“And it’s another victory for Luna!” screamed the announcer with excitement as Lucy’s Spikruption hit the concrete of the stadium wall and passed out. “She advances to the quarterfinals, entering the top eight.”

Luna couldn’t help but jump and throw a fist in the air as her Bakugon roared a croaky roar. He was the last Minakai she had left and she was exceptionally proud of his performance, as was he. He ran over to her and jumped into her arms, smiling so widely that his orange eyes were barely visible.

“Yes, you’re amazing,” said Luna, hugging him tightly. “You can have all the milkshakes you want.”

Upon shaking hands with her opponent, she walked through the tunnel and passed Aurin and Shamtile on the way. “Great match,” said Aurin, clasping her hand as he passed her.

“Are you ready for round six?” she asked, smiling at him.

“Of course,” he said confidently. “Only one more tamer in the way until our battle.”

“Good luck,” said Luna, letting go of his hand and walking away with Bakugon on her shoulders.

The brown drake roared at Shamtile who screeched in gratitude for his fellow earth elemental’s well-wishing. The lizard started shadow boxing the air while Aurin laughed at him.

“Easy there, brawler,” he chuckled. “Save that strength for the match.”

The monster and his tamer walked along the corridor and into the waiting room. Aurin sat down on the armchair while Shamtile bounced around the room, itching to get started. He hadn’t told him yet, but Aurin wasn’t leading with him. He hadn’t quite found the right way to break Shamtile’s eager little heart. Perhaps quickly was the best way.

“Steambot is up first, Sham,” said Aurin, leading Shamtile to freeze in place for a few seconds before turning to face his tamer.

“Graaaagh!” Shamtile screeched, waving his arms manically.

“You still get to fight! You’re up third, alright? Steambot goes first, Skrow is up second and then you. Think of it this way mate, you’re the ace who gets to show up after a couple of his teammates are knocked out and bring home the prize. You’ll be the star of the show.”

Shamtile sat down and huffed, folding his arms while avoiding eye contact with Aurin.

“Listen here. You can’t always be first or last, sometimes you have to get put somewhere in the middle. This isn’t the first time and won’t be the last time, so you can’t react this way every time it happens. Don’t be a baby.”

Shamtile stood up and walked into the corner, slumping over and resting his head against the wall.

“You can’t be serious…” muttered Aurin, standing up and walking over to his masked lizard.

When he was three feet from Shamtile, the Minakai turned to him and pointed straight up at his tamer’s face while chortling in his screechy way.

Aurin let out a deep guffaw. “Yes, you got me,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s head into the tunnel and wait there, alright?”

The two walked into the tunnel with Shamtile hanging much further back and out of sight so that he wouldn’t be seen by Mac, Aurin’s opponent in the sixth round. After a couple of minutes of waiting and the increasing chatter of the crowd, Aurin was given the go ahead to walk onto the field.

After greeting Mac and walked back to take his place, the announcer counted the battle in and the two summoned their first Minakai each.

“Make an impression!” Aurin ordered Steambot as Mac’s Titanitoise started stampeding towards him.

Steambot threw himself onto the ground and shot jets of water from his feet that propelled him towards his opponent. Suddenly, the Titanitoise slammed on the brakes and brought up an iron wall to shield himself, but Steambot swerved around it, skidding around and launching a pressure cannon from his pipes, flipping the Titanitoise onto its back.

As the metal elemental tried to right itself—no easy task with its back spikes wedged in the ground—Steambot jumped up high and slammed down on the tortoise’s underbelly with a heavy elbow thrust, winding it. A few knocks to the head later and it was already over for Mac’s first Minakai.

Stolen novel; please report.

Things did not go much smoother for his Techwing, who was knocked out of the sky and left with a bent wing upon colliding with the stadium wall. Unable to fly, the metallic bird was unable to dodge Steambot’s attacks and was knocked out seconds later, even after a valiant effort to defend itself from the ground.

Things took a wild turn when Mac summoned his Thundarun, who unleashed a series is powerful lightning blasts that cut right through Steambot’s jets and cannons. The big brute was forced to use a series of bubble shields—each being popped by the lightning strikes—to close the distance and engage with the Thundarun in close quarters. It was an exhausting effort, but once Steambot lay hands on the lightning-charged unicorn, it had little chance of a comeback.

The real trouble, however, came when Steambot was unable to keep up with ferocity of Mac’s Angree, who was raring to go upon being summoned while the water elemental robot was losing steam after using high-powered attacks against his previous opponents.

“Skrow!” called Aurin, summoning his next Minakai after Steambot had taken a heavy punch that broke his screen.

The skull bird sped into battle, twirling through the air as he used a tailwind to hasten himself. The arrogant Angree raised a fist, ready to smack Skrow into the ground, but a final burst of speed from the black Minakai sent him whizzing past the fist and his beak smashed into the Angree’s chest, cracking his armour and leaving the puppet-like Minakai a crumpled heap on the ground.

Much to Skrow’s delight, the last Minakai that Mac presented with was another aerial creature; his Vambra. The flying eye Minakai used his magical powers to try and hypnotise Skrow into doing his bidding, but Skrow kept his own eyes shut and was still able to avoid the series attacks by feeling the ripples in the air.

When there was a gap between attacks, he dared to open his eyes and charge his opponent, knocking the flying demon down to the ground, propelling it faster with a mighty wind and making the impact that much greater. The crowd went wild upon seeing that Vambra was not getting back up.

“And Aurin has defeated Mac with only two of his monsters!” called the announcer. “You don’t see that too often this late on in the competition, believe you me, folks.”

*

“And another victory for the dynamic duo of Hazelton!” said Luna, giggling as she threw her arms into the air.

“That’s the seventh time you’ve said that,” said Aurin, rolling his eyes in a joking manner.

“Yes, and I’ll say it another dozen times just to get under your skin.”

The two sat and watched Dolissile, Steambot, Innogon, Splashard and Doripper swimming in the lake of Baxter Park. A number of Minakai belonging to other tamers were less than keen to have this roving gang playing here, especially as Innogon spat water in the faces of their Minakai and any retaliation was quickly put to an end by a Steambot pressure cannon.

Shamtile and Bakugon meanwhile were sitting on the small bank of sand, seeing who could craft the most intricate sculpture of the other with sand. Shamtile had much greater finesse at this and Bakugon kept getting angry, leading the little dragon to smashing the statue.

“I wonder if they’ll throw a party for us back in Hazelton,” suggested Luna.

Aurin raised an eyebrow. “A party?”

“Yes. We’re the only two competitors to make it from the top eight that qualified in the same tournament. And if we’re getting technical, Frederick and Hunter have both entered from Hazelton before.”

“Yes, but if we’re getting more technical, then you and Frederick are the last two competitors remaining who actually are from Hazelton.”

Luna shook her head. “The point is, the town is well-represented this year. That underground gym they opened underneath the will be getting a lot more attention if we’ve accidentally attracted a bunch of tourists.”

“You think there’ll be more tourists?”

“And people seeking us out for battles.”

“Imagine that,” chuckled Aurin.

“Oh, we won’t have to imagine that,” said Luna, wagging her finger. “We’ll be living that in a week or so, especially if one of us ends up as the national champion. Even if whoever wins tomorrow loses to Frederick, we’ve made a name for ourselves.”

“Then maybe we need to go into hiding somewhere that nobody knows our names. It was awkward enough being recognised everywhere I go in the town after the Zeera Crisis and then being called the Saviour of Hazelton.”

“Where should we go into hiding then?” asked Luna.

“Briarwood,” said Aurin. “The people there are nice and clam.”

“Mhmm,” said Luna nonchalantly.

“I’ve always wanted to go visit Maplewood too, especially after I ran into that guy Evan again. It sounds like a quiet little town…and it has a monster tower!”

“I think we’ll just have to deal with the attention until it passes. I’m sure it won’t be so bad, especially if we’re out at the ranch half the time.”

“Alright, let’s see how things play out for the rest of our time in Ludonia before anything else."

“Yes,” agreed Luna. “It’s a strange feeling though, isn’t? Knowing that one of us is guaranteed to be in top four, but not knowing which one.”

“What do you mean? We know it’ll be me,” said Aurin, prompting Luna to slap him in the arm. “I’m joking, I’m joking.”

“You won’t be laughing tomorrow, funny man. Just you wait and—"

“Yeeeeee!” squealed Bakugon, rubbing his knuckles and observing his broken nails.

“What happened?” demanded Aurin.

Shamtile hurriedly tried to cover up his sculpture, but Bakugon had clawed away enough sand to reveal diamond underneath.

“Well, you shouldn’t keep ruining his masterpieces,” tutted Luna.

“And to think these jokers are carrying us through the national championships,” said Aurin in exasperation while watching Steambot sending an Electrout flying across the lake with a pressure cannon, much to the displeasure of its tamer. “Cut that out!” Aurin yelled at his metallic titan.