This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 759: Chapter 759: No Time to Celebrate

The moment the announcer called the match in Dark Moon’s favour, the arena exploded.

The cheers that followed Theo’s victory were so loud they seemed to shake the banners in their rafters. Students stood on their seats, some screaming, some crying, some clutching one another in disbelief. It had been a clean win. An unshakable, undisputed takedown of Sevra Len’Torien—the pride of First Celestial’s mental division.

Somewhere in the background, a chant of “Mindshade! Mindshade!” started up and spread like wildfire.

In the VIP booth, Seraphina Mindshade gave the barest incline of her head and uptick of her lips. It was barely noticeable, but her attendants could tell that she was pleased by Theo’s performance.

Backstage, Professor Mires didn’t even bother hiding it. He clenched his fist and gave a single, sharp pump beside his hip, eyes gleaming with a rare glint of pride. The others behind him had been holding their breath, but now they cheered too—not just for Theo, but for the possibility that they might actually win this.

Hope.

It surged.

But it didn’t last long.

Because the announcer’s voice boomed out again.

“Entering the arena for First Celestial College… Damon Hest!”

The celebration stalled.

Theo’s expression didn’t change as his next opponent walked onto the stage. Damon Hest was already met at the 3v3 during Phase One, but he was still intimidating —broad-shouldered, mountain-like, with shaggy brown hair, unshaven cheeks, and eyes like stone. He didn’t smile. Didn’t scowl. Just walked until he was in position.

The earth beneath his boots rumbled faintly with each step.

Theo muttered something under his breath.

A flashback flickered.

—————————–

Night before. Strategy room.

Mires tapped the slide on the screen.

“If Theo wins against Sevra, Damon is the most likely second.”

He gestured to the image: Damon throwing boulders from one side of the battlefield to the other, like it was just a game of dice.

“He specializes in mobile terrain warfare. Creates pockets of terrain isolation and isolates contracts inside. It is especially disadvantageous for those whose combat style relies heavily on cooperation between contracts and the tamer—Like you Theo. Worse still, once isolated communication with the trapped contracts seems to be dulled.”

Theo rubbed his jaw. “I remember. He trapped Kitsu and Echojack during the 3v3. Couldn’t recover after that.”

Mires nodded. “Exactly. But now you know what to expect. He’ll field his three blue-grade powerhouses for sure—Geo-Goliath, Windworn Runebreaker, and Tremorveil Mauler. But given the stakes… he won’t stop there. Expect all six.”

He flipped slides.

“Green-grade additions include: Hollowcairn Leaper and a Thistleback Tunneler. His final contract, confirmed blue-grade, but has not been shown in the tournament yet.”

Theo raised a brow. “Completely unknown? Hopefully, it’s because its weaker, and not because it’s his trump card or anything”

That statement got a nervous chuckle from the room. Somehow those words felt like a bad omen.

—————————–

Back in the present, Theo summoned his team again.

Kitsu shimmered into being beside him, tails fanned in alert arcs. The Omenveil Manticora followed, flexing its claws and releasing a low hum of spatial dissonance. Dreamshackle Basilisk unfurled beside them, eyes narrowed and scales glowing. The Cerebrym Echojack twitched its long tendrils, sonar pulses scanning the terrain. The two green-grades followed quietly.

Damon, meanwhile, raised one massive arm.

Geo-Goliath landed first, shaking the arena. Twelve feet tall humanoid golem, it was built like a moving mountain, chunks of layered stone rotating around its arms like orbiting moons.

Windworn Runebreaker shot down next, slicing through the air like a silver comet. Resembling a pterodactyl, its lean frame glinting beneath a mesh of translucent, razor-sharp wings, each etched with glowing sigils that pulsed like the beat of a war drum. The creature’s head was narrow, plated in aerodynamic ridges, and its eyes gleamed with stormlight.

The Tremorveil Mauler erupted from underground in a fountain of shattered stone, its chitinous limbs ending in jagged cleavers. Its body was low and muscular, plated in overlapping armor that looked fused with sediment and fossil, its split mandibles dripping with rocky debris. A ridged tail slammed into the ground behind it like a wrecking ball, sending tremors across the stage.

The green-grades came next: Hollowcairn Leaper, a beetle-limbed lizard with skeletal plating, and the Thistleback Tunneler, which looked more like a spiked root come alive.

Then finally, the never before seen blue-grade contract dropped into place.

Many looked at the unfamiliar creature in puzzlement, including Kain and the announcers. But after a beat, he recognized it. It looked like some kind of mutant variant of an Aegolith.

It was a squat creature—more statue than beast. Covered in mossy stone and etched with glowing sigils, it extended four short limbs into the dirt—and the terrain beneath Damon’s feet began to crystallize, forming concentric rings.

The audience saw it too.

The arena transformed.

Stone pillars rose, ridges formed, terrain sloped and sharpened in real time. Theo found his side pushed into the lower third of the field, the elevation designed to force upward battle while allowing Damon full overhead control.

“Begin!”

Theo immediately flicked his hand.

Kitsu vanished, obviously not due to manipulating space or teleporting, but due to cloaking itself in an illusion, while the Echojack and Basilisk took different routes forward.

Damon didn’t even blink.

The terrain shifted. A ridge exploded into a spike, splitting the Echojack’s path. The Tremorveil Mauler dove underground.

Theo grimaced.

The Manticora surged forward, but the Windworn Runebreaker intercepted it with a slicing barrage of condensed air. Its sigils glowed, and a spiraling cone of wind disrupted Theo’s mental illusions—the whole arena briefly flashed with corrected light.

He could feel his advantage slipping.

He pushed more energy into the Basilisk. It hissed, then blasted the Aegolith with a frequency burst meant to disrupt its mind.

It didn’t move.

The runes across its surface glowed brighter. The surrounding terrain hardened.

Theo gritted his teeth.

The Hollowcairn Leaper sprang from behind a rock pillar and slammed into one of Theo’s green-grade contracts. It yelped and vanished into Theo’s ring.

Two minutes passed.

Another.

Kitsu managed to corner the Mauler in a collapsed tunnel and burned it with foxfire—it dropped, smoldering.

Theo tried to maneuver the Manticora around to snipe the Runebreaker from behind, but Damon shifted the terrain again, collapsing a platform and sending both the Echojack and the Manticora tumbling.

A wall slammed up between him and Kitsu.

Basilisk got clipped by a wind scythe and skidded, bleeding.

Theo staggered, his mental energy starting to fray.

He closed his eyes, tried to re-center.

“Not yet,” he murmured.