Mal-Rek was a Hish hunter in the 2007 novel Predator: Flesh and Blood by Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger. He came from the clan of Kirs-Giras and was the brother of Heith-Rek, who had died on Felicity before Mal-Rek arrived with the second group of hunters. He refused to hunt by the rules of Bet-Karh, killed the huntress Wrak-Oto when the party turned on itself, and was killed by Bet-Karh in a long fight with blades and bare hands.
Biography
A Hunter Of Kirs-Giras
Mal-Rek belonged to the clan led by Kirs-Giras, which had merged with the clan of Dre-Nath to form the Two Clans That Have Become One. His clan judged a hunt by its kills and saw careful stalking as weakness, and Mal-Rek held to that tradition even more firmly than his brother Heith-Rek. He and Bet-Karh had nearly come to blows once before, shortly after the two clans were joined. Bet-Karh rated himself the better hunter with weapons but knew that Mal-Rek was stronger in hand-to-hand combat.
Arrival On Felicity
After the first party lost two hunters, Mor-Jut brought five more Hish down from the clan ship to the colony on Felicity. Mal-Rek introduced the novice Pran-Ser, a young female of his clan on her First Hunt, and then demanded to know where his brother was. Bet-Karh had expected him to attack once he learned that Heith-Rek was dead, but Mal-Rek took the news calmly. He answered that he had always expected his brother to die on a hunt, and that a good number of kills was all anyone could ask.
The calm did not last. When Bet-Karh ordered that the six hunters follow the rules of his own clan, Mal-Rek and his clan-mate Blay-Kral objected and refused to let anyone dictate how they hunted. Mal-Rek reminded the leader that clans had gone to war over such questions, proposed splitting into two parties, and mocked Bet-Karh's clan for circling its prey until it grew too old to hunt. When Mor-Jut charged at him, Bet-Karh pulled his clan-brother away, and Mal-Rek's blades grazed the leader's armor without drawing blood.
For a long moment Mal-Rek held his blades out and seemed ready to drive them into Bet-Karh. He finally withdrew them and turned his back, a sign that he did not mean to fight but also an insult to the leader's rank. Bet-Karh answered by moving the hunt to the far side of the settlement and placing Mal-Rek at the rear of the line of march. Mal-Rek clearly resented the order, but he waited until the others had passed and then took his place behind them.
The Chase Across The Colony
Among the domes of the colony, Blay-Kral stabbed a human from behind without the leader's permission, and Bet-Karh rebuked him for it. As the hunters chased a slow ground vehicle carrying surviving humans, Mal-Rek caught up with Bet-Karh and defended Blay-Kral as a hunter following his clan's customs. Bet-Karh rejected the argument and took both hunters as a sign of trouble. When the vehicle stopped, Mal-Rek and Blay-Kral moved forward to fire on it, but Mal-Rek gave way when Bet-Karh forbade the shot and pulled Blay-Kral back.
Out on the open ground between the colony and the mountain mines, Mal-Rek proposed disabling the vehicle with a plasma caster shot and returning to the hundreds of humans left in the settlement. He argued that humans were poor prey compared with the creatures the Hish had hunted on worlds such as Dantur and Kassin. Bet-Karh answered that these humans had killed two Hish and escaped a trap in the mountains, and suggested that Mal-Rek's clan had never studied them. Mal-Rek gave no reply, and later agreed to follow the humans to the mountains in a tone that Bet-Karh read as rebellious.
The Clan Brawl
About two miles short of the mountains, the humans divided into a group in the vehicle and a group on foot, and Bet-Karh decided to split his party. Mal-Rek demanded to hunt the humans in the vehicle alone to avenge his brother, leaving everyone else to Bet-Karh, and the leader refused. The hunters had removed their helmets during the long run, and the scent of their kill-glands inflamed the old rivalry. Blay-Kral drew his blades on Mor-Jut, and within moments every hunter was fighting.
Mal-Rek went straight for Bet-Karh, who tried to hold him off without killing him in the hope of ending the brawl. Within moments, Mor-Jut, Blay-Kral, and Pran-Ser were dead, the novice killed by the older huntress Wrak-Oto. Mal-Rek turned on Wrak-Oto, and when Bet-Karh seized him from behind, he struck the leader in the face with an elbow and broke free. Stronger and more skilled than the female, he feinted to draw her off balance, pierced her armor with his blades, and threw her body aside.
Death
With the bodies of their companions around them, Mal-Rek and Bet-Karh faced each other in a fight to the death. Mal-Rek fired his plasma caster at the leader's midsection, but Bet-Karh threw himself at his knees, knocked him down, and bent the targeting motors until the weapon could not fire. Mal-Rek beat at him with his fists, then grabbed his head and slammed his forehead into Bet-Karh's face before knocking him to the ground with a backhand. Both hunters then extended their blades.
Mal-Rek stayed on the attack, kicking Bet-Karh backward and striking him again and again until the leader's legs began to give way. Bet-Karh ducked a blow, nicked Mal-Rek's hands with his mandibles, and locked him in a crushing hold, and Mal-Rek squeezed back for what felt like minutes. When Mal-Rek's left leg sagged, Bet-Karh let go and slashed his face, cutting one eye in half and then severing his lower mandibles. The maimed Mal-Rek went on swinging until Bet-Karh drove his blades into his throat and nearly cut off his head.
Bet-Karh did not treat the killing as a victory, since he saw it as murder and not a hunt. He left Mal-Rek's body among the other dead, planning to return with his shuttle and carry them back to their people for the proper ceremonies. His attempts to contact Dre-Nath on the clan ship went unanswered, and he came to suspect that the hunters aboard had destroyed one another in the same feud.
Personality And Traits
Mal-Rek was proud, aggressive, and loyal to the customs of Kirs-Giras's clan above any order from a leader of the other clan. Bet-Karh considered him more arrogant than Heith-Rek, and Mal-Rek openly treated the cautious hunting style of Dre-Nath's clan with contempt. He was not entirely reckless, since he accepted his brother's death without violence, gave way at the stopped vehicle, and took his place at the rear when ordered. His anger built steadily, however, and once the brawl began he fought to kill.
Weapons And Equipment
Like the other hunters on Felicity, Mal-Rek carried a shoulder-mounted plasma caster and a cloaking device, and wore Hish armor and a helmet with breathing tubes. He used his extendable wrist blades against Bet-Karh and Wrak-Oto, and his plasma caster failed him only after Bet-Karh bent its targeting motors. His greatest strength was unarmed combat, in which even Bet-Karh admitted that Mal-Rek was the better fighter, and it took a surprise attack with blades to end their duel.
Behind The Scenes
Mal-Rek appears in Predator: Flesh and Blood, a novel by Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger published by DH Press in 2007. He is seen only through Bet-Karh's point of view and is never physically described apart from the wounds of his final fight. The novel spells his clan leader both as Kirs-Giras and Kirs-Garas, and it does not reveal whether Mal-Rek or Heith-Rek was the older brother.
Conclusion
Mal-Rek was a Hish hunter of Kirs-Giras's clan who came to Felicity after his brother's death and resisted Bet-Karh's leadership from the moment he arrived. He killed Wrak-Oto when the hunting party turned on itself and died at Bet-Karh's hands after a long, savage fight that ended the last hope of the two clans hunting as one.
Appearances
- Predator: Flesh and Blood (2007)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Predator Deaths | Predator Lore
