“Microbot, dodge!” called Aurin as Steambot fired off a pressure cannon.

Microbot scurried out of the way on his spindly legs, narrowly avoiding the attack. Desparee put his hands together, powering up nature energy to unleash next, but Microbot could see it coming. He moved back and forth along the snow, forcing Desparee to reposition and break his focus slightly. Once the nature beam was unloaded, Microbot threw himself backwards, avoiding the powerful attack.

“Excellent,” said Aurin, slowly clapping for the tiny Minakai. “I think you’re ready to see what you can do when we take you to the next level.”

“Oh?” asked Tobias with a grin. “I’m surprised you’re not evolving Arium first.”

“I had considered it,” said Aurin as the golden alien glanced over, hearing his name, “but without an Astral Shard there’s not much I can do. I do, however, have a Lunar Shard that I’ve been itching to use.”

“Roulette is a weakness of mine. I wonder which element he’ll become.”

“Whatever the outcome, he’ll be a new species for me seeing as Steambot is tied to the Solar Shard.”

“True enough,” said Tobias, nodding along.

Aurin reached into his jacket pocket where he was keeping his Lunar Shard readied for the right moment. He walked up to Microbot who hopped excitedly upon the snow. Aurin leaned down and placed the shard against his Minakai, who began to glow steely grey.

Microbot’s body lengthened and grew long arms that he plunged into the snow, his torso grew long and sharp as a spike burst from his back. As his form changed, so too did the colour of the glow. The grey turned to icy white and Aurin knew now which form he was taking.

The glow faded and his new Glacibot stood before him. His arms and legs were a deep grey and his body was made of sharp ice. Within a flat surface at the front of his pointed body was the familiar black screen where the blue eye moved about, taking in his surroundings. Glacibot reared up on his hind legs and let out a beeping cheer before placing his hands on the snowy ground again.

“Very nice,” said Tobias clapping. “He looks strong. I would say he’s about the average size of a Glacibot, but that may work to your advantage as far as speed is concerned. Glacibot tends to be slow.”

“Feeling strong, Glacibot?” Aurin asked his newly evolved Minakai. He was glad to finally have an ice elemental on his team. Now that only elemental type he lacked was a cosmic, but he was not so worried about that.

Glacibot beeped and booped in confirmation as Steambot bounced over excitedly, shaking the snow from the treetops with his thunderous steps. Steambot patted his friend on the back, careful to avoid the large spike. He puffed his steam as a show of admiration and stepped back in a panic, terrified the heat may melt his friend’s body.

“What do you reckon, you two?” asked Aurin. “How about a battle?”

Glacibot held his hands up and shook his head as Steambot clasped his own hands together excitedly.

“You have the territorial advantage, Glacibot,” said Tobias. “Look at all of this snow. You can use that to your advantage once your instincts take over and you realise just what you can do.”

“Steambot can fly solo and I’ll be on your side,” chuckled Aurin. Glacibot started to calm down and nodded.

Steamboat bounded across the clearing excitedly and took his place, puffing steam the whole way. Glacibot moved his limbs around in circles, trying to get used to his new form. He quickly realised he couldn’t stand upright for an extended period of time and was forced to walk like a gorilla.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“At least you have more than two limbs now,” said Aurin to Glacibot. “Are you ready to begin?”

Glacibot booped in agreement and Steambot let out a whistling jet to show that he was raring to go.

“Fight!” called Tobias.

Steambot stood still as Glacibot lumbered forwards. He drew back an arm and threw it forwards, materialising an icicle in mid-air that flew across the clearing towards Steambot. The large water elemental leaned forwards and shot a mighty jet from his pips that blasted the icicle out of the sky. Steambot stood up again and beckoned Glacibot to try again, taunting the newly evolved Minakai.

“He’s cocky,” said Aurin quietly, “don’t let that get to you. When he’s playing around like this, that’s when he makes a mistake. Do the same again, but follow up with a second then charge in.”

Glacibot stood up on his two legs and drew both arms back. He unleashed one icicle, which Steambot blasted away, then hurled a second, which Steambot also blasted away. As Steambot righted himself again, he was tackled by the gorilla-like ice golem and taken to the ground.

Glacibot tried to hold Steambot down, but was struck by a powerful fist to the side that broke his grip. Steambot pushed his heavy opponent off him and unleashed a torrential blast of water that rolled Glacibot across the clearing and back towards Aurin.

“You got a good strike in there, mate,” the tamer told his Minakai, “but we aren’t through yet. He’s got the experience advantage, there’s no question, but his weakness in this battlefield is the ice. If you can get your hands on him again, freeze his pipes and he’s disabled.”

Glacibot let out a chilly, metallic grunt of agreement. He held back one hand as though to summon another icicle, but this time he thrust his fist forward and conjured a snowstorm that blasted straight in Steambot’s direction. The snow was blinding his one eye, leaving him open.

As Steambot tried to summon the rain to replace the snow, Glacibot launched an icicle that struck him, throwing him to the ground once more. The large ice elemental leapt on top of his foe and grabbed onto his pipes for dear life. As Steambot tried to shoot a pressure cannon, Glacibot froze the tops of the pipes, blocking them.

“Finish him off!” called Aurin.

Glacibot summoned an icicle into his hand and aimed to impale Steambot with it, but Steambot was too enraged to simply accept defeat. He was vibrating vigorously and, with renewed strength, caught the icicle, snapping it in half, leaving the remaining part in Glacibot’s hand as a mere blunt instrument.

Steambot brought his feet to his chest and delivered a heavy kick to the Glacibot’s screen, dazing him. Steambot climbed back to his feet and then leaned forward, firing a pressure cannon that shot the ice coverings from his pipes. They soared towards Glacibot, smacking him in the torso. As the ice elemental tried to recover, he was hit by a full-strength pressure cannon that flung him back into Tobias’s fence, smashing a large chunk of it to pieces.

“Steamboat is the winner!” called Tobias. “And he owes me a new fence.

Desparee rushed over and picked up the wood, falling to his knees and weeping. He started mending the fence with his nature magic, but it was not as effective on dead wood as it was on a still-living tree.

Steambot meanwhile helped the stunned Glacibot back onto his feet and patted him on the back again, congratulating his fellow construct on a good first battle as his new evolution.

“It was a good battle,” Aurin agreed. “Glacibot, we need to work on teaching you some new techniques and adapting to your new body. Steambot…what can I say? Good job, but don’t let yourself get overconfident like you did near the start. In a real battle, that could cost you.”

Steambot thumped his chest and stood upright, then ran over to where Spikruption was training to fight some more.

“Now you have all eight main elemental types and a couple of neutral elementals,” said Tobias. “Are you feeling well-covered now?”

“I will once I learn how to use them all to be most effective,” said Aurin. “If I want to face you at the next national championship, it’s going to take playing my elemental types correctly as well as having a versatile pool of moves for each of my Minakai.”

“You’ve got over half a year to work on that. I have no doubt you’ll manage it. You’ve already improved since we first began. Your Minakai are much more hardened and they’ve embraced training in the freezing weather conditions of Briarwood.”

“You know what would help me train even better?” asked Aurin with a smirk.

“Tell me,” said Tobias with a chuckle.

“Training against your Grakadon. That’s a sparring partner that would give any of my Minakai a run for their money.”

“If that’s your wish,” said Tobias with a shrug and then holding out a summoning stone.

Grakadon appeared in a flash of brown light. He roared ferociously, drawing the attention of all of Aurin’s Minakai.

“Show them how the mighty earth dragon of the national spars, Grakadon,” said Tobias.