Astral Pet Store (WN)
chapter-87

Chapter 87: An Uncrowned King

The Thunder Basilisk lost the match!

At this very moment, the once majestic creature had collapsed inside the pit in an extremely unpleasant way. Most of its scales had cracked up and blood came out from all over its body. It didn’t move at all; it was probably unconscious.

Nobody made a sound because they couldn’t accept the sight before their eyes. Their previous belief was that a seventh-rank Thunder Basilisk making a debut in the academy’s tournament was illegitimate by itself, because it would squash all the other pets with ease. In the end, another pet had been against such an outcome. A Lightning Rat, who had recently lost a match against the basilisk, at that.

How in the world did the Thunder Basilisk lose after it just broke through to another rank?

The owners of the combating pets—Ye Hao and Su Yanying—were both left awestruck on the stage. The match ended too quickly and they didn’t have nearly enough time to take in everything yet.

Through their “connection,” Ye Hao knew that his Thunder Basilisk had fainted. Obviously, his seventh-rank dragon-type Astral Pet had been knocked senseless. Obviously.

How come?

HOW COME??

Ye Hao madly repeated the question in his mind.

Similarly, Su Yanying found it too difficult to accept reality. She should be glad that his Lightning Rat turned out to be the winner. Still, she didn’t feel the joy of it at all. She wasn’t the one fighting the match.

Fizz, fizz!

The Lightning Rat emerged from the crater with two swift leaps and happily toddled her way.

At this moment, Su Yanying remembered that she had to do something about her frozen legs, or she would lose them if her muscles were damaged. Quickly, she channeled some astral power to thaw herself out.

Crack.

She heard another cracking noise and saw Su Ping doing the same, although he seemed rather relaxed for some reason. The ice on his legs came off as he took a step forward, just like that.

Su Yanying found her mind bloated with too much confusion. That was a skill from a seventh-rank Thunder Basilisk. He broke out of it like it was nothing?

The settler guests were the first ones to recover from the unbelievable display, though they didn’t look any less surprised. They could see that both pets were using their full strength back there, which meant the Thunder Basilisk would have emerged victorious if nothing went wrong.

Well, something went very wrong indeed.

They had witnessed how irregularly strong the Lightning Rat was during the previous matches. Nevertheless, there should be a limit to the creature’s true potential. People thought they had seen the creature’s “cap” when it lost against the Thunder Basilisk the other day.

And it wasn’t a feeling of disappointment. On the contrary, they still considered the Lightning Rat to be an exceptional miracle.

That day, however, they might need to review that idea.

“That rat is fighting a little bit… differently, I think,” a settler commented with a serious look.

His partner nodded. “Agreed. The skills are the same, except for the Thunder Rush. But it suddenly learned how to make better use of them to gain the upper hand, especially at the end. Thunder Rush is a supportive skill used for moving faster. Yet it somehow used its power to knock the basilisk off the sky. Such creativity.”

“It reminds me of all those veteran Astral Pets who have gone through many battles during barren land expeditions. Fast, accurate and deadly. But experience alone can’t help it counter the Leer skill. How did it manage to do so?”

“The Lightning Rat’s strength didn’t change. The tactics were different. If I’m not mistaken, Su Yanying wasn’t the one issuing commands during the match.”

It was a woman talking this time, who attracted everyone’s attention with those words.

“Take a closer look at the young man next to her. Both of them were affected by the Thunder Basilisk’s Frigid Brine, yet he already freed himself, while Su Yanying is still trying, as you can see.” The woman threw Su Ping an inquisitive look.

She didn’t show it, but she was very startled to see someone walk out of the ice trap as if he were shaking off some insignificant cobwebs. Even though they weren’t the main targets of the Thunder Basilisk, what Su Ping did hinted at his extremely rich astral power reserves. Probably of the fifth rank or higher. With that kind of age, he was undoubtedly more talented than Ye Hao.

“I see…” The other settlers saw the same thing and all agreed.

“So, that young man is not from someone’s family, but Su Yanying’s helper?”

“Tsk. He looks even younger than Miss Su. By the way, Mister Vice Principal, which class is he from?”

Dong Mingsong frowned in confusion. “I… don’t remember. Is he from this academy at all?”

As the vice president, he knew every outstanding student in this institution. Yet he couldn’t remember seeing that young man. Could that be a student who always stayed low among people?

That was good news though. There would be another brilliant genius under his watch.

“Who’s his professor anyway?” he muttered to himself. “I’m going to remove his bonus for failing his job…”

On the stage, the judge made sure that the Thunder Basilisk wasn’t moving any longer and gladly announced the winner of the match.

It took some time for the audience to start applauding, which lasted a long time until the loud cheers could be heard miles away from the stadium.

That night, the famous Lightning Rat had put up another wonderful performance no one was expecting. None of the common spectators clearly saw how the rat had beaten the Thunder Basilisk, although that wouldn’t change their opinions regarding the awesome creature.

Dazzling fireworks marked the end of the festivities.

The wounded Thunder Basilisk and Ye Hao were gradually forgotten over the course of the celebration. The result of the exhibition match did nothing to affect his championship or his award money, yet people were not going to see him as an actual champion, that much was certain.

To make it worse, he did tell his basilisk to go all-out. Nobody would believe him if he were to say that he was going easy on the Lightning Rat because it was supposed to be an “exhibition.”

“Brother…” Ye Qingyin gave her brother a worried look.

The yelling crowds, the beautiful light shows and the joyful atmosphere had made Ye Hao’s lonesome figure look even more miserable. Ye Qingyin had always respected her brother since her childhood. Seeing him like this, she felt overrun by unbearable sadness.