"Good shit!" Tria yelled as their little group converged back in the waiting room. First battle had been a piece of cake, obviously, they were just fighting Nate and co. who were MAJOR pushovers. She wondered what it felt like to get their asses beat by a nine-year-old kid.
"I call dibs on the next fight," she added, immediately getting Jura to glare at her.
"But Nibbles is my vivosaur," Jura said defensively, his arms crossed.
She leaned back against the wall. "I don't care, dude, I'm not gonna sit around and do jack shit this entire tournament."
He sort of mumbled something under his breath but didn't argue with her any further.
It took a couple hours for the rest of the first round battles to conclude, during which Tria just blacked out from boredom. She was jolted back into consciousness when Lucky started shaking her arm really fast, his bright gaze fixated on her.
"What's, uh, what's up?" Tria said, blinking really rapidly to get herself fully aware.
Lucky beamed. "We're gonna beat up my parents!"
Yeah that caught Tria's attention. She smacked her fist into her palm. "Hell yeah, time to go smack Violet around!"
Jura looked nervous, but he always looked nervous. She walked past him, punching him on the shoulder as she went. "Let's gooo, bring your lil' dude."
He followed even if he really didn't want to, so Tria was letting herself get all hyped up again. She was gonna grudge match beat Violet, fight crazy Drake, and oh yeah Dahlia was on Europe's team. Tria's chest fluttered with excitement. Even if Dahlia wasn't on their team, at least they got to fight and say dumb shit to each other.
The end of the tunnel couldn't come soon enough. Tria came running out into the sunlight even though her eyes weren't adjusted to the brightness and she was straight up blind for like 20 seconds. Once her vision finally adjusted, she was left staring at Dahlia. They both grinned at each other.
"Was hoping we'd get to fight!" Dahlia said, hands on her hips, "Next best thing to bein' on the same team!"
"Hell yeah!" Tria said. She pointed her thumb at Lucky. "Not too late, Vi, we can trade teammates."
Lucky immediately stuck his tongue out at his mom, who rolled her eyes.
She waved her wand around rather absentmindedly. "It's not my fault Stryker plays favorites, we're not allowed to have civilians on our teams."
"I don't wanna be on your team, anyways!" Lucky said as he crossed his arms and tried to look smug. Morgan let out an amused snort.
"Fine, whatever," Tria said. She smirked a little bit. "We'll beat the shit outta you guys as is! Right, Sasuke?"
When she didn't get a reply, Tria looked over at Sasuke, who was very obviously doing something on his phone. She shoved his arm and almost knocked him over.
"What?" he said in an annoyed tone.
"We're gonna beat the shit outta these guys," Tria said flatly. This was becoming less fun without people backing her up.
Sasuke reluctantly put his phone away. "Hell yeah."
"ALRIGHT, enough talking!" Drake interjected, his eyes wild and a huge grin twisted on his face. His crazy expression, even if Tria recognized it, was still just a little bit intimidating. Out of curiosity she glanced over at Jura. He was all pale and shaky and looked terrified.
"Egil, drepe dem!"
Drake's ankylo BO flashed to life, a fierce glare on his face. Knowing how he operated, Tria knew they had to start fighting because he'd absolutely sick his ankylo on people given the chance. With a sigh, because she was really enjoying the smack-talk, Tria motioned for Nibbles to head out to the fight.
Nibbles gave her a dirty look as he trotted past, his body glowing and morphing up to his battle form. His feathery body dwarfed Morgan, Lucky's ajka, and Kin, Sasuke's f-raptor. Even the vivosaurs on the other side, Camber, Dahlia's pachy, and Meg, Violet's paraloph, looked small in comparison. Tria felt pretty cool having the biggest vivo by a lot.
Dahlia's pachy was first, obviously. "Hit the lil' dude with a jumpin' upper!" she said to her vivosaur, pointing at Morgan.
Camber wasted no time slamming head first into Morgan, scooping the ajka up on her head and throwing her into the air. The hit was definitely effective, but Morgan was able to twist around like a cat and land on her feet to mitigate further damage.
Tria whistled. "Aight, Nibbles, we gotta do good too," she said. Thanks to a level up last battle, Nibbles was now the fastest on their team. "Let's roll Camber!"
Nibbles dove into a summersault, his spiked tail slamming down on Camber's small back. The hit knocked the wind out of the pachy, making her wheeze and collapse down on the ground. Nibbles slid to a stop behind her, his massive tail lashing.
Before he could get back up to his full height, Meg's fist slammed into the side of Nibbles' head. He let out a pained cry, blindly lashing his giant claws in the paraloph's direction. One of the swipes managed to hit, but it didn't do too much damage to Meg.
"Get Egil!" Lucky cheered to Morgan, who gave him a wary look before charging Drake's ankylo. She had the elemental advantage, but he was definitely on the scary side.
Her small body managed to fit underneath Egil's rows and rows of spikes and body armor, slamming cleanly into his leg. It was probably the only relatively weak spot on him, and just drew out an annoyed groan in response. Morgan high-tailed it out of there as fast as she could.
Kin charged into the fray, spurned on by some half-hearted command from Sasuke. She headbutted Meg right on her head, making the paraloph stagger away before Kin whipped her tail around and across the other vivosaur's face. Meg reeled back, shaking her head as she struggled to stay upright.
Tria flinched ever-so-slightly when she heard Drake start yelling on the other side of the field. He really did sound like he wanted to murder someone, and like honestly yeah he probably did. Somehow what he said was a command even though Tria didn't understand any of it, and before she knew it Egil's multiple tons of weight slammed into Kin's comparably small body. His spines and spikes ripped through her skin and made her hiss out in pain.
Kin barely managed to avoid being crushed underneath the ankylo's weight, instead scrambling to the side and delivering a vengeful nip to his head. Then she was darting away as fast as she could, red dripping on the ground behind her. Her golden armor showed some obvious scratches in it now.
Unfortunately for her, running off wasn't going to get her out of trouble. Dahlia pointed at Kin and yelled to her her pachy, "Hit 'er with an assault bomber!"
Camber charged Kin, taking a giant leap when she was within range of the f-raptor. She twisted around in the air and came falling downwards like a comet, her bony skull crashing straight into Kin's. Camber bounced off, clearly unphased by the hit, but Kin wasn't so lucky. The hit left her stumbling around, disoriented and confused.
"Let's go for a saurus fire," Tria said casually. She gestured vaguely at Meg, which somehow Nibbles was able to notice. He spat up a fireball that crashed into the paraloph, searing her hide with the elementally effective attack.
Meg retaliated by slamming her front legs down on the ground and screaming at the top of her lungs. Being a wind vivosaur, the attack had a lot of extra power behind it. Most of the blast hit Nibbles, the sound making him let out a pained noise and attempt to cover his ears with his clawed hands. Morgan and Kin also took a small portion of the attack with Kin taking a bit more damage thanks to her weakness to wind.
"Alright, Morgan!" Lucky yelled, throwing a fist in the air, "Smack Egil again!"
The ajka glanced back at Lucky with another tired look, then pelted across the field back at Egil. This time she slammed into Egil's neck, somehow knocking him off balance despite her miniscule size. Then, a bluish aura started to engulf her, bubbling up around her face and forming an orb of water. With a very tiny roar, Morgan threw the water and watched it explode against Egil's side. The bubble fragmented into spikes for just a moment, blasting through the ankylo and immediately flashing him down into his gear.
Tria blinked. Oh. That was easy.
Drake started swearing a whole bunch, or at least Tria assumed he was since he obviously wasn't yelling in English. That had to be embarrassing, getting your ass beat by your nine-year-old kid. He stomped over next to Violet looking all grumpy and smacked his hands down on her shoulders.
She yelped softly, clearly surprised. "All you, Vi," Drake said to her, his voice going monotone despite his face being all crazy still.
Violet whined. "Nooooo, don't say that, I'm bad under pressure."
"Hey, I'm here still, too!" Dahlia complained, hands on her hips. Neither of them acknowledged her saying that, though.
"'Nother circle smash, Kin," Sasuke chimed in, still sounding bored. He pointed his f-raptor towards Camber, who managed to pick the right target. Unfortunately, she was still confused, so instead of a circle smash, Kin dug her feet into the ground and shot a blast of energy from her jaws.
The attack hit Camber head on, literally. The pachy lowered her head and took the brunt of the beam to her skull, easily shaking off the attack. Then, with an enthusiastic command from Dahlia, she was retaliating against Kin in seconds.
Camber's armored skull slammed into Kin's chin as she rocketed into then past the vivosaur, a dull cracking noise piercing the air as their bones collided. Then, the pachy twisted around and headbutted Kin on her way back to the earth. The f-raptor was smashed against the ground painfully, but still managed to stay in the fight.
Tria was starting to feel a little cocky now with Drake's ankylo down. Well, she'd always been cocky, but now she was super cocky. She pointed over at Meg and yelled to Nibbles, "Revenge time, dude! Light 'er up!"
Nibbles took a deep breath, blasting out a much bigger fireball than before from his jaws. The fire engulfed Meg once more, this time overtaking her and forcing her back into her gear. Nibbles let out a satisfied snort.
"Fucking hell," Violet grumbled, kicking the dirt once.
Lucky sacked Morgan on their single remaining enemy, his excitement faltering when Camber easily dove out of his ajka's path. This assault was immediately followed by Kin charging the pachy. Her initial headbutt was dodged, and when she whipped her tail around, Camber ducked and pushed herself off the ground in a powerful tackle. Her armored skull cracked against Kin's metal, immediately flashing the f-raptor down to her gear.
Sasuke sighed.
"Ah, shit," Tria said reflexively. She should've known Dahlia and Camber would rally, they were like, the only two Tria actually respected in a fight. "Blast 'er, Nibbles!"
Nibbles looked a bit annoyed that he was using the same attack again, but he spit out another fireball anyways. Camber slammed her skull straight into it, bracing her feet into the ground as she rode out the flames searing her sides. She shook herself off after a bit, embers scattering around her.
Right as the fire dispersed, Morgan slammed her crest into the pachy's side. Camber cried out, first out of pain and then with frustration. Her body twisted around with a shocking amount of speed and her head slammed into Morgan. The hit threw the ajka into the ground, but Camber wasn't done there. She scooped Morgan back into the air with another headbutt, a golden glow overtaking her body.
Camber threw one of her little fists forward, a blast of rock following the movement and crashing into Morgan. Another punch with rock followed, and then Camber jumped into the air, did a front flip, and smashed her skull into Morgan's back. The ajka squeaked in pain before she collided with the ground and flashed down to her gear.
Now it was just Nibbles and Camber left.
Despite this being a worse situation, Tria couldn't help but grin. "Just you'n me now, dude! Definitely checks out!"
"'Course it does!" Dahlia yelled back. She crossed her arms. "Doesn't mean we're gonna let ya' win, though!"
"Right back atcha!"
With that in mind, Tria decided it was time for the big guns. "Aight, saurus assault, Nibbles!"
His massive size let him slash Camber without her dodging this time, splattering her side with blood. As she stumbled from the hit, Nibbles brought his other giant set of claws around, dealing another painful slash to the pachy and knocking her over. Camber scrambled up to her feet and pushed herself off the ground, slamming her head into Nibbles' chest and throwing him back. However, Camber was clearly winded, which got Tria all excited.
She clapped her hands together once and cracked a grin. "One last saurus fire, buddy!"
Nibbles roared out a blast of fire, all his energy pouring into this final attack. The fire enveloped Camber and swept her off her feet, searing her body and throwing her on the ground. When she crashed again, she burst down to her dino gear. Nibbles huffed and immediately warped down to his little form.
"Aw, man!" Dahlia yelled, but mostly in a goodhearted way. She had a big smile on her face that made Tria feel pretty nice. It'd definitely been a good match.
"Sorry, dude, guess you couldn't keep up," Tria said with a snort but again, playfully.
Nibbles retreated over to Jura, who scooped him up and checked him over for residual injuries. Tria, in the meantime, jogged over to Dahlia, who met her halfway. They stopped and stared at each other for a moment. Tria was kinda surprised at how awkward this was, so she decided to just push through it and give Dahlia a hug.
"Good fight, man," she said plainly, letting go of Dahlia after a few seconds.
Dahlia was all blushy for some reason. She scratched the back of her neck. "Y-yeah, you too! Better see you win this thing since ya' kicked us out."
Tria laughed. "Hey dude, tell that to Jura, I ain't the one that'll fuck that up."
They joked around a little more, then finished their little conversation with a high-five. Tria did a little jog to catch up with her already retreating teammates, feeling really pumped up all of a sudden. She took a quick glance back to see Violet walking with her arm around Dahlia and her stupid little cat smirk on her face. They were talking about something and Dahlia just looked super embarrassed.
"Glad that ain't me," Tria said to no one in particular. She crossed her arms behind her head as she caught up to Jura. Time for him to fight next, lame.
Nibbles got a meal and a nap in before the next fight, which Jura was very happy about. Being in a bracket gave his buddy some time to recuperate between rounds, which was a lot less stressful than those Masked Fighter battles. He wondered who they'd be up against, still hoping there was a chance they wouldn't fight one of the HQ teams. It was probably a nonexistent chance at this point, honestly.
Tria was texting someone and completely removed from everyone else and Lucky kept talking about how they'd beat his parents in that battle, so things were pretty normal. Jura still felt like Drake and Violet threw a little bit for Lucky, but like, he didn't have any proof for that. It was more of a feeling than anything.
The next round came faster than the last, probably because it was the second to last one. They just had to win this one to make it to the finals, which was exciting. Jura felt his chest flutter a bit when he heard them get called up, his gaze flicking down to Nibbles as his vivosaur stretched.
Tria was still on her phone, but honestly Jura didn't really care if she came or not. He tried to stay optimistic and headed towards the tunnel out to the field. He and Nibbles needed a win after all that time travel pain.
When they finally emerged back out on the field, who else was on the other side but the Fossil Park Asia team. Jura swallowed hard, his anxiety making the back of his throat ache. This was gonna be a difficult fight, apparently.
"Hey, Jura!" Mei Lian yelled from the other side, waving at him overenthusiastically. Jiao-long was running in circles around her with his feathers all fluffed up, his eyes all crazy and excited. They were both super hyped up, apparently.
"Hey," Jura said back nervously. As nice as Mei Lian was now, he could still remember how vicious Jiao-long was in their first fight. He wasn't about to let his guard down.
Mei Lian smacked her fist against her hand. "Me'n Jiao-long are gonna win this time for sure!"
"Well, well, well," Sasuke said beside Jura, making him jump. He wasn't used to him talking. "Looks like I'm gonna be beating your ass today, bro."
Hanzo scoffed. "You lack the discipline to do an ounce of damage to us."
"Sounds like something a loser would say," Sasuke replied. Hanzo just rolled his eyes.
Liu Ren cleared his throat. "Enough of that." He looked over to Jura and smiled. "I haven't had the pleasure of fighting alongside you, so this will be an enjoyable venture."
And with that, Liu Ren tossed out his tarbo's dino gear, starting the battle.
Nibbles charged out without a need for the command, his body morphing up once more to his therinozinosaur form. To his right Morgan and Kin flashed to life, and on the other side Jiao-long jogged onto the field with Liu Ren's tarbo, Yinglong, and Hanzo's mihu, Sayuri, appearing to his left. This was the first time Jura had seen Liu Ren's tarbo and for some reason, it was giving him weird vibes. There was something about the way its golden feathers shimmered in the sun.
"Beak snap on the f-raptor!" Mei Lian yelled, her eyes shining. Jiao-long took off in a sprint and leapt at Kin, his teeth snapping around one of her arms and his body flailing around to rip as much skin as possible. Kin managed to grab the v-raptor in her maw after a few tries and ripped him off of her. She threw him against the ground and Jiao-long writhed himself up to his feet.
Jiao-long's intensely aggressive stare made Jura shiver, so he decided he'd have Nibbles go after him. They had the elemental advantage, anyways. He swallowed down his anxiety and said, "L-leaping claw, Nibbles!"
Nibbles ran at the tiny raptor and jumped, using his immense size to his advantage to reach Jiao-long before he could dart off. He came down hard, his giant claws slamming the v-raptor into the field. Jiao-long let out a pained hiss as he tried to push himself back up.
Nibbles barely was back up to his full height when Yinglong's tail whipped around and knocked him off-balance. He rumbled as he spun around from the force, vulnerable to attacks. Jura fiddled with his neckerchief.
"Us too, Morgan!" Lucky cheered. His tiny ajka charged the equally tiny v-raptor, slamming her crest into his head and keeping him down and dazed. She scampered off again with ease.
"Kick 'em while they're down!" Sasuke added in a tone that suggested he was not at all joking. Kin rather easily jumped and slammed her feet down on Jiao-long, and immediately he flashed down into his gear.
Jura preemptively flinched. "DAMMIT!" Mei Lian yelled from the other side. She crossed her arms and glared at the ground. At least he didn't have to worry about Jiao-long anymore.
Hanzo's mihu, Sayuri, jumped at the struggling Nibbles. She swung her katana and slashed him in the back with a spray of red, then easily landed on the ground. Nibbles fell forward a little bit and heavily caught himself.
Liu Ren sent Yinglong after Sasuke's f-raptor this time. Once more, the tarbo hit Kin as hard as he could. The f-raptor was much smaller than Nibbles and she was weak against wind, so the attack sent her crashing against the ground.
Nibbles managed to right himself finally and Jura was ready to take advantage of that. He was feeling a bit more confident now, so he smiled and pointed at Yinglong. "Let's go with a saurus fire!"
He brought his head back and threw it forward, spitting out a giant fireball. It collided with Yinglong's flank and seared his feathers in a blast of embers. The attack left the tarbo shaking himself off vigorously as he tried to put out the flames.
While in the midst of this, Morgan piled on another attack. She jumped and spun like a drill, her beak acting like a bit and carving a small hole into Yinglong. As she bounced back off, the watery aura propelling her forward scattered into the air and helped to quench the fire on the tarbo.
To the side, Sayuri jumped and brought her bladed horn down on Kin. The f-raptor lowered her head and thrust her weight forward, making the katana clang loudly against her armor. The attack still hurt Kin, but her headbutt allowed her to position the mihu where she could spin and slam her tail into her. Sayuri was sent tumbling away by the hit.
Kin had barely finished the attack when Yinglong's attention was directed to her. The tarbo's feathers flared up along his spine as he clenched his jaw and air swirled around him. His eyes seemed to glow as his maw opened and a giant blast of wind spiraled out. The attack crashed into Kin and swept her off her feet, then dropped her. When the f-raptor hit the ground, she flashed back into her gear.
Sasuke just grumbled something under his breath.
Damn, their turn came around again fast. Jura rubbed his arm and glanced over their remaining two opponents. Then, with a deep breath, he said to Nibbles, "Let's go with a, uh, a saurus assault on Sayuri."
Nibbles flexed his claws a couple times, then swiped at the mihu who had just recovered from Kin's attack. He slashed down on her, pushing her against the ground, and then swiped her upwards and threw her. Sayuri crashed on the field but wobbled up to her feet somehow. Jura remembered from their battle with Kowloon that she was pretty good at taking hits.
Unfortunately for her, Morgan wasn't gonna let her stay around much longer. The ajka did another spinning jump and slammed into Sayuri. She bowled the mihu over and popped her back into her gear, leaving Yinglong by himself.
He slammed his tail against Morgan as soon as she'd finished that attack to keep her honest. She bounced away and Nibbles spat up another fireball that engulfed Yinglong. As the fire singed his feathers and burned at his skin, Morgan flipped around and charged him. She tackled him right in the chest and overwhelmed Yinglong, flashing him into his gear.
Jura let out a relieved breath. "Good job, Nibbles!"
He watched his vivosaur shrink back down to his little form, but because of that he was really taken off guard by the tackle-hug from Mei Lian. Honestly he should've been expecting it, but he wasn't. He tensed up and waited for her to let go.
"I know I lost, but that was still a super great fight!" she grinned when she finally let him go and Jura couldn't help but smile along. "I like you even more now!"
"Thanks," he said nervously.
"It was indeed a good battle! I haven't worked up a sweat in ages," Liu Ren said in his usual subdued way.
Mei Lian shoved his shoulder playfully. "Good luck with the final round! I'm sure you'll do great!"
Jura felt something push against his leg and looked down to see Nibbles rubbing his head on him. It was comforting to know he'd have his buddy with him. He felt like he could do anything with Nibbles helping him.
So, feeling a bit more confident, he smiled. "Yeah, me too."
I think I'm doing a pretty good job with the monthly updates now! took me a bit to get into the swing of things, but now things are going pretty well! Work's been having us go longer hours, but at least it's longer hours doing less physically intensive stuff.
Once again, thanks for the reviews! i got all excited seeing them, made me very happy! i'm getting more and more pumped to reach the post game for this story with you guys here! :)