Aurin was dumbfounded. Tobias had asked him to battle against a cosmic Minakai and there was no way he could pass up the opportunity. So stricken was he that all he could do was nod.

“Good,” said Tobias, stroking his Mindadam’s mane as the mechanical horse whinnied. “He doesn’t get much opportunity to battle, so it will be good training for both of you.”

“I fought against a cosmic elemental once before and lost…badly. It was an Ethruki and I’d never seen abilities quite like those it possessed.”

“Then all the more reason to pay close attention to the powers my Mindadam utilises so that you can learn how to confront a cosmic elemental again in the future.”

“You’re right,” said Aurin.

Tobias nodded. “I am. There will be no limits to this battle and you’re free to use all of your Minakai until you run out. I expect you will run out, but perhaps by the end, you will at least be able to truly fight against Mindadam and the mysterious cosmic element.”

“Shamtile,” said Aurin, turning towards his masked lizard, “you’re up first. Do you think you can handle it?”

Shamtile shook his head and screeched in protest, but a look from Aurin silenced him. The little Minakai knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Tobias and Aurin separated, giving their Minakai plenty of space to begin their battle. Tobias muttered something to his Mindadam that Aurin couldn’t hear, but he suspected that it was something to do with going easy on him to start with. That would be to the champion’s detriment.

Aurin pulled out each of his summoning stones in turn and summoned his twelve other Minakai into the cavern. They were going to watch everything.

“You ready, Shamtile?” he asked, turning to Shamtile.

Shamtile grunted half-heartedly, as Mindadam repeatedly brushed his front left hoof across the stone.

“Begin,” said Tobias, throwing a hand forward.

Mindadam continued to paw the ground as Shamtile scurried forward. The masked lizard leapt into the air and threw up his hands, dragging them down in an arc and unleashing a cascade of stones at the metallic horse. As soon as they came within an inch of Mindadam, they stones froze in mid-air. With a snort, Mindadam flung them back towards Shamtile, as though he had reversed time.

The reptilian Minakai weaved and dodged his own rebounding attack, then burrowed underground. Mindadam reared up as Shamtile flew, fist-first through the air with his entire body encased in stone. Shamtile was not content with missing and cast off his armour, then swung for the cosmic elemental. Looking hopeful that his attack was going to land, he squealed loudly upon Mindadam vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing a few feet away.

Mindadam reared up once again, letting out a screeching neigh before kicking Shamtile across the room with impressive force. As Shamtile flew through the air, he suddenly came to a stop. He then reversed his trajectory, once again as though Tobias’s Minakai had reversed time. Mindadam moved out of the way and let Shamtile slam into the cavern wall, knocking the lizard out.

Aurin knew now that he was wrong, Tobias hadn’t asked his Minakai to go easy on him at all. If anything, he was being ruthless. “It’s alright,” he muttered to himself. “It’s thirteen against one and I’m only one down. Chopchop!”

The armoured purple insect appeared in a burst of grey. He rubbed his bladed arms against each other and then assumed a fighting stance. Mindadam stomped his feet and sent a concussive blast through the air, but Chopchop steeled himself and held strong, merely being pushed back rather than knocked over.

“Now!” called Aurin.

Chopchop sprinted forwards, his arms both to his left side. He spun around, twisting his arms out as though he was a living buzzsaw. Surely his momentum has to be enough to push through whatever forcefield Mindadam was using.

“I don’t believe it,” said Aurin, his mouth hanging open.

Chopchop had frozen and Mindadam was casually trotting over to him. He put his two front hooves on the insect and pushed him backwards, knocking him onto the stone floor. Angered, Chopchop leapt at him, but was flung against the wall as Shamtile had been.

“Spikruption!”

The large dinosaur rolled forward, trying to plough Mindadam over, but the cosmic elemental toyed with him and teleported out of the way each time Spikruption drew close. After he had his fun, Spikruption was sent rolling into the pool of water in the middle of the cavern.

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“Budescent!”

The wolf’s petals were reversed, cutting across him and injuring him badly.

“Leonite!”

Speedy as the lion was, Mindadam slowed him down with his elemental magic, making him easy to pick off.

“Gorunze!”

The two mighty constructs faced off against each other, but even Gorunze’s improved accuracy was not enough to land a hit on his teleporting foe.

“Arium!”

Mindadam held the golden alien’s fists in place, rendering him useless.

“Desparee!”

The nature elemental fired a nature only for Mindadam to conjure two portals. The nature beam went in one and came out the other, which was conveniently placed behind Desparee, who unwittingly defeated himself.

“Sunny!”

The floating egg was not one for fighting, but she gave it her best shot and was tossed aside before getting anywhere near Mindadam, perhaps in a display of mercy.

“Microbot!”

The tiny robot bounded forward, determined to impress his master, but was trampled on by the galloping Mindadam who did not even bother to use his cosmic powers.

“Skrow!”

Skrow soared through the air, propelling himself faster using the power of the wind. He whipped and twirled avoiding concussive blasts, dodging the portals Mindadam conjured, but Mindadam eventually got a lock on him and froze the undead bird in place. He was out of the battle seconds later.

“Agh,” grunted Aurin, his frustration immeasurable. “Steamboat, you’re up!”

The titanic robotic appeared, puffing steam and raring to go. He had been pushed hard during his time in Briarwood, but he had been itching to fight against an opponent much tougher than himself to see how he could measure up. This was his time to shine.

Steamboat shot a water jet straight at Mindadam, who opened a portal behind the water elemental. Steamboat spun around and dove through the portal, weathering his own attack and unleashing a pressure cannon at point blank range. Mindadam was struck and knocked to the ground, skidding along the cavern floor.

Steamboat ran with thunderous stomps towards the bronze horse and dove at him, grabbing onto him. He raised a powerful fist and threw it down at the Mindadam, leaving a dent in his side. He drew back to punch again, but the cosmic elemental had gathered himself and knocked Steamboat away with a concussive burst.

Tobias’s Minakai galloped towards him, as Steamboat climbed to his feet, bracing himself to catch his opponent. Mindadam suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Aurin’s Minakai, ramming into him and slamming his hooves down upon the ground Minakai. With a metallic neigh, he flung Steambot up high in the air and watched as the titan fell to the ground, no longer able to fight.

“We were so close,” sighed Aurin, turning towards his final Minakai. “Dolissile!”

The expressionless cybernetic dolphin exploded forwards immediately, hoping to catch Mindadam off guard, but the horse whirled around and froze Dolissile in place. It was over before it had begun and Aurin had resigned himself to defeat as Mindadam started to turn Dolissile.

“No way…” muttered the young tamer, watching as Dolissile started to shake vigorously, then slowly turning back towards Mindadam, whose eyes were glowing brightly as he focused all of his strength on redirecting Dolissile.

“Come on, come on,” whispered Aurin. “He’s tired, you’re not. You can do this.”

Mindadam was straining so hard to steer Dolissile out of the way that he was unable to use any other abilities, lest he break his concentration. Dolissile’s vigorous shaking turned violent as he rumbled in place, desperately trying to break through the cosmic energy holding him in place.

“Full power!” called Aurin. “Defeat him!”

Suddenly, Dolissile shot forwards as Mindadam tried to teleport away, but he was not quick enough. Dolissile rammed into him, forcing him across the cavern with such force that the horse soared over the pool and hit the other side as Dolissile tried to slow himself down to avoid a similar fate. Mindadam tried to stand up, but he was completely spent. Aurin had won.

“Yes!” called Aurin.

Even his Minakai, injured as most of them were, celebrated excitedly. It had taken the efforts of the entire team, but they had exhausted the cosmic elemental enough that they were able to bring him down.

Tobias was clapping, unable to be heard from the cacophony from Aurin’s monsters. Once the noise died down, he approached Aurin. “Well done,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you would be able to pull it off, but you did it. Very impressive.”

“Thank you, Tobias,” replied Aurin, wiping the sweat from his brow. Even standing on the sidelines, he was tired, although the trek here probably contributed somewhat.

“Do you see now how you can overcome a cosmic Minakai? Even one as heavily trained as my own?”

“Yes,” said Aurin. “We wouldn’t have won if we hadn’t tired him out.”

“And studied his techniques throughout the battle. The way your Steamboat countered by using Mindadam’s own portal ability against him was a fantastic play. He’s one to watch.”

“He’s been with me since the end of the first Hazelton tournament,” said Aurin. “I still remember training him back when he was a cowardly Microbot. He’s come a long way.”

Tobias nodded approvingly. “And your Dolissile is remarkably strong, much stronger than the average of his species despite being a tad shorter. He packs a punch.”

“If he was a bigger eater, I would give him an extra helping of dinner, but he wouldn’t touch it and Gorunze would just eat it instead.”

Tobias chuckled. “I don’t doubt that,” he said. “I’ve got some homework for you tonight. There were other things that you missed during the battle, but I won’t tell you what they were. I want you to think about them for yourself.”

At that moment, Dolissile floated over unsteadily and Tobias went to check on his Mindadam who was twitching at the other side of the pool where the wild Minakai of the cavern were watching him.

“You were great, Dolissile,” Aurin said, rapping his knuckles on his Minakai’s metal casing.

Dolissile hovered in place with no discernible expression, but Aurin knew him well enough to know that he was proud of his efforts.

“Now that we know we can defeat a cosmic elemental, we just need to find a way to take down Taurus’s Ethruki. If we can defeat him, we can continue to thwart the Zodiac Squad’s plans.”