Miraculous Hunters Rewritten: Book 1

Chapter 37: Win Lose Draal Part 2

"Prepare for battle." Vendel announced, causing Draal to smash his fists into the ground with an imitating roar. In response, Jim held up the amulet. Not bothering to say the incantation out loud since his emotions were already on high, his armor and sword appeared.

"Here we go. I am doing this." Jim mumbled to himself in an attempt to shake his nerves off, pulling out his sword and holding it in front of him in anticipation.

"Begin!" Vendel proclaimed, sending the crowd into a cheering frenzy as a guard simply hit a button, causing the floor to let out a rumble before it lifted, startling Jim. The gears underneath the arena lifted the platform up, past the crowd and in line with the surrounding statues while Jim watched the machine move below him, no barriers to stop them from falling off. Suddenly, the gears stopped, halting the rise of the platform before a section to Jim's left sunk towards the ground below.

"Whoa!" Jim yelped before he ran to his right, hoping to not have that one fall away too. But before he could, the piece of rock he ran for dropped as well, trapping him across from Draal. As Jim took in his new situation, Draal let out a scream and jumped at the boy, only for Jim to easily-but with panic running through his veins-jump onto the closest lowered platform. Thankfully the boy landed on the platform with a thud and a groan, quickly gathering himself before rolling to the side as Draal's fists-which were for him-cracked the ground he had resided on instead. Thinking fast, Draal then grabbed the boy's leg, throwing him in a circle before letting him fly into a wall and sending the crowd into cheers.

Falling to the ground from his impact point in the wall, Jim only managed to regain himself from his stumbling when he was about to drop down into the gears below the arena, which would lead to absolute death. Once he caught himself from falling with a scream of surprise, Jim's electric blue eyes caught Draal as he celebrated to the crowd above him on another platform. But when the large troll connected eyes with Jim, Draal jumped off of the platform and rolled down the wall towards Jim, who only barely missed him as he rolled past. This only led to Draal doing a lap around the arena and coming right back at Jim.

With quick thinking, Jim tossed his sword in the path of Draal, the metal embedding into the rock and stopping Draal's twist of doom. Blue smoke filled the area as Draal hit it, causing Jim to flinch back just in case. When he saw that his attack had been stopped, Draal blinked a couple of times and looked down at the sword with shock, the audience gasping at what occurred. But as the sword appeared back within Jim's hand-a confident smile on his face-the crowd was left in shock. One troll even went as far as doing a spit-take with his drink in complete shock.

"I never taught him that. Did you?" Blinky asked, watching with complete confusion as Jim's little gang watched with shock as well.

"He's a natural!" Toby happily responded as he bounced on his feet with happiness, watching as Jim swung his sword. Now finally putting his fighting skills to use, Jim chucked his sword at the now angry Draal. Yet, the large blue troll easily blocked it with his arm, the blade disintegrating after it logged itself into the ground away from the fight.

"And there goes that move." Jim muttered to himself in disappointment. Now finding his opponent disarmed, Draal roared at Jim again before beginning to roll at him once more, prompting the boy to run away in an attempt to save himself.

"Ten whole seconds! He's not dead! That's a fortuitous sign." Blinky said before Jim passed their corner, screaming as Draal chased him.

"Don't jinx." Aaarrrgghh!!! warned his friend. Jim kept running as Draal rolled on the wall and ended up ahead of him. The troll then rounded back and stopped his roll, running at the TrollHunter with a raised fist as he jumped into the air while Jim protecting his head with his arms in response. As Draal's fist collided with Jim, the boy was pushed to the ground, his body covered in blue smoke that poured from his armor. The crowd cheered as Vendel watched with utter shock while Blinky and Aaarrrgghh cringed at the sight.