"Alright, here it is," Maeve said as she placed a giant cage in front of everyone. Inside was a bluish bird with cascading feathers and an unusually long beak with was fully golden in color.
It was around a meter and a half tall and about 2 meters in length.
"Your next beast is Indigold Toucan. Since teacher Gonez lost last, he will choose who starts off this match," Maeve said.
"Uh, yes. He will go first this time," Gonez didn't hesitate at all.
"Ok," Ning said in a relaxed manner. "Can I start?"
"Go ahead, teacher Ning," she said.
"Let's see, Indigold Toucan's fur is actually separate red and blue, only that Blue is the dominant color in the mix and nearly twice the amount of red," Ning said.
Maeve nodded and looked towards Gonez.
"Indigold Toucans can grow as much as 4 meters when they are fully grown," Gonez said.
Maeve looked towards Ning again. Back and forth the two of them started going off on the facts about the bird. This time, it seemed that Gonez knew a lot more about the birds so he didn't stop answering facts about it.
However, Ning still wasn't letting up. Even when it seemed like he would no longer have any more info, he would bring out something that was obscurely listed in books Maeve had.
After nearly 25 minutes of stating facts, however, Gonez started to feel the heat, and slowly, but surely, he couldn't come up with any more information.
He racked his brain for facts that might not have been said yet.
"Indigold Toucans, once adult, fly in pairs. so if you ever meet one, you need to be ready for another one to be extremely close by," Gonez said.
"Indigold Toucan's favorite food to eat is the fruit that grows on a Blackwater Vine," Ning said.
Maeve looked up the information and awkwardly smiled. "Teacher Ning, that was a wrong fact. They actually like to eat Fire grapes the most," Maeve said.
Gonez immediately couldn't help but exclaim happily. "Hah! You made a mistake," he said. On the inside, he was feeling relieved as he couldn't come up with another fact at all.
"Umm, are you sure?" Ning asked. "Because they certainly do like the fruit more than the grapes."
"It's written here in the book by teacher Keng. He is the highest authority on beasts in the Academy, so forgive me if I believe his writing more, teacher Ning," Maeve said.
Ning was about to argue but decided to leave it. There was still another beast to come.
"This round goes to teacher Gonez," she announced and went to get the next beast. When she returned, there was a beast on her arm, but it wasn't in a cage or anything. It was instead calmly sleeping on top of Maeve's arms.
Gonez's eyes went wide when he saw the beast. "That's… senior Keng's Deathwing Butterfly," Gonez said. People around the audience started gasping when they heard that.
"Deathwing Butterfly? Isn't that a beast that can kill you if you look at its entire body?" someone asked.
"That's an exaggeration, but people with low mental strength do fall unconscious when they see the pattern on its body," someone else explained.
Even Ning looked at it curiously. That was when he noticed something strange. "Oh!" his curiosity only got bigger.
"Teachers, let's start. Since teacher Ning lost last time, he will choose who goes first," Maeve said.
"He can go first," Ning said while not removing his gaze from the butterfly.
"Very well, I will start. Deathwing Butterflies will passively attack your mind when they unfurl their wings," Gonez said. He used the same fact that was just going around in the audience.
However, Maeve couldn't fault it as that was not against the rules. So, she nodded and looked towards Ning.
Ning however wasn't moving his gaze from the butterfly at all and didn't pay attention to the match.
"Teacher Ning? It's your turn," she said.
"Huh?" he was distracted from his thoughts and processed what Maeve just said. "Oh, uh… did you say that was Teacher Keng's beast?" he asked.
"Yes, that Deathwing Butterfly is something teacher Keng got not many years ago. In terms of age, it's still a child, but once it grows, it will become a formidable opponent that not everyone can stand against," Maeve said.
"You are not wrong about that. It will certainly become a formidable opponent to anyone in the future, I can't argue against that. However, it seems Miss Maeve, you are wrong about something."
"Not just you though, teacher Gonez, the audience, and even teacher Keng himself seem to be mistaken. In fact, you could say that teacher Gonez already lost this round since he got the very first fact wrong," Ning said.
"Oh," Maeve got curious, "and that is?"
"That's not a Deathwing Butterfly," Ning said.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"How is it not?"
"Oi, teacher Ning, what crap are you spewing out right now? If that is not a Deathwing Butterfly, then what is it?" Gonez asked.
Ning didn't answer. Instead, he turned around to look for the teacher Keng who was in the audience. He called him to join the conversation right now.
"Teacher Ning, you say some fascinating stuff that I find hard to agree with," the old man said as he walked forward.
"I wouldn't doubt it, teacher Keng. It's very unlikely you heard about it since it was supposed to have disappeared during the war thousands of years ago."
"It seems, however,… it was not. I might have to improve my knowledge a bit," Ning said out loud, but he really just said it for himself.
"Teacher Ning, you are not making much sense," Keng said.
"Oh right, Do you know the defining feature of every Deathwing Butterfly's wings?" he asked.
Keng's eyes suddenly changed.
"You've noticed it, haven't you? But you couldn't make sense of it. The patterns are supposed to be symmetrical, but they are not. You assume it's just a one-of-a-kind Deathwing Butterfly, but that's where you are wrong. You don't have enough information, so you assumed incorrectly," Ning said.
"Y-You mean?" Keng's body started shaking, looking for answers.
"That's not a Deathwing Butterfly.. That's a ShadowGod Butterfly that evolves from a Deathwing Butterfly."