Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-84

Chapter 84: Decisive Failure

Su Ping saw the Lightning Rat looking quite stressed and couldn’t help but smile. “Hey, little guy. Miss me?”

The creature immediately hid behind Su Yanying’s leg and trembled upon seeing Su Ping’s wicked grin, one that had been imprinted deep inside its memory. Its recent life was quite enjoyable because Su Yanying always made sure there was enough food, care and rest. But as soon as it saw Su Ping again, it was reminded of all the nightmarish training it received a while back.

Su Yanying, on the other hand, was glad that she brought her Fallen Phoenix as a back-up plan. Still, she wondered why her Lightning Rat was afraid of Su Ping, instead of the Thunder Basilisk on the other side of the stage.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t read her pet’s mind with more accuracy yet.

Wait, why is HE up there? Su Lingyue saw his brother showing up together with the “runner up” of the third year and failed to believe her eyes.

She had always seen Su Ping as a sluggish and useless failure who knew nothing other than bullying the weak. How could he even stand together with Su Yanying?

More importantly, what was he doing on stage? Was he going to play a grandiose prank in public?

Knowing him, Su Lingyue knew she almost had the right answer.

Curse him. So that’s why he was in the seniors’ area. To hook up with a girl! Su Lingyue felt her good mood was instantly replaced by sudden fury.

“Get ready, you two!” On the stage, the judge was already announcing the start of the match. In fact, he felt more stressed than the participants because he was responsible for ensuring their safety; he wasn’t so sure he could stop a Thunder Basilisk, who had just been promoted to the seventh rank.

Su Yanying nodded to the judge and gave her Fallen Phoenix the order to move. The bird leaped into the sky while covered in intense flames; the entire stadium became hotter.

“Blazing Ray!” Su Yanying told it to use its strongest move when they still had the chance.

The audience exclaimed in awe when they saw the fourth-rank Fallen Phoenix using an eighth-rank skill. Blazing Ray was not an inheritable skill, which meant Su Yanying put a lot of effort in training her pet.

Ye Hao saw how the crowd was reacting and smiled widely. This was just what he wanted—the better Su Yanying performed, the more glorious he would look after defeating her.

Upon receiving his order, the Thunder Basilisk unleashed a deafening howl toward the sky, causing everyone watching to flinch under its absolute might.

The Fallen Phoenix, too, had its actions interrupted. Its Blazing Ray rapidly shrank until it disappeared.

“It cut off an eighth-rank skill using its roar! So that’s the true power of a high-rank battle pet…” some among the audience uttered.

Su Yanying grimaced as she realized that her opponent never intended to give her a chance to “exhibit”, just like Lan Lele mentioned.

The Fallen Phoenix felt the rage of its master and responded by gathering its flame again.

“Still unwilling to give up? Good. Let’s play some more.” Ye Hao smirked.

The Thunder Basilisk didn’t attempt to stop the attack this time. It patiently waited until the scorching fire beam approached and struck its wing.

Bang!

The main screen in the stadium showed a close-up picture of the attack. There, people saw a finger-sized white scar left behind on the Thunder Basilisk’s wing, which didn’t look like a serious injury at all. Before the camera was pulled away, the scar was already disappearing.

A Thunder Basilisk was also believed to be a dragon-type. Such creatures usually possessed superior resistance as well as self-regeneration properties. It was rare to see a dragon-type Astral Pet bleed to death.

Once again, the spectators called out in surprise.

Even if the Fallen Phoenix was below the fifth rank, that beam attack still packed a punch. A pet of the same rank would have already been killed by it. And yet, the Thunder Basilisk shrugged it off!

Su Yanying was then too shocked to act. That was indeed her Fallen Phoenix’s best skill. At this rate, she would be unable to get through the Thunder Basilisk defense at all, even if it stood there and let her pet do its worst.

The gap between them was way too big!

Ye Hao smiled in satisfaction when he looked at Su Yanying’s face, before he told his basilisk to unleash a combination of showy attacks—Dragon Breath, Frigid Brine, Thunderstorm and Leer, all of which were high-rank skills.

The first three were meant to show off the well-balanced potential of the creature, while the last one was for intimidating the Fallen Phoenix. Anything with an inferior bloodline would only tremble under the basilisk’s gaze.

The first three skills went off somewhere in the sky without hitting the phoenix, which was what Ye Hao tried to do. Still, their deadly power did a number to the stage below as if some kind of brutal battle had just destroyed everything.

If he wanted, Ye Hao could absolutely ask the basilisk to burn the stadium down.

The Fallen Phoenix stopped moving as soon as it was affected by the Leer skill. It tumbled down and slammed into the floor while still trembling badly.

It lost, hands-down.

The stadium remained quiet for a while at the end of the game because people at least expected some kind of exciting clash between those two brilliant pets. However, as it turned out, Su Yanying was nothing when fighting against Ye Hao. All she did was amplify Ye Hao’s dominance.

It couldn’t be helped, though. A seventh-rank Thunder Basilisk was just too powerful.

“I… I…” Su Yanying was overwhelmed by both rage and despair.

“Come on, where’s your Lightning Rat?”

Su Yanying looked up and saw Su Ping giving her an odd look.

“But my rat is—”

“Your rat is braver than you think.”

On second thought, Su Ping decided not to let the girl continue as it was. In such a state, she would just lose another match miserably.

“Fine, let me handle it.” Su Ping sighed and looked at the small creature still shuddering beside Su Yanying’s feet. “Hey, little one, come here already, if you don’t want to embarrass both me and your master to death.”

The rat blinked and pretended with an “I don’t know what you’re talking about” look.

Su Ping rolled his eyes and sent a spiritual order that way. “Do as I say or I’ll take you to another training trip.”

The rat understood the evil will hidden behind those words. In order not to go through all those nightmares again, it slowly joined Su Ping, after giving its master a pleading look.

“See that guy over there? Beat it up, and I’ll leave you alone.”

The Lightning Rat looked at the Thunder Basilisk with excitement clearly shown in its tiny eyes. Earning more vacations was more than enough reason for it to follow Su Ping’s order through.

It puffed up its body, sharpened its claws and displayed the unstoppable will to fight.

Su Yanying almost fell agape when looking at her pet so obedient when Su Ping didn’t even have a pet contract with it. She heard how experienced battle pet warriors could communicate with other pets using their spirits, but… She never thought Su Ping could do such a thing with her rat.

And I never told my Lightning Rat would listen to him!