“Show him how it’s done, Shamtile,” said Aurin.

Shamtile waved his arms and conjured pillars of stone in the river that flowed through Hazelton. The masked lizard scurried along on all fours and bounded across them, landing on the middle one. He waited patiently as his opponents readied their attacks.

“And…begin!” called Aurin.

There was a sudden jet of water from Innogon that Shamtile ducked under. He raised the pillar he stood on to avoid a leaping Splashard who whipped water down at home. Dopefish leapt onto one of the erected stones with a mouth full of water and then unleashed it at Shamtile, who conjured a rock wall to block. When Dopefish ran out of steam, Dolissile leapt through the air and burst straight through the pillar, forcing Shamtile to drop onto another one.

“Take notes, Stopod,” muttered Luna as the sleepy stone octopus sat and watched by the riverside.

It was Stopod’s first day of training and he had been knocked into the water half a dozen times already. It was not made easy by the fact that he wasn’t yet strong enough to keep himself afloat. Each time he fell in, he sank to the bottom like an anchor and one of the swimming Minakai had to dive down and bring him back up.

“Fusion fin!” called Aurin, bringing out the big guns from Dolissile.

Dolissile burst from the water and into the air. He whipped around, spinning like a razor blade, his fins glowing brightly as he fell towards Shamtile. The magical lizard unleashed a barrage of rocks at the cyborg dolphin but didn’t even manage to knock him off course. Shamtile dodged at the last second but managed to take a nasty cut to the arm in the process.

“You were too eager to face him head on,” said Aurin. “Dolissile can’t pivot in the air easily so you could have moved out of the way sooner and then attacked while he was falling.”

Shamtile sat on his rock pillar and folded his arms in a huff. Aurin laughed and summoned Sunny into the town. She squeaked and squealed in excitement as Aurin directed her to heal Shamtile’s arm. Within seconds, Shamtile’s arm was as good as new, and the little egg disappeared back to the ranch.

“It’s not fair that you keep summoning Sunny out while we’re training and then telling her to go away straight after,” said Luna.

“That’s what she does!” protested Aurin.

“I know that but—”

“Luna! Aurin!” called Hannah’s voice as she wandered along the path beside the river.

“Hannah? What are you doing here?” asked Luna.

“I was in the town centre doing some shopping and thought I would take a walk along the river before heading home,” said Hannah.

“Want to train with us?” Aurin asked her.

“No, thank you,” replied Hannah. “I don’t like battling.

Aurin was miffed by this. What was the point of Hannah owning Minakai if she wasn’t going to use them to battle? Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t have bothered him but with the Zodiac Squad having caused all sorts of trouble in town, it seemed bizarre to him.

“Come on,” he urged her. “Just one battle. We don’t even need to go at a hundred percent.”

Hannah frowned and Aurin feared that their recent good terms were going to take a turn for the worst once again. “Fine,” she said, surprising both him and Luna.

“You mean it?” Luna asked.

“I mean it,” said Hannah, reaching into her bag and pulling out a greyish-cream summoning stone. She focused on it and her Minakai appeared. It looked like a tiny white sheet of cloth with a knot tied atop its head. Its eyes were completely black except for purple pupils that glowed from the holes in the cloth. It wriggled along with floor with no visible legs and its short arms waving—albeit much more slowly and controlled that Shamtile’s waving.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I didn’t know you had a Chlost,” said Aurin. “Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure what Minakai you had.”

“My dad says it’s not a Minakai you find in Harmony Tower. He found her egg in Shallow Tower a couple of years ago and gave her to me as a gift.”

“He gave you a sheet because you design clothes, right?” asked Aurin.

“Yes,” confirmed Hannah with a nod.

“Alright, you two,” said Luna, putting on a serious voice. “Get yourselves lined up along the path over by that bench.”

Aurin instructed his Minakai to keep training in the water and not to injure each other too badly, while Luna did the same. Stopod immediately fell into the water and was rescued by Splashard who scooped him up and set him on one of Shamtile’s pillars.

“Aurin,” said Luna, “summon your Minakai.”

Aurin held his hand high and brought forth Arium. It was to be a battle of two neutral elementals and now that Arium was in greater control of himself, Aurin had confidence that the golden alien wouldn’t go wild and beat up Chlost.

“Battlers ready?” asked Luna.

“Ready,” said Aurin and Hannah in unison.

“Fight!” called Luna, drawing her hand down through the air in a swift arc.

“Arium, give her a jab!” ordered Aurin.

The golden Minakai threw one of his fists across the riverside path until it passed right through Chlost. “What?” Aurin muttered, as Arium’s fist returned. He was certain it had made contact.

“An amateur mistake,” said Hannah with a sly smile. “Chlost, fade.”

Before everyone’s eyes, Chlost turned transparent. Where the little sheet ghost had once stood, there was nothing. She had not disappeared into the shadows as the sun was high in the sky, she had simply vanished into the ether.

Arium was looking around frantically for his opponent and suddenly Chlost materialised behind him, biting him on the back of the head. Arium screeched and flung his fists only for Chlost to vanish once again.

“Did you think this would be easy?” asked Hannah, seeing the look of mixed surprise and frustration on Aurin’s face. “Don’t insult me by saying you’re going to go easy.”

“You want me to go all out?” asked Aurin.

“Bring it on,” replied Hannah.

“Arium, use your psychic powers to sense Chlost,” said Aurin.

Arium closed his eyes and focused, his two floating fists hovering very slowly. The blue aura that usually surrounded Arium’s fists was now surrounding him too. All was quiet except for the occasional splosh of Shamtile’s rocks landing in the river.

Suddenly, Chlost reappeared to bite Arium’s fist, but the extraterrestrial was ready. The target fist dropped out of the way as his other fist punched Chlost straight in the eye. The little ghost screeched and faded out of view again.

“She can’t hide forever,” said Aurin.

“No, she can’t,” replied Hannah.

Chlost reappeared to take another bite and Arium’s fist phased right through the Minakai; she had combined her techniques. With one of Arium’s fist out of the way he had left himself open. Chlost latched onto his face, and chomped down hard.

“You think I’m that easy to defeat?” asked Aurin. “Psychic wave.”

Arium screeched loudly and Chlost tried to fade away again, but the wave of psychic energy that erupted from him was too powerful for the ghost to avoid. She was thrown back and knocked out cold. The little sheet lay on the paceman, unable to continue the fight.

“Aurin is the winner!” called Luna as her and Aurin’s Minakai rushed from the river to see the outcome of the battle.

“I suppose you did reach the national championships,” said Hannah with a small laugh.

“I lasted until the five on five matches of the national championships,” Aurin reminded her. “You’re a pretty good battler, how come you don’t fight more often?”

“I said I don’t like to fight, that doesn’t mean I can’t,” said Hannah.

“You’ve never battled with me, how did you learn?” Luna asked her, almost sounding offended at not being Hannah’s training partner.

“My dad taught me,” she said. “Well, kind of. He’s a Minakai tamer that prefers to fight the Minakai himself instead of letting his monsters do the fighting. It’s a bit weird, I suppose.”

Aurin’s jaw hit the floor. “You mean he’s just like the old school tamers? That’s amazing!”

“In that case, I think you two would get along,” giggled Hannah.

“Does he use a sword? How about magic?” asked Aurin, getting excited at the thought of seeing someone take on monsters by himself rather than relying solely on a team of Minakai.

“He mostly uses spell crystals, but he has a sword in case he runs out of spells,” said Hannah.

Luna had stood there the entire time looking confused. “Isn’t that incredibly dangerous?” she asked.

“Of course, it is,” said Aurin. “That’s why it’s so impressive.”

“I’m not letting you do that,” said Luna.

“I wasn’t planning to,” said Aurin. “Intervening for backup is fine, but I’m not going to run into the tower like a maniac and start punching wild Minakai in the mouth. I’d not make it out of there alive, I suspect.”

“I’m glad,” said Hannah. “It worried my mother like crazy back.”

Aurin held his fists up and started shadowboxing beside Shamtile. “How about it, mate?”

Shamtile encased his fists in stone and started mimicking Aurin. He threw one punch at Aurin’s knee and brought his tamer to the ground as Luna and Hannah giggled at the sight of Aurin clutching his injured leg.

“I was joking, Shamtile!” yelled Aurin, standing up and hobbling around. “I think I need Sunny back here.”

Shamtile looked confused for a second before casting off his stone. He waved his arms and let out a warbling yell, angry that he was supposed to have understood human humour. It took about ten minutes before Aurin could walk properly but a while longer to see the funny side of it. Curiously, Shamtile was hit with a much tougher training regime for the rest of the day.