Luna waited patiently near the edge of the tunnel for her name to be called. She knew that at the far side of the stadium, Kyle was doing the same. She didn’t feel nervous even though she probably ought to. Perhaps it was because she had already qualified for the national championships or perhaps because she knew Kyle so well and had trained with him regularly that it felt like a friendly match rather than a competitive one.
Whatever the reason, she was calm. She leaned to the side and could just about make out Aurin sitting in the tamer box with Shamtile and Innogon; both Minakai were bouncing up and down, drawing plenty of attention to themselves.
“You’ll be up in a few seconds,” said the tournament official. “Feeling alright?”
“Surprisingly, yes,” said Luna with a small laugh.
“Glad to hear it.”
There was the crackling of static and the announcer’s voice came through the speakers across the stadium. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s now time for the second of our semifinals. Please welcome to the battlefield, Luna!”
Luna walked out confidently, waving to the crowd. She caught Aurin’s eye and saw him give her a particularly loud cheer. She winked at him and blew a kiss, making the crowd laugh. The cameras had settled on the red-faced Aurin who was not displayed on the overhead monitor.
“Ain’t that lovely, folks?” chuckled the announcer. “Her opponent today is none other than your hometown rancher, Kyle!”
Kyle stepped out from the tunnel with a much more serious face than Luna. As they both approached the middle of the field, Luna started to suspect that Kyle was more nervous to battle than she was. He’d been wisecracking about their match-up ever since they both qualified for the semifinals, but there was something different about him now that she was facing him in a truly serious match.
“Good luck,” said Kyle bluntly.
“Are you alright?” Luna asked him.
“We’ll see.”
“No holding back, alright?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Kyle. “Especially not today.”
The two parted ways and walked back towards their starting positions while Aurin sat in the crowd, feeling confused. He turned to Shamtile and Innogon who hadn’t noticed a thing.
“Why does Kyle look so rattled?” he asked the pair, who stopped jumping and looked at Kyle’s face on the stadium screen.
Shamtile shrugged while Innogon let out a confused roar.
“He couldn’t possibly be afraid that he’s going to lose, could he?” asked Aurin, furrowing his brow.
Luna and Kyle stood with their tamer gloves at the ready. Luna threw force an orb of light, conjuring forth her Splashard while Kyle summoned his Gorungra. The slick water demon stared intently at the rocky golem with the topaz crystals.
“You know the drill,” said Kyle to his Minakai.
“Don’t let him do his drill!” called Luna.
Splashard split herself in two, sending her separated left and right sides in opposing directions before pivoting towards Gorungra to flank him. As the water demon drew close, two large stone walls were erected by Kyle’s Minakai to block her. Splashard was not to be deterred and shot blasts of water from her hands, blasting both walls down before continuing the charge towards Gorungra.
Suddenly, two rock cages sprung up and captured the two halves of Splashard, trapping her within. As she broke free from each, Gorungra sent another cage to replace the broken one. Then another, and then another again. Gorungra himself had barely moved the entire time, only turning his head to observe his opponent.
“What’s Kyle up to?” mumbled Aurin, understanding Luna’s plan, but Kyle’s Minakai was just standing and stalling. “Oh no…”
Splashard unleashed two water jets, both much weaker than they should have been. Even though he should have been weak to the water, the earth elemental Gorungra took the attack with ease. Luna suddenly realised why Kyle was stalling.
“Recombine!” she ordered Splashard, but Gorungra encapsulated the left half of her Minakai in a topaz prison.
As Splashard beat her one fist against the inside of the gemstone, Gorungra finally moved and stampeded towards Splashard’s right half. Splashard had sapped most of her own strength early by splitting in two and sustaining the split for so long, while draining herself further by using her magic to blast through so much stone.
Splashard’s latest water jet was barely a spritz as and Gorungra headbutted her, sending her flying across the stadium and into the wall. He stood on his hind legs and hurled a crystalline spear at her, impaling her against the wall and watching her wither away. Gorungra released her other half from his prison and it weakly slithered across the grass and recombined into one Minakai. Upon becoming one, Splashard fainted.
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“Would you look at that!” called the announcer. “An absolutely brutal first round, folks.”
“Kyle’s going full throttle,” Aurin said to Shamtile and Innogon. “He’s probably got a plan for every contingency.”
Luna clenched her fists, deciding which of her two selected Minakai might give her a chance at victory. She had mere seconds to make her decision as the crowd watched and waited. With a flick of her wrists, she sent out Rabbafat. A neutral elemental was exactly what she needed so that she couldn’t slip by using an elemental power that Kyle would have a counter for.
Rabbafat appeared in a cream-coloured light and the rotund rabbit punched her fists together as she let out a low, purring growl. Kyle’s Gorungra wasted no time in scattering sharp stones all over the battlefield, making it difficult to navigate the terrain.
“You’re fat enough to get through that,” Luna said. “Charge!”
Rabbafat skipped between a few of the stones and threw herself forwards, tucking into a ball and rolling over the stones which had no effect on her. Gorungra hurled a crystalline spear, but Rabbafat bounced out of the way and continued to pick up speed. The earth elemental brought up another stone wall, blocking Rabbafat from side and slowing her to a halt.
“Momentum killed,” said Kyle, feeling assured. “Bring her crashing down…wait!”
Before Gorungra knew what had happened, Rabbafat leapt from the top of the wall and landed on his back. She started beating her fists against the large crystal on his back. Gorungra rolled over to shake her off and Rabbafat bounced away. As Gorungra righted himself, Rabbafat was upon him again and threw shockingly rapid jabs into his yellow eyes, blinding him.
“Crater!” called Kyle.
Gorungra opened a pit in the ground before him, but Luna’s Minakai was too quick and hopped away. She bounced straight back onto Gorungra’s back, throwing another heavy swing and breaking his largest crystal. The golem collapsed in defeat, groaning as he lost consciousness.
“And Luna comes back swinging with her Rabbafat!” yelled the announcer, trying to be heard over the crowd. “She’s not going to just roll over and take a loss, that’s for sure.”
“Precision time,” said Kyle, summoning his Hogannon into battle.
Hogannon raised his cannon arms together and unleashed a series of relentless rapid fireballs. Rabbafat squealed and dove out of the way, rolling around the battlefield to avoid the fiery bullets. Each time she tried to move closer to Hogannon, he split his focus between his two arms and forced her to go another direction.
Rabbafat started to slow and Hogannon landed five successive strikes on her, singing her fur and forcing her out of her ball form. Hogannon’s eyes glowed a bright orange as he charged up a much more powerful fireball that he unleashed at Luna’s Minakai. Rabbafat threw herself out of the way, but her foot was caught by the fireball and she moaned in pain as she clutched it, unable to stand on it.
She arose and hopped on her good foot, but her heavy weight threw her badly off balance. Upon falling over once again, Hogannon shot more fireballs at her and finished the battle. Luna was forced to banish her defeated monster, leaving her with only one team member left.
“Kyle’s back with a vengeance,” said the announcer. “Luna is down to her final Minakai, folks. She’s going to have to pull off something great.”
Luna let out a sigh, knowing now that Kyle had anticipated her team too well. She summoned her Windjinn as her heart sank. Her final monster was elementally weak to Kyle’s Hogannon. And now just was it weak to her Minakai, but it was one of his strongest Minakai.
Aurin’s heart sank in the stands. “Come on,” he said as Shamtile started repeatedly punching Innogon in the arm out of frustration. “You can pull this off, Luna.”
“Blow him away,” Luna said to Windjinn.
With a silent nod, he soared into the sky as Hogannon waited. He wanted Windjinn to be closer before he took any shots; there was no point expending himself. Windjinn whipped up a strong gale, sending the heavy wind straight at Hogannon, trying to throw him off balance, but the heavy pig braced himself and remained standing.
“She’s got more than that,” muttered Kyle. “What’s she up to?”
Windjinn charged into the wind and then propelled himself with a further tailwind, speeding towards Hogannon and blasting right through the fireballs he shot. Before Kyle’s Minakai knew it, he was struck straight in the stomach and sent tumbling across the battlefield.
“Obscure yourself!” ordered Kyle.
Before even standing, Hogannon unleashed clouds of smoke from his arms and it filled the air, hiding him within the spreading cloud. Luna’s winged serpent beat its wings, sending a razor-sharp wave of air energy through the cloud to where Hogannon lay; or at least, to where he was lying before.
“Where did he go?” gasped Luna.
As Windjinn tried to retreat, he was met with an immense fireball that burst through the remains of the smoke and struck him in the chest. He fell to the ground and squirmed as the pain flowed through him.
“And it looks like Luna is out of—”
Windjinn threw himself back into the air and flapped hard, taking to the skies once more. He was badly injured, but he was not out.
“Going down swinging, eh?” chuckled Kyle quietly before calling out to his Hogannon. “Make it rain, Hogannon!”
Hogannon unleashed a barrage of embers into the air that flew high and then exploded like fireworks, sending a cascade of glowing hot stones towards the battlefield. Windjinn weaved and dodged, but the rain kept coming. He glanced towards the heaving Hogannon who was almost spent.
“Do it!” Luna called.
Windjinn pivoted downwards and charged at full speed towards Hogannon. Unable to use his cannons until he had recharged, the heavy pig tried to jump out of the way, but he was too spent. Windjinn knocked him to the ground, finishing him off. Upon stopping, Windjinn was struck by half a dozen embers and then fell too.
“And we have an almost double knockout!” called the announcer. “Unfortunately for Luna, Kyle still has one Minakai left in reserve and that means he advances to the finals.
Luna sighed and then smiled. She was certain from the beginning that she was going to lose, but she would happily settle for taking out two of Kyle’s Minakai. The two walked to the centre of the battlefield and smiled at each other before laughing.
“I was worried you would have me,” said Kyle.
“I came a lot closer than I thought I would,” said Luna.
“You need to stop underestimating yourself. I certainly didn’t. My team and I needed to focus and train hard to defeat you, you know?”
Luna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter because you’re not going to win tomorrow.”
Kyle let out a loud laugh. “Is that so? You’re so confident Aurin will beat me?”
“If you took me seriously and were so stressed about it, you must be having sleepless nights thinking about battling him.”
“Shush you,” said Kyle, rolling his eyes and walking back towards his tunnel.
Luna returned to her own, but glanced towards the tamer box along the way. She noticed that Aurin, Shamtile and Innogon were missing. Upon returning to the waiting room, she saw them already waiting for her.
“You were fantastic,” Aurin said to her. “The tamers in Ludonia aren’t going to know what hit them next month.”
“You think?” she asked.
“For sure,” said Aurin, hugging her tightly and then whispering in her ear. “Don’t tell Kyle, but I was hoping you would win.”
“I know.”