“Forty-six,” muttered Aurin in relief, landing on the purple and white tiles. “I’ve counted that right, haven’t I? Forty-six.”

Shamtile sat on the floor, exhausted. The masked lizard was relieved to have a moment of respite even if it would be short lived. Aurin himself was absolutely spent, desiring nothing more than to have something to eat and to close his eyes and sleep, but he had to soldier on.

As he often did, he had entered the tower prepared for a long run, but he didn’t believe he would get this close to the top. He had selected his team for the purpose of reaching it, that was certain, yet he still found it hard to fathom that he was this high all by himself. No. He wasn’t by himself, he was with his monsters. His loyal and faithful team that had been with him through thick and thin, the longest-serving of member of which was by his side at this very moment.

“One final push,” said Aurin, reaching out for Shamtile’s hand and pulling him to his feet. “Four more floors and we’re at the top.”

Shamtile let out a low grunt and took a deep breath. He gave a nod of readiness and the duo walked down the corridor, seeking the elevator. After rounding the first corner, Shamtile shoved Aurin out of the way of a patrolling Dolissile that collided with the wall. With the pelt of a boulder, the Dolissile was banished from the tower, no longer a danger to the duo.

In the first room, Aurin was relieved to find a Healing Herb and immediately fed it to Shamtile. While it wouldn’t help with his energy levels, at the very least it would treat his cuts and bruises enough to help him weather a few more hits.

“Wait!” Aurin ordered Shamtile before the lizard walked from the room. The young tamer squatted low and saw a faint ripple in the air no more than an inch above one of the tiles near the door. “Leap through the door and don’t touch the ground.”

Shamtile did as ordered and Aurin followed, jumping through the doorway himself. Tired as he was, Aurin knew that he couldn’t afford to stop being vigilant. Even if he didn’t make it to the top, he was so close that he was going to push as hard as he could. This was his final effort before the championships and it was going to be a run he could say he put everything into.

The battles on the forty-seventh floor were tough and the Healing Herb’s treatment was undone before Aurin and Shamtile reached the elevator. With both of them drained, they took a few seconds before touching the orb and ascending to the forty-eighth floor. The fiftieth floor, the roof, was so close that Aurin could taste it.

On the forty-eighth floor, while fighting a Gorungra, Shamtile accidentally tripped a burning trap, injuring himself greatly. Had it not been for Aurin’s Water Crystal that he used to extinguish the flames, it would have been the end of the line for the masked lizard. Shamtile let loose a lucky earth spear that cracked Gorungra’s back crystal and sent it back from whence it came. A few rooms later and the duo were on the forty-ninth floor.

“We’re doing it, Sham,” said Aurin, leaning against the wall and slumping to the ground. “Once we clear this floor, we’re at the top. We had no help from Luna or Kyle, we did it all by ourselves. I don’t care if we’ve had a lucky run or whatever got us here…we did it.”

Shamtile walked over to Aurin and patted his tamer on the shoulder, holding out a hand to help him to his feet as Aurin had done for him a couple of floors ago.

“Thanks, mate,” said Aurin, now back on his feet. “Let’s see it through.”

The two walked down the corridor, their eyes weary and their minds hazy. All it would take was a single strong enemy to knock both of them off their feet so they decided to play it as carefully as they could. Shamtile focused on his tremorsense—which was admittedly less effective in the tower than outside—while Aurin peered around the corners for any enemies that may have been hovering above the air.

Each room they passed without an elevator was not a disappointment, it was a mark off the checklist that meant they were one step closer to finding the elevator. The wild Minakai that they happened across were dealt with as swiftly as Shamtile could muster. The element of surprise was his best friend, tossing boulders, hurling spears and summoning cages that either banished the wild Minakai or held them back long enough for he and Aurin to escape deeper into the floor.

“Yes!” called Aurin, peering through a doorway and spying the final blue orb he desired.

His mirth, however, was short-lived as a Treebot walked through the door at the other side of the room. Aurin and Shamtile hurried for the elevator, but the Treebot wasn’t going to make things easy. It used its entangling vines to hold back both the tamer and his Minakai.

Shamtile fought and struggled against them, tossing a boulder at Treebot only for it to bash it out of the way with its green metallic leg. With a heave, it unleashed a nature beam from its screen and struck Shamtile, sending him flying through the air and leaving Aurin distraught.

“No!” called Aurin as Shamtile was slammed against the wall. He knew what came next and winced as his Minakai was engulfed in orange light and banished from the tower.

Without further hesitation, he threw forth a blue orb and summoned Steambot to his aid. Having been waiting a long time to be called upon, the water elemental was raring to go. He leaned forward and high-powered jet of water at the Treebot, flipping it onto its bushy back.

Stolen story; please report.

Steambot sprinted forward before his fellow Microbot evolution could right itself and delivered a series of blows to its stomach, banishing it from the tower as it had done to Shamtile. Steambot flexed victoriously, but stopped when he saw the tired look on Aurin’s face.

“Forty-nine, Steam,” said Aurin. “I’m about ready to collapse, I can’t lie.”

Steambot grunted mechanically and patted Aurin on the back with a single finger.

“I appreciate it,” said Aurin, letting out a dry laugh. “Let’s see this through, yeah?”

Aurin and Steambot walked to the room straight ahead. Too exhausted to check for further traps, Aurin dragged himself along and placed his hands on the elevator. He half-wished to have triggered a trap that would have ended the run, so spent was he, but he knew that he could not shy away from the final challenge that awaited him.

He and Steambot materialised on the roof of the tower. Aurin looked up and could see the night sky above him. He must have been in the tower for at least thirty-six hours at this point for he was certain that more than an entire day had passed and he had entered early in the morning.

The swirling barrier the separated him from the outside world was firmly intact. He expected nothing less, but after the last time he ascended to the roof, seeing it in place was always reassuring. What filled him with dread, however, was the golden podium where there was the perfect dip for an egg to sit.

“Let’s do this,” Aurin said, walking towards the podium and placing his hands upon it as he would do an elevator on the floors below.

The second his fingers touched the stone, a golden egg-like shape appeared. It was glowing and shimmering, filling him with a sense of ease that he had not expected. It was as though it was giving him a reprieve to the weariness that reaching the top of the tower had brought him. A reprieve that would be followed by enormous struggle.

There was a sudden lightning strike at the far side of the rooftop and a swirling portal appeared. With no cosmic Minakai using their combined efforts to hold it back, a shadow began to step through the swirling vortex of purple. Its thunderous steps were audible even before it emerged and, upon setting foot on the stones of the tower roof, the tower guardian revealed itself.

The large Zeera was towering above him and Steambot. It was much larger than Aurin’s but not quite as large as the corrupted guardian from the Zeera Crisis. It let out a roar that shook the tower to its foundations, something that Aurin didn’t think possible.

“Attack!” Aurin ordered his final Minakai.

Steambot threw forward his two hands and unleashed water jets from them, wanting to gauge his foe’s power before using his most powerful attacks. He was at full-strength and couldn’t let himself be exhausted at the beginning of the battle.

Zeera brought up a stone wall to block the attacks and the water jets bounced off it. The tower guardian forced its wall to separate in the middle and then stampeded across the roof towards Steambot with a claw raised back. The water elemental dove forwards as Zeera swung, throwing himself between its legs but was then struck by its tail, knocking him towards the battlements.

“Make it rain, Steambot!” shouted Aurin as Steambot stood up. He knew he had to think strategically and anything he could do to boost Steambot’s power while weakening Zeera was worth doing.

As Zeera turned to him, Steambot conjured heavy rainfall that soaked the rooftop and everything on it. The angered Zeera summoned a boulder in its hands and flung it at Aurin’s Minakai who blasted it away with a pressure cannon before following up with a geyser that erupted beneath Zeera, striking the tower guardian on the chin and making it splutter as it roared in anger.

With a stomp of its foot, a stalagmite sprung from the stone and sent Steambot flying into the air. He spun as he fell and conjured a bubble shield around himself moments before hitting the ground. The bubble squished and contorted, but it slowed his fall before bursting, further angering the dreaded tower guardian.

Zeera breathed in and spat a barrage of stone at Steambot who blasted the first half dozen to pieces, but the unrelenting attack edged its way closer to him and knocked him supine, upon which he was struck by more of the rocks. The mighty Zeera leapt across the roof and landed above Steambot, leaning down with his gaping jaw ready to tear Aurin’s Minakai to pieces with his sharp teeth.

“Zeera!” called Aurin, taking the Water Crystal in the palm of his hand. He focused on it and unleashed a water jet that struck Zeera in the back of his head, distracting him no more than a second before he bit Steambot.

Infuriated, Zeera arose and turned towards the human who had dared attack him. Aurin cast another spell from the crystal, which Zeera brushed aside. Upon the spell leaving the crystal, it shattered into dust and fell from Aurin’s palm.

The gargantuan grey dinosaur leaned low and made to run towards Aurin, but he suddenly felt a tugging on his tail. He craned his neck and saw Steambot holding onto him, all while vibrating violently. Before he could make any further moves, Steambot’s pipes erupted with a scalding pressure cannon which struck Zeera square in the face.

Zeera wailed loudly upon the immense strike from the water elemental. As mighty as the tower guardian was, Steambot’s water elemental advantage was too much for it. It teetered uncertainly for a moment before crashing onto the ground, whereupon the portal from which it emerged reappeared. It was engulfed by the familiar, orange-brown light and it was dragged by through the portal before disappearing.

“We…we did it,” said Aurin breathlessly as Steambot’s rain slowed and then ceased. “We did it!”

Steambot was heaving up and down, exhausted to the point of near collapse, but the robot held on and threw a victorious arm in the air. Aurin rushed over to him and hugged his Minakai, laughing the entire time. He couldn’t believe it, he had finally conquered Harmony Tower.

All of a sudden, the podium began to glow and the golden light died down as an egg materialised where it had been. It had an unearthly shine to it, golden and beautiful with three aqua rings around its centre. Aurin could not even imagine what Minakai lay within, but he wanted to find out with all of his heart.

He rushed over to the egg, held his hands up to it and then looked at Steambot, who sat himself on the ground to rest and gave a mechanical grunt of agreement. Aurin beamed proudly and grabbed hold of the egg, feeling the pulling sensation that he had gotten so very used to. With that, he and Steambot disappeared from the top of the tower.

“Erf!” groaned Steambot as his backside slammed onto the grass.

Aurin and his Minakai found themselves back outside the doors of Harmony Tower, utterly spent, but very pleased with themselves. Aurin held his new egg in his hands both firmly and delicately, a difficult balance to maintain. He knew it was sturdy, yet how precious this egg was not something he could let himself take lightly.

Placing it carefully in his bag, he checked his watch. It was two o’clock in the morning, meaning he had been in the tower for almost two days. He was so tired that he could have fallen asleep on the grass, but the ranch was only minutes away. He patted Steambot on the back and helped pull the Minakai to his feet. The two dragged themselves through the forest, glad to be going home with their miraculous achievement in tow.