Aurin and Hunter summoned their next Minakai simultaneously. From within a yellow burst of light, came Skrow, and from within a green, came Treebot. One flapped his wings while the other stomped his feet as they faced each other.

  “Only two more,” Aurin said under his breath. “Two more Minakai and Hunter goes down. We can do this, we can do this…”

  Hunter’s Treebot charged towards Skrow, shaking the ground with every thundering footstep—not that it affected the flapping black bird with the skull for a head. The brown-plated tank-like Minakai suddenly grinded to a halt and, from within his leafy top sprouted a flurry of seeds that planted themselves in the ground.

  “Soar!” demanded Aurin, getting an ominous feeling from the strange technique.

  As Skrow flew high, the dozens of seeds erupted into towering columns of bamboo that sprouted branches as they ascended. Skrow swooped and twirled to avoid getting struck by the attacks, but the changed battlefield gave him much less room to manoeuvre.

  “Chop them down,” called Aurin.

  Skrow beat his wings hard and sent a razor-sharp wind, cutting down half of the miniature forest instantly, but Aurin caught the small smile appear on Hunter’s face for a split second. He realised that he had fallen into a trap, yet was not quite sure what that trap was.

  Treebot stamped his feet and wild vines burst from the ground, wrapping themselves around the felled trees and hurling them like spears with their sharp, severed tips aiming to skewer the undead bird. Skrow dove out of the way, but more trees kept coming and the remnants of the forest were difficult to navigate.

  He suddenly felt a thump on the back of his head as one of the spears that had gotten caught in the canopy fell back down and sent him plummeting a dozen feet. He steadied himself, but not quickly enough and one of the spears pierced his left wing and tore through to the other side.

  Aurin’s heart sunk as Skrow spiralled to the ground and landed in a crooked heap of feathers. As Treebot stood proudly on all fours, he was caught off guard as a spinning razor of air elemental energy cut into his brown, bark-like plating. With the last of his energy spent on that attack, Skrow’s head slumped and he lost consciousness.

  “Skrow pulling out a last-second technique to injure Hunter’s Treebot may be just the help that Aurin needs now that both competitors are down to two Minakai,” said the announcer.

  “This is too close to call,” said Luna, squeezing Innogon so tightly that he spat a jet of water into the back of Moon’s head, prompting the Ethruki tamer to turn around and scowl at Luna who swiftly apologised.

  “I don’t know what to say other than…I agree,” said Kyle, watching Aurin raising his tamer glove. “I hope he’s got a solid strategy in mind for the rest of the battle or it’ll be over as quickly as Skrow was defeated by Treebot.”

  Aurin summoned his Gorunze, who reared up onto his hind legs and let out a mechanical groan before drawing his arms up and pulling Treebot towards him. The magnetic pull the bronze golem elicited was enough to bring his opponent into melee range and Gorunze threw down his claws, swiping across Treebot’s screen with one and scraping his armour with the other.

  Treebot lurched forward and headbutted Gorunze in the face, making the metal behemoth recoil and take a few steps back. The steps proved to be a mistake and Treebot seized his chance to summon forth a mighty root that grabbed Gorunze’s hind legs while Treebot unleashed a nature beam straight into Gorunze’s stomach, making the mechanical golem grunt in agony.

  As his opponent hurriedly charged another attack, Gorunze mustered up his strength and broke free from the roots. He threw himself aside and narrowly missed the beam that struck the wall of the stadium just beside Aurin.

  Gorunze tilted his head and shot his topaz lasers from his eyes, striking between the gap that Skrow had made in Treebot’s armour and bringing him to the ground. Weakened and in pain, Gorunze stood up and put his all into ramming into Treebot’s side. He jammed his claws into the same gap and his topaz nails went deep within the wound.

  He drew his arm out and flipped Treebot onto his leafy back before slamming his elbow into the nature robot’s underbelly. Treebot spasmed, but was still moving. He tried to roll himself back over but Gorunze elbowed him again and again.

  As the wounded Treebot lay in a daze, Gorunze jumped aside and faced his opponent. Before he fainted, the last thing Treebot saw was a beam of topaz light striking him in the eye. Gorunze fell back down onto all fours and heaved up and down as he took a second to rest before Hunter’s next Minakai was summoned.

  “And it looks like you’ve got your chance to prove yourself,” said Hunter, looking at a steely grey summoning stone in his glove. “Let’s show the whole world what you can do.”

  Aurin’s eyes widened as he saw a hulking figure emerge from the grey light before Hunter. The Minakai revealed itself and the crowd were in awe, none of them having seen Hunter use this monster during the course of the tournament. He had been saving this one as a final surprise.

  The creature had grey arms and legs with steel bands around its wrists. Around its waist and chest were silver plates of armour that connected at the back while its stomach was uncovered for flexibility. Its steel pauldrons were large and round, almost as round as its domed head. And within that head, sat a diamond-shaped black screen with a glowing blue eye within. This evolution of Microbot was not native to Bretonia, Aurin knew as much, but he had yet to see one in-person before.

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  “Macrobot, strike hard!” Hunter ordered his enigmatic metal elemental.

  The hulking beast ran forward with his arms swinging wildly. He was heading straight for Gorunze who shot at his foe with his laser beam, but Macrobot raised an arm and encased it in titanium to block the attack. Tired and wounded, Macrobot knew he would have to deal with this hand-to-hand or risk depleting himself too much to land an attack.

  As Gorunze drew back an arm to strike, Macrobot conjured a metallic sword between the three fingers of his left hand and swung down, cleaving into Gorunze’s head. Aurin’s Minakai hit the ground with a battlefield-shaking thud and didn’t move a muscle.

  “Oh no!” gasped Luna, squeezing Innogon again.

  Moon instinctively ducked and the jet of water whizzed just past Frederick, who turned around with a murderous look in his eyes.

  “Would you be careful, you imbecile!” he roared with the ferocity of his Leofang.

  The announcer called out. “We’re down to the final two Minakai. Aurin’s got one last chance to defeat Hunter’s Macrobot. Only one of these stalwart contenders will win and it will be decided in just a few minutes, folks. You can’t see me, but I’m on the edge of my seat right now.”

  Aurin let out a small laugh as he shook his head. He held up his tamer glove, revealing a green summoning stone resting within it. Hunter started laughing in response, seeing that Aurin had predicted he would have a metal elemental in his roster. How he could have possibly known, the incredibly experienced tamer could only guess, but he would ask him later.

  “Desparee, let’s win this!” Aurin called, summoning his tree-like Minakai to the field.

  The second the green glow faded, Hunter’s Macrobot hurled a sharp metal spike from his free hand, but it was grabbed by an erupting vine from the ground and flipped around before being sent flying back to its owner who smacked it aside with his sword.

  Desparee hurled a barrage of razor-sharp leaves from his fingertips that sped towards Macrobot, only to be blocked by his shielded arm. Once the leaf storm ended, Macrobot discarded his shield and sent out a powerful metal wave that Desparee blocked by hardening his bark skin.

  Macrobot dared to run forward, but a cluster of sharp vines emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around his legs, only to be cut by the brute’s mighty sword. As Desparee tried to summon more vines, Macrobot drew back his arm and hurled his sword that was sent spinning through the air as it flew towards Aurin’s Minakai.

  The vines retreated as Desparee ducked and, when he stood up, he could see Macrobot’s blue eye focused on him and beginning to glow intensely. Knowing what was about to happen, Desparee held his hands together and moved them back. Harnessing the power of nature, his hands began to shake as a glowing orb of green light materialised within them. Sensing that his opponent was about to attack, he threw his arms forward.

  Upon Desparee unleashing the nature beam, Macrobot launched his own attack. The blue laser that shot from his eye to meet the nature beam and the two beams of energy collided in the middle of the battlefield, locked in a struggle for dominance as their originators focused as much of their elemental power as they could muster to push their attacks to victory.

  The mid-point of the attack was unwavering, but Macrobot found the strength to keep his attack stable and take a step forward. He took another and then another, moving himself closer while his beam only got shorter. He had a plan in mind and Aurin feared what that could be, but Desparee was unable to move.

  As Macrobot came within feet of the point where the beams met, he groaned as he strained himself and forced his blue laser forward. He groaned again, releasing a burst of energy and pushing his attack once again. All the while, he continued to walk closer to Desparee, who was struggling hard.

  “Just a little longer…” whispered Aurin as Macrobot was only a couple of yards from Desparee.

  The metal elemental forced out one last surge of energy and Desparee dropped to the ground, letting his own attack dissipate. On the way down, his left arm was struck by the blue laser before it petered out. Desparee let out a wail of despair as he struggled to his feet, only to be met with a heavy fist to his other arm, which snapped at the elbow.

  “I can’t watch,” cried Luna, tucking her head behind Innogon who was biting his nails.

  “He was so close,” said Kyle, wiping the sweat from his brow.

  Macrobot grabbed Desparee around the waist and gave him a tight bearhug, crushing his foe’s torso against his sturdy metal armour. Macrobot stared at Desparee as he tried to tighten his core and remain strong, but the hulking metal Minakai knew that he outmatched his opponent who had been left with two injured arms.

  Desparee’s sad eyes suddenly turned into a frown and his round mouth spat out a miniature nature beam that struck Macrobot in the centre of his eye, making him drop the tree-like Minakai and clutch his face. In anger, Macrobot grabbed Desparee and hurled him into the air.

  As Desparee flew up, Macrobot conjured a sharp spike in his hand but, before it could be thrown, he was met by a strong beam that shot, not from Desparee’s unusable hands, but from his feet. The beam struck Macrobot in the screen once more and he dropped the steel spike on the ground.

  “From his feet!” cried the announcer, marvelling at the unorthodox technique.

  Macrobot trembled as he drew his arm back once more and conjured another spike. As he started to throw it, he fell onto his stomach and the spike rolled aside before dissipating. Desparee hit the ground with a crack and forced himself to look up. His enemy lay unmoving a few yards away and did not stir.

  “And the victory goes to Aurin!” howled the announcer as the crowd all leapt to their feet and delivered a deafening applause that could be heard all across Ludonia.

  Hunter stood with his mouth ajar for a couple of seconds before blinking intensely and joining in with the clapping crowd. Aurin too stood with his mouth wide open, amazed that he had managed to pull out a win against Hunter. Once he gathered himself together, he marched to the centre of the battlefield and met his friend.

  “I…I…” he said, not sure what to say.

  “Well done,” said Hunter, holding out his hand.

  “Good match,” said Aurin, smiling as he accepted the handshake.

  “How did you know about my Macrobot?”

  “You want the honest answer?” asked Aurin with a sly grin.

  “You guessed, didn’t you?” asked Hunter, narrowing his eyes.

  “It was a balance of probabilities!” exclaimed Aurin. “I knew about the four Microbot evolutions you had and that left six more. I thought about it for a while and decided that Macrobot was the one I was going to play my strategy to.”

  “Well, it worked,” said Hunter with a laugh. “Perhaps you’ll be able to suss out Tobias before the next match, eh?”

  “Of course,” said Aurin, nodding and feigning confidence.

  The two parted ways as the crowd continued to cheer and the announcer sung their praises. Aurin was elated to have won, but would be the first to admit that he was a little surprised. He was at the top of the league and had won the national championships, but that alone would not grant him the title of national champion of Bretonia. To earn that honour, he would have to defeat the current national champion who would not even dream of making it easy for him.

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