I Can Contract Beauties-Chapter 220: First Round

Miguel arrived at his seat a few moments later.

Damian nodded his head at him, acknowledging his presence before shifting his attention back to the stage below.

After Miguel sat down along with his two beasts, he also turned to look at the stages below.

According to what he knew, there were a total of 40 participants in each stage that would fight this time. These 40 were the most outstanding of their batch, and deserved special attention from their teachers or were recruited through special means.

As for the freshmen, they were the students who were reported to have shown talents before joining the academy.

They would be randomly paired, and the winner of these 40, the 20, would then advance to the second round which would happen this afternoon after a short break.

This afternoon, the top 10 will be decided, and the competition will continue tomorrow to determine what they call the Mythical Five.

At this moment, Miguel realized that he knew one of the participants in the freshmen summoner stage.

Gasper stood before a girl in white clothing. Between them was a teacher tasked to referee their battle.

From the looks of it, Gasper had already recovered his previous bearing.

There was a hint of arrogance in his eyes, but this arrogance did not stem from baseless strength, but his confidence in his own self.

Looking at his opponent, Gasper’s chin was held up, not afraid of anything that would be thrown to him.

Miguel looked at his figure and was amused by his actions. It was apparent that he had also grown stronger since the last time they interacted.

Although it has only been more than a week since they arrived in Blazing City, it would not be strange if they suddenly increased their strength during this short period of time.

After all, Blazing City has a lot of resources compared to Peach Village and the people here had more advanced knowledge as well.

As this was only a freshmen battle, the referee allowed the two participants to summon their grimoire and beasts ahead of time.

Both parties complied as they each closed their eyes and chanted the summoning mantra deep inside their head.

After a little less than a minute of time had passed, the Fire Wolf appeared right beside him. Compared to before, Miguel noticed that its size had grown considerably larger.

Its height grew from Gasper’s knee and now to his waist. Its fiery fur also looked more shiny and red.

As it appeared, it immediately let out a terrifying howl that attracted the attention of many audiences.

Seeing how it took Gasper a dozens of seconds to summon his grimoire, Miguel could not help but recall the effects of the necklace that Aaliyah had forged.

Previously, when Gasper had trouble summoning his grimoire swiftly, they attributed it to the fact that he was traumatized and could not focus himself well enough like he used to.

However, it was clear that he had already gained his confidence and arrogance, yet, the situation regarding his summoning time still had not changed.

This led to Miguel thinking that Gasper was actually not the genius that he always spoke of.

It should be the necklace that helped him to summon his grimoire faster before.

Arriving at such conjecture, Miguel could not help but feel pity for Gasper.

’Could it be that the necklace was supposed to be his fortuitous encounter?’

Not only did the guy lose to him, he even unknowingly stole his ’fortuitous encounter’.

What was worth mentioning was that Miguel did not take it forcefully, but instead, the other party willingly handed it to him after he lost the bet.

At that time, he must have been secretly happy that what he lost was just an ordinary necklace, not knowing that it hold so much value.

If Gasper knew, Miguel wondered how he would react.

Meanwhile, the girl, his opponent, also summoned her grimoire a dozen seconds later than Gasper.

In this regard, Gasper was considered better, but it obviously pales into comparison when he still has the necklace.

She summoned her beast which was red-colored colored beetle the size of her torso.

Miguel was no longer the ignorant summoner he used to be a few weeks ago.

Aside from having finished and memorizing the beasts almanac provided by Erika, he had also read some information regarding higher level beasts in the library during these past days.

The beetle, for example. Miguel knew that it’s real name was Red-Shelled Beetle. It was famous for its defensive strength and its capabilities to endure fire-type attacks. The long snout akin to a horn acts as a deterrent to its opponent, and it can also be used to attack like a blunt weapon.

The Red-Shelled Beetle buzzed as it shook its wings. It was not afraid of the Fire Wolf either as it stared back at it with a provocative gaze.

The beetle was quite fat compared to the ones that Miguel saw in the beast almanac’s illustration. Perhaps due to it that it had not flown and still in the ground just buzzing it’s wings.

The two summoners then each used their absolute shields. Each of them were just Apprentice Summoners so the color of their shield were that of a bronze.

Seeing that the two of them had already prepared, the referee announced the start of the battle and swiftly retreated to the edge of the stage.

As per his usual strategy, Gasper made the move first.

He pointed at the Red-Shelled Beetle and ordered his Fire Wolf to attack.

"Fire Claw!"

One ordered while the other followed.

The Fire Wolf dashed toward the Red-Shelled Beetle at extreme speed.

Its fire coated claw extended as it swiped toward the Red-Shelled Beetle.

However, instead of ordering it to dodge, the summoner of the Red-Shelled Beetle instead ordered her beast to retract it’s insect legs inwardly.

As it did so, the [Fire Claw] released by Gasper’s Fire Wolf arrived and directly struck the exoskeleton of the beetle.

The sound of a hard object hitting another hard object reverberated on the stage.

The Fire Wolf retreated a few steps back as it stared at the beetle while waiting for the order of its master.

The beetle on the other hand was seemingly unscathed

Its legs extended as its wings buzzed before its master give a simple command.

"Horn Tackle, now!"

As the order was received, the Red-Shelled Beetle immediately propelled toward the unsuspecting Fire Wolf.

It’s horn-like snout was like a pole moving toward the Fire Wolf at extreme speed.

The attack was too sudden as the Fire Wolf and Gasper himself was unable to react.

Boom!

A mini explosion resounded as the horn-like snout struck the Fire Wolf’s front leg.

The Fire Wolf whimpered a little bit before it recovered almost immediately.

Gasper did not panic as well. It was apparent that his experience in battle had grown since his last fight with Miguel.

"Fire Dash!"

He commanded simply.

The Fire Wolf did not hesitate and used the [Fire Dash] without any pretense.

The force behind the tackle was redirected, and the Fire Wolf only received a minor damage.

"Again! Fire Dash then Fire Claw!"

The beetle was quite plump and was seemingly unable to fly for too long. It had just landed to the ground and was unable to react to the Fire Wolf counterattack.

However, the Red-Shelled Beetle was not a beast that was designed to dodge its opponent’s attack.

It’s strength relies on its powerful defense, the hard shell that was covering its wings. The hard shell also has fire immunity properties, and it was not afraid of tanking the attack of the Fire Wolf which was clearly imbued with fire.

As the Fire Wolf struck, the same situation happened once again.

It was unable to break the defense of the beetle.

Due to the force, though, the beetle was thrown two meters away from the Fire Wolf.

Gasper did not think too much about it and causally ordered his Fire Wolf to attack a few more times.

The Fire Wolf used its skills one after the other. However, it was unfortunate that most of them were fire-type skills and hence were unable to break through the beetle’s hard defense.

The situation stagnated and the two beasts were in deadlock. Each could not defeat the other due to the contrast of their skills.

One focused on defending, while the other focused on attacking,

However, the situation did not last for long.

Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream was released from the beetle’s mouth.

Its wings buzzed violently as it flew around like a headless fly.

As it did so, everyone noticed the trail of smoke that followed behind its flight.

"Smoke? The Red-Shelled Beetle actually caught fire?"

"The wings under it’s hard shell must have been hit by the Fire Wolf’s attack earlier!"

At the same moment, a smile also appeared on Gasper’s face.

’Finally!’ He muttered to himself as he ordered his Fire Wolf to dash and attack the smoked beetle.

It turns out that Gasper had aimed at this vulnerable spot of the beetle all along.