16 Aurelia

There are a lot of monsters we haven't talked about yet and few are described properly here. For convenience I placed their names and originals at the very end of this chapter. You can go see the reasoning behind the name changes in the google spreadsheet if you want.

***

Aurelia felt sick about what she had done. She felt betrayed. She felt angry, really angry. Her guilt had quickly turned into pure hatred. Her stomach had nothing to reject anymore and her mind had cleared. She wished to rip him apart, grind him into powder on the road of death.

No one had the right to hurt her precious daughter! No one! She was the only thing she had ever done right in her life. She was the only thing she held dear. Someone had kidnapped her daughter, someone had beat and strangled her precious daughter, someone had made her daughter cry. That someone was Hergis, that someone deserved to die!

She went back to her vast room and yanked open one of the drawer so hard it's content were strewn across the room. Bending herself, she picked up what she had come to get. A p-ball belt, height balls on it, a battle monster master belt.

Very few actually knew she was a BMM, she had never used that title for anything and no one had challenged her in forever. In fact, it was her husband that had given her the title by using a lot of money for it. She wasn't as strong as most other BMM but she was still a force to be reckoned with. He had wanted to please her by giving her this title but she had never seen the use of it. It only inconvenienced her every time someone wanted to take the title for himself and challenged her for it.

Now though, she felt thankful for it. Now, she had a use for it. In an official league match against a BMM, you were limited to six monsters but this would not be an official league match. This was a simple vengeance, a cleanup job.

battle monster masters where duty bound to help with the security and well-being of the citizens in the region they mastered, to kill that bastard could be considered her job. It was a job she had never cared for until now but it was never too late to change for the better.

She strapped the belt on her waist and immediately picked up the seventh ball. From it was released a noble nine tailed fox. Kita was proud, tall and ancient. The fox's fur was pure gold, it was tall enough to let its head rest easily on her shoulders and it's nine enormous tails could hide an entire person behind them.

It was usually lazy, knowing it was one of her two trump cards, he only got out for the grand finale or not at all. Today was different, there was no enemy where it had been summoned but it's mistress felt extremely angry. Kita had never felt such anger from its mistress and stood at attention, waiting on an explanation or at least a command, feverish.

"I must smell like a man do I not? I know this is bellow you but find him using his smell and bring me to him. Let me ride you to get there faster."

The monster made a sharp nod and let her on its luxurious back before it ran off in the long labyrinthine corridors of the palace-like mansion. It's powerful paws breaking the floor tiles without a care as it's claws dug into the hard ground bellow. Aurelia had her arms around its neck to hold on, grinding her teeth in seething anger.

Finally, they came across her target in the entrance hall. At first, she thought he was running away but no, instead, he was just sitting there like nothing happened, wasting his time. This made her even more furious. She got down from the back of her trusted fox and fixed the man with her eyes. Of course, it was very hard to miss her arrival so Hergis immediately greeted her, not minding the giant nine tailed fox.

"Oh, you're already back? Perhaps are you here to cool some steam off with me?"

Shivers crawled down her spine hearing him. She had an entirely different cooling method than what he thought. She raised her finger towards him and gave the order.

"Don't mind the house, blast him to oblivion."

"What?"

Kita didn't wait for him to make a move and instantly used Fireblast. It took only an instant to gather the power in its throat before it spat it out at Hergis. Once in the open air, the blast expended to an impressive four meters tall fireball that shot through the room, withering the plants in the nearby pots.

Hergis reacted quickly and summoned a sligon in front of him to block the sudden assault. The creature of goo punched straight into the incoming inferno, releasing its might. The powerful collision broke down the blast but sent out shock-waves in every direction. Shattering the vases and the windows, cracking the walls and floor and pushing the goo monster back. Hergis was visibly confused.

"What is happening? Did you free yourself from the hypnosis?"

Hypnosis? Had she been but under hypnosis? She could have spewed blood out of sheer anger at this moment. This living trash had not only hurt her daughter but hypnotized her too? She unhooked the sixth ball from her waist and summoned her Seerknit. Hers was an ice cold beauty, raining doom with a simple look of disdain. The cold green and white feminine form floated in front of her trainer with dignity. She cast a glance at the destroyed hall, Hergis and then her mistress.

"Mela, am I under hypnosis?"

The monster nodded and put its palm on her forehead to remove the influence. A numbing pain spread through her mind before it all became clear. The dashing looks of Hergis where replaced by his useless self. His proud demeanor replaced by an ordinary man. She almost shattered her own teeth in anger. Disgusting pig with a lecherous grin. He had always been like so.

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

"Wait, if you weren't there about this then why were you after me?"

She didn't even feel like answering him. she once again reached for her belt an took out the eight ball. From it, a second nine tailed fox appeared. Taki was as big and old as Kita but he was ice blue instead of golden, he was from the rare tropical breed. A perfect mirror of her first fox. A perfect partner, and also, a perfect counter to the jelly dragon in front of them.

"Is it about your daughter? Don't tell me you're angry about her, everybody knows you don't really care about her. You can't even talk to her properly!"

Aurelia was now burning from anger. Was he doing his best to anger her? It was absolutely working. As her left hand clenched so hard blood seeped out under her nails, her right ripped off all the remaining balls from her belt. There was no need to restrain herself, that pile of mortal mold needed to disappear this instant!

"NO ONE HURTS MY DAUGHTER!"

The balls opened up to reveal her full team. Her heavy hitters where all already out but the rest of her team could provide powerful support. A flying squirrel named Nanta, a lillydance named Marilee, a raffillon named Harley, a lopin named Bonica and a chinable named Chinchi.

"KILL HIM! BURN HIM! SMASH HIM TO FUCKING BITS!"

Those weren't coherent orders and the whole group of loyal creatures weren't used to work all at the same time but they could easily feel the importance of the orders they had just received. They would give it their all to crush the one responsible for their mistress anger.

"What the hell! Why do you have eight of them? Don't tell me you of all people are a master! That's impossible."

Before he could react, a blizzard came out of nowhere, smashing through the already broken windows to hammer him and his dragon-slime. The dragons hated the cold but the creature still moved to protect its master with its body. He had only just moved when a lightning fast pink lopin came flying in with a powerful kick from the other side. Hergis barely moved quickly enough to get out of the way of the kick and scrambled to get all his monsters fast enough to save himself. The kick landed half a meter in front of him and sent blocks of smashed tiles and concretes in the air around him.

The follow up kick was intercepted by the belly of a slohpex he barely summoned in time. Then an unseen mental attack was blocked by his hyphob, his artieuvre started to smash up incoming elemental attacks from everywhere, his preying-starling chased after the raffillon and the oneleger charged forward to counter attack. The fight had just started but he was already at a clear disadvantage. It was a terrible match up for him, he was at a numerical disadvantage and his monsters weren't raised to fight in life and death scenarios.

Aurelia quickly gave more orders to fix the chaotic state of the battle.

"Kita and Taki, you both get rid of that pile of goo, Mela stall that damn hyphob for time, Bonica, go around it, it's not gonna move from there, Marilee block that yellow monkey, Harley get rid of the octopus, Nanta protect her from the bird and Chinchi harass and support."

Hergis used this precious short time to try and make sense of what was happening. He was not a fighter, he had a hard time reading the flow of the battle. There was too much happening all at once, he didn't know from where to start. He quickly came to the conclusion he had no chance of winning at all. Is only chance would be if she made an outrageous mistake. Maybe if he angered her enough, she would slip up and he would be able to slip away.

"Rip, move your fat ass from the ground and protect me now or I won't give you girls to play with anymore!"

The slohpex grumbled and moved in front of his master but the much more agile lopin just ran around him and sent another flying kick his way. Hergis dodged by jumping backwards unto his freezing sligon. He laughed crazily.

"Don't you want to know what I was supposed to do with her? They changed the plan and asked me to send her over there but that wasn't what was planned at first."

"Shut up!"

The slohpex slapped lopin away while paralytic powder fell everywhere around him from the raffillon. Meanwhile, the two giant foxes started a mad dash towards the sligon switching their positions over and over in a blur of gold and platinum blue. Both of them where shooting fireballs and razor sharp icicles at it while they ran. Sligon had not been able to lunch even a single attack since the start. he was too busy protecting itself from those two foes and keeping track of its master.

"I'm not a monster trainer, what I train are humans! I pick them up and mold them however I want."

His artieuvre shot a couple of hydro pump towards the foxes but got quickly interrupted by the bug that started draining it of his energy. The preying-starling came to its rescue but almost got shot down from the sky by a lightning shot from its right.

"I break their minds and then rebuild them into subservient slaves! All my monsters are chosen for this one purpose!"

"Shuuuuut up!"

The hyphob and the seerknit where still stuck in a staring contest. The lillydance tried to root the oneleger in place but got punched square in the face instead and sent flying backwards. The chinable blinded it with a dazling light before it could make a follow up attack and a storm of petals forced it to step back.

"I use hyphob to slowly rework their minds while artieuvre is used to keep them in place. sligon does most of the work, drowning them in goo and hugging them into submission.

"What is wrong with you!"

A vicious frost attack almost hit him but sligon blocked with its arm, freezing it solid. From out of nowhere, a bleeding Bonica came and kicked at it so hard that it broke off from the rest of its body and missed Hergis's head by an inch. He Threw himself on the left and arrived beside his poor artieuvre that had already fainted. He looked for another shield and saw his slohpex.

"You didn't even hear the best part yet, oneleger is there for a shock therapy sure but when I get a real rebellious one, I give them to Rip to toy with. He loves teenage girls the most. that is why I called him Rip, that's the sound they usually do before he is done with them!"

How could someone be so disgusting? Aurelia's head was just filled with fury.

"Just die already!"

The hyphob was so focused on in mental fight that he never saw the raffillon slowly landing on his head. Aurelia's raffillon was magnificent, the most breathtaking of all butterflies. Harley had no red in its pattern, focusing on an intricate design of gold and ice blue instead. Its delicate features hovering in the air thanks to its graceful wings spanning a good meter. Once it did land on him, it started to shake it's wings dizzyingly fast producing a powerful buzzing sound that made the hyphob bleed from its ears and shattered his concentration. Mela the seerknit wasted no time and fried its mind with all the psychic powers she could gather.

"I'm sure I would've needed to use him on Aurora." Hergis madly continued. "That bitch bites hard you know. She really needs a good lesson."

"Argh! Just forget about his trashy monsters, focus on him first."

All her companions redirected their attention on him immediately. In particular, the flying-squirrel stopped harassing his bird and dive-bombed him. Hergis took his chances there.

"Rip, squash that thing!"

Slohpex was definitely slower than a flying-squirrel but the small creature had been careless and got hit really badly. The powerful blow sent it crashing against the nearby wall and it fell to the ground, knocked out. There was nothing left to stop Hergis's preying-starling from taking off.

"Catcher! Grab me and we escape!"

"I won't let you! Kitataki! Flamethrower and ice-beam on him!" Aurelia had the habit of calling them both with one name to gain that precious fraction of a second.

"Rip, sligon!"

The wall of goo and the giant ape intercepted the two beams but Aurelia had a lot more monsters to get him.

"Mela, teleport Marilee then psychic! Marilee root him down!"

Mela used teleport to move with the plant but once it had moved, the oneleger was freed from its binding and charged at Aurelia, intending to shock her enough to stop her from handing out commands. Once again, Chinchi came to the rescue and let out a powerful scream that stopped it dead in its track for a small moment.

In that moment, Mela's psychic strike slowed the bird enough to let Marilee catch him with a bunch of vines. It's powerful claws quickly ripped them apart but it missed the incoming Lopin.

The slophex had its hands full with the ice beam and wasn't there to block it anymore, the roots lasted long enough for it to land an high jump kick. The kick had such power behind it that it twisted the neck of the bird instantly and made it spin in the air releasing Hergis who fell face first on the ground.

The oneleger moved again and dashed to the chinable but rammed into a force wall instantly erected by Mela who had teleported back.

The raffillon appeared behind the slohpex and started to rain stun spores right on its head.

Just at its side, the sligon was in a really bad shape now, bleeding profusely from its missing arm and getting continuously blasted by ice and fire. It let out a roar of rage and charged forward, uncaring for its master anymore. It went straight for the foxes that annoyed him so much. Struggling at the end of its life, it let out beams of energy and powerful blows at the foxes agilely dancing around him. Maybe if he had started with this, he could have made more damage but now, he had lost too much strength and he only managed to bruise Kita on its side before it collapsed dead.

Rip wanted to go and help it but failed to move a single muscle, it finally fell down and decided to take a nap to recover some strength.

The last monster standing on Hergis's side was the oneleger who unleashed all its stored energy to brute force its way through the barrier. It managed to not only go through but also shock the chinable into unconsciousness despite its protective fur. Panting, the oneleger made a step forward, or at least tried, looking down, roots had firmly ensnared it and some even started to dig their way under its skin. In panic, it struggled and cast lightning everywhere but a final mental attack from Mela put him to rest.

Hergis got back up from the ground with difficulty and pain to see the disaster around him. His mind started spinning, desperately searching for a way out. Not seeing any, he knew it was all over. Instead of trying to apologize and beg for mercy, he spat out more profanities in anger.

"She was too small to eat yet but at least I got a pretty good taste of you!"

He turned around to at least try to flee and came face to face with Bonica. He got punched in the junk, bent down in pain and got kicked in the head by the powerful leg of the rabbit. He fell back down on his back and almost instantly, two looming shadows were cast above him, the two foxes. Biting cold on his right and singeing heat on his left. Maybe he should have controlled his words a bit?

"Still in the end we will win! We have the girl already it's too late! I can give you a lot of information though if you want. I may look like this but I'm fairly high placed."

She couldn't care less about his halfhearted begging.

"End him!"

It's in screams of agonizing pain that Hergis died half burnt half frozen.

Aurelia's husband showed up a short time after. He barely gazed at the devastation before he ran up to his wife to ask her what had happened.

"Aurelia, are you alright? What happened?"

Concern was lacing his voice as he neared her and seeing him like this she couldn't help but burst in tears.

After a while of comforting and holding his wife, he managed to understand what had happened. She had murdered Hergis in a fit of rage. It was annoying because he had wanted to interrogate him but in the end, he would probably have died anyway so it wasn't that dramatic and he wasn't angry at her.

He promised his wife she wouldn't get in trouble for this and started making plans in his head on how to repair the hall and rework the security of the mansion.

He was seriously displeased by them. Yes, he had asked them to use as many people as necessary to find out about the camera hidden in the dining room but there should still have been some guards near the main door of his home. Either they deserted or they were doing an awful job, they needed to be replaced. No one should have been able to abduct his daughter right under his nose and his wife should have been stopped before she killed Hergis.

Maybe he really needed some sort of special fighting unit like the son of Craze wanted to pass himself as. It would not be that hard to do as the pair asked from him, and the public would not be surprised to see the new guards once he would tell them about the threats and his destroyed hall.

For now, he focused on the rest of his messy day. He accompanied his wife to the battle monster center, got rid of Hergis's corpse and all his monsters, made some calls to create a team of designers charged with producing a special uniform and a mask in the shortest of delay, planed the rebuilding of the floors his wife had broke and the entire hall, fired the guards and organized a new press conference to be held as soon as he would have his hands on the uniforms.

That evening, he was sat back in his office, trying to relax when his phone rang again. Looking at the number, it was someone he hadn't spoken to in a long time. Wondering what he wanted, he picked up the phone.

"Stardust, it's been a long time." Said the voice.

He talked like an old friend but Richard was fed up with his day and knew that this call couldn't be anything good.

"What do you want?"

"Not even a greeting, really? Did you have that long of a day?"

"Yes, I did, I'm really tired now, I don't need you to add up on it."

"It won't take too long old friend. I had a great idea and I wanted to offer you something. It's going to be worth your time, I promise."

Richard had a loud sigh but still gave him the permission to talk.

"Fine, talk already, what do you want from me?"

"It's about our little competition. Let's be honest, you have no chance of winning, Craze knows it, I know it and you know it."

What a gentle way to put it. Thought Mr. Stardust.

"With that as a basis, you still put down quite the effort on making and raising your daughter. Aside from her handicap, she seems to be quite something. I think that what hindered you the most was how much time you wasted on selecting who would be the mother. I wasn't much better in that regard. I admit that our stupidity gave Craze quite the head start but this may be a good thing as well. Since you and your daughter won't win on your own, how about we share the victory instead? My boy is just a bit older than her after all, let's have them get along, my boy wins and your daughter gets a good husband that will sit on the throne of victory."

On the surface, this seemed like a good deal for him. Everything Richard had done in the last twenty years had been to help his kid win. How much time and money had he spent just to find someone of Aurelia's bloodline? After Aurora's birth though, he had quickly changed his mind. He found that the competition didn't really matter to him, only his daughter herself mattered. He had big plans for her and did give her all he could but he had given up any hopes of winning long ago.

With that deal, he would officially be out of the competition, his daughter would be safer since she wouldn't be a true target anymore and if that guy won, the future of his daughter would be assured. There were a couple of flaws in his reasoning though. It was him after all who started all this. He wasn't willing to share back then, why would he have changed his mind now? More importantly,

"You weren't fast enough. Craze moved first and had her kidnapped."

"What? This is troubling, is that why you're acting so cold with me? I thought the rules prevented that kind of thing?"

"Apparently, for Craze, kidnapping her doesn't seem to be the same as not going directly against her."

There was a silence between them and Richard took the opportunity to have a sip of whiskey.

"What are you planning to do now?" Said his phone.

"Keep my daughter safe at all cost. If your son really wants my angel, he is going to have to get her on his own. Aside from that, I would really appreciate if you and Craze left us out of this."

"I guess we'll see if that happens or not." The voice said before hanging up.

"Scheming bastard." Mumbled Richard.

For all his obvious flaws, at least Craze was straightforward. He was easier to understand and to deal with than his other 'friend'. Always scheming and sneaking in the background. Slow but vicious, that was how he would describe him. There was no reason to tell him how the issue had somehow been resolved already.

***

Monster names

Ninet*les - Nine tailed fox: Aurelia has two, Kita and Taki

G**dra - Sligon

G*rdevoir - Seerknit: Aurelia's is named Mela

Em*lga - Flying-squirel: Aurelia's is named Nanta

Lill*gant - Lillydance: Aurelia's is named Marilee

Beaut*fly - Raffillon: Aurelia's is named Harley

Lop*nny - Lopin: Aurelia's is named Bonica

Cincc*no - Chinable: Aurelia's is named Chinchi

Sl*king - Slohpex: The one belonging to Hergis is named Rip

H*pno - Hyphob

Octill*ry - Artieuvre

Star*ptor - Preying-starling: The one belonging to Hergis is named Catcher

Electab*zz - Oneleger

As for what Hergis meant by all his nonsense, I will let you decide if it was just random crap to anger Aurelia or if he really intended to torture the girl.