Qiao Sang stood up and waved her hand to put away Little Treasure-Hunter. Just as she stepped forward to enter the arena, He Datao grabbed her.
"What is it?" Qiao Sang turned and asked.
He Datao gritted his teeth and said, "Crush him!"
Qiao Sang was sitting in the front row and had excellent hearing, so she had naturally heard what Liu Zeru had said to He Datao before the match.
The truth hurts; it's been a whole day and he still hasn't forgotten... Qiao Sang nodded. "Don't worry."
With that, she walked toward the field.
He Datao's mood instantly brightened. In his view, if Qiao Sang deployed the Blazing Star Hound, crushing Liu Zeru would be like crushing a noob.
Xu Yixuan turned her head to look at He Datao's grinning face and couldn't help but say, "Don't celebrate too early. Winning is a certainty, but who crushes whom in the first round is not so certain."
He Datao: "???"
He Datao couldn't help but raise his voice, "Are you questioning the skill level of our Great God Qiao?!"
Xu Yixuan's mouth twitched; she didn't want to talk to this idiot anymore.
As Qiao Sang entered the arena, the cameramen at various positions instantly became tense.
Five days!
It had been five whole days!
Every time Qiao Sang appeared and summoned Articuno, the streaming platform crashed immediately.
The technical staff had been replaced wave after wave.
"Should it be fine this time?" a cameraman asked worriedly, wearing headphones and looking at the lens.
The voice of a staff member came through the headphones: "Don't worry. This time we hired an A-grade engineer from the General Bureau to fix it. I guarantee there won't be any problems."
The cameraman's mouth twitched. "You said the same thing yesterday."
The voice in the headphones gave an awkward laugh and explained, "You don't understand; the problem isn't on our end. I don't know when the news reached the Ancient Mist region, but they said we have a student with an Articuno. A massive number of users from there are crowding in, causing the access requests to severely exceed the system load."
"Our platform had already been upgraded to accommodate 1 million simultaneous viewers, but the people in the Ancient Mist region are simply insane. The moment Articuno appeared, the users instantly exceeded 1 million."
"Hehe, but this time our platform has been upgraded to accommodate 10 million people, so rest assured, there absolutely won't be any more problems."
The cameraman breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."
He gave the girl on the field a close-up shot.
The whistle blew.
In the frame, the girl formed hand seals. Within a green star array, the pet that had forced them to work overtime through the night slowly appeared.
At the same time, the voice on the other end of the headphones suddenly roared, "What?! It crashed again?!"
...The cameraman blurted out, "Fuck!"
On the field.
Qiao Sang was not surprised by the pet the opponent deployed. She had studied videos of Liu Zeru's matches; the probability of him deploying Bewear as his first pet was as high as 87%.
On the other side, Liu Zeru had a serious expression. Looking at the tiny pet before him, he didn't dare be careless.
An endangered pet; this was his first time battling such a rare creature...
"Qu!"
At the referee's command, Lubao quickly sprayed fine snow onto the ground, and the greenery-covered field was instantly coated in a layer of frost.
Immediately after, it exerted force with its front limbs, charging toward Bewear across the frost.
With the slipperiness of the ice, Lubao ran faster and faster.
"Rock Block!" Liu Zeru said calmly.
Bewear instantly condensed energy, clenched its right paw into a fist, and slammed it hard into the ground.
Sharp rocks suddenly burst through the frozen ground, advancing continuously forward, sending ice shards scattering everywhere.
The rocks and broken ice did not block Lubao's progress; instead, they became stepping stones.
Lubao leaped up, moving nimbly across the rocks and large ice fragments. With a few twists and turns, it appeared right in front of Bewear.
The spectator stands erupted.
"Such speed!"
"This evasion ability is incredible!"
"Articuno! Mommy loves you!"
"Daddy loves you too!"
"Bah! Stop trying to take advantage of me!"
"I haven't even said you're taking advantage of me yet!"
Liu Zeru's mindset was not affected in the slightest; he calmly observed the situation.
At this moment, Lubao stepped on a large rock and leaped, using its amazing jumping power to jump directly above Bewear.
It was then that its tail swept up a current of water.
Seeing this, Liu Zeru's eyes flashed, but he issued no command.
Bewear remained motionless, allowing the water-wrapped tail to slam into its head.
"Bang bang bang!"
The Water Tail struck one blow after another, continuously hitting Bewear's body.
The audience's initial cheering turned into worry.
"Gosh, why does this scene look so familiar..."
"This Bewear's defense is too high; it hasn't fallen even after so many direct hits."
"My heart aches; I hope Articuno's tail didn't get hurt from swinging..."
"Sigh, what happens if it can't deal enough damage?"
"I bet Bewear is about to use Fury Fist next."
On the field, Qiao Sang focused her attention on Bewear.
With Lubao's attack power, it couldn't break Bewear's defense in a short time, but that didn't matter. Bewear could break its own defense!
"Fury Fist!"
"Now!"
Qiao Sang and Liu Zeru spoke simultaneously.
Predicting the enemy's next move is the core essence of Beast Tamer battles, and Qiao Sang clearly had a great talent for this.
Terrifying energy condensed in Bewear's clenched paw, and it then swung its fist ruthlessly toward Lubao.
The staggering power and explosive force made the fist fall with a peculiar sound, as if tearing through the air.
At the same time, Lubao quickly leaped onto Bewear's body.
"BANG!!!"
Lubao's figure vanished from everyone's sight. Bewear's fist, containing terrifying energy, smashed into its own body following the direction of Lubao's jump.
"Bao!!!"
Bewear let out a miserable cry and crashed to the ground.
The moment it fell, Lubao suddenly reappeared on top of Bewear.
After a few seconds of brief silence, the spectator stands erupted in deafening noise.
"Holy shit? I didn't get it! What happened?!"
"I get it! I get it! The Slush Rush ability! It's Slush Rush!"
"Amazing! Making Bewear hit itself, she actually thought of this move!"
"So slapping it with Water Tail was a front for attacking, but actually just to wait for this moment?!"
"Exactly! Looking at Qiao Sang's command and Articuno's coordination just now, this was clearly planned from the start!"
"Cool! Too cool!"
"Wait, wait! Look, Bewear is getting up! Holy crap, look at its red eyes, it looks like its rage value has increased!"
"Damn, how can this be..."
"Ah, my Articuno!"
Looking at the rising Bewear, the spectator stands were filled with wails.
Some moves, once executed, are hard to use a second time once the opponent is on guard.
Any Beast Tamer with a bit of a brain wouldn't let their pet fall for the same trick twice.
Facing a Bewear with maxed-out rage, the obviously fragile Articuno would surely be knocked out in one hit.
On the field, Liu Zeru took a deep breath and said, "Qiao Sang, I admit you are strong, but this is where it ends."
Having said that, he shouted, "Use everything!"
"BAO!!!"
Bewear roared toward the sky, its momentum growing stronger and stronger as red rage energy rapidly condensed in its clenched right fist.
*Brother, you're getting a bit carried away...* After Qiao Sang finished her internal monologue, she spoke: "Sing."
"Lu~ lululu~ lulu~ lululu~ lu~"
Hearing its Tamer's words, Lubao opened its mouth.
Invisible sound waves rippled outward.
The red in Bewear's eyes slowly faded, and the momentum on its body weakened.
"Bao..."
Bewear wore an intoxicated expression.
*So beautiful, the world is so wonderful...*
*It actually worked...* Qiao Sang felt a sense of peace in her heart and said in a gentle tone, "Water Pulse."
"Lu!"
Lubao's entire body was instantly wrapped in water as it shot upward, then dove down, striking Bewear violently.
*It's attacking...* Liu Zeru thought peacefully.
His own command to use full power seemed to still be ringing in his ears; Bewear raised its fist... and in the next second, it was sent flying backward.
"Bao..."
*So dizzy, I'll just sleep for a bit...*
Bewear peacefully closed its eyes.
"Qu!"
The whistle signaling the end of the match sounded.
"Shengshui Middle School's Qiao Sang wins!"
(End of Chapter)