Battle Kreaturez

Apologies for the long wait. IRL problems and external obligations got in the way.

The next day, Ben, Riidya and the senior Wyldcards gathered in the Wyldcard team’s practice arena. It was a dome-shaped building that resembled an even smaller version of Zaito Hall. Since there was no roaring crowd, the practice arena had no fancy holographic backdrop; only a simple invisible forcefield to protect the Tamers from stray fire. The battlefield itself was even simpler, just a raised hollow concrete cylinder filled to the top with dirt and large boulders. Ben and Riidya had already beamed their Kreatures in and mindlinked with them. Slash and Zok waited patiently for their opponent to show itself.

“We’ll be holding a trial match,” Wade had told Ben and Riidya beforehand. “This won’t be like the instructional sparring matches you’ve been having up until now. This will be a simulation of a real battle, meant to seriously test the limits of your skills. If you put up a good fight we’ll let you join.”

Dennis furrowed his brow. Kristy had specifically asked him not to go easy on them.

“I know you’re fond of Ben and Riidya”, she’d said, “but for this battle to mean anything you have to treat them like any other opponent. There’s too much at stake for us to be held back by sentiment.”

With those words echoing in his memory, Dennis beamed his chosen Kreature into the arena. Ben and Riidya’s hearts skipped a beat as it materialized in front of them.

It was none other than Oscar, Dennis’ Scuthon. It was a colossal serpent with rows of recurved teeth and covered in rugged scaly armour, like an anaconda wrapped in an alligator’s skin. Despite the Kreature’s name this specimen was a female, and thanks to Dennis’ meticulous care she was monstrously huge, even compared to others of her kind; nearly 300kg of heavy duty armour and muscle that stretched over 8 meters from snout to tail tip.

Wade raised his hand and signaled the start to the battle. Dennis’ Scuthon went straight for Riidya’s Kraaster, striking out with astonishing speed in spite of its bulk. However, as fast as she was, Zok was faster. She sprang out of the way, avoiding the strike within a hair’s breadth, Oscar’s jaws slamming shut so close she could feel the wind off it. The serpent lashed out again and again, but Zok managed to scuttle away each time. As he observed the elegant arachnid ballet, Ben had to admit that Riidya had a superb defensive technique and Zok was well trained. He was more than a little jealous… and perhaps a tad insulted that Dennis had gone after her first, apparently considering her the greater threat.

“Hey dumbfuck,” his critical inner voice chimed in, “quit standing around and attack him while he’s distracted!”

Ben snapped back to reality and Slash leapt into the air, tail blade lighting up with a pale blue glow, crackling as it gathered power. Swiping the blade in a vertical slice, Ben’s Kreature flung a tightly focused arc of energy that carved a gash through the arena floor as it flew towards its target. But just before it connected, Dennis’ Scuthon curled into a tight ball, coils facing outward, and the cutter wave dispersed harmlessly across her armour.

In his haste to attack, Ben had forgotten in the heat of the moment that a mindlink went both ways; Dennis was effectively in two places at the same time, keeping tabs on his target through his Kreature’s eyes while watching his back through his human ones. He paid for that novice mistake with a rib cracking blow from Oscar’s tail that knocked Slash out of the air. The pain reverberated through the mindlink and Ben dropped to his knee, reflexively clutching his side in anguish. Slash skidded across the ground, rolling to a stop just barely short of the arena’s edge.

Slash panted hard, spitting out blood and grit, and got back up on his feet. Stunning as the impact was, Battle Kreatures were built for resilience. They were much less sensitive to pain than humans were, which prevented Ben from just passing out in agony on the spot. The cutter wave was a powerful but risky move that cost a lot of stamina. Ben would have to wait for a better opportunity before trying it again; Slash only had enough strength left to use it two more times. Ben grabbed the rim of the observation deck and pulled himself up.

Meanwhile, Ben’s failed ambush attempt had given Riidya an idea. Since the Scuthon was protected from above by thick scales and crawled on its belly there was only one weak point she could exploit. Riidya goaded Dennis into striking at her again. The Scuthon lunged, jaws agape. But this time, she held her ground. Zok’s eyes lit up, preparing to fire a barrage of ocelli rays into the serpent’s open mouth at point blank range…

Suddenly, Ben’s Jagaldie tackled her from the side, shoving her out of the way. Her shots flew wide, sparking against the arena’s forcefield barrier.

“Dammit, Ben! What’d you go and do THAT for?!”

“He was coming straight for you! You’re welcome, by the way.”

“I never ASKED for your help!”

A giant tail slammed down in-between them.

“Hey you two, don’t forget who your actual opponent is,” Dennis chided. Oscar’s tail swept Slash’s feet out from under him, then she lunged for Zok again. A feint this time. Dennis pulled the serpent’s strike and Zok’s ocelli rays glanced harmlessly off Oscar’s scales. Another tail swipe flicked out, deftly dodged by Riidya’s Kraaster, but now she was in mid leap and unable to avoid the following counterattack. Oscar’s jaws clamped onto one of Zok’s legs, shook it around like a dog with a stick, and popped it out of its socket. Riidya squawked, suddenly shocked by phantom pain. The serpent spat the appendage aside and Riidya’s Kreature hobbled away on five limbs. Slash and Zok scampered this way and that, desperately attempting to keep out of Oscar’s reach, all the while their Tamers bickered.

“Damn! He’s not gonna fall for that again,” Riidya said. “How are we supposed to even damage him?”

“What if we tired him out?” Ben suggested. “Maybe we can get a TKO.”

“That’s cowardly!” Riidya griped. “But I guess we don’t have any other choice. No way can our Kreatures push that Scuthon out of the ring.”

Ben and Riidya went on the offence together, their goal now to try to land as many attacks as possible, regardless of how effective they were. Oscar coiled up once more, an impenetrable armoured ball, but Slash and Zok chipped away at her with tooth and claw, biting and scratching and gnawing with fanatic determination. Dennis couldn’t just stall and wait them out; excessive timidity would be against the rules. Eventually he’d have to strike back…

Massive reptilian jaws shot out from between Oscar’s coils like some demented jack-in-the-box, narrowly missing Slash, causing him to slip and tumble a short distance away. With one opponent dislodged, the serpent was able to use her tail to deliver a heavy blow to Riidya’s Kraaster, smashing it against her body. The impact was severe, hemolymph spurting out between the plates in Zok’s exoskeleton, but before Oscar could finish her off, Slash leapt back into action and chomped onto Oscar’s tail. The serpent thrashed, slamming Slash into the ground, but he was determined not to let go. Before Oscar could get the leverage to flick the Jagaldie out of the ring, Zok fired a burst of ocelli rays at close range. They didn’t penetrate Oscar’s scales but they did knock her off kilter a bit. Slash let go, landing on his feet, and immediately darted to the side. Oscar snapped at them again, but she was a bit slower this time.

Ben and Riidya felt their spirits lift a bit. This bait-and-switch strategy was actually working! Dennis’ Scuthon had seemed invincible, but now Oscar was starting to falter. Scuthons were Kreatures that had been designed for sudden, explosive ambush attacks, ideally from cover or shallow water. They were best used in team battles with support from allies to drive the opponent into their waiting coils. Long, drawn out fights like this were not Oscar’s forte. The boost in morale encouraged Ben and Riidya to press onward and renew their offence in earnest, despite their own Kreatures’ injuries and fatigue echoing through their mindlinks.

Ben and Riidya switched to using hit-and-run tactics. Slash lured Oscar’s jaws his way while Zok scuttled in from the side, landed an ineffectual one-two stab from her pincers and retreated backwards to avoid the serpent’s whipping tail. Slash slipped in, landing a chop with his tail blade, leaving a tiny scratch. The actual damage being inflicted was pathetic, but they were slowly but surely accumulating points. Dennis had landed five hits between Ben and Riidya’s Kreatures but by now they’d landed many more than that. If they could just run out the clock or drain Oscar’s stamina they could very well win.

However, the blows Dennis had landed were significant, and they were affecting Slash and Zok’s movements. They were dodging by increasingly narrow margins. Riidya’s Kraaster spewed a cloud of noxious gas from its spiracles, blocking her opponent’s vision in an attempt to slow them down. It was a futile effort; aside from being expert scent trackers, Scuthons had pits on their faces that could sense differences in temperature in surrounding objects. Though Zok’s ectothermic heat signature matched the room’s ambient temperature, the burning chemical reaction she’d had used to trigger her smokescreen gave away her position as clear as day. Oscar locked on to her target and struck again, this time getting a much stronger hold, jaws clamping around Zok’s abdomen. Oscar flung the Kraaster out of the ring and Riidya beamed her back into her amulet.

Riidya shouted a string of profanity in Dominidese and then turned to Ben. “Well, it’s all on you now, bread boy. Don’t screw this up.”

Ben felt his panic begin to rise. What could he do now? With the injuries to Slash’s ribs and ankles, he wouldn’t be able to avoid Dennis’ Kreature for long, especially not without Riidya to distract it. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the furrow in the ground Slash’s first cutter wave left behind. What if?…

Ben clenched his teeth. This was his last chance…

Oscar coiled up and struck once more. Slash kicked off the ground, escaping into the air, and performed a horizontal tail swipe, flinging a cutter blade at an angle to the floor of the arena, below Dennis’ Scuthon, slicing straight through it. The edge of the arena collapsed, a mini-landslide spilling into the pit, threatening to take Oscar with it!…

…But with split second timing, Oscar flung out the upper third of her body, wrapping it around a nearby boulder, and yanked her tail out of the tumbling debris before any part of her body could actually touch the floor of the pit.

Slash landed hard on his damaged ribs and Dennis’ Scuthon was immediately upon him. The serpent’s teeth sunk into his flesh and her coils wound around him, pinning his limbs against his body. Tried as he might, Ben’s Kreature couldn’t move. He conceded victory, beaming Slash out of the arena.

“I surrender. You win.”

Dennis nodded, and beamed Oscar back into his amulet.

Ben and Riidya hung their heads in shame, awaiting their evaluation from the senior Wyldcards with a pit in their stomachs.

“Well, you lost,” Wade said. “You lost bad.”

“You didn’t even inflict any damage,” Kristy added.

“Yeah… I sucked…” Ben moped. “That’s the story of my life…”

“I guess I should check T-Net and see if any other teams are hiring…” Riidya sighed.

“That said, we never really expected you to win,” Wade said.

“You actually put up a decent fight, considering your inexperience and the power gap between yourselves and your opponent.” Kristy said. “You had a cogent plan towards the end that might have been able to pull off if not for the damage you took at the start.”

“This wasn’t a test of skill so much as it was a test of your potential,” Dennis said, “and you passed that with flying colours.”

“Wow, really?” Ben said.

“Does that mean?…” Riidya gasped.

“Congratulations,” Wade said. “Welcome to the Wyldcard team!” He reached into his pocket, and handed them two small badges with the Wyldcard team’s logo on them. “As a token of your affiliation, please accept your official membership badges and wear them into battle with pride.”

Ben and Riidya took the badges and pinned them to their shirts, looking at them with reverence.

Kristy gestured to the portion of the ring that had been pulverized by Slash’s cutter wave. “We’ll add your membership fees to the cost of repairs to the arena.”