It was the last day of the imposed training that their Teacher had thrown them into without any warning. Needless to say, Deltan's image in everyone's mind was already thoroughly ruined. Gone was the lofty and arrogant Eldest Prince of their Empire. Instead, noble and commoner alike had seen a side of the Eldest Prince that no one else knew.
In order to spare his pride, however, they had tacitly decided to keep the information themselves. The fawning that some of them had shown on the first day of school had subsided, and they treated Deltan like one of their own now. The gap between commoners and nobles in the class that had seemed like such a wide gulf before had shrunk to practically nothing, and they trusted each other with their lives.
The difference from the first and second day compared to now was such a stark contrast that one would have wondered what had happened within these seven days.
All twenty students had gone through an excruciating and life-changing process within these seven days. It was almost as if they were a whole new person. The stressful ordeal had successfully evolved these students, sparking a qualitative change within them. It had drawn out the hidden potential and talent they hadn't been using, giving new discoveries to each one.
Twenty students relaxed around the campfire of roasting meat, but a part of their mind was always alert and on the lookout for danger even as they chatted and messed around.
"I think the higher tier Magic Beasts taste better," Deltan mused, chewing on the meat in a deceptively elegant manner. The meat was lean but tender and contained a mouth-watering smell that caused one to swallow their saliva.
Brooke shook his head. "The lower tier Magic Beast is chewier and tougher. The more you chew, the more the flavour comes out."
The two exchanged glares. Lucien, Eden and Aciel watched the two of them argue back and forth like a tennis match with amused faces. The two of them were simply like fire and water. They argued like an old married couple. It was almost like they were arguing for the sake of arguing, and the rare times they agreed on something, the other would almost immediately change their mind.
Next to them, sitting on a log, Andrew frowned when he realized what had seemed so strange and unsettling about today. "Has anyone seen that Sixth Tier Magic Beast today? Team two didn't get chased by it today at all. Isn't that strange?"
The nearby students who heard what he said nodded and agreed. They felt a faint sense of unease creep up on them. When the Magic Beast chased them, they were dying of unease because they didn't know when it would change its mind and start killing them instead of playing with them, but when it didn't turn up, they couldn't feel at ease because they didn't know what it was doing! Truly, humans were a species that felt uneasy about the unknown. The devil you knew was better than the devil you didn't.
Valerie frowned. "Do you think it's going to appear at the last minute and face off all of us together?"
The students who were listening in started making suggestions of their own. "Maybe it got tired playing with us day after day? It's probably resting today."
"I don't think so? How tiring would chasing us be? It's a Sixth Tier Magic Beast. Even all of us aren't enough to face it all at once."
"Yeah. It most likely got bored because we never tried to fight it?"
Valerie rolled her eyes. "Do you think none of us tried to fight it? We tried on the second day, but it just cast a disdainful glance at us and left. The magic didn't even scratch it."
Just as the sky was darkening, all twenty students heard a familiar roar. Instantly, they were up on their feet and ready to run. However, they were too late when the familiar eyes of the Magic Beast locked onto them, freezing them in place with its chilling and bloodthirsty eyes.
"Shit! Run!"
Team Four cast magic at the beast's four limbs simultaneously, trying to buy time for the other fifteen students to run as they drew the Magic Beast's attention.
In a split second, the Sixth Tier Magic Beast changed its tactics as it disdainfully ignored the magic being cast at it. The moment the five different magic spells landed, a flash of surprise surfaced in its eyes as it felt a slight sting for once.
The tiger narrowed its eyes in appreciation and decided to stop its playthings from leaving so soon. For the first time, it released a bit of its magic from its body, the presence of the beast instantly intensified, and the students felt like they couldn't breathe under the suppression of the Magic Beast.
Lucien grit his teeth and struggled to move his limbs, pushing as much magic to the surface of his skin to try and protect himself from the instinctual suppression he felt from the presence of the beast.
The Demonic Winged Tiger casually stepped forward, its eyes landing on a figure. It prowled forward like a predator stalking its prey, only having eyes for Deltan.
Noticing who the beast was staring at, Lucien increased his struggles as he desperately tried to reach out to his teammate, who still seemed frozen in fear. Similarly, Brooke, Eden and Aciel were struggling their hardest as their muscles twitched, trying to break free of the suppression.
"Deltan," Brooke grit out. "You fucking idiot, MOVE ALREADY."
But Deltan was as motionless as ever, staring up at the beast with dazed eyes.
The Sixth Tier Magic Beast narrowed its eyes in pleasure as it neared the prince. It brushed aside all the little humans near the one it knew the longest, bringing its face up close to the prince.
The students were about to scream with the pure worry that was running wild through their body. The Magic Beast had never done this before. It had only chased and not killed anyone, even if it had taken a few swipes. It was almost as if it had been playing with them, but it seemed like it was about to end now.
Everyone struggled against the pressure that was akin to a heavy weight pressing on them to prevent them from moving. They couldn't just stand by and watch as Deltan got killed or worse, devoured. As citizens of the Cosmos Empire, they took pride in the royal family. More than that, they had already considered Deltan a friend.
Lucien bit down hard on his lip, drawing blood. Simultaneously, Aciel, Eden and Brooke inflicted pain on themselves to get themselves to move. Almost as if a dream, the pressure lifted from them.
They threw themselves in front of Deltan, who was still staring at the Magic Beast like he was stunned.
"Wake up, Deltan!"
The Demonic Winged Tiger made an impatient sound as its line of vision was partially blocked. It snarled in annoyance and lifted a giant paw and made to crush them with its paws when Deltan shouted out. "Wait, Cinder! Stop! Don't hurt them!"
The team, who had involuntarily closed their eyes from the anticipation of pain and death waited a beat as nothing happened, slowly cracking open their eyes.
The Magic Beast, Cinder, huffed as it put down her paw, licking it as she sat on her hind legs. She nuzzled Deltan and licked his face, causing him to shout.
"What?" Eden said, looking confused. He felt dazed at the unreal sight before him. Was he still dreaming? That had to be it, right?
Aciel stared at the beast who had been tormenting them for days, unable to believe the sight in front of her as the dangerous beast acted like a pet cat in front of Deltan. She pinched Eden, who let out a shout of pain.
"Why'd you pinch me?!"
"I didn't want to pinch myself," she said absently.
Something clicked in Lucien's mind when he watched Deltan and the Magic Beast's interaction.
"You formed a familiar contract with the Demonic Winged Tiger?" he asked, sounding out his theory.
Deltan fended off the tiger as he tried to prevent his image from falling in his classmate's minds. Little did he know that it had already been tarnished. "Yeah, just now when everyone froze. It was sealing a contract with me."
The pressure on everyone abruptly vanished as some students sat down in shock.
Nine appeared in front of them the moment the sky darkened. "Time's up," she said. Her gaze was notably warmer than it had been seven days ago.
Some students felt their cheeks heat up in gratification as they felt accepted. Strangely, none of them felt any detest at the fact that their Teacher had thrown them into this hellish place for seven days without any notice. They had noticed how their magic had improved as they used it constantly, being able to use it in various ways they hadn't thought of before in a static environment.
"Teacher, Deltan formed a contract with a Sixth Tier Magic Beast!" Brooke said, tattling on him immediately.
Deltan glared at Brooke, slightly panicked, whilst still dazed at the proceeding events. How in the world had he ended up with a Sixth Tier Magic Beast as a familiar? It was practically unheard of! He had wanted a familiar like Rainier. Cute, small and empathetic. Also, even if he was a slime, he could use magic! Why had he ended up with such a terrifying familiar isntead?!
Nine's eyes landed on the familiar Magic Beast.
The Demonic Winged Tiger's fur bristled as she noticed the detestable human that had been hurting her day in and out. It hadn't come by lately but left her nice Master, so she had thought she was safe.
Cinder hunched down and tried in vain to hide herself behind Deltan, nudging him forward to deal with the scary human instead of her. Being hit by that human hurt! Every single hit hurt! Only her Master was nice and healed her, sparing her from the pain. Even if she could quickly heal herself, and she knew that her Master had only healed her because of that other human, she was a proud Magic Beast who knew how to return a favour, so she had entered into a familiar contract with her Master.
Hmph, silly Master. She had seen how he had similarly gotten beaten up by that detestable human after he healed her, and he didn't even use his own magic to heal himself! Willing or not, she had a debt to him, so she would protect him since he didn't seem to be able to protect himself. He had gotten hurt when hunting a puny Second Tier Magic Beast. Second. Tier. Clearly, he wasn't good at fighting.
The students, who had been staring at the Sixth Tier Magic Beast warily, dropped open their mouth at the way it was acting. What had their teacher done to the Magic Beast for it to react that way? Why did it form a familiar contract with Deltan after chasing all of them for days?
They had so many questions that were left unanswered and wouldn't be getting answered for now, as Nine interrupted them before they could open their mouth to ask questions.
"Time to go home."
The four words instantly brought a few students to tears as they thought about how they would be leaving the danger-filled jungle and return home to sleep in a soft bed. A female student latched onto Nine and cried her eyes out, refusing to budge.
Nine huffed, resigned when the rest of her silly students joined in and clung on to her. Anyone else and she would have kicked or blasted them away, but she supposed she could pamper her few students since she had just acknowledged them. Almost miraculously, her entire class of twenty had the most agreeable bunch of traits that she liked in her students.
Hardworking, determined and intellectual. These were the types of traits she liked the most. They hadn't abandoned anyone in times of crisis and worked together reasonably well.
Yes, she would enjoy teaching this bunch.
For a strange, inexplicable reason, the group of relieved students felt a chill run up their spine, a sense that their finely-honed sense of danger was getting better.