‘Watch out! They’re alive!’ yelled the deputy.
As soon as a fireball hit the ground, it turned into a little demon. Hundreds of them now jumped on to the rareio and skewered it with red-hot, needle-sharp horns. Soon the rareio was smothered in a sea of tiny creatures, hurling themselves at it head first, puncturing its slimy skin and clinging on like leeches. They were sucking up the rareio’s energy and it was using what little it had left trying desperately to flick them off. The rareio was howling with rage as though it knew it didn’t have long left.
Somehow the rareio hung on. It was still alive when the devil scale minute finished and Pradahl’s fireballs became normal again. Bruised and bleeding peppermint goo, it raised itself from the ground and all the hatred in the world could be heard in its snarl. Griff was reminded of how it had looked after forcing its way out of him beside the lake during Ray-Chay in the Park. He felt a chill.
Ant watched as Pradahl swept down to attack, but now the items’ special powers had run out, she looked more like an ordinary and fairly small dragon again. She used her best moves, including her whip tail and sideways zap, but after all the frantic attacking, he could see she was getting tired. While she was in the air, he couldn’t reach her shining scale to rebuild her strength and give her fresh weapons.
‘Cage the rareio! Cage it!’ Kody screamed at the deputy.
He tried to attack Pradahl, but Ant zapped him. Everyone was attacking everyone again. Kody worked his way between the rareio and Pradahl and, focused on the dragon, turned his back on the beast he’d created. Immediately the rareio seized its chance.
Summoning up its last bit of strength, it jumped in and out of Kody, freezing him and giving itself an immediate and massive power surge. Swelling in size, the rareio surprised Pradahl, lungeing at her and knocking her to the floor. Pradahl reared up on her back legs, a blaze of scarlet and smoke. She screeched and came at the rareio with her yellow eyes ablaze, her wings spread wide and her tongue lashing out like a whip.
The rareio had no weapon, but each time it made contact with Pradahl, it seemed to suck strength from her. Ant could see crackling in the air, like static electricity leaping between them. Flames still burst from the dragon, doing serious damage when they struck, but they were taking longer to recharge.
The guard had retreated to the edge of the owl-shaped bushes. The deputy was trying to cage the rareio and stop Pradahl injuring it. She turned to take aim at Pradahl and the rareio leaped into her and froze her too. The rareio gave a vile, vicious laugh as it grew again. Now it was double the size it had been in the bandstand.
With Kody and his deputy out of action, it was more or less a straight fight between the rareio and Pradahl, with some assistance from Ant. Having re-energised itself with the power of two high-level players, the rareio looked massive and invincible. It struck at Pradahl relentlessly and Ant could tell that producing her fireballs was taking her more effort, yet she kept on going. Ant joined in the attack, zapping the rareio with the guard’s lightning rod, but this seemed to just tickle the creature.
‘Don’t give up Pradahl, you can do it!’ yelled Ant.
The lightning rod wasn’t helping and he tossed it to Griff, who ran to the bushes and, after figuring out the controls, began drawing a cage around the guard, who was slouched in a daze on the grass.
Ant hadn’t thought to use the Ray-Chay double fist technique. Now he tried it and to his delight a strong, red Kismet-Cosmos-ninety-ninth-planet-strength lightning bolt shot from his chest. It hit the back of the rareio, who stumbled forwards.
‘Pradahl! Three, two, one and go!’ shouted Ant.
Pradahl knew exactly what he meant: whenever they had to attack simultaneously, Ant always counted them in like this.
Ant breathed and focused all his energy on the small tunnel between his fists. This was it, the best chance of attacking the rareio that they were going to get. It had to work.
‘Three … two … one … go!’
An enormous bolt of red lightning shot from his hands, just as the biggest flame-stream poured from Pradahl’s nose and mouth like a waterfall of fire.
The rareio was hit from either side and it let out a roar of boiled agony, cut short by an almighty, wet explosion. Plumes of minty-coloured goo rained down across the park, over the bird bushes and down as far as the lake. Due to the incredible size of the rareio, the goo-rain seemed to go on for ages. It was drippy and sticky but smelled tinglingly fresh, like toothpaste.
Griff started to whoop with joy.
For a moment, Ant couldn’t move. Even with the minty, custardy stuff dribbling down his cheeks, he could hardly dare believe that they had managed to destroy the rareio. He turned to Griff and saw the guard crouching beside him in a cage.
‘Pradahl!’ said Ant, beckoning her.
Kody and his deputy were rising shakily to their knees but they looked stunned, as if they didn’t know where they were. If Ant and Griff were going to get some answers about Operation Wipeout, they’d have to question the guard before the other two realised.
16
Rubie
Griff was still adding more and more bars to the guard’s cage, whooping excitedly now the main trouble seemed to be over. He stopped as Ant leaned over the guard. Pradahl was flying behind Ant, framed by bright sunlight. The guard squinted up at them. He looked shaken and too scared to
