Djinn Tamer: Rivals (Bronze League Book 2)
Copyright © 2019
Joseph Antonio Medina
♠ Derek Alan Siddoway ♠
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the Derek Alan Siddoway and Joseph Antonio Medina. Thank you for respecting the authors’ hard work.
Permissions can be obtained through [email protected]
All characters, places and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to real places, events, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First Edition
KINDLE
version 1.1
Published April 2019 by Undaunted Publishing
Let the rivalries begin.
If Jackson Hunt ever wants to become a champion monster tamer, he’s got a long road ahead of him. And he’s not the only one with dreams of glory
As a new season of the Djinn Battle League fast approaches, Jackson prepares to enter training camp — a grueling series of tests to discover talented new tamers. The rules are simple: if you’re not the best, you go home.
For a young man who lives to battle, going home isn’t an option. There’s only one problem — Jackson isn’t so sure he deserves to be there in the first place. With competition heating up, Jackson’s bond with his Djinn will be tested to their limits. But no matter how much he trains, if his new monsters won’t work together, he won’t stand a chance.
The fighting will be intense. The rivalries, fierce. At the end of the road, the chance of a lifetime awaits. Against friends and foes both old and new, can Jackson prove he’s worthy of a shot at the big leagues?
Djinn Tamer: Rivals is the second book in the Djinn Tamer series, a monster-battling GameLit adventure for fans of Pokemon, Digimon and Monster Rancher.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CHAPTER 1
To the casual observer, it looked like complete chaos: four monsters engaged in an all-out brawl, stinging, swooping, digging, and biting — not to mention the blasts of fire, miniature tornados, and ground tremors being thrown around. It almost felt as though the forces of nature were inexorably wreaking havoc within a small, fifty-foot radius. On the edges of the fight, three humans yelled out battle commands to their monsters. Known as Djinn, they were imbued with Elemental abilities from Earth, to Water, Wind, Fire, and sometimes even more.
The fourth human, Jackson Hunt, furrowed his brow in concentration. Unlike the other tamers, he remained silent, though his commands to the Lyote — a Fire and Earth-Elemental canine Djinn with flaming orange fur — were no less effective.
The Lyote’s three opponents were a Marimot, Vermite, and Falcaub — common low-levels in the hands of relatively inexperienced tamers. The Lyote moved like a flickering flame; in one spot for a flash and gone the next. The efforts of the opposing tamers and their Djinn were in vain. To them, trying to catch the Lyote was like trying to catch smoke between their fingers. The Lyote spun, dodged, and weaved, shooting blasts of fire at all three Djinn in small bursts.
The Falcaub, a flying Wind-Elemental Djinn, swooped low at the Lyote…right into a blast of fire, which toppled it from the air. Before the Falcaub hit the ground, the Lyote squared her legs and tipped her head back. An eerie howl reverberated through the morning air, freezing the Marimot and Vermite in place. While her remaining opponents cowered in fear, the Lyote charged the Marimot and took out its hit points (HP) with a brutal charge. The Vermite shook itself free of the howl’s lingering effects just in time for a blast of fire to take it full on. The Vermite tipped on its side and let out a clicking groan. Match over.
Disappointed, Warren recalled his toasted Vermite into the healing confines of his Djinn ring. The young tamer looked at Jackson as shook his head.
“Man, Jack, you’ve sure gotten tougher over the last few months. When we first started, we were at least able to put up a fight when all three of us came at you!”
Jackson stifled a grin. It was true his Lyote, which he named Asena, could mop the floor with three, or sometimes four, opposing Djinn, but with the gap in skills widening between his Djinn and theirs, it wasn’t necessarily the best thing in the world. But none of that took away from the rush that came with each victory.
“Thanks, Warren,” Jackson said. “That was a tough one — you guys are starting to catch on to my tricks!”
Joey, who always had a hard time losing, rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious!” Jackson insisted. “It’s not all about a Djinn’s level, you know.”
“Yeah,” Joey said. “But you wouldn’t be able to tell the way you throw our Djinn around every day.”
Joey wasn’t exactly wrong, and it was a difference Jackson started to notice himself. As he took on groups of less experienced tamers, he started to notice the distance between his skills and everyone else’s begin to grow. Jackson almost didn’t want to admit it, but he was starting to outpace everyone at an alarming rate. The thought should have given him comfort, but it only made him that much more lonely in his small city of Tyle.
Joey folded his arms and muttered something, but Maura, ever the peacemaker of the trio, stepped in to diffuse the tension. “Thanks again for the lesson, Jackson!” she said. “We’ve gotta run, though!”
Jackson waved goodbye to the group and reached down to scratch Asena behind the ears and offer her praise for yet another victory. The Lyote Djinn lapped up the attention, leaning into Jackson’s hand and then rolling over in the dirt to expose her cream-colored belly.
“Hey!” Jackson said. “I just gave you a bath the other day — don’t go making a mess again already!”
At the mention of a bath, Asena scrambled back to her feet. As a Fire-Elemental, the Lyote wasn’t overly fond of water in any way, shape or form. Much to Jackson’s chagrin, Asena found dozens of ways to get dirty and stinky, and if she wanted to stick around inside Jackson and his grandmother’s apartment, she had to be at least presentable.
Jackson laughed. “Don’t worry, girl,” he promised. “There are no ponds around here and I forgot to bring the soap anyway.”
When the three younger tamers were gone, Jackson grinned and pulled up Asena’s stat sheet from his holo-watch. The notification in the upper right hand corner of the translucent digital screen confirmed Asena’s level up from the battle — a rare thing these days. Jackson felt a rush of excitement. Hanging out around Tyle made it almost impossible for him to get in enough quality training to level up Asena. Each level he earned now represented countless hours of battling against the local wannabe tamers and their low-level, Basic-Form Djinn.
Jackson scanned Asena’s stat sheet, trying to determine how to
best allocate her two new Djinn Points (DJP). In addition to the an automatic increase to the core stats of Hit Points (HP), Elemental Power (EP), Attack, Defense, and Speed, DJP could be allocated to any one of those stats to double down on certain aspects of one’s Djinn.
GENERAL STATS AND INFO
Djinn: Lyote
Level: 14
Name: Asena
Element: Fire/Earth
Species Rarity: Rare;
Tamer: Jackson Hunt
HP (Hit Points): 250/260
EP (Elemental Power): 40/115
XP (Experience): 748 to Next Level
DJP (Djinn Points): 2 Unallocated
Attack: 90
Defense: 49
Speed: 72
Accessories: None
Items: None
Status: Neutral
Bond: 76%
Move Set: Swipe Left to See More >>>
Jackson looked at the stats and couldn’t help but stare at the gaping hole in his Defense. It was a strategy he’d embraced when he started out — focusing more on Attack so as to overpower other similar newts, who often overloaded on Defense out of a sheer fear of losing. Jackson had put a good deal of effort into his Attack, but he felt now was the time to at least pad out the Defense so it wasn’t so embarrassingly low. He allocated one DJP to Attack — almost out of habit — and another to Defense.
GENERAL STATS AND INFO
Djinn: Lyote
Level: 14
Name: Asena
Element: Fire/Earth
Species Rarity: Rare
Tamer: Jackson Hunt
HP (Hit Points): 260/260
EP (Elemental Power): 115/115
XP (Experience): 748 to Next Level
DJP (Djinn Points): 2 Unallocated
Attack: 94
Defense: 56
Speed: 72
Accessories: None
Items: None
Status: Neutral
Bond: 76%
Move Set: Swipe Left to See More >>>
It looked like these DJP allocations resulted in an increase of four on Attack and seven on Defense. Not half bad. While the number of points added to one of these five stats was random, it generally wasn’t more than eight or so points — though that didn’t stop Jackson from hoping that, one day, one DJP allocation would result in an amazing ten-point increase. Seven points was still about as good as he could ever have hoped for, especially in a weak stat like Asena’s Defense.
Satisfied with the way he’d spent Asena’s DJP, Jackson swiped over to her Move Set.
MOVE SET
Fire-Elemental: Fire Growl (5 EP), Fire Bark (15 EP)
Plain-Elemental: Attack, Headbutt, Wild Bite, Fierce Cry
Jackson rubbed his chin. It had been a while since Asena had learned a new move. Just a couple months back, she had learned Fierce Cry, and while that was sometimes useful for paralyzing Djinn in their tracks, he was itching for something more. Another Fire-Elemental attack would be nice — even an Earth-Elemental. Asena was, after all, a rare combo Djinn that natively employed two separate Elements, and yet all he had to show for it was a couple of Fire attacks.
Patience, he told himself as he closed the window. If there was anything he’d learned in his months as a tamer, it was patience.
Even as he did, however, an all-too familiar anxious feeling started to grow in his stomach and the short-lived euphoria of his hollow victory faded away. He looked around at the rolling hills and farms of his hometown of Tyle and, although it was a beautiful early spring day, couldn’t help but feel like he was in a prison.
A couple months prior, Jackson had even applied for the Bronze League — the minors of Djinn Taming — despite him feeling grossly underqualified. Every day he waited felt like it stretched on for an entire year, and the worse part was that he could still be waiting several more weeks until he found out.
Jackson’s watch buzzed, providing a welcome distraction from his anxiety. A miniature holographic face of his best friend Kay appeared. Before she could say anything, Jackson realized the time.
“Crap! I know — I’m coming!”
Whistling for Asena, Jackson tore off down the knoll he’d been skirmishing with the younger tamers on.
“Do you know how ridiculous it is that I have to set an alarm to remind you that you’re late for work?” Kay’s voice rose from Jackson’s wrist as he sprinted across numerous fields and pastures toward the Djinn breeding ranch where they both worked. Jackson was too winded to say anything, but Kay continued anyway.
“You’d better hurry up — we’re supposed to move the Lambaa into another pasture this morning with their new babies, and you know that’s going to take forever. Honestly, Jackson, I don’t know why —”
Jackson huffed out a goodbye and slapped his watch, hanging up on Kay. Ten minutes later, after several hurdled fences and a few stumbles, Jackson jogged up to the ranch headquarters of Sato Breeders.
Located on the eastern outskirts of Tyle, the ranch was famous throughout the country for its top-of-the-line Djinn. Tyle may not have been a hotbed of top-notch trainers, but the Djinn that came out of Sato were near-unrivaled.
He dropped to his knees at once and sucked in air. Even Asena’s tongue lolled out the side of her mouth as she panted. A moment later, the door opened, revealing Kay with her hands on her hips.
“You’re two minutes late, you know that?”
“I hate…when you do that,” Jackson managed to sputter out. He stood up and peeled off his hoodie to cool off in the chilly morning air. A nasty stitch in his side ached but he didn’t want to give Kay the satisfaction of seeing him gasping for air.
“When I do what? Make you on time for work?” Kay said.
“Just when…you’re always…right.” Jackson’s breath came a bit steadier but his heart was still pounding.
Kay shook her head and smiled. “Fighting with the local kids again?”
“Training with the local kids,” Jackson clarified. “Mornings work best for them, you know?”
The only real competition — if one could even call it that — around Tyle were the high school kids who hadn’t graduated or left town yet. And the ones that were seriously into Djinn taming all had jobs or varsity taming practice after school. So Jackson had to work around their schedules. Though as inconvenient as it was, it had helped Asena make slow and steady progress in the months since the invitational that lost him his Grandma’s house.
“Good morning,” Yuki Sato, half the married couple who owned the ranch, entered, offering them a small, yet sincere, smile. Although kind and somewhat soft-spoken, the woman commanded respect from the entire staff. “Two of the Felinxes got into a fight last night, Kay. Do you think you’d be able to take a look at them?”
Kay nodded. “Of course, Mrs. S.”
Yuki smiled again. “Thank you. We’ve got the veterinarian heading over, but I thought it would be good experience for you.”
Jackson couldn’t help but smile at the Satos’s willingness to help develop Kay into the Djinn Vet, but the down side for him would be that he’d be forced to move the whole Lambaa herd by himself. The wooly livestock Djinn were docile enough but wandered wherever they pleased. Without enough people to corner them and push them in the right direction, it was a task that was bound to take all morning.
“Don’t worry, Jackson,” Yuki said, as if reading Jackson’s mind. “I saw on the assignment board you two were moving the Lambaa, so I found you some help.”
The door to the break room opened again and Jackson felt his stomach jerk. They hadn’t spoken much since Jackson’s defeat at her hands in a Djinn invitational the previous fall, but it was hard to avoid someone when their parents owned the place of your employment.
Fiona Sato leaned against the door.
“Long time no see, Jackson.”
CHAPTER 2
Jackson trudged across the barnyard and past the corrals to the Lambaa pastures at a brisk walk, eager to stay ahead of
Fiona. He’d been as polite as he could muster while they were in the company of Kay and Fiona’s mom, but now that the two of them were alone, he had no desire to talk to his taming rival.
“You don’t need to be a sore loser,” Fiona said. Her voice sounded slightly strained from the effort of keeping up with Jackson’s long strides. “I thought we were cool. Plus, I did help you get you back your job, didn’t I?”
“I’m not a sore loser,” Jackson said. “You won that invitational match fair and square. Do you honestly think it’s about that?”
Jackson wasn’t lying. He really didn’t hold anything against Fiona for beating him — fair and square. Even though the fact that he’d lost his grandma’s house as a result still stung a bit.
“Is this because I won’t train with you?” Fiona asked next, as if she could read his mind.
“Bingo.”
“I told you I just don’t want to give up a competitive edge.”
“Right. Competitive edge. That’s it.” Jackson sighed and turned to face Fiona. “Look, I’m not mad at you, okay. Just a bit frustrated.”
“Frustrated by what?”
“Let’s just get this over with.”
Before Fiona could answer, Jackson climbed the fence and crossed into the Lambaa pasture. In the neighboring field, the Lambaa grazed on fresh, new grass. The reason for the escape wasn’t hard to spot — there was a wide hole in the fence where the woolly Djinn had pushed their way through, ever in search of the greener grass undoubtedly growing wherever they weren’t.
Jackson squeezed his left hand into a fist. A vermilion beam shot out from Asena’s Djinn ring on his index finger on his left hand, and the Lyote materialized in front of him.
“Asena and I will round them up while you fix the fence,” Jackson said.
Fiona crossed her arms. “Why the hell should I do all of the manual labor while you move the Lambaa?”
Instead of answering, Jackson gave her a wry look and whistled. Asena’s ears perked up at once and the lithe Lyote shot across the field in a burnt red-orange blur toward the small herd of Lambaa. The Djinn circled the herd, who naturally bunched together, their young hiding themselves beneath the short, woolly legs of their parents.
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