“Cut him to pieces,” ordered Aurin as Snippet charged at his opponent.

Devon’s Melansprout’s fibrous body lost a few chunks from Snippet’s attack and the poor Minakai broke down crying. Snippet looked like he felt a little guilty, but Aurin ordered him to finish the job. With a final snip, Melansprout was banished from the tower.

“Ah, not again!” cried Devon in anguish.

“Undefeated!” yelled Aurin jumping into the air while Luna hid her face in embarrassment.

“You caught me on a training day,” said Devon.

“It’s a training day for me too, Devon. How many wins is that for me? Five now, was it?”

“No way, it’s only been four.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Aurin. “There was that time in the town square, then twice in the tower, once more outside the tower and now this one in the tower too.”

“I’ve still got Minakai left and I don’t want to end my run so early, so I don’t accept defeat.”

“Come on now, Devon,” said Luna, chiming in. “Aurin’s being a bit pompous, sure, but he did win. Don’t try and talk your way out of it.”

“Alright, alright,” said Devon, waving his hand dismissively. “Next time, however…”

Aurin and Luna laughed as Devon slumped away irritably. The poor fellow had already lost two Minakai and they were only on the fifth floor. It was not going to be his run today, but things were certainly looking good for Aurin’s Snippet and Luna’s Feathrus who were both going strong.

“Next tamer is yours,” said Aurin.

“Yup,” said Luna skipping out of the room and into the corridor.

“Careful,” Aurin warned her, fearing that there would be a trap hidden on one of the floor tiles she was so carelessly crossing.

“Today is going to be our day, Aurin,” said Luna. “I have a good feeling about it. We’ve stormed through the first couple of floors and our training at the ranch has been well. With both of us working together, we’re going to reach the twentieth floor today.”

“On a training day with a couple of our weakest Minakai with us?” At this, Snippet quietly cut Aurin’s one of shoelaces.

“You don’t think we can?”

“I think we’ll have to rely on Spike and Inno for that before too long.”

Luna wasn’t to be deflated and skipped merrily along until she reached the elevator. The duo and their Minakai ascended to the sixth floor and marched forward. The sixth floor was notably more troublesome than the previous five, with Snippet and Feathrus having to team up a couple of times against wild Minakai. Feathrus knocked them off balance with his gusts of wind while Snippet cut into them with his scissor hands.

“We’re doing it, I’m telling you,” said Luna, touching the blue orb.

“If you say so,” said Aurin once they landed on the seventh floor.

Luna walked on with Feathrus and straight ahead at a crossroads. She didn’t even bother to glance down the other two corridors. It was most unlike her to throw caution to the wind like this and it was bothering Aurin a little. Rather than ignore it, he spoke up.

“Why are you so wild today?” he asked her, more bluntly than he intended.

“Wild?” she asked with a giggle.

“Usually you’re Miss Careful.”

Luna held a finger to her chin. “I don’t know what it is, to be honest. Maybe it’s because I miss this, the two of us coming in here together. You’ve been coming in here alone a lot recently and I’ve been spending time with my parents, Emily and Hannah. It just feels good to both be in here together again.”

“I haven’t been leaving you out, you know,” said Aurin. “I was just letting you enjoy your…well, your non-monster taming life.”

“I know. I’m not upset that you’ve been in here alone, although I’d have liked to help you fight that Pisces woman.”

“I’d have liked that too,” said Aurin with a dry laugh. “We could have taken her out and hit the halfway mark. I was so close!”

“Look!” exclaimed Luna, pointing at the room ahead.

“It’s ours,” said a man shoving her out of the way and charging forward with a woman beside him.

Aurin and Luna reacted immediately and chased them into the room. Feathrus whipped his wings, and a mighty wind rolled the egg away just as the man tried to snatch it from the ground. It quickly became clear who these two were.

“It’s you two again,” spat the man.

“Do you two goons do nothing other than prowl the tower?” asked Aurin. It was the two members he and Luna fought the first time they had entered the tower.

“We shouldn’t waste our time with these minions,” said Luna dismissively as Feathrus retrieved the egg for her.

“Minions?” screeched the woman. The two Zodiac man and woman summoned a Shellice—a purple turtle with an icy blue shell—Vambra, respectively.

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Aurin and Luna exchanged a glance and ordered their Minakai to attack. Snippet sped towards the Shellice and as he struck, it threw its back up to use its shell as a shield and block Snippet’s attack. Feathrus meanwhile zipped around the room, dodging the Vambra’s swipes as the winged eyeball swung his sharp claws at him.

“Flip it over!” ordered Aurin.

Snippet pulled the Shellice forward and moved out of the way as the turtle fell onto its shell. The armoured insect gave the turtle a kick and it whizzed around the room.

“What are you doing? Summon a wall!” cried the Zodiac man.

The turtle brought up a ring of ice and blocked itself in which finally brought it to a stop. As the Minakai tried to right itself, Snippet leapt over the wall and thrust his sharp hand into its exposed underbelly. He jabbed over and over again and the Shellice never had the chance to get back onto its flippers before it was ejected.

Meanwhile, Feathrus was hard at work tiring out the Vambra. The demonic Minakai was getting increasingly frustrated at being unable to keep up with the windy sprite. Luna decided now was the time to go on the offensive and ordered Feathrus to strike its eye. Her Minakai threw itself forward, propelled by a strong tailwind, and headbutted the Vambra in the centre of its eye. It winced in pain, but a lucky swipe knocked Feathrus aside.

“Beam attack!” ordered the Zodiac woman.

Vambra opened its bloodshot eye and began to fire a laser beam from it. It clipped the edge of Feathrus’s wing. Unable to flee effectively, Feathrus took a second hit from the laser beam and was banished from the tower.

As Vambra raised its arms in victory, it suddenly found a sharp hand being shoved in its eyeball. Snippet then cut its wing with his free hand. The demon flailed agonisingly before being banished itself, leaving Snippet as the last Minakai standing.

“What do we do?” asked the Zodiac man.

“What do you mean?” asked Aurin.

“Stall them,” ordered the woman, summoning her next Minakai; it was a Quetzel.

“Right,” said the man, summoning a Funglie.

“Not so fast,” said Luna, calling upon Dogember.

No sooner had the fiery dog appeared than it barked a barrage of fireballs at its enemies. The two Zodiac Minakai were hit badly and Quetzel was banished immediately. A follow-up strike from Snippet finished off the large fungus.

“You’ve got to be joking,” lamented the Zodiac man, clutching his head.

“If you leave willingly, we won’t have to throw you out by force,” said Luna.

“I don’t know,” said Aurin, “I’m liking force.”

“Why would we listen to—”

Aurin cut the Zodiac man off by summoning Spikruption to back up Snippet and Dogember. He turned to the woman despairingly.

“I don’t want to lose my loot again,” he muttered.

“Are you crazy?” she asked incredulously. “If the bosses think we let these two punks go again then we’re in a heap of trouble.”

“Clock is ticking,” said Aurin as the three Minakai closed in on the Zodiac members. “You think we don’t have more Minakai to call on?”

“Ugh,” grunted the woman, pulling out an Orb of Return. “You caught us on a bad day, Aurin. Next time…”

“My bad days are better than your best days,” said Aurin as the two Zodiac members disappeared in a flash of light. “Sorry, Spikruption, but you’re going to have to go back on standby until later.”

Spikruption snorted a cloud of ash in frustration. He had been looking forward to getting his teeth sank into some foes in the tower, but he didn’t make a fuss about it. He faded from the tower, ready to be called upon when he was next needed.

“It would be nice to go a week without running into one of these jokers,” remarked Aurin.

“You love it,” giggled Luna.

“I don’t.”

“You do when you win.”

“Alright, that’s true. Ruining their day makes mine.”

Luna looked at the egg she had claimed. “I wonder what’s inside this one. I’m in half a mind to just leave now and hatch it. It seems like you’ve had most of the eggs lately.”

“That’s not true,” said Aurin, “I got Snippet around the same time you got your Feathrus, and Kyle gave me Sunny’s egg as a gift. It’s only Arium that I’ve found recently.”

“What about the other two eggs you lost over the last few—”

“We don’t talk about lost eggs, remember?”

Luna put her finger to her mouth, shushing herself while holding back a laugh. “What eggs?” she whispered.

“Exactly,” said Aurin with a grin.

The two tamers continued through the tower, encountering all manner of Minakai from each of the elements—not including the cosmic element, of course—and forcing their way up the floors, training Snipper and Dogember hard along the way. Amongst their loot, Aurin had found an Lunar Shard while Luna’s bag was packed full of berries and herbs, some of which she used up to keep Snippet and Dogember in good shape. Unfortunately, Aurin’s bug was squashed by Totempo-shaped rock around the thirteenth floor.

“Come on out, Arium,” he said, summoning the golden alien.

The little Minakai looked at his tamer excitedly, but his enthusiasm boiled over when he saw Luna. He grabbed onto her with his disembodied hands and psychically pulled his body towards her to embrace her in a hug.

“I’m pleased to see you too, Arium,” she said. “You know, it’s only been a couple of hours.”

Arium dropped to the ground and looked sad for a moment as though he had been scolded, but Luna walked over and comforted him. Aurin had to fight to not roll his eyes. Arium today was night and day difference to the Minakai hatched a few weeks ago, but he still knew how to play up for sympathy from Luna.

“Let’s go,” he said, picking Arium up by the scruff of the neck and walking along.

Arium was put to the test against wild Minakai far outsizing him. He took on a Volcarrow head on, slamming the fiery bird into a wall and then beating it senseless. He choked out a Frogre who was attempting to beat him senseless. He even caught a Thunding’s spear in mid-air and threw it right back at it, catching the lightning elemental off guard.

“Stop it,” Aurin scolded his Minakai as his eyes poured crocodile tears, trying to get Luna to heal his injured hand with one of her herbs.

“You’re a brave boy, aren’t you?” asked Luna, kneeling down beside him and looking at his hand. She fed him a berry and rubbed a salve on the electric burn.

“He’s not a five year old who touched a kettle,” sighed Aurin. “He’s a monster engaging in life-threatening battles!”

“Life-threatening?” asked Luna. “Have you known of any Minakai to die in Harmony Tower?”

“You know what I mean, stop trying to dodge.”

“Who was that?” asked Luna, glancing down the corridor.

“Don’t distract me,” said Aurin, but suddenly he saw it too.

“That was definitely someone’s shadow,” said Luna, squinting. “Do you think they saw us?”

“If they didn’t see your glowing orange dog, then they definitely heard us bickering about the alien baby.”

“There were humans there with Minakai, I wonder why they would ignore us?”

“Tamers who didn’t want to be bothered, what’s the big deal about that?” asked Aurin, but something suddenly dawned on him.

Luna watched his eyes widen and she nodded slowly at him. “The two Zodiac goons from earlier said—”

“Stall them,” said Aurin, finishing her sentence. “They’re here making sure someone else has a clear path ahead.”

“How can they guarantee they would be in the same instance?”

“They can’t, but I bet you there’s another dozen Zodiac members that entered around the same time and are in their own versions of the tower.”

“We’re going to follow them and find out, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” confirmed Aurin, nodding and heading in the same direction as the shadows. “It has to be Zodiac, doesn’t it?”

“I would bet my new egg on it.”

“It’s not too late to just leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Luna, looking defiantly ahead.

Aurin and Luna marched ahead with their Minakai, determined to find out who was in here with them. Part of them hoped they were wrong about the tamers being Zodiac members, but at the same time, obstructing them once again felt like the right thing to do.