“Jararanga!” the ‘dragon’ roared.
Smolder narrowed her eyes at the beast. “I don’t know what you are, or what you’re saying, but you’re gonna pay for what you did.”
Smolder readied her staff. The monster almost seemed pleased, as if it was hoping she would stand and fight. Well, if it wanted a fight, she would give it its last request.
The monster moved much faster than its size suggested and lashed out with a powerful uppercut. Smolder responded with a shielding spell. The monster’s devastating blow shattered the shield, but lost much of its power when it collided with her chin.
Smolder’s vision danced with stars as she was sent flying through the air. It hurt, but if there was one thing she learned in her training with Luke, it was how to take a hit. Her wings flared and her flight was arrested.
She landed and held up a hand, telling the monster to wait. To her mild surprise it did. She set down her bag and dropped her staff inside before leaning into it and searching around. She found what she needed and pulled them out.
The monster looked confused at first but when it saw the gauntlets she was putting on it seemed to grow more excited.
“So, you’re a real warrior, huh? Good.” Smolder slammed her bronze fists together. “Now, let’s see if my lessons paid off.”
Smolder charged, channeling magic into her gauntlets as she drove it into the creature. The creature’s massive fist rose to block the blow, but the magical energy flowed into it and Smolder quickly ducked away.
The monster ignored the energy reverberating inside it and moved to pursue. The second it tried, the energy burst, making it stumble and leaving it open for a followup attack.
Smolder leaped forward and threw a roundhouse kick at its head. Unable to get its guard up in time, the monster rolled with the kick, though it still took a fair amount of the force.
Not giving it a chance to find its footing, Smolder pressed the attack. She punched and kicked at the monster, her gauntlets channeling every element she could with each strike.
Even when put on the back foot, the monster was skilled. Its arms swung and moved, blocking blow after blow.
Then, just as Smolder came in for another strike, the monster struck with another of its powerful uppercuts. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of another one of those, Smolder leaped back. That gave the monster enough space to recover and launch an offensive of its own.
Ember could smell the blood on this thing. Whatever it was, it had killed on its way to her. Not that she needed to smell the blood to know. The thing was... ‘aggressive’ wasn’t a strong enough word. It was like someone took pure bloodlust and molded it into a monster.
It attacked relentlessly, barely giving Ember a chance to cast even simple spells. Those she did cast seemed to not be as effective as they should have been. She fired magic bolts, bombs, and blades to little effect. Even her old trusty magic claw wasn’t very effective. The monster just raged right through it.
“Oh, come on!” Ember shouted as another spell slammed into it with little to show for it. At least it was doing something. All the attacks had left a clawful of shallow cuts and faint bruises. That meant it could be hurt. She just had to figure out what would hurt it enough to matter.
“My magic is useless!” Ember exclaimed. If magic won’t cut it, maybe I need to get up close and personal.
Unfortunately,Ember wasn’t exactly a strong fighter. Why didn’t I take Luke up on his offer to train me like Smolder?
What she needed was to either find a spell that could hurt this thing or some way to use her magic to make up for her weaknesses. She knew a couple spells that would help improve her physical abilities, but they weren’t going to be enough against this guy. She mostly only learned those spells to cast on Luke.
She could make herself bigger, but it didn’t improve her strength that much, and she was pretty sure this monster would still be stronger. She could just make herself stronger, but, again, she wasn’t confident she would be stronger than her enemy. Finally, with her best spell that boosted physical ability, she could make herself quicker so the world seemed to slow down. That one was powerful, but had the side effect of leaving her woozy and light-headed for a few seconds after it wore off.
Luckily, she was already a little faster than it. That was the only reason she wasn’t already this thing’s dinner. Even then, though, she didn’t know if she could keep it up. The thing didn’t seem to tire, while she was starting to feel fatigued.
She fired another spell, a lightning bolt, back at it. Just like last time she cast that, it only left minor singes. Another ice spear left a scrape on its side while a fire blast didn’t seem to do anything.
Darn it, think! she demanded of herself. Come on, crown thingy, help me out.
Aurora had said the Platinum Crown was more than just a fancy horn coating, but that it retained the wisdom of every emperor of Dragonia. Unfortunately, after thousands of years wasting away on a corpse, it had lost some of its potency. Aurora assured Ember it would eventually restore itself, but she had yet to get much from it.
She ducked out of the way of another of those weird blasts the monster shot from its mouth.
“Stupid, worthless piece of crap!” she growled. “I’m going to melt you down to scrap!”
Suddenly, she gasped. “Oh... okay. That was weird.”
I groaned as what was left of the wall I was just thrown through collapsed around me.
Yeah, things weren’t going how I imagined. This guy was fast. He was probably faster than Leo. And worse, my metal bones attracted his electricity like lightning rods. All he had to do was get close and zap. Extra crispy jackal ‘mon.
“Oi! You gonna start fighting back?” the British fuck taunted. He was good at that.
I had gotten a few decent hits in, of course, so it wasn’t a one-sided fight, but I was still clearly outmatched. Still, I wasn’t going to give up.
I fired a quick aura sphere. It wasn’t powerful, but it was fast enough to catch my opponent off guard. It slammed into his face, leaving him open for a split second. I took advantage, forming my staff and charging.
I slammed it into his gut, sending him flying, but not before an electric charge shot through my staff and into me.
I grunted in pain as my body locked up. I had to force aura through my muscles to break free of the effect.
There’s that theory confirmed.
I had figured that, despite bone rush being a ground type move in the game, mine would be fighting type. I had theorized that what really made normal and fighting types different was that fighting types use aura, even if not in the same way as me. The fact that my bone rush is made of aura and isn’t ground type supported that.
Though, that wasn’t really important. No, what was important was the fact that the electric cat moved so fast he seemed to teleport right in front of me.
I tried to dodge, but the electricity shot right into my chest spike.
“I gotta say, you’re a lot more fun than all the other lucario I fought,” the zeraora said. “You actually fight like a real bloke. None of that ridiculous honor that they got. Makes’em more like machines than ‘mon.”
“Yeah, well, there’s a lot about me that’s different than others,” I said.
“Like how you can’t speak our language?” he deduced. “Yeah, I noticed you only speak with that weird psychic talk, and the few words you have said sound more like how those ponyta wannabe’s talk.”
“Smart and powerful,” I said with a smirk.
The zeraora scoffed with a proud grin. “Yeah, I’m a right genius.”
“It’s a shame you’re an insufferable prick,” I replied, out loud.
He blinked, dumbly before scowling. “Okay, see, that right there. That’s that not-ponyta speak... and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t very nice.”
I started rapidly firing a steady stream of aura blasts at him, spreading them out a bit to force him where I wanted him. He moved with the speed electric types were known for, dodging and weaving around them. I only scored a few hits, but that was fine. I didn’t need them to hit him just yet.
“Wow,” he said with a laugh. “I think you’ve actually gotten worse. Did I fry your brain?”
“Nah. I’m just branching out to different anime,” I said, mockingly. “Does the name ‘Hellzone Grenade' mean anything to you?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Hellzone wh-”
He was cut off by the numerous aura spheres that missed him earlier coming back and slamming into him in a barrage of pain.
I took advantage and pressed my attack, firing a stream of aura spheres at his front. I smirked, proud of my cleverness. Honestly, I hadn’t even known I could draw them back in like that until I tried just then.
I stood there, panting from the exertion, my paws burning from channeling so much aura, waiting for the smoke to clear. I knew he was still there, but I needed to catch my breath. I doubted he was in any shape to attack right away, so I had a few moments.
When the smoke dissipated, he was just getting to his feet, also panting. “That... was clever.” He stumbled over to a lamppost to use it for support. “Unfortunately for you, I’m done playing.”
I was surprised when he dug his claws into the post and tore off a chunk of it. I was even more surprised when he reached in and pulled out the wire connecting it to the city’s grid and bit into it.
Electricity visibly flowed into his body and his aura intensified. He stood up straighter, as if he hadn’t been fighting for several minutes, and grinned at me.
“Now, let’s try this again, shall we, mate?”
His fist slammed into my face before I could even register that he had moved. A foot to my back sent me tumbling forward before being punted into the air and spiked back into the street.
Pain erupted across my entire body as a bolt of lightning coursed through my body, using my metal bones as a highway to my internals.
I learned how it felt to be a pinball as I was attacked from every direction, slammed into walls, the ground, posts, and anything else in sight. With every blow, I felt myself becoming stronger, tougher, and faster, just like I did in my fight against the scyther and sneezy, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with something that makes Leo’s fastest look like a casual stroll.
I was left in a daze. I barely even registered that I was being lifted into the air by the spikes on my paws by my foe’s magnetic powers. The zeraora scowled at me as I was pulled up to stand before him.
“You know, I actually like you,” he said. “You’re loads more fun than any other lucario I’ve met, but I got a job to do. Nothing personal.”
I tried to look, but his paw started to glow with so much electricity, it burned.
He drove it into my chest with so much force, I felt my ribs bend and the world flashed away as I was slammed into a building, energy erupting through me.
And then... it all fell away.
The pain.
The world.
Everything faded.
Everything except one.
I pushed away the rubble and glared up at my enemy. All thoughts had fled my mind except one; Win. No matter what.
I barely even noticed a concerned look on my enemy’s face as he simply muttered, “Oh, bollocks.”