This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

After three more days of battle, Kain managed to defeat Ranya, Dwayne, and Lucas. So far, Kairos was the most challenging opponent he'd had to deal with both in terms of resistance to Bea, and the number of Vespirae killed.

Lucas' contract had very little resistance to Bea, but had still managed to take down two more Vespirae. Now Kain was down to only 12 guards when he still needed to fight against his two toughest opponents—Soren and Serena.

However, with his current winning streak, Kain had practically confirmed a placement within the top 3.

So far the current tally of wins and losses was as follows:

Serena: 5 wins, still to fight against Ranya today and Kain tomorrow

Kain: 5 wins, still to fight against Soren today and Serena tomorrow

Soren: 4 wins, 1 loss (to Serena), still to fight against Kain today and Lucas tomorrow

Kairos: 4 wins, 2 losses (lost to Kain and Soren), still to fight against Dwayne tomorrow

Ranya: 2 wins, 3 losses (lost to Kain, Kairos, and Soren), still to fight against Serena today and Hailey tomorrow

Lucas: 2 wins, 4 losses, still to fight against Soren tomorrow

Dwayne: 1 win, 5 losses, still to fight against Kairos

Hailey: 0 wins, 6 losses, still to fight against Ranya tomorrow Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr

The arena buzzed with anticipation as the crowd settled in for what was the highest ranked match of the day, between their year's second and third places.

This match could unofficially be considered a semifinals of sort, since it would likely determine the new second and third place position between them.

Kain stood at the edge of the stage, feeling the familiar adrenaline course through him. Across from him, Soren Lysander, glared daggers in his direction.

'And I thought we bonded a little during the beast-tide. What's crawled up his butt?' Kain thought in irritation, unaware that a certain object of Soren's affections had left right after watching Kain's first match a few days ago and not stayed to watch Soren's.

The refereeing professor signalled the start of the battle. Kain wasted no time in unleashing his signature mist, enveloping the arena in a thick cloak that the audience could not see through.

He had seen the power of Soren's dragon in the previous matches, and he wasn't about to underestimate the potential threat they posed.

Soren, however, appeared unfazed by the swirling haze, his determination burning brighter than ever.

Soren's familiar initial contract, a wind-attribute dragon, spread its wings wide and let out a deafening roar that seemed to shake the very foundation of the arena. The crowd erupted in cheers, despite not being able to see much.

'Is all this showmanship really necessary? He must be really fired up.'

The wind-attribute dragon took to the air, clearing away much of the mist with a flap of its wings. Soren's gaze flickered momentarily to where Kain last seen through the mist, and the distaste in his gaze deepened.

As the dragon circled overhead, Kain decided to shift tactics. He knew Soren relied heavily on the aerial advantages of his dragon, and that was where he could gain an edge.

Bea extended mental threads toward the wind dragon, seeking to connect. Just as Bea initiated contact, Soren sensed the impending threat.

"Watch out!" the dragon unleashed a powerful gust of wind. It was useless for destroying the threads, however it did clear away a substantial part of the mist and allowed Soren, his contract, and many of those seated in the stands to witness the faint mental-attribute strands.

Moreover the wind seemed to contain sharp blades that instantly decimated 2 Vespirae and cut off the wings of another that went crashing to the ground.

The remaining 9 Vespirae attacked the dragon flying above to try and limit its movements, and increase the likelihood of one of Bea's strands making contact. Thankfully, Bea was able to make contact, and all of its defensive measures proved useless.

However, Kain didn't leave it at that. He directed Bea to also send some threads in Soren's direction. After all, when at war it was always best to directly capture the enemy king.

Unfortunately, an amulet on his wrist lit up at the approach of the threads, and actually provided an obstruction to their advancement.

'Tsk…annoying legacies…'

Although Soren himself was safe, he could sense that something was wrong with his contract as it began to sway unsteadily side to side in the air.

In a desperate move, Soren called upon his second dragon for the first time in the competition—a lightning-attribute dragon.

'I guess that confirms that Soren's affinity is most likely for spiritual creatures with a storm dragon bloodline…'

Soren directed his second contract to keep the Vespirae circling his contract above at bay. Just remaining mere feet from it caused another Vespirae guard to freeze as though electrocuted, and then drop heavily to the ground with a loud crash. Now there were only 8 guards.

Meanwhile, Soren used a spiritual skill to help the wind dragon resist Bea's infiltration.

Kain sensed the shift and knew he had to act fast. He commanded Bea to intensify her control of the first dragon, while trying to wrap the threads around the newly arrived dragons. To support her, he once again activated his spiritual skill.

Finally, despite the continuous movements, a thread made contact with the lightning dragon, and unlike the cursed constructs, it didn't take nearly as long for Bea to trigger some effects. Especially, now that Soren was having to divide his attention and spiritual power evenly between both contracts.

Soren's face contorted with rage and disbelief as he felt his control over them both slipping away. Both dragons began to thrash about as they fought against the threads with all their might. But Bea's relentless assault began to take its toll. Soren's dragons, though powerful, could not withstand the weight of the mindshard manipulation.

Both dragons landed roughly on the ground of the arena while nodding in and out of consciousness. The Vespirae also were relentlessly leaving deep injuries on the now fallen dragons.

However, Soren was never a helpless beat-tamer dependent upon his contracts for protection. With top quality equipment, he made his way towards one of the Vespirae at a speed only slightly inferior to the guards themselves.

Kain could tell through the clothing, that Soren's limbs now had an unusual appearance. He had likely used his gift to transform them and grant this physical boost.

Kain directed the Vespirae to avoid a direct confrontation with Soren and instead attack from a distance. Unfortunately, Bea's threads were unable to affect Soren due to the many amulets and enchanted equipment he wore.

Instead, Kain decided to try getting Soren to ingest a split, similar to the method he used prior to Bea's evolution. Losing the water attribute, she could no longer blend seamlessly into the mist, and so Soren will be able to detect that there was now something added to the surrounding mist.

However, as a microorganism, the floating water droplets were still large enough to carry Bea and some of her splits.

The ease with which she infected the fog was greatly reduced, but once a decently size portion of the mist had her splits in each droplet, Kain directed the fog towards Soren.

The mist was able to penetrate whatever barrier had been able to keep the mental-attribute threads at bay. However, Soren was able to sense that there was something in the mist and managed to avoid the infected sections of fog.

In turn, Kain directed the mist and also instructed Bea to add more splits, until he was able to form a ring of infected mist to trap Soren.

Finally, a split managed to make contact with Soren's body. However, for the first time since Kain first met the Vespirae, there was something fighting hard against Bea's control. Kain could see one gem stone on an ancient looking necklace Soren was wearing was lighting up crazily.

'Why do these legacies have so much damn equipment…?' Kain had never even heard mention of microorganisms from another person since transmigrating to this world, he was shocked that Soren, unlike Aric Nightsbane, had equipment to successfully combat infection.

Once again supporting Kain's hunch that microorganisms aren't completely unknown in this world, the knowledge of their presence may have just been lost with time—or perhaps it was hidden from the general populace.

Kain knew that Soren's target was him, so he made a great effort to continuously keep a distance from him through the fog.

Finally, he received some good news from Bea. Both dragons had been successfully controlled. He had them both stand up and then encircle their contractor along with the remaining Vespirae. Of course, if Soren tried to attack, he'd have his own contracts meet him and take the beating.

Kain could sense that Soren tried to retract his contracts back to his star space, but Kain told Bea to help them resist the pull.

Likely sensing Kain's intentions to try and force he and his contracts to harm one another, with an extremely unwilling expression, Soren declared his defeat.

Kain felt a surge of triumph as he retracted the mist along with his contracts, leaving only a glaring Soren on the field that looked like he wanted to eat him alive.

He couldn't shake the feeling that this battle had only further deepened the rift between him and Soren.