“Blast him apart!” Luna called, and Splashard obeyed.

The gelatinous water demon unloaded a water jet so forceful that it threw the wild Innogon down the corridor, where it crashed into the wall and was banished in a flash of blue light before it could even hit the floor.

“I feel bad attacking an Innogon,” muttered Luna.

“I don’t feel bad attacking Minakai I own the species of,” shrugged Aurin, patting Sunny who squeaked with joy.

They were on the nineteenth floor of the tower and they’d had a run of terrible item luck. They had come in hoping to find a Solar Shard for Luna, but they would have been better buying one in Hazelton; they’d certainly found enough silver today to do so. On the plus side, they were both on their second Minakai and had plenty of steam left in the tank.

“We would normally have found one by now,” said Luna.

“Then ignored it or took it to flip it for a small profit,” said Aurin.

“Yes, that’s certainly where we fell down. From now on, if I find a shard, I’m evolving a Minakai with it.”

“Our luck will turn around,” said Aurin, leading the way through with his cloud-like egg floating merrily alongside him.

Sunny was especially giddy today, having had very little opportunity to be let loose in the tower, but today, she was serving as Luna’s medic. After Rabbafat and Arium had fallen to a series of unfortunate events, from traps to unexpectedly tough Minakai, Sunny had been kept close by.

“And look at that,” said Aurin, spying a shard in one of the rooms nearby, “our luck has turned around.”

Luna excitedly rushed into the room, but stopped upon seeing the shard. “It’s an Astral Shard,” she sighed.

“It’s a good find though, right?” asked Aurin, looking out for traps as he approached it.

“For you! I can’t use it for any of my Minakai.”

Aurin didn’t say anything, not wanting to irritate her further. He put the shard quietly into his bag and moved along as Sunny spun around, making herself dizzy. Splashard put one of her hands on Sunny to stop her, then made a warbled glooping noise as though to tell her to take being in the tower more seriously.

The group moved along with Splashard handling all of the foes while Sunny used a mixture of magical barriers and healing powers to keep Splashard in top shape, but it was getting clear that Sunny couldn’t keep this up for too long. She was starting to lag behind the others as they ascended to the twentieth floor.

“Are you alright?” Aurin asked her once the group landed.

Sunny squealed as jovially as ever, but her lip quivered slightly.

“Alright, we’ll give you a break for a while. Hold off on casting barriers and only heal Splashard when it’s absolutely necessary, alright? I’ve probably pushed you too hard when you aren’t used to being in the tower.”

Aurin hated to admit it, but Sunny was the Minakai he had deliberately trained the least, even while training alongside Tobias. She was an excellent asset in the tower, but he had spent most of his time in tournament-mode, and she was not the sort of Minakai to be entered into a tournament on account of her lacklustre offensive techniques. He was starting to feel regretful at not having pushed her more when he had the chance as she was suffering for it now that she had to keep up with Splashard on a considerably higher level of Harmony Tower.

“Watch out!” called Luna, pointing towards a charging Peekawe.

The turquoise bird soared through the air, its sharp beak aiming straight for Sunny. Aurin raised a Lightning Crystal and unleashed the spell within, sending a crackling bolt down the corridor where it struck the flying Minakai. It was knocked off course, dazed by the unexpected attack.

Stolen story; please report.

“Push it back, Splashard,” ordered Luna, and the water demon conjured forth a huge tidal wave that swept away the Peekawe.

Aurin sprinted down the corridor as the Peekawe shook itself off, then used an Ice Crystal to impale the large bird with a glistening icicle, defeating it and banishing it from the tower. The crystal broke in Aurin’s hand, having run out of energy, and its fragments dissipated.

“Hey look!” Aurin called over his shoulder.

“What is it?” asked Luna, rushing over to him with the two Minakai following her.

“A Solar Shard,” said Aurin with a smile.

Luna walked into the room to retrieve it with a smile on her face, but the smile vanished almost instantly upon hearing a faint click.

“Oh no,” muttered Aurin as Luna froze in place, unable to move; she had triggered a Paralysis Trap.

Aurin proceeded more carefully and picked up the Solar Shard, then retrieved his Orb of Return from his bag. He activated it and the entire group, including the frozen Luna, were banished from the tower and reappeared outside seconds later.

Luna looked around, now free from the entrapping magic. “What happened?”

“Paralysis,” said Aurin, trying to stifle his laughter.

“Ugh, not again,” said Luna, shaking her head. “Did you get the Solar Shard?”

“Here,” said Aurin, taking it from his bag and tossing it to her.

“Yay!” she said, catching it. “Let’s get going.”

Aurin, Luna, Sunny and Splashard walked—and floated—back to the ranch as the sun was setting. Both of the humans were starving, having missed lunch to go hunting in the tower, but they had more pressing matters to tend to; evolutionary matters.

“What took you so long?” called Kyle from one of the enclosures, upon seeing them wandering up the path.

“It took us much longer than we planned,” shrugged Luna with the sun-shaped Solar Shard in her hand.

“Well, yes. That was obvious. That’s why I asked what took you so long.”

“Bad spawns,” said Aurin, pulling out his Astral Shard.

“Two evolutions today?” asked Kyle, folding his arms. “This will be good.”

“Arium!” called Aurin and the golden alien flung himself over the fences, rushing to his tamer. “Are you ready to unlock powers beyond your wildest imagination?”

“Wildest imagination?” chuckled Kyle. “He’s going to get two more hands.”

“Shush, don’t ruin it,” said Aurin as Arium bounced around excitedly with Sunny.

Aurin bent down and placed the Astral Shard upon Arium’s skin and watched as the Minakai glowed an off-white colour. He was bathed in light as he grew taller, his protruding head lengthened and, true to what Kyle had said, his two floating hands doubled so that he now had four large fists floating around him. The glow faded and Zenoman was now standing before Aurin.

Zenoman’s four fists were surrounded in a powerful blue aura and he threw them around, seemingly wildly, but they did not collide with any of the humans or Minakai nearby, although there were a few close calls.

“Showing off, are you?” Aurin asked with a grin. “Don’t get cocky, my friend, but we’re going to make sure you really are in full control of your fists. It’ll make all the difference in the challenges ahead.”

Zenoman squealed excitedly, his voice now more otherworldly than before as it echoed around the ranch.

“My turn,” said Luna, holding up her shard.

“You have five different Minakai this can be used on,” said Kyle, thinking aloud. “Dogember, Stopod, Bakugon, Dopefish and Feathrus…have you decided which of them gets to evolve today?”

“I have,” said Luna, pushing open the gate and walking into the enclosures to where her own Minakai awaited her.

Moments later, she returned with a greyish-blue blob; his eyes were wide and his round mouth agape, looking as silly as ever.

“It’s about time,” said Kyle, watching her place Dopefish on the ground.

“Yes,” said Luna. “Yes, it is.”

She patted him and he blobbed up and down like a bouncy ball, staring at her vacantly.

“I’m going to miss you as a Dopefish,” she said, slowly moving the Solar Shard to him.

Upon placing the shard on Dopefish, he glowed blue and his form shifted. His small round body grew long and large like a shark. On each of his sides, his fins grew sharp and he sprouted two new blade-like fins to join the first. His round eyes lengthened and narrowed while his circular mouth became thin, wide and packed with jagged teeth. The light faded and he hovered above the ground as a Doripper, ready to ferociously tear apart his enemies.

“Now you’re ready to rival Pisces and her two Doripper,” said Luna proudly.

Doripper let out a watery growl and spun in a circle, whipping his tail around.

“Menacing,” said Aurin, clenching his fists. “We’ll have the edge over Zodiac very soon. Once Damien leads us to their base, we’ll be ready.”

“Whatever help you need from me, I’m ready,” said Kyle. “Me and my team are all prepared to back you.”

“I’m jus—”

Aurin stopped and looked towards Kyle’s house.

“Is that the phone?” asked Luna.

“Just as I’m getting started,” sighed Aurin, as Kyle headed off to answer it.

Aurin and Luna waited for him to return, all the while admiring their newly evolved Minakai. Zenoman and Doripper were powerful in their own right, but combined with the rest of their teammates, they would be the greatest shield against the Zodiac Squad that Hazelton had.

“I’m itching to put my plan into action,” said Aurin, shadowboxing the air.

“Are you planning to beat them all up?” giggled Luna.

“If I have to.”

“You two!” called Kyle, walking back towards them. “That was Conrad, he said we’ve got a visitor on the way with some information that we need to hear.”

“Who’s the visitor?” asked Aurin, stopping his boxing.

“Detective Knot.”