“Aaaaaaand FIGHT!” Called the announcer, and just like that the two Vanquisher level Databeasts were off.
“Strangler, Growth.” Called Tristan. He was skinny with an unusually deep voice. He kept his hoodie up and his face obscured with a mask.
“Get him, Tyrant!” Yelled Jessie. Unlike his opponent Jessie seemed plain as plain could be, average height and wearing just a black t-shirt and jeans, showing off muscular arms and light brown hair and eyes. Despite that Brand noticed a certain unique hardness to his tone - there was an underlying ruthlessness in his call. The yell was somewhat wasted anyway, Brand thought, as the Hy-Rex had wasted no time in barrelling towards its opponent, even before Jessie had let the words fly.
Strangler, the Triffidera Databeast, was clearly using some sort of Tech. It glowed green and began growing noticeably bigger. It was still dwarfed by the Hy-Rex but by the time the enormous Databeast had smashed into Strangler it had cut down the gap significantly.
Strangler arrested Tyrant’s momentum but a little as the Hy-Rex lifted the Triffidera up off his roots and smashed it into the fence.
This obviously did some serious damage as its stem gave off a horrific splitting sound, but Tristan seemed unbothered. “Tear him up, Strangler! Drain him!” The plant wrapped its vines around the Hy-Rex, penetrating into its thick fur and its roots reached to tangle around the Hy-Rex’s legs. The Hy-Rex threw its head from side to side to dislodge the Triffidera but it didn’t work. Then Strangler’s vines glowed with the same green light as earlier and began flashing red as they drained HP from the Hy-Rex.
Jessie called out in the same callous voice as earlier. “Tyrant, Great Tusk! Now grind!” They Hy-Rex let out a high pitched screech that didn’t seem to match the immensity of its body and its tusks started growing much longer and thicker through the stem of the Triffidera and Tyrant began wildly raging its head back and forth, sending fibrous lumps left and right as the stem of the gigantic plant Databeast was hollowed out.
“Stop the movement! Vice Maw!” Called Tristan and the Triffidera’s enormous mouth clamped down on the back of the Hy-Rex’s neck. It didn’t pierce the skin but it did manage to stop Tyrant from being able to gore the plant Databeast any more while it continued to drain the Hy-Rex’s health. The stem was currently healing around the tusks making movement even more difficult for the frustrated Hy-Rex. The Triffidera looked like it had the upper hand now.
“Tyrant, Stone Body!” Called Jessie and in a flash the Hy-Rex was covered in earth, both rocks and soft dirt creating a layer of its body that the Triffidera’s vines weren’t penetrating. Suddenly the draining stopped and the Hy-Rex retreated. The Triffidera tried to keep it there with its Vice Maw but it simply had a mouthful of dirt once the Hy-Rex had backed up. Brand had wondered why it hadn’t just stayed on the Triffidera now that the grand and drain tactic didn’t work on it, before realising that the tusks had shrunk back to the size they’d been before it used the Great Tusk Tech and were also covered by a layer of dirt. Poor for stabbing. Jessie had other plans than stabbing though.
“Another charge Tyrant! Knock him about!” The man yelled. The Databeast knew what he wanted and it dashed at Strangler once more. This time, instead of penetrating it with its vicious tusks, it came from a different angle of attack and turned side on to stomp at the Triffidera with its giant legs. It kicked and stomped at the slow moving plant, battering it about whilst the plant tried to fight back by striking with its heavy whipping vines. They struggled to find purchase in the soil armour around the Hy-Rex, though they were slowly working their way through it. Brand could see it wouldn’t be enough as the Hy-Rex turned and whipped the Triffidera in return with its rodent-like tail before turning to its other side and beginning the stomping and kicking anew.
“Strangler, climb him! Get your roots into his back!” Yelled Tristan, voice breaking a little. Brand could understand the pressure getting to him. Both Tristan and Jessie and seemed fairly young, but were already having Vanquisher-stage fights, so they had a lot of drive. Realistically, Tristan wouldn’t lose out on much as far as Brand knew, but when you were that driven even a small setback felt hellish.
The Triffidera had managed to grab and isolate a single leg of the Hy-Rex with its gripping vines and was rapidly moving its roots up the side of the gigantic Databeast, using its cutting vines to penetrate into the rocky soil covering the Hy-Rex and drag itself up the side like it was scaling a wall. It wasn’t that much smaller than the Hy-Rex, so it would have been an amusing sight if the battle wasn’t so exciting and the two titans so ferocious.
The Hy-Rex rampaged and stampeded around left and right, trying to throw the Triffidera off. It crashed into the side of the cage, hoping to crush Strangler, but that only allowed the plant to push its stem against the wall and push itself higher onto the back of Tyrant. It began to dig its roots in deep.
“Now Growth once more!” Yelled Tristan. Brand watched in fascination as the plant Databeast glowed green once more and got even bigger, rivalling the Hy-Rex in size finally. Its roots stretched all over the back of the Hy-Rex, cementing itself in there and visibly weighing the gigantic beast down.
“Drain him again.” Said Tristan, more confident now. The white roots pulsed red as it stole HP from the Hy-Rex.
“Dislodge him Tyrant!” Yelled Jessie. The Hy-Rex struggled and thrashed but it was no use as the Triffidera used its vines, roots and maw to hold itself more and more in place. It grew slowly tighter like an anaconda choking the life from its prey. “Now Tyrant, Brutal Impact!” Jessie’s eyes were intense as he screamed that. The Hy-Rex gained a sudden second wind as it leaped towards the side of the cage, then used its two great legs to push off that backwards like a diver.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Brand thought it was a beautiful moment of elegance from the terrifying creature.
“Black Brambles!” Tristan had shouted whilst the Hy-Rex was soaring through the air.
The Hy-Rex landed on its back and there was a sound like an explosion going off. The Triffidera wouldn’t have been able to dislodge itself in time if it had even tried. Its stem, roots and maw looked thoroughly destroyed, splitting apart and sending plant fibres all over the arena, as well as the rocky mud that had covered the Hy-Rex. But as the dust cleared Brand could see that the vines the Triffidera had wrapped around the Hy-Rex were as intact as ever. More than that, each one was covered in dark and wicked curved black thorns that dug in deeply to the Hy-Rex. It bellowed in pain as it tried to stand up but two of Strangler’s ivy covered vines had wrapped around its legs, making it unable to properly reposition itself.
“Great Tusk! Dig through the vines Tyrant!” Called Jessie. The tusks on the Hy-Rex grew long and sharp once more and used its excellent head mobility to start slicing through the vines encircling it around the chest. It sliced through several before Tristan changed tactics once more.
“Drain, Strangler.” He called. This time the entire body of the Triffidera, pressed up against the Hy-Rex as it was, began to glow red in pulses as the Triffidera absorbed the HP of the Hy-Rex.
“Roll and gouge the body!” Called Jessie, but even he could see it was too late. The body of the plant was beginning to reform from the drained HP, while the dinosaur-like rodent got weaker and weaker. In no time at all, Tyrant faded. The crowd let go of the collective breath it had been holded and roared in amazement at the thrilling title fight. Tristan had dethroned the champ and remained undefeated! The whole room was standing, some were jumping up and down in their excitement, but all were cheering.
Tristan had absorbed Strangler back into his body and was celebrating on his raised platform. Jessie looked angry, but was clapping along as a sign of respect.
“Aaaaaaand there you have it! Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have a new champion! Raise your voices for Tristan’s Triffidera, STRANGLER! Undisputed ruler of the Vanquisher division! And still undefeated in the Excel Arena! Good night and thank you for coming! One last round of applause for Tristan and Strangler!” Yelled the announcer. Brand was clapping his hands in amazement at the battle he’d just observed. Tommen was sitting back and clapping and looking drained, though his eyes were bright with this new form of entertainment. Rosie was applauding on Brand’s other side, eyes wide. Ravena was whistling with her fingers in her mouth. All of them were drowned out by the crowd though. They knew what they had come to see and the fighters delivered.
Tristan and Jessie left their platforms and shook hands before departing back down the ramps they had come from.
“Great huh?” Asked Ravena after they had left the Excel Arena. They had left with the crowd and she’d waved to Randall as they’d done so. He was surrounded by some of the fighters and was chatting away, but had still waved back to her.
“Incredible!” Said Tommen, who was practically bouncing on his feet. “We need Databeasts, now. How long would it take to get up to Vanquisher level?” He asked it somewhat rhetorically, but Ravena answered anyway.
“If you guys keep going at the pace you’re at now, fairly quickly. The chance of dying is pretty high though.” She laughed.
“Might just be worth it.” Joked Rosie.
“That was really cool.” Said Brand. “Are you actually going to be fighting in there? I reckon we can get Clerk to Juvenile in no time. Some of those fighters were really good though.” He was thinking of Bellamy and his Gravener in particular. Lucy and her Heatwolf had seemed strong, but that Gravener had still battered it pretty handily. The thought of little Clerk that had only been born a few days ago fighting that thing made Brand feel protective. It also seemed a little crazy that it would be possible at all, but that was the reality of Databeasts.
“Of course. It’s honestly one of the best ways for young tamers to get better, plus the Arena pays you even if you lose. If you get on a winning streak you can do really well for yourself.” Said Ravena. “When you all have Databeasts you’ll have to give it a go.”
“We would have had one already if it wasn’t for that wretch Harlow.” Said Tommen, suddenly turning angry. Brand understood his pain. Seeing this other people around their age - apart from Steven and Emma who had been noticeably older - fighting in the Excel Arena with their Databeasts had made what Harlow had done to them even more real.
Before there was just the anger that he’d taken something extremely valuable from them. Now they were seeing what could have been their future before their eyes and it was incredibly frustrating. Brand could have been down in that arena, but instead he was forced to watch others have what he wanted. He felt a flash of fire energy circulating his veins from deep within. It was odd coming from inside himself instead of his wrist.
“I was just thinking, if I ever see him down there I’m gonna jump down and beat him badly. Honest.” Said Brand.
“Come on guys don’t be like that. We’ll be in that arena no matter what Harlow does! I can feel it!” Declared Rosie. “We’ll have Databeasts in no time.”
“Hah! I thought you guys might want to rest here a bit longer after seeing the delights of Shingle City, but you’re already raring to go.” Ravena laughed.
“Well I wouldn’t mind going to that spa first…” Said Brand, thinking about his damaged shoulders and arms.
“First thing tomorrow we’re hitting the spa, then we’re hitting the road.” Announced Tommen. “All in favour?”
“Aye.” Said Ravena.
“Absolutely.” Said Brand.
“Lets go!” Rosie finished.
They got back to the hotel and headed straight to their rooms, exhausted and ready to sleep but buzzing with the events of the day. Brand’s mind whirled for a while before settling into a deep slumber.
Brand dreamt of having a Databeast of his own, an enormous titan that was battling through leagues of Vanquishers as he traversed the world. Brand tried his hardest but no matter how much he looked he couldn’t see the exact form of the Databeast he had, he could only see the incredible intensity of the flames surrounding it.