The First Legendary Beast Master
chapter-569

The Minotaur looked terrified as he took his position, but the black dragon didn't hesitate.

"Challenger three has the first strike. Whenever you are ready."

The Minotaur nodded, and swung a mighty blow at Ophelia that nearly rocked her off her feet. He was certainly stronger than the Giant, she realized. He also had an extremely thick neck, so he wasn't likely to get whiplash.

So, she wasn't expecting much when she put her all into the first swing. However, when her paw made contact, the Minotaur fell with his legs still extended, knocked out cold at the moment of impact.

"Oh, poor call on my part. Who knew he would have a glass jaw?" The Newbon General sighed, while the other soldiers rushed to help him up off the ground.

The Archbishop healed him, and the Black Dragon smiled under his hood.

"That makes one round to the Golden Dragon Nation. I have to say, a Titanic Bear Totem Berserker was not what I was expecting for the first round of our betting. But the next round should be even better. I have prepared a platform for the contestants, as even with skills active, the Royal Rank combatants are very different sizes."

The three Royals came forward, and Karl immediately noticed that the Minotaur had been swapped out for a boar man of some sort. He wasn't quite a Giant, but at four metres, he was still nearly a head taller than Karl's enlarged form.

The Giant, on the other hand, was well over six metres tall. Both of the other contestants would need to stand on a stage for their head to be the proper height for a slap.

The dragon held out his hand, and they drew lots. The Giant got the draw this time, and Karl had the number two stick, meaning the Boar Man would strike first.

The Giant smirked at Karl as he faced down the muscular monster.

"When you are ready." The dragon announced.

The monster was incredibly fast, and the sound of the slap echoed through the ruins as Karl was tossed into the low stone of a ruined wall.

Karl stood up and brushed himself off, knocking stone dust off his armour. The strike was less than ten percent of his health, and he had taken no damage, but [Void Body] didn't negate the momentum, and the Boar Man's arm weighed half as much as his entire body.

"Good hit." Karl congratulated him, stopping the Boar Man's victory celebration.

"You got up?" The big man asked, thoroughly confused.

"Of course. Did you think I would volunteer if I couldn't take a hit?"

The Boar snorted and took his place for the return blow.

[Oh, this should be fun. I wonder how much additional strength Karl got from his new skill.] Thor cheered.

[The Packmaster gains an increased percentage of base stats from bonded beasts.] That was all that the system had to say about it, and Karl didn't understand the base and modifier system for stats that it had, so he had no practical reference for just how strong he was now with all his buffs active.

However, with the fifty percent damage increase from Pack Tactics, his new class skill, he would be hitting with plenty of force.

Karl checked that Haste was active, then snapped an attack at the Boar.

There was a booming crack, then the sound of flesh on flesh before the boar man was sent flying and pain radiated up Karl's arm.

Without the barrier up and with only his own skills to protect himself, Karl had dealt himself enough damage with the strike to nearly break his arm, even after the reduction by Void Body.

[That is fast. Stupidly fast. Who has ever heard of a supersonic pimp slap? You didn't even need the skill.] Cara exclaimed, eager to see if she could do that as well.

Even the Totem Rank masters were staring at Karl in shock.

"Did he just?" The Giant asked.

The General nodded. "He did."

The black dragon pointed at the body of the boar man. "If you would be so kind, Archbishop. His soul is beginning to detach."

That shook the leader of the Golden Dragon Nation from his stupor, and he quickly resurrected the fallen monster.

But that left the Giants in a dilemma. If Karl hit a Mountain Giant like that, the result was likely to be the same. They could tell that he didn't use an attack skill, he had just increased his own stats to the point that he could move an arm at supersonic speed.

It had obviously damaged him, but the way that Karl was rubbing his arm, he would recover soon enough.

The General knew that Karl had Trollish Regeneration, either as a skill or as part of his racial traits. It still wasn't one hundred percent clear whether he had been part troll all along. Looking at his build, the General suspected that he was actually part Dwarf. His build was a bit too sturdy for human, and the musculature wasn't quite right. Likely a quarter blooded if he had to guess.

Enough that his family would have been considered human for some time, but they had likely been matching with mixed blood humans for generations.

Most species were like that. Many of them could interbreed with humans, so there was always a chance of other bloodlines. Generally, those ones were considered weak and were a genetic dead end, but sometimes a lineage would continue among humans.

Karl shook the numbness from his fingers and waited for the Giant to prepare for his turn.

That put the Totem Rank Giant in a tight spot.

If he forfeited this match, Karl would win, making it 2-0 for the Golden Dragon Nation and giving them the overall win in the contest. But if he let them compete, there was a chance one of his Giants would be slapped to death. The proud Mountain Giants would never accept that. It would do irreparable damage to their pride to be slapped to death by a human. Unlike the monster species, they weren't so forgiving.

Losing a Giant's dignity versus the slim chance that they could maintain this trial was a difficult bet. If Karl had gone first, there would have been no question, the Giant would have gone. However, with such slim odds, it might be better to cut their losses and find a way to get more of their people to the trial in secret.

The Giants were categorically incapable of holding a poker face, and even the groggy and freshly resurrected Boar Man could see that the Totem Rank Mountain Giant was trying to formulate a plot to get out of this agreement.

To the other leaders, it was no surprise. This happened nearly every time they agreed on something. One of them would back out of the deal, or have one of their allies serve as a proxy to act on their behalf.

"The Giants withdraw from this round. Congratulations to the Golden Dragon Nation on your small victory here today." The leader finally agreed.

"Thank you for your kind words." The Archbishop replied with so much fake kindness that even Karl felt a little nauseous. The Giants immediately opened a portal and left, while the General turned to the transformed Black Dragon with a smile. "So, I know that the humans are going to send as many people as they can before this trial fades, but how much will it cost to buy some of your spots?" The General asked.

The dragon's face was hidden in magical shadow under his hood, but his voice was amused.

"Now, I suppose that we can work something out."