This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 733: Chapter 733: An Old Acquaintance

After the brutal 1v1 match against Nikolai, Soren, Kairos, and Serena took care of the 3v3 seamlessly—ensuring that in a sense Nikolai’s earlier bragging did come true. It was the only match that day for both Kain and himself. But that was due to Supernova’s one-sided defeat.

The next two matchups were against school outside of the top 5—Ironmarch Military School and Thornspire—felt like stretching after sprinting a marathon.

Neither of the schools were in the Top 5. Neither had particularly dangerous contracts. Neither had an amazingly clever plan to turn the tables. And both matches ended without Kain even needing to take a single step into the arena.

In the first, Soren handled the 1v1 alone. In the second, he did it again. He’d broken through to 5-star just a week before the tournament began, and although all but one of his contracts were still green-grade, the difference in level still showed. His dragons hadn’t even needed to go all-out. The spectators barely had time to cheer before the fights were over.

The 3v3s weren’t any more suspenseful. The other team members came in—Kairos, Dwayne, and Serena or Soren. No drama, no suspense. Just clean wins.

Kain spent both matches watching from the sidelines, arms crossed, utterly unamused.

By the time their names were called for the third match, he was restless.

That was when he heard it. Not his name. Not Serena’s. The name of their opponent.

Starfire College.

Kain’s eyes narrowed.

The top 5 college local to his home in the Southern Province. But unlike most of the other top 5 schools, they weren’t famous for their individual combat dominance. They were known for something else entirely:

Missions and Teamwork

It wasn’t unusual for them to lose the 1v1. But they put up the greatest fights during their 3v3 and 5v5 matches.

—————————–

Starfire College had a reputation unlike any other.

From the very first day of their entrance exams, applicants were tested through real missions –no multiple choice exams, no interview panels, no spars. Only real-world targets. Escort missions, beast subjugation, disaster relief, apprehending criminals. And failure during the mission would mean being unable to be admitted—no matter how great your individual performance was.

And once admitted, this mission-focused theme was still present..

Instead of spending all year polishing formations in stadiums, Starfire students were deployed—constantly. Beast tide defense and clean-up operations in rural regions. Emergency logistics after floods. Escorting herb-gathering teams through dangerous wilderness zones. They completed double or triple the number of missions compared to students at other Top 5 schools each year.

Because of that, although they didn’t have star players like Kain, Serena, or Cassian Lysander to bring in fans.

They didn’t need them.

What they had was loyalty. Respect. Die-hard fans of the college itself for all of the community work its students do.

The moment Starfire stepped into the stadium, the crowd exploded.

Kain blinked.

He expected some cheers—this was a Top 5 match, after all—but the sheer volume nearly rivalled what he and Serena usually received. But it wasn’t screaming fanboys yelling out student names. It wasn’t crowd signs with badly drawn faces of their favourite contestant. It was a unified admiration for the whole school

“Star! Fire! Star! Fire!”

Kain looked around. Even in the Dark Moon section, there were people clapping along.

He couldn’t help but mutter, “Guess putting roofs on houses in villages buys more goodwill than fancy titles.”

Then, his eyes caught a familiar figure. Not on the stage. Not among the Starfire team.

Among the staff.

A black-haired young man stood off the stage in a tool-lined technician’s vest while tinkering with a small object Kain couldn’t identify.

Pheneos.

Kain blinked in surprise.

He hadn’t seen Pheneos in years. He was the blacksmith apprentice of the local blacksmith in Brightstar City whom Kain bought his first pieces of equipment from. Honestly, he might’ve forgotten the boy’s face and name if not for the memory feedback boost he’d gotten from contracting a mental attribute creature like Bea.

They locked eyes for a moment.

Pheneos didn’t look flustered at seeing Kain. Just gave a short nod and returned to his work.

Kain mirrored it with a nod of his own, thoughts spinning.

He clearly wasn’t one of Starfire’s Top 5—or else Kain would’ve recognized him by now in prior fights. He must’ve joined their support division. Maybe even their equipment development unit.

That alone raised more questions Why was a mere student acting as a support tech for Starfire College? Such a sight was never before seen at Dark Moon or any of the other colleges.

He didn’t have a chance to ask.

The announcer’s voice rang through the stadium.

“Starting now—the 1v1 match!”

Kain turned back to the field just in time to see Serena walking up the stage steps.

Finally. Her first 1v1 of the tournament.

The crowd quieted as her opponent approached. Kain didn’t bother learning the name.

The match lasted under a minute.

Prismarin hadn’t even revealed her evolved form, much to Kain’s disgruntlement (he still hadn’t seen it!). Throughout the competition, Serena had managed to get by using only the Starweaver and Elemental Guardian, no matter who she faced.

By the time Serena returned to their side, brushing nonexistent dust off her sleeve, the audience was already buzzing—but it wasn’t about the match.

It was about the next round.

The 3v3.

—————————–

Soren, Kairos, and Dwayne stepped forward.

Kain leaned back, curious. On paper, their lineup was stronger. Soren had broken through to 5-star, and one of his dragons—his Ice-attribute Dragon, which had only been revealed for the first time in the 3v3 match against Supernova—had quietly upgraded to blue-grade just before the tournament as well. Each side was fielding one blue-grade contract and eight green-grade ones out of a total of the nine contracts on stage for each side (the max allowed for each side)

It should have been close.

It wasn’t.

And not in the manner one would expect either.

The moment Starfire’s team took the field, something shifted.

It wasn’t their contracts. It was them.

Each of the three students wore sleek, futuristic armour. Full body suits. They were tight-fitting and utilitarian—black with radiant silver filaments, each one engraved with moving sigils.

Helmets clicked into place.

Spiritual energy surged—and then, impossibly, synchronized.

Kain blinked.

He wasn’t the only one. Even the announcer stammered mid-sentence.

Because it wasn’t just their personal energy rising. Their contracts, too, were wearing matching smaller pieces of equipment that didn’t cover their entire bodies. Lightweight, but functional.

And then the resonance began.

When one mobilized their spiritual power, the others’ also seemed to flare in response. When a contract launched a defensive move, the armour on all nearby allies pulsed in kind.

Kain couldn’t fully understand the purposes and effects of this resonant effect, but it was evidently making a positive impact on their combat abilities.

They weren’t fighting as individuals. They were fighting as one machine.

Kain’s eyes sharpened. This was very unusual. It was hard to develop pieces of equipment on the same person that resonated with one another, much less pieces that resonate on the same person and MULTIPLE PIECES ON MULTIPLE PEOPLE nearby. It’s never been seen before. Or at least the technology had never been shown to the masses before like this.

Dwayne was the first to fall. Once the opposing tamers entered the fray with strength on par with spiritual creatures, Dark Moon was at a numerical disadvantage. His Stormstrike Siren, Leviathan and Noxious Cloudling couldn’t coordinate under the strain. Kairos lasted longer, but his cursed constructs lacked coordination. Soren alone held out, lashing back with three dragons at once plus his own transformed body from his gift. Let it be known that Soren’s gift was powerful enough to contend against the 3 suited beast tamers at once.

But even he was swallowed.

Starfire was showing through this match the validity of their way of doing things.

A group’s strength wasn’t just about the individual power of tis members.

Teamwork was even more important.

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