Journey of the soul Chapter 60 (told you it was confirmed)

You see that big number up there, that's a lot of chapters.

Hunter: And a lot of juvenile writing mistakes.

You do realize I'm just making this stuff up as I go along right?

Spinax: I believe it

Hunter: I don't. There's no way you didn't plan at least part of this.

The only thing I really had planned for this story in the beginning is something we haven't even gotten to yet.

Hunter:…what?

Yep. Enjoy!

Giant mountains covered with snow dotted the landscape. Massive chunks of ice clung to the mountains, occasionally shifting and sliding downwards. Illum island was a stark contrast to Rubilar or cranial island, a contrast neither Hunter or Todd was prepared for.

"This brochure can go straight to hell," Todd held Hunter back as he tried to open the helicopter and chuck the brochure out.

"I'm not disagreeing with you," Todd mumbled as the two struggled, "but wouldn't opening a window just make it colder?" Hunter quickly backed as far away from the windows as possible. Todd pulled the dark green overcoat he bought closer to his sides and Hunter zipped up his new long-sleeved jacket while tucking a scarf closer to his face.

"I miss when I could wear jackets without long sleeves."

"It's been half a day," Spinax replied.

"And it feels like an eternity,"

"I feel like we've had this exact conversation about the cold before."

"See? The cold's messing with your memory."

"Nah, the cold never bothe-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." The helicopter finally touched down at a small group of buildings being held up on massive platforms made out of a blue stone. The two boys stepped out attempted to warm themselves up by jogging to the fighters station.

"Must save a fortune on air conditioning," spinax commented as they went inside, "and then immediately waste it all on indoor heating."

"You're buck naked all the time! Why do you care?"

"I seriously feel like we've had this conversation before." Hunter turned to Todd, "so, dig site?"

"Right, right," Todd checked his paleopager, "it's called hot spring heights. It's a snowfield that's connected to the biggest hot spring in the Southern Hemisphere."

"Well, why are we still here then!" Hunter turned to go, then noticed that Todd was facing opposite direction.

"You alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just…have something else to take care of before I go there myself." Todd turned back to Hunter and winked.

"…oh! Right. Well, I'll see ya later then!" He left without another word.

"You mind telling me what that's all about?" Spinax chimed in.

"Todd figured out which vivosaurs he wants to use the miraculous fossil rocks on."

"Well that certainly took a while. There's only two options: me….or me."

"Are you still hung up over wanting the fossil?"

"It is a literal middle finger to all laws of nature, of course I wanted it." Hunter pulled his sleeves closer to his fingers before walking down the path that led to a teleporter. He stepped inside and was immediately warped to the top of a snowy hill. Below him was a large valley covered in snow and ice. In the distance he could see a small hole in a large arch.

"That must lead to the hot spring." Hunter slid down the hill and walked around for a bit, digging up a few fossils along the way.

"I don't really get the point of this anymore," he sighed, "I rarely use vivosaurs other than my main ones anyway," he rested on the handle of his foldax."

"There's not a point to a lot of this stuff honestly," He said to himself, "I…don't feel like going to dig sites, or a lot of the stuff I've done here, is helping my shot at the cup."

"Imma stop you right there pal," spinax cleared his throat, "I'm not about to add lost ambition to our list of problems. There's already Amnesia, lies, hiding from literally everyone, soul problems, and whatever the hell the grim future is supposed to be."

"You're right, I just…don't feel like my heart's in it anymore y'know?"

"I know that you could easily fix that."

"How?"

"Tell someone." Hunter leaned against the stone wall of a small archway halfway through the dig site.

"You already know I can't."

"C'mon dude," spinax pretended to put on a pair of imaginary shades, "you gotta get with the times."

"And if I get found out? Who do you think the first people they'll turn to if they find me? Who'll fall under the "associates" category?" Hunter knew arguing was pointless. Spinax knew it too. They both knew that sooner or later, someone will find out about him. It's just a matter of when.

"I shouldn't even be here. I should be off training Lila, or trying to find Alvis, or-"

"Hey Hunter!" Hunter felt a weight latched on to his back before falling into the snow.

"Immmgonnammmhalddklausd." He muttered with a mouthful of snow.

"This means I win right?" Lila put her hands on her hips as she sat on Hunter's back.

"Why does everything have to happen as if on cue?"

"Because everything is a part of my elaborate comedy act to slowly drive you insane."

"Shut up Spinax." Hunter pushed himself up with his hands before a much stronger weight forced him back into the snow again.

"Alright! Alright! I give, you-what is that?!" He turned on the ground to see a giant chameleon stepping on him. It was Lila's boneysaur, a bipedal chameleon with a curled tail, bright green…stuff on its legs, and a green crest on its head that looked like a leaf.

"Okay Salada, you can get off him now," the vivosaur jumped off Hunter and happily bounced on its legs like springs.

"What kind of name is salada?" Spinax grunted.

"Good question," Hunter brushes the snow off himself as he stood back up, "Lila, is salada the vivosaur's actual name?"

"Nope, the revival machine said it was unknown, so I named it!" Lila stretched her arm up to pet salada's head.

"And you named it salada because…"

"It looks like a salad."

"Right, makes sense." Hunter ignored the sound of Spinax biting his own tail in an attempt not to giggle.

"C'mon man, it's not that funny."

"It is when you think about it. Imagine if my name was based of what I looked like."

"Then you'd be pointysaurus."

"Well HA HA to you too, depression."

"What'd you-….you little."

"Hehehehehe," Spinax abruptly stopped laughing when Hunter took out his medal and tossed it to salada, who happily accepted the new chew toy.

"Okay, you know what? Screw you too." Spinax's medal began to glow a bright white in salada's mouth.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Lila asked.

"Good question. Let's see if we can find the answer not under an archway that is smaller than Spinax." Hunter shooed Lila and himself out from under the archway just as Salada spit out spinax's medal onto the ground. Spinax materialized in a flash of light and just loud enough to shake the ground.

"YOU AND ME SALAD BOY! RIGHT NOW!" Salada began snarling and springing on its feet again.

"Well Lila, I guess Spinax wants to see what the new guy's got."

"Girl. New girl."

"It's a girl?"

"It looks like a girl."

"Fair enough. Let's go!" Hunter moved behind Spinax while Lila moved behind Salada.

"Alright, Spinax fang!"

"I can still do that?"

"I don't see why not." Spinax lunged at salada with jaws reared open. The smaller vivosaur snarled and began bouncing on its legs. Right before spinax could hit his mark, salada's legs stretched to multiple times their size and propelled it into the air.

"Thousand Islands!" Lila called. Salada, still in the air, stretched its legs again and again to kick Spinax over and over. Snow flew up in a flurry when a kick didn't land and small sparks flew as its feet scraped across spinax's rough hide.

"Did you…name an attack after a salad dressing?"

"Caesar roll!" Lila ducked the question and salada ducked under spinax's arm once it landed, lashing out with its tail.

"Cyclone!" Spinax responded by blasting salada with a tornado. It skidded backwards in the snow and sprung into the air again. Salada stretched out its leg once more and tried to strike Spinax. Unfortunately, Spinax wasn't an idiot. He grabbed salada's foot right before it hit him and yanked it to the ground, slamming salada into the snow. Spinax rushed at salada once more and succeeded In slashing at it with his claws. The smaller vivosaur screeched as it sprung backwards and viciously flicked its tail in and out of a curled position like a whip. The constant lashing prevented Spinax from following up with another attack.

"Charge!" Lila used the opening to turn salada into a real threat. Electricity sparked and sputtered around salada. Hunter could hear the wind whip up each time salada lashed out.

"Harden!" Spinax's crystals shown brilliantly, raising his defenses. Salada's claws coiled outwards and scraped against spinax's hide. Spark shot across the attacked skin and Spinax, already busy defending himself from salada's tail, could do little to stop it.

"I say we blow this place to hell." Hunter could see traces of green light appear around Spinax.

"Not a chance, we can't risk hurting people if they get caught in the explosion."

"I know, but maybe no one's around."

"It's only that convenient in movies. Spinax Peta!" Hunter shouted that last part aloud. With an earth shaking roar, Spinax summoned three tornadoes from the ground and they converged onto salada. The boneysaur shrieked in pain and was flung into the air.

"Looks like this is it Lila!" Hunter called.

"We're not Done yet, right salada?" Salada roared in response, which sounded suspiciously like a person trying to talk with their mouth full.

"Wild downer!" Salada spun rapidly in the air with its tail at full extension. Green energy sliced through the air around the boneysaur as it came careening towards Spinax.

"Up!" Spinax rocketed upwards as cyclones erupted from its feet. With a grunt and a well timed lunge, he grabbed salada and stopped the attack in its tracks.

"Now I can tell everybody that I saved the world from a giant beyblade."

"What's a beyblade?"

"…You're no fun."

"Spinax Mega!" A tornado engulfed spinax's claw as he struck salada and sent it crashing back down to earth for the second time now. Salada was covered in a massive mound of snow as Spinax slowly touched down. White light was visible through the snow mound.

"And that's that." Spinax dusted of his hands, "I would say this proves that I'm worthy of being double evolved, but you knew that al-"

"Basilisco Sour!" Salada erupted from the snow with a roar and the white light had swirled around it to form a tornado. Salada whipped its tail in a circle to direct the tornado at spinax.

"Harden!" The boasted defence negated some of the damage, but Spinax was still being pushed back. Salada slowly began walking forward, its tail became a blur behind it and snow flew up everywhere.

"Nnnnnngh," Hunter gritted his teeth. "This isn't going to be easy, but it might work." He explained his plan to Spinax.

"Sounds dangerous, I like it." Spinax readied himself while Hunter waited for the right time. He was so focused on the battle he didn't notice falling snow evaporating around him.

"Up!" Spinax propelled himself into the air. As expected, Salada began angling the tornado upwards. Its tail dug up large swaths of snow and ice. Spinax kept dodging in midair with short bursts of wind. Eventually, he was directly above Salada. Salada's tail slammed directly into the ground, lodging itself into rock. The smaller vivosaur struggled desperately, but it was locked in place.

"Spinax mega!" With his claw cloaked in a cyclone. Spinax rocketed downwards, ready to collide with Salada and cause thousands of dollars of property damage.

"We've got them n-ack!" Hunter doubled over as his eye flared up. It wasn't painful, but he could tell that soulflame was about to activate.

"Stop! STOP!" Spinax glanced over at Hunter, saw what was happening, and immediately turned midair to face the sky. With a roar, Spinax thrusted his claw forward at an angle to send himself crashing into the ground and canceling out the attack. Hunter tried to stop himself from shaking as Spinax returned to his Dino medal. Technically, he lost, but that didn't matter. He almost did the one thing he swore he would never do again.

"You alright?" Spinax asked quietly.

"Y-…..yeah. I'm okay. Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Ever." Lila, instead of being happy she won, or congratulating Salada, walked over to Hunter and looked at him with concerned eyes.

"Well, I guess you won!" Hunter scratched the back of his head and laughed, "maybe you should take my place in the cup!" He laughed, but it wasn't a joke. He shouldn't be fighting if that means almost losing it every time. To his surprise, Lila shook her head.

"I didn't win. You stopped the fight. Why?"

"I…uh…I'm not exactly in peak fighting condition right now," he lied, "and the plan was to go to the hot springs over there to relax. I stopped cause I don't want to be the last one there." Lila gave him a look, but didn't press further. As she called Salada back into a Dino medal, Hunter silently cursed himself. He just lied to one of the few people that still believed in him. Spinax didn't say anything, he just sighed.

"Hey Lila, training's tomorrow. Don't forget. I gotta head out." As he started walking away, Lila called to him.

"I'll do that when you see Duna!" Hunter stopped, turned around, and gave her a nod. Whether he liked it or not, he needed help with this.

"Eventually," Spinax finally spoke, "this is all going to come crashing down on you and I won't have a joke for it."

"Then we'll need to be ready for that." Hunter silently trudged through the snow back to the archway as Lila left. He was about to continue on his way when he heard a voice.

"Hi digadig!" Hunter leaned against the archway once more and peered over the side, praying that whatever digadig tribe member there wasn't talking to him. Fortunately, it was pauleen talking to a snowman….wait a minute.

"How are you digadoing?" Pauleen didn't have her mask on and was very clearly making polite conversation with a lump of half frozen water.

"And I thought she was strange before." Hunter commented.

"My name is pauleen diga, what about you?" Pauleen waited a few more seconds, sighed, and then fished her mask out of her bag.

"Snowmen are fine, but real people are impossible to talk to." She said to no one in particular as she placed the mask on her face. Hunter silently walked by and turned back towards the cave to the hot springs.

"Guess I'm not the only one wearing a mask, hers is just literal and figurative."

"If you start wearing a mask, I will mercilessly mock you." Spinax replied.

"And hide these gorgeous sapphires?" Hunter struck a pose with one eye partially covered by his hand.

"Don't try to out-joke me, that would be a GRAVE mistake." Hunter was too busy trying out-joke Spinax that he didn't notice the blur of green wall past until it messed up his hair.

"Last one to the hot spring has to wash the others feet!" Todd called as he raced past Hunter.

"Don't you still have athlete's foot?" Hunter called back.

"Maybe!" Hunter ran like his life depended on it, racing his friend up the hill.

Done! And I've finally decided what to do for the 10000 view celebration!

Hunter: what is it

Spinax: does it involve card games?

I'm glad you aske-….card games?

Spinax: who doesn't like cards?

People with bad credit scores. Anyway, I've decided that for the chapter after the next one, I'll include any ideas sent by readers as the main focuses of the chapter.

Hunter: so your plan is…to have the story written for you?

Well, when you put it that way…it sounds like a great idea! Thanks for reading. Let me know what you want to see in the chapter in the reviews!

Spinax: so…..no card games?