This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 754: Chapter 754: The Top 8 in the Country

The stands were packed, the announcers were breathless, and even the referees had swapped out for higher-ranked substitutes.

It was the Top 8.

Unlike the early phases of the tournament—where weak schools could slip through cracks—the current bracket was airtight. Every school left had clawed their way here, with at least five victories and no lack of pressure from their schools and classmates to make it to the final rounds. After all, each College’s final ranking will determine the amount of resources they are entitled to in the coming year.

In Phase 2, Each match was a king-of-the-hill 1v1 format. No healing. No switching back in. Once a fighter stepped off the stage—win or lose—they were done.

And stepping onto the arena now, wearing a relaxed but unmistakably focused expression, was Kain Newman.

Second-year. Five-stars. Blue-grade spiritual creatures. And one of the most famous names in the tournament.

But unlike in the previous rounds where the second-year Kain was intimidating—after all, the young monster had 3 blue-grade contracts, whereas most fourth years in low-ranked schools didn’t even have one—none of the third or fourth years in the top 8 were intimidated by Kain.

If anything, they looked down on him slightly, believing that his level of fame was not deserving for his level of strength.

After all, many of them also had at least that many blue-grade contracts too. And they all believed that, while talented, they should have the leg up on Kain when it comes to combat experience—of course, if any of them knew that he’d been going on deadly missons given by the Order for the past year, they might think otherwise.

His current opponent was a third-year from Crimson Lunar College, one of the three colleges outside of the traditional top 5 to enter into this year’s Top 8. Kain didn’t recognize the guy. But his icy aura and the glint of the stadium lights across the massive dual blades strapped to his back spoke volumes.

Five summons appeared around him—clearly a 5-star beast-tamer still like Kain was. All 5 were ice attribute contracts.

This was no early-round pushover.

“Begin!”

Kain summoned his contracts immediately. No holding back.

Bea, was already on Kain, although nobody was able to sense her.

So to the audience, Aegis materialized first, landing with a crash sank slightly into the ground of the arena.

The Vespid Guards swarmed into position a breath later, forming a triangular formation pointed at the enemy like a sharp spear.

Chewy popped into existence at Kain’s heel with a soft fwoomp, already pulsing faintly with stored energy.

And last, falling from above like a silent meteor, was Vauleth. He materialized above with a dramatic entrance—a ring of fire—and a loud roar that brought considerable pressure to all spiritual creatures present equal to or lower than it in grade.

The crowd went dead silent.

For a moment, nothing moved.

Then—

The opponent struck, unleashing combination move using two of his contracts—one that resembled an elk and the other a golem made of ice— that formed an icy cage around Vauleth while trying to bombard Aegis with crystalline projectiles.

Kain’s Vespid guards swept in, their spears clashing with a floating ice elemental wyrm that tried to flank from the side.

Even the beast-tamer on the opposing side entered the fray, using a gift that seemed to add an icy-paralyzing effect to each of his attacks.

Bea, of course, was already working to get inside the enemy’s head.

The first match lasted nearly ten full minutes—longer than most of Kain’s recent fights. But in the end, Vauleth broke through the cage with a spiraling inferno of dragonflame and Chewy launched an explosive burst after absorbing majority of the ambient energy on the field that destabilized the opponent’s contracts at a key moment for its allies to finish them off easily. Kain’s win was decisive, but his breathing had grown shallow. Sweat beaded at the back of his neck.

This was the most tired he’s been after a match. And not because the opponent was so overwhelmingly powerful—but rather due to how slippery he was. There were several moments during the match where Kain felt like he was going to win, but the opponent managed to prevent the decisive blows just in time. This led to this unusually long match for Kain.

This match honestly felt more like a battle of wits than pure strength to Kain. And so he was more mentally exhausted than anything.

But…There was no time to rest.

The second opponent stepped onto the field with a measured gait and an aura that curled like stormclouds around his shoulders. A fourth-year from the same college. Air-type affinity. Again five contracts were summoned—another 5-star beast-tamer thankfully. Kain really didn’t know how he could deal with a numerical disadvantage with his strength sapped out like this.

Kain didn’t hesitate. He took a more aggressive approach to try and finish the battle before he or his contracts made a devastating mistake during the match from exhaustion. And the longer this match got drawn out, the more likely a mistake on his part was.

The Vespid guards surged in, Vauleth banked overhead, and Aegis anchored the center with a blast of earth force. Chewy darted toward the periphery like a spore-shaped missile.

Bea did not enter the opponent’s mind this time.

Too tiring. Every opponent they’d come across lately had strong mental defenses, likely due to equipment placed on them by their Colleges. And so it was take her a long time for the negative thought particles to even wear them down enough to do anything. She was already stretched from the first battle—subtly influencing the opponent to go to certain locations for Chewy’s ambush.

So Kain had to do this the old-fashioned way.

And it cost him.

The fourth-year’s second contract—a Sky Serpent cloaked in wind blades—nearly shredded ten Vespid Guards at once. Thankfully, most managed to dodge and only 3 were gravely injured. But still, the sight of nearly losing a substantial portion of his fighting force in an instant was terrifying. Kain was forced to sacrifice one of his remaining trump cards to end it: a joint spiritual skill between two of his contracts.

’Sigh…I was hoping I wouldn’t have to reveal this before the match against First Celestial, But now it was being revealed in a match against an opponent not even from a top 5 college.

’I guess I really underestimated these seniors…’