“Hailstorm, Frocean!” ordered Luna as she battled against Damien’s Gittup.

The hail rained down almost instantly, beating the blue beast. It retaliated by flicking its pointed yellow tail, sending out a lightning bolt that struck Frocean as he tried to hop out of the way. He was thrown across the street before he bounced back onto his feet again.

With a furious croak, he threw three icicles in quick succession that Gittup nimbly dodged, before slamming its electrically-charged body into the large blue frog. Frocean collapsed, writhing in pain as the electricity spread throughout him before he eventually fell unconscious. Luna slowly raised her hand and banished Frocean back to the ranch.

“Ha!” yelled Damien. “I knew the pair of you had gotten lucky before. You both lost. You call yourselves Minakai tamers…pathetic.”

Aurin and Luna looked at each other, keeping their heads down.

“Go!” called Damien as the onlookers all muttered. “Go run back to that ranch with your tails between your legs. I don’t want to see either of you round here ever again.”

“We’ll battle again,” said Aurin as he walked past Damien.

“And you will lose again,” said Damien, bumping Aurin with his shoulder. “A pair of weaklings.”

Aurin and Luna walked down the street and through the town square, not daring to say a word to each other. They considered it to be very possible that a member of the Zodiac Squad was following them and Shamtile wasn’t there to sense if that was the case. Once they had reached the path out of town towards both the tower and the ranch, they relaxed a little.

“Do you think he bought it?” asked Luna, looking over her shoulder to the lights of the town against the night sky; the sun had set as they walked.

“Hook, line and sinker,” said Aurin with a small smile. “He’s going to be bathing in that victory all week, I would bet you anything.”

“And it only took Gorunze, Desparee, Glacibot, Innogon, Rabbafat and Frocean each receiving a beating.”

“They understand why and they all agreed to it,” said Aurin. “Sunny will take care of them and we’ll make sure they’re well fed tonight as a thank you for their sacrifice.”

“You make it sound like they died!”

“By saying they’ll be well fed?”

“No, but thanking them for their sacrifice.”

“What would you call it?”

“I don’t know, but not that.”

The two bickered about nothing as they walked towards the ranch where Kyle, Detective Knot and Conrad awaited them. Upon seeing the pair walking into the ranch, the three stood much more alert.

“Well?” asked Knot.

“We think he was convinced that he won the battle legitimately,” said Aurin.

“Awfully bold of you to think that’ll make him sloppy,” said Conrad.

“It was bold of you to think you could convince me you were a rank amateur when we first met.”

“I did convince you,” said Conrad, folding his arms. “You beat me in the…tournament…alright, I take your point.”

“See? We have nothing to worry about. The hard part is over as far as I’m concerned.”

“That was the easy part,” said Knot with a frown.

“You have your Minakai in place?” asked Kyle.

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“He’s going to be sloppy and they’re going to find him,” said Aurin. “Don’t worry.”

“If he does find them, he’ll probably kill them,” said Kyle. “He strikes me as a Sagittarius type. More on the unhinged side, but a capable battler.”

“He’s just an arrogant tool, which is why this plan is going to work,” said Aurin.

“As long as your Minakai don’t lose his trail,” said Knot.

“That’s why we’ve got more than just one following him,” said Aurin. “It’s on Shamtile and the others now to handle things. We just have to wait until he comes back.”

*

Shamtile could feel Aurin and Luna’s footsteps vibrating as they walked. It was unmistakably theirs, which meant that it was showtime for him. He scurried along the cobblestones and towards Damien, being sure to stay well out of sight; the setting sun made this much easier.

As he walked along, he glanced towards the clocktower to make sure that his backup was keeping watch. Perched on a ledge was Skrow, keeping a careful eye on Damien while he was outside. If Shamtile were to lose him above ground, Skrow was there to follow through, but he would not lose him. He wasn’t about to let that happen.

Damien took a right turn around a corner and Shamtile climbed up the bricks of the nearest building and kept himself low on the roof tiles. He gazed over the ridge and saw the Zodiac elite walking along an alleyway. Shamtile followed, but Damien headed through the backdoor of a nearby house. Could this be it? No, he was moving straight through the house.

Shamtile leapt across the alley and onto the roof, keeping his touch as light as he could. He peered through his wooden mask and watched Damien exit into the small front garden, head down the path and back onto the street. This was a strange route, even for the oddest human to take. Perhaps his master was right, this man would try and make himself difficult to follow. Yet, he walked with a confident stride and he had a smile upon his face. Why was he so happy?

Damien walked into the town square as the light faded and Shamtile found a wall of people in his way. He upended a couple of bricks and separated the earth with his magic, making a tunnel appear. As he walked, the tunnel opened up before him and the tunnel behind him closed. It was a very nice tunnel, he thought to himself. If he could, he would curl up and take a nap here…no, he had to remain vigilant. He could faintly pick out Damien’s steps above him and he had to keep going after him.

Damien eventually led Shamtile to where there were fewer people stomping around above and Shamtile hung back so that he could emerge from the tunnel undetected. He parted the earth, moved a few cobblestones and then hurriedly reset them. He had to restrain himself not to screech and dance about, something that was very difficult to do.

He looked around and spotted Damien ahead. Shamtile hurried along, catching up as Damien passed underneath a bridge. The Zodiac elite opened a metal door in the side of the bridge, looked around and headed inside. Shamtile remained undetected, keeping himself to the side of the bridge.

Damien’s footsteps were moving downwards…concrete steps perhaps? That’s the feeling Shamtile’s tremorsense was giving him. The magical lizard waited, trying to work out whether or not he needed to go underground again or whether he could follow from above. Damien’s footsteps stopped descending and they were now moving along a straight path somewhere below.

Keeping above ground, Shamtile ran through the street trying to keep Damien underneath him at all times. A couple of people looked at the little Minakai, wondering why this lone Shamtile was walking around so erratically, but it did not matter to him. The humans were far more unusual than he could ever be. Clothes? Ridiculous notions. If anything, he had some empathy for the Zodiac members when they wore their masks. The mask is the mark of a truly powerful creature.

Damien’s footsteps suddenly started climbing upwards again. Shamtile looked around for cover and then dove inside a bush at the edge of the road. He glanced towards the river nearby and could see the head fin of Splashard poking out. He tossed a rock and Splashard sank beneath the surface properly. What a fool! Almost giving away the entire game.

A manhole cover opened up in the alley beside Shamtile and Damien climbed out. He placed the cover back on and casually strolled towards the water. He walked down a small bank and followed the river along with only the street lights to guide him. Truly a strange route to go when he could have simply walked in a basic zig-zag pattern. Shamtile could not understand what was going on. There had better be a milkshake in this for him after he reported back to his master.

Damien stopped by a small section of the bank. Something was unusual about it. Shamtile could feel that it was follow inside. Damien tapped on it with his foot a couple of times.

“Capricorn,” he said. What did that mean? Corn? Did it mean food?

The grass began to move and a small opening appeared. There was an earth elemental moving the ground to make way for the Zodiac elite. Once he had vanished from sight, the soil moved back in place and the ruined grass regrew almost instantly; there was a nature elemental working its magic too.

Conscious that going too close might alert the Minakai inside to his presence, Shamtile climbed the bank in quick leaps, arriving at the top. He followed Damien’s continued underground footsteps, even as they descended further and further down.

Shamtile was paying such close attention to the footsteps that he smacked the top of his head against a wall. He fell on his backside and rubbed his head irritably, but he suddenly realised where he was. He was at the same building that his master had brought him to in order to fight other Minakai. He was at Hazelton Stadium and Damien’s footsteps had finally stopped somewhere underneath.