“You know,” Serena said, leaning back on her heels beside him, “for a moment there I really thought you were going to trip over your own feet with how fast you were running away.”
Kain didn’t respond.
She smirked slightly. “You’re lucky there weren’t cameras. That tumble into Kyria would’ve gone viral in half the empire by lunch.”
“I was strategically repositioning,” he muttered darkly.
“Into her kick?”
“That was part of the plan.”
“Oh, clearly.”
From the seating ledge just above them, the other members of the Top 5 were less amused.
Jade, arms crossed, watched the arena where Kyria was being stretchered off by medics. Her gaze lingered a little too long on Kain and Serena. She didn’t say anything—but the tightness in her expression said plenty.
Theo, sitting nearby, simply looked curious. “Was that little thing… your fifth contract?”
Kain blinked. “You could tell?”
“Barely. It is ridiculously small and the energy it gave off felt way to weak for the effect it had. I almost thought it was some artifact.”
Reed, the quietest of the five, just stared at Chewy, who peeked from Kain’s sleeve, with a sleepy blink. Then he nodded once and looked away like he hadn’t seen anything unusual at all.
Before the moment could settle, a cluster of professors approached, the glint of half-formed spiritual scans at their fingers.
“Mr. Newman, may we—”
“No,” Kain said, already standing and brushing himself off.
One professor looked mildly offended. “It would be purely non-invasive—”
“No,” he repeated.
Chewy let out a small pulse that might have been a burp or a warning, and the professors wisely stepped back. It would appear the change during the match (wrongly) attributed to Chewy, made it quite the intimidating figure, despite the fact that the weakest instructor was 6-stars, and most were at least 7-stars.
Most of them were intimidated, anyway. A few began whispering about covert scans during future matches.
Serena leaned in. “You sure you don’t want to let them poke your little puffball?”
Kain snorted. “Let them? He’d drain their fancy scanners dry before they could get a reading.”
————————-
Three Days Later
Serena’s match against Kyria wasn’t nearly as dramatic.
The moment Kyria summoned her full team, Serena countered cleanly. With all of Kyria’s tricks already revealed during her match with Kain, the outcome was inevitable. The ancient orb, now no longer a mystery, was suppressed early by Balens, whose precise wish manipulations limited its ability to phase through space. The Mirrorhorn Elk clashed with Serena’s Elemental Guardian, but its attacks were outpaced by Serena’s layered tactics and precise constellation support from the Starweaver. Meanwhile, Prismarin’s illusions disoriented the 4 remaining contracts and the resulting fusion creature, allowing Serena to break it down when a suitable opportunity arose. Without the element of surprise, Kyria was not as much of a threat. Honestly, the toughest part of the fight for Serena was protecting herself from Kyria’s fists of steel throughout the match.
When it ended, Kyria didn’t argue. She yielded before the final blow, her breathing heavy, her pride shattered.
With that, the new Top 5 was finalized by the professors:
Jade Sage, 6-star, fourth-year
Theo Mindshade, 6-star, fourth-year
Reed Venn, 6-star, fourth-year
Kain Newman, 5-star, second-year
Serena Storm, 5-star, second-year
A formal announcement was made, and the next day, all members of the overall Top 5 were forced to stay after the regular training with the Top 5 from each grade for special training.
That’s when things got… intense.
The National Tournament was divided into two phases. Phase One involved year-level teams—first-years competing against other first-years, second-years against second-years, and so on. Each team’s placement earned points: a maximum of 100 per year group, for a max total of 400 possible points.
But it was Phase Two that made or broke schools. The top colleges from Phase One sent their five strongest beast tamers, regardless of year, into a series of 1-vs-1 battles worth another 200 points. It was high stakes, high visibility, and high pressure—because dominating Phase Two often decided the final tournament rankings.
So, they didn’t welcome any excuses.
Kain found that out the hard way.
“Again,” Jade said sharply as he rolled backward from a failed defensive drill.
“I am trying—”
“Try harder.”
Her tone wasn’t cruel, just cutting. The kind of sharpness that comes from being under pressure and wanting no dead weight. A far cry from her usual teasing and light-hearted demeanor.
Theo raised a hand lazily. “Technically he did successfully dodge the attack.”
“That’s not the point. He dodged it sloppily without any follow up actions to defend against subsequent attacks,” Jade snapped.
Serena stepped between them before it could escalate. “Give it time. We just joined, remember?”
Reed didn’t speak—he simply shifted the gravity in the room by 5% to encourage faster adaptation.
Kain groaned.
Top 5 training was brutal. It was personalized, condensed, and conducted after their normal training schedules. But there was no way he’d complain.
Not when this was exactly what he’d worked toward.
———————
Present Day – Newman Enterprise HQ, Clear Moon City, Eastern Province
A towering black-glass structure rose from the center of the second-tier city of Clear Moon City, just 30 minutes by train from Dark Moon City. Though smaller than the Eastern Province capital, the land had been cheaper, taxes lower, and Collin (Kain’s business manager) had argued it made more financial sense to build the central HQ here.
And the building had just been completed two weeks ago—although due to training, this was Kain’s first time coming here.
It now loomed like a monument—22 stories tall, polished to perfection, its curved architecture vaguely resembling a crescent moon.
Inside, the top floor was lined with skylight windows and filled with curved furniture, floating projectors, and a deeply comfortable couch Kain had chosen specifically for midday naps.
He sat behind his desk, arms behind his head, when the door slid open.
Collin stepped in.
Dressed in a crisp black suit, hair was slicked back, and his expression—though normally calm—was just a touch smug today.
“You’re late,” Kain said.
“You were napping.”
“Fair.” The second training session with the overall top 5 was killing him.
Collin held out a thick folder lined with gold clips and security seals. “These are the finalized funds you’re authorized to withdraw from all business holdings without affecting operations, taxes, or expansion pipelines.”
Kain raised an eyebrow and opened the folder.
His eyes scanned the first page.
Then the second.
His pupils shrank.
He turned the page again, just to be sure.
“…What?!”
The single word echoed like a thunderclap through the curved skylight office. Glass vibrated. Floating projectors flickered in alarm.
Fourteen floors below, a junior intern holding a tray of crystal-sealed documents and a steaming cup of spirit-root brew jerked in surprise, the mug slipping from his grip and smashing across the polished floor.
He looked up in terror. “W-What the hell was that?”
Someone nearby muttered, “I think that came from the top floor…”
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