This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

“Bea,” Kain commanded silently, “Push through the Basilisk’s defenses, hard.”

Bea pulsed her acknowledgment. With energy support from Chewy, she sent a surge of negative thought particles to flood the Basilisk’s mind like a chilling wind seeping through a cracked door. And under that intense wind, the ‘door’ was beginning to crack open. She didn’t attempt subtlety this time—Neural Seepage leaked aggressively into the Basilisk’s consciousness, corrupting layers of mental defence with corrosive intent. The serpent hissed sharply, its previously fluid movements becoming stuttered and erratic.

The Basilisk’s thorny vines shot forward again, whipping chaotically instead of the precise, controlled strikes from before. One wildly misplaced vine lashed toward Dmitri’s Scarletfever Arachnid, catching the arachnid’s flank and sending it skittering sideways, mandibles snapping angrily in protest.

From the far side, Dmitri’s voice rang out sharply. “Stabilize and refocus.” His words were steeped in spiritual resonance, each syllable carrying the weight of practiced authority.

But he didn’t just stop at words. The red blood-like armour around each contract began to glow faintly and emit a heat intense enough that Kain felt it from the other side of the field. Bea then conveyed that a sudden burst of energy came forward and burned not only the negative particles, but also killed whatever splits were just managing to form in the cracked defences.

But it wasn’t all bad news. Bea conveyed the information that the ‘burning’ of the newly born splits did not seem able to get rid of the activation of the ‘Empty Throne Effect’. If enough splits manage to penetrate the Basilisk’s mind before they die, Bea’s original body, greatly strengthened by the skill, will be able to ‘teleport’ directly into its mind. And so far, even if a contract can resist Bea’s splits, there have been next to none able to resist her original body unless they are a higher grade than her or under the influence of an unusual skill—like Soren’s spiritual skill that fused four creatures into one.

Kain nodded inwardly. “Good job, Bea. Keep it up and you’ll wear it down eventually.”

Next, Chewy began pulsing under Kain’s sleeve, reacting instinctively to the surge of ambient energy flooding the battlefield. As Dmitri’s augmented contracts radiated waves of surplus spiritual energy, Chewy eagerly absorbed it, invisibly swelling beneath Kain’s sleeve.

But rather than just replenishing Kain’s stamina as before, Chewy redirected some of the processed energy directly to Bea, continuing to fuel her efforts to bring down Dmitri’s contracts from within. Kain could feel the shift immediately—Bea’s aura strengthened, her thought field sharpening with renewed vigour. The Basilisk faltered once more, its mental defences strained even further by Bea’s amplified pressure.

From the instructor’s bench, a murmur rose.

“What’s that?” A professor leaned forward, eyes narrowing at Kain’s silhouette. “Did you sense another presence? Something hidden?” He wasn’t just asking out of curiosity. Rather, as one of the instructors responsible for ranking the students to determine the overall top 5, it was necessary for him to understand all of the cards each student had up their sleeve (literally, in Kain’s case) before making a decision on who he’d recommend for the final team.

However, it was hard to confirm if there was an unseen 3rd contract on the field—Kain showed no outward response, maintaining his steady gaze. He didn’t need to confirm their suspicion. Let them guess and speculate. This was a valuable secret, and he wasn’t going to reveal it easily.

Not to mention, if he can consistently beat the upperclassmen while maintaining an air of mystique, like they still hadn’t seen everything he had to offer, he could only regard that as a positive thing.

Across from him, Dmitri’s gaze narrowed in silent suspicion, his eyes briefly searching for whatever hidden factor was assisting Kain.

“Now, Aegis,” Kain ordered suddenly, snapping everyone’s attention back to the immediate battle.

Aegis, now with newly strengthened vines wrapped around him impeding his movements, shifted slightly, exposing his flank—a calculated bait.

The strengthened Scarletfever Arachnid took the invitation without hesitation. Its legs tensed before launching into an aggressive charge, mandibles glinting with dark venom that had now taken on a subtle glow after Dmitri’s amplification.

But Aegis was ready. At the last possible instant, he spun with deceptive agility for his size, pivoting his fist downward in a crushing arc. With a tremendous impact, Aegis slammed the arachnid into the ground, shaking the entire battlefield with the force. The arachnid twitched violently, scrambling on the floor, stunned but still conscious.

Dmitri’s fists tightened.

Kain didn’t relent, pressing their advantage. “Bea, Mind Chorus. Full power. Target the Basilisk. We need to expedite things.”

Bea’s response was immediate. An overwhelming cacophony of phantom voices erupted inside the Basilisk’s mind, flooding its consciousness with panic, chaos, and confusion. The serpent spasmed uncontrollably, its vines thrashing without direction, striking anything nearby. Another vine hit the Crimson Vein Bat, stunning the airborne creature into a helpless flutter.

Seeing his opening, Aegis broke free of the entangling vines and charged the already injured arachnid head-on. The golem slammed into the creature’s upper body, the force of impact echoing sharply across the field. The spider released a final, rattling hiss before collapsing, its aura fading rapidly. But it didn’t go out without retaliating. Without caring about its own body, it practically twisted its head 180 degrees, like a scene from a horror movie, and launched one last attempt to injure Aegis. A simple bite.

However, unlike Kain had expected, Aegis’ passive shield was actually broken by the seemingly weak bite, triggering a backlash that blew the already injured spider—but not before its fang managed to lightly graze Aegis’ stone surface.

It barely even left a mark—similar to the superficial marks left by lightly keying a car. But the effects on Aegis were anything but superficial.

Kain was unsure if its venom was normally that potent, or if it was under the influence of Dmitri’s gift, but the intricate circuits of energy within Aegis began to go haywire. And a thin black mist even began to leak from the ‘fake’ core in his torso. ‘Fake’ because it is not Aegis’ true core (his true core being a microscopic being), and damaging, I will not kill him. But still extremely dangerous because, based on the black mist it was emitting…quite a lot of Abyssal energy had been stored and was now going to contaminate the surroundings. Something Kain didn’t even know how to begin to explain to the staff and classmates watching…