Luna clutched her newly won egg tightly. She had been the overall victor at Tamer Day in terms of points, and one of only five contestants to rank first in two competitions. Aurin was also one of the five, but his voluntary disqualification during the aerial race cost him any chance of the ultimate victory. Not that he especially cared; saving a life was more important.

  “I wonder what you’ll be?” she asked aloud as she, Aurin, and Kyle walked along the path towards the ranch. “Does anybody want to take a guess at the element? I’m going to say… ice!”

  Kyle grabbed the egg and spun it in his hands. “It feels like a fire egg to me,” he said. “I’m not sure why.”

  “Neutral,” said Aurin, his mind too far away to give a more detailed thought.

  “Are you still hung up on that Ruby girl falling?” asked Luna, snatching her egg back from Kyle.

  “Yes, I am,” muttered Aurin. “Something just feels so off about it.”

  “A new redhead girl in your life?” chuckled Kyle. “The last one is going to get jealous.”

  Luna rolled her eyes and slapped Kyle’s arm. “Let’s leave things to Knot for the time being. If it was anybody else in charge, I would suggest digging into the incident ourselves, but we know we can trust Knot to do whatever he can to get to the bottom of it.”

  Aurin sighed. “You’re right.”

  The trio returned to the ranch and Luna immediately ran inside to fetch the incubator. When she returned, she placed it on the ground and set the egg within. With a push of the bottom at the base, a forcefield beamed into reality and covered the egg in a dome. The egg glowed brightly, radiating a faint purple light and revealing the Minakai within to be a lightning elemental. It took the form of a waist-high beetle, and then the light dissipated, leaving the Minakai standing atop the incubator.

  The electric-blue beetle stood on its two thick hind legs and fidgeted with its three-fingered, rather spindly, hands. Its back was covered in elytra which protected and concealed its wings. Its head was pointed and it bore a single large horn the erupted from just above its mouth. It had two twitching antennae which ended in small spheres and, just below that, were its eyes. Its eyes glowed bright blue, crackling with electricity as it looked around at the world that had been unveiled.

  “A Beetabolt!” cried Luna, clapping her hands together enthusiastically. My first lightning elemental.”

  “He looks sturdy,” said Aurin, cocking his head to the side. “For an insect, at least.”

  “Not half bad,” said Kyle. “I’m sure that if you train him right, he’ll be a real powerhouse.”

  “You’re both sure it’s a boy?” asked Luna, looking from Aurin to Kyle.

  “It’s the antennae and the horn that give it away,” said Aurin, shooting a sideways glance at Kyle. “Right?”

  “You’re correct,” confirmed the rancher. “And I have to say, I’m glad that you’re finally learning to tell the difference between males and females of many species. It took you long enough.”

  “Just one second,” said Aurin, having a feeling that the time was now right for something else.

  He ran inside and fetched a Lunar Shard. He had been meaning to evolve a certain Minakai of his had he won his Tamer Day event, but it had slipped his mind. He returned to the front of the ranch pens where Luna and Kyle awaited him. They both looked surprised that Aurin was going to evolve a Minakai, but they knew who it would be immediately.

  Aurin held up his tamer glove and summoned Tuptup to his side. He kneeled beside the little monster and smiled at him. “You did a great job today, and it shows your training is paying off. Do you think you’re ready to take things to the next level?”

  Tuptup barked pleasantly and bounded around his tamer a couple of times before crouching low and wagging his golden tail with great excitement. Aurin nodded and placed the Lunar Shard to Tuptup’s fur, and the little Minakai glowed the same shade of purple as Luna’s Beetabolt.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Tuptup’s form shifted, his body growing bulkier and longer, but not as much as Aurin had expected. The lightning elemental’s hair grew longer and a little wilder, and his tail lengthened, but they were also not as radical a change as they ought to have been. Once the light faded, Gittup was revealed.

  “Hmm,” said Aurin, biting his lip.

  “He’s… he’s…” said Luna, not sure what to say.

  “He’s small,” said Kyle bemusedly. “Abnormally small for a Gittup. Ah well.”

  “Ah well?” asked Aurin.

  “He’s small. So what? He can still pack a punch. All it means is that you’ll need to vary your strategy. He won’t be the hard hitter he could have been, but he’s lighter and can be trained to be more of a dodger and elemental magic specialist. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

  “You’re right,” said Aurin, kneeling down and scratching behind Gittup’s ears.

  While Tuptup was just shy of Aurin’s knees, Gittup was a little higher than Aurin’s waist. Your average Gittup would have been up to his shoulders. Gittup did not seem to care much and accepted the ear scratching cheerily. He pounced on his tamer, knocking him to the ground, and the pair rolled over while laughing.

  “You really haven’t change much, have you?” remarked Aurin as Gittup bit his arm. “As bright and yappy as ever.”

  “Tower run tomorrow?” asked Luna, looking at her Beetabolt. “Bakugon and Cryopillar are in need of some training too.”

  “What do you say?” Aurin asked Gittup, who gave a loud bark of delight. “He’s in.”

  “Tower tomorrow, work tonight,” said Kyle. “Come on, you can both help me do the evening feeds. I’m sure the Frogre have left some mess in their wake.”

  *

  Alfred Ashmore walked into the dimly lit laboratory where several of his scientists stood by, keeping watchful eyes on various monitors. What they were looking at, he could not be certain of, but it did not matter to him. All that mattered was that the large vat of viscous green liquid at the far end of the room was functional. He would give them the money, and leave the science of it to the scientists.

  “Dr Holmes, I would like a status report,” said the young man. He was the spitting image of his father as the same age, inheriting the elder Ashmore’s tall and broad frame, his brown hair, and his blue eyes. While Sir Arthur Ashmore had kind eyes that masked his burning desire to complete his collection, Alfred Ashmore masked nothing. He was cold, calculated, and there was deep hunger in his eyes that everyone could see.

  “Yes, Master Ashmore,” said Dr Holmes, pushing his glasses up his noise. He gestured towards a monitor before the vat of liquid. “As you can see, Project Virtugil is advancing well. Its vitals are stable, its muscle mass is increasing, and even the metallic plating has fused with it well. It continues to grow as though it were also alive.”

  “Perfect,” said Alfred, looking at the screen. He trusted what Dr Holmes was saying despite not having an inkling as to what the numbers, letters, and symbols meant. “How far are we from completion?”

  “Close,” replied the doctor. “Our virtual tests were successful, but now we need to use the real training data as observed by the combat suits first-hand.”

  “I have people ready and waiting. As soon as you give me the go ahead, I will deploy them.”

  “Excellent, Master Ashmore. All we need to do is adjust the frequencies and their analysis should work. There is, of course, the matter of utilising the rift deployment devices. As you know, Master Ashmore, they are unstable at the best of times.”

  Alfred scoffed. “I have tested them personally, Dr Holmes. I would not be so foolish as to send my people out without adequate preparations.”

  “May he rest in peace.”

  “If he truly is dead, may he, but I do not believe that he is. Lost in time and space, perhaps, but not dead. Regardless, I will avenge him. It is my solemn duty as his son to see that I do. And then, we return to the work that he began. Project Virtugil will, of course, be essential to that once it has had its own field test.”

  Alfred pulled a deck of cards from his jacket and held them before Dr Holmes. He shuffled them like a master dealer, flicking them between his hands at lightning speed, merging two stacks with his fingertips, and all the while looking at the doctor rather than the cards themselves. Once he was finished, he gestured to Dr Holmes.

  “Will you do the honours?”

  “Certainly,” said Dr Holmes. He had always found Master Ashmore to be a strange young man, fascinated with games and tricks. His father had always been more of a conversationalist and got to know those he did business with. Master Ashmore preferred the flashier methods. The doctor reached out and drew a card. He spun it around to reveal the four of clubs.

  “Exactly the suit I was hoping for,” said Alfred with a satisfied smile. He whipped the card from the doctor’s fingers, added it back to the deck, and then stashed the deck back in his jacket.

  He walked closer to the vat of liquid. It towered over him and rippled occasionally. Each ripple was accompanied by a flurry of bubbles that rose to the top and vanished in the darkness at the top of the vat. Alfred put his hand on the glass and smiled at a tremendous shadow within.

  “Soon, you will be born,” said the young man. “Soon, you will be revealed as the deadliest weapon imaginable. And your powers, my child, will be at my command.”

  A four-fingered hand from within the green liquid touched the glass, meeting the spot where Alfred’s hand rested.

  “I’m glad you are awake, Virtugil,” said Alfred. “You will become more powerful than my father could have possibly imagined.”

  right here.

  Aurin's Team:

  Luna's Team: