“Rise and shine!” yelled Kyle throwing the curtains in Aurin’s room open.

“Urgh…” grunted Aurin, not used to being forced up for chores after spending so many weeks in Ludonia. It felt like a dream to him now.

“Grunting will not make the Minakai less hungry,” said Kyle. “Before you left, you’d have already had a morning run. I can’t believe you’ve let yourself slide so fast.”

Aurin sat up, his dark blonde hair sticking up in various places at peculiar angles. Through his half-open eyes, he could see Kyle looking refreshed and ready for the day ahead, something Aurin was most certainly not.

“I’m exhausted,” he said before lying back down.

“From what?” asked an incredulous Kyle. “Staying in a lavish hotel room, eating fancy meals and being lauded for your battling talents by half the country?”

“The hotel wasn’t that lavish,” remarked Aurin as Kyle ripped the duvet away and walked out of the room.

Aurin dragged himself out of bed and into the bathroom to wash up before the day ahead. Even after a few days back in Hazelton he had yet to enter the ranch. Kyle had a long list of tasks for him, and he was enjoying spending time around all the Minakai again, particularly his own.

Once he had scoffed down a small breakfast of toast and eggs, he wandered outside and breathed in the fresh air. There was something different about being back home in Hazelton compared to Ludonia, and it wasn’t just the atmosphere; it was the smell. It smelled like home, even if that smell had a faint trace of Minakai dung.

Shamtile was sitting on a fencepost throwing stones at one of Kyle’s Frogre guards while he waited. The Frogre were under strict orders not to attack guests at the ranch but were more than happy to reign in troublemakers. Shamtile knew that if he skirted the line he could have some fun with them, angry as it may make them.

“How are you doing, mate?” Aurin asked his lizard and the Minakai giddily screeched as he hopped onto the grass and began dancing with his arms in the air. “I’m good too,” replied his tamer.

The two walked over to a nearby shed and grabbed a heavy sack of feed to start dishing out to the others. Shamtile took a few crumbs for himself too, something he did regularly and kept secret from Kyle. Aurin suspected Kyle knew but didn’t say anything out of fondness for the masked lizard.

“Hurry it up,” said Kyle was he tossed insects and lesser fish into the river where most of the aquatic Minakai stayed.

“I’m moving, I’m moving,” grumbled Aurin. He set about his chores and remained nag-free as he finished feeding. He left his own Minakai for last and gave them an extra bit of food from a fresh bag. Spikruption was particularly glad of this, his enormous size requiring a lot of sustenance to maintain his muscly reptilian frame. The dinosaur let out a loud roar that vibrated through the air and shook the fence, causing a few smaller Minakai nearby to panic.

Aurin’s newest team member, Snippet, was pinching his scissor-like hands in the air as though trying to cut through something. He slowly started moving towards the fence, but Leonite picked him up in his mouth and set him down in the middle of the pen.

“You’re still trying to fight the habit, right?” chuckled Aurin, knowing it was hard for the little purple insect to resist his own nature. Snippet made a soft clicking noise and his eyes grew sad. “You know what? I’m overdue a tower run and I think it’s time that you got put to the test. Are you in?”

Snippet leapt up with excitement and started running around in circles with Shamtile. The rest of Aurin’s Minakai were looking excited too, having seen no action since the national championships. It was always difficult choosing who to take, but there were a two other Minakai he felt needed the extra attention.

“Leonite, you’re coming too,” said Aurin and the cobalt blue lion ran towards his tamer and put both his front paws on Aurin’s shoulders and licked his face. Filled with instant regret at behaving like a pet, he sat back down rigidly.

“Dolissile, you’ll be the third pick of the day,” said Aurin, eager to give the cybernetic dolphin the chance to test himself now that he was back to fighting shape. “You’re back to full strength again, right?”

Dolissile showed little reaction outside of tipping forward slightly to simulate a nod. The other Minakai looked disappointed, particularly Shamtile and Steambot who puffed steam and smoke respectively.

“I can’t break the rules of the tower,” laughed Aurin. “It won’t even let me enter if I try to bring more than three summoning stones in. Relax, you’ll all get your chance to shine. We’re going to be pushing further than we ever have before. You hear me?”

The Minakai all roared, screeched, and squawked with enthusiasm.

“We’re going to reach the top of Harmony Tower and every single one of you will play a part in that.”

The Minakai grew louder than ever and Kyle shouted over. “You still have to beat my record.”

“Floor thirty-seven will seem like child’s play once we get going,” said Aurin. “We’re hitting the tower runs hard again with renewed focus starting today. Let’s get going!”

“You can get going once you’ve finished your list,” said Kyle. “The poop shovel is in the usual spot.”

*

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Snippet’s attack barely landed, merely trimming the tuft of hair atop the wild Cubtem’s head. The eager little insect was pounced upon by the small lion, who bit into his armoured chest.

“Those pincers aren’t just for cutting, Snippet,” said Aurin.

Snippet jabbed its claw into Cubtem’s side and the Minakai let out a pained roar as it fell to the ground. A follow-up stab to the side and it vanished from the tower in a burst of light while Snippet climbed back onto his feet.

“You’re doing well, bud. You just need to make sure you don’t leave yourself open if you don’t land your strike. Keep your other arm up.”

Aurin stood behind Snippet and moved his arms into place while the insect clicked away.

“I know you have armour, but you should avoid the hit rather than let your armour take the brunt of an enemy’s attack. Do you understand?”

Snippet snipped away at the air and made a gargling sound that Aurin took to mean as a yes. The two proceeded through the floor and Snippet fought more Minakai from Dripper to a Pyrocoon. The Pyrocoon—an orange cocoon, the stage between Pyropillar and Pyrofly—merely sat there motionless making for an easy win, although towards the end of the short battle it did start to emit a few flames. Snippet was nonetheless pleased with himself for the victory.

“Now if you can take out Cryocoon, its ice counterpart, you’ll really have tested yourself,” joked Aurin, but Snippet did not quite get it. He was used to making silly jokes with Luna, but she was catching up with family and friends today. All the same, he was enjoying having a solo tower run for a change.

The tamer and his Minakai explored the tower, Aurin collecting silver coins, herbs other loot along the way. On the sixth floor, an exhausted Snippet was defeated by a hard-headed Happynut before Aurin could unleash a spell from an Ice Crystal he had picked up.

“Leonite!” called Aurin and within seconds of the lion appearing, Happynut had vanished. “Fancy taking us up another few floors?” asked Aurin, stroking Leonite’s mane; he emitted a low purr in agreement.

The two ascended the tower, defeating many Minakai along the way and even two tamers, one of whom recognised Aurin from the national championships.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” the tamer had said excitedly upon being defeated. “Will you sign my tamer glove?”

Aurin was surprised to have somebody he had never met recognise him out of the blue, but when he thought about, he realised he had been on national television. It was bound to happen eventually, he just had never considered that he would have fans and be asked for his autograph.

“We really did hit the big leagues,” he said to Leonite, who roared proudly with his head held high. “Alright, alright, let’s not let our egos run too wild. I’ve finally got my head back in the game and I don’t want to lose it again.”

On thirteenth floor, Leonite suffered a double knockout against a particularly angry Frogre who seemingly channelled the spirit of Kyle’s guard that Shamtile was harassing earlier. The two collided and were ejected from the tower simultaneously.

“Dolissile, let’s keep it going,” said Aurin. “If we can reach the fifteenth floor then it’s been a good run. Reckon you can do it?”

Dolissile emitted a small echo and floated alongside Aurin all the way to the elevator. Aurin placed his hands on the shining blue orb within the golden pedestal and warped up to floor fourteen with Dolissile by his side.

Within a minute, the duo were beset upon by a pair of Peekawe that Dolissile knocked out of the air with a pulse before ramming each of them into the wall, nearly breaking their backs. Aurin was glad he truly was back to full strength.

Battling through the waves of monsters that struck, Aurin quickly grabbed onto the elevator as they were being chased by a rather tenacious Vinewolf who was giving Dolissile a hard time. The two narrowly escaped a run-ending foe and took a moment to recover on the fifteenth floor.

“Do you see that?” asked Aurin excitedly as he entered a nearby room. It was a pristine grey egg that he ran for and hurriedly stashed in his bag. “Not a bad day, Dolissile, eh?” he asked the stoic cyborg. “Nothing? I suppose with each new Minakai on the team, the less I get to focus on each of you.”

Aurin looked at his Minakai hovering above the ground and giving him zero reaction. He couldn’t help but feel a little pity. He loved his entire team, from his first Minakai, Shamtile, to his newly added Snippet. He thought back to when his team consisted of Shamtile, Dolissile and Hornferno—before he evolved into Spikruption—and how he never had to pick and choose. It was starting to become a bit of a juggling act but such was the life of a tamer. He knew that if he wanted to be the best, his team had to grow and sometimes his attention to each member wouldn’t be split evenly.

Suddenly not feeling much like pushing ahead he retrieved an Orb of Return from his bag and unleashed the magic within, returning himself and Dolissile to the tower entrance.

As Aurin walked away, a pair of schoolgirls who were about to enter the tower giggled and pointed at him. “What’s so funny?” he asked them.

“It’s you!” one of them said.

“I suppose so…” he said, remembering the young man who he signed the autograph for. “Did you watch the national championships?”

“Yes!” squealed the other girl. “You got knocked out by one of the other guys from Hazelton.”

The two girls continued to giggle and Aurin had to hold back his anger. “Good luck with your run,” he said. “I hope you make it past floor one.”

He returned to the ranch, making a few choice comments to Dolissile that he could rely on his Minakai to not repeat—not that any of them really could, but Dolissile least of all.

“How’d the run go?” asked Kyle.

“Let me ask you something,” replied Aurin.

“Sure, what is it?”

“How did you deal with diving the attention between your team members?”

“Huh,” remarked Kyle, taking a moment to think his answer through. “I think it came down to which Minakai suited what purpose. Not all of my team members were naturally gifted battlers so the ones that weren’t stayed behind during most of my tower runs and competitive battles. Sometimes I’d bring them into a tower just so they didn’t get rusty, but usually I’d rotate between my strongest.”

“That makes sense,” said Aurin, “but I also don’t think I have any Minakai who haven’t shown fighting promise.”

Kyle laughed. “You will eventually, you’ll get one soon enough. It doesn’t mean you don’t take care of it; it just means it isn’t necessarily a monster you’d want fighting in the national championships with you.”

“Maybe it’s this one,” said Aurin, pulling out the egg he had found.

“Maybe it is,” said Kyle. “The egg incubator is by the friend door, a pair of schoolgirls came by and hatched two eggs their father bought them.”

Aurin frowned as he retrieved the incubator. He secretly hoped they’d been booted from the tower already. He brought the incubator back over to Kyle and set the egg within, then pressing the button that caused the forcefield to appear and work its magic.

“It’s a neutral elemental,” remarked Kyle as the white light emerged and the Minakai’s shape was revealed.

Standing before Aurin was a short golden alien with no arms, a long head and two hands that floated beside it, completely detached from its body but surrounded by a blue aura. It was an Arium.

“That’s a rare find,” said Kyle, surprised. “What floor did you make it to?”

“Fifteen,” said Aurin as he greeted his new team member. “Welcome to the team, Arium. I’d like you to meet Dolissile.”

The little alien stared at the floating dolphin for a minute, each giving little reaction to the other. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Arium’s hand formed a fist and punched Dolissile in the face, spinning the dolphin around in the air.

“Oh dear,” said Kyle, trying to hold back a laugh. “It looks like you’ve just hatched an ill-tempered little sod. Something tells me he’s not going to be useless in battle but good luck holding him back.”

Aurin sighed as Arium’s neutral expression turned into a frown as he stared at his tamer.