“Fine, you can pay,” said Aurin, “but the winner of our match buys the next dozen milkshakes.”

“Well then I had better roll over and let you win,” chortled Gardner. “That’ll save me a few silvers, won’t it?”

The two friends had a good laugh as they finished their drinks. They had been looking forward to having a proper rematch since their last battle in the first Hazelton tournament.

“Can you believe that we haven’t had a serious battle since the last tournament?” asked Aurin.

“Yes,” said Gardner. “I’m still zero for two against you. I need to even up the score a bit. Have you decided on your final team for the match?”

“Of course,” said Aurin, “but I wouldn’t tell you now, would I?”

“I’m not expecting you to,” laughed Gardner. “I was just curious if you were fumbling around trying to come up with a strategy or you’ve been steadfast from the start."

"Absolutely steadfast from the start.”

“I bet I can guess most of your team.”

“Well, of course you can,” said Aurin. “I’ve got eight Minakai registered, and I have to use five of them. By numbers alone, you’ll get a couple of them right.”

“I know,” said Gardner with a slight smirk.

“What about you? You’ve got, what, eleven Minakai registered?”

“Twelve.”

“I bet I can still guess each one you’ll be using.”

“Who said I’ve decided my team already?”

“I know you have.”

“Perhaps,” shrugged Gardner. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“You’re going to have your Vinewolf, Angree and Desparee in there somewhere,” said Aurin. “The others are a toss-up between a few, but I have my suspicions.”

“Well, I’m sure it’ll be a match that we both remember no matter which Minakai we use.”

“I’m sure it will be,” said Aurin.

“Top sixty-four of the national championship. No matter what happens, we don’t forget that we’ve come so far in such a short time.”

*

“That’s gotta hurt!” yelled the announcer.

Gardner’s Vinewolf had wrapped its vines around Spikruption’s neck but the dinosaur had curled into a ball and was speeding around the battlefield with Vinewolf being roughly dragged along the ground. When he reached the edge of the battlefield, he would whip round and Vinewolf would slam into the concrete walls.

“Let’s not drag it out, Spike,” said Aurin.

Spikruption uncurled himself and skidded to a halt as Vinewolf flew through the air with his now-unstuck vines flailing in the air behind him, the petals hanging limply at the end of them.

“And Aurin takes an early lead,” said the announcer, “but remember folks, it’s a five versus five battle so there’s still everything to play for.”

Gardner recalled Vinewolf and summoned his next Minakai; a Funglie. The beige fungus appeared and lowered its purple-capped head before charging forwards on all fours.

Spikruption breathed a cone of flames to keep the toxic Minakai at bay. Both the dinosaur and his tamer knew that Gardner would have a hard time bringing down Spikruption through brute force so he was going to rely on more strategic methods. Unfortunately for Gardner, Aurin wasn’t going to let him.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Funglie retreated and tried to conjure roots to entangle Spikruption, but knowing it was coming, Aurin’s Minakai leapt aside and burned them to ashes. That didn’t stop Funglie, however, as it focused all of its energy on conjuring more and more until Spikruption was backed into a corner. It was relentless, Aurin had to give the mushroom-headed Minakai that.

“Rip them out of the ground if you have to,” ordered Aurin as Spikruption’s legs were being restrained.

Suddenly, Spikruption roared in pain as a barrage of tiny needles pierced the left side of his long neck. It only took that momentary break in concentration for Funglie’s entangling roots to launch him onto Spikruption’s back. He began breathing a toxic cloud and Spikruption had no choice but to breath it in.

The dinosaur curled his head around and bit into Funglie’s head, throwing it into the air and breathing a mighty flamethrower at the nature Minakai. The roots disappeared as Funglie hit the ground and wasn’t able to carry on the fight.

“And Gardner has lost two Minakai, while Aurin remains with a full team of five,” said the announcer. “An early lead has grown so Gardner had better have something powerful on his bench.”

“Yes, I do,” said Gardner, summoning his Angree to the field.

The furious Minakai wasted no time in sprinting wildly towards Spikruption. It began to pummel the dinosaur brutally who struggled to fight back, succumbing to the poison of Funglie.

“You’re not out of this yet, Spikruption,” said Aurin. “What’s he made of?”

Spikruption breathed as deep as his laboured lungs would let him and breathed a poor jet of flame at Angree. The wooden Minakai brushed the flames aside and yelled an ear-piercing scream of rage. Who would dare try and set its glorious wooden body alight? Spikruption would pay.

Angree’s left fist glowed a bright green as it drew it back. Spikruption, too weakened to move, took a full strength uppercut to the jaw from the leaping Angree. The red dinosaur collapsed, having nothing left to give in this battle.

“Gardner must be feeling pretty good about that comeback,” said Luna in the stands.

“I wouldn’t call it a comeback until he’s evened the playing field,” replied Kyle. “Aurin’s definitely got the advantage here and he’s a much better judge of his opponents than Gardner seems to be.”

“How well do you know Gardner?”

“Obviously not as well as you. What do you think?”

“I think it would be a bad idea to underestimate him. He’s reached the same level in this tournament that Aurin has, plus he’s got a lot of experience in the tower and he does all of his runs solo.”

“Alright, I’ll defer to your judgement then. You think Gardner has a good chance of winning?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Luna, contemplating the last few minutes of battle. “He lost his Vinewolf alarmingly quickly and his Funglie was basically used as a sacrifice to take out Spikruption, one of Aurin’s strongest Minakai. His Angree is tough and his Desparee is even tougher, so when that shows up there could be trouble.”

“Aurin’s going to use his Desparee against Gardner’s, right?” asked Kyle, looking concerned.

“It sounds like something he would do,” said Luna. “He would want to see which of them had the stronger one of the species.”

Kyle said nothing, but when Luna looked at his face he had a very grim look drawn across it. Surely, Kyle didn’t think Aurin’s Desparee was that much weaker than Gardner’s?

“What is it?” she asked.

“A hunch that I hope I’m very much wrong about,” said

Luna turned back to the match as Aurin sent out Shamtile to deal with Angree.

“Hit him hard!” ordered Aurin, but suddenly Shamtile whizzed past him and slammed into the stadium wall.

“Did you see that?” cried the announcer, as Angree beat its chest. “If the punch wasn’t enough, being smashed into the wall ought to do it, folks.”

“Are you alright, Shamtile?” asked Aurin, as the lizard picked himself achingly up off the ground and gave a weak nod. Angree had summoned a root to throw itself forward fist-first into Shamtile before the masked lizard even had time to find his footing. “Give it right back!”

Shamtile stamped his feet and encased himself in his rock armour, then flung himself forward with a catapult that sprang from the ground. Angree reacted faster than Aurin expected, and its wooden fist grabbed Shamtile around the neck. The momentum threw both of them backward, but Angree still held tight. It began slamming Shamtile into the ground until his armour shattered. He finished the lizard off with a knee to the chest.

“Against the odds, Gardner has even—”

Suddenly a large boulder cracked Angree over the head, flattening it. Shamtile’s raised arm fell limp and, this time, he was out.

Aurin was down to three Minakai while Gardner had two unused Minakai and a now-injured Angree. Aurin was confident that Angree wouldn’t be much of a threat against an aerial opponent.

“Skrow!” he called as his skull bird appeared in a flash of yellow light. “Take to the skies.”

Skrow flew into the air as Angree spat seeds at him, like a machinegun. Skrow twirled out of the way, avoiding each of the attacks with ease. It was clear that Angree’s aim was off thanks to Shamtile’s parting gift of head trauma.

“Now’s your chance, Skrow!” called Aurin.

Skrow whipped around and cast himself forward with the might of the wind. Even speeding in a straight line, Angree’s aim was so poor that every seed missed its mark. Skrow’s aim, however, was true and his sharp beak pierced Angree’s wooden chest.

Gardner recalled his Minakai, now at a numbers disadvantage once again. “We’re not done yet, Aurin,” he said as he drew his hand back and threw forward ball of green light.

“Alright,” muttered Aurin, as the next Minakai appeared. “He’s going with a full set of nature elementals and plant types. I know what to do.”