Hey Ugly

"Grrrrroooooaaaaaahhh!" A loud roar blasted out of the Lava Lion's mouth, as it saw Fredrick and Jay untangling themselves from each other and coming to their feet to the right.

A shower of leaves fell from the trees, as the roar shook them loose, and even with his hands over his ears, Zac could feel the vibration from the roar down to his bones.

"You draw its attention for a second, I'm going to try get onto its back!" Frederick yelled to Jay, as they split off in opposite directions, when dealing with a beast with a ranged attack like the Lava Lion, it was standard practice to split up as much as possible.

The Lava Lion shook its head from side to side, trying to keep its eyes on both of the Augmented at the same time.

"Hey! Hey ugly! Look here, yeah, right here! You f****** overgrown pussycat! Come on!" Jay started yelling at the top of his lungs, and the Lava Lion let out a low, menacing growl, as it focused its eyes on Jay, who was waving his bat at the enormous beast, a nervous grin on his face.

Jay started running as the Lava Lion dropped down, and its muscles bunched up, readying for a leap at the annoying noisy creature in front of it.

But Jay had bought enough time, and the pistons in Fredrick's legs hissed as he leaped from behind the Lava Lion, landing square on its back.

Immediately, he started pulling it back with his arms, both of them blasting up and down as fast as they could, the sharp points at the end of them stabbing into the Lion's back over and over.

The lion roared out in anger, sending another shower of leaves down over the clearing, and twisted its head back, trying to get at Fredrick but he had positioned himself perfectly, securely positioned right where its mane ended.

As Fredrick kept attacking, Jay jumped forward, swinging his bat with both arms. Zac watched in amazement as the bat blurred out of his vision, the end of it slamming cleanly into the Lava Lion's nose.

"Graaaaaaaagggghhh!" The lion let out a pained, strangled growl, and it reared up onto its hindlegs, on four legs it had towered over the two massive Augmented, but now it completely dwarfed them.

A tawny colored blur slammed into the Lion's head, a metallic shine within it.

The Lava Lion swiped one enormous paw through the air, but completely missed Ying, thanks to Fredrick's repeated attacks on its back, still hold tight to the Lion with his legs, and Jay's violent slam into its nose, the lion was muddled enough that Ying could safely attack.

Frederick's attacks were like pin pricks to the massive beast, but if anything, even an enormous Magical beast, was pricked tens of times a second, over and over, it would still be in pain.

"Booom!" The ground trembled, and Zac watched in horror as the Lava Lion reared up impossibly high, and then fell backward, onto its back, in a desperate attempt to dislodge the creature from its back.

'No! No one could have survived that! What the f***?, Zac's eyes welled with tears, as he was sure that Fredrick had been squashed flat by the lion falling backward.

But as the lion came back to its feet, Frederick came back into view, he had jumped off at the last moment, expecting the lion to do something like slamming backward, his years of experience fighting Magical Beasts had paid off.

By now, the Lava Lion was a sorry sight, one of its eyes was blinded, and a stream of blood dripped from it like scarlet tears, its nose had swelled, and a slight trickle of blood fell from it also. Additionally, thin trickles of blood dripped down from either side of its back, thanks to Fredrick's repeated attacks.

But except for the wounded eye, all of these injuries were insignificant to the enormous creature, and if the three Augmented truly wanted to bring it down, they would have to continue fighting, while risking their lives with each and every attack.

The Lava Lion had backed up, the fact that the puny creatures had actually caused it pain meant that its guard was up now, and it was pacing to and fro, staring at Fredrick and Jay with its one good eye, its gaze occasionally flicking up to the sky, now aware of the threat from above.

'S***. They need help, but there's no way my Mana Core is ready to transform again, but if I could just touch the Lava Lion, then I might actually be useful.' Zac tried to stir up the courage to get up and do something, but every cell in his body screamed for him to stay hidden in the little hollow.

'No, I'll just get in the way like this.' Zac focused on his Mana Core, it the bright glow it had earlier was no longer present, it was clear he could do nothing.

Frederick and Jay walked toward the creature, moving to either side, trying to pincer it in between them.

With a single eye, the Lava Lion had to swing its head violently back and forth, to keep both the Augmented in view.

The Lion leapt back and roared a challenge as a blur shot down from the skies again, and Ying stopped short of the ground, his wings flapping hard as he flew small circles just out of reach of the enormous beast.

"Helicopters! They've got council markings! We need to get the hell out of here! Now!" Ying yelled, and as he spoke, the sound of helicopter blades filled the air.