“Split your focus between your fists and your body,” ordered Aurin as Zenoman attacked Gorunze, whose eyes were glowing yellow.

“Don’t neglect your Gorunze,” said Vai. “Remember what we talked about.”

“Right,” said Aurin, turning to Gorunze. “Your nails are made of the same crystal as your eyes. Use them!”

Gorunze reared up, standing on his hind legs as he unleashed his laser beam at Zenoman’s body while swiping away the flying fists that were gunning for him. Zenoman was able to maintain his attack and still had enough control of his body to avoid the laser beams, but his fists did not fare as well and two of them were badly cut by Gorunze’s topaz nails.

“That will do for now,” said Vai and Aurin called off the battle between his Minakai.

He had spent the entire previous afternoon showcasing his many Minakai and their capabilities to Vai, who then focused on teaching Desparee how to harness a nature beam from his mouth, leaving his hands free for hand-to-hand combat. The nature elemental adapted to it surprisingly well, morning had been dedicated to perfecting Dolissile’s kamikaze attack. The dolphin had injured himself many times over, leaving Sunny to heal him, but they were both too spent to keep training so Vai focused on other Minakai in the meantime after he and Aurin had taken a break for lunch.

“Sunny, you’re up,” said Aurin and the little cloud-like egg twirled along happily, healing Zenoman and Gorunze’s injuries.

“You’re already coming along well,” said Vai, walking over to a large rock and sitting atop it with his legs crossed and his arms folded. “Kyle was right about you, Aurin. You’ve got a real knack for this. If you’d become a pencil-pusher, you’d have been wasting your talent.”

“Thank you,” said Aurin, flopping down on the grass. “Can you tell my mother that?”

“Are you happy with how your training is going?” asked Vai.

“Yes…” said Aurin but something else was on his mind.

“Go on.”

“The training is going well and I know there’s a lot more ground to cover, but I don’t think I’ll have time to hatch Zeera and make sure he’s trained up enough to use effectively in the tournament.”

“And you think you need Zeera to win?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Give me another couple of years and probably not, but it’s impossible to deny that a well-trained Minakai of that calibre would give me an edge.”

“Very well,” said Vai, standing up and hopping down from the rock.

“What?” asked Aurin in shock, thinking Vai would be much harder to persuade than that.

“Let’s go and see what we can do about that egg.”

“Y-yes,” said Aurin, clambering to his feet and rushing to retrieve the egg that Shamtile was sitting atop.

Vai walked towards the path that led to both the north and to the south. The north road led to a small cabin that Vai lived and to the south, well, Aurin did not know where it led but it was the direction that Vai was now walking.

“You’re wearing hiking boots, right?” Vai asked.

“No,” said Aurin.

“Oh,” said the skilled trainer with a hearty chuckle. “Expect a few blisters then, Aurin. I won’t think less of you if you ride on your Skrow or Quetzel for a while.”

“I can deal with blisters.”

“That’s the correct answer,” said Vai, slapping Aurin on the shoulder and marching on ahead, leaving the younger tamer to follow him along the path through the hills.

They walked through the afternoon and into the evening with the summer sun warming them while the breeze cooled them right back down. The journey was easy until they veered from the path an hour in, but as they wandered through dense pines and overgrown foliage, Aurin found himself struggling more.

He was reminded of his journey to Snowpeak Tower with Tobias. The journey through the thick snow was shorter, but the more difficult terrain made it seem longer than it was. This journey was filled with bursts of intensity followed by a few minutes of easier walking.

As the orange sky watched over them, Vai and Aurin approached a small square ruin that looked like it could have been a temple many centuries ago. The stone bricks had been beaten and broken by the elements over years and precious few of them remained intact. Even still, it was a pleasant sight to behold and Aurin was curious as to why Vai had brought him here of all places.

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“Go ahead and ask,” said Vai, seeing the look on Aurin’s face.

“What secret does this ruin hold?”

“Heh,” grunted Vai with a smirk. “This was once called Sule Scrin, but when you update the language it becomes quite literally the Earth Shrine. I still like to call it Sule Scrin because there are a few places like this in other parts of the world so calling them all Earth Shrines loses part of the charm, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” said Aurin, not sure what Vai was expecting him to say.

“I’m a history buff, my friend,” said Vai heartily. “I know that what you really want to know is how it will help you with that egg. Well, the secret lies up there.”

Vai pointed to a rounded platform in the centre of the grass that had replaced the once-stone floor of the temple. He strolled over to it and stood dead centre, waiting for Aurin to join him. Upon following, Aurin could see a number of old runes upon the stone circle, many of which had been filled in by soil and moss. In the centre of the circle was the image of a monster tower and a large egg at the top of it. The pattern carved on the egg was almost identical to that of the Zeera egg in Aurin’s arms.

“What now?” asked Aurin.

“You’ll want Shamtile for this,” said Vai.

Aurin held out his tamer glove and summoned Shamtile from the training spot by the cliff edge. As the brownish-orange light disappeared, Shamtile looked from side to side in confusion. He then stared at his tamer and shrugged, wondering why he had been called.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Sham,” said Aurin, looking to Vai.

Vai squatted low and looked straight into Shamtile’s eyes through the holes in the Minakai’s mask. “Can you sense it?”

Shamtile placed his hands upon the stone circle where he and the two tamers stood and concentrated. He slowly started to nod.

“Take us to it if you would be so kind,” said Vai.

Shamtile stood up and held his hands high. He focused and the circle started turning, making Aurin flinch. As the platform rotated, it descended underground, revealing a long vertical tunnel that had been underneath the whole time. It wasn’t long before the circle stopped turning, revealing a stone archway up ahead where there was a glowing orange light.

Vai gestured towards the light and Aurin walked ahead, stepping through the archway. He emerged into a chamber that was no more than thirty feet wide and thirty feet long. It was illuminated by crystals in the wall that were emitting the orange light, but they also revealed something else in the room. Sitting at the far side was a podium, not too dissimilar to the one at the top of Harmony Tower, but without the glowing golden light.

“Here we are,” said Vai as he and Shamtile followed Aurin into the room. “If you believe you’re ready to hatch your Zeera, then this is where you need to be.”

“How is anybody expected to know this is here?” asked Aurin, looking around the chamber in awe.

“Very few know about Sule Scrin, but it isn’t the only method of hatching an epic earth elemental egg. It is, however, the best option for you. It pays to have friends like Kyle who has friends like me.”

“That’s for sure,” laughed Aurin, his eyes now fixed on the podium. “I can’t believe how naïve I was…”

“What do you mean?” asked Vai.

“When I first travelled to Hazelton, I had this grand idea that I would be the first person to conquer Harmony Tower in his first run. It would be me and Shamtile storming through the floors until we reached the top. I didn’t know a thing.”

“Naïve, maybe, but optimism and determination are good things. Do you know what else is a good thing to have a healthy dose of?”

“I don’t know.”

“Shame.”

“Shame?”

“Yes,” said Vai with certainty. “Being ashamed or embarrassed by past foolishness is what can spur you to excel. That memory coming into your head in a moment like this shows that you’ve wanted nothing more than to surpass yourself. You’ve done that day in and day out, bringing you right here. To the place where you can hatch an epic Minakai. That’s something that precious few people ever do.”

Aurin nodded at Shamtile who nodded back. “Yes, I think you’re right. We’ve strived hard to prove ourselves ever since that day.”

“Out of curiosity, how far did you get?”

“The end of the first floor.”

Vai let out an involuntary laugh before realising Aurin was serious. “That is a bad performance.”

“We were jumped…but…never mind. No excuses, we should have been able to handle that tamer.”

Vai cleared his throat. “Moving swiftly along,” he said, gesturing towards the podium. “If you want to hatch Zeera, place his egg on the shrine.”

Aurin looked at the egg in his hands. The power of such a mighty monster was contained in such a small thing. It was hard to believe. What was even hard to believe that he was on the cusp of having to train such a powerful beast. Was he ready? He didn’t know, but he wanted to find out.

He walked over the podium with Shamtile scurrying along behind him. He placed the egg in the curved indent in the podium and then took a step back. He watched and he waited for something to happen, but nothing did. He looked over his shoulder at Vai.

“Ah, yes. This is the other reason you need an earth elemental. You need a powerful earth attack to crack the egg.”

“Won’t that hurt the Minakai inside?”

Vai raised an eyebrow. “Have I steered you wrong in the admittedly small amount of time you’ve known me?”

“You heard the man, Shamtile,” said Aurin. “Conjure up a rock and bash that shell.”

Shamtile hopped up and down excitedly for a few seconds before stopping and focusing. He raised his arms and swayed them back and forth, conjuring an earthen spear that materialised from nothing above his head. Shamtile threw his arms forward and the spear was flung at the egg that rested in the podium.

As the spear collided with the egg, it was smashed into a dozen pieces of stone, leaving a crack in the egg. No more than a second later, the egg glowed the familiar deep orange and a form began to materialise above the podium.

The shape of the large bipedal reptile that was Zeera was clear, right down to the spike protruding from the back of its head and the horn above its nose. As the light faded and the grey scales and blue segmented underbelly of the dinosaur were revealed, he dropped to the ground in front of the podium. The beast’s eyes were closed as he slowly moved his arms, growing accustomed to having a body. As Zeera twisted and flexed his neck, he opened its eyes and stared at the tamer before him.

Aurin was relieved to see that he was ten feet tall, as a Zeera should be, and not so large that he would break through the chamber ceiling and stride across the land in a couple of steps. That relief suddenly vanished as the dinosaur’s mouth curled into a sneer and it let out a roar that shook the room.