Luna was standing by the edge of the tunnel at the ready. In mere seconds, she would make her national championship debut in front of millions of people watching in the stadium or on television. This time, she was not remotely afraid, for she had a true goal to work towards and that was to make Frederick eat his words from the previous evening.
From where she stood, she could see the edge of the tamer box where Aurin, Kyle and Hunter all sat clustered together, but Frederick was somewhere out of sight. He was probably grinning smugly or maybe not even paying attention, thinking that this battle was beneath him.
“Ten seconds,” said the tournament official standing by.
“Thank you,” said Luna, taking a final deep breath ahead of her name being called out. She was ready.
“And welcome to the first match of the Bretonian National Championships!” called the announcer to thunderous applause from the crowd. “I’m not going to waste your time with long speeches because you had plenty of those yesterday, so let’s get on with the show. Introducing our first competitor, all the way from Hazelton, Luna!”
Luna walked out onto the battlefield and waved to the crowd, but she was not smiling. She was too focused to smile.
“And her opponent, all the way from the Bedwick, it’s Mario!”
Mario strode out to meet Luna and the pair shook hands in the middle of the battlefield.
“Good luck,” said Mario in his deep voice.
“Likewise,” said Luna, giving him a faint smile for a split second before her concentrated face returned.
The two parted ways and stood at opposing ends of the stadium, waiting for the fight to be called in.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” said Aurin, punching his fist into his palm. “She’s got this, she’s got this.”
“She has,” said Kyle calmly. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” said Aurin. “I’m excited.”
“Me too,” said Hunter. “It’s been a while since I’ve watched Luna battle.”
“And begin!” called the announcer.
Luna and Mario each threw forth a ball of deep blue light from their summoning stones, from which Luna’s Innogon and Mario’s Doripper appeared. To the average eye, the jovial and unassuming drake looked much weaker than his opponent, but Innogon wasn’t remotely intimidated by his sharp-toothed foe, no matter how hungry it looked.
“Make an impression!” Luna ordered and Innogon let out a yapping roar in agreement, making Mario and some of the crowd laugh.
“Don’t give it the chance,” replied Mario. “Use you—”
Before Doripper could react, it had been flipped over onto the ground by a high-powered water jet to the head. The stream of water was so thin and so powerful that it was almost laser-like. Mario was left open-mouthed as Innogon propelled towards his Minakai on his belly, sliding on water that he was spitting out.
Doripper righted itself and swung its tail around at Innogon as the drake drew close, but Innogon kept low and avoided the attack, raising his head as he slid under Doripper. He channelled his elemental energy into his head fin and cut a deep gash along Doripper’s underbelly, spilling blood all across the battlefield.
Upon emerging at the water side, Innogon leapt up and span around, shooting another jet of water that struck the back of the roaring Doripper’s head, forcing its face into the ground. It broke a few teeth from the impact and lay motionless in defeat.
“Yes!” called Aurin, unwittingly standing up and throwing his hands up.
“Folks, she certainly made an impression!” called the announcer. “You can’t underestimate any opponents at this level, Mario.”
“Indeed,” muttered the burly tamer, banishing his Doripper and summoning a Gittup.
The hairy blue beast gnashed its fangs and swung its golden tail that crackled with electricity. Innogon started hopping back and forth, readying himself for whatever attack the much-larger monster would throw at him. He was ready and determined not to let Luna down. He would win this for her.
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“Knock him down with a sonic boom!” demanded Mario.
Gittup roared and let rip a thunderous force from its mouth that shook the battlefield as it soared towards Innogon, but he fashioned a bubble shield around himself and rolled towards the wall at an immense speed. The bubble absorbed the impact of this collision, squeezing tightly but not popping. With the swish of his tail, Innogon sent himself rolling along towards Gittup whose eyes widened upon seeing how ineffective its attack was.
To meet the rolling drake, it spun around and pointed its sharp tail at the bubble, ready to pop it. For good measure, it even coasted its tail in fizzling lightning that was ready to make Innogon explode along with his bubble.
“Disengage!” ordered Luna.
Innogon leapt from the bubble, but the hole he escaped from was repaired immediately and the Gittup destroyed it on contact with its tail. With his back to the bubble, it had failed to see Innogon escape and the cries from its tamer were heard much too late as Luna’s Minakai struck him with a pressure cannon.
Innogon followed up by leaping into the air and spinning like a razor saw, striking Gittup with his whirling blade and ending its time on the battlefield much earlier than it would have liked. With a final roar, it collapsed and lay on the ground as motionless as its comrade had done barely a minute before.
“Luna is steamrolling Mario’s team with a single Minakai,” said the announcer. “He better have something good left on his bench or he’ll be the first one eliminated from the national championships this year.”
“Agh!” yelled Mario, replacing Gittup with a Frogre. The white ogre adjusted its icy crown and then punched its fists together while grunting in anticipation of the imminent battle.
Innogon took a second to catch his breath while watching and waiting. He hadn’t launched many attacks, but the power behind them took a lot of his effort. Luckily for him, the Frogre was waiting to react rather than act and this gave him the pause that he needed to gather himself.
“Water jet!” commanded Luna.
“Now!” ordered Mario as Innogon opened his mouth and the stream of water erupted.
Frogre held out its hands and focused its elemental powers, freezing the jet in mid-air, but Innogon had put far more energy behind the attack than Mario and his Minakai had expected. The icy jet continued to propel forward, pierced the Frogre’s palms and it let out a bloodcurdling scream as Mario held his own hands to his head, realising the grave mistake he had made.
“Let’s end this,” said Luna, holding out her own hand. “Sweep it away!”
Innogon let out a playful bark and threw his hands into the air, summoning a tidal wave that charged towards Frogre who shattered the icicle that had joined its hands together. It tried to leap out of the way, but the wave was too widespread. It collided with the ogre and carried it to the wall of the battlefield, slamming him against the concrete and knocking it out cold as its crown rolled away and one of its boots lay on the ground beside it.
“What a way to set the pace!” called the announcer amidst the stadium-shaking applause. “Luna has won the first battle of the tournament and didn’t lose a single Minakai! I don’t know about you folks, but my heart is pounding. I can’t believe it.”
Half of the tamer box were cheering and the other half were already discussing plans, should they be forced to battle Luna. Aurin, however, was cheering so loudly that they could barely hear each over his thunderous claps and yells. Kyle glanced at Frederick and could see him clapping half-heartedly, but there was a peculiar look on his face; he was reluctantly impressed by the battle.
“Come on,” said Aurin to Kyle as Luna walked back towards the tunnel after shaking Mario’s hand. With a final wave to the crowd, she disappeared and the two rushed through the stadium to meet her.
“Amazing!” said Aurin, hugging her tightly and almost winding her.
“T-thanks,” Luna coughed as Aurin released her. She took a deep breath and started laughing. “I didn’t think it would go as well as it did, I’ll be honest.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said Kyle, shaking his head. “I heard what the other tamers were saying. You’ve rattled a few of them and that’s exactly what you want. Complete complacency or utter terror. The middle ground is where you don’t want to be and you’ve avoided that.”
“Feeling good?” asked Aurin with a grin that he couldn’t get rid of.
“I’m feeling great,” said Luna, punching the air. “Bring on the next battle!”
“Steady on,” chuckled Aurin. “I’m up next, don’t forget.”
“Who’s your opponent?” asked Kyle.
“Some tamer named Moon,” said Aurin dismissively before looking to Luna. “I saw her cheering for you in the box earlier.”
“Well, that was nice of her,” said Luna, holding a finger to her chin. “Did she look tough?”
“No, but Mario did and he wasn’t. Looks can be deceiving, can’t it?”
“Because I’m so beautiful and pack a punch?” asked Luna, winking and then giggling.
“That’s be cue to leave,” said Kyle, rolling his eyes. “I’ll see you both—”
“Actually, I need to leave,” said Aurin, checking his watch. “I’ve got an appointment.”
“An appointment?” asked Luna and Kyle in unison, both raising their eyebrows.
“Yep,” said Aurin, rushing off before either of them could question him further. “I’ll see you both for lunch later,” he called over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.
“He’s been acting oddly ever since we arrived in Ludonia,” said Kyle, shaking his head.
“I wonder if he’s doing some secret training with his Zeera to make sure he’s tournament-ready?”
“Could be, but he wouldn’t need to keep that a secret from us,” muttered Kyle.
Meanwhile, Aurin was hurrying along the corridors of the stadium and looking at the bus schedule he had in his hand. If he was quick, he could catch the next bus from outside the stadium that would take him straight to Professor Socrates’s laboratory.
He held out a hand and summoned Shamtile from the lab, where he had been waiting since yesterday. “Any luck, mate?” Aurin asked him.
“Wagh!” called Shamtile, shaking his hands.
“He said he had done it before, so I don’t know why it’s proving so difficult to replicate,” sighed Aurin. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll blast apart the competition no matter what, right?”
Shamtile grunted confidently as the two ran.