Chapter 34: Cheering On

Same venue, same day, discussing the same person, yet the conversation was completely different.

"How long do you think he can last?"

The "he" wasn't named outright as the female her or the male him, but the people beside them knew exactly who was being talked about.

"Three minutes, probably."

"I'd say two minutes."

"With the experience from the first time, it should be at least five minutes."

"Is there really no chance of winning?" asked one of the examinees who had been defeated by Lu Liangye.

"You haven't left yet?" The person who'd said five minutes turned around in surprise.

The defeated examinee: "……I'll wait until you lot are done, then I'll tame a Black-beak Sparrow back."

……

"Water Bubbles!"

As Sun Boyi announced the start of the match, Lu Liangye's face took on a solemn expression and he hurriedly issued his command.

Water Ring Carp slightly raised its forelimbs, and dozens of crystal-clear spherical water bubbles immediately appeared in the air, densely packed between Water Ring Carp and Fire Tooth Dog, the transparent bubbles reflecting blue and red… afterimages.

"What's wrong with that Fire Tooth Dog?!" A cry of surprise came from the stands.

The truth was Fire Tooth Dog had launched the attack first; before the water bubbles had even appeared in the air, Fire Tooth Dog had already pushed off with all four limbs and shot forward at extreme speed.

The water bubbles then surrounded Fire Tooth Dog.

Fire fears water — some fire-type pets don't even take a single bath all year, simply because they hate water and don't want to get wet.

But Fire Tooth Dog's stride didn't pause for a moment; it charged headlong into the middle of the water bubbles.

It could be seen constantly dashing forward at high speed, its positioning exceptionally flashy — not a single one of the dozens of water bubbles touched its fur.

Qiao Sang wasn't surprised. During this period, Fire Tooth Dog's speed and explosive power had already improved significantly; under the four-speed mode baseball automatic pitching machine, the ball could barely touch it, let alone these slow-floating bubbles in the air.

What's the use of having a lot of them? At most they're just obstacles that look like they aren't moving.

Water Ring Carp was still holding up its forelimbs, controlling its energy output; the water bubbles not only obscured Fire Tooth Dog's figure but also blocked part of Water Ring Carp's line of sight.

"Dodge, quick!"

The beast tamer's urgent command suddenly reached its ears. Water Ring Carp had just been about to obediently evade, but before its forelimbs could be lowered, a fierce impact sent it flying backward.

"Ring!!"

As Water Ring Carp was sent flying, it was both in pain and utterly bewildered.

How did it end up flying out?

"Final strike." Qiao Sang spoke the first words of this match.

Blazing flames condensed into a shape the size of an adult's fist and mercilessly smashed toward the still-wailing Water Ring Carp.

Water Ring Carp struggled for two seconds and then went still.

"Water Ring Carp!"

Lu Liangye dashed over to his pet in a single stride; seeing Water Ring Carp unresponsive, he anxiously called out: "Teacher! Teacher!"

Qin Wen walked over to Water Ring Carp and said calmly: "It's fine, just a lick will fix it."

After saying that, she summoned Little Liuqing……

……

"Holy crap, did you guys see that just now?"

"I saw it. Lu Liangye couldn't last even two minutes."

"That Fire Tooth Dog is badass."

"No, it's that beast tamer! She didn't even open her mouth to give commands at the start, and that Fire Tooth Dog just attacked!"

Generally speaking, novice beast tamers like them follow the opponent's commands during a match to decide their next move.

For example, if the opponent says Spark, you should know whether to have your pet defend, evade, or launch some skill to counterattack.

But that girl didn't give any command at the start, and Fire Tooth Dog used Tackle on its own. The subsequent coordination and result clearly showed it wasn't that Fire Tooth Dog disobeyed her and acted on its own — it attacked with her tacit permission.

This kind of situation only appears in high-stakes matches.

High-level beast tamers will study their opponent's pets beforehand, devising a series of move combinations, all to keep the opponent guessing what they'll do during the match.

This is also the main reason why most large-scale competitions nowadays don't dictate who attacks first.

The point is to make things exciting.

There are also some advanced beast tamers who don't formulate tactics based on studying the opponent, but rather trust their pets completely and let them go all out, only stepping in to command when something unexpected happens or at a critical moment.

However, both of the above situations are things only high-level beast tamers do.

Yet the girl in front of them was a novice……

……

"What's her name?" Liu Yao asked.

"Qiao Sang, from Wencheng Junior High." Sun Boyi glanced at the examinee information in his hand.

"I remember Wencheng Junior High seems to have a student recommended for admission to our school this year," Zheng Pingguo said.

"There is one, called Dai Shushu. Her parents are both ordinary people — she left quite an impression on me," Sun Boyi answered.

"Ordinary people?! These days there really are ordinary people who give birth to a child with self-awakening? What's her brain domain development level?" Zheng Pingguo looked utterly astonished.

"5%," Sun Boyi said.

"This kid's not bad. If her high school entrance exam scores are fine, let her into the taming burden class," Liu Yao spoke up.

"That's not appropriate. Even though she's a self-awakened beast tamer born to ordinary people, her brain domain is only 5%. Our taming burden class was set up to compete with Li Tan — we have to consider everything. What's her contracted pet like? What's her own battling ability? And her……" Zheng Pingguo trailed off mid-sentence.

Because Sun Boyi was looking at him with an expression that said he was an idiot.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Zheng Pingguo glared back, dissatisfied.

Sun Boyi drawled, "The vice principal said your midterm scores aren't an issue. So do you really think someone who's been guaranteed admission still needs to take the midterm?"

Zheng Pingguo: "..."

Oh, so they were talking about that one called Qiao Sang...

Whether it was Fire Tooth Dog or her own battle performance, getting into the taming burden class seemed like no problem at all...

But being looked down on...

So annoying...

At this moment, the center of the topic, Qiao Sang, was taking a Qiyuan milk carton out of her backpack for Fire Tooth Dog.

After two battles, she had already firmly secured one of the five special-admission spots at Sacred Water Middle School.

But her goal wasn't just one of them — it was first place.

Second place through fifth place still had to score 50 points above the minimum cutoff on the midterm, while first place only needed to reach the minimum cutoff.

She still understood the difference between these two.

50 points!

Just how many problems would she have to grind through back home to make up that gap!

And right now, she was only one step away from those 50 points!

Fire Tooth Dog, wearing triangular sunglasses, leaned back in its seat, holding the milk in its paws and sipping away — quite content.

The second battle had just begun on the field. The pet beasts were Chubby Dove and Long-Ear Cat.

"Fang!"

"Fang fang!"

"Fang fang!"

Fire Tooth Dog sat up straight, holding the milk in one paw while waving the other in a cheer.

Cheer for a while, take a sip of milk, then keep cheering.

The object of its cheers was Chubby Dove.

The Fat House Dove at home was on good terms with it. Every mealtime, after Fire Tooth Dog finished its own plate, whenever it saw the Fat House Dove, it would push its energy meal over for it to eat.

As a fellow member of the Fat House Dove species, Chubby Dove naturally had Fire Tooth Dog rooting for it.

"Fang!"

"Fang fang!"

"Fang fang!"

Ten minutes later.

Under Fire Tooth Dog's enthusiastic cheering, Chubby Dove lost...