Athan swung his tail and batted away two grey-scaled Arijogs behind him, then threw a Bomm fruit. They dodged. It exploded, sending juice spewing over but also putting out some of the flames. A third Arijog, red scaled, grabbed and locked Athan’s arms from behind.

“Fine prey you turned out to be,” he said. “I never had so much fun. Love this game.”

A splotch of acid landed on his back and sizzled. His grip loosened just enough for Athan to let him shimmy and elbow the red scaled Arijog off him. The red Arijog fired a blast while stumbling and ended up hitting several trees, causing the wet juice to evaporate, smoke, and catch on fire.

Something brushed by Athan’s back and smaller feet landed next to him. Fian rotated and spat a puddle of acid right on the red Arijog’s face. He roared in pain and stomped his feet. The two ran and when they got far enough, Fian reached for a fruit from her belt, but found nothing.

“I’m out,” cried Fian.

“This way,” said Athan.

They dipped low and crawled under a cloud of smoke until they were further away from the heat. They managed to fine shelter behind a large tree with low hanging leaves.

“So much for the payoff at the end,” whispered Fian.

Athan reached behind and felt around his bag. “I think I only have two left” he said.

Sparks of electricity struck trees a ways away from them, shearing branches and leaves.

“Come out, come out wherever you are, Grass-type,” bellowed a voice.

“That Arijog from earlier must have planned this all along, trying to shove us onto her friends so they can all have us for dinner,” said Fian.

Athan shook his head. “She wasn’t friendly to them at the start. I don’t think the others would go as far as burning down trees,”

“I don’t think they cared what gets destroyed.”

“I think she did.”

Fian hissed. “Stop defending her and just see her as she is.” She raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Wait, don’t tell me you have a thing for—“

“No no no,” Athan held up his hands, palms out. “I mean, back then, when she was spitting fire at me, she was aiming for just me and small parts of my bag. She didn’t even try for this much destruction.”

Fian sighed. “And your point?”

“She could have blown us away anytime she wanted, but didn’t.”

The ground trembled, and they looked back. In the distance, they could make out silhouettes of tailed beasts.

“We need to go.” Athan got up and gave his backpack to his companion and pointed to his own back. “Get on.”

Fian jumped on his back, and they darted towards the clearing. He silently thanked himself for all of those times Fian had urged him to exercise. It was his endurance and leg speed that were being tested against the other tailed beasts behind him. He jumped over a fallen tree.

“Which way to the parkland?” asked Athan.

“Turn left,” said Fian.

He did; up ahead he could see a clearing which didn’t seem to have any smoke or flames. But behind him, electricity struck a tree behind him and a red blast doused it in magma.

Athan kept pushing for more speed from his legs. Once they were out of the trees and onto flat land, everything would be wide open and they should be able to get a clear shot of their chasers with the remaining two fruits. Now out of the shadows, Athan’s sight clarified from the shade and it only took a second for his eyes to refocus.

“Gotcha!”

A blast of heat rose right in front of him, blocking his path. On instinct, he skidded to a halt, almost throwing Fian off him. He stumbled back just before hitting a wall of flames in front of him. He looked up and spotted the female ground-type Arijog, Rolla, one hand on hip, the other hand gripping her cell phone.

“Trapping move. That’s another 10,000 points for us,” she said. She touched a button and in the distance phone notifications sounded and heavy steps bounded towards them.

“Great work, sis,” said Rigar.

The other three Arijog, two electric types soaked in Bomm juice and a magma-type emerged from the forest .

“Yuck, I feel so slimy and dirty in this,” growled the grey female Arijog with long white hair and blue eyes. She wore a light beach dress which was soaked and stained with brown and green spots. It has an elegant style, save for the sticky juice all over her.

“That’s why I told you not to wear that flimsy dress, Vallu,” said the male magma-type.

“It’s not flimsy, Tedurth. It’s a genuine Tiamat designer dress,” said the female electric-type, Vallu. “It would have been just fine if it wasn’t doused in this mess. Still, don’t you like it?”

“It’s okay, I guess.”

“Just okay? Edru what do you think?”

The male electric-type held up his hands in defense. “Don’t get me involved in this,” said Edru.

“Didn’t I warn you Ed, the moment something went wrong with that dress, she’d complain,” said Tedurth. “She should have worn something hunter-ready.”

“Hunter doesn’t fit my style. Anyone can hunt, but can they do it while looking good? Before prey is eaten, the final thing that they see should be the beauty of a dangerous Arijog,” Vallu ran a claw along her hair and tried a flip, but the wet strands still stuck together like string candy.

“They’d like my style more,” Rolla said, putting a hand on her hip and posed.

Vallu frowned. “Blue shorts with a yellow top? You do not know how to dress for a hunt, do you? Yuck.”

Athan gestured to Fian and pointed in the direction of the end of the flames. He reached in the bag and gripped a Bomm fruit, keeping it behind his back to conceal it from the bickering Arijogs. The two shifted farther down.

Edru flared his chest out, causing his black t-shirt to stretch over his well muscled torso.

“Dark colors are better,” he declared. “They don’t stain when you chase or eat your prey.”

Meanwhile, Athan kept his focus on the last bunch of flames that blocked their path towards the green line, just a few more steps. Before the two made their turn, sounds of chimes, pings, beeps, and even one of a jungle drum filled the air. Athan glanced at the pocket containing his phone. He was pretty sure he’d set his phone on silent. He looked back at the Arijog group, who had all stopped talking and instead were looking at their phones.

“You have been idle for more than five minutes,” said Rolla, reading from her phone. “Did you remember to finish capturing your prey?”

All five Arijogs looked up and scanned where Athan and Fian had been and then turned towards where they were now. Rolla and Rigar jumped and landed in front of them.

“We didn’t want to interrupt,” replied Athan innocently.

“They almost got away,” said Edru.

“But thanks to this game, it saved our hunt. Is there anything apps can’t do?” said Rolla.

Athan and Fian were surrounded. Athan drew back his arm to throw the fruit, but a lightning bolt struck, knocking it away. Vallu lunged and caught the fruit, then rotated and snatched the bag with her tail.

“I’ll take those.” said Vallu. “These fruits are far better suited for cocktails than weapons of mass destruction.” She took the bag in her hand. “But the worst crime you committed was ruining my dress.”

She turned and slapped her tail against Athan’s legs, knocking him down. Fian spat a ball of acid but Vallu leaned over, dodging it. She hissed back, firing a blast of electricity that stunned Fian.

“This is so much easier without the trees in the way,” said Vallu.

Another pair of foot claws landed on the ground next to them. The golden-brown scaled Arijog was back in full health. Her claws and teeth clenched with the heat of rage radiating from her, as if the growing embers overflowing from her mouth and her deepening breath weren’t obvious enough.

Athan hoped that someone might find their cameras next to their remains and publish their last photos as part of their obituaries.

Vallu stepped back. “Who’s this?”

Rigar walked forward. “We met her in the forest where we found our meal and those fruits,” he said.

“So we’re splitting them six ways then?” asked Edru

“She gave us a hard time, and she doesn’t like playing games,” said Rolla with a frown.

Vallu sneered at Vanessa and looked down on her. Vallu was a few inches taller than Vanessa, but it was clear who was in better shape.

Vanessa growled at Vallu.

Vallu growled back. “I don’t think we should share with you,” she said. “It was the five of us that teamed up to capture them fair and square. You should have been using the app. Would make you a better hunter, try it sometime.”

Vanessa’s eye twitched and her foot sunk deeper into the ground and left large cracks around her. She unleashed a roar that blasted everyone with a powerful shockwave. The other five Arijogs raised their arms to block and weather it. Being on the ground didn’t help Athan. The sheer weight of her voice slammed into him like a truck and the ground split around him. The roar lasted for only a few seconds, but the damage was done. All of the other Arijogs shivered and shrank away.

“What the fuck are you people doing to my home?” she roared.

There was a long pause and silence as it took a few seconds for the others to recover. Rigar was the first who responded.

“You live here?” he whimpered.

“Not just me, you roasted peanuts, all the people in the forest, look at it, look at it!”

Everyone turned towards the forest; around a third of it was lit ablaze with smoke billowing up into the sky. Athan almost reached for his camera to capture the harrowing moment, but considering the fury of golden-brown scaled, he thought better of it.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“You fucking burnt down the homes of at least seven-hundred people in addition to the prey we hunt,” said Vanessa.

“Oh.” Rigar looked at his sister whose eyes looked like a Deerfalk’s when caught looking at headlights.

“Hell’s kitchen can handle fire better than you fucks!”

Another set of beeps and chimes rang out of their phones. The five hunting tourists lifted them up and read, pulling their attention away.

Vallu stepped forward, showing a warning message to her friends, “Hey, the apps says there was a quake here, maybe we should—“

Vanessa snatched the phone out of her hand. The grip tightened, and the screen cracked.

“Wait—stop!” pleaded Vallu.

Too late. A loud crunch echoed through the area.

A person’s cell phone can be their livelihood keeping all sorts of information, contacts, music, photos, videos, texts and their cherished memories. As Athan watched Vallu’s reaction of absolute stillness, he’d take a wager that it meant even more than that. Whatever was stored within that handheld device: gone. The really tech-savvy hunters Athan knew harped on using cloud storage just in case the phone got damaged during an outing. He never took it seriously, but his opinion changed as Vallu’s eyes filled with tears, seeing the last of her phone’s dust crumble from the claws of Vanessa to the ground. The next reaction of hers came as no surprise, but still made Athan tremble in fear, as the eyes of the electric-type shifted into raw anger. Almost instantly, her body stretched with longer limbs and her horns rose higher. Looming over the golden-brown, scaled, she roared and a ball of lightning formed in her mouth which grew larger and brightened the area.

Funny how things can easily be lost in the act of vengeance. For just as Vallu was about to fire, Vanessa’s fist slammed into her gut, left unprotected in her fury. The sheer raw force of her punch sent Vallu flying up into the air, still carrying Athan’s backpack with the two remaining fruits. She must have traveled at least a good thousand feet before landing in a flaming part of the forest. The next moment, an explosion of fruit juice erupted high above the trees and slammed down, taking out a part of the forest fire.

Athan sat up, still wide eyed at the feat. Vanessa was the smallest out of the bunch, yet the abilities she showed, the gills he’d found on her back and where he’d found her in the first place, swimming in the lake, left no doubt in his mind. Vanessa was a sea-type Arijog.

“You two, get out of here,” she said, her voice low and restrained. She turned towards them, her yellow eyes gave off a subtle glow.

Athan stood up, and helped Fian to her feet.

“What about you?” Athan asked.

“I’m paying back debts I owe to you, lad. I know it was you who kept me alive back there,” said Vanessa.

A couple of fireballs slammed into her, and she careened across the ground. Athan almost ran towards her; but then she got back up.

“Alright, Steve,” she said into her watch.

“Yes, Vanessa?” the watch replied.

“Turn off the fucking anti-gravity field.”

“Done.”

The next two steps she used to steady herself made the ground shake. Edru, the magma-type, made another, larger fireball and fired. Vanessa raised her arms and took the blast head on, the impact leaving a small crater and charred grass, but this time, she stood her ground.

Vanessa glanced behind her. “Get to the green zone line at the parkland. Or do you still want to be cooked as fuck?” she snapped.

Fian flapped her wings and took to the air. “You don’t have to tell us twice.”

Athan hesitated as the female sea-type, Vanessa, stalked towards Edru while Rolla, Rigar, and Tedurth grouped up next to him.

Athan was good sized and his physiology granted him better endurance, using the sun to his advantage. But grass-types couldn’t breathe fire. The only thing he could do was pull out his camera and take a couple shots of the lopsided one-on-four match-up with the forest fire in the background. Even chivalry has its limits. Athan ran.

***

Vanessa was perfectly fine with letting the two go. The Arhtom acid is only good for surprise attacks on larger targets. As for the grass-type, he had brains and some brawn in him. He could probably hold his own, but without fire or a weapon, he wouldn’t last against a group. The way she saw it, it was better to destroy without worry and looked forward to dining on Arijogs who didn’t care to reign in their powers.

“Thanks a lot,” said Rolla. “We wasted our whole morning trying to pick up extra points thanks to you.”

“And you got lucky punching out Vallu like that,” said Magma-type.

“She’s the lucky one compared to what I’m about to do to the lot of ya,” said Vanessa.

Vanessa’s stomach growled and rumbled again. The other Arijogs looked at each other in confusion. Vanessa patted her firm and strong core. “Yeah, that’s right, you four fucks are my prey now unless you forget yer points. Choose wisely.”

The four Arijogs roared, and like Vallu, each of them went through a transformation. The male electric-type, like his female counterpart, grew taller and his limbs stretched in length, with most of the additional mass focusing on his legs. He ended up around eight feet tall and shifted from side to side with ease. Rolla and Rigar were both ground types, and it showed as their thick builds increased until they were both around seven and a half feet tall. Those three were the least of Vanessa’s worries though. Magma-type also added about a foot in height and was the shortest of the bunch but his shirt stretched and ripped. From out of his back grew large wings which spread out wider than he was tall. When he opened his eyes, they glowed an ominous red, smirking.

Vanessa would need to down him first. Magma-type’s heat would be the highest and his ranged attacks could make it harder to prevent new fires.

Magma-type immediately took to the sky, while Electric-type fired a blast out of his mouth, hitting Vanessa square in the chest, staggering her. If it weren’t for the layer of fine scales there, she’d be done. Magma-type took a breath and blasted a stream of hot, boiling, lava streams across her path. Her gaze traced a path across and she spotted the beach and more importantly, the sea.

“Steve, field on, full power!” she said.

“Field engaged, full strength.”

She sprinted towards it with only light thumps on land. Electric-type caught up to her easily with his enhanced speed and fired a barrage of electrical blasts. Some struck the ground, but a few struck her arms, gradually numbing them one shot at a time. He aimed and fired at her legs, electricity striking her shins, which slowed her, but she kept on running. Another electrical attack hit her square in the right upper leg with enough force to take her off her feet and tumble to the ground. Magma-type hovered above and did not hesitate to fire a large stream of molten lava right on top of her. Vanessa raised her arms over her head and covered herself, but the lava kept coming. She’d managed to get on the sandy beach before Magma-type focused on one area and created a pool of lava around her. By the time she realized what he was doing, it was too late. The lava hardened and became a makeshift prison for her, and she couldn’t move. Magma-type took one more breath then spat more lava covering over her head. Within seconds, it hardened, and it was complete. The structure was pure obsidian. The only thing that remained were her two hands sticking out of the top of the rock prison.

Afterwards, Magma-type dropped and landed on the ground on his knees, wings dropped and panted.

“Nicely done,” said Electric-type, helping him back to his feet.

Inside the prison, Vanessa couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t see, she couldn’t hear or taste. She could feel the hot rock all over her body. But air. Holy fuck, she needed air.

She tensed her body, letting herself feed on her own energy. The power it generated came quickly, and she clenched her hands. Her body swelled slightly and pushed out all at once, causing cracks to appear all around the structure. Then with one more tense, the prison exploded, slamming both Arijogs down. Vanessa fell to her knees with a loud boom and panted, until she regained her breathing. As she got back to her feet, each step shook the ground and left craters under her feet. Confused, she glanced to her watch which was now a melted blob of technological goo.

Magma-type chuckled and coughed. “Heh, heh, eye for an eye, right?”

Vanessa stomped on his neck with her full weight sending plumes of sand into the air. She jumped back, focused on her energy, and mixed it with her breath. It built within her and tried to force her mouth open, but Vanessa clenched hard to keep it closed.

As Electric-type crawled towards his fallen comrade, he looked up at Vanessa, eyes wide at the glow that built around her mouth. At that moment, Vanessa roared and unleashed her blast. The beam of raw energy brightened up the area with a yellow glow that engulfed the two and tore a swath through the shore and water. A couple piles of roasted Arijog were left in its wake.

Vanessa panted and got her bearings. There were two ground Arijogs left, the brother/sister pair. But they were nowhere to be found. Where did they run off to?

She looked around and traced her footing back to the flat grass where she spotted foot tracks in the direction of the Grass-type Arijog and his friend.

She eyed the green zone line, bent her knees, and jumped.

***

Athan and Fian could see the green zone border up ahead. The ground trembled and dust kicked up behind them. Rigar and Rolla, both larger and stronger than he last saw them, were right behind. Athan pumped his legs up and down, up and down. They were about one hundred feet from the border. The guards, dressed in green armor turned towards them and stood ready.

Rolla grinned and spat a ball of flame at Fian. It hit the bottom of her right wing and left a hole in it. Fian swerved to her left and crashed into Athan’s shoulder, making him stumble. Rigar spun himself and tripped Athan with his tail. Both Athan and Fian went down just twenty feet shy of the border.

The two ground Arijogs loomed over their prey as the guards looked on, then glanced up at something. That something slammed on the ground, sending Athan and Fian flying. When Athan looked around himself, he realized he was on the green parkland grass and so was Fian. They both sat up and looked at the two ground Arijogs sprawled on their stomachs, still in the hunting zone. Behind them, the Sea-type Arijog had her hands on her hips.

“Oi! Did you get the call about the fire?” she asked one of the guards.

One of the guards, male ground-type, nodded. “We did. They already have a couple of air lifts on the way. Are these the hooligans that torched the area?”

“Aye,” said Vanessa. “There were five of ’em playing this stupid game to catch their food. I knocked out one and took out the other two. These are the only two left. I’m hungry as hell and even more pissed off with them.”

A chill went through Athan’s spine. Just a while ago, this Arijog was aiming to eat him and Fian.

“It’s not stupid. It was supposed to be a fun hunt,” said Rigar.

Vanessa grabbed Rigar by his shirt and pulled him up to her face. “Fuck you, piggy, I’ll show you fun when I blow your house down with everyone in it!” Vanessa spewed fire as she snapped at him.

Some of the fire blew back and hit Athan and Fian, and they held up their arms. The guards stepped in front of them.

“Vanessa, you’re near the green zone, love, cool it,” warned the female guard, ground-type.

Athan got back to his feet and took cautionary steps forward ahead of the guard, about a couple feet from entering the hunting zone again. He winced at the fire.

“Your name’s Vanessa, right?”

Vanessa turned to look at Athan. “Yeah?” she growled.

“Thanks for saving us.”

Vanessa’s breathing calmed, and it took a moment before she dropped Rigar. She turned towards them. “I can’t believe you moved me from that tree.” Her voice softened. “That was so stupid, but it saved my life. Why did you do that after all I’d done to you?”

Athan smiled. “I can ask you the same thing. I saw what you can really do, back when you rescued us. You could have done all of that to us anytime. But you held back.”

Vanessa pouted. “Just taking care of the forest we all live in.”

“Aye.” Athan nodded. “I was trying to get clues on the urban legend. The one about the Behemoth of the Bay that destroyed an entire island during the big storm. But instead, I met someone beautiful who protects the forest with her life.”

Vanessa’s eyes widened for a moment, and her cheeks shifted into a shade of red.

“What was your name?” asked Vanessa.

“Athan. And my friend here is Fian.”

Athan smirked at Fian.

Fian rolled her eyes at him.

“Athan, eh?” Vanessa leaned in close, looking up at him and gave him a predatory smile. “Did you manage to get good shots of me while I was naked this morning?”

Athan froze in horror. Vanessa turned and walked back towards the two Arijogs with a swagger that made him wonder what he’d really gotten himself into. Before Athan could ask any more questions, Vanessa balled up her fists and with a grunt, her body swelled in bulk to match that of the other two Arijogs. She huffed, she puffed, and blew up larger until their heads were only in line with her chest level, and she had more than twice Rigar’s bulk.

Rigar and Rolla were horrified at the now larger sea Arijog that approached. Their hands trembled and pointed their phone at Vanessa as she approached.

“App, tell me what she is,” cried Rolla.

“Arijog, female. Error: type unknown.”

“App, tell me how she can do all of this,” cried Rigar.

“Arijog, female, Error: type unknown.”

Vanessa loomed over the two. “I’m Sea-type, and that’s the last thing you will ever know,” she said, grabbing each sibling by their tops, then walking away with them in tow.

“Smooth moves,” said Fian, folding both pairs of arms. “She might just invite you to be her dinner again sometime.”

Athan groaned.

“So what do we do with all those shots of her? Sell them?”

“I don’t know. If we did, do you think she’d hunt us down again?”

“You, more than me, most likely.”

“Excuse me,” said the male guard, tapping Fian’s wing.

They turned around. Both guards had their arms crossed with hard frowns on their faces.

“Something the matter?” asked Athan.

“Do you have a film permit?” asked the male guard.

Athan looked at Fian, who shrugged.

“No, why?” said Athan.

“You need a permit to take wild photos for a publisher. This forest doesn’t live just on trees. It needs money for maintenance and upgrades, not to mention having that permit would grant you protection in the region. Didn’t you read about that on our website?”

“Oh, I guess I forgot to research that, oops,” said Athan.

“Oops? You mean we could have avoided all of that if you, you—“ Fian hissed and spat an angry glob of acid at Athan. Athan dodged it.

The female guard clenched her teeth and smoke billowed from her mouth. “And it’s illegal to take photos without a permit. You were supposed to ask for permission when taking photos of—you took photos of Vanessa, nude, of all things?”

She grabbed both of Athan’s forearms and placed handcuffs on them. He winced; the female guard had a heck of a grip.

“Easy there, you have to keep it professional,” said the male guard as he double-hand-cuffed Fian.

“Nessa and I are gonna have a long talk about this when we meet later tonight,” said the female guard. “And the both of you lot are under arrest.”