Chapter Thirteen – Zapmara!

"So tell me about your new spells." Dylan asked Jessica, finishing a piece of pie he was having for desert.

Jessica looked at Cergo, smiled, and then looked back at Dylan, "There's no way I can explain how cool these attacks are."

"So we're just gonna have to wait and find out?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah…but we don't have to wait until tomorrow to show you…" Jessica smirked again.

Jacob jumped up, smiling, "Is this a challenge!?!? Can I battle Cergo again?!?!"

"Let's go!" Cergo said, standing up.

"Whoa, whoa!" Dylan held his hands up, "Let's um…not do this in my house…"

"Well, duh!" Jessica said, grabbing her coat and heading for the door.

"See you downstairs" She said with a smile, and walked out with her mamodo.

"Dylan…I don't know about this…" Victor was concerned.

"Me either…how many spells did Jessica say they knew? Four?" Dylan said, "We still only know two!"

"But how are we ever gonna learn new spells if we don't take chances and battle more mamodos?" Jacob had a point.

"But your book could get burned, and…" Tanjit trailed off, looking down.

"This book will not be touched by anything except my hands tonight." Dylan said, now determined by Jacob's enthusiasm.

"Alright, but if anything happens…" Victor trailed off and grabbed Tanjit's spellbook.

Soon, the four of them met Jessica outside. They walked silently to the field where Jacob and Dylan had been training for the last few days. It was also the same spot where Jessica had first challenged them to their first battle. The moon and stars provided just the right amount of light down on the quiet, grassy field.

"Here we are!" Jessica said.

"Yeah…here we are…" Dylan said.

"Let's do this." Jessica stated, pulling out Cergo's red-orange spellbook, "Ready?"

Dylan opened Jacob's spellbook, and it started to glow as well.

"Ready." He said.

For a split moment, nobody did anything. Everyone was still and silent as a small wind blew across the grass – a last bit of peace before the battle started, then…

"Beshose!"

Cergo breathed the fire at Jacob, who easily dodged the attack.

"That's not a new attack, Jessica." Dylan teased, "Pymara!"

Jacob ran towards Cergo and fired his blast at him. Cergo ducked down, and the attack went over him.

Jessica laughed, "Hahaha! Fine then! Makoto Baro!"

Cergo's mouth opened and a huge burst of fire escaped, heading for Jacob! Jacob was too close to get out of the way of the attack, and it hit him dead on!

"No!" Dylan called out.

Jacob slowly stood back up, wincing in pain as he did so.

"Okay…that once…was new" Jacob smiled, "Let's do this!"

"Right! Pymara!" Jacob attack Cergo's feet, who tripped over himself trying to avoid the fire.

"Get up, Cergo! Makoto Baro!" Jessica yelled.

Cergo jumped up, over Jacob, and released a huge burst of fire. Jacob jumped into the air, twisting around to get further away from the mamodo – a technique he learned from Kait.

"Not bad. Here's a new one for ya: Carko!" Jessica yelled.

Cergo landed, and raised his arms, holding them in an "X" formation in front of his chest. Suddenly, long, razor sharp nails grew out of Cergo's fingers, and they began flaming! He ran full speed towards Jacob. Cergo swiped his flaming claws, Jacob dodged the first two swipes, but the third hit him right in the face, knocking him backwards and he hit the ground.

"Wow. What a spell!" Victor whispered.

Cergo stepped over to Jacob, who was on the ground, wincing in pain.

"Pymara!" Dylan yelled.

Jacob turned over and blasted Cergo into the air! Cergo landed on his feet, and Jacob stood up.

"Pymara!" Dylan yelled again.

Jacob's fire sped towards Cergo again.

"Canoto!" Jessica screamed.

Cergo spit fire out of his mouth, and spun it in front of him, creating a shield of fire in front of him! Jacob's Pymara hit the shield and both spells disappeared.

"Beshose, Makoto Baro, Carko, and Canoto…that's all four!" Victor counted.

"Pymara!" Dylan called again.

"Carko!" Jessica shouted.

Cergo ran at Jacob with his flaming claws, running straight through the Pymara spell, and clawed him all three times! Jacob hit the ground.

"Jacob!" Dylan ran over to his mamodo.

Jessica watched, and then looked at her mamodo, "We have to do this, Cergo. We may not get another chance. Beshose!"

Cergo fired his spell straight at Dylan and his fallen mamodo. Dylan turned around and saw the fire coming. He grabbed Jacob, covering the spellbook between their two bodies, and flipped out of the way of the spell. It barely missed them.

"Makoto Baro!" Jessica commanded.

Cergo unleashed his attack.

"Jacob, Zecloid!" Dylan whispered to his mamodo.

Jessica saw the blast explode on contact. But when the smoke started to clear, she didn't see Dylan holding his vanishing mamodo as his book burned. All she saw was a big, colorful wall sticking out of the ground.

"You saved us…" Jacob whispered, weakly.

"I saved you." Dylan corrected.

Jacob smiled up at his partner. Suddenly, the spellbook that Dylan had just saved started to glow a brilliant yellow color! He opened the book.

"A new spell! Look, Jacob! You've learned a new spell!" Dylan showed the book to Jacob.

"What does it say?" Jacob asked, regaining his strength slowly.

"Zir…Zip…Zop…Zap…" Dylan was having trouble reading the spell.

"You can read it. I know you can!" Jacob said, giving Dylan hope.

"Zaporo? Ora? Era? Wait, that's a 'mmm' sound! Mmmera? Mmmara?" Dylan sounded out, "Zap-mara?"

Jacob's body jolted a little bit. The Zecloid wall slowly disappeared.

"That must be it! Zapmara!" Dylan shouted.

This time, Jacob jumped up into the air whipped one hand towards Cergo. Suddenly, a bright bold of electricity jolted out of Jacob's arm and struck Cergo to the ground!

"Oh my god!" Victor, Jessica, and Dylan said at the same time.

Jacob landed on his feet and inspected his now-smoking hand.

"It's lightning! I can shoot lightning with my third spell!" He jumped up and down.

"That was…amazing…" Dylan said, having always loved lightning.

"Well this should be interesting…" Cergo muttered.

"Carko!" Jessica called out, determined.

Cergo once again charged at Jacob with his now-flaming nails. Jacob – now with more confidence after learning a new spell – dodged all three swipes.

"Zapmara!" Dylan called out.

Jacob's newest spell whipped out of his hand and into Cergo. Cergo hit the ground.

"Cergo!" Jessica ran to her mamodo.

"Jessica, we need to end this. We are all friends." Dylan explained.

"He's right. Look at Cergo. He's exhausted. I'm exhausted!" Jacob added.

"Your right, Dylan. We are friends. And that's why I can't be around you guys anymore…" Jessica looked down.

"What?" Victor said, running into the group.

"If I'm around, I'm going to keep wanting to battle…and I don't want to hurt you, Dylan. Or Jacob, or Victor or Tanjit…" Jessica's voice broke.

"Jessica, you can't–"

"Beshose!" Jessica cried out.

Cergo blasted the ground with fire, and smoke went everywhere. They had used the smoke to get away.

"Well, I guess that's that." Dylan stated, "We'll see them again…"

"We should get going, I guess…" Victor said, "It's getting late."

"Your right. Besides, we have a long trip ahead of us…" Dylan said.

"Huh?" Victor asked, "What trip?"

"We need to end this war as soon as we possibly can. I want to travel Japan and meet all of the mamodos that we possibly can." Dylan said seriously.

"We get to go all over Japan? Awesome!" Victor cheered.

"Yes. Tomorrow, we leave to begin our trip around Japan!" Dylan said, confident.