“Is that what I think it is?” asked Hunter, still reeling from his Shockbot’s sudden defeat.
“Yes,” said Frederick, looking rather pleased with himself, “but that’s not a story for you, Hunter. Shouldn’t you be leaving now that you’ve been eliminated?”
“I’ll take care of this,” Aurin told Hunter without taking his eyes off of Frederick.
“I know,” said Hunter, putting his hand on Aurin’s shoulder before walking away.
“I thought this Cubtem branch was supposed to be extinct?” asked Aurin, remembering the fang that Hunter had shown him in the museum in Ludonia. “How did you manage to obtain one?”
“I have my ways,” said Frederick smugly, “and those ways have given me the greatest team imaginable. I have my Leonite for speed and my Leofang for power, they’re an unstoppable duo. Neither of them is lacking in either strength or speed, but should I ever find myself outclassed in either department, it’s simple to substitute one in for the other.”
“How did you obtain one?” asked Aurin again.
“Do you really want to know?” asked Frederick. “Perhaps I’ll give you a small hint then. It involved a lot of experimentation, a little bit of luck and perhaps some divine intervention from the cosmos.”
“Is that why you vanished for the better part of a year?” asked Aurin. “Were you seeking a way to obtain a Leofang or was it because you were seeking something else?”
Frederick shrugged. “Who’s to say?”
“Enough with being cryptic,” said Aurin, “give me a straight answer. Why did you vanish? I know it was something to do with Zodiac. Is Leofang a cosmic elemental?”
Frederick let out a single guttural laugh of derision. “No, you fool,” he said and holding up his tamer glove to reveal three faint cream-coloured summoning stones. “Much like Leonite, Leofang is elementally neutral. You think I would be stupid enough to bring a cosmic elemental here and draw attention to myself? Of course not.”
Aurin couldn’t help but wonder if that meant Frederick had succeeded in also obtaining a cosmic Minakai, but he knew it would be pointless to ask. If he had, he would have handed it over to Taurus by now.
“Are you finished asking me tedious questions?” Frederick asked.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Leonite and Leofang leapt into battle. Shamtile would not let them get the jump on him and threw up a rock wall to block the two lions from getting too close to him and Petalcub. Leofang charged straight through the wall, bringing it tumbling down and Leonite made a beeline straight for Petalcub.
The young wolf summoned a vine to whip his foe, but the lion sank his teeth into him before he had the chance to strike. Leonite clamped down hard and threw Petalcub aside, where he lay still on the grass much to Aurin’s dismay.
Shamtile meanwhile was scurrying around, trying to avoid Leofang’s sharp claws. He summoned stalactites in the air and dropped them on Leofang, but the wolf either batted them away or crushed them in his powerful jaw. It had been a long day for Shamtile and his strength wasn’t what it was at the start of the day.
“This is pathetic,” said Frederick. “I was hoping that if anyone was going to give me a challenge today, it would be you. You’ve defeated half the tamers I’ve had and there’s no good reason for your Minakai to be so weak right now.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Aurin didn’t respond and focussed on watching Shamtile’s back as Leonite joined Leofang’s assault on the masked lizard. The speedier Leonite had a much easier time catching Shamtile, but as the lion tried to bite him, Shamtile encased his fist in stone and delivered a bone-shattering punch to Leonite’s jaw, casting the lion aside.
“He’s not done yet, Shamtile,” warned Aurin as Leonite stirred on the ground.
Shamtile didn’t have time to check on Leonite and Leofang was on him quickly. The lizard raised himself up on a pillar and Leofang quickly smashed it to pieces. Shamtile leapt from it and raised another. Leofang smashed this one too and Shamtile summoned a third. This continued until there was a large pile of rubble on the ground and Shamtile finally allowed himself to land back on the grass after over a dozen pillars were broken.
“Now!” called Aurin, taking Frederick by surprise.
Shamtile waved his arms in the air and the rocks glowed as, one by one, they were thrown threw the air at Leofang who smashed the first few to pieces before taking a flying rock to the nose. Dazed from the impact, the rest of the rocks struck him and beat the huge lion repeatedly.
“Behind you,” warned Aurin as Leonite finally rejoined the battle.
Shamtile used one hand to control the rocks attacking Leofang and the other to throw more at Leonite, but the split attention gave the two enough openings to avoid taking any more hits before Shamtile was out of rocks. Both of the lions were battered and bruised, but they were still more than willing to keep fighting.
Shamtile stood there panting, looking as though he was about to keel over at any second. Leonite and Leofang both leapt at him simultaneously, but Shamtile still had some fight left of his own. He stomped one foot on the ground and a large stalagmite burst up, smashing into the bottom of Leonite’s jaw and flipping him over. Leofang narrowly missed Shamtile who rolled out of the way and delivered a stony punch to the stunned Leonite, knocking him out and eliminating him from the competition.
“No!” yelled Frederick. “You’re going to pay for that.”
Frederick reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a Healing Herb. He threw it towards his Leofang who opened his mouth to grab it, but the large lion was suddenly pulled back by a large vine that had wrapped itself around his leg. The ancient cat turned to see a small green wolf restraining him. He wrenched his leg free from the vine and charged at Petalcub. He headbutted him so hard that the little wolf was thrown high into the air and then crashed to the ground with a much louder thud than you would expect from a monster of his weight. This time, Petalcub was truly out of the fight.
Leofang turned and ran for the herb only to find it was missing. Where it had fallen on the ground there was only a green lizard, who’s jaw was visibly moving behind his mask. Leofang roared so loudly in anger that the ground shook so vigorously that you could have mistaken him for an earth elemental.
“Too slow,” said Aurin with a sly grin.
“That was a cheap trick,” said Frederick, his voice filled with rage.
“You may not like it, but this is perfectly within the rules,” said Aurin. “Now that leaves me with one strong Minakai and you with one tired kitten.”
Leofang pounced on Shamtile, who encased his body in armour and his fists in stone. Shamtile delivered a mighty uppercut to Leofang’s jaw and then jabbed him in the neck a few times before casting off the stone fists and summoning a boulder that came crashing down on the lion’s head.
Leofang swiped at Shamtile and shattered his armour, but Shamtile waved his arms and brought the sharp stones into the air and hurled them at Leofang. They wedged themselves into his front legs and he fell down flat onto his stomach. Shamtile tossed himself into the air with a pillar that shot up from the ground and then conjured two rocky spears, one for each hand. He threw them downwards and Leofang rolled aside to avoid them, but Shamtile covered his fists in rock once again and plummeted towards the lion, fists-first.
Frederick’s Minakai let out an immense roar as Shamtile slammed into his back. With a final wave of his arms, Shamtile summoned a huge boulder and dropped it onto Leofang’s head, knocking him out and eliminating both Leofang and Frederick from the competition.
“Agh!” yelled Frederick in frustration.
“You lose, Leo,” said Aurin as Shamtile did an enthusiastic victory dance while standing atop the unconscious Leofang’s back.
Frederick reached into his jacket and pulled out a summoning stone. He looked down at it with a look of pure malice in his face. The swirling turquoise was unlike most other stones and he clutched it tight, ready to summon a fourth Minakai into battle.
“Abysarex,” Frederick whispered so quietly that only he could hear it, “you will bring us victory, won’t you?”
Shamtile stopped dancing and both he and his tamer watched Frederick carefully, wary of what he was about to do. The Zodiac elite’s hand was shaking; he was about to summon something that he knew Aurin wouldn’t be able to handle without backup and he would claim the Palace Royale prize for himself.