The Great Game

by O. J. Lowe

  It took a few moments to build up that charge, Scott knew, maybe another half second to direct it… He’d dug himself into a hole here. Palawi had spent a blast of electricity towards the opponent and was now defenceless until he could go again, Theo clearly had some idea of that and was making the most of his chance to attack. His wolf bore down on the dog, jaws opening impossibly wide. It almost felt like he could swallow Palawi down without the need to chew if he had to. At Scott’s mental command, Palawi lunged back out the way in one uneasy motion, felt the jaws snap close over the air around him. The dog sprang back in, ducked under the muzzle and landed a series of bites across the wolf’s stomach, drawing blood. Scarlet stained his head and back as the wolf snarled, twisting around to try and get him. Palawi leaped, bit down on the wolf’s tail and twisted hard, bone breaking and flesh tearing with a ripping sound. Scott winced as the pained howl broke through the air and a fresh spray of crimson spurted through the air.

  Nice one, Pal, he thought. I think you just pissed it off even more.

  His spirit spat the tail out, saw it bounce away and then the one-eyed wolf was back on him, jaws snapping ferociously to try and get any sort of purchase onto him. It was all Scott could do to keep urging the dog on to keep running and running, tire it out, don’t let it bite down onto you or you will be in trouble. Running away wasn’t exactly the manliest way to win a tournament but at the same time, it meant that it was very hard to lose it in a stupid manner which was infinitely more important. No spirit caller alive would have sacrificed a victory at the expense of style. Winning pretty was one thing but only one of those words was the key one. And the stump where the wolf’s tail had once been still bled bad, crimson spurting from the rip, maybe he could wait it out. The more it ran, the faster its heart pumped, the more its heart pumped, the more blood went rushing around the body and straight out again. Not pretty but effective.

  It looked like it was slowing, the wolf looked fatigued and out of breath. It came to a halt, one front leg buckled underneath it and Scott paused, suddenly wary. This could be it. He felt a surge of glee rush through him. Oh yeah, this was the way to do it. Palawi turned, rocked about and fresh sparks of static ran through his fur making it stand up just for a moment before he unleashed another thunderous blast of electricity straight towards the wolf who howled in anguish as the blast ripped through its body.

  Incredibly the lupine was still standing as the glow faded away and the crowd went silent. They couldn’t believe it. Scott couldn’t believe it. It appeared the only one in the stadium who could was the wolf’s caller, Theo stood with a smug expression on his face. What exactly he had to be so smug about, Scott wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if he could do much more from here. Either way, he still had Palawi moving on tippy claws ready to spring aside if the uniblast came…

  It didn’t. Apparently staying upright for those extra few seconds was more than the wolf could stomach and it hit the ground dead, its fur charred and smoking.

  Yes! Scott fought the urge to punch the air, even as the crowd cheered the first knockout. This might go his way after all.

  Emotionless.

  That was the best way to describe his opponent as he stood there, impassive in the afternoon sun and for all intents and appearances, he didn’t have a care left in him. Theo looked calm, even restful and just for a moment, Scott wondered what he had up his sleeve. The videos he’d seen of him in the past showed him angry and twitchy on the battlefield but there was none of that here. Here, he was the picture of serenity.

  His next spirit towered over Palawi and even the two callers, Scott blanched as it stretched up to its full height and stretched out two powerful arms. This one was new to him; he knew what it was but he’d never fought one before. Its body was squat, dumpy even despite its great size but the skin couldn’t be called dull, not with the rich gold and black fur that rippled out over the powerful muscles. Thick claws extended out from the end of each limb, the ones on its standing legs tearing into the turf of the battlefield like it was water while it bore not one, not two but three individual tails, each stringy and whip-like. Its face was feline but in a decidedly ugly fashion with more teeth than it needed spilling out the mouth. The ears were small and pointed, the eyes a brilliant shade of golden grey but watery to boot.

  A tiger troll. These things weren’t common, they were hard to find in the wild and where Theo had gotten it from, Scott didn’t even know where he’d start. As it was, it stood between him and another victory.

  Plus, he had faced a troll since he’d gotten to this island. The less said about it the better but he knew what to expect. Sort of. That desperate clash with Harvey Rocastle felt a very long time ago. He wouldn’t make the same mistakes now as he had then. On the other hand, the conditions were very different here.

  Inwardly he formed up a plan, he could feel Palawi’s reluctance but pushed it aside, tried to shore up the dog’s confidence, you can beat this, Pal. It’s big but… But how fast can it be?

  He shot Theo a sweet smile, desperate to break that façade of calm before the buzzer went to get them fighting. Anything to get under his opponent’s skin. And as it did, he didn’t waste any time, Palawi broke loose with a blast of lightning straight into the troll’s chest.

  If anything, it went even worse than he’d expected it to. It didn’t just fail to affect the troll, the thing absorbed it without flinching, held out its arms and bathed in the blast the way Scott might have stood in the shower. Skin glimmering with an effervescent energy, it charged up off the ground and shot towards the startled Palawi. Scott couldn’t believe it either, at least his immediate reactions kicked in before his conscious ones, mentally screaming at Palawi to evade. The dog did but just barely, two great fists slamming down into the space where he’d been stood a moment earlier.

  The troll didn’t let up, going on the chase, beating down hard on the ground with no apparent ill comfort to its fists. Cracks spider-webbed out across the ground where the hammer blows landed unflinchingly. Once Palawi got close enough in to land a bite and Scott winced as he heard the crack of teeth breaking against skin. Troll skin… Hard. Yeah, he already knew that. He’d never seen one as hard or fast as this though, Palawi was still ducking and diving, leaping and lunging to escape the blows raining his way and it was only a matter of time before he caught an unfortunate one where it hurt. Claws were useless, teeth were broken, lightning attacks were even worse…

  Yeah it looked bad.

  There was an unproven but not entirely disproven theory in the world of spirit calling that every opponent had a weak spot that any attacker no matter how bad the circumstances were would be able to target and thus given a fighting chance. In situations like these, great callers survived them, anything less and they forfeited their spirit for the round. Scott wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to give up on Palawi yet but at the same time, he couldn’t see how the hound was going to get out of it.

  Observe. React. Attack.

  Always a good plan to fall back on. Why exactly weren’t the lightning attacks working? Obviously, the creature had some sort of imperviousness laid up on it, it surely couldn’t be natural. It wasn’t just resistant, it had battled against it and absorbed it. That clearly wasn’t natural… He winced, mentally congratulated Palawi on avoiding another attack… Now run up its arm next chance you get. Stay in close to it, but not on the ground.

  If Palawi tried running between its feet, chances were that he’d get stamped on, a broken spine and that’d be the end of it. At least up on its body, he had a fighting chance. Unless the troll was willing to whale on itself to try and dislodge Palawi…

  Hmm… In lieu of a better strategy, that might work. These things weren’t smart. Next attack that came, Palawi sprang up and landed on one of the broad arms, digging claws into fur and flesh that didn’t want to yield. If he’d tried to stay still, it might have been an issue. As he carried on running, he didn’t stay in one place long enough to fall…

  Unti
l the tiger troll spun its arms around suddenly, a vicious twisting motion that left Palawi scrabbling at thin air and falling. He never hit the ground, the other arm swept around and caught him a vicious punch in the side that sent him flying across the arena like a rag doll, eventually the hound hit the ground near Theo and didn’t move. Knocked out. Dead. Either way, he wasn’t getting back up from it, Scott had heard shattering bones and it wasn’t pleasant. A wave of sadness flushed up through him, tinged with regret.

  “Thanks, Pal,” he muttered. “Good job.”

  Who next? He had to make the next spirit count. Something that could hit this thing hard and take an attack in exchange. With armoured skin like that, power counted. Palawi had been a completely inappropriate matchup in hindsight. Still he had five more. So did Theo. And although Palawi hadn’t really hurt the tiger troll, the exertion the thing had had to throw out to nail the hound had to have done something to its stamina.

  If he wanted pure power, then there had to be only one real option. Sangare or Sludge might be apt choices but he wanted to keep the dragon in reserve for if it got bad and although Sludge might be able to take the blows, there was no guarantee that the poison would get through that skin.

  He went with Snooze, the giant sloth-bear flopping out onto the field and giving a big yawn. This time the two were matched in size, two heavyweights sizing each other up. This time Theo looked impressed, a smug smirk crawling about his features as if to express his amusement at finally being given what he no doubt considered a challenge. More than anything, that pissed Scott off. Not considering Palawi to be a challenge was more than just disrespect, it was adding fuel to the fire. What didn’t help was that Snooze had faced Theo in the semi and lost. Maybe he thought it was going to be an easy victory.

  He wasn’t making the first move this time, not after what had gone before. This time Scott was letting Theo make his attacks and he was going to counter them. Snooze couldn’t go after the troll the way it had gone after Palawi. Best thing to do was hunker down, mount a defence and then retaliate hard…

  Except anyone who’d ever fought anyone with a sloth bear knew that was the standard way to get the best out of one. Their size made speed impossible, it was playing to their strengths in every single way. Best way was to pick them off from a distance with an elemental attack, preferably one aimed at the head. He didn’t know if Theo’s troll had that capability. Best to keep on his toes and try not to be taken by surprise.

  First sign he got of the troll charging, Scott gave Snooze the order to hit it hard with a uniblast, the beam ripped out of the bear’s giant maw and caught the troll powerfully in the chest, hurling it back several feet through the air. Incredibly the skin hadn’t been broken though it had left a serious of painful looking burns prominent across it, the fur burned away leaving dull grey smoking patches. It leaped to its feet bellowing angrily and struck back, generating its own lightning and sending the shockwave into Snooze who let out an agonised howl and dropped down onto his back, muscles going into spasms. Having dealt out plenty of those attacks through his career, the irony wasn’t lost on Scott. With Snooze down, maybe Theo assumed he was good to go and attack, the troll lunged in, sprang up into the air and prepared to bring both fists down into the bear’s head, hammer style.

  Now he was just playing into Scott’s hands, Snooze rolled back even further, brought both stumpy hind legs up and kicked out, putting all his considerable weight behind them and suddenly the troll was airborne again, this time involuntarily, arms flailing helplessly. It was a good kick, Scott was sure it hit the roof of the protective shield and bounced back down hard into the ground, face first. The crowd let out an appreciative sound and the exterior of calm broke again once more, a snarl flashing across Theo’s face for a split second.

  “Zap,” he said calmly but coldly. “Stand up.”

  It took an effort and Scott was pleased to see that, but the tiger troll did get up, which he wasn’t so pleased about. Its legs looked unsteady and he was sure there were some cracks forming across that skin but he’d seen spirits look worse with less. At the same time, Snooze scrambled back up with just as much effort though he could see a giant sweat stain on the ground where the bear had lain moments earlier. Deep breath, they’d be at it again in a moment and he was proven right as once more Zap lunged in, fists coming flailing out in gracefully clumsy motions, blows bouncing off Snooze’s ample gut. The bear’s eyes widened and he flicked out a front leg of his own and swatted the troll away, sending it staggering much in the same way Zap had hit Palawi with the death blow.

  Both caller and spirit looked irritated by that, Theo because maybe he was realising just how much he’d underestimated the strength of Snooze and Zap because maybe it wasn’t used to being pushed around like that. Still he wasn’t one to deny an advantage, this time both of Snooze’s fists swept out to crush Zap between them and his heart soared as this time there was the distinctive cracking of bones breaking and suddenly the troll looked like a shattered tube of toothpaste. The top of its head had nearly been blown out by the sudden twin impacts of pressure to its sides and that had to be that. Nothing could survive a hit like that, not on top of everything else…

  Scott hadn’t been expecting it to still be conscious, by all rights it should be dead so the sudden eruption of lightning caught him by surprise, the electricity ripping out of the shattered body like an enormous storm. It ruptured through Snooze, tearing a ragged smoke entry wound through the thick layers of furred fat on his stomach, coursed up through his great girth and ripped out through the top of his head. Though the wound cauterised on appearance, the internal damage was too great to overcome, the sloth bear clutched at his chest, scrabbled wildly and panicked until the pawing faded. Scott felt every second of it through the connection and winced. Ouch. Not pleasant. His own chest felt tight, sore even and if he never felt like this ever again, it’d be too soon.

  That was it for Snooze. For both him and for Zap. Neither of them were continuing, the scoreboard showed the naked truth, they were drawing two defeats for two. Four more each for regular battle. There was still an outside possibility of sudden death, Scott really didn’t want it to go that far.

  His next choice was to unleash Becko upon his opponent, the leaf lizard swarming into existence with a flourish of the blades on his forearms. They spread out like fan blades, the lizard covering his pointed face with the extent of them. Scott had taught him that pose recently, just a little something Mia had pointed out about psychological intimidation. Appearances can be deceiving, she’d said. It was a spirit dancer’s trick; one the average caller might not pick upon right away.

  Theo went next with a huge fucking spider and he mentally kicked himself, realising that intimidation wasn’t going to work against something that big and ugly. His skin began to crawl as he stared at the thing, there were many more little bristles of hair covering those spindly legs than he could ever count. Eight eyes blinked at him, the mandibles clicked in anticipation. The fangs that grew down from them were easily the size of his arm.

  He was starting to notice a pattern with Theo’s spirits. All big so far. All intimidating. They did say the spirit was the extension of a caller’s personality. What did that make him? He’d never stopped long enough to consider that before. He wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to.

  Scott heard the buzzer and the first thing he had to do was scream mentally out a command for the leaf lizard to evade, a thick glob of poison sailing towards him from the spider’s maw. Becko sidestepped it, hissed angrily.

  Engage at close range with your speed! Do not let it bite you!

  Simple instructions, the best kind. That second one was imperative. That spider had already displayed the deadly poison that lurked inside it. He didn’t doubt the bite was just as potent.

  A second command and Becko’s jaws snapped open, a flurry of razor sharp seeds fluttering out towards the spider as he ran towards it. Some sailed wide, most didn’t and they cut shallow gouge
s across the arachnid body. Scott’s experience of spiders mainly extended to that they were supposed to be stood on, not be big enough to do the standing. They were supposed to be squishy. This thing looked anything but. No blood, that didn’t surprise him, just a clear grey substance that stank like hells. It made him want to wrinkle his nose in disgust.

  In close, Becko swept up the blades with razor quick impunity, slashing back and forth in rapid manoeuvres almost too fast to keep track of with the naked eye. Two of the front legs were hacked off before the spider could react, the crowd cheered loudly, their applause and cries reaching a crescendo as the arachnid suddenly skittered back in surprise, several fresh new gashes torn across its body. Something akin to rage fluttered across its eyes, Scott saw it and suddenly it charged, surprisingly agile even only on six legs and tore across the ground towards Becko like a runaway mag-rail car. The lizard tensed the muscles in his legs, gracefully sprang up and over the oncoming spider, dropped and dug in both blades hard to the rear, something giving by the sounds of it. Its giant behind looked like it had suddenly deflated quite a bit, Scott’s spirit rose. This might be over very quickly…

  Becko suddenly roared angrily, not a loud roar but a hissed one that embodied every venomous emotion in the lizard’s array. And he saw why as the spider spun around, something glistening white lay over the lizard’s feet, Becko’s efforts to pull away failing miserably. Three…

  Scott cursed himself. What do spiders do, Taylor?! They spin bastard webs! Trap insects and stuff so they can eat them! His own stupidity amazing him, he pushed it aside for a moment and tried to figure out a way around it. Hacking at the stuff with the blades didn’t do a whole damn lot of good, it clung to the blades themselves and left Becko struggling to pull free in two separate places. Two…