Contribute to Dark Moon College increasing in ranking—mission in progress, reward variable based on the final ranking of Dark Moon College*
Kain looked at the final mission regarding the National Tournament that could possibly give him rewards. However, likely because the final results of Phase Two were not yet out, the rewards couldn't be issued since Dark Moon College having an increase in ranking wasn't official yet.
After playing around and celebrating with the majority of the other Dark Moon students who no longer needed to compete in the tournament, they went to bed.
However, it would be a long night for the top 5 students with the strongest combat ability across the entire school who were assigned to represent the school in Phase Two.
The first of which, was the undisputed strongest student from Dark Moon and the Captain of the representative team—Ezra Vauss. Kain hadn't seen his contracts since the beast-tide, and at that time he'd only revealed 5 despite being a newly upgraded 6-star beast-tamer.
Based on the most recent information he had shared with the college so that the staff could to create suitable strategies, he now had 6 spiritual creatures at a level strong enough to be used in battle.
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At the time of the beast-tide, 2 of his 5 contracts were green-grade, however after a long period of intensive training, all of his contracts now had blue-grade spiritual power.
However, unfortunately, none of his contracts had made the leap to having indigo-spiritual power.
Although it only seems like a difference of one grade from blue to indigo, or from 6-stars to 7-stars, this is a blockade that has prevented thousands of beast-tamers and their contracts from advancing.
There is a reason that 6-star beast tamers with blue spiritual power are only considered middle-level, while those 7-star ones with indigo spiritual power are considered high-level beast-tamers.
The difference in strength with that one step between both levels was greater than the sum of all previous levels combined. As was the difficulty in breaking through to that level. The breakthrough to indigo-grade is also the first time when a failed breakthrough can directly result in death, rather than just injury or even crippling.
Therefore, while it was common for fourth, and even third-year students, within the top colleges to reach blue-grade spiritual power, an indigo-grade contract hadn't been seen in decades within the college tournament.
In addition to Captain Ezra, the second strongest Vice Captain Ravi was also an undisputed representative for the school, with 4 blue-grade spiritual creatures and 1 green-grade contract already known to Kain and the others.
He had advanced to being a 6-star beast-tamer around the time of the beast-tide, however Kain didn't know if he'd found a suitable sixth contract yet. At least no sixth contract was ever revealed in the training.
However, considering the importance the college attaches to this competition, it was certain that they wouldn't spare any effort in finding him an additional contract that perfectly suited his needs—that was the benefit of being a highly-valued member of the team representing the school.
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Ravi has an extremely versatile affinity to insect-type spiritual creatures. Therefore, it wouldn't be difficult for the school to find him a spiritual creature with high potential that he could form a contract with. The only question would be if it was currently at a high enough level and had enough tacit understanding with Ravi to make a beneficial addition to his lineup.
Surprisingly, the third strongest individual within the school is considered to be the third-year Jade. Despite only being in her third-year, was infinitely close to breaking through to the 6-stars, and also 4 of her 5 contracts were all blue-grade.
Originally, Kain had doubted her ranking so high as a third year, but after witnessing her fight first hand during the beast-tide and the team training that they'd participated in for the past couple of months, Kain had to acknowledge that she was as talented as she was annoying.
At one point Kain had thought that her incessant ability to chatter and ask invasive questions was related to some kind of mental-attribute gift she had. But it is actually just her personality.
Her ability was actually quite powerful and useful in battle. Similar to her younger green-haired sibling who is only in his second year and one of the top student healers in the school due to possessing a healing gift and several contracts with a healing-ability, Jade's gift allows her to provide a powerful regenerative effect to her contracts.
Kain had witnessed for himself how her contracts were practically no different from the undead during training, capable of regrowing limbs, healing severe wounds within moments.
Heck, in battle with her the others have grown so accustomed to not pulling their punches that they regularly used killing moves during the training. In one memorable spar, Ezra's contract had actually damaged the head of one of Jade's contracts so severely that its brain matter was seen splattering on the floor and one two-thirds of its head was missing.
However, while it took a little longer, even an injury that severe was recovered from within a couple of minutes. From what Kain heard the only side-effect seeming to be some memory loss due to the lost brain matter.
Clearly, due to her gift not only is conversing with her exhausting but even fighting with her was extremely tiring… freёwebnovel.com
More annoying for the opponent is that this seemingly overpowered skill doesn't even seem to use much of her spiritual power.
Likely as a consequence of this powerful gift, most of her contracts are not naturally defensively strong and instead focus on having powerful offensive abilities. Considering that an damage would be recovered in a few moments time, and killing them would practically require destroying their entire body at once, the choice to choose contracts that neglect defense in favor of offensive is somewhat understandable.
Although Kain wasn't sure about the exact details of her affinity, he did know that every single one of her contracts involved some kind of big cat—lions, tigers, jaguars. Under the influence of her gift, they all had a tendency to attack with great ferocity, not caring about any potential damage to themselves.
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The fourth representative for the school was a fourth-year girl named Venessa, who Kain was the least familiar with. He hadn't had much opportunity to interact with her in the past and even during the beast-tide she was consistently located at a further distance away from them, therefore he'd only gotten a sense for how strong she was within the past couple of months.
The reason that Venessa kept a distance from them all during the beast-tide was due to her contracts all being poisonous—likely the poison-attribute being a necessary requirement of her affinity.
Not to mention she herself rarely stays within close proximity to others due to the nature of her gift.
Honestly, when Kain had first heard about her gift, while he admired its powerful abilities, he also couldn't help but feel extremely sorry for her.
She has the unique ability to purify and strengthen her contracts' poisons so that they are several times more deadly than their wild counterparts. However, the method by which she does this requires for her contracts to first inject their poisons into her.
However, she doesn't immediately have immunity to all poisons, when encountering a poison for the first time, while her gift ensures that it won't kill her, she has to suffer through all of the effects of the poison as at it brings her to the brink of death before her body can resist it.
However, after her body assimilates the poison it then becomes like a natural component of her bloodstream and she is able to recover normally.
However, as the poison, now a normal part of her blood, cycles through her body, her organs help to purify and strengthen it. If this blood is then fed to the original creator of a poison in her blood, its body will inherently pick up on the improvements and strengthen its poison to match the fed poisonous blood—even if said poison includes poisons from other spiritual creatures.
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Therefore, unlike other members of their species, all of Venessa's contracts have the same deadly combination of poisons that flows through her veins. Moreover, due to having to assimilate all of these poisons within her, Venessa herself is extremely deadly to most humans.
If some of her extremely poisonous blood, spit, or tears somehow lands on an unsuspecting classmate, they'd be done for.
While much effort had been made by the top researchers within the college to develop an antidote so that she could participate in the competition, the poison is still so strong that it could cause some side effects for up to a year, even with a cure.
Therefore, Venessa is doomed to leave an extremely lonely life, with only her immune spiritual creatures able to keep her company.
Finally, the last representative of Dark Moon was between Theo and Dmitri in the third-year, and Edward among the fourth-years.
Up until mere weeks before the tournament the final spot was constantly rotating between them since the gap in strength among them wasn't significant.
However, eventually it was decided, that the fourth-year Edward would be the final representative by the staff. However, it was unknown if they thought he was actually stronger, if it was because he was more emotionally steady, or if it was because this would be his final opportunity to represent the school as a fourth-year.
Therefore, Jade was confirmed to be the only third-year in the lineup.
With three blue-grade spiritual creatures, the same amount as Jade and Venessa, Edward didn't stand out within the lineup The most memorable thing about him was his impressive hulking figure that would even dwarf Bridge.
He was relatively slow in cultivating spiritual power, surprisingly being even slower than most of the third-years in the top 5 at breaking through to 5-stars.
However, this was because it was found that he had a unique constitution that would absorb part of his spiritual power while cultivating and use it to strengthen his body. Therefore, despite being a human, his physique wasn't weaker than many blue-grade spiritual creatures even without the use of a relevant gift.
Thankfully, he was able to keep his spot within the top 5 despite being among the slowest fourth-years at cultivating due to the diligence of his contracts who, knowing the weakness of their master, trained twice as hard.
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Therefore, while he was still a four-star beast tamer he was able to defeat most 5-star beast tamers who had 5 contracts at uneven levels of strength, with 4 peak, heavily trained green-grade spiritual creatures.
Following this pattern of diligently making up for his weaknesses, within a weak of him advancing to 5-stars, three broke through to blue-grade, almost as if they were just waiting for their lagging master to catch up….
The other two could also probably break-through within the next couple of months and instantly bring him to one of the top 3 of the school, if the tournament was held a little later.
After the top 5 was settled they began the battle strategies targeted at their opponents for the upcoming rounds.
Only colleges that placed within the top 16 in Phase One are eligible to participate in Phase Two, therefore they didn't need to collect information on all participating colleges.
However, all top 16 colleges would be participating in a round-robin format to get the most accurate ranking of each college.
Therefore, despite some teams within the top 16 like Nebula Taming getting lucky enough to scrape through to the top 8 for a single year due to good luck in the match-ups, no such thing would be occurring in Phase Two.
However, despite the fact that all colleges would eventually face one another, it has been arranged for fights between members of the top 5 colleges to be arranged for the last two days of Phase Two.
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The way in which Phase Two works is that 5 students from each school will fight against the opposing school individually, with all of their spiritual creatures being allowed to be summoned. Therefore, in Phase Two, the numerical advantages of 6-star students will be more clearly highlighted.
Since it is a "King of the Hill" format, the winning participant after each battle can choose to remain on the stage or give up the stage to a teammate after each round. But once they step off of the stage, they are not able to return.
As a result, every year has the humiliating example of a single person managing to defeat an entire team of 5 on their own.
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The strategy for Phase Two of the competition was similar to that of Phase One for most teams—unless it couldn't be avoided, the strongest individuals on each team would not appear.
Therefore, even after several matches, neither Ezra nor Ravi had made a move yet.
In fact, Dark Moon actually probably had one of the easiest times advancing through the competition. For those teams lower in the ranking, Edward was able to handle three or four of the opponents without getting too tired. Occasionally, managing to get rid of whole teams on his own.
However, the true key to the ease with which they advanced was probably Venessa.
One match.
It only took
one match
for Venessa and her contracts to build an infamous reputation as living toxins.
After one of her opponents had had all of his contracts poisoned, and the antidote administered, it was found that all of them were still not in a good enough condition to continue competing. No amount of elixirs and healing skills would improve their condition in time before the tournament ended—forcing the rest of his team to continue with only four, since substitutions are not allowed.
That student was forced out of the competition after just meeting Venessa once, so from that moment on, an interesting phenomenon was seen whenever Venessa took to the stage.
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"We abstain!"
"We give up!"
"We would like to concede the remaining matches…"
Venessa, despite only really fighting once, managed to be in the top ranks for the most amount of wins within the tournament since all of the remaining opponents she would have to face always gave up without a fight.
Of course, this was only possible because the opponents were outside of the top 5, they had no hope of actually defeating Dark Moon or ranking within the top 5. Their priorities were to secure a ranking outside of the top 5 as high as possible.
But if they fought with her and she ended up removing some of the contestants completely from the tournament, they would have to face the remaining matches at a huge disadvantage.
Why would they fight with her and cripple themselves over a match they hadn't planned to win in the first place? For pride? What use is pride when your entire college's funds and resources are cut for a year due to a lower ranking.
Just look at the school that had one boy unable to continue due to her! They were originally ranked 11th and had high hopes of being able to increase their ranking this year due to a talented lineup.
After defeating the higher-ranked 9th and 7th-place teams, it did seem like this dream could be realized…
However, all of these dreams were brought to a screeching halt by that damn woman!
Since only being able to continue with four members they'd even lost to the lowest ranked 16th placed team!
If they are lucky, their earlier wins against stronger schools still might help them to preserve a relatively decent ranking and not drop too far beneath their current 11th placed ranking, but if not…
The lead professor of the 11th ranked college shuddered at the thought of what awaited him once he went back to face their iron-blooded Chancellor. The same Chancellor that tied up all staff and students who represented the school in the one year they had dropped outside of the top 20, and hung them outside of the school gates to shame them for a week… Stay updated through freewebnovel
Watching the other colleges learn from their miserable defeat and resolutely giving up whenever Venessa took the stage, he couldn't help his face turning red with hatred.
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Cowards!
But he knew that he was just upset that nobody was taking the initiative to jump down to join him in the pit he'd already sunk into.
Therefore, by the time only 4 matches were left in Phase Two (all against the other top 5 colleges), Dark Moon hadn't had to reveal much of any of its strength.
Jade, Ravi, and Ezra hadn't had to fight even once, and Venessa after one relatively easy battle, won by just climbing the stage…
That was until the match against Frozen Sun.
The difference between students in and outside of the top 5 colleges was apparent from the first match.
Frozen Sun had invested much of their resources into the younger generation, preferring to invest in the future and achieve a ranking within the top 3 in two to three years, instead of right now.
However, even despite their third and fourth years being considered as the weakest within the top 5 colleges, not one of their students shied away from Venessa…nor did they need to.
It just so happens that ice-attribute spiritual creatures are among the least susceptible to poisons, and with the college's rich heritage and resources, the top 5 students of Frozen Sun would naturally have multiple means of dealing with Venessa.
Bam!
A giant fist made of ice landed heavily on the body of a neon-green serpent— one of Venessa's contracts.
Naturally, the surrounding spiritual creatures attempted to retaliate, but even with the various effects of their poisons—not only capable of causing illness, but capable of corrosion and intense heat as well—barely any damage was done to the fist. Clearly, the black ice composing the opponent's ice golem was exceptional in hardiness.
Similarly, one of the few of the opponent's spiritual creatures that was squishy enough to be bit or scratched by Venessa's simply froze the infected area and continued on as if nothing had happened. But despite the ease with which this was done, very few creatures at the blue-grade level could create ice at a low enough temperature to achieve this effect—not that everyone watching realized how difficult this feat was.
Those watching from other teams couldn't help but be stunned. Their faces then began to blush at the stinging and disdainful eyes of the audience. If that inhumane combination of poisons could be so easily frozen, wouldn't they have done that?!
Frozen Sun so easily handling her was making them all look bad, dammit!
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!The fight between Venessa and her Frozen Sun opponent ended a lot sooner than was expected. However, it can be mostly attributed to the excellent strategic lineup of the Frozen Sun staff, they knew which of their students would have the most advantageous time against her, and chose to have him go first.
Moreover, since only 3 contracts at a time could be summoned in Phase One, Dark Moon hadn't known that this particular participant would be so difficult for Venessa to handle since this ice golem and another powerful contract weren't revealed in Phase One, nor did he participate in any of the earlier Phase Two matches.
Did they intentionally not reveal much of their strength in Phase One to bank on a higher ranking in Phase Two?
If so, Kain had to admire their guts. If anything went wrong and Frozen Sun had a lackluster performance in both phases, they may be the subject of unfavorable public scrutiny.
Although being part of the top 5 colleges comes with many privileges and resources, it also comes with a lot of pressure. Kain vaguely remembered the adults in his hometown ranting about Starfire College losing a single match in Phase One against a "no-name school" many years ago.
Of course, that "no-name school" was Black Star College, which has consistently held a rank between 6 and 7 for decades, but the fact that Starfire dared to lose to a school outside of the top 5 was a great source of shame for all the people of the Southern region at the time.
Therefore, for Frozen Sun to gamble with their Phase One rankings like this to maybe perform better in Phase Two was risky…
However, despite the critiques over their strategy, it couldn't be denied that their choice to conceal their strength in Phase One has led to Dark Moon being completely out strategized.
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They knew much more about the Dark Moon participants than Dark Moon knew about theirs.
Kain and the audience all admired the tactical ability of Frozen Sun, and they couldn't help but wonder about their performance in the following matches.
Suddenly the team that was expected to safely come in at fifth was showing its fangs and showing that it was aiming for a higher ranking this year.
They secured 2 higher rankings than usual for the first- and second-years in Phase One, and while limiting their strength revealed for the upper years in Phase One resulted in lower rankings for the third- and fourth-years, it increased the likelihood of attaining a better rank in Phase Two.
Dark Moon had sent Venessa first in order to secure a strong start, but now they'd lost one match, while their opponents still had 5 participants. Moreover, the boy on stage didn't even appear too tired.
Jade took to the stage following Venessa's defeat. Many of the members of Dark Moon shifted in their seats while watching, knowing that they should get comfortable since they would probably be in for a long and tiring match.
On one side was Jade with her perverted regenerative ability that tired out all of her opponents, if they weren't injured by her offensively powerful contracts.
On the other side was the student from Frozen Sun, Axel Berg, whose contracts had an extremely formidable defense.
Both sides were used to battles of attrition as their enemies could seldom hurt them enough to cause a quick defeat.
Jade took the stage under the excited gazes of the audience, summoning all 5 of her contracts—3 blue-grade, and 2 green-grade.
Surprisingly, she and Axel were perfectly matched with 3 blue-grade, and 2 green-grade spiritual creatures each.
Standing at the center of the formation on Jade's side was the blue-grade Shadowstrike Jaguar, Jade's initial contract. The dark-attribute jaguar had a sleek, muscular frame covered in dark fur that allowed it to blend into the shadows with ease. Its glowing amber eyes exude intelligence and predatory focus, while watching their opponents.
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To its left was a blue-grade massive tiger with striking orange fur and yellow, jagged stripes that looked like lightning bolts—the lightning-attribute Thunderfang Tiger. Its raw power was apparent in its muscular form, as well as based on its claws and fangs that crackled with electrical energy.
To the right of the central Shadowstrike Jaguar, was the dual Earth and Fire attribute Earthshatter Lion, and Jade's last blue-grade contract. It had a golden, thick mane and muscular body that exuded strength and authority. Its amber eyes burned with a fierce, commanding presence, and its slow and deliberate march forward brought an intimidating feeling. movements are slow, deliberate, and incredibly powerful.
The remaining two contracts that stood on each end were green-grade: a Viperfang Lioness whose claws and fangs secreted a paralyzing venom useful for when hunting prey; and a Windstrike cheetah whose body was built for speed.
Jade wasted no time. The Shadowstrike Jaguar sprang forward, its dark body blending with the shadows as it streaked across the arena, its amber eyes glowing fiercely as it launched a deadly flurry of claw strikes toward Axel's Ice-Golem. The Ice-Golem, made of black ice, stood motionless, its impenetrable form absorbing the hits with a resounding screech like nails on a chalkboard
"Ugh!" Many in the audience couldn't help flinching at the unpleasant noise.
However, even the jaguar's clearly powerful body, couldn't break its defenses.
On the other side, the Thunderfang Tiger let loose a terrifying roar that echoed through the arena, the sound crackling with the energy of Lightning. It pounced toward Axel's ice-attribute fox, which responded with a chilling burst of cold energy, aiming to freeze the tiger's path.
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But the Thunderfang Tiger was faster. In a blinding flash, it sidestepped the blast and unleashed a bolt of Lightning from its claws, surging through the air to strike the Ice-Fox, sending the creature skittering back in a puff of steam.
At the same time, a rare Frost-Warden Behemoth, equal to the ice golem in height, but even broader in girth, had an icy wall surge up from the ground, blocking the Earthshatter Lion powerful assault.
Meanwhile, Axel's remaining green-grade spiritual creatures: a Frozen Bloodhound and an Icecargot, that looks like a blue snail, met their respective green-grade opponents on Jade's side.
Looking at the evenly matched pairings, Kain could tell that they'd be in for a long match…
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One hour!
Kain's mouth stretch open into a wide yawn as the match's length was now approaching one hour without either side suffering from extensive injuries.
The match had dragged on far longer than anyone had anticipated, and yet, neither side had managed to land a decisive blow.
The blue-grade participants had exchanged partners several times, but…
Bam!
Kain looked at the field where the Earthshatter Lion had switched its opponent again and was was now holding off the Ice Golem. However, despite the strength of its blow and the fire-attribute energy on its claws…
"Not even a scratch," Kain muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing in concentration. The golem's ice-like skin was practically invulnerable, a testament to how much resources had been poured into the contract since the defense of the average Ice Golem was not nearly as high. Its body was forged from the most resilient ice, and no matter how hard the Earthshatter Lion's fiery claws raked across it, it was as if they were striking a mountain.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Jade's Shadowstrike Jaguar was now moving in and out of the shadows as it stalked and sought to ambush the most squishy looking Ice Fox.
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The fox had proven far more agile and resilient than anyone could have predicted, especially considering how small and seemingly fragile it appeared. Many had expected it to fall in the first few minutes, but here it was, holding its ground—its icy coat shimmering like a fine mist of frost, providing not only speed but also impressive protection.
Kain was extremely impressed by the resilience of the little fox, and had been sure it would be eliminated the fastest, but it had now been an hour and it was still going strong.
It was fast, flexible, and not so easy for even the assassin-like Shadowstrike Jaguar to successfully land a hit on. Especially since its senses seemed to be several times more sensitive compared to the average contract.
Each time the jaguar lunged, attempting to tear into its foe with razor-sharp claws, the fox responded with bursts of freezing energy that would halt the jaguar mid-air. Its keen senses allowed it to react faster than Jade's beast could anticipate, and with every shadow strike, the fox's ice mist shielded it, nullifying the blows. Even when the jaguar's claws did manage to land, they simply slid off the fox's armor, leaving it unharmed.
However, no damage was done to the fox since an armor composed of icy mist had surrounded itself at the last moment. It also created an additional wall of ice to impede the jaguar's subsequent actions towards it.
The jaguar growled in frustration, retreating into the shadows only to reappear in another attempt to flank the fox.
The fox wasn't nearly as sturdy as the golem, but its speed and control over ice allowed it to weather the storm, healing and shielding itself as its opponent circled, waiting for an opening.
Meanwhile, Frost-Warden Behemoth, a titan of ice and power, stomped the ground, sending icy shards up like spears. Jade's Thunderfang Tiger had to leap back to avoid being impaled by the barrage of ice spikes. Yet, as Jade's tiger retreated, its fur flared with static electricity, and it let out a guttural roar, shaking the air around them and sending a barrage of lightning strikes at the enemy.
Still, the Frost-Warden Behemoth stood tall, its status as having the second strongest defense on Axel's team being put on full display.
Crack!
The audience no longer even flinched in sympathy when seeing Jade's contracts injured. Looking at the Windstrike cheetah that had just had its two hind legs shattered by the Behemoth while passing by, before the Behemoth was once again preoccupied by its same-level opponent, nobody felt anything anymore.
And true to the audience's relaxed attitude to the severe injury, within moments its legs were both intact and it ran off to harass those enemies locked in battle at the same speed as before.
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Axel's contracts were equally as annoying. The Icecargot, Axel's green-grade contract, its thick, indestructible shell had proven almost impervious to the relentless onslaught of Jade's other creatures. The Viperfang Lioness had bitten and clawed at its shell for minutes without making any noticeable progress, the venom it released simply running off the Icecargot's icy surface like water.
Fed up with the snail, the Viperfang had tried its luck with the Frozen Bloodhound who looked more soft compared to the heavily armored snail. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
However, Jade's Viperfang Lioness, though venomous, had not been able to incapacitate the Bloodhound, whose frozen blood literally froze any poison or toxin that entered its system. Jade had expected the Bloodhound to fall within minutes, but after every attack, its frozen blood simply halted the spread of the venom, and it continued to fight as fiercely as ever.
The whole arena seemed locked in a tense, unrelenting stalemate. Each side had come to a standstill, trading blows that never seemed to land with full force.
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Much of the audience was now beginning to dose off due to the protracted war.
Kain sighed heavily while watching the spectacle.
'This is ridiculous. When are they going to get to the part where someone actually wins?'
Jade's face was set in determination as she swept her gaze across the battlefield, calculating her next move. Her spiritual creatures were starting to show signs of exhaustion, despite their regenerative abilities, each failed strike was still draining their stamina.
It was time to change the tempo.
Jade sent her Windstrike Cheetah to assist her Shadowstrike Jaguar in flanking Axel's Ice Fox.
The Windstrike Cheetah, its body a blur of speed, zipped through the battlefield, its speed and agility making it difficult for Axel's Ice-Fox to keep up. However, their gap in level didn't make it too much of a threat. Although it was an annoying distraction, and its main role was to help create openings for the Shadowstrike Jaguar—or so Axel and those watching assumed.
Momentarily freed from its stalemate with the Ice Fox, the jaguar left its position. In one swift movement, it leapt, sinking its claws deep into the unsuspecting Bloodhound's side. The green-grade spiritual creatures had been using extra caution to avoid the higher-level opponents, but it hadn't expected the Jaguar who was just preoccupied with the fox to appear before it.
For the first time in the match, a contract on Axel's side was heavily wounded, and Jade knew that this was her chance to press forward.
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Jade knew that now was her moment to turn the tide.
Her Shadowstrike Jaguar, moments ago locked in a tense battle with Axel's Ice Fox, had finally found an opportunity to knock out one of the opponents.
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After what seemed like an eternity of near-misses and frustration, the jaguar had stealthily moved from the shadows, the calculated predator now poised for a direct attack. The Ice Fox, distracted by the flashing blur of the Windstrike Cheetah, hadn't seen the danger until it was too late and was unable to warn its ally.
With a brutal, fluid leap, the Shadowstrike Jaguar's claws dug deep into the Frozen Bloodhound's side—its razor-sharp talons finding purchase in the beast's softer underbelly. The Bloodhound's surprise yelp echoed through the arena, but the jaguar wasn't about to let it go so easily.
At the direction of Jade, the jaguar simply dug its claws in deeper as it struggled instead of immediately removing them. The jaguar's grip prevented the Bloodhound from healing, from freezing the blood to slow the bleeding, or from generating any defensive layer of ice between it and the jaguar.
The Bloodhound was held to the ground, pressed by the Jaguar's weight, and as it struggled to rise it only made the damage caused by the lodged claws even more severe.
The arena fell deathly silent, save for the wet, sickening splashes of the Bloodhound's frozen blood spilling onto the stone floor. Its once-pristine, ice-blue fur was stained red as it struggled, but there was no escape. Jade's jaguar stood tall over it, its amber eyes glowing with dark satisfaction. The Bloodhound's movements slowed, its strength drained, the battle lost.
It was now 4 to 5—advantage Dark Moon.
Jade didn't waste a moment. She pressed the advantage.
The Windstrike Cheetah, using its speed and wind manipulation, began creating gusts of wind that circled around its own body. These gusts surged like a mini-tornado around the fox as the Cheetah kicked up a trail of snow, stone, dust, and ice from the arena floor—obscuring the vision of the ice fox.
After confirming that it wouldn't be re-entering the fray, the jaguar abandoned its hold on the Bloodhound.
In the blink of an eye, its shadowy form melding with the darkness as it stealthily moved to the fox. The fox had no time to react, not with the Windstrike Cheetah creating whirlwinds of distraction in its wake.
Appearing from the tornado to its right, the cheetah concentrated all of its power to launch a heavy blow on the fox. However, the fox was able to materialize a shield to the right to block the attack.
However, the cheetah was merely fulfilling its role of diversion, ad at the same time from the opposite direction appeared the jaguar.
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With a sharp crack, the jaguar's claws found their mark, raking across the Ice Fox's side, once again it adopted the strategy of leaving its claws embedded in the target—especially since the fox is even more adept at healing and creating armor on itself than the Bloodhound.
However, it was also much stronger than its ally, and taking advantage of all the wind created by the cheetah, it increased the power of the wind and also added hundreds of sharp blades of ice in the swirling tornado that continuously attacked the jaguar.
Although the jaguar could easily heal from the injuries, that didn't mean it didn't feel the pain caused by them. Its concentration broken by the sharp ice shards constantly slicing it, it ended up unconsciously letting go of the fox. Capitalizing on the opportunity, it immediately tried to flee the area.
However, unfortunately waiting for it was the Thunderfang Tiger, who had been momentarily free from its scuffle with the Behemoth due to the swift Cheetah zipping around it as a distraction.
With a mighty roar, the Thunderfang Tiger leapt forward. Its powerful, muscular frame crackled with electricity as it launched itself at the Ice Fox. Before the fox could even begin to shield itself, a bolt of lightning shot from the tiger's claws, surging through the air and striking the fox with such intensity that its body locked up, paralyzed from the sudden shock.
The Ice Fox's form sagged, its body twitching as the lightning coursed through it. It collapsed to the ground with a final yelp, unable to rise again.
Jade let out a breath of relief, but there was no time to dwell on the victory. Axel's remaining beasts—Frost-Warden Behemoth, Ice-Golem, and Icecargot—were still on the battlefield, and they were not to be underestimated.
However, unlike the powerful innate defense of the Ice Golem and Icecargot which doesn't consume any spiritual power to maintain, the ice shields and armor that the Behemoth could maintain to boost its defense relatively easily, still consumed some spiritual power. Usually the amount is negligible, but this high-intensity battle had been going on for around an hour now, therefore its previously impenetrable defenses were no longer as tough.
Despite the Behemoth's seemingly impenetrable defenses, Jade could sense the cracks beginning to show. The Behemoth's movements were slowing, its towering form becoming sluggish with each step.
With a deep, rumbling roar, the Earthshatter Lion charged at the Behemoth. The massive titan attempted to create an ice barrier in front of itself, but the Lion was faster—its fiery claws slashed through the ice, each strike turning the frozen pillars into steam.
The Frost-Warden Behemoth attempted to retaliate with a powerful swipe of its own, but the Earthshatter Lion dodged easily, its agility belying its size. With another strike, the Lion landed a powerful blow, the heat from its fiery claws melting through the Behemoth's ice armor, weakening its once-impenetrable defenses.
The Behemoth staggered back, its massive frame groaning under the pressure of the attack. Axel's giant ice-beast tried to summon more ice to regenerate its shattered defenses, but it was too late.
With a final, devastating roar, the Earthshatter Lion leapt forward, its claws piercing the Behemoth's chest, the fire from its claws being pumped into the core of its body continuously.
The Behemoth let out a deafening scream in agony as the scorch heat ripped through its body, before collapsing to the ground in an exhausted and steaming heap.
Seeing that it had no more energy for further resistance, the claws were promptly removed to prevent killing the Behemoth.
Jade allowed herself a single, triumphant breath. One more down. Two left.
The Viperfang Lioness' venomous fangs had been ineffective against the Icecargot's defenses. The green-grade snail's thick, frosty shell had proven difficult to penetrate. But Jade had a plan.
The Thunderfang Tiger, finally freed of its duty of holding off the blue-grade opponents, could finally pay attention to the snail with their numerical advantage.
It darted around the snail's shell, staying just out of range of the Icecargot's defensive slime and sharp spines. Then, with a sudden, forceful leap, the tiger forcefully struck the Icecargot's shell from the side, sending a shockwave through the snail's body. An deafening electrical hum began to resonate through the shell, considering that snails hear by sensing vibrations with their entire bodies, the sensation must have been unbearable.
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The Icecargot's defenses momentarily faltered as the vibration forced it to move slightly out of its shell, a defensive response to the sudden shock. The shell shifted, the snail's body becoming exposed for a brief, vulnerable instant.
Capitalizing on that brief instant, the Viperfang Lioness lying in wait leapt with precision. It sank its venomous fangs deep into the exposed soft flesh of the Icecargot, biting down with all the force it could muster.
The shell had protected the snail from most of the earlier strikes, but now the Lioness's venom began to spread rapidly throughout the creature's body, and causing it to be paralyzed while exposed from its shell's protection.
The Icecargot writhed, its body stiffening and convulsing as the venom took hold. With one last twitch, the snail collapsed, its body succumbing to the venomous attack.
Jade allowed herself a single, triumphant breath. Only one left.
With Axel's Frost-Warden Behemoth and Icecargot dispatched, only the Ice Golem, Axel's final blue-grade contract remained.
Jade's gaze never left the hulking, impenetrable form of the Ice Golem that stood resolute at the center of the battlefield. Its thick armor of ice was unyielding, and even her contracts' most powerful attacks had done little to dent it.
The Thunderfang Tiger, its body still crackling with residual electricity from earlier, leapt forward, its paws slamming into the ground with a burst of energy. The air around the beast hummed with static, the electrical energy gathering as it prepared to strike. The Tiger released a bolt of lightning that crackled toward the Golem, hoping to overload its ice defenses.
But as the lightning struck the Golem, the ice simply absorbed the energy, causing no visible damage. Jade gritted her teeth in frustration. Until finally her eyes glinted with realization.
The Golem's defense is a fortress, and no direct attack is going to break through it… Jade's mind raced
. 'But what if we don't need to break the ice?'
Since she couldn't crack its defense, she would give up on doing so; after all, as a golem it has one clear weakness—its core.
Using the Earthshatter Lion to manipulate the ground and destabilize the golem. With a push from both the Windstrike Cheetah, the Viperfang Lioness, and the Thunderfang Tiger at its back, the golem was pushed to the ground.
The Thunderfang Tiger sent massive amounts of electricity through the Golem's prone body. However, the electricity caused no damage. However the lightning wasn't aimed at the surface—it was designed to travel through the Golem's icy form, searching for its internal core, the source of its energy.
With the information transmitted through her contract, Jade directed the Shadowstrike Jaguar on the location of the core.
Since its defenses couldn't be penetrated to target the core, instead the faint shadow the core cast within the body will be capitalized upon and used to launch an attack by the Jaguar.
However, due to the many shadows cast by the chunks of ice composing the body, the jaguar needed the precise location of the core in order for the plan to work.
The Golem let out a deafening roar, the sound echoing through the arena, but Jade could see the signs—its core was struggling to maintain its power as it was enveloped by dark energy and disconnected from the rest of the body.
Finally the Golem slumped weakly to the ground—she had won.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!After the long drawn-out battle, Jade's contracts, while not injured, were too exhausted to persist for long in the following round.
Thankfully, since Axel was one of the most difficult students to deal with at Frozen Sun, majority of the remaining matches were able to be handled by Edward, until the opposing side's captain took to the stage. However, Ravi was able to dispatch the opposing captain without his contracts suffering too much and after a night of healing and rest they were as good as new the following day for their match against Supernova College. Your journey continues at freewebnovel
Supernova, like Frozen Sun, naturally was not too intimidated by Venessa's poisons and had their own means of dealing with her.
They chose to send up a beast-tamer with a plant-type affinity as their representative against her. All of this opponent's plant contracts had regenerative abilities not inferior to Jade's. However, whether that regenerative ability was innate or due to a gift or spirit skill was unknown.
Whenever the plants were stabbed and poisoned, the plant contracts decisively discarded any contaminated vines, roots, leaves, and petals, and carried on as though nothing had happened.
Eventually, after having 2 of her contracts put to sleep by yellow pollen-like spores released a large orange flower, one wrapped tightly until it was immobile by vines that kept regenerating when poisoned, and the remaining 2 being covered in a moss-like substance that slowly sapped their strength.
Although Kain was upset for his low rating given by the System due to the low number of matches he participated in, seeing how easily Venessa was targeted by other top 5 schools reaffirmed that the college's strategy of concealing the strengths and skills of their top students was necessary.
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Additionally, due to Jade revealing much of her skills in the fight with Frozen Sun, she had a much more challenging time against Supernova. Once she took to the stage, after defeating only one of the opponents, she had to face an opponent that seemed to perfectly target her.
Although she has powerful regenerative abilities, that regeneration is useless when her contracts' minds were targeted.
Therefore, after having all 5 of her contracts either reduced to being mindless zombies, put to sleep, or mind-controlled, she was forced to step down from the arena.
Thankfully, while ample preparations had been made targeting their students, more and more information was also being revealed by their opponents in each match.
By the end of the match against Supernova, Ravi managed to defeat 2 previously studied opponents in a row to secure the final win.
The match against Starfire College, while occurring after Supernova so that both sides had more time to prepare, was not as difficult of a match up—likely because none of the 5 students representing their school were so obviously able to target the weaknesses of Jade and Venessa.
While Venessa was eventually defeated, she managed to take down 1 student with her, while Jade was able to defeat 2.
Surprisingly, it was Edward, and not Ravi or Ezra, that secured the final 2 victories due to the excellent strategies created by their staff that capitalized on their enemies' weaknesses and Edwards' strengths.
Edward's gift consists of him being able to generate a high-frequency hum that directly causes pain in the minds of all living things in an area, making them unable to focus or think clearly, and overtime can lead to confusion, disarray, and in extreme cases, temporary mental damage.
Unfortunately, this skill is indiscriminate and will attack both friends and foes—including his own contracts. Which is why he had seldom used it in this competition.
However, over time his contracts have grown accustomed to this gift, not to mention that due to their resilient and single-minded focus when it comes to training, they all have very focused characters that don't get easily distracted and have extremely strong will-power. Heck, even if Bea tried to infect them at the same level, it would probably take twice as long as the average spiritual creature to take full control.
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Therefore, when the opposing side frequently made errors due to the mental bombardment on their concentration due to Edward's gift, Edward's contracts were still able to think clearly enough to defeat them.
However, if the opponents had stronger will-power or been prepared it would not have been accomplished so easily.
The success of this strategy hinged on 2 factors:
Firstly, Edward never having used his gift before at the tournament so that they were unprepared and had no enchanted equipment or spiritual skills prepared to counteract his gift.
Secondly, the fact that their information on their opponents identified them as 2 young masters from old prestigious families. Normally, this would be a pro, due to the resources their family could provide allowing them to have contracts with a higher potential and access to secret spiritual skills unique to the family.
However, an unintentional consequence of such a privileged upbringing is that due to their lack of hardships in life, both the beast-tamers and their similarly pampered contracts had relatively weak will-powers.
After all, the word "suffering" had never been a part of their lives before. They had been carried on a cloud of luxury since birth, with every privilege handed to them as effortlessly as the air they breathed. The idea of scarcity or struggle was as foreign as another country to them.
This difference in mental state was obvious as soon as Edward activated his gift. With little more than a slight twitch of a whisker or ear, none of his contracts revealed any other signs of distress.
On the other-hand, both of the opposing beast tamers practically collapsed to the floor screaming once the hum started, and many of their contracts struggled to remain upright on their trembling legs.
However, next would be their final, and toughest, match yet against First Celestial Academy. And considering the perfect record of both sides, this would be the match that determined the first-placed college of the entire tournament and who would rank first the following year.
Many of the cards of both sides had been forced out, so the final outcome was completely unknown.
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The arena buzzed with an electric tension as the final match approached, the air thick with anticipation.
As the most anticipated match, theirs was arranged to be the finale of the entire tournament. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, eyes fixed on the colossal stage where the last two competitors would soon face off. The temperature had dropped with the setting sun, but the wind did little to cool down the excited crowd.
The Dark Moon team stood at one end of the arena, their dark and silver uniforms giving them a militaristic and cold presence.
On the opposite side, the representatives from First Celestial Academy—radiating an aura of unshakable confidence and nobility—stood poised and ready in their uniforms of red, white, and gold.
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Both sides seemed determined to go in an increasing order of strength, with Dark Moon sending Edward, and the opponent sending a girl in her fourth-year with bronze skin and hair so dark it appeared blue under the setting sun.
Edward summoned his contracts, all of whom were slightly larger and more muscular than their wild counterparts due to the extensive training that they regularly undergo.
All of Edward's contracts were of the metal attribute, but only looking at their muscular physiques Kain was reminded of the "fighting-type" attribute from a certain video game back on earth that unfortunately does not exist in this world.
The first was a dual metal and lightning attribute hulking bear-like creature with thick, matted fur that crackled with electrical energy. Its claws were oversized and sharp, capable of rending rock.
The bear's presence was imposing, with glowing blue veins running through its body that pulsated like lightning during storms. Unlike most spiritual creatures in this tournament who were essentially "naked" since enchanted equipment was banned on spiritual creatures, the bear had on a thick metal armor and carried a massive double-headed hammer that both crackled with electricity. Since the metal and weapon were a product of its own metal attribute, they were naturally not banned. Like most members of its species it preferred to create a hammer as its weapon of choice, hence the species name Stormhammer Bear.
The second contract was a colossal, bull-like creature, an Onyx Bison, with skin resembling polished onyx, hard as stone but flexible. Its massive horns curved upward like a curved mountain, and its hooves left deep impressions in the stage when it charged.
The third and final blue-attribute contract was a large, muscular gorilla-like creature with silver fur. Its arms were disproportionately long and powerful, capable of flexibly wielding the spear in its hand, its preferred weapon, with ease. The Stonefist Gorilla's agility belied its massive size, as it was a fast, flexible, and efficient close-combat fighter.
Edward's final 2 contracts were both green-grade: one a deep grey rhinoceros-like creature, Steelhorn Juggernaut; the other a burly warthog, called the Ironspike Warhog. Enjoy new adventures at freewebnovel
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Meanwhile, the opponent's contracts were all water-attribute spiritual creatures. She was also equipped with a full set of armor and a spear. Unlike most beast-tamers, she readily participated in battle herself. Similar the Soren, her contract boosted her own combat abilities rather than those of her contracts, giving her the ability to turn her body into a mist-like form to avoid being injured when attacked.
As the bottom-ranked individuals for both of their teams, they had long had the details of their contracts and gifts exposed, therefore this match up and also the strategies each side will use could be predicted to an extent.
Based on the slight twitch of his contracts, and the more visible flinching in the opponents' contracts, Kain could tell that Edward had used his gift. However, considering that the opponents were mentally prepared this time, and the opposing beast-tamer had equipment that seemed to nullify the effects of his gift on her, the results were not nearly as miraculous as in the fight against Starfire College.
Moreover, neither the opponent nor her contracts looked like pampered individuals unable to withstand pain. They quickly shook off their distraction due to the gift. However, the gift's effects did seem to be present and have a slightly stronger impact on the opponents than his own contracts who were used to it, therefore Edward kept his gift activated.
The first clash came as the Stormhammer Bear charged, its massive paws sending shockwaves through the stage. It was met by the opposing River Leviathan, a serpentine water creature with smooth, cyan scales that shimmered under the arena lights. With a deft twist, the Leviathan slid through the air, its massive body coiling in midair to slam into the bear with a force that sent it stumbling back. The water-attribute creature's tail whipped forward, sending a gush of pure water that drenched the bear's armor, dampening its electrical abilities.
The bear, unfazed, shook off the attack, and with a roar, swung its hammer in a wide arc. The River Leviathan reacted in the blink of an eye, darting to the side with incredible agility. The force of the swing gouged the stage beneath them, sending shards of rock flying into the air. The Leviathan's tail whipped toward the bear's exposed side, delivering a powerful force that hit the bear squarely in the ribs.
The Stormhammer Bear staggered but didn't fall and moved to retaliate. The Leviathan was fast, but not fast enough, the minor influence of Edward's gift may have also played a role in its dulled reaction speed. The bear's next swing of its hammer landed with a deafening crash, forcing the water serpent to spiral out of the way. The sheer force of the blow sent a shockwave of energy pulsing through the arena, and a gust of wind that blew all the way to the audience seats.
Time moved forward, the battle stretching on. The Stormhammer Bear and the River Leviathan were locked in a brutal exchange of injuries, each trying to outmaneuver the other. The audience could feel the tension in the air—each strike, each counter, a game of nerves and sheer power. But as the battle wore on, it became clear that the Leviathan's endurance was being stretched thin. The water creature could not outlast the bear's sheer resilience.
Edward had secured victory on one side of the arena, and this would inevitably tip the scales for all other ongoing battles on the field.
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After the Stormhammer Bear dispatched its opponent, the remainder of the battle went as expected.
Using the newfound numerical advantage, it assisted its allies to gradually clear the rest of the opponents remaining on the field.
Although much of his contracts' energy was consumed, Edward still chose not to step down and instead managed to at least drain some of the energy of the second opponent sent out so that the next individual sent up had an easier time. Additionally, the longer he could remain on the field, the longer the staff could observe the next opponent and decide to send next in response.
Originally, Venessa as rank 4 in the team should have been the second to take the stage. However, the next opponent sent by First Celestial had to advantageous an attribute over her.
All of the opponent's contracts were rare undead spiritual creatures—particularly immaterial ghosts. Therefore, Venessa's ability to deal damage or poison them was greatly reduced.
Most ghosts are immune to physical attacks, and unless she improves her poison further to be able to attack the soul, then it is useless against them.
Therefore, Jade was sent in response. While not as effective as skills that can directly attack the soul, most elemental attributes still have some effect on undead spirits. Therefore, with the help of the energy consumed by Edward, Jade was able to defeat her opponent.
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However, it was truly not the best matchup for her, and 2 of her contracts (one blue-grade and a green-grade contract) were incapacitated in the battle and didn't last long in the next match-up—not even serving a role in draining the opponents' energy.
Therefore, the match was once again brought to an even standstill of 2 beast-tamers on each side having been eliminated. Funnily enough, the ranks of the individuals eliminated on both sides also happen to be equal—with the 5th and 3rd rank of each school now out of commission.
Almost as though it was agreed upon, the two individuals on the stage currently were the fourth-ranked individuals of each school.
On behalf of First Celestial was a fourth rank student who quickly dispatched the drained and battered Jade.
He was another third-year student and had dark brown skin, hazel eyes, and dark curly hair. He had an affinity related to the fire-attribute. Additionally, Kain wasn't sure about the details of his gift, but it seemed as though it was able to drastically increase the temperature of his contracts' flames and even add a slight corrosive effect.
Therefore, both Venessa and him ended up in a. standstill for quite some time. Her spiritual creatures weren't able to get close enough to bite or sting his, without sustaining serious injuries due to burns.
When poison was occasionally ejected by her contracts, the poison was also quickly burnt by the hot flames into an incredibly noxious gas.
Alternatively, the opponents' spiritual creatures couldn't get too close for similar reasons, and when flames were released to target Venessa's contracts, she either used an identical method ejecting poisonous liquids that would cause the flames to fizzle out, or dodging.
Due to this pattern persisting for a long time, an interesting phenomenon occurred.
Gradually, the toxic gas released by the combination of the poison meeting the corrosive flames began to build up more and more within the arena. Since the wards around the arena activated to prevent the gas from spreading to the audience, the gas was trapped on the stage and got more and more concentrated.
Due to majority of the gas' toxic properties being from Venessa's contracts who has immunity to their own poisons, the opponent was more quickly feeling the negative effects of the gas.
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However, his gift also applied some toxic properties to his contracts' flames that were also released in the resulting gas—a toxin that Venessa's contracts don't have an immunity against. Continue reading at freewebnovel
Therefore, before long all of the First Celestial Contracts were collapsed on the stage, breathing heavily. Only their beast-tamer remained standing, likely equipped with some anti-poison enchanted equipment in preparation of facing Venessa.
Meanwhile Venessa's contracts' legs began to tremble faintly. However, they all held their heads up high in feigned bravado to not let the enemy know.
Unfortunately, if Kain could tell their poor condition from the stands, there is no way that the experienced First Celestial staff standing right next to the stage wouldn't be able to see that they were in bad shape.
Indeed, instead of immediately sending the next opponent, First Celestial cunningly drew out the time it took for them to fetch the bodies of their students' contracts. Instead of him just collecting them into his star space, they'd even made the excuse that they couldn't be sure that there was no component of the poison that was capable of escaping the star space to infect his body.
The tournament organizers had no choice but to concede to their time-consuming method of body collection due to their extreme "caution" and "care" for their student.
And so an almost comical scene was staged where a few staff volunteers bumbled around the stage trying to lift the heavy spiritual creatures from the stage, wasting time staggering and dropping limp limbs on the floor as they took frequent breaks.
Never mind that they could have summoned some stronger contracts to swiftly carry them down…
All those minutes that they were "clumsily" trying to carry the contracts from the stage Venessa was forced to remain inside the toxic gas permeating the stage, since once she stepped down she'd be out of the competition for good.
The staff at Dark Moon couldn't help staring coldly at the staff from First Celestial as they continued with their performance.
"I hadn't expected the top-ranked college to be so shameless…" Ranya muttered stunned.
"It's because they could be so shameless that they've probably managed to keep the top rank for decades. You don't think there weren't the odd years that another school had a stronger lineup? In such cases, they'd need to resort to tactics like these" Kain said.
Personally, he didn't see anything wrong with First Celestial's spirit of doing anything for the win. It was just irritating when they were the victim of it…
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As expected, it wasn't until Venessa collapsed on the stage that the First Celestial side was
finally
ready to send up their next representative. Considering that the time-limit between when one participant clears the stage and another goes up, was about to be reached, if she hadn't collapsed they would have had to send up the next participant.
However, using the excuse that they couldn't start the timer until the previous student had completely cleared from the arena, and they took their sweet time clearing said student's contracts, they did manage to draw out what was probably the longest break between matches since the tournament began.
After Venessa stepped down, considering neither of the participants involved in making the poisonous mist remained on the stage, both sides agreed to allow a staff member to clear the gas in the stage—something that can only be done if both sides agree.
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Unfortunately, while only Venessa was on the stage there was no way that First Celestial would have agreed. Alternatively, if Venessa had been immune to the poison, there is no way that Dark Moon would have agreed to clear it.
However, since the poison was only harmful to both of the next participants, it was unanimously agreed to clear it.
The next two individuals sent to the stage were expected—the Vice Captains of each team.
On behalf of Dark Moon, Ravi wearing the black and silver uniform of Dark Moon had dark bronze skin, hazel eyes, and chiselled features.
A stark visual contrast, Isolde Blackheart, had pale and delicate features like her younger brother, pale blue eyes, and ashen-grey hair.
All of Ravi's spiritual creatures were insect-species. And as, one of the most populace and diverse groups, naturally he had a wide variety of potential contracts to select from. Among S-rank affinities, his definitely would rank towards the top in terms of the breadth of species he could contract.
The first was his initial contract a dual metal and wind-attribute praying mantis with long, sweeping limbs and sharp blades that glinted under the arena lights—the Zephyrstrike Mantis. Considering that Ravi was just from an ordinary family, it's impressive that he managed to evolve and train what was originally only a bronze-quality Blade Mantis to diamond-quality and blue-grade, which is a testament to how much effort he had put in.
The second blue-grade contract was the light-attribute Dawn Butterfly. It is an exquisite butterfly with golden wings that shimmered with iridescent light. Its wings emit soft, radiant beams that illuminate the surroundings and cast golden halos around it.
Flying next to it was the blue-grade Vermix. It appeared like an enormous dragonfly with translucent wings that crackled with lightning. Its body was armoured in a sleek, dark metallic exoskeleton that hummed with electric power, and its eyes glowed a vibrant electric blue. Your journey continues with freewebnovel fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cm
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The fourth blue-grade contract was a massive dark-attribute spider with jet-black fur and glowing red eyes, from a species unfamiliar to Kain. However, he had heard that it was provided as a reward in a previous year from the college and was born in one of the college's relics.
The last blue-grade contract was a massive golden-brown beetle with armor-like plating and wings that shimmered with dust and sand—a Seismic Stone Scarab.
Ravi's final contract was green-grade, but is actually his contract with the most potential, and probably the contract that many would be the most envious over. It was also another contract provided by the school, and was a perfect advertisement for how much they were willing to invest into their students. It was a golden cicada with the time-attribute. With such a powerful attribute, despite it being one grade below most of the creatures on the field, it was still a great threat.
Unfortunately, Kain had never seen Ravi activate his gift, although he was sure that he had one. Therefore, he wasn't sure if the gift would have any beneficial effects on the match.
Isolde, unlike Ravi, had all 6 of her contracts at glue-grade. Moreover, like her brother, they all were powerful spiritual creatures with the infernal-bloodline.
The one in the center was a large, flame-wrapped Burning Abyssal Phoenix with black and red feathers that appeared to burn with eternal fire. Its eyes were like molten lava, and its wings left trails of fire in the air.
Flying alongside the phoenix was a Demonwing Harpy. She had a lithe, birdlike body and long, muscular legs ending in sharp, obsidian claws. Her massive bat-like wings were made of leathery, ember-glowing membranes, capable of unleashing fiery winds. Its humanoid face had glowing molten amber eyes and a wide, sharp-toothed grin. Her long, black, smoke-like hair flickered with streaks of flame, and her presence radiated an oppressive, sulfurous heat. Her chest was covered with an armor-like material composed of feathers that directly grew from her. Her claws and tail both emanated sharpness and power, indicating that they were additional close-combat weapons at its disposal.
The third contract appeared with an earthshaking roar. It was a massive, lion-like creature with a spiny tail that ended in a scorpion-like stinger. Its body was armored in hell-forged scales and its claws easily tore into the stage as it walked—a Manticore.
The fourth was one of the opponent's most regularly used contract, and one the Dark Moon staff had done extensive research on—an Infernal Sentinel Gargoyle. The stone gargoyle had fiery, demonic eyes and cracks in its rocky body that glowed with embers. Its wings were bat-like, and its sharp claws appeared to be forged from blackened iron.
Her fifth contract, while lacking in frontal combat abilities, had profound mental manipulation abilities—the Soulreaver Incubus. It was a seductive, yet menacing, humanoid demon with sleek, obsidian skin and bat-like wings that shimmered in the darkness. Its eyes were like pools of a liquid night sky, and its smile revealed sharp, predatory teeth.
Her sixth and final contract was a Dreadclaw Demon—a terrifying creature that resembled a twisted, hulking gorilla, with blackened fur and claws that had a corrosive effect. Its glowing eyes pierce through the darkness, and a dark shadowy aura emanated from its body.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you sThe arena hummed with tension as the two vice-captains stepped onto the stage. Isolde Blackheart, the icy-hearted strategist of Dark Moon, stood poised with a cold, calculating gaze.
Ravi, in his sleek black and silver uniform, looked every bit the warrior. His amber eyes glinted with focus, the determination of a fighter who had honed his strength for years to rise above the limitations of his origins.
The two vice-captains locked eyes for a brief moment. No words were exchanged, but the silent battle of wills had already begun. freёweɓnovel.com
The referees examined the stage, ensuring the poisonous mist had dissipated entirely, before stepping back and signalling the start of the match.
Ravi's Zephyrstrike Mantis was the first to make a move due to its speed of reaction. The creature's sweeping, metallic limbs sliced through the air, its razor-sharp claws shimmering in the light. It darted forward, a blur of motion as it aimed to close the distance with lightning speed.
In response, the Burning Abyssal Phoenix, soared higher. Its wings spreading with a deafening crack of air, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. The massive bird circled above, its molten eyes locked onto Ravi's mantis as it descended with a terrifying, predatory grace.
However, the mantis wasn't alone, the Dawn Butterfly cast a radiant halo over the battlefield.
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The butterfly's light pulsed, causing the Zephyrstrike Mantis to become more agile, its movements a blur of silver.
Meanwhile, the movements of all the infernal opponents slowed. All of them were momentarily encased in a golden and shimmering casing that seemed to impede their movements.
The Demonwing Harpy dove toward the butterfly, her screech ripping through the air as her claws swiped through the space where the butterfly had been moments before. However, in a flash of light from its delicate wings, it appeared a short distance away, successfully dodging the attack.
Meanwhile, the mantis' sharp, sweeping limbs crashing against the claws of the phoenix that had finally arrived in a symphony of sparks.
Additionally, the dragonfly Vermix shot a lightning bolt toward the phoenix, forcing the creature to swerve just out of reach before it could launch another attack. However, when the insect wanted to continue its pursuit it was stopped by the gargoyle that had long had its fiery eyes locked onto the Vermix.
As it bobbed and weaved through the air, the gargoyle didn't give up its pursuit, continuously swinging its claws, it caused the air to crackle with heat, the stone claws glowing as if forged in the depths of a volcanic furnace.
Lastly, the manticore, which had been watching these events from the side, finally made a move, a cloud of dust and debris shot into the air as it charged forward, its claws tearing into the stage.
Its target was the dark-attribute spider that had been steadily weaving a web around the entirety of the arena—its plans unknown, but leaving an ominous impression on the First Celestial team.
However, impeding the manticore's plans, as it was forced to dodge, were sharp spikes that suddenly appeared in its path.
Wanting to quickly get rid of one of the opponents, the incubus' eyes began to emit an ominous glow before the mantis began to screech in pain while covering its head. In coordination with it, the circling phoenix and waiting Dreadclaw demon took that moment to attack it from both its front and back.
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Essentially ganged up on 3 to 1, nobody was expecting the mantis to weather the attacks.
Suddenly a golden glow began to emit from Ravi, or more specifically the small cicada on his shoulder no larger than the palm of his hand.
The next moment, the mantis was completely free of its encirclement and instead had one of its blades pressed against the incubus' neck from behind.
The Incubus's eerie eyes widened in shock as the cold, razor-sharp edge of the mantis' blade hovered a mere inch from its throat.
Meanwhile, the cicada that had clearly taken the opportunity to manipulate time and relieve the mantis of its predicament, took on a pallid and sickly yellow colour, its once-shimmering wings now dull and drooping. Clearly, manipulating time for so many blue-grade spiritual creatures while being one grade lower had expended the majority of its strength.
Suddenly, the Soulreaver Incubus, still held at bay by the Zephyrstrike Mantis, let out a bone-chilling laugh. Its dark eyes shifted from Ravi to the weakening Golden Cicada, understanding its critical state. Without warning, the Incubus's wings flared out, and it released a shockwave of mental energy—targeted not only at its captor, but also the golden cicada.
Completely spent and defenseless, the cicada was forced to withdraw back into the star space.
Ravi's mantis staggered, its limbs jerking in confusion. For a split second, its blade wavered—just enough for the Incubus to shift its position out of the hold in a single, fluid motion.
Unfortunately, aware of the cunning nature of the incubus species dark threads had long surrounded the area it had been stalled in with the mantis. Threads that immediately robbed all of its senses upon contact and allowed the waiting spider to wrap it up helplessly. After a brief period in which the bundle of threads bulged and squirmed as its captive struggled for freedom, the threads unwound—now empty. Clearly the incubus had been recalled.
Both sides were now down to 5 contracts each.
Meanwhile, the Dawn butterfly was showing traces of exhaustion from continuously avoiding the gargoyle that was now pursuing it.
It fluttered weakly but persisted, its wings glowing faintly as it unleashed another pulse of light, forcing the gargoyle to veer off course as it swooped toward it again. The gargoyle screeched in frustration but couldn't land a blow as the butterfly's light flared, slowing its movements to a crawl briefly as a shimmering substance surrounded its body to impede its movements.
Unfortunately, while adept at support and control, the butterfly didn't have an offensive skill strong enough to get through the gargoyle's stone skin and capitalize on its advantage.
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The battle raged on, and the tension in the arena thickened as both sides now had only five spiritual creatures left. The balance had shifted in subtle ways, with each move growing more deliberate, more calculated.
Every action, and every counteraction, had become much more purposeful.
The spider's web now covered much of the field at a height or around 15 feet, completely isolating the creatures capable of flight, from those on the ground. As a result, the manticore and Dreadclaw demon were now at a numerical disadvantage against the ground-bound mantis, spider, and scarab beetle.
However, the Dawn Butterfly and Vermix were now under greater pressure from the flying harpy, gargoyle, and phoenix.
However, whereas the butterfly and Vermix had the wide open skies to continuously dodge their pursuers and stall for time.
The breathing space of the manticore and demon was being continuously reduced as more and more threads that could remove their senses were appearing in their paths.
Clearly the pros and cons of splitting into 2 battlefields with uneven numbers had been thoroughly considered by Ravi.
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Likely sensing the emanant demise of its allies, the circling phoenix began to bombard the webs with fire from above. However, despite their delicate appearance, the threads were incredibly durable and quite resistant to its flames.
In the midst of the chaos, the Vermix, now charged with energy, zipped around the Phoenix in bursts of lightning, crackling through the air like a living bolt of pure power. However, the Gargoyle was more than prepared for the electric dragonfly's agility. Its stony eyes glowed, and with a low rumble, it raised its massive lightning-resistant stone claws to intercept the Vermix's attack.
The air around the Gargoyle grew heated as it swung its claws in a wide arc. A single swipe sent the Vermix spiralling toward the mass of webs covering the floor of the arena.
The Vermix was stunned, its body humming with residual power but unable to move quickly enough to recover. Thankfully, the webs it landed on were from its own ally and did not attack it or remove its senses, giving it a moment to compose itself.
From above, the Demonwing Harpy and Phoenix screeched, diving toward the vulnerable butterfly. The harpy's sharp talons gleamed in the dim light as she made her descent. The butterfly, weakened from earlier skirmishes, barely managed to move out of the way in time. However, a single claw grazed its wing, sending ripples of light cascading outward like shattered glass.
Capitalizing on this weakness, a wave of combined red and black flames from both the harpy and phoenix pursued the butterfly.
The Dawn Butterfly fluttered desperately, a pulse of light sending a barrier outward to slow the flames' pursuit. But this time, there was no dodging the massive amount of flames, their heat generated gusts of wind that pushed the butterfly back.
Meanwhile, despite Dark Moon in a precarious position in the skies, the Manticore and Dreadclaw Demon were in far worse straits on the ground.
With the threads of the Spider tightening around their movements, the manticore was already beginning to stagger. The sharp, spiny threads had started to wrap around its limbs, restricting its movements.
The Dreadclaw Demon was a powerhouse, but even it could not avoid the webs completely. Each step it took, the threads seemed to multiply, slowly numbing its senses and making each swing of its claws more sluggish and less coordinated.
The Manticore, with a low, guttural growl, made a desperate charge forward, only to have its body jerk to a halt as more webs wrapped around its legs. Its powerful muscles struggled to break free, but the more it fought, the tighter the webbing became. Isolde's eyes widened with a mixture of frustration and calculation. This was bad. The Dreadclaw Demon was no better off, its colossal claws swinging more wildly as it tried to lash out at the webbing, but with little effect.
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Suddenly the shared infernal blood of both the Demon and Manticore began to boil. Meanwhile, Isolde's eyes shifted from blue to violet, and then to a bright red.
Instead of continuing to attack the Dark Moon contracts, the demon and manticore suddenly seemed drawn to one another by an uncontrollable force.
Isolde had activated her gift for the first time in the tournament. A gift that capitalized on all infernal creatures being descended from a common bloodline and allowing them to combine their strength.
Suddenly a hybrid creature much greater in strength than the two individual creatures appeared in the arena—the addition of their respective powers not unlike the Gemini transformation Serena had achieved on her Elemental Guardian in her previous match.
Unfortunately, because the gap between indigo-grade and blue-grade is far greater than that between yellow and green grades, her contracts were not able to advance a whole level like Serena's were. If her other contracts weren't separated by the annoying web, they could have also been combined using her gift. However, even then they still might not be enough to create one indigo-grade hybrid. The gap between the middle-grade and high-grade spiritual creatures was far too great.
Still, the pressure from their combined spiritual power definitely adds a great deal of pressure to the Dark Moon contracts, and the hybrid was no longer as easily restrained nor had its senses removed like before.
The hybrid is a terrifying colossus, its body is a twisted amalgamation of the Manticore's lion-like form and the Dreadclaw's hulking demon and gorilla-like features. The creature's fur had turned into a dense, spiked carapace, darkening to a deep, mottled crimson and obsidian. Massive claws—like those of the Dreadclaw Demon—emerge from its forelimbs, each one as long as the average height of a person, their jagged edges sharp enough to tear through stone.
Its back is hunched while the manticore's iconic scorpion tail, now brimming with an ominous red energy, has grown longer and more lethal.
The hybrid's breath, a thick cloud of sulfur and smoke, released as it released a roar that shook the very ground beneath it, rattling its enemies with fear. Experience tales at
Muscles rippled beneath the creature's skin, making every movement a display of overwhelming power and unrelenting brutality. When it stepped forward, the arena even trembled beneath its weight.
The large hybrid, standing nearly 15 feet tall was now in position to easily tear a gap into the webbed roof above it—and so it did.
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