Except for a few streaks of gray around his muzzle, there was little indication of its age. The Hurricanther had just as much muscle on its lithe frame as he had back in the day. A chill ran down Jackson’s back. Without thinking, he raised his watch and could hardly control his excitement when the Djinncyclopedia read out the famous Djinn’s stats:
{{{}}}
Djinn: Hurricanther
Level: 93
Element: Wind/Water
HP: 2,356/2,356
Hurricanthers are an Elite-Form, Wind-Elemental and Water-Elemental combo Djinn. Hurricanthers, and all of its more lesser evolved forms, are all but extinct, with only seven known in existence. Many attribute this to the lone nature of the creatures, which, upon birth in their Basic forms, are rejected by their mothers and left to fend for themselves. Taming Hurricanthers is near-impossible, and can only be accomplished when raising them from their Basic form, the Leposeidon.
{{{}}}
“Well?” Briggs asked. “Are you going to stand there with your mouth open or send your Djinn into the ring?”
Jackson shook his head and reminded himself why there were here. “You heard him, girl,” he said to Asena. “Get out there!”
In a flash of orange, the Lyote streaked across the dirt floor and stopped a few paces away from Midnight. Jackson didn’t know if they were officially starting a fight or if he was supposed to wait. He looked at Briggs.
“Mentally communicating with a Djinn in the heat of a battle isn’t easy,” the old tamer said. As he spoke, Midnight started prowling around Asena, as if conveying the same lecture to her. “You’ve got to be extremely focused. One distraction and the Bond will be temporarily broken. That’s all it takes for a good opponent to defeat you.”
Gaze locked on his Djinn, Briggs said nothing as the Hurricanther performed a number of leaps and swipes, all without a word from his tamer. Even so, Jackson could tell Briggs was directing Midnight. He watched in awe as the Hurricanther responded to a variety of silent commands without pause. Its dark body flowed like water, so fast and agile and quiet that Jackson could hardly keep track of it with his eyes.
“But I thought people gave commands through their holo-watches,” Jackson said, his mind going back to the countless matches, which showed the trainers furiously flipping through their menus.
“Holo-watches are a crutch,” Briggs said. “Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Sure, they help with precision and with big crowds, but to use them to actually input my commands? Never. Not me, at least. Though I’m a purist.”
“Right,” Jackson nodded with a gulp. He hadn’t expected Briggs to grow so deadly serious in that moment.
“Now,” Briggs said when Midnight came to a stop and sat on its haunches in front of Asena. “Tell your Lyote to roll over using mind communication through your Bond.”
Asena swiveled her head around and looked at Jackson. He furrowed his brow in concentration and stared at Asena, willing her to roll over. Whereas before, he’d thought he’d been speaking out loud, nothing happened. After a long moment, Asena let out a whine and rolled over.
“No!” Briggs said. Asena jumped up like she’d been kicked and tucked her tail between her legs. “You didn’t receive the command from your tamer, you just did what you heard me tell him a few moments ago. Again. With a different command — and don’t try to fake it. The fastest way to lose a battle is when a Djinn and its tamer are trying to guess what the other is going to do without knowing.”
Jackson gave Asena a sympathetic shrug and sighed. This time, he didn’t focus as hard on the Lyote, but rather tried to recapture the headspace he’d been in during the fight. It wasn’t just about what Asena was doing, he had to be aware of everything going on inside the ring — and simultaneously ignoring everything outside of it. Here, in the warehouse, without roaring crowds and people waving their hands and arms it wasn’t so hard to tune the rest out. At the same time, Jackson found it harder to get in the same zone.
Bark, he thought.
Nothing happened.
Bark!
Still nothing.
ASENA, BARK!
Jackson growled in frustration when the Lyote looked at him with a confused whine. She wanted to please her tamer, but she clearly had no idea what he wanted her to do.
“This is stupid!” Jackson said. “How can you be so sure I already did this? I feel like an idiot.”
“I’m telling you to jump,” Briggs said, his tone getting serious. “Now jump.”
“How can I jump if I don’t know how?”
“You’re thinking about it too much,” Briggs said. “Just do it.”
“How can I communicate something with my mind if I’m not thinking about it?” Jackson said, voice rising. Maybe it’d been a mistake to come here after all. The longer he hung around Briggs, the more Jackson started to think he was off his rocker.
“It’s the same way you and I are talking,” Briggs said. “You don’t have to tell your tongue and lips what words to form. You just talk. Again.”
Bark, dammit, bark!
Asena sat down on the ground and let out another low whine. She wanted to do something — anything — but still didn’t know what.
“Let’s try something else then,” Briggs said. He made his way over to Asena and whispered something Jackson couldn’t hear. “Do you understand me?”
Asena growled, but obeyed, turning around, facing away from Jackson.
“Good. Now, Jackson,” Briggs said, lowering his voice to a whisper and standing close to the young tamer. "I want you to go home.”
“Home?” Jackson said, his voice just as low. Now he was sure the old man was off his rocker.
Briggs nodded, looking over his shoulder, as if making sure Asena still couldn’t hear them. “Go home. Asena can only come with you if you can tell her to come with your mind. Leave.”
Jackson hesitated.
“Now!” Briggs shouted.
“Okay, okay!” Jackson held up his hands and turned to leave the ring. The next instant, a wild cat’s scream cut through the silence of the warehouse. Alarmed, Jackson spun around and saw Midnight racing toward him, fangs bared in a vicious snarl. Kay screamed. Jackson tried to yell out a command, but the words caught in his throat. This was it — the old man’s Djinn was going to tear him to shreds!
Asena, help me!
The orange Lyote burst up from the sand fast enough to catch the Hurricanther by the tip of his tail with her teeth. Screaming in outrage, Midnight whipped around and swiped a massive paw at Asena. The Lyote ducked out of the way a split second before the claws would’ve connected with her head.
Fire Growl!
In the moment, Jackson forgot the Hurricanther was a water Djinn. But Asena complied, letting out a bark that shot a ball of flame into Midnight’s face. Midnight shook the attack off and then, surprisingly, sat down. In contrast to a moment before, he was calm as a kitten. Briggs laughed on the other side of the arena.
“You tried to attack me with your Djinn!” Jackson shouted, adrenaline still coursing through him. It was illegal for tamers to attack other tamers using their Djinn — Briggs had to know that.
“Midnight wasn’t going to hurt you,” Briggs said. “We just wanted to get you into the right state of mind.”
“Oh yeah?” Jackson said. “What was that? Full-on predator mode?”
“Until you get better at it, you might have a hard time communicating telepathically with your Djinn outside of battle,” Briggs said. “But it worked. I told Asena not to face you until you called her telepathically, and that I promised not to hurt you. But you’ve got to keep working on it. Now you know you can do it — I want you to practice every chance you get.”
Without another word, he walked away. Midnight gave Asena a reproachful, salty look and then followed his tamer out of the ring.
“What’s next?” Jackson shouted after Briggs.
The old tamer waved a hand. “That’s all for today. I can’t teach yo
u anything else until you can communicate through your Bond!”
“I cleared up my whole day for this!”
“Good, then you have a whole day to practice.”
Jackson sighed and tried to command Asena to his side using his mind. It didn’t work. After several tries, he gave up and whistled.
“Not a word,” Jackson said when he saw the smirk on Kay’s face.
She ignored him. “Not as easy as it looks on the holo-vision, huh?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The days ticked by at both a maddeningly fast and slow pace for Jackson. As he continued to develop his Bond with Asena and work on their telepathic communication, it felt like he’d never make any progress. The rest of Cassius’s training stretched out in an equally arduous fashion. Although the coach had finally allowed them to progress past mental commands, most of the training they did was a drudgery of basic maneuvers and workouts designed to test not only Jackson and Asena’s bond, but their physical and mental abilities as well.
“You’ve got to be just as fit as her,” Briggs had told him after Jackson complained about running three miles with Asena setting the pace. The old champion had jabbed Jackson in the chest and then the forehead. “Physically and mentally. A sluggish tamer makes his Djinn sluggish. You’re one team and you’ve both got to be on top of your game if you want to get anywhere.”
Sometimes Jackson wondered if Briggs put him through the most grueling exercises he could think of just to test his resolve. But no matter how much Jackson despised the running, pushups, pull-ups and headache-inducing mental exercises — as far as he was concerned, meditation was the dumbest thing ever — the thought of quitting never crossed Jackson’s mind. It simply wasn’t an option. As their training progressed over the next few weeks, it became a point of pride for him to continue showing up at the old warehouse-turned-gym day after day.
And Jackson had to admit, the training showed whenever he fought in the Underground. Over the course of the week, Jackson had squeezed in two fights in the midst of his impossible schedule of work at Sato, helping his grandma at home, and training with Briggs. Briggs never went to the Underground with Jackson, but he was still there, watching. Was it because Briggs didn’t want to interfere with Jackson’s fights or was he trying to keep his own identity under wraps? Jackson didn’t know. Outside of Laila, Drill, Kay, and himself, Jackson had no idea how many people even knew that the great Cassius Briggs frequented the fights.
After the fights, however, Briggs would drill Jackson and Asena relentlessly — even though they always won. No matter how well Jackson thought he and Asena performed, his coach always found something to lecture him on. Hesitating, making rash decisions, being too patient, not being patient enough, using too many physical attacks, using too many Elemental attacks — the list went on and on and on…
But it made a difference. Every time he fought since Briggs took him on, Jackson emerged victorious and had almost a thousand suns to show for it. It was a long way from the twelve thousand he needed to pay off their debts, but it was a start. Even so, Jackson found himself looking at the calendar on his holo-watch numerous times every day, counting down the weeks he had left before the house would no longer be theirs.
Summer work at the ranch had picked up and Jackson actually had to work some of the long hours he’d used as cover for going to Underground fights. Many of the Djinn had young to look after and the summer season meant most of the animals were out to pasture. The fighting stock only had a few weeks left before their tamers would begin to pick them up in preparation for the new DBL season, and Mr. Sato wanted to make sure they were in the best shape they could be, and groomed to show it, too.
At home, Jackson found himself buried in a list of chores that he’d easily stayed on top of before. Mowing the lawn, helping out in the garden, and washing the windows now seemed like daunting tasks that consumed time he desperately wished he could use to sleep or squeeze in some training with Asena. In spite of the rigorous demands on his life, he didn’t think his grandma suspected anything. If she did, she hadn’t said a word, which meant he was probably safe. Something like Djinn taming wouldn’t be a transgression she just glossed over, even if she only had an inkling of suspicion. Jackson hoped it would stay that way until he had a large wad of cash to give her.
But it never felt like enough — not enough training, not enough winnings. Jackson did his best to stay positive with Asena, but at the same time, he constantly beat himself up for a never-ending list of what-ifs. Chief amongst them: what if he’d just found the hidden safe behind the picture in his mom’s office years, months or even weeks earlier? All he needed was a little more time and that might have made all the difference.
Jackson knew he was being too hard on himself and Kay told him as much whenever she noticed him getting frustrated or discouraged. But no matter how much he told himself to relax, the date of the bank foreclosure gnawed at him, taunting him while he was awake and asleep. He kept having a recurring dream that the repo guy from the bank showed up and not only took the house, but took Asena as well — to cover “interest accrued” in the months since they’d foreclosed on Jackson’s grandma. No matter how hard he fought, he always lost Asena right before he woke up.
On the train ride home from a fight late Saturday night, Jackson wallowed in a familiar pool of discouragement. He looked at the winnings in his hand: less than a hundred and fifty suns for the evening. No matter how much he beat up on the worst trainers at the Underground, Laila wouldn’t give him better fights. It frustrated him even more when he saw who she let “Tessa” fight. The fact that the mysterious girl (who he knew was Fiona, even if he couldn’t catch up with her after each match, no matter how hard he tried — and she seemed to almost never be around at work) was not only getting better fights, but was also making more money than him — and leveling up Rebel quicker in the process — made Jackson even more pissed.
Even Appleby, who Jackson beat in his very first match, had been given some pretty hefty matches that made Jackson envious. Sure, Appleby was the nicest kid in the world about the whole thing — even going so far as to offer Jackson one of his matches — but it was the principle of it that bothered him.
Jackson pulled up Asena’s chart in an attempt to make him feel better, but even the vastly improved stats did little to bolster his mood.
{{{}}}
GENERAL STATS AND INFO
Djinn: Lyote
Level: 8
Name: Asena
Element: Fire/Earth
Species Rarity: Rare
Tamer: Jackson Hunt
HP (Hit Points): 135/135
EP (Elemental Power): 75/75
XP (Experience): 102 to Next Level
DJP (Djinn Points): 0 Unallocated
Attack: 500
Defense: 28
Speed: 36
Accessories: None
Items: None
Status: Neutral
Bond: 50%
Move Set: Swipe Left to See More >>>
{{{}}}
“Hellooo?” Kay said from the bench on the other side of the monorail compartment, snapping her fingers at Jackson. “You doin’ okay over there?”
Sunshine sat curled up in her lap sleeping, as was Asena at Jackson’s feet. She’d won the night’s match against a Pulsant so handily that she hardly took any damage, and all Kay had to do was give her a once-over to check for any fluke, surface-level injuries.
Jackson let out a long sigh.
“It’s just not enough money,” he said. “I’ve got less than fifteen hundred suns and only a month and a half to go to raise more than ten thousand. Even with the money I’ve been pulling out of my Sato paychecks that my grandma doesn’t know about, I’ll be lucky to break three thousand by then. If Laila won’t give me better fights, I’m never going to close the gap.”
The way Kay looked at him told Jackson she was biting back the urge to remind him she’d tried to tell him that all along. Instead, she picked
up Sunshine from her lap and sat down next to him.
“You’re doing all you can, Jack,” Kay said, putting a comforting arm over his shoulders. “Worst case, you have to move out, but you’ve got enough saved up that you and your grandma can afford a nice place to live. Is that so bad?”
“Yes!” Jackson said in a loud voice. Kay pulled her arm back and Jackson felt a wave of guilt. “I’m sorry — I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just — it won’t be the same, okay?”
Kay nodded but didn’t say anything else. Sighing again, Jackson pocketed his meager winnings. As he stuffed the envelope in his hoodie pocket, he felt the much thicker one containing all of Tak’s side bets. In addition to the debt to Laila, Tak apparently owed some other tamers some money as well and continued to use Jackson as his go-between. The extra money literally sitting in his lap was tempting, but Jackson knew better than to cross either of the two. He’d seen firsthand what Laila’s hired goons did to people who tried to cheat her. Jackson doubted Tak would take such thievery any better.
The rest of the train ride passed in a blur. Jackson felt so tired he barely managed to mumble a goodnight to Kay as they split to go to their own houses. He dragged himself to bed as quietly as he could manage so as not to wake his grandmother. She didn’t mind him coming home at one in the morning, but the less she knew of his late-night weekend comings and goings, the better.
After pulling on some gym shorts and tossing his t-shirt into the corner, Jackson let Asena out of her ring. She couldn’t stay out all night, but Jackson always made a habit of telling her good job before they went to sleep. But even after he returned Asena to his ring, Jackson couldn’t sleep. Exhaustion tugged at his body, but his thoughts revolved around the thick envelope of cash he had tucked in his drawer.
The beginnings of an idea started forming in Jackson’s mind. He resolved to deliver Tak’s money in the morning, and this time, ask a favor of his own.
“Jackson! Hey! Wait up!”
Djinn Tamer: Starter: A Monster Battling GameLit Adventure (Djinn Tamer - Bronze League Book 1) Page 15
