This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Kain then turned to look at the blonde girl with multicoloured streaks in her hair—the fourth ranked first-year, Ranya Elaris. She had only revealed one contact so far, a purple butterfly that seemed to shift in and out of existence as it flapped its wings, making it incredibly hard to focus on.

Many of the spiritual creatures around Ranya suddenly began to attack one another as they spontaneously took on the form of humans for a second. The illusion attribute, unlike the mental attribute that altered the mind to cause visions only the target could see, created visions in real-life that all could see.

Therefore, whenever one of the beasts outside the wall suddenly "transformed" into a human, it'd be frantically attacked and killed by its peers.

Kain recognized it as an illusion-attribute Mirage Butterfly, although the members of this species are usually more blue than purple. Kain was unsure if it was just a useless cosmetic mutation that caused a colour change, or if the difference in colour also hinted at the butterfly's more unique abilities when compared to other members of their species.

'Sigh. All of these guys are so troublesome…Thankfully Bea is even more unique and difficult to guard against than their contracts.'

Kain then turned to look in the direction of the piercing glare that had been digging into the side of his face since they left the dorms. Soren Lysander. The third-ranked student who had long made it clear that he had it out for him.

Soren's affinity was pretty easy to guess, not only from the spiritual creature he'd revealed during the field assessment, but because of his family name. The Lysanders, as the royal family of the Celestial Empire, naturally couldn't conceal the most common type of affinity inherited by their family members. Most members of the Lysander family have an affinity for dragons.

Whether that's an affinity for specific attributes of dragons, such as fire or wind-attribute dragons only; dragons of a certain blood-line such as 5-Colour or Gem dragons; or, if lucky, they will have an affinity for all dragons.

Kain didn't know about Soren's specific affinity, but the only contract that Soren has revealed so far is a wind-attribute dragon. However, whether Soren can bind dragons of other attributes is unknown.

From what Kain managed to gather from the well-informed Aiden and Addison, who could both probably prosper in careers related to intelligence gathering, Soren was one of the more valued members of the Lysander family's youngest generation. Although not the number 1 among the young Lysanders, he's definitely, within the top 3 and has a S-rated affinity.

Therefore, Kain guessed that Soren wasn't limited to wind dragons, but also wasn't able to bind all dragons, otherwise he'd definitely be the top of his generation within his family. Kain guessed that Soren's affinity was either limited to more than one attribute, or limited to a specific bloodline.

For example, the Storm Dragon bloodline, whose members often have lightning, wind, and water attributes.

Soren also appeared to have some kind of gift related to transformation. Whenever a wild spiritual creature would get too close to him, his arms would transform into what resembled a dragons claw and easily tear apart the approaching spiritual creatures.

However, the extent of the transformation and if it could cover his whole body was unknown.

Although Kain didn't know the boost in power the transformation provided, he also guessed that it was similar to the average enchanted weapons of their level, but slightly inferior to the top enchanted weapons of their level with an extra sigil. As a member of the royal family, he probably has access to some of the most powerful equipment at each level within the entire empire.

Therefore, once the strengths of the attacking beasts increased, he'll probably switched to using an enchanted weapon.

Last but not least was Kain's greatest nemesis. The one, who despite not even taking the entrance exam, was still the first-ranked first-year and cost Kain 500 GP—Serena Storm.

Despite being the current rank 1, and having the most eyes on her, compared to the other top 5 there was actually the least amount of confirmed information known about her.

Although the general form and observed abilities of her contract had been shared, it's exact species and skills were unknown. Heck, even the affinity of the one contract she's shown wasn't known.

Kain diverted a large amount of his attention to examine her contract, but still couldn't tell what it was. All he did know was that it had potent shape-shifting abilities and could utilize all four fundamental elements—earth, water, wind, and fire. Dual attribute spiritual creatures were uncommon. Kain had never even heard of a spiritual creature that could use four elements.

One moment it had the sturdy form of an earth golem and manipulated the earth to unbalance the approaching herd.

The next second it would take the form of a blazing, phoenix-like entity composed of molten lava to send a wave of intense fire to the creatures below.

An aethereal form resembling a translucent fairy made of air would send gusts of wind to spread the fire or to divert attacks approaching its owner.

Finally, when the blaze was too intense a serpent-like form composed of water would be used to quench the flames.

Kain had no idea what its true form was, or if it even had a true form and all of these versions could be considered its true appearance.

The only creature Kain knew of that could shape-shift into multiple forms, and assume different abilities depending on the form, were the Proteans, which Kain's armour was made from. However, whenever Protean's shapeshift they require the target they are shifting into to be before them. Serena's contract was different. It seemed to have four forms saved that it could switch freely between.

Additionally, due to its multi-element nature and shapeshifting it was practically impossible to determine Serena's affinity based off just this one contract. Maybe even if Kain saw her second contract he still wouldn't be able to guess her affinity.

Boom

"Whoa!" Kain narrowly dodged an icicle that was aimed at his head.

"Pay attention!" Jade scolded, for once resembling an authoritative senior.

This was a battle-field after all. He shouldn't be distracted looking at his peers. Similar to him, the other first-years also had near misses while checking out the competition. Everyone except for Serena, whether she was so focused on the battle before her, or she just didn't consider the rest of them as competition to be checked out was unknown.