Cybernetic Beast Taming In A Game-like World

She quickly vanished once again, sucked into the voidspace before reappearing in another position. The featherblast that had nearly struck her detonated harmlessly against the shield.

Voidspace only allowed for quick, short bursts of travel, preventing Padva from staying inside for long. This was why she warped from position to position, narrowly evading the feathers that exploded against the shield behind her into shadowy smoke.

When only one feather remained, Padva warped smartly in front of Skarion, then vanished instantly. The feather had followed, speeding straight for Skarion— Padva's earlier position. But Skarion anticipated Padva's tactic.

He adjusted his shoulder sharply, and just in time for the feather to wheeze past and explode to shadows on the wall.

When his gaze snapped forward, he was shocked to see that Padva was already on the attack again. She was racing towards him, rather than just warping this time. Her running form was peculiar; both of her hands were thrusted behind her, head was low and her knees pulled forward as she cleared the distance between them.

Once she was close enough, she dragged a fist coated in void energy toward his face. Skarion blocked desperately, shadows forming around his elbows to create a glistening black shield. But Padva didn't stop there. She moved her fists in ways that Skarion couldn't anticipate and Jethro's watchful eyes couldn't follow.

Her strikes were unpredictable and landed with sharp impacts. Skarion's shadow shield absorbed several blows, but not all. When she hit the final punch, the energy shattered the shield and her knuckles slammed into his chest. The void energy sent a jolt of disorienting spatial distortion through Skarion, making him stumble backwards.

Padva pressed her advantage with ferocity, not even giving him a moment to rest. But her own momentum became her undoing.

Skarion recoiled, his fist dragged with it a burst of shadow energy that connected with her jaw, the impact sent her high into the air.

Then Skarion launched dark tendrils that wrapped around her limbs while she was still mid-flight, before pulling her hard to the ground in a sickening crash.

The onlookers gasped. Professor Xan laughed with intense entertainment. "Merely a Class D tamer and this is what he can do! Princess Padva, can your skill truly withstand Skarion's raw power?!"

Simultaneously, Padva's Deathclaw fell to the ground beside her, knocked by Skarion's Silverbeak which swooped smoothly and perched on his outstretched hand. He walked to her as she was groaning, attempting to push herself up.

"Do you yield, Princess Padva?" Skarion asked softly.

Padva slowly shifted her gaze to him, strands of her short dark hair falling over her sweat-streaked face. Her expression, like usual, didn't say anything at all.

"Shadow," she muttered, her eyes moving to the mechpanther rising beside her. "Use Void Roar."

Skarion's eyes narrowed.

The Panther obeyed immediately. Its maw expanded unnaturally wide, and a roar ruptured out of the depths of its throat. A concussive wave of purplish-black energy followed.

Skarion summoned the shadow shield to block it, but the roar broke the shield in no time before hitting him and his Silverbeak.

They both felt their bodies begin to vibrate violently, like atoms were separating, creating dimensional clones of themselves while disorienting their minds and scrambling their focus. Their bodies were trapped in place as this happened, before Padva ordered the Deathclaw to stop.

She had risen to her feet by then, and struck out to attack. Skarion threw a wild punch as an offensive-defensive move, but his body was too disoriented to calibrate the attack.

Padva seized his swinging arm, pivoted, wrapped her body around it, and used his own weight against him. She swung him over her hip and slammed him hard onto the unforgiving metal ground.

From above, the Shadowfiend Raven screeched in defense of its master, unleashing a hailstorm of razor-edged feathers at Padva. But Shadow surged forward, using his claws to redirect all of them. With quick warps, it intercepted and redirected every feather before they collapsed and clattered on the ground.

Grunting, Skarion pulled himself up with one arm while Padva still hung on to his other. He summoned as much strength as he could and flung her off him. As she skidded across the steel floor, he hurled a shadow blast at her. She warped out of the way in time and the blast struck the empty floor.

Padva reappeared directly in front of him. She struck his arm once again, paralyzing it for good this time; punched him straight to his ribs, then warped behind him.

After summoning a potent amount of void energy between her palms, she struck the ball of furious purple at his back, straight into the center of his spine. The impact sent him flying so high that he struck the near middle of the tall shield and collapsed on the ground in a heap.

Everyone outside the shield simply watched in awe, only a few murmurs came here and there. Jethro's eyes glistened at the spectacle. He understood now what the deal surrounding Padva was.

She was the most skillful fighter he'd ever met. If she was the one he had faced instead of Durn, no amount of intelligence offered by the screen would have helped him.

The realization was like a slap on the face. Jethro still had a long way to go. Knowledge really wasn't everything. He had to get stronger, and better at fighting.

Skarion's Silverbeak fluttered down to him moments after he hit the ground, checking if he was fine. As Padva and her Doomsday Panther began to approach, the mechbird turned around, spreading its wings and cawing desperately, like it was pleading with them to stay back.

Padva halted, looking down at Skarion. She didn't speak for a very long time, but when her lips finally opened to ask, Skarion answered first. "Yes. I yield." A groan escaped him as he tried to move. "You truly are a fighter, Princess Padva."

The electronic blare came again and the match ended.

"Absolutely exhilarating!" Professor Xan thundered from his seat. "A match worthy of two of the most promising students of Beastcorp Academy! Raw power meets aptitude and skill! I was at the edge of my seat throughout all of it!"

He turned to the rest of the students in the arena. "Princess Padva Darlstarc is your victor! And she brings fifty more points to House Faction for her stunning display of technique, agility and aether control."

Jethro pursed his lips, watching the cylinder energy suck Padva in. He should be elated that his Faction gained more points, but this meant Padva now led the individual contributions and would claim a lion's share of resources. Of course there was still the rest of the month left, but this was a reminder that he could lose that top spot at any time.

When Padva returned to her earlier position in the stands, she made sure this time to avoid glancing towards Jethro. He, however, continued to stare, wondering to himself about her training regime and the amount of skills and techniques she must have stored in her mind.

Kekius leaned in and whispered. "It was her, wasn't it? The other one that survived. The girl."

Jethro looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

Kekius frowned innocently. "Everyone is saying it."

Their conversation was interrupted by Professor Xan's voice. "For emphasis, I'd like us to have one more match up. Our participants this time will be the Prince of Sector Two, Eryn Fenlor…!"

His hand fell to his chin and he stroked his ponytail beard in thought, going through names on his data-slate. "And he will be against… let's see here. Oh, he'll be facing Oand Wexley!"

Jethro and Kekius's heads snapped to the stage at the same time. "What?"