Frederick walked along the grass with his two remaining Minakai following him. Much to his disgrace, one of his Leonite had fallen in his battle with Gardner. He had to use an Orna Berry he found to fully restore the other—his favourite Leonite—but at least he could brush that off as a near defeated Minakai rather than a defeated one. With all that said, his

“Come, Leofang,” said Frederick as the larger of his two lion Minakai spied a Wingbloom drifting into the forest. “We will deal with them later. Aurin will still be standing at the end, but he’ll be a much easier target then. If we take on both him and his friend Kyle together then it’ll be us that suffers.”

The once thought lost evolution of Cubtem obeyed and followed its tamer. The Zodiac member and his Minakai continued to patrol the grasslands around the castle, hoping to find some more weaklings to test his strength against. Every victory was esteem for him and he would now be ranked a lowly seven ever again.

“There,” muttered Frederick, spotting a young man with a Zenoman up ahead. Frederick hopped onto Leonite’s back and charged ahead with Leofang sticking close to them.

Jimmy spotted the two charging lions and turned to face his next opponent. “Zenoman, it’s him!” he called, upon seeing who it was. “I was just waiting for you to show up.”

“Should I know you?” asked Frederick, dismounting from his lion. He was curious and would hold his attack for now. The tamer looked weak.

“You should know both of us,” said Jimmy angrily. “It was you and your group who abducted Zenoman here back when he was an Arium. Surely you haven’t forgotten the Hazelton tournament a year and a half ago, have you?”

“Ah,” said Frederick with a small smile. “I should really apologise for that, shouldn’t I?”

“Apologise?” spat Jimmy. “After what you did, you should be in jail…yet here you are having the time of your life in a tournament!”

“If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t anything personal. It was about gathering resources to help us with our endeavours. Strictly business, you understand.”

“Oh, I understand,” said Jimmy quietly, looking at Zenoman. “Attack!” he ordered.

“Suit yourself,” shrugged Frederick, nodding at Leofang. “You’re up, boy.”

The sabre-toothed lion sped towards Zenoman who unleashed a flurry of rapid punches with his four detached fists. Leofang dodged half of the attacks and took the full brunt of the others, yet he still pushed ahead strongly.

He leapt into the air and swiped at Zenoman’s torso, tearing a large gash into the alien. Zenoman squealed in pain, but he was not done for yet. He surrounded Leofang with his four fists and brought them together, each of the hands grabbing a limb to restrain the lion.

“Break out of this,” said Jimmy, pointing to the sky.

Zenoman raised his hands, lifting Leofang into the air, but Frederick did not look phased. Zenoman released the lion who was about to fall, but he swiped a claw and sank his nails into one of the disembodied hands. He bit it and the Zenoman on the ground felt the full force of the bite. The remaining three fists soared through the air and started pummelling Leofang, but he clamped his jaw down even harder and sank his two large fangs deeper.

“You’re twisted!” cried Jimmy as the fangs pierced through the bottom of Zenoman’s hand.

The hand fell to the ground and Leofang finally pulled himself free and dropped to the ground, rolling out of the fall. The three remaining hands rained down from the sky, knuckles-first and continued to try and beat the Leofang, but they were dodged, blocked and weathered. He was not as fast as a Leonite, but Leofang could take a hard hit and barely feel a thing.

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“Give him a taste of his own medicine,” said Frederick, leaning against his Leonite and stroking its mane.

Leofang stood on his hind legs and grabbed one of the fists with his two front paws. He swung it around and threw it at Zenoman, who brought it to a dead spot just before it hit his face. Leofang leapt over the fist and grabbed Zenoman’s elongated head in his mouth and bit down. He flicked his head and tossed the golden Minakai aside and the remaining three fists all dropped to the ground as Zenoman lost consciousness.

A loudspeaker crackled nearby. “Tamer sixteen, Master James, eliminated by tamer seven, Master Frederick,” came Lord Kensington’s voice.

Jimmy watched in shock as Leofang returned to his master, looking as though it hadn’t battled at all during this entire tournament. “Good boy,” said Frederick, scratching the large lion’s chin before turning to Jimmy. “This wasn’t personal either,” he told his defeated opponent.

“I’ll get you back for this,” replied Jimmy. “Once day, I’ll get you back.”

“Good luck with that,” said Frederick. “You couldn’t battle your way out of a bush, James.”

“You won’t win, you know that? Aurin, Kyle or Hunter will make sure of that.”

“If the prize for this tournament is what I believe it to be,” said Frederick, “then I will win no matter the cost.”

With that, Frederick hopped on Leonite and departed, leaving Jimmy to return to the palace in defeat.

*

“What use is a Lunar Shard to you?” asked Aurin.

“I found it, therefore it is mine,” replied Kyle. “I’m not just giving it to you for trade. You can evolve your Snippet another way.”

“It’s not for Snippet, it’s for Tadpool.”

“Luna’s Tadpool?”

“Yes,” said Aurin. “If he evolves, his injury is taken care of, right?”

“I suppose so, but do you even know where she is right now?”

“No,” admitted Aurin. “I doubt she’s still hanging around the waterfall. If you can find her, she would happily trade an Astral Shard for it.”

“Unbelievable…” muttered Kyle, looking towards the cliffs.

Aurin turned his gaze to the cliff and spied a cave entrance. “Alright, so we’re going inside.”

“Look up a little.”

Aurin did just that and started to laugh. Wedged into the rockface just above the entrance was a crystalline stone in the shape of a moon. It was another Lunar Shard.

“I’ll take this one for Luna,” said Aurin. “Shamtile, bring it down.”

Shamtile waved his arms and the tiny gap the shard was wedged into widened and the crystal fell to the ground. Shamtile scurried forward and picked it up, throwing it to Aurin.

“Good thing you didn’t make Snippet do it or he might have accidentally evolved,” chuckled Kyle.

“I didn’t even consider that. I suppose I’ll have to be more careful.”

“Here,” said Kyle, tossing Aurin the other Lunar Shard. “If you find her, give her this one. You two are like magnets so you’ll probably run into her before I do.”

“Thanks, Kyle,” said Aurin excitedly. “Snippet, I think you’re ready for the next level.”

“You’re wasting no time, are you?”

“Kyle, Kyle, Kyle,” said Aurin. “We’re at war in this tournament. It’s adapt or be defeated. I’m going to adapt.”

“Do what you want,” said Kyle with a shrug.

Snippet ran up to Aurin eagerly and help up his hands as though to cut the Lunar Shard. Aurin leaned down and pressed it against him and the soldier ant began to glow a steely grey. Snippet grew much taller, surpassing Aurin in height while his arms transformed from scissor-like pincers to long and razor sharp cleavers. His armour grew along with him and a helmet formed on his head while his antennas grew out of it and stood up rigidly. The glow faded and he screeched and clicked.

“Do you feel stronger, Chopchop?” Aurin asked him.

The newly evolved Minakai swung his new bladed arms around like a knight dual-wielding swords. He nodded and wandered over to a nearby tree. He held one of his arms back and then threw it forward, cutting halfway into the trunk.

“You’ll get there,” said Aurin.

“You don’t think cutting halfway through a tree trunk is enough?” asked Kyle.

“You can never be powerful enough,” said Aurin. “Once we’re out of here, I’ll have him slicing boulders in half with a single slash.”

Shamtile ran up to his much taller friend and looked up at him, then slumped over sadly. He was content to not evolve, preferring to keep his speed at the cost of strength, but he liked having another shorter Minakai on the team.

“Cheer up, Shamtile,” said his tamer. “Arium, Sunny and Microbot are back at the ranch and they’re fine as they are for now.”

“I don’t believe Sunny evolves at all,” added Kyle.

“See? You’ll always be taller than somebody on the team.”

“Should we get out of here before somebody spots us and attacks us from behind?” asked Kyle, looking around.

“That would probably be for the best, yes,” said Aurin.

The two humans and the four Minakai walked towards the dark cave entrance, curious as to what was inside. If there was a Lunar Shard at the entrance, there would undoubtedly be something useful in here. All they had to do was keep a close eye out for other tamers who may be lurking in the shadows.