Against the Rules

With the quick healing from God Zeshion, the danger of losing Greeny due to excessive blood loss was magically eliminated. I guess this is the advantage of having a God-rank tamer to watch over the competition.

"The two of you really performed well. You brought forth the abilities of your tamed beasts to the limit. I have high expectations for your future!"

God Zeshion spoke to the two of us. With him acting as the overseer, Helen and I shook hands to show respect to each other after the match.

"You really surprised me. I thought [Rupture] was more than enough against a slime, who would think it could actually fly like that."

Helen praised with a smile. Tears were still glittering at the corner of her eyes.

"I was really surprised by that too. If your Greeny could minimize the stiffening after skill use, then we would have no chance of winning this match."

"I guess that's what I should improve next. Well, congratulation and good luck!"

"Thanks."

After that exchange, God Zeshion also gave us the honor of shaking his hands. It was like a small fan meeting.

Since the ring needs a lot of repair work after getting blasted to smithereens, they announced a 30-minute gap before resuming the next battle. I, who was too nervous and mentally exhausted, went to sleep in the waiting room to recover. Ember, after getting healed, didn't have any remaining injuries so she stood guard as I slept.

When I woke up, the tournament was still ongoing. It seems I slept about 4 hours as the next battle was between the 29th block winner and the 32nd block winner, the last battle for the morning rounds.

The battle was between a Valley Falcon and a Shadow Wolf. As soon as the battle started, the lady announcer became flustered.

"T-This is...!"

---

As soon as the battle began, the Valley Falcon quickly flew high up. With their altitude difference, the Shadow Wolf shouldn't have any way to attack it.

"Hah! Go, Fang!"

As soon as the tamer of the Shadow Wolf spoke, it slowly vanished into thin air. It used [Shadow Movement] to move around through all the shadows around. The falcon and its tamer looked confident as they waited for the wolf to reappear, not fearing any sort of attack to reach them.

However, an instant later, the Falcon's head was crushed by a claw that appeared from the shadow under its body. The Shadow Wolf managed to travel to the shadow of the falcon who was high up in the air!

The falcon, having lost its head, died instantly. Even with the best healing skills in the whole world, there's no skill able to revive the dead. The Valley Falcon's tamer fell on his knees in shock, as if not believing that his beloved tamed beast had just died.

"T-This is...!"

The lady announcer quickly noticed the anomaly. God Zeshion frowned in displeasure. Even he didn't expect such a fierce and merciless attack.

"Tamer Aster's tamed beast Fang intentionally killed its enemy! This is a clear violation of the tournament's rules!"

Hearing the announcer's ruling, the tamer of the Shadow Wolf, Aster, scoffed before staring at the location of the announcer's booth.

"Hah! My little Fang just scratched him a little, and that's an over-attack already? Then what do you want me to do, defeat it in a staring contest?!"

The committee and the audience were speechless. They never expected such a brazen and self-centered person to participate in such a competition. They all thought that he was just spouting nonsense. However, Zeshion quickly intervened.

"That attack was a simple claw attack with no skill support, I can vouch for it. However, do you need to deliberately aim at the head when you can just attack its wings or body and still emerge victorious?"

In yesterday's match, Zeshion already noticed Aster's bad temperament. However, he thought that giving him a warning should fix it. Rather than fixing it, it seemed to have worsened instead.

"What can I do? Only the shadow under its chest was wide enough for a claw to pass. The head's the only thing I could attack from there don't you think, [oh almighty God Tamer Blue Zeshion]?"

Zeshion experienced a lot in his life, however, this is the first time he was hit with such disrespect after becoming a God Tamer. If he could, he wanted to teach the disrespectful brat a lesson, but he still had his image to maintain. He couldn't help but release a deep sigh.

After the tournament committee came to a decision, with Zeshion's input, they couldn't help but allow Aster to advance to the next round. Since his last attack was just a normal scratch and not a skill, they couldn't rule it as an over-attack. They could only pray that such an incident wouldn't happen again.

---

After listening to the tournament committee's decision, I couldn't help but frown.

"What a bastard. He's basically just making up excuses!"

Based on what skills a Shadow Wolf can learn, then it should have used [Shadow Movement] to reach the falcon. It's not widely known nor is noticed often, but the space between the shadow on the ground and the body causing the shadow is also basically all shadows. In short, that Shadow Wolf could have appeared from anywhere under the falcon, since it was almost high noon. It could attack at any angle towards any of the falcon's body parts too.

"Yet he deliberately aimed for the head! He's basically a psycho!"

However, the committee probably got God Zeshion's input regarding that area. In short, even with that fact, they couldn't just kick him out of the competition.

"This is dangerous. At this rate, If Wan Er continues winning, she will face him in the 4th round..."

I can't help but worry. Wan Er's tamed monster is a Yellow Phoenix, which is also able to fly. In short, it would have the same vulnerability as the Valley Falcon. Although it has a Phoenix in its name, the [Samsara] skill that enables all Phoenixes to revive endlessly can only be achieved after the 8th stage of evolution. Wan Er's phoenix is in mortal danger against that Shadow Wolf.