Evan’s eyes were wide as he stared at Breminia. He tepidly approached and walked around her a couple of times, analysing her intently. “This is Breminia,” he said, letting out a whooping whistle. “I never thought I would see one in person. Funny, I thought she was bigger when I saw her clashing on TV with Tobias’s one. You should have heard the reaction in the bar, but it must have been just as crazy in the stadium.”

  Breminia spun around and flipped in the air, keeping her arms raised his and her metallic wings rigid. “Yeah, that post-Championship fight was a catastrophe for me, but I thought it would make for a cool showing. It’s why she needs training now that I’ve got the opportunity.”

  “But is this really the place for it?” asked Luna. “What if we get overwhelmed and run out of Minakai?”

  “Ah,” said Evan with a smile. “This rift is a little different to the tower in that there’s no limit to how many you can summon. I could summon twenty monsters here right now if I wanted to.”

  “That’s a relief,” sighed Luna and then turning back to Aurin. “Still, I want you to be careful.”

  “I’m always careful!” cried Aurin.

  “Most of the time, you are, but you haven’t had a real chance to experiment with Breminia’s power yet, have you?”

  “Alright, alright, I get your point. Let’s start with a warmup.” Breminia spun around and looked at her tamer with her blue gemstone eyes and awaited instruction. “Conjure up a water shield.”

  The Minakai’s four gems closed brightly and she encapsulated herself in a swirling ball of water that rippled and waved. She swayed back and forth, holding the orb steady with her power.

  “Move to the far side of the room and back again.”

  She did as she was told and hovered away, but all three tamers could see that she did not move in a perfectly straight line. She was struggling to maintain the sphere while moving directly, so split was her focus. It became clear to Aurin that, even though she was innately powerful, she needed much more training than he first realised. Perhaps a foe to fight against would harness her focus.

  “Good job,” said the tamer as Breminia returned to him, still wobbling back and forth as she moved. “Dispel that shield and we’ll move it along.”

  The orb popped and the water flowed to the ground, but before it could spread out, it vanished into thin air.

  “I think we’ll need a light,” said Luna, banishing Windjinn and summoning her Flaround. He barked at her, excited to fight something but started whimpering upon being told to light a fire around his tail and guide the way. “Don’t worry, you’ll be allowed to battle. I wouldn’t bring you here just to be a torchbearer, Flaround.”

  “Alright,” said Evan. “If we’re all ready, let’s move along. I know the rough layout of these caverns and, thankfully, they don’t shift too much.”

  He led the way ahead with his Peekawe and Luna’s Flaround, while the other three followed closely behind. As soon as they crossed the cavern and entered a tunnel, they were hit with a heavy blast of wind. Peekawe landed and spread out his wings to shield the tamers from harm as Aurin turned to Breminia.

  “Whatever creature that is, take it down!” he ordered.

  She floated up and over Breminia and braced herself to fight the wind. As her gems glowed blue and let loose a water jet, she suddenly found herself spiralling out of control and spraying water everywhere. The tamers and her fellow Minakai were soaked, so difficult was sending out the jet and fighting against the flowing wind.

  “Your turn,” said Luna to her fiery dog as Evan’s Peekawe let out a caw demanding Flaround hurry up.

  The bounded off the walls, skipping past the turquoise bird and the tamers saw the tunnel light up with orange flames before the wind died down and then faded to nothing.

  “What species was that?” asked Luna as Flaround returned. He barked his response, but his tamer wasn’t sure what he was trying to convey. “Alright,” she said, pretending to know before shrugging at Aurin when the dog looked away.

  “Should we be on the lookout for traps?” Aurin asked Evan.

  The rancher shook his head. “Nah, just Minakai like that who attack from the shadows. Because this network is more winding and we don’t have the benefit of the tower lanterns, they can sneak up on you much more easily.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “Alright, new plan,” said Aurin. “We head into this next cavern and wait for our enemies to come to us.”

  The tamers and their Minakai marched on ahead with Flaround’s light continuing to illuminate the tunnel. Once they were in the next cavern, which was bigger than the one by the entrance pit, they humans stood in a circle facing outward and their Minakai stood, hovered and flapped in front of them, waiting for another creature to strike.

  “This is nothing like the Briarwood den,” remarked Aurin as he waited.

  “How many weird anomalies linked to Minakai are like this across Bretonia?” asked Luna.

  “Beats me,” shrugged Evan.

  “Considering I needed to go to Sule Scrin to hatch me Zeera, I suspect there are dozens at a minimum. There could even be hundreds.”

  “Not counting the ones that have yet to be discovered. I bet King York has agencies set up to deal with these sorts of places the second they’re reported and they never get reported in case people panic. Heck, I know I panicked when this rift was discovered. It took the combined efforts of everyone in Maplewood to find out what it was through countless hours of research. We spent months keeping an eye on the entrance with a couple of people on guard at all times before we were finally comfortable leaving it be.”

  Water erupted from Breminia and burst into one of the tunnel entrances as Pottemp charged toward the cavern. The living statue was flung backwards and hit the tunnel wall with a heavy thud and crack, but the creature was not finished yet. It rolled back onto its feet and conjured up a stone wall to block the tunnel entrance.

  As Breminia blasted it apart, the floor of the cavern ripped open and the Pottemp launched itself into the air. It flipped over and brought its heavy feet down on her head, taking her down. Flaround spun around and kicked the Pottemp away, giving the momentarily stunned Breminia a chance to recover.

  “A heavy water jet to finish it off!” Aurin ordered.

  She floated back up shakily and unleashed a water jet that missed her mark and struck the cavern wall, breaking a large chunk of the stone off. Flaround shoved her out of the way with his front paws as a rock flew towards her before whipping it aside with his tail.

  The legendary Minakai pulled herself together and shot another jet, smacking the Pottemp straight in the mouth and knocking it out. It disappeared in a flash of orange light, leaving the cavern enemy-free once again. The peace, however, did not last long and a pair of Snippet rushed in from a tunnel as a Dolissile torpedoed its way into the cavern.

  The cyborg dolphin collided with Flaround, slamming him against the wall and knocking him out cold. As he fainted, the light in the tunnel vanished, leaving only Breminia’s faintly glowing gems. Something brushed up against Aurin’s leg and he lashed out, kicking something solid that recoiled with a clicking sound. He held up his tamer glove and summoned Spikruption and Steambot into the rift. At the same time, Luna summoned Splashard and Cephelarock.

  Spikruption’s roaring flames lit the cavern as he and his comrades dealt with the attacking Minakai. As the pair of Snippet and Dolissile fell, another five monsters made their way into the cavern. The Minakai immediately unleashed a barrage of attacks, sending waves of water, torrents of fire, and even spears of stone at their enemies, finishing them off quickly, but as soon as they fell, more monsters appeared as though drawn in by the chaos.

  “We need to leave,” said Aurin.

  Aurin jumped on Spikruption’s back as Splashard lifted Luna into her arms. The three tamers and their band of Minakai fled down the tunnel with Steambot and Cephelarock watching their backs. Upon arriving in the entrance chamber, the light came back to them and Cephelarock summoned a column of earth that rose up to the surface and brought everyone back to the light.

  The tamers and the Minakai stepped onto the small island, cramming in around the edge while being careful not to fall into the pit. As Cephelarock released his focus, the pillar fell right back down again, leaving them safe.

  Evan wiped his sweat with his sleeve. “They don’t appear in such large numbers normally,” he said. “It’s peculiar. Usually there are five or six per cavern before they fade away, but it’s as though they knew there were a lot of us and a lot of Minakai to fight.”

  “We can’t go back down there,” said Luna, leaning on Splashard, who patted her tamer’s back with her amorphous arm.

  “Now that we’ve seen who wild it can be, I want to see just how crazy it can get,” said Aurin, hungering for a challenge.

  “Are you joking?”

  “No. This was dipping our toes in the water, right? Now that we know it’s hectic, we can prepare ourselves better with items, our summoning stone loadouts, and so on. It’s the perfect way to test our abilities.”

  “Enjoy that,” said Luna, shaking her head. “I’ll be at the café enjoying a cup of tea while you’re getting battered by monsters.”

  Aurin turned to the rancher. “Evan, is there somewhere we can stay for the night? We hadn’t planned on being in Maplewood for longer than a day, if I’m honest.”

  “You two can crash at mine and Elodie’s house for a couple of days if you’re serious about exploring the rift,” said Evan, climbing onto his Peekawe’s back. “We’ve got a spare room if one of you doesn’t mind taking a bed and the other taking the sofa in there.”

  “I’ll take the sofa,” said Aurin, and Luna smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks Evan. I’m going to wake up early tomorrow and train with my team. Tomorrow afternoon, I’m heading straight back down there and seeing what I can find.”

  “I’ll give you all my potions,” said Luna. “And if you don’t come back within two hours, I’ll rally the entire town to come find you.”

  “I’ll be fine,” chuckled Aurin.

  Aurin and Luna thanked their Minakai for their assistance before banishing them back to Hazelton. They resummoned Skrow and Windjinn, and the trio were carried back into the skies. As Aurin flew toward the ranch, he felt his excitement growing. Although Breminia needed a lot of training, he knew that he had a strong team capable of exploring the rift until the very end.

  here.

  Patreon where you can get twenty advance chapters, putting you ten weeks ahead.

  Discord today and start discussing Minakai.

  Aurin's Team:

  Luna's Team: