Chapter 22
Bronze vs. Stone
A loud voice rumbled from the bronze tiger's throat and announced, "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! YOU ARE TRESPASSING IN THE DOMAIN OF ARCHIBALD BLUESTONE. PREPARE TO DIE!"
"Wait. Die!?" Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing, but she didn't have time to understand what was going one when the tiger statue took a deep breath and suddenly spat out a beam of intense, white-hot fire from its mouth that flew straight at her.
Light flashed from Lily's bracelet and a big, round shield appeared to intercept the beam of fire. Both beam and shield exploded on impact, unleashing a gust of wind that swept Lily off her feet with a shriek. She hit the ground with sharp pain to her left shoulder while her knees burned hot where scraped. But that was the least of her worries as she looked back at the flaming wall of inferno crackling between her and the tiger.
With a jolt to her heart, she realized,, That thing's really trying to kill me. She could see the tiger's eyes trained on her and knew with dread that it was not done.
The tiger took another deep breath and unleashed more fire. Lily quickly rolled left as a wall of flames was drawn on where she had been. Another beam of fire flew out of the tiger's mouth creating another wall of flames at Lily's right and boxing her in. There was nowhere for her to run.
The tiger jumped over the wall of flames and then slowly strolled over to Lily who was helpless to do anything but watch while intense heat from the fire walls stung her cheeks and hands.
She expected the tiger to quickly put her out of her misery. But then it stopped and lifted its head up.
"Orders to stop received," it announced. "Orders to stop denied. Orders to stop denied. Orders to stop denied. Denied."
What is going on? Lily wondered. Is it . . . arguing with someone?
Finally, the tiger said coldly, emotionlessly and robotically, "You are not the head of the Bluestone Family. A mere member has no authority over my prime directive."
It returned its gaze to Lily and then took a deep breath.
"Oh no!"
Lily shrank back, raised her arms over her head and waited for the blast to come. But it never did.
Just before the tiger released more fire, space in the air shattered like glass and in leaped the Stone Man who swept the tiger off its feet with a tackle. Aim thrown off, the tiger blasted fire into the air, shattering pieces of the sky before hitting the ground.
Both the tiger and the Stone Man rolled across the ground before breaking away from each other. They each got back on their feet and stared each other down with a couple of meters of distance between them. Several more meters away, Lily watched, stunned.
She couldn't believe her luck. But she wasn't going to just waste it lying on the ground.
She shook herself awake, scrubbed tears off her eyes and then scrambled for shelter behind a wall where she continued to watch.
The tiger crouched down low while the Stone Man raised its fists in a martial arts pose.
That looks like something a Chinese boxer would do, Lily thought.
And then -
"HAAAAAAAAH!"
"ROOOAAAAR!"
The Stone Man screamed and the tiger roared, their voices traveling strong up to the nightly heavens and then they charged at one another.
The tiger pounced at the Stone Man, but then - BAM! The Stone Man's leg flew up and struck the side of the tiger's head, sending it flying into a building. But unlike the attack Lily hit the tiger with, the Stone Man's kick sent the tiger crashing THROUGH the walls.
That's right. "Walls", plural, as in more than one wall. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Three classrooms or lecture halls must have been pierced before the tiger popped out at the other side. But once outside, the tiger flipped back onto its feet and unleashed a beam of fire, thicker and denser than any of the attacks it spat at Lily.
The Stone Man confronted the attack head on and stopped it with its hands. It split the fire in two and threw them aside left and right with crater-inducing bangs before shooting beams of light out of its eye sockets that further pushed the tiger away.
Lily was relieved at first when she thought she had been saved. But dread returned when she realized the tiger still had all the talents it had stolen. What'll happen to them if the Stone Man ends up destroying the tiger? She did not want to find out.
"Gimme a speed boost," she ordered the bracelet.
She didn't know how she was going to get back the talent, nor where the tiger even kept them. Still, she had to do something. But as soon as it complied and bathed her in blue light, the Stone Man turned around.
Lily gasped and quickly hid behind the Castle's corner.
The Stone Man started to stomp over, but stopped when it heard a mighty roar behind it. It spun around just as the tiger was about to pounce on it. Before the tiger could pin the Stone Man to the ground, the Stone Man side-stepped away and then threw a punch. The tiger jumped back, dodging the Stone Man's swinging fist and spat out another beam of fire from its mouth.
The Stone Man dodged and then hit the tiger in the face with its eye lasers. It was at that moment Lily spotted something bright and shiny fly out of the tiger's mouth and bounced a few times off the pavement before rolling to the foot of the Castle.
What is that ball of light? Lily wondered. Wait, is that kazoo music I hear from it? That is kazoo music, she realized. Then that must mean that ball's that one kazoo player's talent!
And now that Lily was paying attention, she noticed more orbs of light scattered all over the school grounds. Could those also be talents that the tiger had stolen? In that case, Lily figured out what she had to do. While the tiger and the Stone Man kept each other busy, Lily seized her chance to dive into the fray.
First, she ran over to pick up the kazoo music-playing orb and scooped it up in her hands. She stuffed it into her pocket and then made her way to the other orbs, keeping her head down low while beams of light and fire crisscrossed above her. While she kept reasonably far away from the fight between two titans, Lily's pockets quickly overflowed with orbs and they started falling back out.
"Quick! I need a bag!" she shouted.
The bracelet spat out a blue backpack that she slung on over her torso and hurriedly stuffed orbs in. Meanwhile, after grappling with tiger for a bit, the Stone Man lifted the beast up and threw it down on its back before repeatedly hammering fists down on it. Seeing the Stone Man's straight up savagery made Lily glad she chose to keep to its back and out of its line of sight.
The tiger wriggled beneath the barrage of brutal attacks and then kicked its legs out, striking the Stone Man in the torso. As the Stone Man stumbled back, the tiger twisted back onto its feet and pounced, pinning the Stone Man down while gnawing on its head.
The Stone Man struggled to break free, wriggling about before finally throwing its weight right and tossed the tiger off. Chunks of the Stone Man's head was chipped off, but that didn't seem to bother it one bit.
After collecting all the orbs she could find, Lily ducked behind a tree and then peeked out, carefully observing the fight to see if more orbs would fly out. But as the tiger and the Stone Man clashed again and again, she saw no more orbs flying out.
This must be it then, she thought, glancing out at the bag.
But even as she thought it was time to go, Lily hesitated. She was conflicted between leaving while now's a good chance or sticking around just a little bit longer to make sure she got back every last talent that was stolen.
And then she heard someone shout, "What in the name of sanity are you doing?"
Lily looked up to see the parrot hovering in the air just a few feet away.
"Get out of here, you moron!" it snapped. "Can't you see how dangerous this place is now?"
Lily wanted to snap back at the bird, but then she heard a man's yell and turned to see the tiger flying towards her after it was lifted in the air and flung by the Stone Man using a spinning toss.
The tiger crashed into the tree and toppled it over.
Lily scrambled away, shrieking while stumbling out in the open.
The Stone Man heard Lily's scream and froze. From within its eye sockets, a deep voice rumbled out, "A girl? Here?"
The parrot swore. "Blast it all!"
As the Stone Man turned to find the source of the scream, the parrot spread its wings and grew to giant size and landed in front of Lily before she could be spotted. She could hear the parrot grumbling, "It's too soon for him to know! You've nearly ruined everything!"
What could it be talking about? Lily wondered.
Before she had the chance to ask, the parrot scooped her up in its talons and then threw her across the road. There was a flash of light, and then Lily found her flight stopped by a pair of arms as a familiar voice went, "Oof!"
Lily looked up to see Oliver staring back at her.
"Lily! Your knees are bleeding! Are you okay?"
Lily turned to see Viv's worried face and opened her mouth to answer. But then she heard a loud bang and looked to see a crack in the air.
"What. Was. That?" asked Eddie.
"I'll explain later!" Lily quickly shouted. She slipped out of Oliver's arms and got back on her feet while clutching the backpack full of talent orbs close. "We need to get out of here now!"
Sensing the urgency in Lily's voice, Oliver said, "You heard the lady! Let's scram!"
With Lily in tow, the Sapphire Society made themselves scarce. Once they ran out of sight, the crack in the air burst into a hole and in stomped the Stone Man holding the bronze tiger's head and ONLY the head.
The Stone Man slowly looked around left and right, back to front. Seeing that all was quiet and there was no one in the area, it turned around and walked back through the hole in space before it closed up behind it.
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