This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Thankfully, out of all of the groups, Bridge seemed to be in one of the easiest groups.

Bridge at rank 39 (his rank now higher due to four of the 5 students dying or dropping out being ranked above him) was placed into group 8 which had the eighth seed, rank 14, Riley's fellow survivor Elara at rank 37, Aria at rank 46 who was in Kain's group for the field assessment, and rank 47 who was one of the two students to lose a contract during the beast tide.

Kain was confident that aside from ranks 8 and 14, Bridge could defeat any of the other 3 easily. With a little luck or a favorable matchup between spiritual creatures, he may even be able to defeat the 14th ranked student. Therefore, regardless of if Bridge is ranked second or third in his group, he can look forward to a substantial increase in rank.

If he finishes second he'd be able to automatically receive a single room, while if he places third he'd still be able to fight for a position in the top 20.

Among the others that Kain was close with, Aiden and the last-ranked Elias, were both in Kairos' group 5.

Finn and Leonara were also together in group 6 led by Dwayne, who as the only S-rated affinity not in the top 5 had a lot to prove during this re-ranking.

Finally, Addison was sorted into group 4 led by Ranya.

Looking at the groupings, Kain felt optimistic that most of his friends should either remain at a similar rank or go up.

With the group stage requiring 5 matches per group, it was decided by the teachers that they'd each participate in 2 matches per day to strike a good balance between pacing and intensity, allowing participants to compete while minimizing fatigue. This means that the group stage will last for 3 days, with the last day only having 1 battle so that they have more time to rest before Phase 2.

Thankfully, the battles occurring on the same day were spaced far apart and there were teachers with healing contracts available at all times, as well elixirs to restore spiritual power that can be taken after each battler. Therefore, it could be ensured that each participant were competing at max strength.

"Can the first set of students set to battle from each group make their way to the stage assigned for their group. Up first for Group 1: Seed 1 Serena and Rank 22 Lila Carrington; Group 2: Seed 2 Kain Newman and Rank 31 Julian Carr; Group 3…"

Kain made his way to the second stage from the left with a large 2 carved into the center. There were 8 large stages separated by translucent barriers to prevent interference between the matches.

Kain noticed that the first called upon were the seed candidates for each group, likely as a way to heat up the atmosphere and also to clearly show the other students the targets they should be aiming to surpass.

And the Kain could sense that the teachers' intentions were achieved. Kain could feel many pairs of eyes practically digging into the flesh of himself and the other 8 seeds like the pricks of needles.

Unfortunately, this arrangement meant that Kain was unable to watch the battles of who would likely be his biggest competitors.

Based on the field-assessments, beast-tide, and missions, information about every students contract had likely already been spread around and could be obtained if desired. In particular, information about the members of the top 5 was especially valuable and the most discussed.

However, during the past month since the beast-tide, Kain was sure that like him many of the other top students had evolved their contracts, had breakthroughs, or maybe even acquired a new contract.

Therefore, the best information would be the first-hand observations he'd get by watching them today.

'Maybe if I finish this match early, I can watch and get some more info...'

Kain looked at his opponent, Rank 31 Julian Carr. Despite in the lower half of the rankings based off of strength, Julian would probably be ranked within the top 10 of their year based off of appearance.

Julian stood at around 6 feet tall with a lean, athletic build. His tousled dark brown hair framed a chiseled face, with high cheekbones and a strong jawline. His piercing green eyes stood out against his sun-kissed tan skin and seemed to glimmer with either curiosity or mischief. He didn't at all seem intimidated by Kain's ranking.

'I guess he wouldn't be fit to be a Dark Moon student if he didn't even have that much fighting spirit.'

Julian's contracts was an orange-grade Steelwing Hawk and red-grade Storm Albatross. Both of which were wind-attribute bird-type spiritual creatures, likely due to the limitations of his affinity.

The second he was given the signal to start, Kain covered the arena in a mist. After losing the water attribute, Bea could no longer integrate into liquids as easily as before. However, Kain's knew style of battle did not require Bea to be within the mist.

In fact, Kain didn't plan to use Bea at all for the duration of Phase 1 and this mist was purely to conceal more of his information from the watching crowd.

For added concealment of his strength, Kain also only summoned 6 of the 18 Vespirae he could currently summon. He had only ever summoned 12 Vespirae in front of others, therefore none of the students knew the maximum guards he had. Still, Kain felt that 6 were enough to deal with the two contract before him.

As Julian and his contracts looked warily through the mist for any sign of movement, without warning the six Vespirae shot forward, their wings creating a powerful gust that momentarily parted the mist as the surrounded Julian's contracts.

Each wasp zipped through the air with remarkable speed, barely visible to the naked eye. Julian's hawk roared, instinctively flaring its wings to take to the skies, but resistance was futile.

In an instant, the Vespirae launched six stingers with pinpoint accuracy. The first projectile sliced through the mist and struck the hawk in its side, piercing through its defences. The creature let out a shriek of surprise and pain, spiraling slightly as it struggled to regain its balance and doge the remaining.

However, the intensive training inside of the System had drastically improved the accuracy and predictive ability of the Vespirae guards, and only one stinger was able to be successfully avoided while the other 4 hit the target.

As the hawk crashed to the ground, the mist momentarily cleared due to the movement, revealing Julian's wide-eyed shock and the formidable figure of his once-majestic mount, now incapacitated. The Vespirae then moved to surround the previously ignored Albatross.

"I concede!" Julian quickly called out before Kain could seriously injur the reminder of his two contracts.

Kain recalled the Vespirae before dispersing the mist.

Finally, those in the audience could see the arena. All they'd been able to see was mist before they heard a screech, a loud bang and Julian's signal of defeat.

The whole battle was over in less than 10 seconds.