Chapter 5 Happy Independence Day

SU Yanying made her way up to the stage in the middle of the venue step by step with Lightning Rat just behind her.

She stood quietly in the spacious stadium, all kinds of looks being thrown at some filled with pity, some contempt but at the moment she had finally regained her bearings.

There was no trace of fear on this her face. In her eyes, there was only anticipation and composure.

"Su Yanying from Class Two, Grade Three!"

The judge announced her name at once and continued in a thrilled tone,

"Now, let's shift our attention to the screen and find out who will be Su Yanying's opponent!"

Everyone shifted their looks to the huge score screen hung above the ground. A string of images flashed past and then stopped in one.

"Sh*t!" Lan Lele's expression changed the moment she saw the image. It was Zhang Xiao from Class Seven, Grade Three. That was quite a formidable opponent. Zhang Xiao could be counted as one of the best in the class!

Su Yanying was surprised as well, how bad was her luck? How come she had to compete against another tough opponent? But this time she wasn't affected in any way and it wasn't something special but because what she saw during the skill demonstration outside the Pixie Pet Store was more than enough for her to believe every word the owner said about her Lightning Rat, which means her Lightning rat is really on par with elite Rank 6 pets.

Soon, her opponent was also up on the stage.

That was a young man of about one meter and seventy-five in height, with black hair and a fierce glance, wearing a valuable wristwatch. This was a run-off-the-mill Young Master Look.

"Su Yanying from Class Two?" Zhang Xiao could not help but chuckle as he saw his opponent. "I must be in luck. I heard that all your pets have been injured during the previous battles. Tsk, tsk. Is the little rat there all that you've got now?"

By the stage, the judge announced the commencement.

"Best two out of three. Each party can only send in three pets to participate. No malicious wounding is allowed. Now, begin!"

"tsk"

Seeing that he couldn't get any reaction out of Su Yanying, Zhang Xiao frowned and reached out his hand, and made a grasping gesture to mobilize the contract power. All of a sudden, the space in front of him began to twist slightly. Right after that, a figure that was burning in black flames landed on the ground.

"Second rank, power of the blast!" A faint white glow emitted from Zhang Xiao spanned around like a vortex on the four limbs of that figure surrounded by black flames. This skill was the most basic augmenting skill that a battle pet warrior should master.

In this world, it was a basic requirement for battle warriors to learn a lot of augmentation skills to support the pets these skills could range from basic strength buff to highly advanced skills that could support the pets.

"That is the Dragon Hound!"

"This is such a surprise. Zhang Xiao from Class Seven, Grade Three, has sent out Dragon Hound, a pet of the demon family that is incredibly hard to tame, right at the beginning of the match!"

"This is a pet that can reach the upper position of the third rank in adolescence. Now, Zhang Xiao is using it at the very beginning. Is Zhang Xiao trying to win the game with a 3:0 score?"

The commentator sounded surprised to see the pet that Zhang Xiao summoned from his contract space. It was somewhat mean to fight an inferior Lightning Rat with such a powerful battle pet.

"Roar!!"

The cries of dragons suddenly came out.

The Dragon Hound which was nearly three meters tall, bigger than tigers and lions, let out an abrupt bellow, carrying a strong deterrent force. The roar lingered on in the entire venue!

Su Yanying saw the dragon hound, if it was before she may have been worried but now she simply sent out the Lightning Rat

Soon purple light produced by electricity appeared in her sight and Lightning Rat that was by her foot jumped to the center of the stage, that small body stood in front of her, surrounded by electric arcs, as if wearing a suit made of lightning.

That little guy sensed Su Yanying's intentions and immediately went into battle mode it could sense the Dragon Hound's malice towards his master and the presence around Lightning Rat shifted and it completely locked on to the Dragon Hound in front of it, ferociousness that it gained from countless life and death battles emerged in its eyes, only single thought of protecting its master and eliminating the threat.

Su Yanying was startled, she could sense some extremely violent thoughts or instincts from Lightning Rat and knew that as long as she gave the order Lightning Rat will rip that Dragon Hound apart.

She knew if Dragon Hound got killed then she would be disqualified so she hurriedly soothed the Lightning Rat and conveyed her intention of only incapacitating the Dragon Hound through the contract.

Zhang Xiao, frowned when he saw that thing enveloped by electricity standing in front of the Dragon Hound. How come that little thing was not paralyzed from fright? His original plan was to bring shame to Su Yanying. It was a surprise that this little thing sabotaged his intentions.

"Kill it!" Zhang Xiao gave the instructions telepathically.

"Roar!!"

Ferocity was in the eyes of the Dragon Hound. Another sound was squeezed out from its mouth that was filled with horrifying fangs. The Dragon Hound felt its authority challenged since this little guy was not scared.

Flames were rolling around the Dragon Hound who had opened its mouth and it breathed out dragon flames. Those dark magical flames fluttered out like pythons. The flames swept across the stage, reaching the Lightning Rat in an instant.

Su Yanying saw that Zhang Xiao have no intention of giving her a chance to reinforce Lightning Rat, her eyes turned cold, although unofficially but before the tournament they were told to let the opponent show their skills because this tournament's main purpose was to show the students talents to the various Astral pet teams so that they could get proper sponsors and have a better future but its clear that Zhang Xiao has no such intention and not only that but from his command to his pet his intention to seriously harm Lightning Rat was also clear, now she was not someone who like violence but being grown up in a world where strong devour the weak she has no qualms resorting to it if someone means her harm that's why aside from no killing She has no intention of pulling her punches anymore and instead of instructing Lightning Rat as she had planned she simply gave it a single command.

"No need to hold back, just don't kill it"

That's what she said, and Lightning Rat disappeared from its position and jumped high in the air dodging the flames.

"Hmm." Zhang Xiao snorted.

Right at that moment, he noticed a faint purple glow from the corner of his eyes.

Surprised, he only saw a long streak of lightning moving towards them and before he could even utter a word he heard his Dragon Hound shriek, stunned he moved his eyes from Su Yanying to Dragon Hound only to see it tumble down and bleed profusely from a huge hole in its stomach, if not for the faint connection he still felt with it, he would have thought it died, the only reason it was still alive was because of its high vitality due to its dragon bloodline.

The voice of the audience got cut off for a few moments as spectators processed what happened then chaos broke out in the spectator stands.

"How is that possible!"

"What just happened"

"Did anyone see it clearly"

People cried out in alarm, all around there were voices of confusion, bewilderment, and disbelief.

On a row of seats by the stage, some people that appeared to be powerful were sitting there. The vice president of the academy was at the end of this row.

"That was thunder shock right?"

"Yes, but it had much more energy packed in it than normal and was also compressed multiple times to make it denser and lethal," said a woman with red hair sitting in the middle row, she was dressed in strange armor, and there was a long, slanting brown scar on her delicate and beautiful cheek, which was a frightening sight, but the eyes of those around her were still demonstrating their admiration of her.

" The quality of this skill was almost on par with a peak sixth-rank thunder skill"

"That Rat also seems to have reached Rank 2 somehow, breaking past its bloodline limit without evolving"

"It is such a surprise, it's almost impossible to break that limit without consuming special treasures that are difficult to acquire even for us, and not only that this little Lightning Rat could improve a skill to such an extent, not even the advanced pets could do it without getting a top trainer's help."

"It is a pity that this is just a Lightning Rat of low rank"

"Indeed, it's such a shame, for a Lightning Rat to learn such a method, the girl must have put in considerable effort alongside a lot of resources to increase its energy capacity and its Rank"

"Tch, such a waste, as a proper battle pet warrior one needs to know where to put in their efforts, even if one doesn't cancel a contract because of sentimental values, it's not good to be swayed by emotions, if that girl had spent this much effort on any of the pet she showed before instead of this useless bloodline pet, she would have a decent chance to reach top3."

"Well, you are not wrong there"

The others nodded as well, feeling sorry for such a fact.

On the stage, the first round of this game had come to an end.

Su Yanying held the Lightning Rat that had landed itself in her arms.

On the other side of the stage, Zhang Xiao had just come around. His face was as white as a sheet he clenched his teeth as gave Dragon Hound emergency treatment and he used the contract power to make the Dragon Hound withdraw to the contract space there it would remain safe and would be able to hold on till he get to a proper healer.

Then, he turned around to glare at Su Yanying coldly, he had underestimated her he felt vexed. He should have known better. There had to be a reason why his opponent would send out a Lightning Rat in a pet tournament that had the focus of so many famous Astral Teams.

He had never heard of a Lightning Rat that have such potent skill, it must be some kind of mutation it had undergone that allowed it to show such strength.

His original plan was to win all three rounds and enjoy a glamorous victory but that was not possible anymore. As such, he had to put into full play his ability as a battle pet warrior. He couldn't make the same mistake twice!

"Stone Rhino!"

Again, Zhang Xiao mobilized his contract power and a vortex appeared in front of him then, the stage under his feet trembled slightly. A pet in the shape of a rhino that was even larger than the Dragon Hound came out.

This Stone Rhino was covered with hard rocks. Besides, there were sharp edges like fish bones along its spine. Few pets could defeat the Stone Rhino in face-to-face combat!