Monster Trainer Academy, page 7
“You don’t even know who we are?” Benny scoffed, shoving his hand all the way into his jumpsuit pockets.
I shook my head and shrugged. “Sorry, but no. I have no clue who you are or why you’re all dressed in matching outfits.”
“Oh dude, he did not. He did not just make fun of the suit.” The braid guy tried to walk toward me, but Benny snapped his hand up, and the other group members held the guy back.
“I’m starting to think this guy is too stupid to waste our time with. Maybe we should just let all his dumb comments go.” Benny glared at me the whole time, even though he was pretending to talk to his friends, if that’s what they were. Benny seemed a bit too mean for anyone to want to be friends with him.
“Then walk on by.” I chuckled at just how ridiculous and dramatic this guy was being. Not only did he look like he was trying way too hard, but he also acted like it.
Benny walked back toward me and put his nose inches from mine. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
This time, I backed up, mostly because I thought it would annoy Benny. I let out a loud laugh. “It was just a suggestion.”
“You got some balls talking to a Ruby Runner like that.” Benny backed up and resumed his cool guy pose. “You better be careful, or you’ll end up in a world of hurt.”
I tried to hold in my snickers, not only at what he had just said but also at how he had said it. It was just so over-the-top and unnecessary, but I guess when you had the outfits to prove your elite status, the attitude came along with it, or maybe vice versa.
I was about to reply with something snarky when Abigail tugged on my arm. She leaned up with her hand cupped to her mouth and whispered in my ear. “He’s a new trainer, too. His monster is only level one.”
Abigail positioned her arm so that I could see her trainer watch. The smart woman had scanned Benny’s monster so that we could check on the stats before I got myself and Titan into too much trouble without knowing if we were actually on the same level or not. I kind of assumed we were, judging by our similar age, but it was definitely better to be sure.
I hadn’t even really given Benny’s monster much attention yet. I had been too busy trying to annoy him. His monster was a crocodile-looking creature with blue scales, fierce yellow eyes. It walked upright on its hind legs and had long claws on its hands.
I glanced between the image on Abigail’s watch and the real-life monster standing a way behind Benny, doing its own thing and paying us no attention. I looked back at Abi’s trainer device to check the monster’s stats. I was happy to see that its HP was at five, and so was its AP.
The device also informed me that Benny’s monster was named Hank and that he was a wind caiman, meaning he controlled the same element as Titan. I couldn’t see his moves, but wondered if his special attack was the same as Titan’s.
Either way, I had absolutely no doubt that Titan could easily take this monster on. I got the sense that Titan felt it, too. I sensed his eagerness as he waited at my side. It was crazy. I could feel him next to me in a physical way, but I somehow could also sense him and feel what he was feeling.
It sort of reminded me of my game, Soulbeast. One of the factors you had to consider in the game was your soul connection with your beasts. The connection between Titan and me felt like some kind of soul connection, but I hadn’t really heard about anything like that in this world.
I glanced down and patted Titan on the head, rustling his feathers. He gave me a look made complete with an eye roll that told me he was just as unimpressed by the group as I was. His next look was one of sheer determination, telling me he was more than ready for a battle.
I assumed that with people like Benny and his gang, the only way for this confrontation to end was for a battle to happen. They would, of course, expect me to lose, so I was really looking forward to seeing their faces after Titan won.
Benny must have been too busy flaunting and sticking his nose in my face to notice Titan, but he noticed him now. “Is that a skyr? You have a skyr? That’s pathetic.” He threw his head back and laughed hysterically like some over-the-top villain. “You’re a pathetic loser.”
His red jumpsuit minions joined in his laughter. They all sounded like cackling hyenas and looked like the pompous assholes they were. Every second I spent around these guys made me that much more excited for the moment when I would get to show them just how wrong they were about Titan and about me.
“Which is it?” I asked calmly as the group still laughed.
“Which is what, asshole?” Benny spat back.
“Well, I’m just confused. Am I a nobody, a pathetic loser, or an asshole? Maybe you should make up your mind.” I stroked Titan’s head feathers.
“You know, I was planning to let you off the hook,” Benny started, shoving his hands back in his jumpsuit pockets. “I was just planning on showing your skyr a lesson here and leaving you be, but I think I’ll let my caiman mess up your skyr, and then I’m going to beat you to a pulp.”
“You wanna make a bet, asshole?” I smirked.
That remark caught Benny off guard, and he gave me a wide-eyed look of surprise. “What did you just say to me?”
The red minions’ laughing ended abruptly, and a chorus of “oooohs” echoed from the five of them.
“I bet Titan could take your monster on easily,” I elaborated further.
“You think you can take my caiman with a skyr? That’s absolutely hilarious.” Benny erupted into laughter, slapping his knee and everything as his minions joined in again.
“Yeah, I can. When we win, you have to leave Plott Town,” I demanded.
“Why would we do that?” the guy with the braids asked.
“Because no one wants you here.” I glanced around at the small crowd that had formed around it.
It seemed like most of the bystanders shared my sentiment. Some of the townspeople and other trainers nodded along. The ones that had been so rudely pushed off the street by the gang gave me big smiles and thumbs up.
One guy even cheered and pumped his fist into the air, shouting, “Yeah, no one wants you punks here.”
Benny sneered at the man, but he seemed to have deflated a little bit. Maybe he didn’t realize he had such a big audience, and maybe my crazy confidence was starting to chip away at his tough facade.
“Where can we have a battle?” I asked Abi. I was more than eager to put these guys in their place.
Abigail stepped forward and pointed to an open plot of grass next to the Trainer Center. “There’s always a battle area next to the centers.”
“Awesome. Let’s go.” I turned and walked past the red jumpsuits with Titan, Abigail, and Kiba all by my side.
“Can you believe the nerve of this idiot?” one of the girls scoffed.
I glanced back and smirked at Abi, because the entire group was following us. They had totally fallen into my trap, and I would soon humiliate their annoying leader.
I stepped onto the plot of grass but stopped when I saw that it had white lines painted on it in the shape of a rectangle. One line ran through the square, sectioning the battle area off into two smaller squares. Two half-circles sprouted off each side of the rectangle and were positioned diagonally from each other.
Mr. Jumpsuit brushed past me and stepped into the half-circle closest to us.
“Hank, get in the damn square,” he sneered at his monster.
Hank dutifully marched into the square. I figured Jumpsuit always talked to his monster that way, and I wondered if Hank cared or not. I thought about what Abi had told me about some monsters choosing to leave their trainers and thought Hank would probably be much better off without his current trainer, but I guess that would have to be his choice.
“I’m guessing we go on the opposite side?” I whispered to Abigail as we walked along the edge of the battlefield.
“Yep. You’ll stand in that little bubble and aren’t allowed to move out of it, and your monsters have to stay on their side of the area until the battle begins. There are also times when you can call time-outs, and then your monsters have to return to their side,” Abigail explained. “This is all the tournament-regulated stuff.”
“Oh, tournaments?” I asked, intrigued.
“Yeah, I guess just treat this as your first tournament,” Abigail giggled, “although I’m sure you’re going to smoke him.” She gave me a peck on the cheek before standing off to the side of the battlefield.
My head was a little lost in her kiss, but I quickly returned to reality as Titan trotted onto the field.
“Are you ready, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded his feathered head and narrowed his eyes at the caiman.
“I can’t believe you think you can beat me with a skyr,” the jumpsuit guy chuckled. “Don’t cry when I kick your ass.”
“I think you’re going to be pretty surprised,” I retorted.
“Okay, let’s get this party started,” Abigail called from the side of the field. She spoke in a pretty spot-on announcer voice. “To make this all official, trainers, introduce yourselves!”
“I am Benny Basset of the Ruby Runners, and this is my monster, Hank.” Benny, formerly known as Mr. Jumpsuit, crossed his arms over his chest in a pretentious pose.
“Hey, I’m Tyler, and this is Titan.” I waved my hand at Benny. “You’re about to get creamed.”
My one little comment sent Benny into a rage. He clenched his fists and screamed up into the sky. Little veins popped out of his neck skin as his face turned apple red.
“Whoa, there,” Abigail yelled in a powerful voice. “Before you get carried away there, Benny, just remember your license requires you to stick to the rules.”
“Of course I will, you bitch,” Benny spat.
Now it was my turn to get mad. “Okay, so I was just looking to humiliate you a little bit, but now, I think Titan’s gonna really let loose.”
Titan turned and gave me a confident smile. He was also more than ready to show these guys what he had. It kinda sucked that Hank had to be in the middle of it all, but he really didn’t seem to mind. The blue croc flashed his pointed teeth at Titan and did a couple of quick slashes through the air with his long claws. Titan rolled his eyes and shook his head from side to side, also not impressed by the caiman.
“Trainers, are you ready?” Abigail yelled, raising her arms in the air.
“Ready,” I nodded as I grabbed my GameGrip from my pocket. I did a quick scan of the caiman even though I knew its stats and would have them anyway after we started fighting. Much to my satisfaction, Benny felt way too sure of himself to scan Titan. That meant he was about to be really surprised.
“Let the battle begin!” Abigail yelled.
As soon as she did, both Benny and I shouted our first directions to our monsters, and they just so happened to be the same. “Wind blast!”
Titan’s blue and white feathers shuddered as he sucked in air, expanding his chest and belly. Hank did the same thing across the field. His blue crocodile belly swelled as he inhaled deeply.
Either because he was clever or because he was stronger, or maybe because of both, Titan launched his attack just a second before Hank did. Titan also shot it a little higher and to the right instead of straight ahead.
The swirling gust of air blasted toward Hank. It clipped Hank’s stream of air but zoomed past, hitting the side of Hank’s head and body. The caiman flew backward in a spin as he hid the grass.
Benny’s face was priceless. He stood there with his mouth wide open, looking down at Hank. “Get up, you useless monster.”
Hank scrambled to his feet and charged ahead. He lunged at Titan with a claw attack, but Titan rolled away from his piercing nails.
“Wind Blast!” I yelled again, wanting to finish the fight as fast and as powerfully as possible.
The crowd of people had followed us up the hill and stood around the field, watching the battle. I wanted to make sure that they all saw just how pathetic Benny was, and I also thought it would be a good opportunity to showcase just how amazing Titan was, even though he was a skyr. The more people who saw, the better.
Titan belched out another torrent of high-powered wind faster than Hank had time to react. The poor caiman was pushed backward, tumbling across the field straight into Benny.
“What the hell!” Benny screamed as he kicked Hank. The petulant little boy finally glanced down at his fancy white Trainer Watch and finally saw Titan’s stats. “What kind of freak skyr is that?”
I checked my own GameGrip to verify the stats. Titan had full health and had consumed 6 AP since he had used Wind Blast twice. I switched screens on my device to check on Hank’s stats. He had used 3 AP with his first attack and 1 AP with his second, so he only had one left. He also only had one hit point left.
“He’s an awesome one,” I replied. “Titan, use claw!”
Titan lunged across the field, looking like the graceful, noble dragon that he was. I felt a sense of pride well up in me as I watched him skillfully charge toward Hank and slash him across his scaled belly, leaving marks of red.
As Titan raced back over to his side of the field, Hank starfished on the ground next to Benny. The giant red letters popped up on the screen, officially announcing the end of the battle.
“What the fuck?!” Benny shrieked. “You cheated. You had to have cheated! No level 1 skyr is that strong!”
“Well, Titan is totally that strong. Maybe you should think before you insult random strangers. You never know who’s going to totally whoop your ass!” I beckoned Titan over and gave him a hearty rub around his feathery neck. He hadn’t taken any damage, but I tossed him some berries to restore his AP and as a reward.
“That’s not possible!” Benny kept yelling.
Abigail ran over to me and slid her arms around me. “That was amazing.”
“Hey, thanks.” I smiled down at her. I curled an arm around her, and we walked across the field.
I wasn’t planning on even looking at Benny as we marched by, victorious, but he kicked Hank, who was still passed out on the ground, hard in the side. I felt one little spark of anger and found myself quickly untangling from Abigail.
This time, I was the one who stuck my face close to Benny’s. I grabbed the front of his jumpsuit hard. “If you kick that monster one more time…” I let the sentiment hang in the air.
Benny snarled at me, but he stayed silent.
“I think it’s time for you to go.” I shoved him backward.
Benny almost tripped and fell, but he caught himself. He straightened out the front of his jumpsuit and actually looked a bit shaken, but his frown turned into one of his self-satisfied grins. He laughed. “Yeah, so you got me this time, but next time, that skyr of yours is dead.”
He stalked off the field, not even bothering to take care of Hank. The rest of the Ruby Runners trailed off after him, except for one girl who quickly revived Hank and helped him follow after them.
The crowd followed Abi, Titan, Kiba, and me off the field and back into the street, where we watched Benny and the Ruby Runners follow the road out of Plott Town.
7
I waited at the western edge of town, leaning up against the cool cobblestone of the gate. I stared out along the forest path, watching Benny and his ruby jumpsuit minions disappear into the silhouetted trees. I waited for another fifteen minutes or so, just to make sure that they wouldn’t turn and to try to come back into town to take their anger out on me, or worse, on the town or Abigail.
If they tried, Titan and I would be waiting.
I didn’t think someone as spineless as Benny would want to come back to the place where he had been humiliated so badly, though. He may have had a lot of talk and bravado, but he had been mercilessly crushed in front of a crowd of people… and he had been beaten by a nobody and a skyr.
I chuckled quietly to myself as I imagined just how pissed off Benny was right now as we marched away from town with his group in tow. He was probably fuming mad, especially because he had to travel with a group of people who had also seen him lose so badly, and he was supposed to be the little group’s leader.
Of course, I felt pretty great about the awesome win against Benny. I couldn’t have asked for a better battle with a win in such a spectacular fashion, especially with Abigail there to witness it. A sense of pride welled up in me, but it wasn’t any kind of self-centered feeling.
I glanced down at Titan, who was lying just outside of the gate on a patch of plush grass. His scaled belly was on the ground, and his back legs stuck out behind him. He rested his fluffy, feathered head on his front legs that stretched out in front of him. Titan’s eyes were closed, and he snored softly, getting some good rest after the battle.
As I watched him lay there, looking so peaceful, my pride grew even more. Titan and I had won that battle together as a team. Sure, I had enough confidence in myself to stand up to Benny and the Ruby Runners, and Titan was self-assured enough to know he could take on Benny’s monster, but our friendship gave us enough certainty in each other to know we could easily win as a team.
That really made me feel amazing.
The win also felt so good because I didn’t do it for myself. I mean, maybe I did a little bit, but really, I wanted those goons to know that they couldn’t just waltz into any town they chose and start treating people like shit. There had to be consequences.
I inhaled a deep breath of plants and trees and sighed. “Well, Titan, I’m sorry to wake you up, but I don’t think they’ll be coming back.”
Titan stirred at the sounds of my voice and leapt up, full of energy. His short power nap seemed to have fully recharged him, and he was his usual happy, silly self.
“You did well, buddy.” I scratched under his blue chin. “Let’s go find Abigail and some food finally.”
Abigail had stayed in the village to chat with some of the bystanders of the battle. We found her under a big, bushy tree next to the Trainer Center, saying goodbye to an elderly couple. They smiled sweetly at her and then hobbled off down the hill, hand in hand.
