The Yellow Phoenix Xiao Huo released attacks incessantly. The Shadow Wolf Fang was slowly drained of strength, even to the point of staggering on its legs.

“Fang is in a dire situation! Xiao Huo isn’t letting up the attacks! Will the fight end with Fang not able to return a single hit?!”

The situation was in favor of Wan Er. Even the announcer was feeling elated, seeing that Aster was about to lose. However, despite his tamed beast getting beat up, Aster didn’t bother to even give it an order.

“Oh! My poor tamed beast! If this goes on, he might die!”

Suddenly, Aster theatrically raised his voice. Everyone immediately focused on his words.

“It can’t be helped. Oh! It can’t be helped!”

After saying that and acting as if he was wiping tears from his eyes, the evil grin on his face widened.

“Fang, use [Nightmare]!”

When the order was given, Fang was almost instantly covered in black smoke. Xiao Huo, who was near the wolf, was swallowed into the rapidly expanding smokescreen.

“No!”

Wan Er quickly noticed how the link between her and Xiao Huo was suddenly cut off. In a panic, she quickly shouted.

“Xiao Huo, fly up!”

However, despite a few seconds passing, nothing happened. Wan Er felt her heartbeat almost stop, the link was cut and Xiao Huo wasn’t responding to her voice. The whole stadium became eerily quiet. It was quiet until Aster resumed his theatrical act.

“Oh! How tragic! My poor tamed beast is lying on the ground!”

As his voice echoed, the black smoke slowly dispersed as the view from within the smokescreen was revealed. However, the scene made everyone so mad that they felt the hair on the back of their neck rise.

In the middle of the ring, the two were lying down almost motionless. However, soon after, Fang moved to stand despite the wobbly stance. Xiao Huo, however, was lying down in a pool of blue blood, unmoving.

“Noooo!”

Wan Er quickly ran to her tamed beast’s side. However, before she could even go up on the stage, God Zeshion had already appeared beside Xiao Huo and healed her injuries. After seeing God Zeshion stand up from the spot, the announcer quickly regained her bearings and announced the end of the match.

“M-Match over! The winner is Aster and his Shadow Wolf Fang!”

The match ended, however, the audience was dead silent. They were all looking at the still unmoving Yellow Phoenix.

“X-Xiao Huo, wake up! Please, wake up!”

Wan Er, after reaching the side of her tamed beast, quickly tried to shake her awake. However, no matter what she did, the phoenix didn’t open her eyes. What’s more, even after the smokescreen vanished, Wan Er still couldn’t feel the link between her and Xiao Huo.

“G-God Zeshion, what’s going on?! Why isn’t my Xiao Huo waking up?! Why can’t I feel her link with me?!”

Panicking, Wan Er grabbed the hem of God Zeshion’s shirt and questioned him. Tears were streaming down her pretty face like a waterfall. However, God Zeshion only shook his head.

“Your companion is hit with [Nightmare]. Right now, she’s fighting inside her soulscape. If she manages to win against her inner demons, she would wake up soon. However, if she was defeated, her soul would get destroyed…”

Zeshion’s voice, despite not being too loud, resounded within the silent stadium. Hearing this, Wan Er lost the strength of her legs as she slumped down on the ring.

“Moreover, the caster can’t cancel the skill after it was cast. That’s why it is categorized as a forbidden skill.”

Saying this, Zeshion quickly turned to Aster and glared.

“Tamer Aster, this is the last warning for you. The use of forbidden skills may not be specifically banned by the tournament rules, however, as a human… No, as a tamer, it should be a skill never to be used on your peers.”

“If you ignore this last warning, then I’d have no choice but to revoke your tamer status.”

After saying so, Zeshion once more went to the Yellow Phoenix’s side and waved his hand.

“I applied all mental and spiritual buffs that I can use right now. I’m calling on Eta right now, she should be able to help your companion in her battle. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t let something bad happen to her.”

God Zeshion patted Wan Er’s head before wiping her tears away. Soon, the still-unconscious Xiao Huo was carried on a stretcher and quickly brought to the stadium’s medical facility to rest.

Aster was only able to move after God Zeshion left. He was sweating bullets as if he just came out of a sauna.

“Damn it!”

However, despite getting suppressed by God Zeshion the whole time, there’s not a single sign of him reflecting on his actions. Rather, it seems that he got angrier instead of mellowing.

“That bastard Zeshion dares to look down on me?! Who cares what happens to those peasants?! I’m the son of a Marquis! I can do whatever I want with them!”

Aster, the son of a Marquis from a neighboring country, came to participate in the tournament incognito. However, even if he was the son of a Marquis, he couldn’t really exercise his influence here.

Fang, his tamed beast, quietly sat behind him as Aster’s anger soared. A worried look appeared on its face.

God Zeshion also healed Fang’s injuries despite Aster being an asshole.

After Aster regained mobility, he dragged his feet in anger as he went toward the waiting room. Later that day, when all the battles ended, two of the stadium’s employees were found beaten half to death in a dark corner. The assailant was never found, but many already guessed who did it. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

—

Energy comes in many attributes, however, it is mostly categorized into two. The gentle (yin) energy and the violent (yang) energy. Usually, males possess a greater amount of violent energy than gentle energy. Contrary to them, females possess more gentle energy compared to violent energy. However, there’s a large variety regarding the said ratios.

Me, I just found out that I’m almost 99% violent energy with only 1% of gentle energy. How I found out? Well, let’s just say that after Wan Er’s Yellow Phoenix got hit with the forbidden skill [Nightmare], rage swallowed my consciousness. I ended up releasing energy unconsciously, which ended up almost ravaging the entire room.

“Aster, that asshole! I’ll definitely take revenge for Wan Er!”

I was only able to return to the guest house after my energy settled down, which was a few hours later.