This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 770: Chapter 770: Kain Vs Isolde: A Strategic Delay

Kain took his time getting into the arena.

Not because he was so intimidated by Isolde or anything. Rather, his steps had the reluctant drag of someone summoned to a tedious chore—not someone walking into a high-stakes match against a top-ranked student from First Celestial College.

He paused halfway to the arena, checked the state of his boots, and then continued walking with an exaggerated stretch of his arms, as though just waking up.

The crowd murmured.

Isolde Blackheart, still standing proud and untouchable at the center of the stage, began to frown.

She knew exactly what he was doing.

Of course she did.

The fusion state her contracts were in looked impressive. Unstoppable. But it had to be costly. That kind of spiritual fusion didn’t maintain itself for free. Kain had no idea whether it consumed energy over time, had a cooldown, or simply risked collapse the longer it lasted. And so, naturally, he planned to stall as long as possible.

If the fusion degraded before the match restarted?

Even better.

He stopped again near the edge of the stage. A group of fans were cheering from the stands, waving signs, one of which bore his full name in glitter and butterfly stickers. He tilted his head, squinted at it, then raised a hand and waved like a celebrity, smiling broadly.

Kain even began to deviate from his path as if he was going to go over to sign some autographs…

The referee cleared their throat.

When Kain didn’t react, the referee exhaled—then released a burst of spiritual pressure.

It hit him like a slap upside the back of his head.

Not physically. But like a slap to the soul. The aura of an 8-star beast tamer pushed down across his body with unmistakable weight.

Kain winced.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered, chuckling awkwardly. “I get it. So impatient…”

He jogged the rest of the way onto the stage.

Isolde watched him with narrowed eyes and a frozen expression, arms crossed. When he stopped a respectful distance away, she harumphed.

She hadn’t said a word, but he could feel the judgment from here.

The referee raised their hand. “Summon your contracts.” Naturally talking to Kain, since Isolde’s were all already on the stage from the last match.

Kain obliged.

One by one, his core lineup appeared.

Aegis landed first, crashing into the arena like a meteor. His polished sleek black stone frame, hit with enough force to shatter weaker ground—immediately asserting his presence.

Vauleth followed, wings folding with controlled restraint. The red dragon’s scales glinted with faint embers, and trails of heat curled from his nostrils.

Queen arrived in a swirling swarm of Vespid Guards. From their midst, she emerged, her wings buzzing with silent authority over the swarm of over a dozen of her children.

Bea was already there, invisible and weightless, her Pale Thought Field quietly trying to invade the minds of the opponents while monitoring the various matchups on the field.

Chewy emerged with a blurp from Kain’s sleeve, plopping into place beside him on a Vespid Guard that flew over as planned.

Kain gave a nod that he was ready.

The referee lowered their arm.

“Begin!”

Isolde didn’t waste time.

She immediately launched her contracts forward.

The Demon-Manticore hybrid barreled toward Aegis, claws carving deep gashes into the stone as it galloped like a freight train. Meanwhile, the sleeker Phoenix-Harpy hybrid launched into the sky with a screech, fire and wind spiraling around its wings as it raced toward Vauleth.

Behind them, the exhausted Soulreaver Incubus limped into a defensive stance, while the Gargoyle—unfused but condition kept largely intact—began to charge toward the Vespid Guards.

Kain did not move to intercept.

Instead, he signaled to the Vespid guard that was next to him.

“Let’s take to the air, shall we?”

The Vespid Guard he mounted on lifted off instantly, darting into the air with a burst of speed, and began zigzagging around the arena. Not aimlessly—deliberately. Keeping distance from Isolde. Avoiding direct lines of attack. Always staying in motion.

This was a strategy that Kain had conveyed to Queen through their bond before the match began. Which is why one of her guards knew to immediately head to Kain once summoned.

Kain had zero intention of fighting Isolde head-on.

Not while her condition was still pretty good, anyway.

Based on her earlier display against Reed, Kain had no delusions about their personal combat skill gap. She clearly had real-world experience—raw, physical, and deadly. Kain had always relied more on his contracts. One-on-one hand-to-hand against someone like her?

That was not a winning play.

And he had no masochistic desire to get his butt kicked by a girl on national television.

Which is why he had no plans to fight her…

As the battle raged below, Chewy remained attached to the cuff of his sleeve its small body jiggling like a pouch of jelly as the duo were whipped this way and that by their ride. But Chewy wasn’t idle.

Kain had given it two orders.

First: absorb any errant energy from the battlefield and redirect it back to Kain’s contracts. A minor boost, but one that would be the difference in the endurance of both sides over time.

Second: analyze.

Chewy’s body glowed faintly, flickers of light dancing across its translucent skin. It was watching the hybrids. Studying them. Mapping the flow of spiritual energy through their forms. Kain needed to know: were there cracks in the fusion? Could they be unraveled without brute force?

With Cassian coming up next, Kain would prefer to take them down in the most efficient way possible. That way he’d be in a much better position to drain Cassian and set Jade up to bring the final victory home to Dark Moon College.

That was Chewy’s job. Figure out the cracks…

Isolde’s foot tapped impatiently. “Is he going to just spend the whole match running away?” she snapped in irritation, especially upon seeing most of his contracts not going all out to fight head on with her contracts—mainly dodging, and blocking when needed.

Kain just grinned wider. Her anxiety only reinforced that his strategy was the correct one.