This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The arena had descended into a chaotic blend of dream and reality, with the Dream Dragon's influence stretching across every corner of the battlefield.

Currently, the Dream Dragon, Gravitoise and Taotie were in a standoff with the Dragon continuously bending the laws of gravity while sending conjured weapons and skills, many from his allies, at the Gravitoise and Taotie. Thankfully, the conjured skills were merely replicas and not nearly as powerful as the original skills, giving T-squared time to adjust to the strange new environment.

When the Gravitoise tried to increase gravity, it sometimes decreased or didn't increase enough; or when it tried to repel it would often attract. However, the tacit understanding it had with the Taotie worked to stabilize the desired effect it wanted.

While getting accustomed to the current dream field on the arena, they were taking less and less hits from the approaching skills.

On the other side, the Nightmare Dragon, as a dark counterpart to the Dream Dragon, seemed far more accustomed to the warped battlefield. It had always been a creature of shadows and fear, and now, in this dream-warped reality, it thrived.

The Distortdjinn, tasked with facing this terror, had never been tested like this before. Its space-shifting abilities were powerful, but even it was beginning to crack under the pressure of the Nightmare Dragon's overwhelming presence.

A pulse of power emanated from its eyes—fiery crimson orbs filled with malice. For the first time in the tournament, the Distortdjinn's ability to warp space seemed to flicker, and it staggered back, its form bending like light through a warped lens.

With a roar, the Nightmare Dragon dove toward the Distortdjinn, its body a blur of shadow and flame. The dragon's claws stretched toward the Djinn with unnerving speed, intending to slice through its form before it could even react.

The Distortdjinn, anticipating the attack, bent space around it in a desperate attempt to evade. The air twisted violently, and its body flickered from one point to another.

However, an unfortunate consequence of the dream field covering the arena was that the Distortdjinn didn't always teleport to where it had planned. Even worse, due to its sensitivity to changes in said dream field, the Nightmare Dragon was able to accurately predict where the djinn would appear—even better than the djinn itself.

Therefore, once the Nightmare dragon finally got accustomed to the rhythm of the djinn's dodges, a massive black tail was waiting for it at the next teleportation point to knock the wind out of it.

Before the Distortdjinn could recover, the dragon unleashed a surge of dark, primal energy. A pulse of fear and shadow erupted from its body, expanding outward in a wave of pure terror that cracked the air itself. The wave swept through the arena, bending the very reality around it as it reached the Distortdjinn.

For the first time in the battle, the Djinn's control over space faltered. The edges of its form rippled uncontrollably as the boundaries between the physical world and the dream world seemed to blur completely.

However, the Distortdjinn wasn't resigned to its fate of being knocked out of the competition. Using the remainder of its energy, the djinn twisted the space around the Nightmare Dragon and itself, locking them both in a perfect pocket of distorted reality.

What fell to the ground of the arena was a small snow globe-like sphere that had the frozen images of them both sealed inside.

For good measure, the Taotie then swallowed the sphere and kept it in its near impenetrable space pocket that also doubled as its stomach.

Now Cassian had only 3 contracts, and Ezra had 5.

Moreover, among Cassian's contracts, the most offensively powerful Solar Dragon can't exert the full extent of its abilities since they chose to arrange their schools' match in the evening as the finale for the tournament.

However, although it wasn't able to draw upon the power of the sun, its inherent abilities were still more than powerful enough.

The Solar Dragon hovered high above the battlefield, its golden scales gleaming like molten fire. Although it was late in the day, the shining dragon emitting a warm glow made it feel as though the sun had never set.

Opposite it, on the ground below, lay the massive form of Magnimorph Snake, a towering behemoth that coiled and writhed in anticipation—its body stretched across the arena like a vast, serpentine mountain, coiled in a near-perfect circle.

The Magnimorph Snake suddenly uncoiled its massive body with terrifying speed, its body surging forward like a tidal wave. The ground shook beneath it as it launched itself into the air, its tail a whip of crushing force that aimed straight for the Solar Dragon above.

The two creatures clashed in midair, the Solar Dragon meeting the Magnimorph Snake's massive form head-on. The dragon's claws raked through the snake's scales, leaving trails of white-hot fire in their wake.

However, despite not losing out in the confrontation once the Solar dragon got close enough to the snake, a suction-like force seemed to draw it in so that its claws were forced to remain in contact with the snake.

This suction-like quality is a technique the Magnimorph snake usually uses once it captures a target and begins constricting—a double insurance to prevent its prey from escaping. And it wanted to make the Solar dragon its prey.

But the Solar Dragon was not so easily caught. It flapped its wings hard, creating a shockwave of pure solar energy that sent its body upward. Interestingly, due to its claws attached to the snake, it actually managed to carry the massive snake upward with it—showing just how powerful the force of its wings are.

Ascending higher into the sky, the Solar Dragon unleashed a concentrated burst of solar flame from its mouth. The energy poured out like a river of molten gold, searing everything in its path.

The Magnimorph Snake now raised higher in the air, wasn't able to gain purchase on anything and shift to a more defensive posture. And so the searing beam was able to land just below its head on its neck.

Likely to prevent killing it instantly, the beam was shifted lower. But the piercing heat ray left a giant cauterized hole in its neck that it would need to receive medical treatment for immediately, otherwise it may be one of the few casualties of the tournament.

Now the number of spiritual creatures on each side are 3 (First Celestial) to 4 (Dark Moon).

The Solar Dragon, now free, went to join the Dream Dragon and bombard the tortoise and taotie on the stage.

As it descended toward the Dream Dragon, the two creatures exchanged a glance—a silent agreement passing between them.

The Gravitoise and Taotie had just grown accustomed to the strange rules of physics in this dream world governed by the Dream dragon, and now there was another powerful enemy! Give them a break!

The Solar Dragon opened its maw wide, unleashing a barrage of solar flares that streaked toward the Gravitoise. Each flare burst against the tortoise's mighty shell, producing shockwaves that cracked the stone beneath it. The Gravitoise groaned, its gravity field fluctuating wildly as it struggled to stabilize against the onslaught.

The Dream dragon must have altered the rules again, because then it had tried to repel the flames, it just slowed them down slightly even with the taotie's help.

Realizing the growing danger, the Taotie attempted to counter. With a deep roar, it released a wave of bile so corrosive it could melt anything that ended up in its iron stomach and even degrade space itself. As the wave of corrosive force surged toward the two dragons, it left sickening ripples in the air due to the destabilization of the space as it passed. The Solar Dragon, undeterred, flared its wings and released a protective shield of solar radiance, neutralizing the attack before it could reach them.

Knowing that it'd be difficult to significantly damage the tortoise with the shell on its back, the Solar Dragon emitted a blinding light, and under the cover of that light and not much slower than the speed of light itself, it appeared before the Gravitoise before it could react.

It struck the floating Gravitoise with a ferocious shoulder slam, sending the enormous creature hurtling across the battlefield. The tortoise crashed into the ground with a thunderous impact, dazed and vulnerable as it lay prone on its back.

Not wanting to give the taotie a chance to save its ally, the Dream Dragon had the two wrestling spiritual creatures vanish from sight.

The Solar Dragon, not missing the hard-won opportunity, unleashed another solar beam—this one aimed directly at the Gravitoise's neck that it was currently clutching to prevent it from retracting back into its shell.

The Gravitoise was now eliminated and the numbers on both sides were now equal.

Sensing that its closest ally was now gone, the taotie screamed in fury and began to rapidly digest everything it had previously eaten to drastically boost its abilities.

With the boost it practically turned into a sentient black hole and began to devour everything around it. Even the far-off Void Lynx, Voidrake and Ethereal dragon were being unconsciously sucked over to its side. The Dream dragon, who was the target of the suction, was helpless in the face of the force drawing it.

However, the Solar Dragon, who was still concealed by the illusions crafted by its ally, released another beam from behind the taotie. The taotie managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but the residual heat singed it, leaving scorched patches along its sides.

Taking advantage of it being distracted by the pain, the Dream dragon rapidly rose higher.

The Dream Dragon, now in the air, unleashed its most disorienting assault yet. It conjured an illusory army of dragons—each a shimmering, indistinct mirror of itself. Unlike the previous conjures, these were merely realistic illusions of itself with little of the combat power of the original. After all, due to its strength, creating even one perfect replica of itself with all of its abilities would take a significant amount of spiritual power.

The illusory creatures circled the Taotie, creating a surreal whirlwind of images that confused its senses and forced it to halt its destructive devouring to assess the threat.

The Solar Dragon, hidden among the illusions, struck again. This time, it unleashed a series of radiant orbs that orbs exploded one after another around the Taotie, each detonation releasing intense waves of light and heat. Due to the ongoing suction, some of the orbs were even swallowed by the taotie while its vision was distorted by the circling Dream dragons and other illusions.

Thankfully, due to its "iron stomach" the internal explosions didn't do much harm, but suppressing the internal explosions used up much of its energy and disrupted the Taotie's digestion boost.

But the Taotie's momentum wasn't fully stopped—it retaliated by generating a gravitational pull so intense that the hidden Solar Dragon was dragged toward it. The beast clamped its jaws around one of the Solar Dragon's hind legs, its mouth glowing with corrosive energy.

The Solar Dragon roared in pain but summoned a surge of radiant power, blasting itself free. The energy tore through the Taotie's jaw, leaving it dizzy and visibly weakened.

To ensure its ally's escape, the Dream Dragon pulled the Taotie into a trap of endless illusions and ever-shifting reality. The Taotie lashed out in every direction, but it was unable to land a decisive hit.

The Solar Dragon ascended again, gathering all its remaining power into a single, blinding beam of solar fire. This time, it aimed not at the Taotie's body, not wanting it to snap awake from the illusions when sensing the impending danger, but at the arena floor beneath it.

The searing attack destabilized the ground, causing a massive eruption of molten stone and radiant energy that engulfed the Taotie.

When the dust and light cleared, the Taotie lay motionless, its form battered and its energy spent. The referee declared it eliminated.

Now only two creatures remained on the Dark Moon side—the Void Lynx and the Voidrake. Both hovered warily, knowing they were now outnumbered by the Solar Dragon, Dream Dragon, and Ethereal Dragon on the First Celestial side.

However, although they were outnumbered, the Dark Moon pair was still full of energy, while the Solar Dragon was seriously injured and drained after its fight with the taotie, and the Dream Dragon was also almost out of energy. Therefore, the most the two dragons could do was support their ally.

However, despite 2 of their 3 opponents being nearly spent, that didn't mean they'd risk keeping them around any longer.

The Voidrake slashed both of its claws into the air. Before anyone could be confused about why it was seemingly attacking an invisible enemy. Each claw respectively appeared elsewhere in the arena by the Void Lynx. One just above the corroded bite mark on the Solar Dragon, and the other at the neck of the Solar Dragon.

The tired Solar Dragon wasn't able to block both attacks and chose to protect its next, suffering a painful blow to its already seriously injured leg.

When the Dream Dragon launched a wave of heat at the Void Lynx, mimicked from its Solar Dragon ally, the Lynx also redirected the attack to the leg of the Solar Dragon.

Finally, the severity of the injury became too much for it to bear—they were now 2 against 2.

Ah no, scratch that! The last blow had apparently taken out too much of the Dream dragon's remaining energy, and it was unable to maintain the dream field or its summons. Unable to continue playing a role, it was also retracted back by its master.

However, despite having only one contract left, Cassian didn't seem at all worried. The Ethereal Dragon, who was the most unknown variable on the field and hadn't shown much strength yet, made its move.

The Ethereal Dragon's wings flared wide, and with a deep, resonant roar that echoed through the arena, a surge of cosmic energy pulsed through its body.

A blinding beam of pure, white light shot down from the night sky, cutting through the remaining dream-like haze of the field like a comet.

The Void Lynx, sensing the oncoming attack, attempted to evade, but even hiding in a pocket of space couldn't protect it. The beam lanced through the air, striking the Void Lynx dead center. The creature howled in agony as it was engulfed by the energy, its form beginning to crumble away—thankfully the referee stepped in and a one-time use artifact to halt time was used to save its life. It'd be too unfortunate for such a talented citizen of the empire to be crippled at this tournament. However, the Void Lynx, who Ezra had the longest relationship with, was still in a precarious situation and a lot of energy and resources would need to be used to heal it. Heck, a healer no weaker than indigo-grade would need to be employed to have a hope of saving its life. Ezra's face, as well as the faces of many from Dark Moon went pale at the sudden turn in the battle that almost resulted in a contract's death.

The Voidrake, caught off-guard by the sudden ferocity of the Ethereal Dragon's assault, tried to retaliate. But the Ethereal Dragon was already in motion, its wings shifting with unbelievable speed. Another pulse of cosmic energy spiralled out, striking the Voidrake with the force an immense starlit force.

Thankfully, this time the Voidrake was able to absorb and deflect much of the force using the black holes it could summon. However, its form was still blasted back to the ground and a large crater formed beneath it as the energy tore through its body.

It let out a final, desperate cry before it was knocked out of the competition in a terrible state.

It seemed as though this unknown dragon was Cassian's trump card, and not the weakest like many had assumed. Rather, the reason it hadn't made a move until now was likely because it was too strong and afraid of killing the opponents.

The match was over.

And the final victory of the tournament belonged to First Celestial Academy.