Red barged through the pair of large wooden doors, finding himself in a lecture hall. An old man, who he assumed was the professor, glanced at him and ushered him over.
"First day and already late. Most of the beasts have already been taken, so you better be happy with whatever you can get, buddy," the old man said, accepting the yellow slip that Red pulled out of his pocket. The old man pointed to a row of cages, mostly empty, though some had an animal or beast inside of them.
"Son, you missed the part where I explained this earlier, but the taming process is simple. You go into a cage, touch their head with the intent of taming them, and you'll enter a willpower clash. To put it simply, if your will overpowers theirs, you will have established a tamer's bond with them. Take your pick of whatever is left," the old man said, turning to address the lines of students asking questions and protesting about what others got or what they got.
"Calm down, kids, one at a time! I already said, don't complain about what you got, because you'll always have another chance to tame something else if you have the skills for it. Calm down!" the professor shouted. Red glanced at the cages, noting that none of the remaining beasts were particularly large or powerful looking. That didn't matter to him, however.
"Let's see the options. A big, bad wolf, a fucking purple-ass snake— is that piece of shit staring at me? A small-ass reptile-fox looking thing is in that cage there. The fuck? Is that a slime? That's one ugly fucker," Red thought to himself. "Who do I want though?"
"Sir, what kind of beasts are these?" Red asked the professor, who was being overwhelmed by questions and demands. The professor glanced at him quickly before quickly pointing to each thing.
"Dire wolf, Abyss serpent, and Mireling," the professor said quickly before looking away to address others.
"And that blob?" Red asked, pointing to the blob which he assumed was a slime. The professor glanced quickly before responding.
"Bud, that's a glob of dragon spit," the professor said, turning away again.
"Ew, alright then, I guess I know my options," Red said to himself. "That Abyss Serpent seems like one strong motherfucker, and that Dire wolf seems like a tough one too… but that's one poor ass little Mireling. Shit, I'm feeling bad."
The lecture hall doors burst open without warning, and a boy with curly brown hair burst through the door, panting.
"I'm back from the bathroom!" the boy panted. His face was pale white from nervousness, for he was late to beast selection. The boy, who had listened to the lecture on how to tame a beast, approached the cages, standing next to Red.
"Hey bro," Red said, turning to the boy. "What do you have your sights on?"
The boy gulped nervously before his face turned deep red from embarrassment.
"I have my sights on the… um… Abyss Serpent…" the boy said nervously. Red seemed to understand his mindset instantly.
"Ahh, you're nervous about shooting too high and failing. Don't worry, bro. Worst case, you fail and move on to something else. You're probably not going to die from a willpower clash. Or will you? I kind of missed the lecture," Red said, scratching his head. "In any case, just give it a try."
The boy gulped nervously as he approached the cages of the Abyss Serpent, which was essentially a massive, black colored cobra with purple eyes that seemed to stare into the soul of the boy as he opened the cage and stepped inside. The boy hesitantly reached for the Abyss Serpent's head, but flinched away when the serpent hissed at him.
"Fucking chicken," Red said, grabbing the boy's hand and sticking it onto the Abyss Serpent's head. As soon as the boy made contact with the snake, a blue aura flared out of the boy's body, clashing with a red one coming out of the Abyss Serpent. The boy roared at the Abyss Serpent, who screeched back in a challenging manner.
"So that's a willpower clash," Red muttered. "How spectacular."
As the willpower of the boy and the Abyss Serpent clashed, the raw force of the clash caused arcs of lightning to shoot off into their surroundings, which set the lecture hall on fire. However, it was very clear the Abyss Serpent's will power vastly dwarfed the boy's, for his aura was slowly crushed.
"SHIT! MOTHERFUCKING SERPENT, IF I GET HIT BY FUCKING LIGHTNING, YOU'RE NOT LEAVING THIS ROOM ALIVE!" Red bellowed, fists balled up in fury. The Abyss Serpent was momentarily distracted by his outburst, allowing the boy's aura to slowly overwhelm the Abyss Serpent's. Red angrily approached the Abyss Serpent, causing it flinch back slightly despite its massive size.
"You fat son of a gun, you don't get to have so much pride in yourself! Fucking lose, bitch!" Red shouted. The Abyss Serpent suddenly screeched in fear as a dark red aura burst forward from Red, entirely suppressing its own. The boy's blue aura managed to reach the serpent at last, covering it inch by inch before entirely covering the serpent moments later.
"Thank you , oh thank you!" the boy said to Red kowtowing in gratitude. Red simply shrugged, nudging the massive Abyss Serpent towards the boy.
"You own this bitch now. You're welcome, mister…" Red said, pausing as if waiting for a response.
"My name is Rainer! Thank you so much! I genuinely have no was of repaying you!" the boy said gratefully, face lit up with joy.
"Great, now please shut the fuck up so I can tame something myself," Red said. He turned towards the reptilian-looking fox, which was no larger than a mouse. In essence, it was a fox with scales instead of fur. It's scales were a dark shade of green.
"Sir, I don't think it's a good idea to take that one. The Dire wolf is a lot stronger than this Mireling, and people tend to look down on you for having a weak beast," Rainer said, gulping slightly.
"Fuck off, Rainer. There's nothing wrong with being weak. The only thing wrong about it is staying weak," Red said. "What does this little guy even do?"
"Well, Mirelings can use a very small amount of earth magic, but they're really weak," Rainer said. "With all due respect, I insist that you don't—"
"Shut up, I want this little guy," Red said, entering the cage, the sound of rattling bars waking up the sleeping Mireling. The Mireling quickly stood up, yelping at Red aggressively.
"A feisty one," Red commented as he scooped it up. It bit into Red's arm, but its tiny teeth could barely sink into his skin. Red placed his hand on its head, causing a willpower clash to initiate. The professor, who was busy putting out the fires started by Rainer's willpower clash, looked up in shock as the Mireling's willpower manifested into an aura, multitudes larger than the Abyss Serpent. It covered the entire stage of the lecture hall, proving impressive.
"Small guy, strong will. What makes you have so much willpower?" Red asked himself. His own willpower manifested, shocking all but the Mireling, who defiantly increased his aura size to counteract the crushing pressure. "What is it that you want that makes you fight this hard?"
The Mireling continued to yelp at Red despite its aura being crushed to a mere sliver by Red's overwhelming aura, but it refused to stand down, biting into Red again.
"You poor, poor thing. You look beat-up, sick, tired, hungry. They picked you right out of the wild, didn't they? Poor little guy," Red said, running his fingers over the Mireling's scales, running over several scars and wounds. "You want to live. That's what you're fighting by so hard for, you want to live, don't you? You got lost or got abandoned in the wild is what I'm guessing, and you've been feeding yourself since. However, you were just too small to get anywhere. Is that it, little guy?"
The Mireling's willpower seemed to waver, causing its aura to slink to just a sliver.
"Don't fight me, little one. Just accept me as your friend, and I'll never let you go hungry again. I promise you," Red said gently, running his fingers down the Mireling's scars, causing it to flinch. The Mireling yelped at Red again, but with far less anger in its tone now. Red patted the Mireling on the head, whispering gently into its ear. "Don't fight me. If I'm here, then you'll never grow hungry again. So be a good boy and become my pal, ok?"
The Mireling lost all will to resist, allowing his aura to collapse entirely under Red's. The Mireling went quiet as Red's aura covered every inch of it. The Mireling began producing a red glow, though it didn't seem to be alarmed. A humming sound began to fill the air, becoming louder and louder. Simultaneously, the Mireling's glow intensified alongside the humming. A few long moments later, a shockwave of energy burst from the Mireling, knocking down everyone in the lecture hall except for Red.
"Hehe, isn't that just nice," Red said, grinning from ear to ear as the light died down, revealing the Mireling once again. The difference now, however, was that Red could "feel" the Mireling. Picking up the little fox-like reptile, he hugged it close to him as it tried to squirm.
"You poor little thing, I'm going to spoil you so hard," Red said, lifting it up higher like one would when playing with a baby. Red put it down to the ground before turning around, only to be confused at the sight of the lecture hall burning in multiple places.
"What the fuck is happening, Rainer?" Red said. Rainer gulped a little, scratching his head.
"Well, you see, your willpower clash caused quite a bit of lightning to shoot out everywhere, and it kind of set everything on fire… we should start putting out the fires before it gets any worse," Rainer said. Red agitatedly stomped on the ground, absolutely pissed.