This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Likely due to their loss in the first battle, a frazzled professor probably sought to add Tobias and Thorian Draegor both to the 3-on-3 line-up.

However, what should have been a dream team ended up suffering a defeat at the hands of Soren, Kairos and Ranya against expectations.

Tobias' contracts were still too exhausted and injured from his match with Serena, and he likely still sustained some backlash from the dead summon and was unable to use his gift.

Meanwhile Thorian's Basilisks, while powerful and could even turn enemies into stone if eye contact is made, weren't add effective against the Dark Moon lineup.

Due to their being a lesser dragon species, true dragons are immune to many of the basilisk's effects, not to mention the sense of oppression through the bloodline, making it unable to display the full extent of its abilities.

Basilisks, despite not being true dragons are extremely powerful, therefore not all dragon species are strong enough to exert pressure through the bloodline.

However, naturally Soren as a valued member of the royal family and someone with a storm-dragon bloodline affinity, which even amongst dragons is quite a high-level bloodline, it is natural that his dragons would have this effect.

Additionally, neither of Kairos' contracts, a book and doll, really had the ability to make eye contact. After all, the cursed book has no eyes, and the doll's "eyes" are really sewn on buttons and really for aesthetics with no seeing function. Like most cursed constructs the doll senses its environment in a amore abstract manor, rather than through the use of eyesight or using ears to hear like most organic creatures.

Finally, Ranya's contracts, with their impressive illusion abilities, not only did not fall prey to making eye-contact with the Basiliks, she even managed to craft an illusion that had it instead petrify two of its own teammates.

Clearly, shoving the strongest Tobias and Thorian into the top 3 match had been a desperate attempt to secure a victory and force a tie-breaking match, however they had clearly never collaborated with one another and their third teammate as a group of 3, and their lack of teamwork showed.

Their third teammate, who while not offensively strong as Tobias and Thorean, had incredibly powerful support abilities, capable of healing, providing boosts, and providing timely defense.

However, who would have thought he'd be pitted by his own teammates' lack of coordination and have two of his contracts turned into statues by his own teammate!

As for Soren…Kain only saw Thorian whisper something to him just as they both made their way to the stage.

Kain was unable to hear what was said, but Soren seemed to be injected by stimulants and proceeded to attack the opponents with greater ferocity than he'd ever seen come from him.

It wasn't until after the match that Kairos confided than Thorian had mocked Soren as not entering First Celestial Academy because he was afraid he couldn't cut it in the competition at their school and that he was destined to always be the loser younger Lysander always living in the more talented Cassian's shadow.

The words weren't even directed at Kain and he felt like he wanted to slap Thorian, much less Soren who was the actual subject of the mocking.

So after exhausting what felt like 200% of his energy to beat Thorian's contracts into a half-dead state that one of the referees even had to step in to stop, the 3-vs-3 match between Dark Moon and First Celestial ended in Dark Moon's (bloody) victory.

After this victory Dark Moon was crowned the final winner of the first-years and granted 100 points.

Additionally, the third years secured their second place ranking with their victory against Supernova.

Therefore, Dark Moon was entering Phase Two with 370 points.

Unfortunately, with two second place rankings (first and fourth year) and two first place rankings (second and third year), First Celestial was entering phase Two with 380 points and still had a lead over them.

Kain and the others headed back to the hotel in an exhausted yet jubilant mood. The tournament no longer had anything to do with themselves, they had done the most that they could and had even exceeded the expectations of the staff by getting first for their year. The final ranking of the school was now up to the following performance of Captain Ezra and the other representatives as the school's strongest 5 individuals.

*Ding*

*Congratulations to the Host for completing the following Hidden Missions…*

Kain was lying in bed just about to dose off, when he was jolted awake by the System notification. All signs of sleepiness disappeared from his face as he peaked over at his roommate Kairos to ensure that he was asleep and wouldn't notice anything amiss.

Thankfully, heavy breathing and faint snores were all that greeted him as he looked to the other side of the room.

Excited, Kain opened the full System notification.

*Congratulations to the Host for accomplishing the following Hidden Missions:*

*Representing Dark Moon College as a top 5 student of your grade level—1000 GP*

*Help Dark Moon's first-year team achieve a ranking within the top 3 (Rewards variable based on performance)—First-place team within year-level, granted 5000 GP*

*Bonus points based on general performance assessment: The Host played a key role in several difficult battles. However, the quantity of battles was lacking and no role was played in the final match of the tournament. Therefore the grade granted it…'

B'

and 3000 GP are rewarded*

Kain couldn't help wincing at the final assessment. Although he had played a crucial role in defeating several tough opponents like being responsible for facing Elysara from Lunaris Vale, and Nikolai from Supernova, since the professors had adopted the strategy of concealing Kain and Serena's strength for majority of the competition, the vast majority of the matches were represented by Soren, Ranya, and/or Kairos.

However, if he'd known that there was this kind of mission and hidden assessment conducted by the System, he would have been more proactive in volunteering for matches, rather than having Soren pick up all of the small-fry matches. He couldn't help but lament the B-rating, while vowing to be more proactive in the future.

Still the extra GP was a welcome gift considering the next system upgrade was a long way away and required 100,000 points…