Seeing someone come to their rescue, the students who had been engulfed in despair now had a glimmer of hope on their faces.
However, this hope was quickly extinguished when they saw that it was Charles, turning into deep confusion.
Wasn’t Charles supposed to have secretly returned to York? There were even rumors that he had gone back to Lsengard. How could he be here?
There were hundreds of bandits around, and Felix was a second-level Beast Master. Even Teacher Fletcher had no solution. Why had Charles come here to court death?
The vicious bandits around, seeing that the newcomer was Charles, let down their guard.
Even if he managed to kill Rumbling before, it was just a fluke. With so many people around, what could a first-level Beast Master possibly do?
“Charles, get out of here, leave now!” Fletcher, with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, looked up at Charles and almost screamed.
After a brief glimmer of hope was extinguished, seeing the bandits closing in, Fletcher’s expression towards Charles turned bleak: “He’s a second-level Beast Master; your combat strength isn’t on the same level. You shouldn’t have come to save me. Why are you… so foolish!”
“Charles… aren’t you called Charlie?” Shifting his gaze from Fletcher to the handsome young man not far away, Felix’s eyes were filled with murderous intent.
“Hmph, whatever your name is, since you dare to come here, you’ll die with them today!” Felix shouted, charging at Charles with his long knife.
“Who lives and who dies, that’s still uncertain.” Charles smiled calmly.
As he looked at Felix, a system prompt flashed before his eyes.
[Name]: Felix
[Age]: 24
[Height]: 175 cm
[Beast Master Level]: Second Level
[Weakness]: Knife wound on the right side of the waist; agile, fears control-type skills.
“Being this arrogant despite having an injury?” Charles sighed inwardly, spotting the flaw from the system prompt.
Though Felix wore a coat, Charles easily identified Felix’s weakness thanks to the system prompt. He infused ice and fire elemental energy into the ice and fire supreme spear. The spear began to tremble and then shot towards Felix like an arrow.
The supreme spear moved incredibly fast, but Felix was also very agile, dodging Charles’s attack with a sidestep, the spear only grazing him and leaving a cut.
Already wounded on the waist, Felix’s unhealed injury split open again from Charles’s surprise attack, with fresh blood seeping out. The pain made Felix gasp: “A blue-quality weapon, huh? It seems you gained quite a few treasures in the tomb, didn’t you?”
Felix’s eyes gleamed with greed. As long as he defeated Charles, this incredibly powerful weapon would be his!
Felix extended his right hand, and a silver six-pointed star appeared before him. Two fierce tigers emerged from the summoning circle.
Seeing the fierce blue and red tigers, Charles summoned Max. After all, this was a Beast Mastery World, and powerful mystical beasts were the key to battle! Felix knew that his agility alone wouldn’t suffice.
“Max, use the skill Ice Pick Throwing!” Charles commanded through Mind Communication.
Cold air gathered around, causing a light snow to fall in the valley. Max’s three tails swayed gently, resembling a snow spirit.
Whizz, whizz, whizz—
Ice crystals formed into the shape of ice and fire supreme spears, shooting out toward Felix’s two ferocious beasts and the surrounding bandits.
Felix dodged the ice spears with his agility, but his subordinates weren’t so lucky. Under the barrage of ice spears, more than a dozen fell dead or injured in a blink of an eye.
“Good!”
“Charles, well done!”
Seeing Charles gain the upper hand with two consecutive attacks, the previously disheartened students around him were greatly encouraged.
The girls who had been hiding at the back of the group stopped crying, summoning their mystical beasts to join the fight against the bandits.
“I underestimated you earlier. You do have some strength. Blue Flame, Scarlet Flame, use the skill [Frenzy]!” Felix’s eyes flashed with a fierce light as he commanded his mystical beasts.
The fire elements gathered around Felix, and the already robust tigers swelled as if inflated, lunging toward Max.
Seeing the enemies closing in, Max didn’t wait for Charles’s command and used its second skill [Bone-Achingly Cold].
Pale flames ignited around them, but the frenzied tigers seemed impervious to pain. Even as ice spears pierced their bodies, they didn’t slow down.
Max’s powerful ice skill managed to coat the approaching tigers in a thick layer of frost, attempting to halt their advance. Yet, Felix’s beasts, driven by their frenzied state, charged through the icy barrier, their eyes glowing with relentless fury.
Charles quickly assessed the situation. “Max, combine the elements! Use Ice and Fire Burst!”
Max’s tails flared with a mixture of ice and fire energy. In an explosive burst, a shockwave of freezing cold and searing heat radiated outwards, colliding with the tigers in a dazzling display of elemental power.
The force of the blast sent the tigers reeling back, their frenzied assault momentarily halted. The surrounding bandits, caught in the crossfire, were thrown into disarray, some fleeing in terror, others collapsing from the elemental onslaught.
Felix, struggling to regain control of his disoriented beasts, shouted, “Stay focused, you fools! Attack together!”
Charles, seizing the opportunity, directed Max for a final strike. “Max, now! Full power Ice and Fire Supreme Spear!”
Max concentrated its remaining energy, forming a massive spear glowing with both icy blue and fiery red. With a mighty leap, Max hurled the spear at the two tigers, the elemental weapon piercing through their defenses and striking them down.
Felix, seeing his beasts fall, stumbled back in shock and rage. “This isn’t over, Charles! I’ll make you pay!”
Charles stood firm, his eyes locked on Felix. “Your reign of terror ends here. Surrender, or face the consequences.”
The valley echoed with the sounds of battle fading away, leaving only the resolve of a young Beast Master and the determination of his mystical beast standing victorious amidst the fallen.
Even more terrifying was the fact that the wounds on the tigers, pierced by the ice spears, were healing at an alarming rate.
Seeing the two tigers closing in on Charles, Felix’s face lit up with a smug expression. “With the short-term explosive power of Frenzy, not just you, but many second-level Beast Masters have died at my hands. What chance do you have, boy!”
“Blue Flame, Scarlet Flame, kill them all!”
Seeing Max gradually losing ground in the struggle against the two tigers, Charles rushed in with his supreme spear to assist.
“Bang!”
When the supreme spear struck the two ferocious beasts, it only produced a dull thud. Apart from causing some superficial wounds, it couldn’t penetrate deeply, and in the blink of an eye, the wounds had already healed.
Charles checked the current status of the two tigers.
[Frenzy]: Strength and speed gain explosive growth, numbing the pain from wounds, and granting self-healing abilities. The cost is a week of weakness after Frenzy ends.
“Felix was indeed considered a genius of Lsengard back in the day, and he does have some skill. This short-term explosive power is indeed frightening,” Charles mused.
The supreme spear clashed with the tiger claws, sending vibrations through Charles’s arms, making them feel numb. Even Max, who excelled at ranged attacks, was struggling to gain any advantage.
“It seems I overestimated you. Earlier, you relied on some gain-by-trickery tactics,” Felix sneered. With Frenzy activated, his muscles had swollen, bursting through his shirt, with bulging veins wriggling as if they could break through his skin at any moment.
He lifted his long knife and charged at Charles, the blade whistling through the air, sparks flying where the tip met the ground.
At a distance of 10 meters from Charles, Felix suddenly leaped into the air, gripping the knife handle with both hands, and swung down at Charles with the momentum.
“Die!”
Charles looked up, seeing Felix above him, and gripped the supreme spear tightly to defend himself.
Clang!!!
A heavy sound rang out, and a large cloud of dust rose around them. When the dust settled, Charles had been pushed back over ten meters. At his feet, two deep grooves had formed, clearly the result of dispersing the force of Felix’s attack.
In close combat with the frenzied Felix, Charles was at a distinct disadvantage, while on the mystical beast battlefield, Max was also losing ground.
Max excelled at long-range attacks, but in this close-quarters fight against two opponents, it was struggling.
“Blue Flame, Scarlet Flame, merge and attack!” Felix commanded, using his mystical beasts’ second skill—Fusion!
A red light flashed, and the two tigers on either side of Felix merged into a single creature with two heads and two tails.
“Roar!!!” A tiger’s roar echoed!
The terrifying aura emanating from the double-headed tiger sent chills down the spines of the nearby students.
After the fusion, the double-headed tiger’s strength and speed increased further. Following another failed attack by Max, the tiger’s claws landed heavily on Max.
Despite using ice spears to deflect some of the force, Max’s body was still flung like a projectile, breaking all the trees in its path as it flew.
Boom!
An explosion echoed as a large boulder near Charles was blasted into pieces.
“Max, are you alright?” Charles rushed to Max’s side, looking at him worriedly.
Max stood up from the rubble, shaking off the debris from his fur. “I used ice to reduce the impact. It’s just some minor injuries.”
Seeing Felix gain the upper hand in the battle, the surrounding bandits cheered loudly.
“You managed to withstand my full-strength attack. I’m quite surprised for a first-level Beast Master,” Felix said, approaching Charles with his double-headed tiger and stopping ten meters away.
“With your strength, you could have been a valuable subordinate of mine, perhaps even the third-in-command. But you refused.”
“Thanks, Felix, but without you, how could I replicate such a powerful mystical beast?” Charles sneered, signaling to the cute brown flying squirrel perched on a tree branch.
After a ripple of spatial distortion, another double-headed tiger emerged from the shadows of the void.
It looked identical to Felix’s mystical beast: one blue head, one red head, and the same robust and tall body. However, this creature’s gaze was filled with ferocity as it looked at Felix and the tomb raiders behind him.
Seeing this, Felix was dumbfounded. How could there be another identical double-headed tiger in the world?
Moreover, Felix now realized a shocking fact: Charles was also a second-level Beast Master. How had he managed this in just a week?
Noticing the disbelief on Felix’s face, Charles smiled calmly. “I know you’re anxious right now, but don’t worry. Save these questions for hell.”
When the battle started, Charles hadn’t immediately let Mousie join. The mimetic illusion could replicate the enemy’s mystical beast, and Charles naturally wanted to claim this double-headed tiger for himself.
Now, Felix had no further use.
Pointing the supreme spear at Felix, the bloodstained tip glinted coldly as a murderous intent flashed in Charles’s eyes:
“It’s over.”
“Felix, I told you, I would personally send you to hell…”