Chapter 214: Fighting A Beast Master
Chapter 214: Fighting A Beast Master
With Alorian’s unprecedented forfeiture, the atmosphere in the central plaza reached a fever pitch.
"The matches for the Top 12 have officially concluded!" Octavius’s booming voice thundered, vibrating through the massive arena.
He raised his massive hand, silencing the murmurs that were beginning to swell.
"The format for the next phase is as follows: These six remaining victors will now battle in single-elimination matches to determine the Top 3. Once the Top 3 have been finalized, they will be joined by our reigning Rank 1, Zane, who has been granted a bye for these preliminary rounds. Together, those four will form the final contestants for the Semifinals!"
A wave of intense excitement rippled through the hundred thousand spectators.
The six remaining fighters in the bracket were the absolute cream of the crop: Rhain, Elysar (Rank 2), Leontis (Rank 3), and three other elite Gold Badge disciples currently ranked 6th, 7th, and 8th.
With Zane waiting at the pinnacle, the final battles were shaping up to be great.
Above the arena, the projection arrays shimmered, and golden runic text began to rapidly reconfigure itself to display the upcoming match-up.
When the runes finally locked into place, a collective gasp swept through the plaza.
[Match One: Rank 3, Leontis versus Rhain Voss!]
The crowd instantly erupted into frantic whispers.
"Wait a minute, why didn’t Rhain draw the Rank 6 or Rank 7 disciples? The Academy’s match-making arrays usually pair the lowest-seeded challengers against the mid-tier defenders first!"
"It’s too perfect to be a coincidence. The Academy’s elders must be manipulating the array!"
"It’s obvious, isn’t it? The Academy is doing this on purpose! They are deliberately matching Rhain against increasingly powerful opponents to probe the true ceiling of his strength!"
The crowd’s suspicions were absolutely correct.
Carmilla and Myrielle had personally ordered the array masters to rig the draw.
They wanted to feed Rhain the highest-ranked disciples to force into revealing his true strength.
’Let’s see just how deep this little thief had hidden himself.’ Carmilla thought with a playful smile.
Down in the Gold Badge section, a young man with a wild, untamed aura stood up.
He wore sleeveless martial robes that displayed his heavily scarred, muscular arms.
Leontis. The undisputed pride of the Beast Division.
As Leontis leapt gracefully from the stands and landed onto the arena floor, his Level 6 Spirit Manifestation Realm aura exploded outward like a raging typhoon.
But his personal cultivation was only half the reason he commanded the Rank 3 position.
Leontis was a Beast Master—a specialist who fought in lethal synchronization with a bonded companion beast.
Yet, throughout every preceding match in the contest, Leontis had fought entirely alone.
He hadn’t summoned his companion even once, crushing his previous opponents with his own raw physical might.
But as he looked at the dark-robed youth stepping calmly into the ring opposite him, Leontis’s expression was deadly serious.
Leontis was no fool.
He had watched Rhain humiliate Navarre, completely overpower Gromak’s thousand lances, and effortlessly turn Vanya’s Phantasmal Dreamscape against her.
He knew that holding anything back against Rhain was a death sentence.
For the first time in the entire Inner Palace Contest, Leontis reached for the specialized beast-tamer pouch at his waist.
"Come!"
ROOOOAAAARRRR—!
A blinding burst of spatial light erupted in the center of the arena.
BOOM!
A creature landed beside Leontis, shaking the arena floor.
It was a massive, heavily armored beast that stood nearly eight feet tall at the shoulder, and looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and a dire bear.
Its body was covered in overlapping plates of thick, dark scales, each one as thick as a shield and radiating an oppressive ferocity.
It was a Titan-Horned Behemoth!—a peak Mid-stage Spirit Manifestation Realm beast!
ROAAAR!
The beast let out a deafening roar that forced the weaker disciples to cover their ears in pain.
The moment the beast appeared, Leontis placed a hand on its armored flank.
Buzz—!
A visible tether of glowing essence connected man and beast.
Leontis and his companion synchronized their auras perfectly, their energies overlapping and multiplying.
The combined combat prowess radiating from the duo instantly skyrocketed, breaking past the boundaries of the sixth level and rivaling that of a Level 7 Spirit Manifestation expert.
The crowd held its collective breath.
"A perfect synchronization! They will fight as one mind and one body!"
"He’s facing a Level 7 equivalent two-on-one assault! What kind of Epic-Grade martial art will Rhain pull out this time? Does he know a Beast-Taming art too?"
On the grand stage, a lean, weathered old man with sun-darkened skin leaned forward in his seat with visible interest.
High Preceptor Mordecai — the head of the Beast Division and a true Domain Master Realm expert.
"The boy finally called his companion beast out," Mordecai murmured, "Good. Against an opponent of this caliber, pride is worthless. Only a fool would hold back his greatest weapon."
"Begin!" Octavius commanded.
"Crush him!" Leontis bellowed.
Leontis and the Titan-Horned Behemoth exploded into motion.
They split apart, initiating a flawless, high-speed pincer attack.
The massive beast charged from the left like an unstoppable armored locomotive, while Leontis dashed in from the right, his hands forming deadly, essence-infused claws.
They closed the distance in a heartbeat, leaving Rhain with nowhere to run.
The spectators leaned in waiting for Rhain to summon a beast and fight Leontis.
Unfortunately, Rhain had no companion beast.
So he simply took a calm step forward.
BOOM!
A primal pressure rolled outward from Rhain’s body like an invisible tidal wave.
Overlord’s Tyranny.
Rhain didn’t unleash the full terror of his vast spiritual sea.
He released merely a small fraction of the Abyssal Sovereign Physique’s suppression, and he directed it entirely onto the beast.
To the audience, nothing happened.
There was no flash of light, no shockwave of essence, no grand martial display.
But to the Titan-Horned Behemoth, the world has turned upside down.
The Titan-Horned Behemoth, a creature bred for war and bathed in blood, suddenly slammed on its brakes, causing its enormous body to skid forward several feet.
Its red eyes suddenly dilated to their maximum limit.
To the beast’s highly sensitive instincts, the dark-robed youth standing before it was no longer human.
He was an apex predator from the deepest, darkest abyss—an entity whose very existence was made of darkness and destruction.
Whimper...
The terrifying, armored behemoth let out a pitiful, high-pitched whine.
Right in front of a hundred thousand stunned spectators, the pride of the Beast Division’s ferocious companion dropped onto its belly, tucked its tail between its legs, and pressed its snout against the stone floor, shivering uncontrollably in instinctual terror.
Leontis, who was mid-lunge from the right staggered, and almost fell from the shock.
"What?" Leontis gasped as he saw his shivering partner. "Get up! What are you doing?"
He was left wide open, his momentum broken and his mind thoroughly bewildered by his beast’s sudden, inexplicable betrayal.
But Rhain didn’t wait for Leontis to get an answer.
Casually stepping past the whimpering behemoth as if stepping around a puddle, Rhain materialized directly in front of the stunned Leontis.
"You rely too much on your pet," Rhain said flatly.
Before Leontis could even raise his arms to defend himself, Rhain delivered a swift, clean punch directly to the center of his chest.
BANG!
The impact echoed like a cannon shot.
Leontis was launched off his feet, soaring through the air in a graceful arc before crashing heavily onto the stone tiles well outside the arena boundary.
"Winner: Rhain Voss!" Octavius’s booming voice announced, securing Rhain’s spot in the Top 3.
Up on the grand stage, High Preceptor Mordecai sat frozen in his seat, looking at Rhain with profound amazement.
"That was not a martial art," Mordecai spoke, Aldren, and other High Preceptors turning to look at him. "What that boy released was a bloodline suppression — the innate dominance of a bloodline that sits at the ultimate apex of the natural hierarchy."
He turned his face toward Carmilla, his eyes holding an extremely solemn look that made even the other Domain Masters uncomfortable.
"Dean," Mordecai said slowly, choosing each word with extreme care. "In all my years communing with the most ancient spirit beasts of this dynasty, I have witnessed primal terror only twice. The first was when a thousand-year-old Flame Wyrm encountered a trace of dragonblood. The second was today."
He looked back at Rhain.
"Whatever power that boy possesses... it is not something that belongs in the Spirit Manifestation Realm. The instinctual terror it provoked was identical to what a lower creature feels when confronted by a being at the absolute pinnacle of the food chain — something so far above it that the concept of resistance simply does not exist."
Hearing Mordecai’s explanation, a trace of solemnity even appeared on Carmilla’s usually carefree deamenur.
She also turned to look at Rhain, a question instinctively appearing in her mind.
’How many more secrets did this man have?’