This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The crowd was silent.

They had seen one-sided matches before—Dark Moon College wasn’t exactly a stranger to crushing victories. But rather than a normal battle divided into victor and loser, it was more like a public execution done with a smile.

Kain stood calmly, hands clasped behind his back, observing Lukas’s agony like he was evaluating a piece of mildly interesting art.

Across from him, Lukas’s body trembled uncontrollably. Bea’s invisible control kept him upright, locked in place, jaw clenched, eyes wide and frantic. He knew now, deep in his bones, that he wasn’t leaving this battle intact. Even if Kain wouldn’t destroy him physically—the College would probably get all annoying about that if he did—but there’s no way they could scold Kain for invisible mental scars he inflicts.

Queen’s continuous healing prevented the teachers from intervening. They hovered at the edges of the arena, unease evident in their stiff postures. They knew something was wrong, but the green mist partially obscured it for many of them. And whenever it faded enough for them to get a more clear picture, no visible injury lingered long enough to justify a stop.

Vauleth prowled close, a terrifying dragon stalking prey in broad daylight. His scales shimmered in the sunlight, brilliant and beautiful, contrasting sharply with the sinister way his claws trailed threateningly close to one of Lukas’ contracts, the jaguar, shivering in fear.

“You’re quite the coward, aren’t you?” Kain asked casually, taking a few slow steps forward. “Talking big from behind a screen. Saying shit you know you’d never dare say to our face. But here you are—trapped, helpless, and unable to run.”

Vauleth lunged forward again. Lukas’s thunderbird squawked in desperation, wings flapping weakly, only to crash down with a brutal crack of snapping bones. The pangolin, still disoriented from its last healing, tried to shield Lukas again but was easily tossed aside like a ragdoll.

Lukas’s expression twisted in desperation, eyes pleading for mercy he couldn’t vocalize.

Mercy Kain had no intention of offering.

‘Hmm…he seems to have more control of his facial expressions now’

Kain snapped his fingers, and Chewy—almost invisible up until this moment—floated forward, eager and glowing softly with anticipation.

“This little guy’s name is Chewy,” Kain said with mock politeness while gesturing to the bloated Chewy who was now just barely visible. “He’s quite tiny, so I figured I should point him out to you just in case your microscopic brain thinks that he doesn’t exist and I get accused of using a gift during class spars where they’re banned, again.”

Chewy wobbled happily, as if acknowledging Kain’s introduction, then drifted closer to Lukas’s jaguar. The jaguar’s muscles spasmed in panic, its powerful black lightning flaring erratically, but the spore absorbed the surging energy effortlessly, growing slightly larger, more vibrant.

And then—pop.

With an audible fart-like burst, Chewy expelled a wave of pure Source energy straight back into Bea, refreshing her instantly. Bea’s mental grip tightened, reinforcing her slightly weakening dominance over Lukas, who was mentally fighting her.

Lukas’s black serpent, hissing weakly and clearly exhausted, tried one final desperate strike. It lunged at Kain directly, but before it even got halfway, Aegis moved like lightning, pinning the serpent effortlessly beneath a single massive finger.

“Let’s make sure you understand your lesson clearly.”

At his command, Bea’s influence intensified. Lukas’s limbs began to move against his will, driven toward positions of submission. Knees cracked painfully as they met the arena floor, his head bowed forward, kowtowing to Kain in a humiliating, involuntary act of surrender.

The crowd gasped again, some horrified and disgusted by the humiliating display. Others were fascinated and were wondering how they could get their opponents to do the same thing…

Unfortunately, for Lukas though, despite him bowing at Kain’s feet, defeat must be declared verbally, or when you are deemed too injured by the referee to continue fighting. Therefore, he was unable to stop Kain’s reign of terror.

Kain slowly approached, stopping inches from Lukas’s lowered head. He raised his hand—

“Enough!”

–But unfortunately, an annoying voice interrupted what he’d planned to do next.

Kain looked toward the source of the shout and saw Professor Roarke, standing at the edge of the arena, his expression severe, though his eyes held an unmistakable hint of unease. He cleared his throat, forcing calm into his voice. “Kain Newman, you’ve made your point. End this now.”

Roarke was a professor for one of the (semi)mandatory courses in the beast-taming department—”Bio-Strategic Development”. Technically, this course is 100% mandatory, for everyone but Kain, that is. The course is meant to help beast-tamers plan out their contracts’ evolutionary path based on their individual combat style. However, as a double-major in the Evolutionary Planner department, Kain has completed several courses already with equivalent knowledge and was exempt from taking it. Therefore, although Kain knew of Professor Roarke, this was their first time meeting.

Kain turned slowly to face Roarke, his eyes steady, cold, unwavering. “NoPe.”

The audience buzzed nervously at the blatant defiance, while Roarke’s face and neck flushed red at the clear lack of respect. Of course, it didn’t help that Kain puffed his cheeks to make an insolent ‘popping’ sound when enunciating the P in ‘noPe’

Lukas’ eyes bulged with the silent plea for mercy that Bea refused to let him voice. But Kain didn’t grant him even a glance. Instead, he calmly walked towards the black serpent contract struggling weakly beneath Vauleth’s claws, its sleek scales smoking slightly from the residual heat.

Although Kain didn’t particularly want to harm Lukas’ contracts. He knew that what would be even worse than beating him would be to make him unable to maintain his ranking. Although he can no longer make him drop below the top 8, he can injure his strongest contract badly enough that he loses all remaining matches. After all, if an injury is severe enough, only the top healers can restore someone to 100% in a short time, and those healers are usually not deployed for an internal school event like the Re-ranking.

Lukas trembled violently, sweat pouring down his face. He was desperate—helpless. A small, twisted part of Kain relished it.

Kain looked down thoughtfully. “Break it,” he commanded softly.

Vauleth’s claws tightened, and a gut-wrenching crack echoed through the arena as the serpent’s spine fractured. The audience recoiled visibly, some gasping aloud.

“Kain Newman!” Roarke shouted again, his voice now tinged with panic. “This is beyond the bounds of the competition—this is cruel and wrong!”

‘This guy is so annoying…’

“Wrong?” Kain’s head snapped towards Roarke. His voice, ice-cold and utterly devoid of emotion, made even the professor falter. “Isn’t it wrong to hide behind a screen, spreading lies and damaging reputations without remorse? This is justice.”

“But I will concede that this is getting boringly drawn out…”

“Let’s finish this,” Kain said, finishing, straightening and turning toward the stands. His eyes caught Serena’s, and for a brief second, he thought he saw gratitude flicker there, quickly masked by her usual cold stoicism.

He turned back to Lukas. “Do you yield?”

Lukas’s face twisted in fury, humiliation, and agony. He opened his mouth to speak, but Bea silenced him again. Kain leaned closer, mockingly placing a hand behind his ear as if trying to hear better.

“I’m sorry, what was that? Speak up.”

Finally, Bea relaxed enough for Lukas to rasp out clearly, his voice breaking with shame and pain, “I… yield.”

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