Cybernetic Beast Taming In A Game-like World-Chapter 37: Combat Training Arena

Jethro stared, dumbfounded. This man couldn’t be serious. Fight? Here? Now? Against that spikehead and his Silver-Ranked Magmabear? That wasn’t a fair matchup. Not at all.

He glanced at the spiky-haired boy and saw the predatory grin stretch across his face. A face that told him that he couldn’t wait to get his hands on him. Pure, unadulterated relish. He even started cracking his knuckles theatrically, eyes locked on Jethro like a hunter sighting prey.

"Our first set is Jethro Merrick...!" Professor Xan’s voice boomed, pointing a thick finger directly at him. "...and Durn Jacob! Front and center! Let’s see what sparks fly when your hallway enthusiasm to fight finally serves a purpose." He shot both hands into the air. "Education!"

Durn Jacob practically bounced out of his seat, his Cyclops Magmabear climbing his back and resting on his shoulder, growling low. It turned its head and the baleful red eye in the center of its metallic head fixed momentarily on Scorch still perched atop Jethro’s head.

The lizard puffed out its frill defiantly, letting out a miniscule hiss that sounded like steam escaping a hot, tiny kettle. Scorch wasn’t backing down.

"You know what?" Jethro muttered to his lizard. "I’m starting to miss when you were a little more afraid. Now you’re just getting me into trouble."

Scorch whimpered with a tilt of its head, a sound absurdly small compared to the Magmabear’s growl.

"Oh well." Jethro forced himself to stand, trying to project a calm he didn’t completely feel. ’Best to think of tactics or anything that isn’t the size of that Magmabear."

Kekius looked up at him before tugging at his jacket. "Hey, are you gonna be alright?"

Jethro looked down. "As long as you promise to handle my health bill after this." freeweɓnovel-cøm

Kekius didn’t know whether to laugh.

Professor Xan rubbed his massive hands together, his grin threatening to split his face. "Excellent! Now, get yourselves ready for battle!"

Silence descended immediately after, thick with confusion and expectancy. Students glanced at each other, unsure of what was happening. Durn frowned, impatient. Jethro subtly raised his skeptical brow. But the professor, instead of explaining, just stood there, beaming, letting the tension coil tighter.

Then a hesitant voice piped up from the back. "Uh... Professor Strongarm? Sir?"

Xan turned, his voice booming with humor. "Yes, young spark?"

"Where are they going to fight?" the girl asked the question that everyone was wondering.

"Where?" Professor Xan threw his head back. "Why here, of course."

The students looked around, murmuring as they took in the packed space. The central dais was barely large enough for the Professor, let alone two battling tamers and mechbeasts.

"But this is a class hall," a boy said. "There are... seats everywhere."

Professor Xan smirked. "There won’t be any in just a moment." He slammed his fist onto the podium, pressing a large button that they had not noticed before. "You puny students! Did you think this was just a lecture hall?! BEHOLD!"

A deep THOOM thundered through the floor, followed by a series of sharp clacking sounds of metal. Students rose to their feet and stared at the ground as they felt it rumbling beneath them. Then, they saw the hexagonal plates begin to move, grinding and hissing. Entire sections sank by several feet, while others rose, creating tiered levels around a rapidly forming depression.

"What the hell is happening!" some kid shouted as he leaped from his seat.

Chaos ensued.

One boy nearly tumbled backwards as his chair folded and sank away; a girl yelped as hers was plucked skyward and folded to the floor, leaving her standing awkwardly on the newly formed step. All around, other chairs folded, retracted downwards, or were whisked upwards, transforming the seating into amphitheater-like steps.

The cyberstatues pivoted their bases, turning their battle poses inwards and facing the newly formed arena like silent spectators. The central dais extended as surrounding seats vanished.

It began to descend while the perimeter tiers rose. The podium retracted into a hole in the floor and the surface flattened as the dais became a perfectly flat battleground.

Then, a final ground-shaking thud echoed in the hall and a hiss of settling hydraulics signaled the end of the transformation.

"The Combat Training Arena!" Professor Xan finished his declaration.

Jaw-dropped silence followed the spectacle. Students clutched the edges of the newly formed steps, eyes wide with awe and some leftover panic from the sudden rearrangement. Whispers of "Whoa..." and "Did you see that?!" rustled from the crowd.

Jethro stared at all of it. This world was yet to run out of things to amaze him. There was no way a classroom just turned to a literal cyber-colosseum in mere seconds.

Professor Xan, now standing on the lowest tier beside his control panel, spread his arms wide, basking in the stunned reaction. "Now, where are those puny students?! You wanted to fight, didn’t you?! Step inside!" He pointed dramatically to the center of the pristine arena floor. "Merrick! Jacob! Center stage! Let’s get this brawl going!"

Jethro swallowed. ’Why does he have to make it so dramatic?’ he thought, the reality of the vast, empty space before him making his Grey-Ranked Lizard feel impossibly small. He took a deep breath, then looked up at Scorch. "You up for this, little guy?"

Scorch whined and nodded his head.

"You better keep that same fiery energy from earlier," Jethro told him. Kekius nudged him slightly and whispered "Good luck!" just as a sudden large beam of cylindrical energy came from above and sucked him away.

Next thing Jethro knew, he was in the center of the battlesquare. Across from him, maybe twenty yards away, was a grinning Durn Jacob and his Magmabear growling by his feet.

Jethro frowned worriedly. ’What the hell was that? At least give me some time to think of a strategy while I walk down.’

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Professor Xan slam a large button on his panel.

ZZZRRRRRAAAAPPPP!

With a crackle of pure energy, four plates of neon-purple lights rose from the floor around the arena’s perimeter. They shot upwards faster than the eye could follow and only stopped once they reached the ceiling, forming a cuboidal shield that encased the battlesquare. Jethro looked around, seeing the wall crackling with contained power and the world outside of it now distorted, even the sounds of the students were muffled.

"It’s just me and you now, lower Sector trash!" Durn’s voice echoed from the far end.

Jethro eyed him and the bear. "That’s not very good math."

Professor Xan’s voice, amplified by hidden speakers within the shield, boomed with gleeful anticipation. "Alright you firestarters! Standing sparring rules apply! No lethal force on either tamer or mechbeast! Battle concludes when the tamer yields or is incapacitated, or when I get bored! Understood?"

Durn cracked his knuckles again, the grin never leaving his face. "Understood, Professor!" His Magmabear let out a growl that Jethro could feel through his boots.

Jethro forced his expression to be neutral. "Understood."

Professor Xan leaned forward, his eyes alight with manic energy. "Excellent! Then... let the battle commence!"

Jethro looked up at Scorch. "Keep running until I tell you to do otherwise. You g—"

Scorch shrieked.

A sudden rush of urgency breezed through Jethro’s body and he realized that he was in danger. When he looked in front of him, Durn was midleap, lunging towards him with a fist coated with burning rocks aimed squarely at his face.

"Think fast, scrap feeder!"

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