Chapter 45

Lu Ai turned her head and looked at Mu Shuiyue, who had actively challenged her.

Her ranking was in the 20th range, and after a day and night, there had been little change—she was the type with some strength, but not difficult to deal with.

The opponent dared to challenge without any hesitation, probably relying on the fact that the Little Cloud Dog was a mid-tier warrior species, theoretically stronger than the high-level elite species of the Baloa Flower.

Back in the campus competition, Lu Ai had already defeated countless warrior species based on this point.

Every opponent who underestimated the Baloa Flower due to the species difference paid the price with a crushing defeat.

The girl in front of her would be no exception.

“Come on, let me show you that the gap between Beast Masters isn’t something that can be bridged just by racial talent.”

Lu Ai straightened her body and summoned the Baloa Flower to stand in front of her.

This Baloa Flower had a stronger build than others of its species. Its leaves were fresh and vibrant green, and its body was a rare dark blue. Its arms transformed into swaying branches and leaves, while its feet merged into roots, deeply embedded in the ground.

[Name]: Baloa Flower (Variant)

[Attribute]: Wood

[Species Level]: High Elite

[Growth Stage]: Stage Two of Growth

[Talent Core]: Illusory Fruit (Wood, D Rank)

[Normal Hidden Energy]: 11,875P

[Description]: A wood-type extraordinary creature found in the dense forest-type secret realms. It lures prey to consume its illusory fruit and hunts by controlling them through hallucinations. Individuals with strong mental power can learn spirit-type skills.

Mu Huiyue glanced at the information on the bracelet’s encyclopedia. The evaluation of racial rank is largely determined by the core talent skills.

The Illusionary Fruit is not a particularly powerful skill in combat environments, but as a high-level elite species in the growth phase, the Guava Flower can break the ten-thousand threshold in its second stage of hidden energy, indicating that, like Baiya, it possesses high-level skills that far exceed its core talent.

A small-winged terminal flew over and switched to the combat mode for recording. A semi-transparent video frame popped up, displaying the avatars of Mu Huiyue and Lu Ai, along with the battle pets they were each using.

Beep beep—

The score on the recording terminal changed to 0:0, and the bright red timer began ticking, signaling the official start of the battle.

“Baiya, Ambush!” Mu Huiyue launched the attack first.

The Little Cloud Dog moved at the sound, its figure too fast to be seen, like a dark arrow flashing behind the Guava Flower, its sharp claws descending for the strike.

Since learning Shadow Step, Baiya had already mastered fusion in the training field, and like Ellen’s Shadow Cloak, turned this skill into a subconsciously activated state ability.

As long as there is shadow in the battle environment, Baiya will naturally use Shadow Step to move, enhancing the power of attack-based skills.

The Ambush skill inherently has a priority effect, making it almost impossible to dodge directly, let alone for a slow-moving wood-type pet like the Guava Flower.

Baiya’s attack landed perfectly, and the Guava Flower’s body tilted heavily backward, taking significant damage.

“Absorb!” Lu Ai’s voice rang out.

The toppled Guava Flower extended more roots into the ground. Its body emitted a soft, translucent glow, and dense wood-type energy flowed back into the body through the roots, quickly healing the damage it had just taken.

B-grade Wood-type healing skill—Absorb!

Mu Huiyue’s guess was correct; this Guava Flower indeed possessed high-level skills far beyond its racial rank.

Absorb is the same grade as the B-grade Dark-type healing skill—Moonlight. The difference is that one requires the moonlight of the night, while the other needs contact with the life-giving earth.

In the dense forest environment, Absorb is virtually an unrestricted healing divine skill.

No wonder Lu Ai is so confident; the Guava Flower’s trump card isn’t just the Illusionary Fruit, but also infinite healing.

“Guava, use Whip Strike!”

At the Beast Tamer’s command, the Guava Flower pulled out two thick roots from the ground, which instantly stretched out many times their original length.

The rough roots sliced through the air with a sharp whooshing sound, rapidly attacking the Little Cloud Dog.

“Shadow Step, dodge!”

Baiya’s figure flickered back and forth among the wildly swinging roots, lightly stepping onto the shadows, moving in and out without being touched by a single one.

However, Lu Ai showed a confident expression and shouted, “Now, Sleep Pollen!”

C-grade Wood-type Control skill—Sleep Pollen.

Upon hitting the target, it induces a heavy drowsiness, slowly causing the opponent to fall into a deep sleep from which they cannot wake in the short term. It is one of the most dangerous control skills in battle.

Once hit, the Little Cloud Dog would fall into a helpless situation, allowing itself to be whipped.

The leaves atop the Guava Flower’s head secreted a pale blue powder, which all floated toward the Little Cloud Dog, who had been forced into the lower-right corner by the tree roots.

Baiya lowered its body, quietly gathering energy in its mouth, and the Beast Tamer’s command and Baiya’s instinctive preparation worked together like precisely meshing gears, their timing perfectly aligned.

“Baiya, Howl!”

C-grade Dark-type Status skill—Howl, Baiya’s core talent skill. While the buff effect is somewhat lackluster, after learning Shadow Ball, Baiya reduced the frequency of using its core skills in battle. However, this doesn’t mean it isn’t skilled at using Howl.

“Awwooo—” The Little Cloud Dog raised its head high and let out a long howl filled with battle intent.

The entire battle space seemed to pause for a moment because of this howl, including the drifting sleep pollen.

The pale blue hue was soon blown away by the wind created by the howl, without affecting Baiya at all.

Its golden pupils became even clearer at this moment, and its overall condition slightly improved due to the effects of the Howl skill.

This was a new tactic developed by the Beast Tamer after carefully studying its skills.

Mu Huiyue believed that the core of the Howl skill wasn’t in the minor stat boosts, but in the “instantaneous intimidation” it caused to the enemy.

Instantaneous intimidation alters the target’s state, not limited to extraordinary creatures, but also including skills they use with hidden energy.

During their time at the dojo, Baiya had tried using Howl to interrupt or influence Teacher Pali’s attacks. Although it had little effect on the Red Flame Fighting Wolf’s flames, it was more than enough to avoid the Guava Flower’s Sleep Pollen.

Lu Ai didn’t seem to expect that the Sleep Pollen could be avoided this way, and his battle command was delayed for a moment.

“Guava… Try Whip Strike again!”

The thick plant roots struck heavily, but Baiya stepped lightly on the shadows between the vines, making a few quick leaps before returning to the Beast Tamer’s side.

The battle seemed to have fallen into a deadlock.

Lu Ai’s expression slightly cleared. Even though the tactical trump card, Sleep Pollen, had failed, the situation was still in his favor. As long as he could drag the Little Cloud Dog into a prolonged battle, the Guava Flower could rely on its Absorb skill to secure victory.

For now, he only needed to hold his position and continuously wear down the opponent’s stamina with infinite healing.

Mu Huiyue naturally understood this as well. The longer the battle dragged on, the worse it would be for Baiya.

After all, it hadn’t yet learned Moonlight. Even with the effects of strengthening its body, without the ability to heal in battle, it wouldn’t be able to match the Guava Flower’s stamina.

The black-haired girl clenched her palm, looking at the Guava Flower and its Beast Tamer with calm eyes.

When facing an opponent with infinite healing abilities, there are usually two tactics that can be used.

The first is to directly crush with power, commonly known as “one-hit blood bar break,” like Wen Li’s Fire Meteor attack against Flame Strike Meow, not giving the opponent any chance to heal.

The second is to slowly wear down the opponent’s healing attempts. After all, Absorb is a skill of extraordinary creatures. Even though it can be used easily due to the geographical advantage, there is theoretically a limit. The Guava Flower cannot achieve true infinite healing.

Two ideas flashed through Mu Huiyue’s mind. After considering both sides’ stats, she looked up again, having already decided on the next tactic.

“Baiya, use Shadow Step to get closer!” Her voice paused, and Baiya, keenly sensing the change in her, turned to look in the direction of the black-haired girl.

“… We can take a slight detour.” Mu Huiyue blinked.

“Woof woo!”

After months of hard training in the [training field], Baiya had already developed an incredible tacit understanding with its Beast Tamer. It immediately understood her meaning and swiftly dashed toward the Guava Flower.

“Guava, use Whip Strike to catch it!” Lu Ai hurriedly countered.

The Guava Flower’s speed, compared to the Little Cloud Dog with Shadow Step, was nearly zero. It could only use skills to defend against the Little Cloud Dog’s attack, taking the damage before using [Absorb] to turn the tide.

The Little Cloud Dog, stepping on the shadows, leapt high into the air, dodging the first whip strike from the roots. Its movements remained agile, but its offense had slowed down considerably, as if the roots were hindering its steps.

The Guava Flower instinctively extended more roots, using the Whip Strike skill, trying to catch the Little Cloud Dog as it maneuvered in the shadows.

By the time Lu Ai noticed something was wrong, Baiya had already completed the “slight detour” as instructed by its Beast Tamer.

The Guava Flower’s roots twisted and interlaced in midair, forming a huge knot centered around the point where the Little Cloud Dog had escaped, forcing the roots into an enormous deadlock.

Except for the roots needed to maintain Absorb, all the remaining roots that could be controlled were tied up into a dead knot, impossible to untangle.

“Now you can’t defend, can you?” Mu Huiyue smiled slightly, waiting for this moment.

A dark, sharp glint appeared in the black-haired girl’s eyes as powerful energy surged through the contract and poured into the Little Cloud Dog on the battlefield.

Beast Tamer Talent, Dark-type Enhancement: Combat Resonance!

A layer of smoky dark-type energy gathered on the Little Cloud Dog’s white fur, with tiny stars flickering inside, as if the conflicting forces were constantly exploding and merging, eventually blooming into an almost dazzling moon-white glow.

“Baiya, maximum power Moon Burst!”

“Woof woo—!”

The dark-type enhanced energy, the Little Cloud Dog’s own energy, and the omnipresent dark-type energy of nature resonated together, forming a massive shadow energy ball, its diameter far surpassing that of a normal Moon Burst, nearly exceeding the size of the Little Cloud Dog itself.

The condensed energy ball shot out from above Baiya, rapidly charging toward the unshielded Guava Flower’s body.

Boom—!

After less than a second of brief stillness, the moonlight cascaded, and the explosion’s brilliance swept through everyone’s vision, completely engulfing the Guava Flower.

The entire battle area shook violently, and even Lu Ai instinctively took two steps back, his expression filled with astonishment.

The power of this Moon Burst was no less than the Fire Meteor from earlier!

As the lingering force of the Moon Burst faded, Lu Ai’s Guava Flower had already lost its ability to fight. Its roots were curled, and the entire flower lay unconscious on the spot.

A small-winged terminal flew over, recording the final scene of the battle, then displayed the match results.

Little Cloud Dog 1:0 Guava Flower, the winner of this battle is Mu Huiyue!