Beastmaster King

While the crowd continued buzzing, the iReferee announced the start of the battle.

The Thunderstrike Mecha shook its head and declared, "Let's fight."

With that it raised one of its arms and its palm retracted, turning into a cannon.

Boom!

With a loud explosion, the Thunderstrike Mecha launched a huge electric net that covered half the stage. It didn't leave any paths for escape. It looked like the mecha was just aiming to capture its opponent.

"It's so nice!"

When the students saw that the mecha went with the Paralysis Net instead of the Electromagnetic Cannon, they realized that it was trying to go easy on the freshman. However, in the face of the descending net, Captain Doofus remained completely calm.

Have you ever been cut by plasma?

The Thunderstrike Mecha was a little bewildered before its warning systems went crazy.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Captain Doofus suddenly disappeared from where it stood and the net caught nothing but air. Well, it didn't miss completely.

"Shit."

Lu Ran realized that the net was now coming for him, but at the perfect moment, spatial fluctuations rippled around him. He was able to teleport out of the way thanks to Captain Doofus or else he would've been really screwed.

Simultaneously, a sword slash appeared from seemingly nowhere before Captain Doofus revealed itself right in front of the mecha. It layered the Aurora sword intent on top of the Void Splitting sword intent in a single strike.

Fortunately, the Thunderstrike Mecha was equipped with an automated defense system, and a shield of light instantly appeared over its fuselage. Even so, the powerful attack smashed the mecha into the energy barrier protecting the audience.

The barrier buzzed and rippled while Captain Doofus held its lightsaber and stood on the stage gracefully. The jaws of every student hit the floor.

"It's the Space attribute! The dog has the Space attribute!"

"Attributes are one thing. Space isn't even that special. The most important thing is that the Thunderstrike Mecha couldn't even react! Its defense system was completely useless."

"Wait, what's going on? Why is it on a completely different level? Who is this Pedestrian A?"

Not only were the students shocked, the Thunderstrike Mecha brain was also short wiring. Its mechanic told it that the enemy was only a level 4 beastmaster, so his familiar should be level 50 tops!

It detected that some of its parts had been damaged by the last attack which made the mecha feel quite nervous. The opponent's attack power was extremely high. If it was only level 50, then it would have to be a Superior Overlord.

Everyone was flabbergasted. They watched as the Thunderstrike Mecha that was plastered on the barrier spread its wings and spring forward for a burst speed. Its hands turned into a gatling gun and buns also appeared from its shoulders. They fired a barrage of plasma rounds that bombarded Captain Doofus.

Bang, bang, bang!

Bullets rained down from every direction. Under the suppression fire, Captain Doofus didn't have an opportunity to get close, but Captain Doofus wasn't concerned in the slightest. It even thought the mecha was kind of cute.

Right when Captain Doofus was about to get hit, a flash of cold light appeared. Twelve ice swords cloaked in freezing winds materialized in a circle around the husky. The twelve swords resonated with each other and a strong blizzard spread outward. The first wave of bullets were frozen by the blizzard, making them stop mid-flight before they were cut into pieces and fell out of the air.

The students had never seen such a beautiful technique before. Generally speaking, mechanics don't get fancy and relied solely on overwhelming firepower which made Captain Doofus' display especially eye-catching.

The mecha was now entirely sure that this was no longer a cake walk. The blizzard had continued spreading and had already froze its guns. Although it had a de-icing function, it was inevitably damaged by the sword intent the blizzard contained.

"If this is the case, then there is only one way."

The 0Thunderstrike Mecha's pupils shrank as a strong light burst from it. By the time the audience could react, the entire stage had already been enveloped in a domain.

The mecha has a domain technique!

"It's the Overdrive Domain!"

Many students recognized the domain and became dazed. They didn't expect that the Thunderstrike Mecha would be forced to use its trump card by a dog.

In the Overdrive Domain, the Thunderstrike Mecha would obtain a self-repair function that would help it recover from most of the damage it sustained. Its system also kicked into overdrive, boosting its energy acceleration skills to the peak of the second stage. Its firepower would become several times its normal capacity.

However, soon after the domain appeared, it began to tremble. The students watching could tell that things were far from over. Two minutes of silence passed before the domain was ripped apart from within.

"No way! That dog can use a domain?"

Having a domain was one thing, but something even more shocking happened next. Under the incredulous gaze of the iReferee, the dog actually issued its beastmaster a command.

"Woof!"

Captain Lu, use Soul Amplification!

Even though the enemy's beast master wasn't there, Captain Doofus wasn't going to go easy on it for the sake of fairness. Lu Ran was too lazy to read more into what just happened and just did as he was told. As his eyes turned gray, Captain Doofus's soul reached the Epic-Legendary rank.

Captain Doofus finally found its opportunity to shine. It fully unleashed the Limitless Sword Domain and focused on the Thunderstrike Mecha, attempting to comprehend a new mecha sword technique.

After several clashes, the Thunderstrike mecha came to a terrifying realization.

Its opponent kept using the same attack but each hit was becoming more powerful than the last. This was because Captain Doofus was focusing all of its power of imagination.

This mecha is a dragon.

Very quickly, its Dragon-Slaying Sword Intent evolved into a Mecha-Slaying Sword Intent! As soon as the evolution was complete, the Thunderstrike Mecha only managed to blink before it was cut by the lightsaber.

One of its arms fell from its body and its fuselage was badly damaged. By the time Captain Doofus released the Limitless Sword Domain, what appeared on stage was a one-armed mecha slumped into a corner with electric arcing all over its body. It pretty much looked like a heap of scrap.

"Dog... a dog..."

It couldn't even piece together a complete sentence.

It got another weird skill.

Captain Doofus gave its opponent one last glance before turning around to leave the stage. A sword intent that specifically countered mechas? It was questionably useful at best.

"..."

You had me use Soul Amplification to learn a new sword intent just for beating this mecha?

Lu Ran didn't gripe too much since it ended up working.

"Ref."

At the moment, the referee was still scrambling to confirm all of Lu Ran's information. Whose class was this student from? He actually defeated Ji Xie's number one mecha, which ranked in the top three of the entire university.

The National Mechanical University wasn't some random third-rate school. The top three students were all Legendary material!

A suffocating silence fell over the crowd.

At that moment, over in the Orange Sky Research Institute, Ji Xie was still engrossed in her research when she suddenly dropped what she was holding. She sensed that the Thunderstrike Mecha had powered down, an indication that it had been defeated.

"How is this possible?"

With that, she dashed out of the door toward the arena.

Back in the arena, the referee finally announced the results. The rights for the Orange Sky Research Institute would be transferred to Pedestrian A at precisely 10 am. Even after hearing the announcement, many students were still in disbelief.

"Haha, thank you for going easy on me, Senior Ji! I'll go to the lab to look around after 10," Lu Ran said as he walked off the stage with Captain Doofus at his side.

She really did go easy on him. She didn't even show up for the match, and was sure to come after him tomorrow. That wasn't a really big issue now that Captain Doofus had the Mecha-Slaying Sword Intent. It would be his turn to not show up and let his familiar solo the enemy.

Lu Ran slipped away quickly to avoid getting tangled with the students in the arena. He needed to make the most efficient use of his time in the ascension realm. Not long after he left, Ji Xie finally arrived and saw the unfortunate state of her mecha.

"..."

Ji Xie's mouth twitched at her heavily damaged mecha that repeatedly uttered the word "dog."

Ugh, did its hard drive get wrecked? Is it really that traumatized?

"Senior Ji..."

One of the students still on the scene approached her as the rest of the crowd gathered around her.

Ji Xie's mind was going blank, unable to piece together what was happening.

Wasn't I told that the enemy is a level 4 freshman? How did it end up like this?

"Who has the video of the battle?" she asked.

Although she could check the black box of the Thunderstrike Mecha, she didn't want to wait.

"I do. Actually, someone already posted it on the university's social media page."

Why is this happening to me?

Once she pulled up the university's page, the video was right there waiting for her. Not only was she known for academic achievements, she was quite renowned for her beauty as well.

It didn't take long for the video to go viral. So viral, in fact, that even other universities around the country knew about it. The lightsaber-wielding dog was just too attention grabbing. It was a combination that no one expected to work.

"Shit, it's Lu Ran!"

All the attention on Lu Ran gave him away to the other trialists spread out amongst the various universities in the ascension realm. They were obviously smart enough to use the internet as well and the video was too hard to miss. The trialists undoubtedly had some strong feelings once they found out that they got stuck in the same ascension realm as Lu Ran.

"He's such a beast. He always makes a splash no matter where he goes."

"A lightsaber-wielding dog that can defeat a mecha, and the lightsaber was just Rare grade? What on earth?"

"It's over. I knew I had a bad feeling about this. After that little show, he definitely has the attention of the top professors. There are rumors of him discipling under top masters in ascension realms. Is he going to use the competition as an opportunity to find a Legendary mechanic master?"

"The ranking for the ascension mission is already decided."

Just like the trialists assumed, the video drew the attention of the big wigs at the university. Ji Xie was a top student of the university that had Legendary potential. Defeating her was proof of his abilities.

"Which class is this Pedestrian A in? Who's his professor?"

"Principal Fu, it looks like the student was recruited by Mentor Shen to join the elite mechanical familiar transformation program. He enrolled pretty recently and the classes for the program haven't officially started."

"Shen Xinyan? The student's dog is clearly an Overlord species race. Why didn't she report that? How could an ordinary class be enough for such a genius? Looking at how the dog wielded that lightsaber, their talent is simply extraordinary. We have to assign a Legendary mentor to teach him one-on-one. We can't waste his potential!"