HP (Hit Points): 340/340
EP (Elemental Power): 115/115
Attack: 155
Defense: 136
Speed: 110
Since the Bovan was a Plain-Elemental, it had no real weaknesses. While that meant it had no inherent Elemental advantages against Scrappy, it did have its strong Attack.
Just stay out of that thing’s way and we’ll be okay, Jackson told the Scoundrook. The Bovan had a number of powerful physical attacks but being a Plain-Elemental, likely had zero or half-effective Elemental moves. And, unless Ron had done some serious training or dropped a large amount of cash on a Move Set Splicer, the Bovan didn’t have any ranged moves either.
The battle became one of hit-and-run for Scrappy. His ranged attacks weren’t extremely powerful without an Elemental advantage, meaning the Scoundrook had to combine his Mocking Wind and Needle Feather moves with occasional Dive Bombs and full-on physical attacks to the Bovan’s head, all while evading the opposing Djinn’s sweeping horns and lashing tail.
It was a nerve-wracking approach. While Scrappy got in several hits for every one the Bovan dealt, those single hits were several times more damaging to Scrappy. Additionally, with each new pass, it became harder and harder to outsmart the Bovan, who was growing accustomed to Scrappy’s style. By the time Jackson managed to defeat the Bovan, Scrappy had just under a fifth of his HP left and had used half of his Elemental Power.
OPPONENT STATS
Djinn: Loquatic
Level: 23
Element: Water
HP (Hit Points): 308/308
EP (Elemental Power): 194/194
Attack: 120
Defense: 116
Speed: 140
It’s going to get a little easier, buddy, Jackson conveyed to Scrappy. You have an Elemental Advantage against the Loquatic and we’re fighting in a Fire-Elemental field, which will make the Loquatic’s attacks half as effective. But don’t get lazy. The thing’s Water attacks won’t pack a huge punch, but they’ve got range.
As if to confirm what Jackson had just conveyed, the Loquatic dipped its head, shooting a blast of water out of the blowhole atop its tiny head. The attack clipped Scrappy’s wing and sent the Djinn spiraling to the ground.
Fly straight at him like you’re going for the face then let off a Mocking Wind at the last second!
Scrappy recovered and did as commanded, flapping his wings to gather speed and shooting straight for the Loquatic’s head. The Scoundrook flew like a spear at the enemy Djinn, who missed with its blasts of water by the slightest margin. As soon as the water struck the rock, cascades of steam shot into the air.
At the last possible moment, Scrappy pulled up, just as a blast of purple-tinged wind struck the Loquatic in the face. The retina display showing the enemy Djinn’s health bar flashed — critical hit. However, as the Loquatic was struck, its head flipped upward, inadvertently releasing the attack it had been gathering. A pillar of water struck Scrappy right in the middle of his body and the Scoundrook struck the ground hard. While the Water-Elemental attacks wouldn’t normally hurt Scrappy too much, his hitting the ground managed to count as an unexpected critical hit. Jackson’s Djinn now had just over a sliver of health remaining.
But the Loquatic wasn’t much better off. It shook its head, which was covered in tiny slices from the cruel Wind attack. The motion gave Scrappy time enough to recover and the steam to settle. When the billows of steam blew away, the two Djinn appeared a few yards apart, each tamer waiting for the other to show a command and react.
Jackson knew Scrappy wasn’t going to last the fight. Good work, boy — let’s go out with a flash! Mini-Twister!
Unfortunately, the fatigue from both fights had left Scrappy wanting in the Speed department, and while he managed to summon a Mini-Twister, the Loquatic dodged it quite easily, darting up to it and landing a physical blow on the Scoundrook hard enough to knock him to the ground. The last blip of the Scoundrook’s life fizzled out and Scrappy went limp.
All right, Triton. It’s up to you now!
PARTY STATS
Djinn: Aquestria
Level: 23
Element: Water
HP (Hit Points): 289/289
EP (Elemental Power): 120/120
Attack: 126
Defense: 90
Speed: 150
Jackson gritted his teeth, returned Scrappy to his ring and sent out his Aquestria. At once, he could feel Triton’s apprehension about the hostile Fire-Elemental environment, similar to when they’d been inside the volcano. Although, both Triton and the Loquatic now had the same disadvantage, Jackson didn’t have his Bond to fall back on. They were only at 65%.
Jackson calmed the Djinn as best he could, but had to devote most of his attention to helping Triton dodge the incoming water attacks. He was lucky that his Aquestria had the edge in Speed. There’d been so many blasts from the Loquatic that the ground no longer steamed, and small puddles gathered together in little divots and connected bowls in the smooth sandstone rock.
The good news was it seemed to make each passing Water-Elemental attack just a little bit stronger. The bad news was that it applied to the Loquatic as well, whose comfort with its tamer showed. Little by little, Ron and his Djinn chipped away at Triton’s health. He was losing the ground Scrappy had given him.
Dammit, Jackson thought, stomping his foot onto the increasingly-wet ground. He then stared at one of the puddles and an idea came to him.
Water Channel! Go from the one closest to you to the one behind the Loquatic!
The command caused Triton to lose his concentration and he took a blast of water right in the head. Fortunately, Water on Water didn’t do much damage. The Aquestria shook his head, tentacle, seaweed-like mane flying, and disappeared in a burst of water. Before the shock could completely register on Ron’s face, Triton materialized behind the Loquatic and spun around to deal the enemy Djinn a savage blow. Most of the attack struck the Loquatic’s scaled body, dropping tens of its HP.
Jackson glanced at the puddles and saw them shrinking from the heat returning to the rocks. Triton still had a decent amount of EP left — if they moved fast, they could end the attack.
In a series of splashes, the Aquestria appeared and disappeared all around the Loquatic, lashing out with its feet to score several moderate attacks. Every so often, he had to use a Fountain Shot move to refill the puddles, and by the time the puddles had dried up, Trition could barely stand from the fatigue of draining his EP dry — that and the exhausting heat of the Fire area.
But the Loquatic was even worse. Ron’s Djinn had just a sliver left of its health. Its long neck and rounded head sank low to the ground. Jackson halted Triton at once — the enemy Djinn was about to faint anyway, and he wasn’t the kind of tamer to endanger another’s Djinn when the battle was already in hand.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED RON SHAKUR.
“Well, it’s just as I feared,” Ron said. “I guess my friends were right.”
“It was a good match, Ron,” Jackson said.
Rather than recalling his Loquatic, however, Ron crossed the sandstone that had served as their battleground. He held out a hand, and when Jackson shook it, he pulled Jackson in close and whispered into his ear.
“The coach comms are disabled until I withdraw my Djinn,” Ron said in an urgent tone. “We’re close enough that the broadcast drones shouldn’t hear, either, but I wanted you to know, I think somebody paid off a bunch of the tamers to target you and Fiona. I’ve been watching — they’ve been going after both of you the entire match. Just thought you should know.”
Before Jackson could find the words to respond, Ron pulled back from the congratulatory bro hug and forced a smile onto his face.
“Good luck, man! We’re down to the wire, now!”
With that, Ron returned his Loquatic to stasis in its ring and stepped back, allowing the miniature hovercraft to scoop him into the bucket seat and carry him from the arena.
“What was that all about?” Briggs asked.
Jackson was already running for the healing zone. “Ron confirmed what we thought — someone’s been paying off the tamers,” he said in between breaths. Luckily, the flagged area was still close by and he passed into the no-combat zone just as three more tamer dots — the last three — appeared on the edge of the Fire Quadrant. “They’ve been targeting Fiona too.”
“Well, if I’m not mistaken, I’d say the two of you handled them all,” Briggs said. “Take a look at the charts — Fiona just polished off two more tamers at once. There’s only you, her, Akamu and Rita Antonius left.”
“Rita Antonius?” Jackson said as he inserted his two Djinn into the healing slots of the pillar. “What happened to Danai?”
“Antonius happened,” Briggs said. “Caused quite the upset. It’s going to make for an interesting finish — Antonius can challenge any of you remaining three of the Fab Four, and you can challenge Fiona or Akamu, but Fiona can only challenge Akamu, and Akamu just has to take whoever wants to match against him since he’s the number one seed.”
Ding-ding-dingdingding!
The pillar flashed, letting Jackson know his Djinn were fully healed and all taken care of.
“Who do I go with?” he mumbled to himself as much as Briggs. According to the map, it looked like all three tamers were heading his way, meaning he either had to prepare for a fight with Rita Antonius — who he’d only faced once months ago — or prepare to challenge Akamu or Fiona.
Admittedly, the prospect of facing off against Fiona or Akamu held much more appeal. Then again, Jackson reminded himself, he couldn’t afford to underestimate Rita Antonius. She’d just beaten Danai, after all, who was just as good a tamer as the other three members of the Fab Four. Jackson felt a slight pang of remorse for Danai — he didn’t know how she’d lost, and Jackson definitely wasn’t a huge fan of the whole Fab Four thing, but at the same time, it would have been cool for it to come down to just them.
“Go with Asena and Scrappy,” Briggs said. “Your Aquestria is going to be one bruiser of a Djinn once we can do some decent training with him, but I don’t trust him for what’s coming. He’s still getting nervous and since you’re going to be in one of the last two battles of the tournament, there will be broadcast drones all over the place. Sucks, but here we are.
“Plus, Rita uses an Eskiflurr and an Avialcon, a Water and Wind combo and a Wind-Elemental. At best, your Aquestria would be neutral against her Eskiflurr’s Water-Elemental attacks, and at worst, you’ll be at a disadvantage.”
Jackson recalled previous matches he’d seen of Rita. She liked to blast opponents with ice attacks from her Eskiflurr, who had a ton of Speed and EP — almost a Water-Elemental version of Asena. The Eskiflurr was noteworthy for its ability to create ice attacks. Similar to Scrappy, Rita’s Avialcon was an Intermediate-form Wind Elemental Djinn, but with higher Defense and HP than Jackson’s Scoundrook.
Of course, that was assuming she chose to fight Jackson.
“What if she goes after Akamu or Fiona instead?” Jackson asked.
“I don’t think it’s very likely,” Briggs admitted. “Whoever wins these next two matches is in, and if this Antonius girl has been paying any attention at all, she knows you’ve already fought in three battles — two of which were against a double team. If I was her, I’d challenge you. From the outside, you look like the weakest link.”
Jackson tried not to take that as an insult.
“Yeah but —”
“Hey!” Akamu’s voice rang out from the edge of the safe zone. “Are you going to come out and fight or hide in there until you get disqualified? I want a rematch!”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
All three of them were there: Akamu, Fiona, and Rita. After the constant battling and free-for-all madness, it was weird to see the tamers standing together. Apparently all of them were fully healed and ready to roll, too, because no one came inside the safe zone.
Akamu raised his hand and pointed at Jackson. “I’ve been waiting for this. We didn’t face off during the season, but I have to take you on now.”
“Not so fast,” Fiona said. “You can’t challenge him. Actually, you can’t challenge anybody.”
“And tell me why that is, Sato,” Akamu said with a smirk. “That’s right. Cuz I’m number one.”
Fiona’s smile disappeared instantly.
Jackson saw what was happening a split second before Fiona raised her hand, destroying his chances at a big rematch with Akamu.
“Wait, no!” Akamu yelled, immediately regretting his cockiness.
Too late. Jackson saw a notification pop up on Akamu’s holo-watch, and a blast of blue-green light appeared from Fiona’s ring. An instant later, Rebel hovered in the air between Fiona and Akamu.
“Dammit, Sato, I want that rematch with Hunt!” Akamu shouted.
“It’s your fault for opening your mouth,” Fiona said.
Jackson couldn’t help but laugh at the turn of events. He understood why the DBL had decided to set up the matches like this. This would be a lot of fun to watch.
Akamu pointed a finger at Jackson before summoning a Flamenco, the evolved form of his Flogadra. “Looks like I’ll take you on the big stage, unless you don’t think you can hold your own against a ninth seed.”
“You’ve got to get past me first,” Fiona said. Without a word, Rebel shot forward in a blur toward Akamu’s Djinn. Like it or not, the outcome of the battle was going to send one of Jackson’s rivals to the championship.
A beep sounded on Jackson’s holo-watch, alerting him he had just thirty seconds to get outside of the safe zone before taking a penalty. Jackson jogged out at once, far enough away to not catch any of the blasts of wind, fire, or feather needles being traded back and forth by Akamu and Fiona. Rita Antonius waited for him a short distance away, arms folded. She had light brown hair pulled back to fit with her workout attire. Her expression was all business, too.
“Don’t underestimate me,” she told Jackson. “Danai did. That’s why I’m here.”
Jackson’s mouth twitched a bit. He was admittedly sad Danai couldn’t make it this far. Competition or not, she was undoubtedly the most likable member of the Fab Four. “I don’t plan on it,” Jackson said. He lowered himself into his battle stance and raised both fists. Rita was the only thing separating him from the championship — Fiona or Akamu, it didn’t matter. But to get to them, he had to beat her first.
Rita nodded in approval, apparently glad Jackson was taking her seriously. “Let’s do this!”
Rita Antonius challenges Jackson Hunt!
Selected Battle Type: 2v2 Match, Alternating
The “alternating” battle type meant he had to think hard about who to send out first…Scrappy or Asena? He had to assume she would use her strongest Djinn — the Eskiflurr — first. Given its dual Water-Elemental and Wind-Elemental nature, the Djinn that would have the advantage over Asena. So, in order to avoid that, Jackson would need to send out Scrappy first to take on the Eskiflurr.
Scrappy it is.
The shouts of the two tamers merged together as a blast of gray-blue light from Rita and a purple light from Jackson erupted in the space between.
Jackson had time to curse before he began shooting commands to Scrappy. She’d brought out the Avialcon first, which was the same Element as Scrappy. Now, he’d have to keep Scrappy alive long enough not only to take out Rita’s Wind-Elemental Avialcon, but also take a solid dent out of Rita’s second Djinn too. In a straight-up fight with all things being equal, Asena’s chances against the Eskiflurr weren’t great, but Jackson couldn’t worry about that now. He had to focus on the match at hand.
PARTY STATS
Djinn: Scoundrook
Level: 23
HP (Hit Points): 302/302
EP (Elemental Power): 110/110
Attack: 118
Defense: 124
Speed: 203
Accessories: None
Status: Ne
utral
OPPONENT STATS
Djinn: Avialcon
Level: 23
Element: Wind
HP (Hit Points): 320/320
EP (Elemental Power): 100/100
Attack: 120
Defense: 140
Speed: 190
The two Wind-Elemental Djinn moved so fast and in such complicated flying maneuvers that it was almost difficult for the tamers to insert themselves into the fight, and to the average viewer, it would seem nearly impossible.
Hit and run, boy. You know the game, Jackson told Scrappy. Just keep out of the reach of those talons and we’ll be fine. From the studying Jackson had done on Avialcon and their forms, he knew the Djinn were stronger with their physical attacks than Elemental. He could use this to his advantage. With two EP Elixirs still in his pocket, Jackson hoped Scrappy could wear the larger, stronger Djinn down with his draining moves such as Feather Needle and Mocking Wind. In a blow-to-blow fight, the Scoundrook wouldn’t hold up.
But separation wasn’t coming easy. Whenever Scrappy tried to create some distance between himself and the Avialcon, the opposing Wind-Elemental Djinn cut just in time to stick on the Scoundrook’s tail. Jackson relied on Scrappy’s natural skill at evading enemies from his time in the wilderness, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
The moment came. Scrappy put a yard or so between himself and the Avialcon and cut left. Jackson’s Scoundrook veered back to the right, fooling his opponent…that is until the Avialcon dipped its wing and, against all odds, cut back to the right, Its talons sunk deep into Scrappy’s wing.
No no no no no!
Jackson commanded Scrappy to disengaged, but there was little the Scoundrook could do. Scrappy tried to twist around and buffet the Avialcon with his wings, beak, and talon, but his struggling only caused more of his own HP to seep out and did little damage to the enemy Djinn.
Djinn Tamer - The Complete Bronze League Trilogy Page 83