Kyle’s weeklong training boot camp was over, and Aurin was back in the tower with Luna by his side. The pair were eagerly hunting for new eggs to expand their teams, but Aurin was sticking true to his promise to his Minakai and explored each floor thoroughly before using the elevator.

After a lot of pestering from Aurin, Luna agreed to enter the upcoming tournament. Innogon was more enthusiastic than Luna about the prospect, but she was determined to give it her all.

“This means you can’t do most of the battling in here, okay?” asked Luna rhetorically.

“If you want to handle a battle, just speak up. I won’t stop you,” answered Aurin. “We still need to find more eggs and shards.”

Aurin and Luna both required Solar Shards to evolve their Minakai to new, more advanced forms. Solar Shards reacted to fire, air, water and earth elementals. Lunar Shards reacted to lightning, ice, nature and metal Minakai. Astral Shards, which Aurin had previously found one of, reacted to neutral elemental Minakai.

“Who do you want to evolve first?” asked Luna.

“Hornber,” replied Aurin. “I think he would benefit more from evolving than Shamtile would. It’s the less dramatic change of the two so my tactics won’t have to change much. What about you?”

“Dripper. I don’t think I could get used to Innogon growing five feet taller.”

“I understand. I can’t picture Shamtile as larger than he currently is. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, but it’s not a priority. He’s strong as he is now and we’ll work together to get stronger in his current form.”

Shamtile put his hands on his mask and started slapping it. Aurin wasn’t sure what this meant but patted his friend on the head anyway.

“Elevator!” said Luna, pointing down the corridor ahead.

The duo and their Minakai were currently on the fifth floor. This elevator would bring them to the highest floor that either of them had been to. It was an exciting prospect, but there was more to explore here first.

Aurin made a mental note of where the elevator was and walked down a side passage. The group walked through many rooms, collecting silver coins and miscellaneous items they could sell in town. There was nothing particularly notable until Luna called out.

“Egg!”

“Mine!” yelled the voice of a young woman as she darted past the group.

Aurin didn’t even have time to take in what she looked like before sprinting at full speed towards the room where the egg could be seen. The young man quickly caught up with his opponent and they both grabbed hold of the egg.

“We found it first!” shouted Aurin, trying to wrestle the egg away from the young woman. He could see now that she had sharp features and long black hair that was dyed blonde near the ends.

“I touched it first!” she protested.

Luna caught up and whistled at the pair. “The only fair way to settle this is a Minakai battle. I’ll keep an eye on the egg until the battle is over.”

“How do I know this isn’t some trick to distract me?” asked the young woman, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“She’s not like that,” insisted Aurin. “I’ll loosen my grip on the count of three, then you pass it to her. Okay?”

“Fine,” muttered the woman.

“One. Two. Three,” counted Aurin, releasing his grip. The young woman passed the egg over to Luna, then stood at the far end of the room while Aurin walked to the opposite side to face her.

“I’m Aurin,” called the young man.

“I’m Ilena,” said the woman. She was presumably a few years older than Aurin and Luna were.

“I only have two Minakai, so it’s only fair that this is a two-on-two battle. Are you okay with that?”

“I suppose I’ll have to be,” nodded Ilena. “Are you ready?”

“Let’s fight!” called Aurin as thrust his hand forward, summoning forth Hornber.

“Take it out, Rabbacat,” ordered Ilena as she threw an orb of white light from her own glove.

Hornber stood facing a docile-looking Minakai. It was shaped like a rabbit, but a bit rounder. It was a creamy brown colour with a big smile on its face. It started bouncing in place while waiting for Hornber to make a move.

The young dinosaur stood in wait, sensing that his opponent was a lot faster than he was. Acting rashly would give the Rabbacat the edge. Aurin said nothing, knowing what Hornber was thinking.

“Enough waiting!” yelled Ilena.

Rabbacat bounced rapidly forward on all fours, then curled into a ball, throwing its entire weight at Hornber.

“Lower your head,” ordered Aurin.

Hornber lowered his head, his spike ready to take the hit. Ilena looked shocked as Rabbacat landed directly on the spike. Hornber rolled backwards, unsteadied by the attack, but Rabbacat lay on the floor. Seconds later, it was recalled through the summoning stone in Ilena’s glove.

“Good job,” praised Aurin as Luna and Innogon danced a goofy cheer.

“A lucky start,” scoffed Ilena as she threw a red light into the centre of the room.

The Minakai that appeared looked similar to a Heatpup but larger and more aggressive. Aurin recognised it as a Dogember, Heatpup’s evolved form.

The Dogember charged forwards and began running circles around Hornber. Aurin assessed that Ilena’s strategy was to use speed to overwhelm her opponents. He wouldn’t let it be that easy for her.

Hornber charged up a fireball in its mouth, waiting for Dogember to make a move closer. The fiery dog leapt through the air and whipped its flaming tail at Hornber, who unleashed his fireball at it. Dogember twirled in the air and deflected the fireball, slamming Hornber across the back with its tail.

The dinosaur climbed to its feet uneasily and engulfed its horn in fire. He was angry and Aurin knew he would get sloppy if he let the urge to strike overtake his wisdom.

“Careful, Hornber,” warned Aurin. “Don’t act rashly. Wait for an opening.”

Hornber gave a small roar of acceptance and remained in place. Dogember meanwhile began to run in circles around Hornber once more. This time, it ran so fast that it was hard to keep track of and it began to look like a swirling orange ring.

Dogember leapt, seemingly from three places at once, using its speed to create an illusion. Hornber wasn’t sure which image to attack and hesitated, as the real Dogember struck him in the side. The young dinosaur fell down, turning into a red ball of light almost immediately and passed through Aurin’s summoning stone.

“Shamtile!” called Aurin while Ilena smirked.

Shamtile ran forwards, waving his arms. Dogember began to repeat its trick of running in circles around its target.

“Conjure a stalagmite,” ordered Aurin.

Shamtile waved his hands and pointed at a spot on the ground where Dogember was running. A large stalagmite burst forth from the tiles and Dogember slammed face-first into it. Its own speed used against it.

Aurin, Luna and Innogon cheered as Shamtile squatted and beat his legs, one of his favourite victory dances.

“Chull!” called Ilena as Dogember returned to her glove. A yellow light appeared in the air and a small black bird wearing a mask of bone flapped in place. Visible on its feathery chest was what appeared to be a small white skull.

“What are you doing?” yelled Aurin.

Ilena merely smirked as her Chull took aim at Shamtile and flapped a powerful gust of air at the masked lizard. Shamtile, not quite realising what was happening fell backwards. The Chull burst forward, trying to charge into the unaware Shamtile, currently prone on the ground.

“Roll left!” ordered Aurin, acting as Shamtile’s eyes.

The earth elemental rolled out of the way of the attack, Chull ascending out of its dive and turning around to attack again. Shamtile bent its knees, ready to take the hit. As Chull approached, Shamtile encased its forearms in stone. Ilena, not learning from her previous mistake, did not stop Chull in time as the undead bird collided with the rock. It fell to the ground and was recalled.

“This isn’t over, Aurin,” said Ilena, as she gave a small wave before being ejected from the tower in a burst of light.

“I don’t like her,” said Luna, walking over to Aurin.

Aurin nodded. “She plays dirty. She wanted me out of the tower so she could take the egg from you directly.”

“Innogon, Dripper and I would have dealt with her,” said Luna cheerfully, as Innogon nodded in agreement.

“I know you would,” smiled Aurin. “Who gets the egg this time?”

“You won the battle, Sir Aurin, so I bequeath it unto you,” said Luna with a fake royal accent, as she passed the egg to Aurin.

“Thanks, Luna,” said Aurin, stashing it in his bag.

“We’re now down one team member, so I’ll feel safer if Dripper is here too,” said Luna, calling forth Dripper in a burst of blue light.

The blue jelly-like droplet wobbled in place, looking surprised, before smiling wide. Aurin honestly thought she was a creepy little thing, reminding him of both an alien and an ooze from tabletop games he played when he was younger.

“Let’s keep moving,” said Aurin, leading the group back to where they had previously found the elevator.

Aurin and Luna placed their hands on the blue orb within the pedestal and they were all transported to the sixth floor for the first time.

The tiles on the sixth floor were still in a chessboard pattern, but rotated forty-five degrees, looking more like diamonds than squares from Aurin’s perspective. The bottom half of the wall now featured intricate wooden panelling with smooth red stone on the top half.

“Another new record,” said Luna cheerily.

Aurin didn’t want to get overly excited, recalling what happened with Leo the last time they reached a new floor. Not wanting to be too negative and spoilt the otherwise pleasant mood, he guided everybody down a corridor to the left.

Dripper started bouncing wildly, seemingly very excited.

“What is it?” asked Luna.

Dripper bounced back and forth for a second, staring at her, before bouncing down the corridor and a surprisingly fast pace. Aurin and Luna followed it into a room up ahead and immediately noticed what Dripper had seen.

“A Solar Shard!” exclaimed Aurin.

“Good spot, Dripper!” applauded Luna.

“I’m surprised such a little thing like her has such good eyesight. I think Shamtile’s eyesight isn’t helped by his mask.”

Shamtile started rubbing his mask with affection.

“What does Shamtile look like without the mask?” asked Luna.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a picture of one maskless, even in a book. Shamtile doesn’t mind me putting my hand on his mask, but I think if I tried to take it off, he would tear my hand to shreds.”

“Come to think of it,” began Luna, “when he eats, he seems to just shove the food underneath the mask rather than lift the mask up to reveal his mouth.”

Shamtile began growling and held his mask tight, worried that one of the two humans would get too curious and try to see what his face looked like. Shamtile as a species are born wearing masks and would fight to the death to keep their faces hidden.

“I have the egg, so I think you should get the shard,” said Aurin.

“Not this one,” said Luna. “You have a lot more experience with Hornber than I do with Dripper, so I don’t want to evolve her too fast. I’ll take the next egg and next shard if that’s okay with you?”

“Thanks,” smiled Aurin, happy with that deal.

Aurin walked forward to pick up the Solar Shard, but before he could reach it, he heard a click. He didn’t even have time to register what had happened when, suddenly, two dozen Minakai appeared on the floor in a flash of light.

“A monster den trap!” yelled Aurin, realising he had just walked into one of the most notorious run-ending traps in the tower.

“What do we do?” asked Luna, as the Minakai all began to stir.

“We’ll have to fight our way out,” said Aurin as Shamtile began to wave his arms.