Aurin had a lot to think about as he went about his duties. While his Minakai were largely self-sufficient, they still hadn’t mastered the art of feeding themselves their correct portion of food, typically overeating by three times what they should. Half of them also refused to take care of their own droppings, leaving him to dump them fifty feet underground.

  “You shouldn’t need me to order you to do this,” said Aurin, resting his shovel on the ground.

  Shamtile waved his arms in the air, brought them wide, and the dung pile plummeted into the abyss. With a clap of the masked lizard’s hands, the ground sealed itself shut. Shamtile turned to Aurin and gave him a thumbs up, ignoring his master’s comment.

  “Well, at least I’m not cleaning up others tamers’ Minakai’s mess,” sighed Aurin. He shook his head. “Nope, that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

  Shamtile patted Aurin on the leg comfortingly, but strolled away without further care a few seconds later. Aurin rolled his eyes and followed the little Minakai, heading back to his house. As Aurin reached his battlefield, hoping to get some pre-dinner training in with Spikruption and Flowl, he was alerted by Skrow’s caw. He looked up at the sky as the undead bird descended.

  Skrow landed beside him and held out a wing, pointing downhill. In the fading light of the sunset, he saw an armour-clad figure standing at the bottom of the hill. He wore a Club mask and held his arms out wide, as though indicating he wanted to approach.

  “What’s he doing?” Aurin muttered, walking towards the hill. He raised his voice. “Getting trounced once today wasn’t enough?”

  “I come only to talk, not to battle,” said Club, not daring to approach.

  Aurin summoned Shamtile to his side. He was curled up as though he’d been ready to take a nap. “Tremorsense, mate,” said his tamer.

  Shamtile placed his hands and feet firmly on the ground, but was unable to detect anything. Although his range was fairly limited, there was nobody walking in close range. When Shamtile looked up and spotted Club, he yelped in surprise, and then he shook his fist angrily.

  “I understand your trepidation in allowing me to approach, Aurin,” said Club. “Truly, I do, but I believe it is important that you hear me out.”

  “Fine,” said Aurin through gritted teeth.

  Club continued holding his hands high as he walked up the hill. He walked slowly, but he did not seem intimidated by the tamer who had an arsenal of powerful weapons nearby.

  “Skrow, keep an eye out,” said Aurin, stroking the black bird’s feathers. Skrow immediately took to the skies.

  “Please,” said Club, as he drew close. “Take the summoning stones that I carry with me as a reassurance that I am not up to anything nefarious. Not that I ever was, if you would believe that.”

  Aurin had to fight to supress a derisive laugh, but he kept himself under control. The last thing he needed was to get snarky and emotional.

  Club popped his five summoning stones from the sockets in his right wristband. He held them out and Aurin accepted them. The Blackjack stared at Aurin through his mask, his head tilted to the side as though he was studying the tamer before him.

  “Well?” asked Aurin.

  “Well, I am not sure where to start, if I am honest,” replied Club. “Perhaps it would be best if we did this face to face.”

  He grabbed the bottom of his mask, pulled it up over his head, and dropped it onto the ground. Standing before Aurin was Gray. His expression was sombre and his shoulders were slumped, looking like someone who had been caught kicking a puppy.

  Gray sighed and then took a deep breath. “Before anything else, I want to express my sincerest apologies to you for my involvement with The Blackjacks. I was misled from the beginning and, through my own naivety, I ignored far too many red flags solely because I wanted to battle you.”

  “That’s your excuse, Gray?” scoffed Aurin. His resolve to keep his cool had failed. “You got involved with someone who wants me to suffer because you wanted to battle me? You could have asked for a battle and I would have happily obliged.”

  “It was foolish and whatever excuse I make is simply that, Aurin,” said Gray, maintaining eye contact the entire time. Aurin recognised the look of shame and he was inclined to believe Gray, but that was not sufficient. “As a further token of penance, I feel that it is only right that I tell you the full story of my involvement with The Blackjacks and everything I know about them.”

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  “And you swear that you’re alone?”

  Gray held his left hand over his heart and raised his right. “I swear that I am alone.”

  “Alright,” said Aurin, turning and walking towards his house. “Come inside and we’ll talk.”

  Aurin led Gray around his arena, up his front steps, and into his house. Most of the Minakai around stared in surprise, shocked that their master would let a known enemy into his territory. Gittup nearly fell off the porch as he scrambled to his feet in shock. He was tempted to take a bite out of Gray’s leg, but he refrained, trusting that his tamer knew what he was doing. Shamtile followed the two humans inside and closed the door.

  “Tea?” Aurin asked, gesturing to his kitchen table.

  “Tea?” Gray replied.

  “Yes, tea. I’m not going to poison you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “Tea would be nice, thank you,” said Gray, taking a seat at the table.

  Aurin spent the next couple of minutes brewing a pot of tea. Once the kettle was whistling over the job, he poured the leafy brown liquid into two cups. He set one before Gray and then took his own seat at the table, facing the Blackjack.

  “Thank you,” said Gray, blowing on it and spreading the steam through the air.

  “This is not a friendly conversation, Gray,” said Aurin. “I don’t want you to think that because you came to me, you’re forgiven for your sins. I want to hear what you have to say, and I was raised to show hospitality.”

  “I understand,” said Gray, softly. He took a deep breath. “It started several months ago when I was approached by an old acquaintance, whom I now understand you have an unpleasant history with. Jackson. He knows of my ambition to be a world-renowned tamer and he also knows that I have a strong aptitude for battling. He offered me the opportunity to integrate myself into Hazelton, learning from the ground up how so many tamers from there have proven themselves exceptional on the national stage. He said that in aiding him and his boss, I too would be able to hone my skills in ways that I never have before. Foolishly, I jumped at the chance, and met with this boss. Alfred Ashmore.”

  “Sir Arthur Ashmore’s son,” said Aurin grimly.

  “That’s right. He seemed like a smart and composed gentleman, if a little eccentric in his ideas. He spoke of a game he had cooked up that both tied into his research and settling a score with you. What I did not know was that you were involved in the situation that led to his father’s disappearance. Nor did I know what you spoke of this morning, namely, the abduction of your Breminia. Had I known any of this, I would have washed my hands of this whole sordid affair and never have come here.”

  “And you didn’t consider that any of this was the elaborate trap of a madman?” asked Aurin. He took a sip of the hot tea.

  “Many thoughts crossed my mind, but I deluded myself into thinking that it was petty revenge for a lost battle. As I said, I offer no excuses. I was clouded with the desire to become the best and to learn from both Hazelton and you. Only through fighting the strongest, can you hope to become the strongest. You stood toe to toe with Tobias, Aurin. You were an inch from victory and that is something I am truly envious of. It was this envy that has led up to this. This… this revelation that I am not as honourable as I once thought myself. I spent hours wandering the forest, contemplating; deliberating. Confessing the truth to you was the right thing to do, even if it costs me my reputation.”

  Aurin set his tea down and leaned back in his chair. “I’m curious, Gray. What do the masks do? Luna believes I’m being recorded so my techniques can be studied and exploited for weaknesses.”

  Gray ran his fingers over the club visor on his mask and then set it on the table. “She was close,” he said, breathlessly. He slid the mask over to Aurin, who picked it up. “The technology is much more advanced than that. It takes careful readings of your Minakai and breaks them down into raw data. Height for starters, but it dives much deeper than surface-level aesthetics. It has the power to analyse your attacks and dissect them. It’s all sent to a man named Dr Holmes—he works for Ashmore—but I couldn’t tell you what they do with the data. All I know is that it’s part of something called Project Virtugil.”

  Aurin picked up the mask and looked into the visor. He flipped it around, place his hand inside the cloth hood, and opened it up. He held it so that the light shone through, but it appeared to be a normal visor from this angle.

  “It’s turned off,” said Gray. “You have to wear it and say ‘hit me’ to activate it.”

  “Hit me?” asked Aurin with a raised eyebrow. “This Alfred Ashmore sure loves his games, doesn’t he?”

  “As I said, he’s an eccentric fellow.”

  “So, what’s the story with this game then? What’s the next stage?”

  “We haven’t been briefed on that yet, but that’s imminent. Our mission was to gather the combat data of all your Minakai. The longer the battles lasted, the better the results. With Nolan exposed, I expected things will ramp up.”

  Aurin passed Gray his mask back. “The question, I suppose, is where do we go from here?” asked Aurin. “Do I simply forgive and forget? Do I go and find Alfred Ashmore and put an end to this personally?”

  He gazed at Shamtile, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Gray this entire time. Aurin knew just how formidable his team was and one of his stars was right beside him, ready to jump into battle at a moment’s notice.

  Gray clasped his hands together and leaned forward. “If you want me to spy for you, Aurin, I—"

  “I don’t want you to do that,” said Aurin. “If you truly are repentant, Gray, I don’t want to put you in a position in which your safety is compromised. I’m not out to get people hurt, I never have been. Although, I do have something else in mind.”

  “What is it?” asked Gray, his brow wrinkling.

  Aurin smiled. “Alfred Ashmore likes his games, right? If this is all part of an elaborate play to pin me down and defeat me within an arena he designed with rules that he created, there is something that will make him truly realise I am not to be trifled with.”

  Shamtile finally stopped looking at Gray and turned to his tamer, cocking his head to the side with curiosity.

  “I think the only way to finally break free of the Ashmores,” said Aurin, “is to defeat Ashmore Junior at his own game. How about you, Gray? Do you still want to play?”

  Gray laughed dryly and then drank his tea.

  right here.

  Aurin's Team:

  Luna's Team: