“Each tamer will also be granted the use of four items for the duration of play,” the official continued. “Options are limited to Elemental Elixirs and Djinn Tonics but you may take any combination of each that you desire. Keep in mind that these will not be replenished throughout the Battle Royale. So use wisely.”
“What do you think?” Jackson asked Kay and Briggs. “What should I go with?”
Briggs looked to Kay, who seemed surprised by the deference. “Oh! Um…Well, the Elemental areas change things a bit. You may end up somewhere where your Djinn’s Elemental abilities are stunted or vice-versa. It’s clear Elemental abilities are being emphasized here, and since your team has such an emphasis on Elemental versus physical attacks, it may be best to capitalize. But you don’t want to go all-in so much that you can’t heal your Djinn in a pinch. I mean, who knows how close you’ll be to a healing station during the whole thing? So I think maybe three Elemental Elixirs and one Djinn Tonic.”
Briggs nodded. “Sounds like a good plan to me, Jackson. I normally wouldn’t go for something like this. After all, your Djinn have good Plain-Elemental attacks, and you can’t stay in the game if your Djinn hit zero. So you have to find a healing station.”
Jackson saw Kay turn red from the grouchy old tamer’s approval and nodded as well.
“But you never know,” Briggs continued. “This isn’t exactly familiar territory for any of us. It’s never been done before. It’s a crapshoot. Just go out there and battle smart.”
After requesting the item assortment they desired, Jackson, Kay, and Briggs took the elevator up to the top floor of the hotel, which also doubled as a hovercraft landing pad. Unlike the dated helicopters employed by the Djinn Rangers on the coast, the hovercraft worked with propulsion jets that made it look like they were levitating above the ground. Disregarding their size and lack of rotors, they reminded Jackson of the irrigation drones that watered the crops back in Tyle.
Following the last pieces of advice from Briggs and encouragement from Kay, Jackson was taken into a separate line from his team. As he waited, he stared around the roof of the building, trying to keep his mind clear and not think too much about the coming battle. He smiled to himself, thinking back to his first year taming and the jitters he felt during Vance McAllister’s invitational. He’d gotten a pretty good grip on his emotions since then. Jackson still felt nervous and excited and anxious, but he didn’t let the feelings overpower him or freak him out.
He spotted Fiona ahead of him in line by two or three people, but since she was faced the other way, he didn’t say hello. They were going to be flown in by groups of five, according to the official, and were each given a specific starting point to wait at until every tamer was on the island and the match started. A quick count revealed Fiona would be in Jackson’s group. Danai and Akamu were farther down in the line and would each be in groups of their own.
Twenty of the best tamers in the Bronze League, Jackson thought. Looking at the people in the line, there was definitely some talent outside of the Fab Four. There had been a couple of tamers almost as good as Jackson, Fiona, Danai, and Akamu during the season that hadn’t gotten the same recognition. Jackson knew they all had chips on their shoulders about it, not even including the Salvage Tamers that had been in the system for years. He knew some were hoping this new format would give them the chance they’d been waiting for to advance to the Silver League.
Jackson’s thoughts were distracted by the approaching hovercraft. It touched down on the landing pad with much less noise and wind than he’d expected. Then the attendants were ushering the first five tamers forward to board. Before Jackson stepped on the hovercraft, he turned around to wave, on the off-chance Kay and Briggs were still watching. Instead, his hand froze halfway up and his stomach wrenched like he’d just been punched.
A man with an expensive light blue suit, a cast on his right hand, and slicked back white hair was walking away from the landing zones, just visible to Jackson between the tamers, their support teams, and the Bronze League staff.
It looked just like Vega.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jackson craned his head around the crowd, trying to get a better look, but the man in the suit was gone. Before he could truly process what he’d just seen, one of the attendants took him gently by the arm and gestured to the hovercraft.
“Mr. Hunt? The other tamers are already on board waiting to take off.”
Muttering an apology, Jackson stepped up to the passenger platform of the sleek white hovercraft and gave an inward groan. The only seat open was on the outside next to Fiona. Their eyes met, but neither spoke as Jackson sat down and buckled himself in. Out of paranoid habit, he checked to make sure all three of his Djinn rings were secured tight on his fingers then clenched his hands into fists. The sight of Vega had drawn up feelings of his Djinn being taken from him on the island, and he never wanted to be left so empty again.
You’re imagining things, he told himself. It’s just the stress of the competition.
There was no way Vega could have been on the platform. If he had somehow escaped the Djinn Rangers, how would he have gained access to the area? Why would he have come to the hotel rooftop anyway? Jackson’s mind raced but he couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation.
Get a grip — you’ve got other things to worry about.
Fiona cleared her throat next to Jackson as they lifted off the ground. “So…I guess this is it,” she said in an uncertain voice.
“Yeah.” Jackson was still distracted, but as they drew away from the rooftop toward the island, the reality of the competition started to sink in.
“Hey Jackson,” Fiona was talking just loud enough to be heard only by Jackson over the whirr of the wind and the steady hum of the hovercraft engines. “I just wanted to say…I’m sorry about lying to you on the island, okay?”
“That’s okay. It wasn’t really even a lie, right?” Jackson said. “Just an omission.”
“No,” Fiona said. “It was a lie. I purposely didn’t mention it. Even if it wasn’t technically, it may as well have been. And while my competitive side hates…” She took a breath. “I just don’t want this to ruin our friendship. I’m sorry.”
Taken aback, Jackson looked at Fiona and all thoughts of the man in the suit vanished. She searched his face, like she was trying to figure out if he was mad or going to forgive her.
He couldn’t process anything else. Part of Jackson wanted to ask Fiona to repeat herself, to make sure he’d understood and to burn the moment into his memory. He doubted he’d ever hear it again. Instead, he forced a small smile.
“Thanks,” he said. But it rang false to his own ears. Was that enough? “Seriously, thank you. Good luck out there today.”
Fiona gave a stiff nod back, still clearly way out of her comfort zone from the apology. “You too. Don’t get beat out before I can face you, huh?”
“Ha, right,” Jackson forced out. A piece of him was still upset with her, but the good-natured joke was clearly her way of testing the waters. He didn’t want to leave her hanging too much.
But her comment did remind Jackson of the rankings. At present, they had Akamu listed as number one, followed by Fiona, then Danai, then Jackson, due in part to Jackson’s loss at the end of the regular season. Based on the Battle Royale rules, that meant he’d have to challenge Fiona, and there was no way she hadn’t thought about that herself.
A quick glance at the three tamers in the hovercraft with them proved to Jackson that he wasn’t the only one getting keyed up for the big match. All of them sat with their heads bowed over their knees, not speaking or making eye contact. Jackson didn’t know if that was because they didn’t like him or Fiona, or if they just preferred to stay in their head space before the big match.
Any further conversation with Fiona was interrupted by the descent of the hovercraft. Jackson looked out the glass doors at the island below. The man-made environment looked just like the hologram: a big mount
ain in the center and four different terrains for the four main elemental types each taking up a quarter of the circular shape. A large body of water resembling a moat surrounded the entire island and was off limits to tamers and their Djinn. On the other side of the water barrier, huge temporary stadium stands ringed the island and large holo-projectors promised to give the audience a close-up view of all the action. The tamers had been informed that video drones would be cruising across the entire island for the duration of the battle and were to be ignored.
“All of the tamers in the tournament were randomly assigned an Elemental area to start in,” the Bronze League official riding with them said. “That was how your hovercraft groups were determined. You five will begin the competition in the Earth Quadrant of the play field. When we land, additional field staff will show you to your starting locations. You are to remain in that area until the other tamers have taken their places. Your holo-watches will display any tournament updates. A geofence has been placed on the area of the battlefield limiting the functionality of your devices to the tournament application, the battle and Djinn status application, and your Djinncyclopedia. If for any reason you need emergency help or wish to withdraw from the tournament, you may press the withdraw or SOS button in the tournament application. In these situations, or should your team be defeated, you will be airlifted via drone from the arena and taken to a rehab facility immediately. Are there any questions?”
The tamers stared dully back at the official and shook their heads. Apparently nobody felt much like speaking.
A couple minutes later, the hovercraft touched down in the Earth-Elemental Quadrant. Two staff members escorted the tamers off of the transportation to a square area marked by white flags at each corner. In the middle of the square stood a podium with a flat top. Jackson noticed it had slots in it and guessed it was a healing and exchange station for their Djinn since the slots were just big enough to accommodate a Djinn ring. A moment later, the two staff members confirmed as much.
“There are several other healing and exchange stations located throughout the island,” a female staff member said. “All of them will be marked like this with white flags. Multiple tamers can use the stations at once, but please remember that no battling is allowed inside the flagged area. Healing and exchange stations have a cooldown period of ten minutes, regardless of whether you try to use the same one again or go to a different location. If there are no further questions, we will now escort each of you to your starting locations. The other tamer groups are landing in their Elemental Quadrants as we speak. Once everyone is in place, the countdown will begin.”
Jackson and Fiona had time to share a brief nod before the stadium attendants began leading all of the tamers away to their separate starting points. As he followed his — a middle-aged man with a gigantic mustache and a gleaming bald head — Jackson studied his surroundings.
The Earth-Elemental Quadrant look exactly as expected — lots of trees, rocks, and short ledges. From their area at the bottom, Jackson noticed the terrain sloped upward to the mountain in the center of the arena’s island. It was enough of an incline that it would be a bit of a hike to make it to the top of the Quadrant and the base of the mountain. Jackson silently thanked Briggs for all the conditioning he’d forced him to endure alongside his Djinn.
The stadium attendant led Jackson past a small field of boulders and a meadow into a ring of aspen trees. The rustling sound of the leaves gave him a quick pang of homesickness. A circle, big enough for Jackson to lay down in and just touch the outside with his hands and feet, was set in the ground. It looked extremely out of place in the middle of a forest and bore the Bronze League logo inside. Jackson heart beat faster. This was it.
“If you don’t need anything else, then good luck,” the man said. “When you’re ready, just stand on that circle. As soon as you do, the weight sensor in the bottom will be activated. Don’t step off until the match begins or you’ll be penalized with a false start and we’ll have to reset everyone. Got it?”
Jackson nodded and thanked the man. He took one deep breath and then stepped inside the circle. As soon as his foot touched its surface, the entire area lit up with a soft blue light and his holo-watch pinged.
“Good luck!” the man said. A moment later, he pushed his hand into the air and an Avialcon appeared in a flash to carry the attendant away.
Jackson was all alone.
It felt strange — here he was competing in the biggest tournament of his life, with the biggest audience he’d ever seen watching him and it felt like he was taking a stroll through the woods surrounding Tyle. A safety force field extended around the entire island to protected the audience. Jackson assumed it also meant that it blocked out their sound, too, because his little patch of forest was quiet and almost tranquil.
He wanted to bring out Asena for comfort and nostalgia’s sake, but the attendant hadn’t said anything about releasing his Djinn yet. With no countdown happening and no sign they were close to beginning, Jackson continued to take in the terrain to keep his mind off the impending match. If there was anything else he could or should have been doing, he had no idea what it was. The map feature on the tournament was disabled until competition started, limiting Jackson’s preparation to what he could study around him.
As Briggs had pointed out, the completely new format made it almost impossible for anyone to do anything but guess as to what strategies and tactics might help give them an edge. Obviously, sound Djinn battling skills still applied, but with this being such a new format, there was no knowing how any one little thing could affect them. With the tracking device on each of the tamers, there was no use hiding, but that didn’t mean there weren’t ways the terrain could be used to one’s advantage. Jackson decided he would head uphill straight away. It would provide a better vantage point to scout out healing and exchange locations and, if he had to guess, there would be such a station near the top of the mountain as well. He felt a bit envious of the tamers who had Djinn large enough to ride or fly on. They would have an edge from the simple fact that they could travel faster than anyone else.
A soft whirring sound caused Jackson to look up. Moments later, a small camera drone hovered into view. It stopped a few yards away from Jackson, leaving him feeling completely idiotic. Was the thing broadcasting him on national holo? He decided to wave and smile, but the appearance of the drone sent a wave of nervousness through him. He was pretty sure the resulting smile looked more like a grimace. All at once, Jackson’s holo-watch beeped and a small projection appeared. The announcer’s voice rang out of both the watch and the nearby drone.
“Hailing from the small town of Tyle and battling with a team consisting of a Lobolf, a Scoundrook, and an Aquestria, it’s Jaaaaaacksoooooooonnnn Hunt!”
In spite of his nerves, Jackson couldn’t help but give a genuine smile. He’d picture the announcement a thousand times over in his daydreams. The only thing missing was the resulting roar of the crowd, but it was enough to know Briggs, Kay and Jane, along with thousands of others, were out there.
The speakers went silent and Jackson guessed they were announcing another tamer. Depending on if they’d gone in ascending or descending order, there were either sixteen or three tamers to go. Jackson hoped it was three. With every passing second, he felt his anxiety rise and his heart pound in his chest.
And then the speakers burst back to life.
Apparently reverse order, Jackson thought.
“The positions are set. The battling will be fierce. Dreams will be made and shattered. Who will emerge as the new Bronze League Champion? It’s time to find out!”
Jackson glanced down at his projector screen. Everything had been wiped away but a giant digital number counting down from —
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
An enormous explosion sounded and streaks of gold and silver fireworks lit the sky overhead, bright even against the midday sun. Giant
letters flashed above Jackson’s holo-watch.
BEGIN!
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jackson launched out of his circle like a sprinter off of the starting blocks. He ran as fast as he could for about forty yards before stopping. Where was he going? Why was he running?
As if sensing his foolishness, Jackson’s holo-watch buzzed with a short term radio transmission.
“Slow down!” Briggs’ voice growled out of the speaker. “You’re going to trip and break your leg running around like an idiot.”
“You’re right. Sorry,” Jackson muttered. In his excitement to begin, he’d also forgotten that Kay and Briggs had access to Jackson’s line of sight through specialized broadcast contact lenses. Jackson blinked, and a screen popped up in the bottom left-hand corner of his vision, displaying miniature icons for each of his three Djinn, an arrow indicating which two he had in his party — Asena and Scrappy — and their overall HP and EP.
PARTY STATS
Djinn: Lobolf
Level: 24
HP (Hit Points): 385/385
EP (Elemental Power): 180/180
Accessories: None
Status: Neutral
Djinn: Scoundrook
Level: 23
HP (Hit Points): 302/302
EP (Elemental Power): 110/110
Accessories: None
Status: Neutral
“Whoa,” Jackson muttered. He wasn’t sure if he should be amazed or if the appearance of a screen in his line of sight would give him motion sickness.
Djinn Tamer - The Complete Bronze League Trilogy Page 80