Thankfully, Soren didn’t seem to be aware that he was unfairly having to divide the audience’s attention with Kain.
Even more upsetting, in the battle for attention he actually seemed to be on the losing end against the half-asleep boy doing nothing but sitting at the side of the stage.
Soren took the stage confidently with his chin raised arrogantly and firmly believed that the sudden increase in audience discussion and attention were completely due to his handsome figure…not because the commentators and many members of the audience had recognized Kain and were now sharing all of the information that they knew about the boy to those around them.
It’s also good that Soren didn’t notice that the loudest area of the audience consisted of many members waving banners with the image of Kain, Lumifin, or its evolved form Gilded Serafin.
However, Kain noticed the small area of fans and kindly gave them a wave in greeting.
With an unnecessary theatrical flourish of his hand, Soren’s right arm transformed into that of a dragon’s. He let out a small smirk as ecstatic screams erupted from a corner of the audience…unaware that this transformation happened to be at the same time as Kain’s wave and those cheers were from his fans who weren’t paying the least bit of attention to Soren.
However, Soren was further emboldened by the cheers, and made a cringey come hither motion with his now transformed finger at the opponent. Thankfully, majority of the eyes in the stadium were not on him at the moment. Explore more stories with
But one of the few eyes that were, was his incensed opponent from Pioneer Beast Academy. After all, even if they were aware that they were outclassed by their opponent, that didn’t mean that they had no pride as beast-tamers.
It was extremely humiliating for a student the same age as him to be practically proclaiming to the entire nation that he could defeat him without even summoning his spiritual creatures.
However, he didn’t let hot-headedness cloud his judgement and still chose to summon all three of his contracts—two orange-grade spiritual creatures, and one red-grade one.
All 3 contracts were cats, the 2 orange-grade ones were of fire and lightning attributes and slightly larger than the third. Meanwhile, the red-grade contract had a lovely and innocent appearance and gave off an icy chill.
‘Ahh…Maybe I should consider adopting a cat…’ Kain thought while looking in slight envy at the boy from the opposite team. After all, none of Kain’s contracts were what one would describe as ‘cuddly.’
Kain didn’t agree with Soren’s arrogant strategy and, judging by their expressions, neither did the professors. However, the gap with their opponent was too large for there to even be a significant risk of Soren being overturned.
Although disrespectful, Kain still had no worries about their losing and started to get sleepy again as he leisurely counted the kittens, both on and off the stage.
‘One kitten…two kittens…three kittens…oh there’s a fourth kitten over there…’
As the match began, Soren’s three opponents took a moment to assess him, their gazes steely with determination.
The fire cat, sleek and nimble, flicked its tail, flames licking at the air around it. The lightning cat crackled with energy, its body twitching with anticipation. And the red-grade ice cat emitted an icy chill, a deceptive calmness masking its deadly intent.
They all sensed their beast-tamer’s indignance at Soren’s arrogance and were more determined than ever to make him pay for it.
With a dramatic flourish, Soren launched himself forward, his dragon arm slicing through the air as he taunted, “Let’s see if you can make me summon even one of my contracts!” He felt invincible, the earlier roar of the crowd (not for him) igniting his ego.
The fire cat was the first to strike, charging at him with flames trailing behind it, a blazing comet racing towards its target. Soren dodged effortlessly, his dragon arm extending to block the next attack from the lightning cat, which burst forth with a speed that caught even him off guard.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Soren jeered. His arrogance was palpable, a bright beacon for his opponents to zero in on.
The red-grade ice cat remained stationary, its icy aura filling the air, seemingly biding its time.
The two orange-grade cats flanked Soren, one attacking from the left while the other struck from the right.
Soren managed to parry their attacks, but as he focused on the two, he failed to notice the red-grade cat unleashing the skill it had been charging for a while. An icy wave swept across the arena, but despite the strong appearance of the skill, it only had a minor effect on the higher-level Soren and caused his left foot to momentarily freeze.
However, since the frozen foot was timed perfectly with when Soren was dodging the others’ attacks, it caused him to stumble to his knee momentarily.
Capitalizing on the great opportunity, the fire cat lunged at him again, this time successfully landing a strike. Its fiery claws raked across the side of his face, igniting his anger with searing pain. “You little—!” he shouted, momentarily losing composure, his bravado dimmed by the unexpected blow.
“Even a wolf should use its full strength when hunting a rabbit…” Kain murmured to himself, a mix of mild concern and mostly amusement playing across his features.
The fire cat, sensing the shift, leaped forward again, determined to capitalize on Soren’s moment of weakness. But Soren was quick to recover, and finally decided to fight more intelligently.
His determination flared like the very flames attacking him. He quickly sprouted a dragon’s wing from his back, creating a powerful gust of wind that pushed the fire cat back, giving him just enough space to regain control of his body.
“You think you can take me down that easily?” Soren challenged, now fully focused. With a newfound intensity, he withdrew the wing and transformed his legs to charge at the nearby lightning cat, using his enhanced speed to close the distance in an instant.
However, a barely noticeable layer of ice appeared on the stage before his rushing figure, causing him to once again lose balance and have to give up on the attack.
In that moment of distraction, the lightning cat retaliated, launching a surprise attack at his face. Soren barely managed to block it with his arm, but the force of the hit knocked him off balance, the pain now a sharp contrast to his earlier arrogance.
Realizing that the seemingly weakest ice-attribute kitten was his most irritating opponent, Soren, after regaining his balance, darted in its direction instead.
He dashed forward, avoiding the incoming attacks from both the fire and lightning cats, and landed a decisive blow that sent the ice cat crashing to the ground unconscious in an instant.
Finally, Soren launched himself at the remaining opponents. The fire and lightning cats, battered and bruised, managed to withstand a couple of blows each before also collapsing.
Around the same time, the crowd also erupted into shocked screams that Soren had assumed were for his performance. After all, although there were some embarrassing moments, he still defeated his enemies alone in only around a minute.
But in actuality, while counting kittens Kain unconsciously lured his mind back into a sleepy state and his sleeping form was caught on camera as his head slumped over onto the shoulder of an incomparably beautiful girl.
The camera captured a face so beautiful that it caused many of the audience to scream—some in shock at her beauty, some fangirls of Kain in heartbreak that their idol was now resting on her shoulder, and some young men in the audience in indignance as they wished to take Kain’s place.
‘Something smells really good…’ was Kain’s last thought as his mind sank into oblivion.