Unexpected

The leaf monkey, angry that it got hit by mere slime, charged forward blindly. The face of its tamer on the other side was twisted in both anger and worry since his tamed beast just ignored his telepathic orders.

Ember, on the other hand, was happy that her strategy was going well. The fact that the enemy was charging straight toward her was all part of the plan.

After shuffling with the clone, Ember and her clone ran in opposite directions until they were about 5 meters apart. The leaf monkey, who was blinded by anger, randomly chose to attack the one on the right. It slashed its claws toward the slime, but it was evaded by a simple jiggle. The monkey was stupefied at the scene.

However, before it could recover from the attack motion, the real body unleashed another [Tackle] toward the monkey's back.

*Bang!*

Since it wasn't paying attention to its back, it was hit squarely and sent flying once more.

Before it was able to stand up, this time Ember and the clone repeatedly launched [Tackle] upon the monkey from opposite sides. The monkey, stuck in an infinite loop of mini-stuns due to the impact, was incapacitated just like that. The battle ended before even a minute passed.

"Great work!"

Will congratulated Ember as she returned to his side. During the whole battle, Will never sent a single order to her. Everything from the start to the end was done by Ember alone, reflecting her mastery of the fighting methods her tamer taught her. Will, too, was extremely satisfied with how his tamed beast is growing.

The two waited for a minute before their next opponent came. The opponent this time is a poison spider, which was about as large as the big slime itself. However, probably from the previous battle, some scorch marks were visible on some of its legs.

Ember, noticing that the enemy wasn't in perfect condition, quickly ended the battle using the same strategy against the leaf monkey. The poison spider was defeated before it even managed to display why "poison" was included in its name. Ember just repeatedly battered its body until it fainted.

The next opponent was a big snake. However, since it had just fought two consecutive toe-to-toe battles before, it was already tired. Ember still used the same strategy before, but since the snake was as thick as a tree and over a dozen meters long, she wasn't able to knock it out quickly.

The big snake, despite its low remaining stamina, put up a desperate fight and was almost able to injure Ember. The battle was nearing its end before Ember decided to finish it.

This time, Ember was forced to reveal another one of her cards. The main body and clone dashed toward the big snake, dodging both its tail and bite attacks. After closing the distance, they jumped. While in the air, the clone used [Polymorph] to morph into a cylindrical shape and used [Expand] to turn into a bigger cylinder. The main body extended its body like a whip and took hold of the cylinder before using [Expand] too. Their current form looks like a large hammer that is flying in the air.

The main body of Ember quickly rotated a few times, gaining momentum for the hammer's head. When it was about to reach the big snake, it immediately extended its body and exerted a large turn one last time. Everything happened in just a split second, and the tired big snake couldn't react in time. The large hammer struck its head squarely, sending it immediately to the world of dreams.

The fourth to eighth battles ended faster than the big snake fight, and the first strategy was more than enough to deal with them. During the preliminary rounds, the big snake was probably the strongest contender against Ember.

With that, the champion of the 4th block was announced as Will and his big slime Ember. This turn of events shocked a lot of spectators in the stadium. Not only was their favorite, the Earth Anaconda, a 2nd-stage evolved beast, defeated early on, but the champion was a 1st-stage evolved big slime. With the upset of the dark horse, the spectators were immediately excited for the main match.

Not long after, the dark  horse "Ember" the big slime, immediately became a small celebrity amongst the spectators. The betting houses immediately adjusted their payouts after earning a windfall from the gamblers who bet on the Earth Anaconda.

---

*slap*

A crisp and resounding sound reverberated around the private booth. The teen, who got slapped hard, held his cheeks as his eyes teared up.

"You imbecile! How dare you lose to a 1st Stage Awakening beast! What's more, a mere big slime!"

A large and muscular man with a head of red hair reaching his shoulders and a pair of kaiser mustaches of the same color shouted as he raised his palm for another slap.

"P-Please forgive me, father..."

*slap* *thud*

The backhand slap ended up sending the poor teen down to the floor as blood seeped from a cut on his lips.

"Forgive? Forgive?! Why do you think we spent tens of millions of credits to nurture your tamed beast to the 2nd stage of Evolution?! It was all for this moment, you, YOU!!!"

Unable to hold his anger, he even sent a kick to the poor teen. His plan to raise their name by winning the Newbie Tamer's Tournament has now gone down the drain. If the teen wasn't his son, he would have ordered his guard to send the teen's head flying. Not having anywhere to direct all his anger, he remembered the root of all this misfortune.

"That slime and that tamer! I don't want to see them at tomorrow's tournament! You know what to do, right?!"

The man shouted at his guards, upon which they nodded, "Yes, Viscount Hayes!"

The poor tamer, Will, and his big slime, Ember, had no way of knowing that danger was closer than they expected.