Dolissile rammed into trees, snapping them in half as Desparee weaved his nature magic to fix them. Every now and then, Spikruption would uproot one with his tail and catch the nature Minakai off-guard, prompting him to turn and hurriedly right it as Shamtile reburied the roots.

It was an unorthodox method of training, Aurin had to admit, but Tobias thought it would be a good way to have the Minakai train with their own abilities without having them beat each other to a pulp again.

“Have you done something like this before?” Aurin asked him.

“This specifically?” replied Tobias. “No. But I like to be creative with my training. I think it brings out the best in my Minakai and makes them adaptable. It’s great to work out hard with running, lifting and combat, but sometimes you need to mix it up and try something new. Who knows when it could come in useful?”

“Do you think your approach to training is one of the key elements that led you to becoming the national champion?” asked Aurin. Upon saying this, he felt as though he was interviewing Tobias for a job.

Tobias took it well and laughed it off. “One of them, I’m sure. I try to train hard and train smart, but training creatively means your Minakai can expect the unexpected.”

After a while, Aurin let Dolissile take a break and substituted him with Chopchop, who was much more efficient in his destruction of the trees. So much so that Aurin ordered Budescent to aid Desparee in the repairs and together they were able to keep the forest from being desecrated while Shamtile continued to keep a watchful eye on Spikruption from behind his mask.

“Here’s a question for you, Aurin,” said Tobias.

“Let’s hear it,” the young tamer replied.

“What made you want to become a tamer in the first place?”

“In the first place? I’m not sure if I’ve got a great answer for you.”

“See what you can put together. I’m curious.”

Aurin thought back to various events throughout his life for a moment before answering. “My parents were never all that interested in Minakai,” he said eventually, “but my brother was…well, he still is. He’s a great tamer in his own right and he’s been off exploring the world, travelling from country to country and learning everything he can. I think that because of him, Minakai has always been a part of my life. My mum didn’t want us both to be so heavily involved with raising monsters, so it took a lot of persuasion from my dad to convince her to let me travel to Hazelton alone. I wanted to prove to her that I was dedicated and could rise to the top and, along the way, I think she started to believe that I could too.”

“Your family are the ones who push you on then?” asked Tobias, looking intrigued.

“In a sense,” replied Aurin before letting out a chuckle. “I think my brother could even stand up to you. Maybe not defeat you, but it wouldn’t be a clean sweep for you this time Tobias. I want to be as great as he is one day and have the chance to battle him as equals rather than as his little brother.”

“If you can beat him, do you think you’ve got a shot against me?” said Tobias, nudging Aurin in the ribs.

“We’ll have to see about that,” said Aurin. “I haven’t seen him in years, so maybe he’s better than you already.”

Tobias laughed loudly. “I’ll look forward to battling him some day. Does he ever participate in tournaments?”

“No, that’s not really his style. He likes to battle people without the spectacle of it all. He’s one of those tamers who tried tournaments and found that it wasn’t for him. I didn’t understand that mindset until recently, if I’m honest.”

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“Sometimes I wish I could avoid the spectacle,” said Tobias, “but there are other times that I believe it’s a good motivator for other tamers.”

“I’ve seen you in action, don’t forget. You can be quite the showman when you want to be.”

“Yeah…yeah, I can,” said Tobias slyly. “I’ve got a love hate relationship with being the national champion. When I get in the zone, I’m all in. Other times, like right now, I like to get away from it all and train out here in the wilderness. There’s nothing else like it. There’s zero pressure out here, except for what you impose upon yourself.”

“I think I’ve got a solution to that.”

“What’s that then?”

“Train a young up and comer and have him crush you in front of the country.”

Tobias laughed uproariously. “Are you insinuating what I think you’re insinuating?”

“Nah,” chuckled Aurin. “I’m sure you know that I would have come for you whether we trained out here or not…perhaps just a little slower.”

“Fair enough.”

“I mean it though,” said Aurin. “One day I will defeat you and it’ll be the best battle that either of us ever has. Mark my words, Tobias.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that you don’t defeat me.”

“And I would expect nothing less.”

Suddenly Desparee leapt in front of Aurin and Tobias with his arms raised up, weeping profusely and holding up a tree with his magic. It seemed as though Spikruption had gotten a little too wild and almost flattened his own tamer and the national champion.

“What a way to bring my reign as champion to an end,” remarked Tobias.

“Spikruption!” barked Aurin. “Sit the next hour out.”

Spikruption looked furious and stormed off, shaking the snow from the bushes as he huffed and puffed all the way back to Tobias’s house. The rest of the Minakai continued training until sunset, when Aurin and Tobias decided to call it a day and grab dinner.

They walked through the warm light of the village under the dark sky and headed into Leanne’s pub to order food. The rest of the patrons greeted them warmly as Aurin and Tobias made their orders and took their seats at an empty booth.

“How about you?” Aurin asked him. “What made you want to become a tamer?”

“My dad was a tamer,” said Tobias. “So was my grandfather, my great-grandfather and so on, and so on. Minakai taming runs in my family for many generations so it was only right that I continue the legacy.”

“Do you ever have any regrets about choosing this path in life?”

“Not once,” said Tobias so resolutely that a few of the townsfolk turned to look at them. “How about you?”

“Not once,” said Aurin, “and I don’t see that ever changing.”

“It’s the mystery of what these mysterious creatures are that keeps me so invested all these years later. I’m still learning new things and I have no doubt I will for the rest of my life. Do you know what one of the most mysterious things about Minakai is?”

“Cosmic elementals?”

“No,” said Tobias. “It’s the legendary Minakai.”

“The legendary Minakai?” asked Aurin. “Don’t you mean the epic Minakai? Like your Arusom?”

“No,” said Tobias, looking very serious. “Epic Minakai are wonders in their own right, but there are Minakai more rare and powerful than even those. Their powers and abilities can make mincemeat out of regular cosmic Minakai, so just imagine what an epic or a legendary cosmic elemental can do. They could potentially unravel reality as we know it.”

“Do you know of any legendary cosmic elementals?” asked Aurin.

“No,” said Tobias, “but I have no doubt that they exist. Whether they’re lost to time or they’ve yet to surface, they exist. That’s something I would like to do before I’m too old to keep all this up. I would like to come face to face with a cosmic legendary.”

“Where can you find legendary Minakai?” asked an incredibly intrigued Aurin.

“That’s something for you to discover on your own,” said Tobias, “and I have no doubt in my mind that you will. Perhaps once you do, you can help me find more of them.”

“Of course.”

“Should we make a pact then?” asked Tobias. “Whoever finds one first, we tell the other everything. If we’re exceptionally lucky and obtain one for ourselves, then we let the other fight against it to see just how capable we are?”

“I’m in,” said Aurin, holding out his hand for Tobias to shake.

“Pleased to hear it,” said Tobias, shaking Aurin’s outstretched hand.

“Food’s ready, boys,” said Leanne, approaching with plates stacked in her arms. “You two must be hungry today, what have you been doing?”

“Training,” said Aurin and Tobias in unison.

Leanne laughed as she set the plates on the table and started arranging them. “It looks like Tobias is turning you into a carbon copy of himself, Aurin,” she said.

“He should be so lucky,” jabbed Tobias with a chuckle.

The two tamers wolfed down their food and continued talking about the mysteries of Minakai, from Tobias’s theories about how the towers came to be and where Minakai came from—which did not match what Virgo had told Aurin—all the while Aurin could only offer outlandish guesses in response. Truly, the mystery of what these interdimensional beings were, would not be solved anytime soon.