Alric was exhausted as he escaped. He was pleased with himself for finding a use for his x-ray crystal. He had placed it at the center of his forehead and used a small trickle of magic to keep his face blurred.

Alric had used almost his entire reserve of magic to pin down the two arch knights.

Despite this they resisted him non-stop. Truth be told, if he had stayed any longer he would have lost his grip on Kamila and her partner.

Just the full pressure from their bodies alone would have been enough to kill him instantly.

Alric lived in the library as a child and the concept of a beast contract had long since been documented by his family. All that was needed was for a beast and the human’s goals to align.

-

At first I thought I would gain a quarter contract, maybe a half contract if I was lucky. But to have gained a full contract of an emperor beast this was unbelievable.

This meant that the beast sacrificed its entire soul to fulfill the contract. The more of its soul used the more power the contract granted.

In the past, warriors would gain small boosts in strength from magically beasts but this was minor and often temporary. A full contract on the other hand was something that could make mages and paladins fight far above their tiers.

For instance, the only recorded case of a beast contract within the Dimachaerus family was roughly three generations ago. A paladin by the name Crixus Dimachaerus He was already late into his nineties when the war started to brew.

Despite being born into the paladin class he was already outstanding and could outmatch anyone within the same tier as himself. However after he received the half contract of a king ranked drake he climbed to new heights of fame.

It was written that Crixus in the early years of the war was one of the pillars that kept the entire Stellar Kingdom at bay.

It wasn't until the Stellar Kingdom was sure that debility by old age had taken him before they invaded fully. Even then according to accounts of my other family members he single handed wiped out an entire regiment of elite troops before falling. When his body was examined he still didn’t have a single external wound which meant he literally died of old age and over exertion on the battlefield.

Stolen story; please report.

It's said that to this day the Stellar Kingdom still speaks of a creature known as the Demon Blood Dragon as a bedtime story for naughty children. Coincidentally Crixus’ contract was a blood drake.

If the records of Crixus were so amazing then imagine the potential of a full contract from a creature one class higher?

I was filled with excitement and decided to see what my contract could do.

I meditated and explored the magic within my tattoo.

If I focused, I could understand its essence.

The first layer of the contract was the easiest to understand. After a few minutes of meditation I was covered by a cloak of shadow aura. This shadow aura was the same one that protected me from the mental attacks of the paladins before but now that I wasn't in danger I could see what else it was capable of.

When I tried fighting a wild boar the shadow aura seemed to have startled it early. When I attacked I only felt some miniscule increase in speed and strength while my mana pool was nose diving. The only perk of the shadow aura was a slight increase in defense and protection from mental attacks.

Although I had to admit it did look very cool. Seeing the shadows dance around my body like a black flame was very pleasing to the eyes.

After getting bored of the shadow aura I tried to see what else the contract had for me.

This time I flooded the contract with mana.

The first thing I noticed was the heightened senses that I now had. Just from here I could hear the movement of small creatures inside the forest. My vision was now keener and more sensitive to the light from the midday sun. And my sense of smell was at least doubled.

When I flooded the contract with magic my senses would advance to superhuman levels.

My physical strength had doubled, now on par with that of a fully grown man.

If I flooded my contract with even more magic I would be able to increase my strength even further, temporarily at least.

But the most valuable treasures I had were definitely the four kludde pups that followed me within my shadow. They followed my orders but being only pups were only the size of an average household dog.

They loved being let loose to play and ravished the area as they played tag and chased each others’ tails.

The pups were very energetic. They wagged their tails and jumped to slobber my face with affection every chance they had. Their fur was such a deep dark shade of black just like their mother just looking at it was mesmerizing, like an abyss staring back at its admirer.

The only thing that distinguished the pups were their eyes. Each of them had big bright puppy eyes that glowed in a different color.

The first one had eyes as bright as a red ruby. He was the biggest of the lot. I dubbed him Rike.

The next one seemed to always be drooling and had eyes that felt like the sea. His eyes sparkled with a blue hue similar to sapphire. I named him Bike. It seems like Bike and Rike would always end up wrestling each other.

Unlike the other two, the next one didn’t seem to like playing. He would sit and sleep peacefully right beside me. The only time he would move was to separate Rike and Bike when they started wrestling. His eyes had a lazy look but held a bright green spark and glistened like an emerald gem. This one I named Gike.

The last one that chased her tail in circles she was pretty fast and had eyes just like her mother, they gleamed like sapphire gems so I called her Sike.