"I knew it. Right from the start, I knew you'd be my opponent in this final bout. I hope you won't disappoint me, Satoshi. " Yun Zhe greeted, slightly lowering his head at Satoshi in a formal greeting.
Finally, the Official Beast Tournament was about to end, and it had amounted to a showdown between two young beast tamers, Midoriyama Satoshi and Yun Zhe. Nothing was holding them back anymore. It all came down to who would emerge victorious— because whoever it was between them, he'd be crowned as the new 'Beast Master.'
One of them would claim the grand title while the other would suffer for being second place.
"We're finally back, ladies and gentlemen!" The commentator was as energetic as ever, addressing the audience. As for Luke Skyrunner, who was supposed to be with the commentator, well, he fell asleep in the booth.
The camera drones had a field day putting his sleeping face up in the live stream.
Once again, the referee walked into the middle of the grand stage, going through the ritual of the match. He gestured towards Satoshi and Yun Zhe, telling them to shake hands.
Unlike the semifinals, there will be no limit on how many tamed beasts a person can use during the match. Of course, it wouldn't be fair if the first participant had twenty tamed beasts while the other had a hundred.
That's why— just like in all the previous finals— the referee had to confirm how many tamed beasts they'd use during the fight. While there was no limit to how many tamed beasts they would settle for, both parties needed to agree on the headcount of their tamed beasts.
"You can decide." Satoshi extended his hand, gesturing to Yun Zhe that he could choose the number of tamed beasts they'd be fighting.
"Are you sure about this? Then again, you have more tamed beasts than me. I guess I'll settle for six. Would that be okay?" Yun Zhe asked.
Since the two of them badly wanted to hurry along and commence the match, Satoshi agreed instantly. Before walking into the stage, he had already decided which tamed beasts he'd use. Well, more like he had decided which ones not to use since they'd break the meta of the Official Beast Tournament.
Surprisingly, the first one on Satoshi's list was not a Representative but a normal tamed beast he had tamed inside a specific gate. This tamed beast had human-like features, and he could summon familiars, just like Satoshi. It was none other than Gabriel.
"I'm sorry, Gabriel, but you have to sit this one out for now," Satoshi mumbled once again under his breath. He was relieved to hear in his mind that Gabriel was okay with it.
"You already know which ones I'm going to choose, right?" Yun Zhe called out five of his tamed beasts, which he used during the semifinals. Obviously, he was going to use their combination of skills in their fight, and Satoshi was not at all surprised by his decision.
After all, Yun Zhe was pretty formidable when he had that transformation that paid homage to a certain powerful entity in a certain card game.
"Since this is the finals, I'm going to bring everything to the table as well." Satoshi continued, smiling.
The first spot belonged to Dex. Now that Satoshi had thought about it, this was the first time he was going to use Dex in a match. In the past, Dex just existed in the background, helping him with his decision and giving him information about his tamed beasts. He was efficient at his tasks and helped out a lot whenever needed.
Notwithstanding his achievements, Satoshi was well aware that he could be so much more. Dex is a Representative, after all. And while there's a possibility that he's not suited for combat, there's a chance he is. That's why Satoshi decided to risk it.
Besides, Dex would really help relay information about the opponent's tamed beasts when it came down to it. A saying goes, 'knowing the enemy is half the battle.' If he could get more information on Yun Zhe's tamed beasts, especially their weaknesses, it would more or less guarantee their victory.
"Stat (Statue of Captivity), Amy (Copycat), Sera, Ghast," Satoshi went on calling for his familiar's names. There was no shred of hesitation in Satoshi's heart. Now that he managed to climb this high up, there was no way he'd fight half-heartedly. If winning meant he needed to use the best combinations of his tamed beasts, then so be it.
However, before he could call out to his sixth familiar (Ryu Ryoko, unsurprisingly), a tamed beast appeared right before Satoshi. At first, Satoshi didn't recognize it since he had never seen a tamed beast that looked like it. But after a couple of seconds, he recognized it, and his jaw dropped to the ground as he did so.
It was the Scarlet Scythe.
Somehow, the Scarlet Scythe managed to cross dimensions and appear right before Satoshi— or so that's what Jonathan (Jana's murderer) thought. Unbeknownst to him, the Scarlet Scythe followed him back to Earth to choose a new master.
"S-Scarlet Scythe? Satoshi, why do you have the Scarlet Scythe..." Yun Zhe's pupils dilated as he suspiciously stared at Satoshi.
"I... I don't know. It suddenly appeared in front of us, didn't you see?" Satoshi continued. "In any case, I'm going to summon the Black Winged Dragon as my sixth—"
Swish!
The Scarlet Scythe had a striking bright red color across its handle. Its blade had a deep black shade on it, but the sharp edge of it was matted with scarlet. A sinister aura enveloped it as it swung mightily towards Satoshi's neck, barely stopping before its tip touched Satoshi's carotid artery.
"Use me. I have deemed you worthy of becoming my new master." The Scarlet Scythe called out. Even without sound amplification, its voice echoed throughout the entire American Dome.
"What is it talking about, Satoshi? Didn't the Scarlet Scythe belong to Jana? What's going on?" Yun Zhe asked, his face still as pale as a ghost. He couldn't believe what was happening now, so much so that he pinched himself to see whether he was dreaming.
He wasn't dreaming.
"Why do you need a new master? Don't you have a master already?" Satoshi asked.
It's as if time had stopped for everyone. Grave silence filled the entire American Dome as they watched the preparation for the finals unfold. This was undoubtedly an event they weren't expecting.
And, of course, everyone was familiar with the Scarlet Scythe. After all, Jana's fight against Link was one of the iconic moments in this year's Official Beast Tournament.
There was a pause, and the Scarlet Scythe responded in its monotonous voice just like usual. "My master has been killed."
Gasp!
Everyone gasped, with Yun Zhe being the loudest. He couldn't believe that someone had killed Jana in the middle of the Official Beast Tournament. "B-but how... I saw her this morning. She was perfectly fine. Just how..."
That's when Yun Zhe's mind drifted to a certain someone. Before the finals commenced, he figured his mind was playing tricks on him when he noticed a familiar face.
But now that he thought about it, he might have been correct. The person he saw before he went to the grand stage was Jonathan. There was no mistaking it.
"Jonathan..." Yun Zhe muttered to himself as he gritted his teeth.
"What?! Are you sure about that?!" Satoshi blurted out before he thought about it. It was a foolish question to ask since the proof was right there. There was no way the Scarlet Scythe would choose a new master if its master weren't out of the picture in the first place.
"Will you be my new master?" Scarlet Scythe asked a second time. At this point, Satoshi would just be doing everyone a disservice if he rejected an offer that is once in a lifetime.
"Then..." Satoshi extended his hand toward the Scarlet Scythe. Because a huge crowd was watching his every move, he decided not to do his crazy dance to summon his blue flames. Just thinking about it already made him feel embarrassed.
A fickle blue flame appeared in his hand's palm, making him heave a sigh. He was aware that the taming might not work if the blue flame was weak. That's why he had to make the fire stronger and more potent.
And in order to do that, he had to do his dance.
Getting rid of his embarrassment, Satoshi started his ritual. He remembered getting a weird look from Shiroi when she first saw it, which made him cringe. Regardless of the thought, he continued with the dance until the flame in his hand was sizeable enough.
During the entire 'ritual,' everyone remained quiet. They had no idea what Satoshi was doing, but it was pretty interesting. Even those watching the live stream couldn't take their eyes off the screen while they watched Satoshi's weird dance. (After this, the infamous Satoshi dance will become viral on the internet)
Once the deed was over, Satoshi extended his hand to Scarlet Scythe. "Welcome to the team, Scarlet Scythe." He greeted, his blue flames touching the Weapons-Type Representative.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺