Aurin and Gorunze stared up at the monitor near the rear delivery door of Hazelton Stadium. They saw Diamond frantically moving from room to room, making Aurin realise that The Blackjacks were, in part, playing by the same rules as he was. They had their three Minakai, but they could also utilise the presents left throughout the stadium. This was confirmed when Diamond opened up a box and took a Neutral Crystal for himself.

  Spade, meanwhile, was rushing around, searching for Aurin methodically. He checked rooms in sequence before moving on. This gave Aurin further confirmation of the rules that Alfred had alluded to. He could track his opponents via the stadium’s screens, but they could not track him. At the same time, he was keenly aware that he was being watched through the cameras. This, however, seemed to only be for Alfred’s benefit. He was, after all, the gamemaster.

  Club was strolling through the halls leisurely, not seeming to care if he found Aurin or not. At one point, he walked past Spade, but the two exchanged a glance rather than speaking to each other. He knew they were both downstairs as Spade had passed by the same rooms Aurin had previously in his search and would be with him in mere minutes if Aurin didn’t move.

  Unlike Spade, the young tamer was more than familiar with Hazelton Stadium, having battled here more times than he could count. Between three tournaments, a Tamer Day battle, and the occasional visits, he was intricately familiar with the layout of the building. For a start, he knew that the delivery entrance he was standing near was the first of two sets of doors. If he was lucky, he could go through one set and wait for Spade to pass. He was not afraid of battling Jackson, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he did know that he had his work cut out for him in fighting all four Blackjacks. If he could rile Spade up enough, he would battle much more sloppily than if he was calm and ready.

  Aurin and Gorunze headed through the delivery doors and waited silently. For good measure, Aurin had retrieved a piece of the wrapping paper from the first box and tossed it on the floor a little further along before doubling back to the doors. It seemed like the perfect bait, but he was left wondering if it was a little too obvious.

  The two stood patiently with Gorunze keeping his breathing as shallow as possible to avoid eliciting any groans or grinds. It wasn’t long before a set of quick footsteps echoed throughout the corridor. Holding his breath, Aurin placed his ear to the door. He heard a quiet laugh and the distinct crinkling of wrapping paper. The footsteps departed shortly after.

  “It worked,” he whispered to Gorunze, patting the bronze golem on the side. “We’ll give it another few seconds and then we’ll get out of here.”

  Once he was certain the coast was clear, Aurin and Gorunze returned to the hallway. They inspected the monitor and Aurin realised that Heart had passed by while he was hiding. She had been utterly silent, but he saw a familiar stairwell out of the corner of her camera feed. She had to have passed at the same time as Spade, but the two had said nothing to each other. It was time to whittle her team down. With any luck, she wouldn’t flee after a single defeat as Diamond had done.

  Aurin and Gorunze rushed along, the metal elemental unable to keep his noise levels down. Hopefully the clunking thuds did not draw everyone his way. If they did, so be it, but picking his enemies off one by one seemed like the best strategy for the time being.

  A sudden blast of water whooshed past Aurin, narrowly missing his face. He turned to see the source and found Heart standing in a shadowy alcove. In her hand was a clump of crystalline dust. It fell to the ground like fine sand, settling onto the floor tiles.

  “Only one usage?” she asked, rhetorically. “Such a shame. It’s a good thing I wasn’t trying to hit you, wasn’t it, Aurin?”

  “How lucky am I?” retorted Aurin, turning to face her while taking several steps towards the far wall. “Let’s not waste each other’s time. Summon your first Minakai.”

  “Perhaps I’ll summon all three at once?” pondered Heart, stepping forward. She tapped her finger on her chin, tilting her head to the side in mock consideration. “Or perhaps I’ll hit you hard with my best.”

  She threw out her hand and summoned her Fyrvern in a burst of red light. The fiery wyvern stretched its wings and drew in a deep breath, preparing to unleash an intense blast of fire. Gorunze, however, was smart enough to prepare himself for the attack. He braced himself, focusing on strengthening his armour, and waited for the attack to come.

  As the intense streak of flame poured from Fyrvern’s mouth, Gorunze stood his ground. Aurin could feel the searing heat and was forced to back away, but Gorunze held strong against the intense attack. With every passing second, Aurin expected it to stop, but the fire kept coming. Fyrvern was putting everything into this first attack, hoping to score its tamer a victory.

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  Eventually, the wyvern could keep up the attack no longer. The flames thinned and it stood panting before Gorunze. While it had taken a lot of the bronze golem’s stamina to hold out, he remained strong and sturdy. He lowered his head and charged forward, shocking Fyrvern with a heavy headbutt to the chest. The wyvern flew back and slammed into the wall, cracking the plaster. Before it could stand up, Gorunze unleashed a burst of several small topaz lasers which penetrated his opponent’s wings and limbs. This was enough to finish Fyrvern off.

  Heart clenched her fists and stomped her feet, grunting and groaning as she did so. “Ugh!” she wailed.

  “What was that about hitting me hard with your best?” asked Aurin, flashing her a smug smirk. “Going to run away, are you, Ruby?”

  “You wish that was the case,” said Heart, holding up her arm once more.

  As Fyrvern vanished, it was replaced by Scarelit. The pumpkin-headed ghost grinned wildly, moving his black hands as though he was trying to scare trick or treaters. Gorunze, tired as he now was, glared at his opponent while stealing a few seconds to recover his energy.

  Cackling and swishing its spectral tail, Scarelit exploded in a blinding burst of flame. Gorunze reared onto his hind legs and covered his eyes with his front legs. Aurin, who had covered his own eyes, heard a pained groan from Gorunze and a thundering crash on the ground.

  When Aurin was able to see again, he was amazed to see six separate Scarelit floating in a circle surrounding Gorunze. The hefty rolled back onto his feet and watched as the circle expanded and contracted.

  “Spin!” Aurin ordered.

  Gorunze’s eyes glowed brightly and he spun around, unleashing a powerful laser that spun around with him. The apparitions disappeared in puffs of smoke as they were struck. The real Scarelit yelped and floated up and out of the way to avoid the attack. Gorunze focused on the lingering ghost and swiped through the air, clawing the pumpkin and dragging it to the ground. He crushed its head beneath his knee and it squealed in agonised horror before falling limp.

  “You’re not cut out for this line of work, Ruby,” said Aurin, staring at The Blackjack. Her arms hung limp by her side as she stared at her defeated Minakai.

  “I… I…” she muttered, too lost for words to say anything further. “Argh!”

  As she shouted, she threw a smoke bomb and disappeared in the distraction.

  “Three out of twelve down,” Aurin said to Gorunze, feeding the Healing Herb to his Minakai. “If you can defeat one more, you’ve hit your quota.”

  Gorunze munched down the green, weedy plant and stretched out, feeling much better.

  “Let’s make our way out onto the battlefield,” said Aurin, looking to a side door. “If Alfred placed his prizes at places of significance, that’s the place to go.”

  Opening the door tepidly and inspecting the floor, Aurin was convinced the small corridor was free of traps. Gorunze followed him along, only for the two to pause at the sight of a discarded box thrown haphazardly behind a potted tree. Sitting half-inside the crumpled box was an orange, stone protrusion. Aurin knew immediately that it was a Solar Shard, which had been discarded by one of The Blackjacks—likely Spade, considering he was going from door to door in his search for Aurin.

  “Why would Alfred put a Solar Shard in one of the boxes?” asked Aurin, raising an eyebrow at Gorunze.

  The answer dawned on him a second later. While Alfred knew the teams of his subordinates, he did not know what Aurin’s team would be. He could, however, influence Aurin’s decision in providing him with an evolutionary shard suited to his compatible Minakai, namely, Shamtile, Skrow, Quetzel, and Flowl. While this would throw off the battle data Alfred had gathered, it would also mean that Aurin would be unaccustomed to the strength and abilities of his newly evolved monsters. Despite this, he was not going to turn down a free Solar Shard, and pocketed it.

  Aurin proceeded into the waiting room, finding it much eerier in the dim night. It was a windowless room, nestled underneath the stands and connected to the tunnel Aurin had walked down prior to many of his battles in the stadium. There was something, beyond the lighting, that had changed, and it immediately caught his eye.

  There was a small rectangular screen fitted to the doorway, which was now locked by a heavy electronically-controlled bolt. Displayed on the screen was an image of four wireframe silhouettes of playing cards. There was an Ace of Clubs, an Ace of Diamonds, an Ace of Hearts, and an Ace of Spades. Every couple of seconds, they pulsed in sequence from left to right.

  Aurin examined them closely and pondered what he was meant to do for a moment. He presumed that upon defeating each of The Blackjacks and receiving their playing cards, he would tap it to the screen to scan it. It stood to reason that obtaining all four would unlock the door and let him progress to whatever lay on the battlefield.

  “Is it the same for the tunnel at the far side?” asked Aurin under his breath. “Are they in sync? If I scan here, will it reflect at the far door?”

  No doubt Gorunze could break the whole thing down at Aurin’s request, but that would certainly be against the rules. As much as he had enjoyed taking on most of The Blackjacks at once just the other day and ignoring the rules, the point of participating in this round was to beat Alfred at his own game.

  If there was no true lose condition, as Alfred had said, did that mean if he ran out of Minakai the door would open regardless? Something wasn’t adding up about the whole situation and it bothered Aurin to no end as he stared at the pulsing wireframes on the screen.

  The door handle rattled and Aurin spun around as it opened. Gorunze’s eyes were glowing, ready to launch an attack the moment he saw another Minakai.

  right here.

  Aurin's Team:

  Luna's Team: