Colin kept scanning his Comrades while waiting for Rita. Most of them had gone up a level or two, except of course, for Raiki. They took ten minutes to be fully rested.
"Wonder how long she'll take to arrive?" Colin asked, petting Raiki slowly. The blue kitten remained silent, hardly ever moving, but Colin believed she was getting better.
Shiro shook his head at Colin's question, then started playing tag with Rall and Warc. Meek joined in the game as they waited. Colin went on petting Raiki.
Poor Rall. He couldn't keep up with the others. Meek and Shiro were running in circles around him, and Warc could fly anytime. It took five minutes for them all to realize that tag was a really dumb game to play, because Rall could never catch any of them unless they let him. The four of them slumped down to rest and wait again, and kept their eyes on the road from Riverside.
Rita arrived not long after that. She had her three Comrades and had traded her mag-scope cap for a new straw hat and visor just like Colin's. It was a good combination, just like the shop guy said, giving good shade without collecting much heat, and the visor had good magnifying functions. He just hoped she didn't buy them at the prices the shop guy wanted at first.
"New gear?" Colin commented.
"The cap was too hot." She told Colin. "Shall we?"
Rita had a lot to say on their way west. She told him about the road north and how safe and easy it was, and how poor Henry used to talk about that wonderful big brother of his.
"Henry said his brother was the best Trainer there ever was." Rita mentioned. "But he bred Comrades, so he was a Breeder too. Of course, he also Traveled, and Henry said he sold things now, so he's a Shopkeeper these days…"
They met another of those yellow finned lizards on the road. Shiro and Rall were on it before Rita could finish telling her Comrades to attack. Warc and Meek waited for Rita's three to strike before they joined the battle. Between the seven of them, the poor lizard lasted less than a minute.
"Colin, this is scary." Rita said. "I've never fought anything so strong before. Even that honey bear wasn't so tough."
"Rawrl." Rall protested.
"Sorry." Rita said. "But it's true."
Rall sat down and turned away grumpily.
For the next ten minutes, Rita told Colin all about the creatures she fought in this world before, and how none of them were anywhere near as hard as that yellow lizard.
Then they met a metal beetle.
"Wow…" Colin whistled. "The beetles we fought back there were like rock, but this one looks like metal. It's bigger too."
"Uh… Colin…" Rita stepped back. "I'm not sure this is such a good idea…"
The Metal Beetle, however, thought it was a great idea. It launched a stream of green liquid at Rita.
Rita jumped aside, and Shiro barked, "Yip!"
"It spat at me!" Rita shrieked.
This time, her Comrades didn't wait for her to tell them what to do. At Shiro's bark, they spread out to attack the Metal Beetle from all sides.
"Come on." Colin pulled Rita aside. "We better stay out of the way."
"That ugly, stinking…" Rita kept saying as they hid behind a nearby tree.
"Rawrl!" Rall said, and Colin heard a sharp ring of something hitting metal.
Shiro Howled.
Colin frowned. "That doesn't sound good…"
Raiki shifted.
"…I'm gonna barbecue every beetle I find when I get home…" Rita went on.
"Yip! Yip!" Shiro called.
A whole bunch of explosions sounded from their side of the tree.
Rita didn't seem to notice. She was still ranting. "…And when they're really strong, I'll bring my whole army of high-level Comrades and stomp out every last one we find here…"
A deep, hollow sounding BOOM came from the other side.
"Yip!" Shiro yelped. "Yip, yip, yip!"
"Rawrl!" Rall replied.
"Wark!" Warc said from somewhere above.
Raiki stirred. Her tail twitched.
"Mik! Mik, mik!" Meek was saying. "Mikik!"
Another deep hollow BOOM, and Rita's Venuspot came tumbling into view.
"Two!" Rita gasped. "Are you all right?"
The thing didn't move. Colin frowned. "I think you have to touch it."
She did, and it stirred. It sat up and shook its head.
"Get back there and kill that thing!" Rita ordered.
Slowly, it got up. It limped forward one step.
"Stop it, Rita! It just died! It's got zero HP." Colin said.
Rita's eyes popped wide. "Stop!" she told her Comrade, and scanned it.
Colin was right. The Venuspot had zero HP.
"We better let it rest awhile." Colin advised.
"Yeah." Rita said slowly. "Take a break, Two."
Her Arachnid came tumbling their way almost immediately after that.
"This looks bad." Colin said, turning back to the battle as Rita nursed her First Comrade.
Shiro and the others had surrounded the beetle and were having a hard time bringing it down. Even as he watched, Rall took a heavy hit as the Beetle slammed its front horn into him.
"Rwarrl!" Rall roared and slammed both claws into its face, HARD. The Beetle stumbled back, sitting down for a while, shaking its head dizzily. The other Comrades charged, throwing their special techniques at it as fast as they could. More explosions filled the battle zone.
"Yip!" Shiro barked at Rall. "Yip!"
"Raawrl!" Rall roared, and clapped his hands together. A whole row of spikes shot out of the ground and flew into the Beetle. The Beetle squealed, and spat liquid at Rall.
"Yip!" Shiro said again, more urgently, tugging at Rall's arm with his teeth.
{Rall's not listening to Shiro…} Colin realized. {The bear's too angry to take a break.}
"Rall! Get back here!" Colin called. "Rest a while!"
Rall paused.
"Come on! Take a bit more honey!" Colin told him.
At last, Rall retreated and joined them behind the tree.
Raiki lifted her head, and watched the battle. Her whiskers twitched.
Colin watched the battle too.
Warc and Rita's Rainduck were making attack runs from above. Shiro and Meek were on either side of the Beetle, trying to avoid its' front. The Beetle jumped into the air as the two Rainducks came in for another attack and…
BOOM! The deep, hollow sound was marked by a shockwave bubble that knocked both Rainducks out of the air. They went tumbling to either side.
"Yip!" Shiro barked at Meek.
Meek scrambled to pick up Warc, who had crashed into a tree and fallen to the ground nearby.
Raiki sat up in Colin's hands. "Mew!"
"Yip! Yip!" Shiro barked back at her.
"You know, I've been wondering about that kitten of yours." Rita said, grouchily. "It never does anything, just sits there and…"
"Hush!" Colin told Rita a bit more urgently than he needed to. "This is important!"
"What's important?" Rita blinked.
"Ask me later."
Shiro was alone against the Beetle now, even as Meek dropped off Warc and ran for Rita's Rainduck. The white wolfcat was using his speed to avoid everything the Metal Beetle threw at it, but he had little chance to attack.
The air shimmered in front of Colin. "Wha…?"
He looked down. Raiki's ears were standing straight up. Her neck was tensed.
The air shimmered again, and this time, it kept shimmering. Raiki shut her eyes for a moment, and that shimmering doubled. It formed the shape of a sphere.
{Wait… I've seen this before… this is a sonic bolt…}
But Raiki seemed to be having trouble forming it.
Colin remembered. {Raiki… is too sad to fight well.}
"Come on, Raiki." Colin whispered. "You can do it."
"Me…w…" Raiki strained.
How had it become so hard? Shiro and Raiki had been able to form Sonic Bolts in moments! Why was she straining to form even one now?
"Wow…" Rita said. "Colin… that kitten…"
Colin blinked. "What?"
"That kitten…" Rita shook her head. "Is really powerful."
"Me…w…" Raiki said again. Her back was arched, her paws were shaking on Colin's hand.
"Huh?" Colin still didn't understand.
"Dani showed off this technique before." Rita said, nodding at the air above Colin's head. "Her Sonic Wolf did it on a target dummy."
Colin frowned, then glanced up.
His eyes widened when he finally realized what Rita was talking about.
Raiki had not been forming one Sonic Bolt. There was a whole line of it stretching halfway up the tree. Colin counted at least ten.
Rita's voice was envious.
"It's called a Sonic Barrage."
***
"Yip…" Shiro sounded tired. "Yip…"
"Mew." Raiki urged. "Mew!"
"Mik!" Meek dashed in and fired off a few Blades Of Grass at the Beetle. The Beetle ignored Meek altogether and spat at Shiro again.
"Mew…" Raiki said.
"Yip…" Shiro shook his head. "Yip!"
"Mew?" Raiki paused.
Meek backed away. She dashed to Colin's side.
Shiro dashed off in the other direction.
For a moment there, the Beetle hesitated. It looked at Meek.
"Mew…" Raiki strained.
"Yip." Shiro said urgently. "Yip!"
The Beetle turned to Shiro.
Shiro danced away a little farther.
With a roar, the Beetle charged at Shiro.
Shiro dashed out of the way. The Beetle slammed into a tree and got stuck there.
"YIP!" Shiro shouted to Raiki.
Raiki took careful aim at the Beetle's back, and said, "Mew!"
With a high pitched sound of sonic power being unleashed, Raiki's Sonic Barrage rained down on the Beetle's back.
It was like watching a machine gun. Raiki had a whole row of sonic bolts formed above her, and very quickly, one by one, they shot out to hit the Beetle.
But it didn't end there. After a Bolt was fired, the shimmering where it was fired from didn't disappear. It just wobbled for a while, and by the time Raiki went back to it, the wobbling stopped and it was ready to fire all over again.
"MEEOWWRRLLLL!" Raiki shouted, and blasted the Metal Beetle non-stop.
The tree that the Beetle was stuck in collapsed. Splinters of wood went flying all over the place as Raiki kept firing, and Colin could hear the shrill of the Beetle as the Sonic Barrage continued. Raiki's Barrage was firing from in front and above, and when it hit, the Beetle seemed to be pushed into the ground itself, and was unable to move.
It tried to spray acid at Raiki, but the Barrage hammered its spray down and slammed the Beetle deeper and deeper into the ground.
Shiro and Meek sat down at Colin's side and slumped down tiredly. They took a break and rested. They, too, watched the Barrage continue.
Rall shook his head, but he didn't get up. He kept resting.
Warc had woken up when Colin touched her, and was shaking her head dizzily. She walked walked right into Rita's Venuspot and bounced off, then stared at it as if wondering where it came from.
The Sonic Barrage didn't stop.
"REEEOWRRLLL!!" Raiki screamed, and Colin almost jumped. Raiki sounded hurt!
But that was impossible! The Beetle couldn't hit her from here! Did that technique hurt her somehow? If so…
"Yip." Shiro said softly. Colin blinked; the little white wolfcat had climbed up to his shoulder without him noticing it. "Yip." Shiro nodded to Raiki sadly.
And then Colin understood.
Raiki was hurt… but she wasn't hurt by the Beetle. The hurt had taken place last night, when she had been given away. Until now, she'd just sat down without moving, seeming to not care about anything, but when she saw her friends getting beaten up and Shiro struggling alone, she stepped in to help, and when she did, all the hurt she was hiding away inside sort of exploded out.
Raiki was taking it out on the Metal Beetle.
"REEOWRRLLL!" the little blue kitten sounded like an angry tiger all of a sudden and Colin wondered whether the Metal Beetle was even awake any more. It probably fainted by now.
But Raiki didn't stop.
"Uh…" Colin began, but Shiro bit him on the ear. He glanced at Shiro.
Shiro shook his head. "Yip." He said softly.
Grass, stone and soil were flying now. Colin couldn't even see the Metal Beetle any more; all he could see was the hole that Raiki kept blasting.
"Colin…" Rita paused. "I think it's over. That's more than enough."
"You're probably right." Colin said. "I don't think even that Beetle can survive something like this. But Raiki… well…"
"You're letting her go on?" Rita's eyes widened. "But she can't go on forever. She's going to exhaust herself…"
The Barrage stopped. Suddenly, and without warning. All the shimmering globes overhead vanished.
Raiki collapsed in Colin's hands, breathing hard.
"I think she just did." Colin said, softly. He glanced at the place Raiki had been blasting away.
Shiro and Meek checked it out. Shiro turned to Colin and shook his head.
Meek went all the way into the hole and came out with what looked like a blue crystal. "Mik!"
Well, if she was looting it, the Beetle had obviously been defeated.
"Let's go." Colin told Rita, and petted Raiki again.
Raiki breathed hard, lay still, and did not move.
***
Rita, for a wonder, didn't say anything until they reached a fork in the road. The main road kept going west. A smaller branch off headed north-west.
The signpost said it all. "That's the way to Hot Sands." Rita pointed to the narrower road. "Keep an eye on the Forest Edge. We don't know what will jump out."
Colin kept his eyes on the Forest Edge. He kept both on it, not just one.
The Forest Edge was beautiful.
Even from where they walked, on the road beside the forest, he could see the difference between the trees of the forest and the trees of the roadside. There was something deeper about their color, a darker brown in the bark, a richer green in the leaves.
There was a squirrel in one of them farther back, a big white-and-black flying squirrel. Colin half-hoped it would jump out at them and fight, so that they could fight it and if they won, he could try to catch it and bond it.
He knew it was a stupid idea. That Metal Beetle had been almost too much for them, and that was quite a way back. Anything around here was almost definitely too strong for them, and that squirrel was in the Forest itself. It could probably wipe them all out in a minute.
Rita kept looking around in all directions nervously. She, too, knew that anything around here would be too strong for them all. She obviously didn't want a fight and kept a sharp eye out to make sure that wouldn't happen. She was too busy keeping watch even to talk.
Colin kept watching the Forest. There, deep inside, he saw lurking shadows, swiftly dashing between the trees, but they were far away, and didn't seem interested in attacking him and Rita at all.
Were those the Wilds that Rita mentioned? Sonic Wolves, moving in a pack? Maybe.
One day, Colin decided, he'd come back and see. One day, when Shiro was grown and Raiki was well, and Rall was a powerful bear. One day.
Colin was starting to daydream of how he'd enter the Forest of Legends 'one day' when ahead of them, farther down the road, an explosion occurred.
"What was that?" Rita jumped. Another explosion happened. And then another.
"I think…" Colin stared. "That someone's having a battle."
They exchanged glances and started running.
If there was someone around here strong enough to take on the monsters nearby with his or her Comrades, then maybe, just maybe, they could Travel together and they wouldn't have to worry…
Or maybe more than just one person. Maybe it was a whole group of Travelers.
"Let's go see." Colin told Shiro.
Shiro grinned. "Yip."
But there was no one there.
"There had definitely been a battle here." Rita said, studying the big holes in the ground. "But everyone seems to be gone."
Everyone and everything. There was nothing left behind, not even a defeated Wild. Whoever fought here probably Tamed and took the Wild.
Another explosion sounded farther ahead. Colin exchanged glances with Rita. "Let's go."
But when they arrived, there was no one there either.
"They're fast." Rita said. "They're moving way too fast for us to catch up."
"Maybe…" Colin replied. "But whatever it is, they're strong enough to fight Wilds out here, and they're clearing the way for us. As long as we follow them, we'll probably be safe."
More explosions sounded ahead. Colin and Rita ran as fast as they could, trying to keep up, but every time they reached the place, all they found were holes in the ground and smoke rising from around the place.
They didn't seem to be getting any closer. Rita was right. They were moving too fast. Although Colin and Rita tried their best, Rita's Comrades were just too slow.
"I'm sorry." Rita said. It was clear she was remembering how she was left behind last time because her Comrades were too slow.
"It's okay." Colin said. "I'll wait for you. I'm not leaving you behind this time."
Rita's smile brightened the whole day.