Rebirth Of The First Tamer

CH-7

"How did the trash rank tamer possibly do that?" Ripples of shock ran through the hall in multiple waves. 

The whisper broke through the dead silence, echoing across the training hall and spreading like a wild fire. 

"That's impossible!"

"Did you see how many there were? Some of the little animals are still jerking, it's freaking surreal."

"Look outside the windows!"

The crowd erupted into chaos, voices crashing over each other as students pressed against the glass, staring at the courtyard where hundreds of birds lay scattered on the ground, all twitching in perfect synchronization.

"That radius has to be massive! I counted over a hundred animals!" Another member of the crowd added. 

They could barely speak properly, their brains refusing to process what they'd witnessed. An F-class beast controlling more creatures simultaneously than most elite tamers managed in their entire careers.

Jarden's face burned purple, veins bulging on his thick neck like ropes about to snap and his face burned hot red with embarrassment. 

"He cheated!" Jarden roared, pointing a shaking finger at Patrick. 

"There is no way that was real! He used sorcery, some forbidden artifact, the same dirty trick from the awakening hall!"

Patrick almost scoffed with a bitter feeling rising through his throat. They were all truly pathetic, always trying to cast blame onto something else when they had failed.

The later generation of beast tamers were people that he envisioned to be strong and powerful. 

However, this generation only seemed like a group of pompous and arrogant tamers that want nothing other than a name for themselves. 

"How did they even turn out to become this bad?" He thought. 

From the memories of what he had from the past and what laid right before his eyes, there was only one thing that it pointed out and that was the fact that over the years, things had gone extremely wrong.

"Yes!" his friends jumped in immediately, desperate to save face. "Search him!"

"Strip his spatial rings!"

"Check for hidden relics, whatever he's using to control these creatures should be hiding there."

The crowd started murmuring, easily swayed by explanations that made sense.

"He must be using something."

"How else could he do it?" They quickly agreed to Jarden's claim without any verification because they were all cowards.

Vera could not help the thick frown that played on her lips. 

She stepped forward, her presence cutting through the noise and instantly bringing the halls to a still calm.

"Enough," she said.

The hall went quiet instantly.

She hated the fact that the crowd were ass-like, even though they had seen the truth. It was absolutely disgusting when people took away their dignity just to cuddle people that they thought were more powerful than they were. 

"There was no cheating," Vera declared, her voice sharp and final. "Everyone saw it, but if you all claim that you did, then be rest assured that I was standing right here the entire time. I monitored every aspect of this contest."

"But Vera—" Jarden started, desperation creeping into his voice as his face burned with the embarrassment that he could not afford, not from the crowd and especially not from Vera, but she didn't stop, cutting through his tone like he had not even spoken a word. 

"There were external formations, no hidden artifacts and definitely no form of interference. I can assure all of these"

"You can't be serious!" Look at that pathetic excuse for a beast! Look at him! He's street trash with no aura!" Jarden's voice cracked, almost breaking into a stutter.  

"I am Jarden and it would be better for you to accept your loss already!"

His face burned and his throat became dry and itchy. For the first time in his life, Jarden hoped that the earth would open up and swallow him.

For the first time, he could feel every single blazing stare burning into his back, and it seemed like he had forgotten how to work and even how to breathe.

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

"You mean he really won?"

"Jarden actually lost?"

"To trash rank?"

Everyone was still in complete shock, unable to process the reality of what had happened.

Vera turned to Patrick.

"You won," she said simply. "What do you want? You don't have to be afraid, that's the essence of the contest in the academy, the winner gets to make a request and they must be fulfilled by the losing party."

Patrick didn't hesitate for even a second, before he got into the contest, he already had his request scripted in his mind.

And they didn't need to tell him about the rules because he had created the contest and this academy all by himself in the first place.

"I want Jarden and his group to never step foot in this training center again." He said flatly like the words meant nothing. 

The room exploded.

"What?!"

"He can't decide that!"

"That's insane!"

"Who does he think he is?!"

Jarden's eyes went wide with disbelief and fury. He had never bowed to anyone before and even though Vera stood there, his eyes popped from their sockets, and they were red and bloodshot. 

"You're out of your damn mind!" Jarden snarled, stepping forward with clenched fists. "This is my training ground! I practically own this place!"

"Your training ground?" Vera repeated, her tone flattening dangerously. "I wasn't aware you owned academy property."

"You know what I mean!" Jarden's voice broke into multiple stutters. "Everyone here knows I've been using this hall for two years straight! They can't just—he can't just—"

"Those were your terms and expect you to break the academy rule and get kicked out, I am pretty sure that you know what to do," Vera said, cutting through his protests. "The winner takes what they want. You announced it in front of half the academy."

Something burned into his eyes and defeat crawled on his face and his skin. 

Something inside Jarden cracked.

"Fine," he forced out through clenched teeth, every syllable tasting like poison.

He turned toward the exit and gave Patrick a death stare, one that would have chilled the blood of any human alive but Patrick didn't even flinch, instead he let out a cold grim smirk.

"Let's go," Jarden muttered to his gang with a bloodshot eyes.

They hesitated, looking between their defeated leader and the unreadable boy standing in the center of the room.

"Now!" Jarden barked.

They fell in behind him, heads down, shoulders hunched. The crowd parted in silence as they walked past, nobody daring to make eye contact with Patrick as fear crept into their hands. The doors slammed shut behind them with finality.

Vera waited for the whispers to settle before turning back to Patrick. For the first time since entering the training center, she smiled.

It was small but genuine.

"That was something," she said.

She noticed his face properly now, taking in the sharp features hidden beneath cheap clothes and terrible reputation.

"Vera Vance," she said, extending her hand. " I am Top twenty in the academy.."

"So I heard, I am Patrick Spec."

Her eyebrows raised slightly when his family name registered.

"Spec," she repeated carefully. "As in the family that—" She said the words almost inaudible and the initial flinch in her expression quickly vanished.

She studied his face, filing the information away without comment.

"You should be careful going forward," Vera said, her voice dropping lower. "Jarden doesn't forget humiliation easily."

"I'll manage," Patrick said.

"You say that like you understand what you're dealing with," she replied. "His family isn't just academy politics. They have connections that reach much further than most students realize."

Patrick kept his expression steady.

"Such as?"

"They're connected to someone whose name carries weight across the entire continent," Vera said, watching his face carefully. "The founding father of the beast tamed himself."

Patrick's expression slipped for the first time.

It was barely visible, just a small crack in that unreadable calm, but Vera caught it.

"Which family?" he asked, his voice slightly tighter.

Vera blinked at the question.

"You really don't know?" she said. "It's in every history book, every academy text."

"No, I really do know." Patrick stretched with frustration. First he had died like one hundred years ago and this body, unlike every other human his age, didn't get the bare minimum education because they could not afford it, and he prevented his mother from trying beyond her means knowing their situation even well.

It was sweet but deprived him from the information about a lot of things that he was supposed to know about this world. 

She searched his face for any hint he was joking and found none.

"Xerxes family," she said. "Xerxes Clavon is the founder of beast taming. The first man to ever contract a beast and build our entire society around it."

Patrick's heart slammed against his ribs.

Xerxes Clavon.

That wasn't the founder of beast taming.

That was his personal assistant. The frightened, half-starved man he had rescued from the forest and taught beast taming personally.