“Tamer three, Master Gardner, eliminated by tamer seven, Master Frederick,” announced Lord Kensington.

Aurin stopped walking through the woods, stunned by what he had heard. “Already?” he asked his team, none of whom had any answer. “Gardner’s the highest-ranking competitor to be taken out so far. That’s two from the top table eliminated.”

Shamtile looked to Snipper and to Gorunze, then back to Snippet and said something to him in a warbled growl. Snipped made a clicking sound with his mouth and held the egg up into the air before bringing it back down. Aurin had no clue what the Minakai were talking about.

“What’s the supposed to mean?” asked Aurin, scratching his head in frustration.

Shamtile conjured four rocks from the air and started juggling them. He caught them and held them out to Aurin, who understood.

“You mean, you’re a strong team of four Minakai and Gardner may have lost a couple of his team before the battle.”

Shamtile screeched and nodded as Snippet clicked away excitedly.

“That’s true. At least, it will be once I hatch this Petalcub,” he said, pushing his way past the last of the trees and stepping out into the western side of the grasslands that surrounded the palace.

In the distance ahead was the palace itself. Abby had probably reached it not too long ago after her battle with Luna. Gardner would have been on his way there too.

Shamtile suddenly yelped loudly as a crackling lightning bolt struck the ground near his feet. Aurin looked to where it had come from and saw one of the many watchtowers across the grass with another lightning bolt speeding towards them.

“Shamtile!” called Aurin and the masked lizard slammed his foot on the ground and summoned a rock wall to take the hit.

Aurin grabbed Snippet and leapt atop Gorunze. Shamtile followed close by, summoning another rock wall to take another of the lightning strikes.

“Whoever that is, we’ve got to take them out,” said Aurin. “Let’s move!”

Gorunze leapt over the ruins of Shamtile’s walls and charged across the grass with his tamer and teammates riding on his back. With each lightning strike that approached, Shamtile summoned rocks to block them. A couple of strikes found their way through and zapped Gorunze on his bronze body, but he powered ahead and charged to the tower.

Snippet started clicking and held the Petalcub egg out for Aurin to take it from him. Aurin did so and the little insect held onto Gorunze with one hand and kept one of his pincers pointed forwards, aimed at the top of the tower. Aurin strained his eyes and spied a Gittup and Thunding taking it in turns to strike.

Once they were close, Snippet’s hand exploded, shooting a burst of shrapnel towards the tower. One of the pieces struck the Thunding, who screeched as it was knocked back. It did not get up by the time Gorunze reached the base of the tower.

“Shamtile,” said Aurin, “take us up the quick way.”

Shamtile waved his hands wildly and the earth beneath Gorunze sprung up as a pillar and lifted Aurin’s team to the roof of the tower. Gorunze jumped over the battlements and Aurin saw his opponent.

“Hello, Aurin,” said a blonde girl whose hair was cut to shoulder length. She wore sparkling blue dress and stood beside her Gittup.

“Do I know you?” asked Aurin he, Shamtile and Snippet dismounted Gorunze.

“Only from a distance,” smiled the girl, nodding to her Gittup.

The tufty blue beast flicked its pointed yellow tail at Gorunze, shooting him with a mighty blast of lightning. Shamtile tried to block the attack, but was too slow, a lot of his energy drained on the way to the tower. Gorunze was knocked over the battlements and passed the pillar of earth, falling at least sixty feet to the ground. Aurin rushed to the edge and looked over at his motionless Minakai on the ground.

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“Finish them!” he yelled at Shamtile and Snippet.

Snippet charged forward with Shamtile defending him with a rocky barrier that slid along in front of him. Even with the lightning strikes, Shamtile kept the barrier strong, angered by the defeat of his teammate. The barrier slammed into Gittup, distracting him while Snippet hopped over it and delivered two sharp cuts across Gittup’s back.

Gittup unleashed a burst of electrical energy as it howled in pain. Snippet ran across its back and cut its tail with his pincer hands while Shamtile bashed it unconscious with his rocky fists. Shannon watched in horror as her Minakai was beaten savagely by the two little Minakai.

“Tamer ten, Lady Shannon, eliminated by tamer two, Master Aurin,” came Lord Kensington’s voice from a speaker somewhere on the tower wall.

“I…I…” stammered Shannon.

“That was dirty,” said Aurin coldly, his blood was boiling at how she conducted herself. “You got exactly what you deserved, and you should be grateful I didn’t take it any further.”

Shannon didn’t say a word as she walked towards the stairs. She disappeared from sight, leaving Aurin, Shamtile and Snippet atop the tower.

“Losing Gorunze is going to set us back,” Aurin told his two small Minakai, “but we’re not to be deterred. We continue with our plan and we hunt for items that will give us the edge. The only boon of losing our metal friend is that it’ll be easier for us to keep out of sight. I would be surprised if there aren’t others dealing low blows. We won’t stoop to their level, but we will still win. Right?”

Shamtile waved his arms and screeched while Snippet cut the air and nodded his insectoid head. The three scoured the rooftop and inside the tower for anything they could use, but it had no doubt been looted ages ago. They would have to go outside of the nearby grounds if they were to find anything, but that was no surprise. Aurin had intended to head north towards the cliffs where he thought they may get lucky.

Snippet started jumping up and down and pointing one of his pincers towards the sky behind Aurin. Aurin turned around and saw a Wingbloom flying through the air with a man on his back and a Snowlem clinging onto his feet. It was Kyle and his team, but they didn’t seem to have seen him.

“Signal him,” Aurin told Shamtile.

Shamtile looked around, not sure how to and had a sudden idea. He raised his arms and raised them while spinning around and the entire tower began to shake as the earth beneath it raised it up. Aurin clung onto a battlement tightly with one hand and the Minakai egg with the other. It had worked, Wingbloom had glanced over and was flying towards them now.

“Kyle!” called Aurin, waving as Shamtile lowered the tower back down to its normal height.

“That’s one way to get attention,” chuckled Kyle as Snowlem dropped onto the tower roof and Wingbloom landed. Kyle dismounted and patted his favourite Minakai on the chest lightly. The rancher then walked over to Shamtile and squatted down. “How are you not tired after that?”

Shamtile looked at Aurin and then back at Kyle and gave a small screech.

“Well, that’s a mighty impressive move,” said Kyle, standing up again. “What happened to your Gorunze?” he asked Aurin.

“I sent him back to the ranch a few minutes ago,” said Aurin, shaking his head slowly. “I was sniped by a girl called Shannon.”

“Blonde girl with shoulder-length hair?”

“You know her?”

“Yes, she’s from Hazelton but has always competed in other towns because we didn’t have tournaments until recently.”

“How about you?” asked Aurin, looking towards Kyle’s two Minakai.

“I got jumped by two tamers for a three versus six battle,” said Kyle with a shrug. “I came out on top, but Hogannon was overwhelmed. It’ll be alright, I’ve still got Wing and Snowlem to keep me going. Have you seen anyone else we know?”

“I was with Luna for a while,” said Aurin. “Her Tadpool is injured, but hanging on, and she lost her Splashard in a fight with Abby.”

“She won the fight though, right? I heard it on the speaker.”

“Yes,” confirmed Aurin. “Not too long before Leo defeated Gardner.”

“That’s a bit of an upset for him, no doubt,” said Kyle. “He’s wanted to get revenge on Leo for everything that happened at the first Hazelton tournament a year and a half ago. He hasn’t been able to let it go.”

“He didn’t say much about it to me.”

“Did you ask him about it?”

“Well…no, I suppose not.”

“I did and he’s still seething about it. I can’t say I blame him, I’d like to see that entire organisation wiped out after what they did to my ranch, but there’s not much we can do about them for the time being.”

“We’ll deal with them after the tournament,” said Aurin.

“We’ll see,” said Kyle quietly. As much as he hated the Zodiac Squad, he knew they were outnumbered by the goons, never mind the twelve elites they had in their ranks. With the group seemingly growing stronger and a cosmic elemental on their side, it would be an uphill battle.

“I’m heading towards the cliffs if you want to stick together for a while?” asked Aurin, pointing towards the north.

“Sounds like a plan,” said Kyle. “I get the first item we find.”

“Not if it’s an incubator,” said Aurin, holding up the egg.

“You’ll have to fight me for it then,” joked Kyle as they headed towards the stairs.