The excerpt – Kyden in the arena:

When it was time for him to return to the sands, he found the klixta worms waiting for him in a writhing mass. They were quite ferocious in appearance, with tentacles and barbs but were actually a mindless mass of parasites from a forest world. A clever gladiator could make the creature appear to be a formidable opponent by dancing in and out of reach, slicing off appendages as the klixta roared and advanced, but in reality the alien life form ate only lichen an...