This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The battlefield had shifted, but the war was far from over.

Smoke from the flaming shockwave still lingered in the air, curling through the shattered remnants of the stage. The crowd sat silent for a moment, stunned into stillness—then the noise came crashing back in, louder than ever.

Aegis stood tall.

Balens trembled in place as he felt the thick invisible grime continue to thicken and spread on his body. It even felt like it was penetrating him.

And Serena… was already changing tactics.

She exhaled slowly, calmly. The irritation in her eyes vanished. That part was over. Balens could no longer be helped.

No point in continuing to put all of her efforts into a sinking ship. She has other cards to play.

‘Sorry, Balens,’ she thought somewhat guiltily, ‘Just put up with it for now. I’ll get you a professional polishing service after the match.’

A new energy pulsed from her body.

Her next move came not from desperation, but from legacy.

Naturally, the Lysanders aren’t the only noble household with formidable spiritual skills exclusive to them. As a house just as old and, arguably, just as influential, the Storm’s naturally have a few tricks up their sleeves.

She activated a spiritual skill exclusive to the Storm family and only usable by those who awaken the hereditary gift of the original founder—Leopold Storm. A technique built for those with limitless spiritual power. A radiant field bloomed around her contracts, weaving together threads of golden light that tethered them to her. Their energy surged.

Kain’s eyes narrowed.

He could feel it.

Each of Serena’s remaining contracts was now fighting with enhanced efficiency—stamina loss slowed, skill activation speed increased, while the strength of said skills increased since they could input more power into each move because they no longer needed to conserve their energy. She’d created a continuous supply line of spiritual power to fuel them. A personal battlefield-wide buff.

But she wasn’t done.

A second pulse followed.

This one darker, heavier.

Purple symbols flickered at her feet, climbing her body in swirling lines of strange sigils that didn’t resemble any that he’d seen on this planet. Meaning there was only one alternative… The Thar’Ameth inheritance.

A rune-etched boundary spread out, covering much of the central field. Kain instantly recognized the oppressive pressure it brought with it—something that dulled spiritual feedback, muted certain types of spiritual resonance. Moreover, it seemed to corrode the connections between himself and his contracts—like an acid melting away the lines that tether them together. Even Queen’s guards became less coordinated and somewhat frantic as their ability to sense their ‘Queen Mother’ duller.

‘A dual-field combo,’ Kain realized. ‘One for offence, one for suppression.’

This was what it meant to have access to two top-tier legacies. And once again, Kain was experiencing the envy that came with not having access to a top-tier familial legacy of his own, or access to personalized advice from an extremely powerful ancestor who wants the best for you.

Serena raised her hand.

The Starweaver, still damaged from Aegis’ retaliation, twitched—and responded.

After the surge of spiritual power from Serena, its condition did improve. Soon, a familiar constellation lit up on its wings, made of starlight. It was activating the Gemini constellation skill. A pulse of starlight burst forth and hit the Elemental Guardian.

At first, the air just shimmered.

Then the transformation began.

The Guardian’s form rapidly changed as if it had lost control of itself:

Into its fire form, a phoenix-like bird of blazing wings.

Then, into its wind form, the translucent outline of a gliding sprite.

And finally, its earth form—A hulking golem. Bark-like plating covered its limbs, while golden moss and obsidian stone twisted along its spine.

Then, finally, in a burst of light, a completely new form appeared.

The creature that emerged was unrecognizable compared to its base forms. It stood tall, bipedal but hunched like a predator, its body clad in rippling plates of blackened stone and metallic bark. Flame shimmered beneath the cracks in its surface like veins, and its movements stirred whirlwinds, making its silhouette blur with every motion. Sprouting from its back were jagged, semi-transparent wings formed from compressed air and heat. It exuded a pressure like an oncoming natural disaster—it embodied destruction in its every move.

Even the arena seemed to groan beneath its presence.

“Uh oh,” Elias muttered in the stands, clutching his tablet.

The move that was only revealed at last year’s re-ranking and only allowed the fusion of 2 elements seems to have been elevated.

But that wasn’t the only move Serena had prepared.

With Bea’s focus still locked on Balens, the previously controlled Prismarin now had more leeway. It surged forward, shimmered, then vanished.

Kain’s eyes narrowed—too late.

His entire world blinked.

The battlefield was gone.

Serena stood atop a mountain of stone, her hair flowing in the wind. The crowd chanted her name. Queen and Chewy lay collapsed beside him. Aegis, shattered. Bea could not be sensed.

He had lost.

“No,” Kain breathed.

It felt real. Too real.

The emotions, the fatigue, the shame.

But something was off.

Serena was smiling. Brightly. Too brightly.

‘She doesn’t smile like that,’ Kain thought. Kain has seen her smile very few times, but each fleeting time left enough of an impression that the image was practically tattooed into his mind.

Not to mention, with Bea as his contract, he innately had high mental strength.

A crack formed in the illusion

But it held—just barely. However, now he could sense his real contracts, including Bea, in reality.

And at that moment, a message from Bea managed to get through and echoed sharply in his mind.

‘I sensed the illusion. I won’t split my attention. Finish it yourself.’

She was close—so close—to breaking Balens. Splitting her attention to help Kain would only hinder her progress.

The scale-creature was spinning erratically now, its plates uneven, its glow fading. Her black particles had saturated her mental space.

She wasn’t letting go now.

Kain smiled faintly.

“Fair.”

He didn’t feel like he needed help anyway. He’d regret it if they lost a great winning opportunity just to help him get rid of a non-dangerous illusion.

Kain gritted his teeth and reached inward, toward his connection with Pangea. He hoped that, similar to Balens, the higher-level energy would dispel the illusion. Not to mention that since he only needed to push the illusion out of his mind, he didn’t have to control the energy to go far—it was remaining in his body.

And so, it was surprisingly easy to use it compared to channelling outward and into Chewy.

A beam of soft purple light pierced the illusion.

Kain blinked—and was back.

The real battlefield. Prismarin was still weaving illusions—but he’d broken free.