Absolute Beast Dominion

Right now, all 25 students were standing in formation in front of Tarun as he gave his last personal speech.

They were all ready: academy uniforms, armour, their weapons and every other necessary item.

"Whatever you bought with the 5000 Gold Coins has automatically been recorded, meaning you can safely use them without having any points deducted."

He turned towards Leo.

"This also means you aren't supposed to bring out any extra items that you might have on you beforehand through special means."

Then he looked around at the other students.

"So, anyway, enough lecture. Now, as your academy's vice-principal, let me give you some motivational words."

"Though not yet listed, the rewards for the top-performing academies' students will be a Noble Bloodline beast for Beast Masters, and enough advancement materials to push you through 1 major rank for other students with professions like mages and warriors."

He looked towards Veronica and the other supports.

"Sponsored support for life-talent individuals until they reach the intermediate rank and, finally, a special seat in high-class Empire facilities for information-related talents like that of Fruder."

Fruder was the intellect of Aurelius Beast Academy.

"And what I am talking about is the bare minimum from the time when the competition was only held between the Human Empire. This time, winning the competition has tons of unknown benefits, especially now that two more Empires have joined.... Who knows... even a Royal Bloodline beast might be given."

Tarun's words worked like magic, especially on the top 10, most of whom were Beast Masters.

Yano seemed to be losing his mind, and the earlier embarrassment about how he needed to beg in order to come on the team had literally vanished. He was ready to beg further even when it wasn't required anymore.

With that done, they were teleported to a waiting room and told to stand in a circle marked with student positions.

The room seemed to be inside a building or underground because there were no windows, and some noises could be heard from above.

They could faintly hear a voice in the distance, which seemed to be introducing people one by one.

The competition had already begun.

They waited only for a minute before the roof above their heads opened.

"Next, we have the 3rd academy of the Human Empire!"

"AURELIUS BEAST ACADEMY!!!"

The announcer's voice boomed as the platform Leo and the others were standing on began to rise upward.

"Damn, directly to the fray?" Aaron said with a chuckle as he folded his hands to give himself a cool posture.

The others also subtly changed their postures to appear imposing, and finally, the platform stopped as they found themselves standing on a large, expansive field where many groups of people, each with a similar dress of their own, were already gathered and looking at them.

Leaving the people on the field aside, Leo and the others looked past the wide boundaries, where a countless number of spectators were cheering and watching.

However, they noticed the differences in the audience groups almost instantly.

1/3 of the stadium was filled to the brim with humans, 1/3 with elves—though they seemed fewer in number—and 1/3 with dragons—even fewer than the elves. It seemed that the space provided to each race was the same; it just looked filled differently due to differences in population.

And apparently, nobody wanted to sit with members of other races because of the invisible boundary that existed between them, where seats didn't seem to be desired by any people. Though the dragons looked a bit relaxed as they allowed themselves to sit anywhere they desired. Leo even spotted one sitting amidst the elves, where he was repelling the other elves, making a circular space around him.

There were also 3 enormous translucent screens around the stadium in a circle with equal spacing, which were currently displaying Leo and the group's image as they looked around.

Through the camera angle, Leo immediately realised where the recording was occurring from and looked in that direction, only to see the many floating orbs coming towards them.

At that time, the host spoke.

"Let's take a look at the prestigious students of the Aurelius Beast Academy!"

"As the 1st ranked student, as well as the leader of the team, we have LEO!"

One orb directly came in front of Leo, streaming his handsome face across the 3 Empires.

And the fact that he indeed looked good held true, as many girls in the stadium and outside it, watching the stream on phones and televisions, started shouting his name.

Suddenly, Leo felt a hostile gaze land on him from across the distance. Since his [Spiritual Sense] was on, he could pick up the location of such gazes.

Leo immediately turned towards the direction and found Vulcan, with the gold-trimmed dress.

His senses picked up another couple of hostile gazes from a great distance.

They came from two separate groups if Vulcan's gaze was disregarded.

And those two groups seemed to house dragons with their variety of horns and sturdy tails.

One was from Vulcarion in 1 group, and the other was from Ignivorax and Pyrotrax in another group.

"Looks like the main people are already out..." Leo muttered after realising that the human academies were getting revealed at the very end, while the dragons and elves were already out.

The host announced the names of the top 10 students, drawing curious looks from every direction.

When it was time for the others' introductions, a particular race seemed dissatisfied after Sylrael was introduced.

But the elves' dissatisfaction was wholly disregarded by Leo and the other humans, since the elves had themselves brought many human slaves as support. And to be fair, Aurelius Beast Academy was to be considered in a fair light, considering they only had 2 elf slave in their team. Otherwise, there were 3 elves in the Velerath Grand Academy group, whose dress code was pure black with minimal trims in silver.

Valencrest also had 2 elves. And even if others were not yet introduced, people already knew that the other academies would have them.

But one thing was sure: nobody looked as good as Sylrael, both in the way she carried herself and in her looks.

Leo noticed a particular group of gazes from the elves' teams land on Sylrael that gave him some weird sort of feeling. As if they were mocking laughter that stemmed from watching a rival getting downplayed.

Leo looked towards that direction and saw 3 groups from which the gazes came, and all the subjects of those eyes seemed to have green hair like Sylrael.