Chapter 19

  Cogberus went first, and just because I wanted to end the battle quickly, I ordered him to use Bite. All three heads lunged at their target, which was, of course, the Pride Cub. The aforementioned creature was larger than a gear pup, putting it closer to the size of perhaps a small or medium full grown dog, though its proportions, and name, told me it was still it’s smallest form. With oversized paws, small, adorable ears, and well, looking much like say, Simba as a cub from The Lion King, the creature didn’t have any distinct differences to denote it wasn’t just a normal lion cub. If, that was, you ignored the fact that it was bright pink with blue eyes that were made of sapphire gemstones.

  The nimble Pride Cub actually managed to avoid one of the three heads, taking bites from only two of them. Still, each bite took about a fifth of the creature’s health, telling me this battle would be over relatively quickly. As it pulled back, puncture wounds leaving silver streaks, the creature’s blood apparently a silvery liquid instead of blood, shining brightly against its pink flesh, I lazily looked at my next prompt. As expected, my Gearow was up next. Honestly, a part of me was surprised the Gearow was slower than my Cogberus, but I figured that just showcased how much more powerful my Cogberus really was.

  Gearow had three moves to choose from. One was peck, where it well, pecked at the enemy with its metallic beak. The next was gear grind, which was essentially a screeching racket of sounds as the gears in its stomach grated against whatever was inside the bird. It was a skill that, as far as I could tell, caused the enemy to take more damage. Finally it had perch. It could latch onto its target with its metallic talons, which made its next set of attacks guaranteed to hit, and also caused a small bit of damage each turn from its sharp talons digging into the target.

  Again, opting for the quick dispatch method, I ordered my Gearow to peck the creature. Like a missile towards a target, my bird, which had been circling above the poor, surrounded cat, folded its wings in and dove down. It’s beak punched into the creature’s back before it spread its wings and worked to accelerate back away from it, while silver dripped from its beak.

  I prepared myself to order my Springer to attack, but paused, realizing that I didn’t have the prompt in front of me. Instead, I watched in surprise, as the Pride Cub attacked.

  The small lion cub creature looked at my Gearow, and like some sort of backwards, dark version of Tweety Bird, I watched the pink Pride Cub leap up, and clamp its mouth down over my Gearow, ripping the Mon from the sky as it held my little bird fast in its mouth, the Gearow’s wings beating frantically as it tried to free itself, while the Pride Cub’s sharp teeth punched into its side.

  I flinched as I watched my Gearow’s health plummet by a third. Was that a bite attack? If it was, it hurt, a lot. Then again, Gearows weren’t really all that durable. They struck fast, and could evade attacks pretty well thanks to their speed. But, honestly, a strong breeze could probably hurt them.

  Still, seeing my Mon in distress and pain filled me with urgency. Sure, I had Refreshers, but I didn’t want to waste them if I didn’t have to. And my Gearow was relatively close to hitting its next level, meaning, ideally, I’d rather not have to waste one to bring it back from its crystal form if it was brought down to 0 HP here and now.

  Which of course meant I needed to finish this fight, and quickly. Luckily, it was three versus one, and I would be able to command my Gearow before the Pride Cub got to attack next.

  My Springer used its bite attack next. The fact almost everything with a mouth had a bite attack seemed kind of like a lazy, no brainer type of attack, but it made sense. After all, the saying tooth and nail meant biting and scratching, as most creatures had those two things as their main forms of defense. The Springer’s fangs sunk into the Pride Cat, which let out a muffled meow against the Gearow that it still clenched tightly between its teeth, refusing to let go of its capture prey. If it weren’t bleeding silver from multiple wounds, and well, if it weren’t pink, it would almost remind me of a cat holding a bird in its mouth, proud of itself as it swished its tail back and forth, while its owner screamed at it to let the little bird go.

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  With all four Mons having their turn, the strange magic of the world pushed the battle back to Cogberus’s turn. Between its two of three bites, the Gearow’s peck, and Springer’s bite, the Pride Cub was under half its health. Cogberus received another bite order from me, and all three bites landed this time. The third, technically, was overkill, since the Pride Cub’s life had been barely visible. But, securing the kill was all that mattered, and I wasn’t about to complain about ensuring the creature was turned into a crystal, both to put it out of its misery, and also to free my Gearow. Disgruntled, my Gearow shook its feathers in agitation, and I tried to ignore the leaking oil coating its feathers. It was just shy of enough experience to level up, meaning it hadn’t healed, and I really didn’t want to waste one to heal it. Especially since I was about to use one of my Refresher to heal my new Mon to get it closer to fighting shape. Or, at least, enough of a fighting shape to survive a few battles till it could level and instantly be healed.

  Gently I picked up my new Mon Crystal, and added it to my gauntlet, filling my fifth of six slots. Then I called forth a Refresher from the pouch on my thigh, and used it on the creature. It’s health went up by

  I put my Springer away, since it was a little further away from level 16 than my Gearow was, and after using a Refresher, summoned my newest Mon. The pink cat still looked rather worse for wear, it’s HP at 21 of 72. Interestingly, at level 15 it had 3 more HP than my level 15 Springer, which sat at 69, and 4 less than my level 15 Calfer, which had 76. My Gearow, at level 15, had the least amount of health, with only 51, while obviously, my Cogberus stood high above them all, with 129 at level 17.

  I grimaced slightly looking over the Pride Cub, the color more than a little annoying. Pink, was not my color. Never had been, never would be. And the thought of running around with a bright pink Mun disturbed me, even if the sapphire stone eyes were arguably gorgeous. Even still, a new Mun was a new Mun, and I was excited to check it over. As I focused on it with my Tamer’s Gauntlet, it’s name, HP, and attacks were pulled up. Annoyingly, the explanation of the star by its name wasn’t pointed out, and I figured I’d either have to figure out on my own, ask someone, or wait till I got to a Mun Center to know what it was. Just like I’d have to wait till I got to the Mun Center to learn it’s extra information entry.

  Pride Cub*

  HP: 21/72

  Bite

  Slash

  Glare

  Three moves, all of which at this point were pretty self explanatory. Still, the fact it had clenched onto my Gearow with bite, and not let go, made me wonder if some Mun attacks had different effects depending on what Mun they used them against. Was it this world’s version of skills being super effective versus not very effective? I didn’t have the answer now, but figured, hopefully, I would learn quick enough. Worst case scenario, I still had just over a week to travel, before I got to Silver Springs, and my first Keeper. And if any of my questions were still unanswered by then, surely the Keeper would be able to answer them.

  I let my focus on my Pride Cub fade as I scanned around, curious if any other Mun were around me. I saw more movement, and this time, when I used the power of the Tamer’s Gauntlet, the name of the Mun appeared instantly.

  Pride Cub

  Level 14

  No star. Noted. I quickly moved towards it, knowing the creature was one level lower than the one I’d just captured, meaning, in theory, an even easier fight. And undoubtedly, this one would push my Gearow to the next level, as long as it survived the fight. With a grin I activated the battle option as I drew closer to it, my new Pride Cub stalking through the grass, perfectly at ease with its not lot in life, as if I hadn’t just attacked it. As I looked at it, I couldn’t help but grimace. There was no way in hell I would get used to having a pink Mun. It was just too wrong.

  My eyes turned towards the Mun I approached, and it was all I could do not to immediately smile. I’d found out what the star by the name meant. Pink, it appeared, was not in style. Or, more appropriately, the star meant my Mun was just a special color variant. Because the Pride Cub I’d just ambushed, without the star, was a brilliant emerald color, with ruby eyes. A color scheme I most certainly was down to jam with. Though, I’d still keep my other Pride Cub’s gem, because, even though I didn’t want a special color of a Mun if it was an affront on all that was right and proper in the color scheme of things, it didn’t mean there wasn’t someone out there who wouldn’t want a bright pink cat, right? And hey, if it was rare, well, all the better for trading purposes. Or, at the very least, I figured I’d be able to turn it into the Mun Crystal for something spiffy. Anything, actually, would be preferable, if I was being completely honest… I really hated the color pink.