Chapter 902: The Assessment Ends

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Ideals are plump; reality is lean.

The moment Qiao Sang heard the examiner say, “Move it,” she knew her plan had been read.

After being shifted once to block a skill, how could Thundercrash Head obediently stay put and be controlled a second time?

High above, the Skyfighting Eagle bore Thundercrash Head across a sky shredded by rain and lightning.

Thunder roared. Golden forks of lightning sliced the clouds.

If she didn’t act now it would be too late. If heavenly thunder bolts kept striking, not only Little Treasure but even Yabao might collapse. The lightning above intensified; Qiao Sang stopped hesitating and shouted: “Shadow Control!”

Little Treasure, clinging to Yabao for comfort, stared, incredulous. Under this fury of lightning, his beast master wanted him to go up, not Big Brother Yabao?

A flash lit Little Treasure’s face.

“Xun xun!” He cried, setting his jaw.

He bellowed, and a colossal, six-meter-tall version of the Ghost Ring King, identical to him in every feature, manifested on the field.

Little Treasure raised his claws. The Ghost Ring King raised two stubby toes in sync. From those toe tips, broad shadows burst out, swelling and splitting into dozens of eerie Shadow of Darkness that lunged and writhed upward toward the Skyfighting Eagle.

Shadow of Darkness combined with Shadow Control,ma solid combo, but still not decisive. The middle-aged examiner calculated silently.

By the standard of a single beast, the earlier Ice Emperor Ram would already have passed Qiao Sang’s assessment. But a B-rank beast master was judged on more than one creature.

The Skyfighting Eagle was huge, but fast. Even as shadows swarmed from all sides, it weaved up and down, slipping through them.

The storm convulsed. The cloud ceiling tore open, a thunderbolt lashed down like divine retribution, aimed straight at Little Treasure’s position.

The Skyfighting Eagle dipped, eyeing below.

In a blink, Yabao appeared above the eagle.

“Thundercrash!” The examiner ordered.

Thundercrash Head reacted instantly, lightning leapt from its body and struck upward.

The bolt hit Yabao.

“Yap!” Yabao snapped but he didn’t retreat. Lightning danced across him, and with grit he bit deep into the Skyfighting Eagle’s wing.

The eagle screamed. Lightning stuttered through the air.

“Xun xun!”

Little Treasure vanished in an instant. The next moment, Yabao, still latched onto the eagle, materialized where Little Treasure had just been.

A majestic thunder-dragon slammed into Yabao and the eagle, shattering the training ground below; stones and dust exploded outward.

The eagle howled. Yabao clung on, refusing to let go even as lightning battered him.

Blinking, unlike full spatial teleport, couldn’t pluck a target across distance by itself. But with sufficient skill, a blink could move the blinker in contact with another object, carrying that object along.

Yabao… Qiao Sang’s chest tightened. The examiner’s pupils narrowed. The scene had gone far beyond expectation yet there was no time to rethink.

Elsewhere, without its mount, Thundercrash Head plummeted from the sky.

“Thunder on the ground!” The examiner barked. 

“Thundercrash!”

Lightning arced from the creature, striking stone. Rocks shattered and skittered upward. Thundercrash Head leapt from blasted chunks as they flew, descending.

“Control!” and “Dodge!” voices called simultaneously, the creature’s master and Qiao Sang.

Before Thundercrash Head could regain its footing, dozens of shadows surged from every side and bound him tightly.

Rain fell like bullets; bolts of golden lightning hammered the earth. Bound in dark tendrils, Thundercrash Head was flung toward a falling strike.

Little Treasure hovered, toes twitching. Behind him, the giant Ghost Ring King mirrored every motion.

A terrifying bolt cleaved down.

“Xun xun!” Little Treasure cried, yanking Thundercrash Head above him to take the hit.

“Thundercrash!! Thundercrash!! Thundercrash!” The sky answered.

From desperate screams to silence, Thundercrash Head could no longer cry out.

Little Treasure exhaled, briefly relieved, then his master’s voice cut through: “Dodge!”

Instinctively, Little Treasure’s eyes lit blue and he blinked a hundred meters away, high above. Looking down, he saw countless cyan wind-blades shredding where he had stood, tearing through the oversized Ghost Ring King until it dissolved.

Not far from the scattering shadow, Thundercrash Head lay unconscious on the ground.

Little Treasure patted his chest. Thank goodness he’d moved fast enough.

Then he sensed something and looked up: The battered, bloodied Skyfighting Eagle hung in the air, staring at him with murderous focus.

His heart froze. He glanced down, Yabao lay fallen on the ground.

In one glance, dread flooded him. Big Brother Yabao was down. How could he fight alone?

“Dodge!” His master snapped. He blinked again as another storm of wind-blades tore through his previous spot.

Qiao Sang’s attention split between Little Treasure and the eagle, and Yabao. The thunderbolt’s direct power had been devastating,  though the eagle was grievously hurt, Yabao had suffered worse.

Even if Little Treasure had finished off Thundercrash Head, could he alone topple the wounded eagle?

No. Yabao would not fall yet. His Blaze had not ignited, his long-trained fusion flame had not been unleashed…

A blazing light leapt through the rain.

From it, Yabao fought to his feet.

Qiao Sang’s heart steadied.

“Xun xun!” Little Treasure, high in the air, felt tears prick his eyes. Big Brother Yabao was up again, he wasn’t alone.

“Target the stronger one!” The examiner snapped. Decisive.

Even aflame with Blaze and doubled in strength, Yabao was clearly at his limit. Against the still-mobile Ghost Ring King, the examiner judged Yabao the easier finish.

The eagle beat its wings down, but pain from the bitten wing made it falter, Yabao’s bite had found purchase. An opening. Qiao Sang’s eyes flashed.

“Target its wing!”

An injured wing halves a flying beast’s power.

“Yap!” Yabao roared and unleashed a red-gold beam that hurtled at the eagle.

The eagle continued its motion, wings slicing a twenty-meter crescent of white light, a moonlike scythe, diving down.

Its body froze for one second. In that sliver of time, Yabao’s beam struck.

“Slash!” The examiner ordered.

The eagle broke free and slashed, cleaving the beam. The beam detonated, a firestorm bloomed, engulfing the eagle.

“Fan!” Another command followed. Gales surged, fanning the blast and driving the fire further.

It's using the Fire Whirl’s explosion to amplify the gale… Qiao Sang thought, narrowing her eyes.

“Wrap it!” She called.

Yabao flared and plunged into the searing vortex. Little Treasure blinked behind the eagle, compressing a shadow ball. The injured wing meant the eagle dodged less, now was their chance.

The eagle spread its wings to strike, then froze once more. Yabao bit hard into the wounded wing, flames burst forth. The eagle screamed, then Little Treasure’s shadow ball smashed into the same wound. The eagle tumbled into the raging winds.

Could this Fire Qilu have Flame Body nature? It had barreled through the firestorm almost unscathed… The examiner drew a sharp breath.

“Spinning Attack.” Came the final command.

If the two beasts survived this, he would count the assessment passed.

Qiao Sang tensed. The eagle stabilized mid-storm and began to spin, a combined Wind and Wing-Slash technique. A king-level beast’s combo, not something frail Little Treasure or a half-spent Yabao could withstand. Defense would be futile.

Their only shot was to strike while it cast.

Yabao’s eyes gleamed, he had waited for this. He unleashed a spiraling inferno, and through its center a red-gold beam shot forth. At the same time, dozens of twenty-meter crescent blades burst from the gale, tearing across the arena.

“Xun xun!!” Little Treasure blinked frantically, but the blades were too many and too fast. After three blinks, one raked him.

The spiraling flame and beam fused, magnifying their power, blasting through the gale and striking the eagle mid-technique.

The explosion rocked the field, a crimson shockwave hurled flame in every direction. Almost at the same instant, a crescent blade struck Yabao. The gale vanished. Three figures plummeted, throwing up clouds of dust.

To bring his eagle and Thundercrash Head to a standstill against just two general-level beasts, the examiner’s face was a complex shade of shock and respect.

No need to check: His eagle lay unconscious.

He exhaled slowly, about to speak.

“Xun xun…” Little Treasure reappeared high above, patting his chest in relief. Thank goodness, his substitute had worked in time.

The examiner stared, stunned.

All-Judge appeared on the field and spoke in a human voice: “Assessment complete.”

The examiner froze.

Wait...he’d lost.

He had lost again.

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