Aurin followed Tobias to the top of the snow-covered ridge. He was exhausted from the trek and they were without Minakai to aid them, but Tobias promised him that it was worth the tiring climb and he would want to preserve his team’s strength for later.

Looking over the edge of the ridge, Aurin’s eyes widened. “A monster tower?” he asked.

Tobias nodded. “Snowpeak Tower,” he said. “Hidden behind the peaks and ridges where nobody from the outside can easily see it.”

“I didn’t see it and I’ve been staying here for a week,” said Aurin incredulously.

Tobias laughed. “Indeed. That’s exactly why it’s the tower with the fewest number of visitors of all the open towers in Bretonia. It opened nearly fifty years ago and I would surmise that it has seen less than a thousand tamers, while Ludonia Tower can see that many in a single day.”

“What’s so special about this one?”

“There’s not really anything special about it, it’s just a nice peaceful place to train. It doesn’t hurt that it’s quite the sight to behold with all of the snow surrounding it.

The champion guided Aurin carefully along the edge of the ridge and to a small ice-coated path, where they held onto the cliff face to keep themselves balanced on their descent.

“Watch yourself,” said Tobias, holding up an arm to prevent Aurin slipping.

Aurin thanked him and the pair continued until they reached the bottom, where the snow grew thick once again. They trudged on until they reached the doors of the tower, which loomed over them. There was something different about the aura of this tower, especially compared to Harmony Tower. It almost felt threatening.

“Did you bring your three summoning stones?” asked Tobias.

“I did,” said Aurin, holding up his gloved hand and revealing his stones; one clear, one yellow and one green. “How many did you bring?” asked Aurin.

Tobias held up his glove and showed off a single clear stone. “I brought it as a formality as I can’t enter without one. This is your tower run, not mine. I want to see what you can do without any assistance from me.”

With that, Tobias walked up the doors and pulled out a key. He opened them and the familiar swirling void pulled both Aurin and him inside, drawing them away from the cold and into the haunting corridors of Snowpeak Tower.

The pair landed on the first floor, neither phased by the teleportation. Both Aurin and Tobias had been into various towers more than enough times—Tobias especially so.

“Lead the way,” said Tobias, gesturing down the lone path ahead.

Aurin held out his glove and summoned Leonite using the clear stone. The dark-furred, cobalt-blue lion appeared in a burst of grey light and roared enthusiastically. He had been itching to battle against a Minakai that was not one of his own teammates.

No sooner had the three started moving down the corridor, did an Eyegloo slide along with its single large eye staring from its snowy domed body. Leonite pounced immediately and swept a sharp claw across his foe. The Eyegloo smacked against the wall and vanished in a flash of pale blue.

“He’s keen, isn’t he?” asked Tobias.

“Very much so,” agreed Aurin.

Leonite guided the two humans effortlessly through foe after foe, the swift lion exerting himself very little throughout the first seven floors. Along the way, Aurin picked up plenty of silver and several random items, including Metal Crystal, an Antidote Herb and a Healing Herb; the latter two reminding him of Luna.

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Upon ascending to the sixth floor, Aurin chose to give Leonite a short break and give Petalcub the chance to warm up. After all of the small wolf’s training, he had proven himself more than competent. Starting him in the tower at the sixth floor seemed an appropriate way to challenge him without putting him against foes he could not hope to defeat.

He howled in excitement as he laid eyes upon the floor and walls of the tower. He relished the chance to show his tamer how tough he was, but Aurin knew he had to keep the little Minakai’s expectations in check.

“Don’t get too gung-ho, Petalcub,” Aurin told his Minakai, while Tobias watched silently. He had said very little this entire trip, even when Aurin addressed him directly. He clearly wanted to be a silent observer and little else for now.

As the eager wolf rounded a corner, he hurriedly leapt out of the way as an explosion echoed out and a fireball soared past, fizzling out as it hit the wall. Aurin and Tobias rushed to see what had attacked Petalcub, while the Minakai charged at his foe.

Standing at the end of the corridor, was a small orange pig; a Piggun. It had dark, sunken eyes and its tail was lit up like the fuse of a cannon. It snorted out another explosive fireball form its snout and Petalcub sidestepped it again, but did not expect a second to follow-up so quickly and took this one to the ear.

The wolf howled out and angrily grew out his vines. They wrapped themselves around the Piggun and swung wildly, slamming the Minakai against the walls repeatedly. After a dozen solid bashes, Petalcub flicked his finds and discarded Piggun, who vanished in orange light.

“Good job, bud,” said Aurin, proud that his Minakai had passed his first real test against a hostile opponent. “You need to expect the unexpected here. The battlefield is narrower and the wild Minakai won’t play fairly.”

Petalcub growled in agreement and used his vines to scratch his itchy, burned ear.

“That’ll heal up with some food and some rest,” said Aurin, before remembering the Healing Herb he had. “In fact, let’s take care of that now.”

He squatted beside his Minakai and fed Petalcub the herb. Almost instantly, Petalcub’s wound healed and his ear was as good as new.

“I’m curious,” said Tobias. “Why did you choose to use that now rather than when he’s more injured?”

“Normally, I would hold off,” said Aurin, knowing where Tobias was going with this, “but because this is his first run in any tower, I wanted to give him a do-over for his first mistake.”

“And you don’t think you should have let him feel the lesson of mistakes?”

“He did feel the lesson. His ear was injured and uncomfortable, so he knows that he needs to be more careful. On top of that, an itch that he can’t scratch away could cost him his focus against any other enemies we come across.”

“I see,” said Tobias, not giving away what he thought on the matter, but Aurin was too curious not to ask.

“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” asked the younger tamer.

“That’s for you to decide later. Let’s keep going.”

Petalcub took Aurin and Tobias through the rest of the floor, fighting another half dozen Minakai along the way. Petalcub was indeed more careful than before, taking no major injuries and just a few scratches and knocks. It was not long before they all ascended to the seventh floor.

The next couple of floors passed without much incident, but on floor ten, Petalcub was starting to tire and take more serious injuries. A Tadpool struck him in the side with one of its icicles, but Petalcub managed to cut across the icy frog with his razor petals. A Litehorn zapped him on the tail, leaving it numb, but Petalcub retaliated with a strong bite and defeated it.

Once they had cleared the tenth floor and landed on the eleventh, Aurin banished Petalcub and gave his final Minakai a chance to practice before the real challenge of the tower began. Skrow appeared in a burst of yellow light and cawed loudly, flapping his wings and charging back and forth to keep himself nimble.

“You ready, Skrow?” asked Aurin, getting a friendly nip on the shoulder from his skull-headed bird. “That’s good enough for me.”

Skrow flapped along beside his tamer, taking the tower more cautiously than Leonite and Petalcub—and with good reason, considering they were on a higher floor.

“What difficult rating is this tower?” asked Aurin.

“What do you think?” Tobias replied.

“It hasn’t been any more difficult than Harmony Tower and is definitely less challenging than Ludonia Tower.”

“If you can tell that, does the rating itself matter?”

“I suppose it doesn’t.”

Click.

Aurin and Tobias froze, while Skrow sprang into action at the appearance of a dozen wild Minakai in the room; Aurin had been so focused on talking that he had triggered a monster den trap.

“Take them all out, Skrow!” he called.