Galen, Artem, and Zane were in the winning group. As such, they got one and a half points. One student was randomly selected from the nine losers of the first round to get an even number in the winning group. The student given a second chance was Metin. The Shaytan Family had just adopted this student. This prominent Family had Arabian roots and had been the representative of all the Maghreb Families for a long time. However, the Jamra Family had recently taken over this title. The Shaytan Family specialized in fire and dark pets and was known for its transformation and demonization talents. Metin’s pet was a common Long-Tailed Lizard, which he was trying to raise to evolve into a notable Red-Tailed Salamander.

The second matches were soon after announced. For the second round, Galen had to fight against Mahlon Ruh and his common Purple Frog on the second ring. Artem’s opponent was Caleb and his Green Dog on the fifth ring. As for Zane, he had to face up to Yanna Geller and her common Short-Tailed Cat on the fourth ring.

Zane went up to the ring with the firm resolve to retreat if necessary. He let Finn fight a bit against the cat, but the rabbit was at a natural disadvantage against the feline’s innate skill [claw]. Moreover, Yanna trained her cat very well, and it also knew the common skill [jump] and the notable skill [ambush]. Zane didn’t insist and soon yielded as he was too injured to fight himself. He didn’t care about the audience booing. He wanted to rest some more, hoping to win another match later.

***

As Galen went up to his ring, he heard Mahlon greeting him in his own way. “Oh, Galen, I’m glad you’re my opponent. You wouldn’t mind helping me with an experiment, would you?”

That was Mahlon in a nutshell. He wasn’t interested in any fight; his only focus was his alchemist and pharmacist skills. Without waiting for Galen’s answer, Mahlon continued, “See, the Water Elemental was so weak against my frog’s poison that I didn’t have the time to gather enough data. I wonder if it’s because its physical body is weak, because its body is composed of water, or because of something else.”

Galen remembered that the Water Elemental was Moses Bayoumi’s common pet. Since it was considered as weak a pet as the fairies, Galen wasn’t really surprised by Moses’ loss in the first round. But Galen also knew Mahlon wasn’t the kind to fight seriously. The other boy wasn’t even equipped with any visible weapon.

“Mahlon, we’re supposed to fight each other,” Galen kindly reminded him.

“Who cares? You surely don’t: you’re a healer and a pharmacist. Making us fight is stupid,” Mahlon countered before switching the subject back to his experiment. “I was thinking about your fairy. Its spiritual element is light. Light is one of the ways to obtain the skill [antidote]. But contrary to the elemental, its body isn’t made of light. So would your fairy have a better resistance against my pet’s [poisonous touch]?”

Despite himself, Galen was interested and lowered his bow. It would be nice if Lucia could learn the notable skill [antidote]. Mahlon and Anan were like the twins: they tended to stick to each other. So, except when the teachers forced them to change partners, they didn’t interact much with their classmates. It could be a rare chance for Lucia.

“How long did your frog have to touch the elemental before the poison was effective?”

“Would you believe this guy was stupid enough to send his elemental to fight in close combat instead of using its innate skill [water bubble]? As soon as it touched my frog, it was poisoned.”

The skill used by the Purple Frog was its common innate skill [poisonous touch], but Galen knew for a fact that Mahlon used his alchemy and the Ruh Family resources to enhance his pet’s poison. That was a criterion to keep in mind, though to respect Mahlon’s will, Galen kept his focus on the propagation of the poison.

“If water is easily contaminated, the water which composed the elemental's body should have quickly spread the poison through its whole body.”

“So, you agree with me. However, water pets can also have healing skills. That’s why I think it might be because of its weak body. Your fairy is the perfect subject to verify our hypotheses.”

And it was like that, that the two pharmacists let the pets “fight” with each other. Lucia was poisoned but resisted the effect by using her [small heal]. Galen and Mahlon discussed their observations. When they received a warning from the referee, they half-heartily fought. Galen shot some arrows without aiming, and Mahlon easily dodged. Their eyes were on their pets.

Before the fifteen minutes were over, Mahlon surrendered to thank Galen for his cooperation despite his protests. Galen was grateful to Mahlon because even though Lucia used a lot of spiritual energy to fight off the frog’s poison, it allowed her to train her [small heal] and familiarize herself with poisonous effects.

Galen still had to bring the Light Fairy to Mrs Bousrani to detoxify her as the teacher’s talent [Cleanse] allowed her to heal all status ailments. Mahlon accompanied him to continue their talk. Mrs Bousrani didn’t comment on their behavior, but her gaze spoke loudly of her disapproval. Anyway, this was nothing compared to the scolding Anan and Artem would give the two boys once they learned about their fight.

***

That was especially true because Artem was in an earnest fight against Caleb. As a future soldier, Caleb knew how to fight well using a sword and a shield. He had a good grasp of Artem’s fighting style. Artem decided to fight with a bastard sword and an ax. He expected his weapons to give him versatility and heavier leverage against Caleb’s shield. He also chose this style because it wasn’t academic and might throw off Caleb.

As for Ayden, even if Artem wanted to fight with her by his side, she was still too weak to make that possible. So the plan for her was the same: use [spark] to harass the dog while dodging its attack. The Green Dog’s common innate skill was [bite], and it looked like it learned the skill [sprint]. But Artem was almost sure that Caleb was teaching it a third skill useful for army pets, like the rare skill [last stand] or the notable skill [loyalty]. Given the dog’s high mind results, it wouldn’t dumbly try to use [bite] on a flying pet. The dog would come to Caleb’s help. So Ayden had to hold the dog’s attention.

Ayden began the fight using her [spark] several times on the dog’s snout to taunt it, but her opponent wasn’t keeping still. Moreover, the dog was using the seconds needed to charge the skill to move back a bit, keeping the skill from igniting directly on him. Seeing that it wasn’t efficient, Ayden decided to show the results of her training. Artem didn’t want her to reveal any trump cards so soon, but he warned his fairy not to underestimate Caleb and his dog.

To counter the Green Dog’s speed, Ayden first activated her skill [fire trail]. Artem had underlined repetitively during training that a trump card used poorly was a wasted trump card. Thanks to the boost to her speed, Ayden placed herself in the dog's blind spot to attack. This time, the Fire Fairy didn’t use [spark], but the notable skill [chain of blasts]. She had gained it by evolving her innate skill. The dog could dodge one or two attacks, but couldn't evade a multitude of them.

The crowd reacted with cheers and astonishment. It was common knowledge that the fairies’ skills were useless. While [chain of blasts] wasn’t uncommon, no one had ever seen a fairy use it. The referees nodded in approbation for the pet’s achievement and the significant training it revealed.

This attack surprised Caleb as much as the dog. Even though the teenager was focusing intently on his fight against Artem, [chain of blasts] was a loud and bright skill. It served more as a distraction than an attack since the blast was still weak. Of course, Artem didn’t let go of this opportunity. Using his ax to hook firmly Caleb’s shield, Artem created a large opening and quickly attacked the other boy with his sword.

Caleb wasn’t a pushover. He reacted fast enough to dodge the hit, though this unbalanced him. Seeing himself in a bad situation, Caleb decisively used his talent.

Because Artem always kept tabs on his fellow warriors, he knew that Caleb’s talent was a defensive notable buff called [Root]. Artem also understood that this talent worked differently from Anan’s [Barrier], which was more a magical talent than a physical one. Caleb's talent would not only improve his defenses by fortifying his body but also consolidate his stance. Caleb couldn’t be permitted to “take root”, or defeating him would become almost impossible.

So, as soon as Artem saw Caleb’s body glowing white, he responded in kind and used his talent “Fusion” to buff himself with Ayden’s [fire trail]. This allowed Artem to throw off Caleb’s calculations with a sudden burst of acceleration. Artem’s attack destabilized Caleb again. The boy “took root” but his body wasn’t in the right stance. Instead of grounding himself, this penalized him. Caleb valiantly fought on, but Artem was too good to let go of such an opportunity. After canceling his talent – he needed to spare his chi as much as possible –, Artem went on the offensive.

The Green Dog wanted to help its tamer, but Ayden hindered him with another [chain of blasts]. This one didn’t have as strong an impact on their opponents. That worried Artem because he knew Ayden was reaching her limits. Moreover, Caleb persevered by canceling his talent to rectify his stance. The two teenagers exchanged a dozen of hits before Caleb gritted his teeth and admitted defeat. He was very clear about his and Artem’s skills.

Caleb looked at Artem bitterly. His dog came up to him, asking for petting. Caleb finally glanced down and said, “You’re still the best warrior. But my Green Dog is still young: our next official fight will have a different outcome.”

Artem solemnly nodded at Caleb’s words. He was aware of his and Ayden’s shortcomings. Artem was covered in sweat and had several slight injuries – those were proof his fight against Caleb hadn't been easy. Artem needed some rest, or he couldn’t fight with the same intensity later.

The Fire Fairy also used a lot of spiritual energy in her fight against the dog. The following matches would be more grueling because she wouldn’t be able to use strong skills as freely. So, Artem ignored the audience’s cheers and applause to bring his fairy to cultivate while waiting for the end of the second round.

***

For the third round, the opponents were chosen with less randomness so as not to let students fight the same person again. Before the announcement of the pairings, the school solved the problem of the uneven number in the winning groups using luck again. Since Metin had miserably lost against Julius in the second round, the organizer wouldn’t give him a third chance. This time, the lucky student was Caleb.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With this arrangement, the school announced the three matches for the winning group: Galen against Naila Daher and her common Blue-Eyed Pony on the second ring, Artem against Yanna Geller and her Short-Tailed Cat on the third ring, and Caleb Ancel and his Green Dog against Julius Barbieri and his Gray Heron on the fourth ring.

The six matches organized for the losing group were very varied in intensity. For example, Anan promptly defeated his opponent – the Yellow Bee and its beast tamer Deborah. Faced with Anan’s strong and swift offensive, Deborah chose to surrender quickly. Another short fight was Metin against Bruno Stein – a boy from a military household – and his Brown Ferret. Metin fought with deadly desperation and won. However, his victory was due to Bruno's defeat against Naila in the previous round. Bruno and his pet were too tired and injured to put up a decent fight.

Nasir, who had won his last match, also fought furiously against Mavis Dubois and her Red Robin. The boy wanted to restore his honor by winning all his remaining matches as he was still enraged about his defeat against Zane. But even though Mavis was from a mundane household, she had a clear head and decent combat skills. It was difficult for her to win against Nasir, but it helped that rage and prejudices blinded the boy. Moreover, Mavis' robin had the aerial and species advantage against the Fire Beetle.

In contrast, some matches didn’t show much action, to the disappointment of the spectators. The pets were tired and only had one or two basic skills, or the beast tamers didn’t fight seriously. Zane and Mahlon were the perfect examples of such fights since Zane was still prudent and Mahlon was unmotivated. Zane rapidly yielded because he didn’t want Finn to suffer poisoning.

All the students who ended their matches early went to watch the three fights from the winning groups. The organizer had conveniently placed those matches next to each other. They were all intense and attracted most of the attention of the audience.

***

Naila was a very ambitious student, and her Blue-Eyed Pony was naturally stronger than the other common pets because of its size and its very offensive innate skill [trample]. Even if she didn’t aim to become a beast fighter but a Beast Trainer – a job which required helping beast tamers to train and evolve their pets and offered one of the best remuneration –, she took credits at every opportunity and didn’t neglect any skills. Since it was related to her career choice, she was a good fighter and trained her pet diligently and meticulously. As such, her pony learned the notable skill [rear kick] quite early on. All these allowed her to win first against Metin and his Long-Tailed Lizard, then against Bruno and his Brown Ferret.

Galen was wary of Naila. He knew his chances to win were low, but he still wanted to fight seriously to gain experience. Anyway, doing anything else would be disrespectful toward Naila. Her weapon of choice was an estoc – a sword with a long and narrow blade used for thrusting the opponent and piercing the armor’s weakness. Her choice proved she was already planning for when she would fight while riding her pet. Galen’s Turkish bow and his Kalkan shield wouldn’t be of much use against her or her pony, so Galen thought of changing his weapons before letting go of the idea. He wasn’t a warrior anyway.

Galen used his talent to observe Naila and her pet. He discovered that the pony’s weak points were its hooves and limbs. Galen was bewildered since the pony used these body parts to run and attack, so they had to be tough. But the teenager didn’t have the time to think about it: soon, the pony charged over to keep Galen from using his bow.

Lucia responded by using her [glow] to blind the pet, but it was too fast to be affected. Naila ran toward Galen from another angle, hoping to trap him in a pincer attack. Of course, Galen wasn’t idle and shot arrows at the pony, aiming for its legs. Even without the clues from his talent, the boy judged it to be the more dangerous enemy. Galen didn’t think he could resist if the Blue-Eyed Pony used [trample] or [rear kick] against him.

Since Lucia couldn’t hinder its approach, the pony soon attacked Galen. The boy dodged its first pass, but Naila took the opportunity to get near him. Then, she smoothly coordinated her attacks with her pet. Naila prevented Galen from dodging as the pony prepared its notable skill [rear kick].

Panicked, Lucia condensed all her spiritual energy in front of her tamer to protect him. The energy formed a sort of light shield. It wasn’t yet the rare skill she was supposed to learn, so it was very brittle, but it cushioned some of the damage from the pony’s powerful attack.

Galen promptly decided to surrender. It wasn’t because he was injured but because he realized he couldn’t do anything else. Not only was Galen powerless in front of Naila and her pet, but Lucia didn’t have any more spiritual energy. The boy couldn’t help but feel bitter about his weakness as he left the ring.

“What are you upset about?” Lyra asked in an exasperated tone. “Do you always need me to point out the obvious?”

“What do you mean?” Galen wondered.

“First of all, Naila is a worthy opponent: there is no shame in losing against her. If you can’t see that, it means I’ve misjudged you all this time.”

“Of course, I can see that,” Galen answered quickly. “Naila is an excellent beast tamer, but-”

“No buts!” Lyra rudely cut him off. “Are you so focused on your self-pity that you missed Lucia’s achievement?”

“You didn’t announce any achievement,” Galen replied in bewilderment.

“It’s not an official one because she did it out of instinct, so she won’t be able to reproduce the skill without learning it systematically, but she did use it! That’s awesome, and she deserved your encouragement!”

“Do you mean when she shielded me?” Galen asked as he remembered his fight. “Was it a [light shield]?”

“It was an incomplete form of it,” Lyra answered, “but that’s still worth mentioning!”

Learning about Lucia's improvement diverted Galen's attention. The boy thanked and congratulated Lucia. Once Lyra told him that Artem’s fight was still going on, Galen restrained his enthusiasm and went to watch it. To stand so long against Artem, Yanna had to be a worthy opponent.

***

During their fight, Artem realized early on that Yanna was in very good condition. The girl had won her first two matches easily, so she wasn’t tired, and her cat didn’t use much spiritual energy. Moreover, her talent was still a mystery.

It could mean that her talent was useless in fights or impossible to use yet – like Nasir was loudly complaining about while insulting Zane. Nasir had never hidden that his talent was [Fire Absorption], so he needed his pet’s fire. However, his Fire Beetle seemed to have yet to learn a fire skill. The twins found that suspicious.

Artem was cautious because if Yanna’s talent wasn’t useless, the other possibility was that Yanna was keeping her talent as a trump card.

Artem decided to fight with javelins to get some reach and more options because he wasn’t sure about Yanna’s strategy. Moreover, the Short-Tailed Cat had the skill [jump], so if it knew how to use it with its innate skill [claw], Ayden would be in danger. If the need arose, Artem could help his fairy by throwing one of his three javelins at her opponent.

For defense, Artem equipped a peltast shield – the crescent-shaped shield used by the Greek light infantry in the Old World. Yanna wasn’t as trained in fighting as Caleb or Anan, so Artem should be able to get to her fast enough to end the fight, but he was wary of her.

Yanna chose daggers, which could mean she intended to fight in close combat, but Artem was sure she had hidden throwing daggers. As their fight began, Yanna and her cat showed their good coordination. They approached together under Ayden’s [spark]. Artem had ordered his fairy to stay behind him this time to act as cover.

Yanna and her cat were zigzagging without hindering each other and preventing Ayden from targeting them efficiently. The fairy managed to get them several times, but the cat used its instinct to dodge as the Green Dog had, and Yanna endured Ayden’s attack with her armor.

Since it wasn’t working, Ayden chose to aim her [spark] at Yanna’s face. A human was more sensitive than a beast. Ayden knew Artem would disapprove if she focused on such a delicate place, but she was too weak otherwise.

After several misses, Ayden finally ignited her [spark] around Yanna’s eyes. The girl had to close her eyes, but it didn’t do much to protect them from the burning sensation.

Since his talk with Mr Tawil, Artem had come to terms with the need to play dirty, so he didn’t intend to scold Ayden for her ruthlessness even if such acts made him uncomfortable. Instead, the young fighter – who had kept his distance to observe his opponent first – threw a javelin at Yanna. Immediately, Artem rushed at Yanna to close the distance while she was still affected by Ayden’s [spark].

But her cat reacted quickly: it used [jump] to cover the distance and batted the thrown weapon away with its paw. The girl retaliated by blindly throwing several daggers in Artem’s general direction. Without waiting for her order, her cat sprinted toward Artem. The boy used his shield to defend against the thrown daggers. He was quick, but his sight was still obstructed long enough for Yanna to use her talent without Artem’s knowledge.

Lyra immediately understood what was happening since she was seeing the scene from Galen’s perspective too. Yet, the CSI didn’t intervene: this was a school exam, not a life-and-death situation. The crowd reacted with whispers of wonder.

On the ring, Artem saw the cat pouncing on him immediately after he lowered his shield. He found that strange as the pet should still be some distance away. The logical assumption would be that Yanna used a speed buff on her pet, but Artem felt that wasn’t it. Without much time, Artem used his shield to block while holding one of his last two javelins to counter.

Ayden knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know how to communicate the danger to her tamer, and she had almost used all her spiritual energy. Before she could decide on a course of action, Artem felt no resistance from his shield or javelin, as if the cat had never attacked him. Understanding that it was some kind of illusion, Artem hurriedly looked at Yanna.

She was still some meters away. Her eyes were lowered, and she was holding a hand to her hurt face, but Artem’s instinct was screaming at him that he was in danger.

Suddenly, the real cat attacked Artem from behind, using its skill [ambush]. The Short-Tailed Cat used its skill [claw] during the ambush and scored a hard and bloody hit. Artem endured the injury and harshly countered, sending the cat flying. Yanna tried to use the opportunity to hit Artem with her throwing daggers, but Ayden used [spark] again on her face. It prevented Yanna from aiming properly, even though the fairy’s skill was less and less efficient. As Artem and Ayden were preparing for a last stand, Yanna called back her cat and surrendered.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to win against you, but I also knew you were the perfect opponent to test my strategy,” Yanna politely explained to Artem. “But on a bare ring, I think this is the extent of our skills.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Artem replied good-naturally despite the pain on his left side from the cat’s clawing. “It was an interesting fight, and you managed to take me by surprise. I wouldn’t mind helping you if you need a training partner.”

“Thanks, I guess. I’ll keep your proposition in mind, but with all due respect, I’d rather limit my association with you.”

“I understand.” Artem sighed, frustrated that the rumors about his parents were keeping such an interesting person from training with him. Shaking his head, he left the ring to get his wound bandaged.

On the way, he saw a woman with an epic Stalking Ghost Jaguar walking up to Yanna to speak to her. Artem was curious to know who she was. She looked like a beast tamer, but this woman shouldn’t be from Yanna’s family because the first exam didn't allow family members to come. Actually, only members of the staff or beast tamers from the Association should be here. Her presence was puzzling and disturbing as Artem had made a point to spot every beast tamers foreigned to the school as part of his bodyguard training. He was vexed to have missed her. But he didn’t dwell on his failure: he had to take care of his fairy and bandage himself.

***

Meanwhile, on the fourth ring, the fight was also intense. Julius had proven his worth by winning against Mavis in the first round and against Metin in the second round. His unexpected victories almost made him a dark horse.

But Caleb was a tough opponent. Julius’s heron had the aerial advantage, but it needed to come close to attack with its innate skill [swoop] so the Green Dog could counter and dodge. The heron could also attack from a distance with its notable skill [wing attack], though it needed more spiritual energy. This late in the matches, the bird was using it sparingly.

Moreover, Julius’s secret to winning until now was his talent, but Caleb didn’t let him use it. The soldier-in-training maneuvered the fight to close combat. Then, Caleb relentlessly attacked until Julius surrendered. In the end, even with a good talent, Julius was from a mundane household and didn’t have the resources or the training provided to Caleb.