Cybernetic Beast Taming In A Game-like World-Chapter 38: In the Battlesquare

The connection was hot and jaw-shattering. Jethro felt boiling rocks slam into his low jaw, causing him to stumble wildly to his left, almost falling to the ground from the contact. Scorch finally leaped off his head and landed on his shoulder, shrieking angrily at Durn, who was grinning at his handwork.

Jethro groaned in pain, clutching his throbbing jaw. He worked it gingerly, stretching his mouth to test if anything was broken.

"That’s it!" someone yelled from the stands above. "Beat him up! Crush the runt and his stupid lizard!"

Durn grinned wider. "You hear that? I’m going to enjoy kicking your lower Sector ass."

Jethro eyed him through the haze of pain, then sighed theatrically. He sagged his shoulders and raised his silver eyebrows in exaggerated weariness. "I never get the point of the bragging." He gestured loosely at Durn. "You’re a Class E, Silver Rank." He pointed a thumb at himself. "I’m only a Class E, Gray Rank. Of course you’re supposed to beat me."

Durn’s face twisted with confusion for a moment, but then he realized Jethro’s strategy. "I know what you’re doing!" He pointed a dramatic finger at him. "You’re trying to make it seem like beating you doesn’t count! So you don’t look like a loser when I win!"

Jethro laughed. Once. "You’re the least smart Sherlock so far. Maybe I’m the loser when this ends, but you’re the one whose first victory was against the weakest beast tamer in the Academy! How pathetic is that for you?"

At first, Durn’s face darkened with genuine worry. What Jethro said was true. Here in the Academy, everyone was vying for reputation and accolades. If it stuck that his first victory was against the lowest ranked tamer, it could affect his respect from peers.

Durn clenched his fists in anger, realizing that there was nothing he could do about that now.

"I don’t care!" he bellowed. "All I care about now is teaching you your place!"

Jethro stepped backwards.

"Eyefire! GET THEM!" Durn ordered his mechbeast, pointing aggressively at Jethro and Scorch.

The Magmabear sped forward, racing down the short space between Jethro and Durn. Even though it was still at the Hatchling Phase, the Magmabear was still a rapid mechbeast as lines of liquid fire followed behind it as it ran. It leaped into the air, raking the space where Jethro’s face had been a split-second before he twisted aside.

However, another attack came after that.

Durn swung his fiery fist with speed. Jethro could only react in a second, pulling his head backward as the fist whipped past his face so closely that Jethro could smell ashes from the burning rocks.

He backpedaled fast, putting some more space between him and his attackers. "I’m jealous," he said, steadying himself. "You must have some kind of teacher who taught you awesome moves like that."

"Of course I do," Durn sneered, advancing. "I’m not a poor scraphead like you! NGRRRHH!"

He lunged into another attack. This time he went low and his mechbeast went high. Jethro bent his waist to the left, dodging the midsection attack from Durn. Momentum carried him into a desperate roll just as the Magmabear’s lava claws cratered the spot where he’d stood, molten splatter hissing on the metal.

"Stay still, scrap feeder!" Durn attempted two more punches which Jethro dodged. "Just do your job and be a face to get squashed by everyone in the Academy!"

Regaining his footing after another near-miss from the bear’s swiping claws, Jethro narrowed his eyes. "These generic bully lines. I might really be inside a game after all. No one actually talks like that where I’m from."

Durn couldn’t comprehend what Jethro was talking about, but all he cared for was beating him to a pulp. "And where’s that? The garbage pits of Sector Twelve?" He dived towards Jethro, and attempted an uppercut, but Jethro spun quickly, almost not escaping at all.

However, what he certainly didn’t escape was the bear’s attack. It moved faster than he expected. Having averted Durn’s attack late, Jethro couldn’t prepare in time for the Magmabear’s, and he caught a full claw on his shoulder.

Agony lanced through him, white-hot and immediate. Steam billowed from the claws sound and the smell of burnt fabric filled Jethro’s nose as he inspected the wound, staggering back.

That moment of distraction caused him as Durn moved in immediately and punched Jethro so hard that he rolled over, tumbling head over heels through the air before crashing down hard several meters away, skidding to a painful stop on the unforgiving metal.

Ripples of excitement filled the stands as the students started to cheer. "Do it again. Beat him up!"

Jethro heard Scorch’s whimpers in his ear and he slowly pulled himself to one knee. Drops of blood fell from his nose to his palm and his head felt dizzy already. "Doing a 180 in the air after getting punched," he muttered to himself. "Yeah, I’m definitely inside a game."

He lifted his head and saw Durn slowly approaching, behind him in the stands was a crowd of students, mostly Knight Faction, cheering him on. "Get wrecked, scrap feeder!"

Jethro narrowed his eyes, falling into quiet thought. ’This Durn is a complete moron who has no idea that the cultivation path he has his Magmabear on will lead to hiccup at Grade D Silver. Still, I can’t handle both of them alone.’ He glanced at Scorch. "You’re going to have to keep the Magmabear busy, Scorch."

The lizard tilted its head, bulby eyes blinking once.

"Just stay in its peripheral vision," Jethro told it. "Cyclops Magmabears have one major blindspot: literal blindness to anything that isn’t right in front of it. Do that while I handle Durn—."

"It’s a bad move not to pay attention to your opponent, idiot!"

Jethro’s head snapped up and he saw Durn coming low with his fist wreathed in rocks and magma. "It could cost you big time!"

BOOM!

The fist hit the ground with a thunderous roar as Jethro somehow managed to roll out of the way in time. Rocks flew out of the ground, but they repaired themselves moments later as Durn turned his attention to Jethro. Scorch skittled through the ground with speed, prompting Durn to move his for a moment. "Get him, Eyefire!"

The Magmabear chased after Scorch, sending quick beams of magma lasers that Scorch dodged frantically.

Durn returned his gaze to Jethro. "Are you already regretting having such a loudmouth?"

Jethro cracked his neck. "Not yet, but I’m getting there."

Durn grunted. "You’re not deceiving anyone with this nonchalant act! You’re a loser!" he shouted. "Act like one!"

Jethro scoffed. "Not surprising that you know how losers act, seeing that you are one."

Durn’s eyes instantly flashed red. He jumped into action once again, swinging his right fist forward. "You’re a waste of space in this Academy!" Jethro pulled backwards, averting. Durn swung his left fist. "A waste of resources!" Jethro dodged that too.

Durn spun, leg lashing out in a vicious kick. "You didn’t deserve Princess Jessamine’s attention." Jethro dropped low under the kick, but confusion warred with pain on his face. "Wait, what?"

"Eryn is a hundred times better than YOU!" Durn screamed, launching into a flying knee strike aimed at Jethro’s head. Jethro crossed his arms in a desperate block. The impact slammed him back, pain screaming up his forearms.

When Durn returned to his feet, he took a moment to catch his breath while Jethro used it to scramble further away, putting distance between them.

"Is that what this is about?!" he yelled back at the boy. "Because that Sector Five princess spoke to me? Don’t tell me Eryn is jealous and so he sent his crony to do his dirty work. Or are you just doing this to get on his good side?"

"Arghhh! Why don’t you just shut up!" Durn sped forward. Magma flared violently around him as he charged, building momentum with a furious spin. He went low again, a magma-fist aimed like a piston at Jethro’s gut. At the exact same time, Scorch was leaping overhead while Eyefire had its jaws wide open as it tried to capture the Red Lizard.

Both master and mechbeasts managed to evade both attacks in time, finding their feet frantically after and scurrying to a safer position. Jethro narrowed his eyes as he watched Durn slowly walk towards him.

Finally, he’d understood everything he needed to about Durn Jacob and his Silver-Ranked Cyclops Magmabear. It had only taken minutes of time wasting and close aversions.

The truth was; Durn, like many mechbeast tamers, was bonding with his beast completely wrong and cultivating its powers badly too.

The how was clear to Jethro. He could tell Durn, and since the mechbeast was still in the Hatchling Phase, it meant that it was still correctable... But Jethro couldn’t see any reason why he should help Durn.

What he needed now was a way to turn this information into an advantage— something, anything to tip the scales and win a match that had been doomed from the very beginning. Jethro had finally figured that out moments ago just before Durn went for that midsection punch.

But there was one problem.

Regardless of whatever knowledge Jethro now possessed, nothing could ever beat a well placed punch on the face. But what came wasn’t a punch on the face. Instead, Durn did something Jethro hadn’t anticipated.

His eyes flew open, wide and glowing, and from them, two searing beams of molten magma erupted. Jethro wasn’t fast enough to evade it this time and the liquid fire engulfed him completely. freёnovelkiss-com

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