Unlike Orion, Mia and Dahlia weren''t participating in the beast-taming tournament because only students of the academy were allowed to take part in this particr tournament.


    The purpose of the beast-taming tournament was to inspect the students'' capabilities in controlling and bonding with any of the dangerous beasts in the forest.


    Mia wasn''t happy about this because she wanted to participate in the tournament as well, but she calmed down after hearing that she would be taking part in the other three club tournaments Orion had registered for.


    Currently, Mia and Dahlia were sitting beside each other, and among the rest of the spectators. They were all watching the huge screens in front of them as well.


    They could see the students slowly spawning one after the other within the magical forest, and they could also hear the sound of cries and pain as it echoed within the forest.


    "Have you seen him?" Mia asked.


    "No, your Highness."


    There were a lot of screens hovering in front of them, and each screen disyed different people and views, so it wasn''t easy for them to spot Orion.


    However, the two girls continued to look for Orion until they saw him materialize in a certain spot as well. Although, they weren''t the only ones who had noticed his presence in the forest.


    Arge fiery bird had also noticed him, and it wasn''t happy to see him. It seemed that the bird did not like him at all.


    But the truth was that the phoenix bird didn''t like anyone. As a transcendent beast, it loved to have its own freedom, it didn''t like being locked up in a cage or forced to live in an environment it didn''t like, and that was exactly what had happened to it.


    It had been caught, captured, and brought to this forest against its will and it knew why it was here.


    As a rank fifteen beast, the phoenix bird was a lot smarter than any other beasts within the same rank or lower than it, and this enabled it to realize that it had been caught and brought to the forest for the purpose of having it tamed. But was the huge colorful bird going to allow anyone to tame it?


    ''No!!'' The phoenix bird vehemently said in its thoughts. But then it sensed the presence of different magical energies appearing in different parts of the forest.


    Scanning the entire forest with its heightened sense of vision, the phoenix bird could easily see who had appeared.


    But, out of all the students who had appeared in the forest, the phoenix bird was only concerned about the magical energy of one person.


    ''Found him.''


    Unlike all the other magical energies it could sense in the forest, this was the only one that seemed like it could pose a threat to it.


    Although the phoenix bird could sense the change in Orion''s magical energy due to his new mage rank, it didn''t stop the bird from pping its wing and dividing towards Orion.


    Meanwhile, Orion had just arrived at the forest. As the magic circle underneath his feet slowly disappeared, he noticed that he was now standing amidst twisted, ancient trees.


    Orion''s piercing blue eyes scanned his surroundings and he could hear the sound of dangerous frost wolves around him.


    Just like the phoenix, the wolves had noticed the magic circle that appeared in this particr spot, and they sensed the magical energy flowing out of the magic circle as well, hence why they all went to Orion''s location.


    Orion could hear the growling sounds of the wolves, then he saw their eyes which were glowing likenterns within the dark forest. But just when he was about to pull out his sword from his inventory, he noticed a zing inferno of feathers swooping down on him with outstretched talons and a deadly beak aimed toward his neck


    "Oh, shit!!" Orion swore, as he swiftly evaded the Phoenix''s attack.


    His lightning-fast reflexes helped him to react quickly to the Phoenix''s surprise attack, as it allowed him to easily dodge the phoenix''s dangerous beak and talons, but the phoenix wasn''t going to give up so easily.


    It tried to attack again, but Orion quickly distanced himself before making a slight gesture with his hand and a light blue magical barrier shimmered around him.


    The birdunched itself towards him once again but crashed into the barrier with its beak snapping wildly as it attempted to break the magical barrier. But the barrier was strong enough to withstand the Phoenix''s attack.


    It wasn''t Orion''s usual runic barrier, but it was still strong enough to withstand the continuous attackunched towards it… for now.


    Seeing that it couldn''t break through Orion''s barrier, the Phoenix''s eyes zed with fury and its feathers were ruffled due to the failed attack.


    It danced around the barrier, hoping it would find an opening through which it would attack.


    As for the frost wolves, they immediately scurried away after seeing how furious the Phoenix bird was.


    Orion watched as the phoenix circled him, if he hadn''t been tasked with taming the beast, he would have definitely attacked the bird by now.


    ''This bird is really trying to kill me.''


    ''The same thing happened thest time it saw me. I wonder why it wants to kill me so much,'' Orion had noticed that the phoenix was the same one that had tried to attack him two months ago.


    He was able to remember it because he recognized the mana flowing around the bird.


    ''It''s strange that it came here to find me because I had nned to look for it myself, but I guess it saved me the trouble of finding it.''


    ''Professor Daisy, said it''s easy for magical beasts to remember the magical energy of the ones taming them, but this also means that they are able to recognize the mana of those they hate as well, and this guy definitely hates me,''  Orion thought to himself as he noticed the phoenix ring at him, its eyes zing with fury.


    The phoenix cried out in frustration before mming its body against the barrier again.


    Not wanting to waste any more time, Orion swiftly looked at his smart bracelet.


    He was scanning through the map as he tried to find out where he would be heading next.


    ''So, that''s the starting point, and the finish point is…" Orion widened the map and noticed that the finishing point of the race was quite far from where the starting point was.


    There were also a few instructions on what he needed to do during the tournament, so he read them as quickly as he could.


    The instructions were quite simple, and all he had to do was tame the beast as quickly as he could, mount it, and then lead it toward the starting point where the real race would begin.


    Orion swiftly looked around the forest, and with the help of his Omnivision skill, he could see some of the students already mounting their own beasts.


    These students had tamed either a Rank 8 or a Rank 9 beast, so their beasts weren''t as strong as the one in front of him right now.


    Although, the academy had allowed a Rank 15 beast to be used during the tournament, only two of these beasts were present in the forest because they didn''t want a situation whereby the beasts would ughter all of their students right in front of the spectators who would be watching from either the arena or any other ce in the mortal realm.


    Aside from these two beasts, the other beasts were mainly Rank eight or nine beasts while a few of them were from Rank ten to fourteen.


    Bringing his mind back to what was important right now, Orion noticed that the phoenix bird was still trying to do everything in its power to break his barrier.


    With a deep sigh, Orion activated one of his skills.


    "I didn''t want to use this, but you leave me no choice," Orion muttered to himself as he red at the beast in front of him. His eyes remained locked on the beast and this made the beast a bit intrigued, but it knew that it was only a matter of time before it won.


    The phoenix smiled internally, knowing that Orion''s magical barrier now had cracks all over it.


    If itunched an attack at the barrier again, it would most definitely destroy the barrier, and with this thought in mind, it swiftly ignited its body in mes.


    However, just before it could m itself against the magical barrier, the phoenix suddenly heard the loud sound of an explosion in front of it.


    This caused it to pull back a bit as it wondered what was happening.


    The phoenix bird was certain that it heard a loud explosion in front of it just now, so this meant that Orion must have cast a spell to cause the explosion, but there was no sign of smoke or fire in front of the phoenix.


    In fact, Orion remained unharmed and this puzzled the beast even more, but when it lowered its gaze to Orion''s feet, it could see a huge hole underneath his feet that was caused by the mana particles he suddenly released from his body.


    This meant that Orion was no longer standing but instead, he was now hovering above the huge hole underneath his feet. However, this was actually the least of the Phoenix''s problems because even though Orion was floating right now, the Phoenix could also sense therge amount of mana oozing out of the cracked space in the barrier. The amount of mana slipping out of the crack belonged to a beast that was three ranks higher than the rank of the phoenix.


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