Beast Taming: Starting From Zero - Chapter 765: Straight Bear

Chapter 765: Straight Bear

“Let us congratulate contestant Qiao Sang for winning this match!”

The commentator’s voice rang out right after.

The entire venue remained silent.

A moment later, cheers and murmurs of discussion erupted.

“That poor Elastic Bear…”

“Isn’t it, though…”

“Forget whether its head hurts, just watching it get hypnotized, then jolted awake, then hypnotized again and again… it reminded me of dozing off and getting repeatedly woken up by my alarm. Just imagining it makes me want to go insane.”

“Damn, I wasn’t even that affected, but now that you’ve said that, I suddenly really pity the Elastic Bear…”

“The Ghost Ring King is insanely fast, and its skill proficiency is super high. Even though it doesn’t have any particularly powerful attacks, it gives off this terrifying ‘if it controls you, you’re done for’ feeling.”

“Still, you’ve got to admit the Elastic Bear is strong too. It’s the first pet to break through the Ghost Ring King’s Shadow Control!”

“How can a pet as powerful as the Ghost Ring King have such a ridiculous-looking appearance?”

“Funny thing is, it kind of suits it in a weird way…”

Amidst the chatter, Qiao Sang raised her hand and recalled her Little Treasure, who was excitedly waving to the audience, back into her Beast Codex.

The second match was about to start, and she had to speed up her hand seals…

As that thought crossed her mind, a mechanical voice rang out: “3, 2, 1, Match Start!”

Qiao Sang raised her hand and began sealing rapidly.

Soon, an orange-yellow star array lit up before her

With the appearance of the star arrays on the field, the crowd immediately began to buzz.

“Qiao Sang’s hand seal speed has improved so much!”

“Yeah, now she’s on par with the other contestants. Just a few days ago, she was the slower one.”

“I thought she was just having a good day in the first match, but she’s this fast in this one too?”

“I saw her practicing hand seals nonstop while she was sitting in the contestant area.”

“But it’s only been a few days, and she’s already caught up with people who’ve been training for over a decade…”

—

On the field.

Two orange-yellow star arrays lit up simultaneously.

As two six-meter-tall figures emerged, white snowflakes began drifting down from above.

Ice Aipalu…

Wakhe stared at the mysterious pet beast in the distance, whose shimmering scales gleamed under the lights, and couldn’t help but hold his breath.

Though the form hadn’t changed, every scale on Ice Aipalu had clearly been meticulously cleaned and maintained. The gem on its forehead sparkled like a pearl, and the crystalline scales all over its body radiated a dazzling brilliance, mysterious and regal.

It had the breathtaking elegance of a goddess dressed to impress.

Even someone like him, who never cared about appearances, had to admit, Ice Aipalu looked stunning.

At the same time, a wave of amazement swept through the crowd. Many whipped out their phones to snap pictures of the radiant blue beast on the field.

Even audience members who had seen Ice Aipalu in earlier matches couldn’t hold back their gasps of awe.

“Why does it feel like Ice Aipalu got even more glamorous?”

“OMG! Is this the difference between video and seeing it in real life? It’s too beautiful!”

“Ice Aipalu definitely went to a pet spa! It didn’t look like this a few days ago!”

“Now I’m really curious, did Fire Qilu, Ghost Ring King, and Ice Aipalu all go to the same pet spa? Why’s the difference so huge?”

In the center of attention, Lubao opened her mouth.

The snowy sky suddenly turned even darker, and an icy wind howled as the snowfall intensified.

A bear-type beast, black-and-white in color, its thick fur covering most of its eyes and standing on two legs, wavered before suddenly turning into a streak of white light and dashing forward.

As it moved, one became three, and three became six.

Six white glowing afterimages darted forward, rapidly shifting position as they charged toward Lubao’s location.

As the heavy snow began to fall, Wakhe called out: “Merge!”

In an instant, the six white-light forms converged and stacked up, each one jumping onto the shoulders of another.

Despite the sudden weight increase, the three stacked white lights didn’t slow down at all.

Snowflakes fell.

The three figures on top didn’t change at all.

It’s not Ice Flower Seal… Wakhe let out a small sigh of relief.

Ice Aipalu had many tricky moves. Besides its super-tier domain skill Ice Field Domain and healing skill Healing Light, the most annoying one was Ice Flower Seal.

If it wasn’t well-practiced, it wouldn’t be a big problem. But judging from the previous matches, its Ice Flower Seal was clearly at the Ultimate Skill level.

Even though he trusted Straight Bear’s strength, he had never tested it against an ultimate-tier Ice Flower Seal before and didn’t dare let it come into contact so easily.

He had assumed Ice Aipalu was about to use Ice Flower Seal, but it wasn’t…

Looks like Ice Aipalu had a snowstorm-related move too…

Straight Bear, a dual-type beast of Fighting and Normal attributes. Known for charging in straight lines, even when facing obstacles it would try to turn in a straight-line fashion. It was terrible at gradual turns. It was always full of fiery spirit and had explosive burst power…

As Qiao Sang stared at the figures charging at her, these related data points popped into her mind.

If she remembered correctly, all Straight Bears had the Fleetfoot trait. When suffering a status condition, their speed increased, and they became immune to effects like paralysis…

Various thoughts raced through her head, though her face remained calm.

As if understanding that the snow wasn’t a threat, the six white afterimages split again and charged directly at Lubao.

Bang!

Just as they were about to collide, the six forms suddenly split apart. Two even leaped into the air, surrounding Lubao from all angles. Six glowing claws slashed down viciously.

But at that moment, a sudden blizzard engulfed the entire field, as if to swallow it in endless whiteness.

Lubao’s figure was instantly obscured by the snowy glow.

Even though they could no longer see the target, Straight Bear’s claws still struck down fiercely.

Cracks instantly appeared in the ground. One claw hit so hard that the entire floor exploded into a crater over ten meters wide!

But the commotion was soon hidden beneath the raging snowstorm.

That was Snowfall just now…? Why didn’t Ice Aipalu cry out? Did it not get hit? That’s not right, Straight Bear’s Crushing Claw hit within a 13-meter radius. No matter how Ice Aipalu dodged, it should’ve been caught…

The blizzard had blocked Vacche’s vision, leaving him to guess what had happened.

“Ice Aipalu just used Snowfall! Did Straight Bear’s attack manage to land?”

As the commentator’s words fell, several beams of white light scanned the field from all directions.

From the audience’s viewpoint, the scene within the snowfall suddenly became clear.

Only one Straight Bear remained. Ice Aipalu was nowhere to be seen.

“Looks like Straight Bear’s attack missed! Where did Ice Aipalu go?”

“Where is Ice Aipalu?”

“How does a massive beast like that just disappear?”

“I remember Ice Aipalu has a Melting Water trait, but there’s no water and no rain now?”

“This is wild! Where on earth is Ice Aipalu?”

For a moment, the audience stared blankly at the field, their eyes sweeping around in confusion, all guessing what skill Lubao had just used, and where it had gone.

Of course she’s on Straight Bear… Qiao Sang thought to herself.

By now, everyone already knew that Lubao had the Melting Water trait. If it started raining, she could hide her body in the rainwater, and opponents would immediately shift their attention to the water on the ground.

But snow, that wasn’t something opponents would immediately associate with concealment.

Technically, Melting Water couldn’t work with snow. But it could work with melted snow.

Straight Bear was always burning with hot-blooded energy. Its body temperature was extremely high, and it had just run a long distance to get here. The snow that fell on it earlier had already partially melted…

Though to be honest, things turning out like this was a complete accident.

She had originally planned with Lubao to open with Snowfall, partly to block the opponent’s vision and restrict their movement across the field.

But also, because she had tasted the benefits of Aurora Veil.

As long as it snowed beforehand, it would be easy for Lubao to activate Aurora Veil later.

Although Lubao had Healing Light, which could fully heal all injuries, it could only be used once per cast.

Aurora Veil, however, could halve all incoming damage for a set period once activated… Qiao Sang calmly sensed Lubao’s location through their link, her face unreadable.

“Move!” Wakhe suddenly shouted.

Even though he couldn’t see what was happening inside the storm, he could still hear the voices of the audience and commentator.

Ice Aipalu had disappeared.

One of the worst-case scenarios in a battle, was standing still while not knowing where your opponent was!

“Straight!”

Straight Bear let out a cry and immediately started sprinting in straight lines across the field.

From the audience’s perspective, it looked like a streak of white light zigzagging rapidly across the arena.

It moved so fast that people couldn’t even keep up with their eyes.

But after about ten seconds of this, the crowd suddenly realized, they could follow its movements now. “I knew my eyesight got better after that rebound buff! Look, I can even see what stance Straight Bear is running in!”

“No, it’s not your eyes, it’s that Straight Bear is slowing down!”

“Yeah! Look, it’s freezing over!”

On the field.

A thick layer of ice had suddenly formed over Straight Bear’s body, emitting visible cold mist.

Its speed slowed, and slowed, until it completely stopped, frozen in place like an ice sculpture.

A single droplet of water rolled off its foot.

It twisted and grew, transforming into Ice Aipalu.

“Straight-Line Bear has been frozen!” The commentator exclaimed.

Then, as if seeing something else, their eyes widened and their tone shifted to surprise: “Ice Aipalu has appeared! Looks like it had been staying near Straight Bear while melted, how did it pull that off?!”

The arena went briefly silent, then erupted into a frenzy.

“Oh my god! How did that even happen?!”

“I’m so confused. Did Ice Aipalu just climb down from Straight Bear??”

“Melting Water trait? But was there water? How did Ice Aipalu melt?”

“Didn’t it start snowing at the very beginning? Maybe the snow on Straight Bear melted into water?”

“That must be it! Otherwise, there’s no explanation for how Ice Aipalu flowed off its body…”

“Damn! How is this even possible? Straight Bear had five clones at the start, being able to identify the real one and then find melted snow to merge with… that’s at least a five-star difficulty!”

“Well, there are ways to tell the real one from up close, especially when both the real one and the clones attack at the same time. The real body’s attacks are stronger, so you can kind of feel it. But pulling off Melting that fast in that situation? You’d need insane reaction speed and eyesight!”

“That’s just too hard…”

Wakhe heard all of this, but didn’t have time to think. He shouted: “Break!”

Ice-type freezing was powerful, but usually only the body was frozen. The mind could still think, and the beast could still receive commands!

Hearing its beast tamer’s voice, Straight Bear’s energy began to flow. Its muscles suddenly bulged.

Crack!

The ice shell started to fracture.

But just then, a mountain-sized ice spike appeared above Straight Bear, slamming down with terrifying force.

Shatter!

The ice shell exploded into pieces.

Straight Bear was flattened to the ground.

“Straight!”

But in the very next moment, it let out a low growl, and the muscles in its limbs bulged again!

Then, it raised both arms and lifted the massive icicle off itself!

But with the blizzard still raging, Straight Bear couldn’t see its opponent.

It gripped the icicle tightly, about to throw it away.

When another mountain-sized icicle came crashing down onto it!

“Straight!!”

The unexpected extra weight made its knees buckle.

The snowfll had blocked most of the view, but not all of it.

The falling icicles stirred the wind and snow just enough for Wakhe to catch glimpses of the scene inside.

When he saw Straight Bear carrying two colossal icicles, his pupils shrank.

He immediately recalled yesterday’s scene, seven of these massive icicles crushing Duoleng Duck.

This isn’t good, if more icicles come down like that, it’s over… Wakhe’s expression turned grim. He shouted: “Attack!”

Sometimes, there was no need to give detailed commands. As long as Straight Bear was told to attack, the first thing it would do, was deal with the two giant icicles in its hands.

“Straight!”

Its lower limbs bent a little more, thick white light gathering around its legs.

Th𝙞𝐬 ƈh𝗮p†ꬲr 𝕀ṡ p𝖔𝘴τ𝗲𝕕 bყ 𝒦𝖎𝗍ꬲ𝘯𝟬𝘷𝑒|

Just then, a third mountain-sized icicle descended.

“STRAIGHT!!!”

Muscles on its body swelled again.

But this time, its knees didn’t bend.

The next moment, with all three giant icicles on its shoulders, Straight Bear suddenly leapt a hundred meters into the sky!

The view from above was much clearer.

Spotting a faint blue figure below, Straight-Line Bear, still holding all three icicles, hurled them fiercely downward.