"Who is your captain?"

He doesn't answer me as he rides off on his horse, collecting the ashes of the lion and the pieces of the wolf thing as he goes. I don't like him. The next match is in the semifinals, and the next person I'm facing should be a part of the Auroran Institute's team. She has green hair and a modified uniform or some leather armor that looks like the student uniform. A prismatic black leather.

She's riding a mount in the form of a horse with wings, but it doesn't seem to be a non-combat tame. Her other tamed beasts consist of a green wolf with flowers growing out of its fur, a red and yellow peacock, and a small pitch-black housecat. She cradles a purple egg under one of her arms.

[Winged Horse C lv100]

[Greenwood Wolf A lv122]

[Firebird Peacock B lv101]

[Cat's Shadow C lv100]

I'm interested in seeing how this fight will progress. The rules say I can't switch out my beasts during active combat, but I can between rounds. If Khan takes out one of her beasts, I can have Duchess come in next. I have a feeling I'll need to do this for the fight. She is a part of the highest-ranked team for a reason.

I have Duchess go in as she sends her peacock. I gift her my entire fire resistance just in case.

"Hey! Good luck! I hope we both have fun!"

I give her a thumbs up as the match commences. Duchess immediately fires off a few rays of light as the peacock stands there, uncaring. The rays bounce off the bird's feathers and scatter harmlessly into the surrounding air. It spreads its peacock tail feathers out and dances.

[It doesn't listen to thisss one's commands. Mind magic is also ineffective. What should thisss one do?]

I'll tell you what to do when the time comes. Just wait for my mark.

[Understood, Master.]

The bird catches on fire and starts spitting flame around the battlefield until everything is on fire. It then starts shooting beams of fire at Duchess. It dances around the battlefield, refusing to fly. The flames only get more intense as the dance goes on. The bird starts singing while the fire moves to the tempo.

Duchess currently has my 600 points of fire resistance, so the fire doesn't hurt her yet. But I worry about the fire growing too high in intensity. Even with my tankyness, Duchess is still fighting like herself, using distance and spells while dodging attacks in the air.

Get closer and use your body. Since fighting like a mage isn't working, fight like a snake. You used to hunt songbirds. I don't see a difference.

Duchess doesn't respond and takes a few seconds to act. The peacock is still strutting around like it owns the place. Its tamer is trying to get it to take the fight seriously, but it seems to still keep its attitude. Duchess flies high above the bird and folds her wings, dropping from the air and letting gravity do all the work. Of course, the peacock tries to light Duchess up, but the resistances negate most of the damage.

Duchess extends her wings last second and slithers around the cocky peacock, causing the bird to stop its song and scream out a shrill squawk. It was quick and sudden, and the bird didn't expect it. Duchess is massive compared to the bird since the [Firebird Peacock] is the size of an average peacock while Duchess is almost thirty feet long with the girth of three men. She's short, considering her width, but I'm assuming that's because she's young for her species. Snakes don't have a taper-off point to stop growing, so if her lifespan as a [Amphitere] is long, she'll be quite something to look at in the future.

The oversized chicken is probably stronger than Duchess in terms of might, but it was too startled to resist in time. Hollow bones start crunching as Duchess uses her higher mass to her advantage. Peacocks are snakes' enemies in the natural world. They'd even face the most venomous snakes if they intruded on their turf. The sheer size of Duchess keeps the bird from using its body, making it rely on fire. It starts slowly burning Duchess. The only reason she's still in the fight is because of my resistance.

The other tamer is yelling, trying to urge her beast into fighting and getting out. The fire starts getting unbearable, but before the fire can consume my Duchess, I hear a crisp *Snap*.

The bird's neck is broken. It can no longer move its body. The pressure finally consumes the shattered ribs and crushed organs as the bird's body fails it as well. It's technically not dead, but it's not conscious. Duchess eats the peacock and snorts fire after swallowing the bird whole. You can barely see the bump the bird leaves on her scorched body. Before long, the round ends with the bird disappearing from Duchess' stomach and into the care of healers.

"That was a good fight. I thought my beast countered yours. I guess not."

"What was the deal with magic not working?"

"It's a secret."

I withdrew Duchess from the battlefield before the next round. I heal her wounds and fix her damaged feathers before asking her a question mentally.

Why do you keep trying to eat everything you defeat? Is Khan rubbing off on you?

[Thisss one doesn't know why. Instincts must be overpowering thisss one's normal behavior.]

When was the last time you ate?

[Hunger is not the issue. Thisss one ate a week ago and is still satiated.]

In my backpack should be some mana crystals. Snack on that. It might help. The taming instructor in Bluefield taught me about that.

I can summon the items within the backpack with just a command, but if I get penalized for "using a magic item during the competition" by just using the backpack's function, I'll die. I've seen other tamers feed their beasts mana crystals before a fight and the judges allow it since it's not buffing the beasts. Maybe it helps with digestion. Duchess rifles through the pockets until she finds some of the crystals and hulk eyes I have stashed away. I was going to sell some of my stock for some credits since I'm running low.

[Master, what are these?]

[Desert Hulk Eyes]. It was taken off an insectoid creature that could use some weird mesmerizing ability from its eyes.

[A mesmerizing ability? Why didn't you tell thisss one about these organs earlier? It could be beneficial to study them.]

I forgot. I initially was harvesting the eyes because I wanted to give them to you. It was a long month in that fracture.

[Thisss one will snack on your crystals in recompensation.]

Yup, not like you were going to eat them anyways. Have fun with your eyes, for now. Don't eat them, I might bring you back in later on and that might not be legal.

Rob pulls on my pant leg, so I let him fight the next creature. Giving away vigor makes me feel vulnerable, but I give him half my stat regardless. My little buddy wants to show off, so I should support him. Rob enters the field at the same time as the little housecat.

"Aw, if I knew you were sending out the skeleton, I would've sent out my horsie... Good luck! This time it'll be different."

"Why the horse?"

"Oh! That skeleton is the perfect size to be trampled by a horse."

"..."

The fight begins with Rob wasting mana on a few [Bone Shots] that hit nothing as the cat turns smokey. [Cat's Shadow] huh? Does that mean it's not actually a cat but a shadow? The possessive implies it. Rob runs up to hit and tries to hit it with a shovel, but the cat sits there licking its paw. After the shovel passes through the cat's body, it pounces on Rob, trying to claw his nonexistent face off.

Rob doesn't panic, barely registering that something is on his face. He slams a shovel at the cat but instead smacks himself. The cat's claws are coated with black energy that cuts Rob's bones, but he "reassembles" faster than it can kill him.

The energy lingers, but it doesn't do anything. These two can't do anything to each other. I wonder what has more stamina, a skeleton or a shadow. I look at Rob and come up with an idea. I tell Duchess to send rob a telepathic message. Rob constantly wears a cloak with a hood that looks like it's made of pure shadow. Maybe that will work as a weapon. It counts as part of his body, so I don't know how this will work. The cloak is quite literally his shadow.

The cat is still on Rob's face, so Rob pulls his cloak over his head and traps the cat within his shadow with one smooth motion. His black metal-specked body with mismatched bones is fully revealed. He ties the cloak around his neck, freeing his hands for the next step.

He smacks the bag around his head with a shovel until the furious motion inside stops. He undoes the knot and allows his cloak to drape around his body once again, and gives me what I assume is a toothy smile as he meanders his way off the battlefield. The cat was already sent to the healers.

"I don't like how your tamed beasts fight. I also don't like how you 'two for two' me as well. My horsie prefers not fighting needlessly, so my last beast will be my doggy."

I wanted Khan to fight the horse, so Flash Gordon could face the wolf. It would be poetic since my history with dogs.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I saw how your sharks deal with their opponents, and honestly, horsie couldn't take that trauma."

I ignore her read on me.

"You can surrender outright then. It wouldn't change much except when the final match will occur."

"No, my friends are relying on me to win! I must try to get as far as I can!"

"Then why won't you send out your horse?"

"Shut. Horsie is also a friend, so it cancels out. Anyway, let's get into the fight."

"Horsie is the actual name?"

The fight begins with the [Greenwood Wolf] cruising around the battlefield, waiting for its opponents to arrive. It seems regal and stoic, with confidence replacing ferocity. It's a strange wolf.

Instead of sending Flash Gordon in, I sent Khan. Flash Gordon is lazy, and I might as well let him get his beauty sleep in before the final match of the tournament. Eighty sharks against one wolf... This could be fun. This is a rank A creature, so I use [Empower] on Khan.

Khan circles the wolf, and the wolf instantly takes down one of the bodies, turning 80 to 79. A storm starts brewing as Khan tries to rip into the wolf but cannot land a single hit. The wolf dances around the battlefield four times faster than Khan while dealing over double his damage. Any damage he does take gets healed by a green glow that radiates off of the creature's wounds.

Pollen puffs out of the wolf's flowers. I don't know what that was supposed to do, but it made Khan very angry. Khan is actually pretty scary. He gets double the might he should get per level-up and has many passives that boost his damage output ludicrously.

Rage C:

When angered: +50% to Might and Agility

When fully enraged: +100% to Might and Agility

Stormy Weather C

In rainy conditions, increase stats by 25%

Feeding Frenzy A

Gain a 1% increase in damage per creature attacking with the user.

I've noticed that [Feeding Frenzy] only works with himself and doesn't work if non-Khans join. I keep gifting him my health to heal him in a pretty inefficient way compared to my skill. Khan is a powerhouse, but he gets weaker as he takes damage. His stats are segmented. Meaning that if bodies fall, his stats fall as well. His bodies have a set amount of health. If that gets depleted, that body is gone until he gets healed. An aoe, in theory, should devastate Khan, but he can do some weird sacrificial health shuffling that helps limits the damage he takes.

It's definitely raining now, with Khan's localized storm getting bigger the angrier he gets. This wolf seems way more powerful than the [Griffin], and they're the same rank with similar levels. I wonder why that is. I check Khan's current stats and get concerned.

Might

520 (200 + 10% + 25% + 25% + 100%)

Agility

234 (90 + 10% + 25% + 25% + 100%)

Vigor

144 (90 + 10% + 25% + 25%)

Mind

136 (85 + 10% + 25% + 25%)

Spirit

136 (85 + 10% + 25% + 25%)

Perception

136 (85 + 10% + 25% + 25%)

Khan barely outputs more damage, while the wolf is twice as fast as Khan. Considering that Khan should be dealing close to 135% damage on his attacks with his bite passive and [Feeding Frenzy]. His attacks deal around a thousand damage, and he has many mouths.

It looks like the wolf could be killed if Khan could be fast enough. Unfortunately, even with Khan's mind stat, he's dumb and doesn't use or understand battle tactics. Even with [Telepathy], it would be hard to direct him.

The fight is brutal. The wolf is fauna as it is flora. Blood is drowning the battlefield as wounds rapidly heal on both sides. If Khan's health was one cohesive pool, he'd be gone by now. The tamer is shouting directions and trying to get the wolf to use their abilities. It doesn't have enough breathing room to activate anything. Something has to change before I run out of mana to replenish the health I am gifting him.