. He was tired of people dying. Having visions of death and the specter of his prolonged future of torture didn't help. The Helmsman was the exact opposite fate he wanted, but here he could do something different.

His lips peeled back from his fangs in a hiss, his sightless all-black eyes turned in the vague direction of the new voice. He threw more sparking lengths across the ground, trying to find who had shot at him. It didn't cross his mind to yell don't shoot! Asking a Tribute in an arena not to shoot was like asking that sky to stop striking people with lightning.