Sylphie sighed. Of course that battle savant Ondun would win his first City Trial without so much as breaking a sweat.

  The man had just finished shaking hands with Lowell and gave him a fist bump after his resounding win. Sylphie stood in the entrance, off the side of the field, waiting for a referee to signal her on. Ondun turned towards her as the crowd roared and cheered and walked off the field. As soon as he reached her, he extended a fist. She cocked her head in confusion.

  "Where I'm from, we adventurers have a tradition—a fist bump. It shows respect for a fellow's strength. Sylphie, I'll be cheering for you."

  She nodded and slammed her fist into his. "Good. This is the first step towards me repaying you for Route 41!" She tried to sound angry at the man...but she couldn't. There was something soft in his expression that she couldn't bring herself to be angry about. "Also, for ditching me at the library."

  He nodded seriously. "Sorry about that. Please, adventure with me to your heart's content. By the way...a friend has come to Monastria. I'll tell you more later. May the All-Mother favor you with victory." On that puzzling note, he was directed by a referee into the stands. She watched him go, then slapped her cheeks gently. Don't space out, Sylphie! Especially not about that guy. He talks weird, but that's not the headline right now! You've got a match to win.

  The stadium's music built back up again, and a referee finally signaled to her. So, head held high, Sylphie Lee strode out onto the pitch as the crowd loudly chanted her name, "S...Y...L…P-H-I-E..."

  "After that amazing opening battle, we have a second priority match to bring to you! Unlike that strange, strange coach from a distant land, we have someone from much closer to home! She's the scion of a certain City Leader, and her Circuit debut has been the talk of the coaching community! Will Sylphie Lee give City Leader Lowell a battle worthy of her father, or is this fledgling going to have to fly her way back to the nest?"

  The crowd went wild, but Sylphie's mood went dark. Always, always with the comparisons to Dad. A painful burn swelled in her chest. She loved her father. He wasn't a bad guy...he just never had time for her.

  She reached Lowell and tried to put the feelings away. His eyes met hers, and she felt like the man was looking straight through her. He nodded. "You are not your father. My team will test you. It's possible to win, but you will have to move past your own fear of looking lesser to do it. Can you do this, Sylphie Lee?"

  She shook the newly forming tears away and hardened her gaze and her heart. "You better believe it, Lowe! I'll give you a match you'll not forget!"

  He smiled and nodded. "Then, Sylphie...show me the depth of your resolve, and the strength of your mind."

  The two walked away from each other in perfect sync, to their sides of the field. When both coaches reached their places, they gave each other a respectful bow, and their hands went to their hips.

  "Maggie, come out! You'll get this party started nicely!" Sylphie called out, as Maggie materialized with a shrill war cry of "Fledgelev!"

  "Just as I foresaw. In that case, Hypteddy! Let's make her work for her first win," Lowell cried as he released the small black-and-white psychic bear Mon onto the field.

  Sylphie would have groaned under normal circumstances—some of the crowd did. Hypteddy and their entire line were beloved by non-coaches for being fluffy and generally cute. The coaching community, on the other hand, hated them with a burning passion. They had few moves well-suited to bring powerful attacks, but the moves they did have made battling them even in the wild a frustrating proposition at best.

  A Hypteddy trained by a City Leader was basically going to be hell in the form of a monster battle.

  Unfortunately for Lowell, Sylphie had been training with Ondun for the past five days, and this possibility had come up. "Maggie, charge in, just like three days ago!"

  The tiny bird's feathers seemed to go unusually stiff as it dove towards the Hypteddy. Lowell called out, "Time to dance, my little bear!"

  Immediately the fledgling bird Mon veered off to one side as the little Mon began a weird, wobbling dance. "City Leader Lowell starts with the Wobble Dance! That's right, the signature move of the line on a young Mon is already wreaking havoc on our brave challenger! Her Fledgelev is going to have a hard time..."

  Then Maggie corrected her course and slammed into the tiny bear, halting the dance and causing it to convulse as electricity coursed through its nervous system. "...hitting it? It seems like Challenger Sylphie has mastered a trick of her own, but this isn't in any known moveset for the Fledgelev line. It looked like Ohm Tackle...but that can't be right..." the announcer ended with some confusion.

  Sylphie stood up straight, extended an arm, and motioned to Lowell, Bring it. The city leader took it in stride, pushing up his glasses. "I see. You already deduced how the Wobble Dance affects Mons who are unprepared for it. You cloaked your Fledgelev in Thunder-type power and had her charge before the Dance's effect could accumulate and overwhelm your Fledgelev. The blowback from the move prevented the effect from taking root. Very clever."

  She nodded. "Maggie, don't let up; we got the first hit in!" The part of the crowd that knew what was going on cheered hard at the prospect of the young coach taking down a Mon that had ruined many a challenger's Circuit prospects.

  Lowell nodded. "Aah, aggressive first move. You seem to be following the standard game theory strategy of tit-for-tat, where you start with that, then match me move for move, thus maintaining an advantage, and wear me down with attrition. However...what I said to Ondun still holds. The Psychic Mon type is one of the best for defending for a reason." He snapped his attention to the Hypteddy. "Hypteddy, great minds think alike. Mimic."

  The two slammed into each other, and a great burst of electrical power flashed, knocking both away. This time, however, Maggie seemed to take the worst of the impact, while the Hypteddy got up after a moment. Lowell grinned savagely. "First lesson: Any move you make can be used against you. Mimic is a Psychic move, but many Mons of all types are able to learn it."

  Sylphie clicked her tongue. Dammit, Lightning moves are strong against Wind Mons. "Maggie! Are you okay!?"

  "Fledgelev!" With sheer force of will, Maggie reasserted control of her nervous system and returned to the air, though there was a visible electrical burn on the avian Mon. She was struggling, but so was the Hypteddy. One more hit would take either, or both, down for the count. Sylphie locked eyes with Maggie and nodded.

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  "I trust you. Do it." were her only words. Lowell looked confused but the nodded approving as the tiny bird flew up high. Sylphie deliberately thought of one move Maggie could do. She saw the city leader's eyes narrow with recognition as he tried to sort fact from fiction.

  Sylphie had listened in on Ondun's lessons to the Mons, namely about the psychological aspect of the Shinobi way. Given how intently Lowell had focused on Ondun, both during his "tour" and the match, Sylphie had come to a conclusion that Lowell had an easier time listening to human minds than those of Mons. As she thought this, she saw the man's eyes go wide, and she grinned. "Confirmed. This will be a hard match, sure...but I'm better prepared than I thought. So is Maggie."

  Like a thunderbolt from the heavens, Maggie fell onto the Hypteddy. It raised that odd shield that Ondun had studiously avoided having his Mons slam into. The sheer force of Maggie's impact, however, shattered the barrier, and the bird continued through to slam into the tiny ursine. With a faint cry of "Hypteddy..." Lowell's first Mon was out of the fight.

  Unfortunately, Maggie fared little better. Maggie gave Sylphie an apologetic look before falling unconscious to the pitch.

  "Double K.O.! Both coaches, choose your next Mon!"

  Sylphie recalled Maggie. "Thanks...and sorry about that. Your pain won't be in vain."

  Sylphie replaced Maggie's capture capsule, and pulled her other one instead. She pressed the button that materialized Venus the Luxli. It turned to her questioningly. She smiled. "This will be your first Mon battle versus a human-trained Mon, Venus. I trust you."

  "Luxli!" came the growling response. It turned just as Lowell's Mon materialized.

  The figure that had materialized in front of her looked vaguely humanoid and like an aged-up version of the Palasquire that Ondun had fought. Unfortunately, her less-well-trained Mon was facing a second-form foe: a Knightpala. She groaned out loud this time because Knightpala was one of the worst second forms for a new coach to go up against. Their Psychic and Metal typing made them able to resist many sources of damage, and their potent array of defensive and offensive moves ensured that they could fight unpredictably. Worse, Knightpala and Maidenpala had, on average, higher than human intellect.

  Sylphie's heart immediately fell. This foe is absolutely beyond Venus, even with Ondun's clever ideas.

  Lowell heard the thought, and nodded in agreement. "Second lesson: The world is not fair. Desperate tactics in an unfair situation may see you through...or they may make your plight all the worse. Show me, Sylphie, how you will handle this one."

  The Knightpala charged Venus, who blasted it in the face with a blinding flash of light. When everyone's gaze cleared, they saw the Knightpala launch a savage slash at a nimbly dodging Venus.

  "Blindness is useless against a psychic, you know. The ability to sense one with the mind tends to be more reliable than seeing with the physical eyes," the City Leader called out.

  Sylphie was grimacing now. Her Luxli was vastly outmatched. Metal resisted Light, so she was at a type disadvantage, and the Knightpala could sense Venus even if she drew on all of the illusionary tricks that Ondun had taught the tiny feline. To seal the deal, Venus was the least well-trained of her team, having spent three days injured due to nearly getting eaten by the Daemon.

  She couldn't help but ask herself: What would Ondun do?

  She had the sudden mental image of a cross-eyed Ondun saying, "I'll handle it myself!" then becoming a ninja and challenging it to a sword fight. She shook her head, trying to resist the urge to mentally mock her somewhat-loved, somewhat-loathed traveling companion.

  That was the answer, right there, though. Ondun might be an unstoppable hero who could fight with a sword, spell, and now Mon. Sylphie was not. She relied on her Mons to carry her to victory. In a situation like this, there was one answer that would preserve the welfare of her Mons, since brute force was out of the question.

  "I concede. I am outmatched," she called out. The crowd groaned; no one liked to see a concession. Sylphie found herself agreeing, yet she found herself wanting to see Venus get horribly hurt even less. She still remembered the faint mewl as she found the tiny cat Mon in the forest, bleeding out from its partially-eaten flank.

  Just as the referee was about to call the match, Lowell raised his hand. "As City Leader, I then declare Sylphie Lee victorious."

  The crowd was confused - a vast huh? came from the crowd. He held up both hands. "A monster coach is not always in control of the situation. I chose this team with this outcome in mind. While Ondun of Arcanis is a powerful combatant who can bring out the best of his Mons, Sylphie Lee is a human, like all of us, who must rely on her mind and her judgment to win the day. Sometimes, defeating every enemy, breaking every foe, is not a victory—it is an impossibility. The fact that Sylphie recognized she was outmatched shows her fitness to continue the Circuit. I ask my fellow City Leaders to not use this kind of trial on her."

  "I recognize Sylphie's able mind, and the depths of her love for her Mons. Other Leaders will test her combat ability more deeply. She has sufficiently impressed me."

  He stepped off the podium, extended his hand, and waited.

  Confused, Venus ran to her side as she came forward to shake the proffered hand. "Sylphie, you have done well and shown your fitness to continue," he said more quietly. "In light of this, I'm going to be sending you the Mimic technique to give you the flexibility to match any foe. You too will win the full prize purse as one who has conquered this part of the Circuit. Lastly, I will trust you with a special request—I must meet with you about Ondun before you two leave the city. I have some insights that may help you help both yourself and also him. I see that you care for him a great deal."

  She nodded. "Then why is he such a butthead sometimes and the best guy ever at other times? I swear, when he's not being a knight in shining armor, he's as bad as my dad..."

  He nodded. "He has a similar experience to your dad. Did he ever tell you about the wars he fought in?"

  She shook her head. "No, never...after Mom died, he became City Leader. He just got more and more distant. He doesn't love me anymore...I wonder if he even knows I've began my Circuit."

  Lowell tapped his lip. "All the more reason for us to talk, then. Consider that the real prize. Congratulations on a Circuit battle well-fought."

  Sylphie strode off the pitch to thunderous applause, all the more confused by the men in her life and their seemingly insurmountable emotional baggage. Frustrated with the prospect of understanding them, she settled for finding Ondun—he was cheering midway up, and was easy to find by the people that were staring at him—and decided to see if she could find a way to make him cross his eyes later.

  She knelt down and picked up Venus the Luxli, who was regarding her with loving cat eyes and purring softly. "Luxli..." came the grateful meow from the tiny Mon. She gave the feline some scritches behind the ears. "I can't promise you won't get hurt if you stay with me. I'm not going to let you get hurt uselessly, though, do you understand?"

  Venus just purred softly in her arms. That was good enough.

  As soon as she was off the pitch, she ran to find the adventurer. A friend of his had come to Monastria, which meant more Ondun drama was coming her way. Best to prepare for that now.

  Hiro Kaminari had just flown back to Kongming Province from the Yamato Archipelago on his mighty Leveagle, Katori. She preened as he patted her down. "Thank you, my friend. Please, return. It's time to try this again."

  Even as the thunderous eagle dissolved into the capture capsule light, there was a sudden gust behind the young monster coach. He turned around as a massive shadow fell over him.

  A great dragon with scales like glimmering ripples was towering over him. Two massive wings furiously flapped as four powerful legs gently touched the earth. The two eyes that stared from the long, platinum skull of the Mon were a gentle blue but lined with apprehension.

  Hiro immediately knelt, as did every other human—and a few Mons—in the immediate area. "My Lord Legendary," he began.

  Silence, young human. You come to challenge the Circuit, but a greater challenge awaits. If you would maintain the world you call home, then one deed you must fulfill.

  Hiro raised his head. "Of course, Lord Legendary. The fellowship of Man and Mon alone demands no less. You say...the world is at risk?"

  A foolish outsider has come to Kongming Province. I, Shenlong, need you to stop Ondun of Arcanis before the forces he fights can trick him into ending Monastria...and his own world besides.