While other contestants were in constant battles and escapades, with some experiencing sleeplessness among others, Bahamut and his little companion, Ren, strolled down a winding pathway by the cliff, singing songs together. Since Bahamut had inherited Ren's body, he knew the songs Ren knew, making their duet resonate throughout the area.
A blindfolded boy with his pet rabbit lying on his head, hands tucked behind his head like he was resting on a pillow, his hair swaying wildly in the wind... Bahamut seemed to be taking the trial too easily.
...
Rex sat on the massive stone like a statue carved by the desert itself, with his broad back to the sun, and his shadow stretching long across the sand. Heat rolled off him in waves, sweat tracing slow paths down his skin and soaking into the clothes clinging to his frame. Around the boulder lay carnage. Broken necks. Crushed skulls. Torn limbs half-buried by drifting sand. The bodies formed a rough ring, not by intention, but by result. Nothing weak dared cross it.
He tore another strip of roasted boar meat free with his teeth and chewed slowly, eyes never fully relaxing.
"Finally, some rest..." he muttered, voice rough. "I wonder how the others are doing."
The thought barely settled before his brow tightened. He glanced toward the horizon, where a low wall of dust was swelling unnaturally fast. The wind carried sound with it. Scraping paws. Harsh panting. Low, hungry growls layered over each other.
Rex exhaled through his nose and tossed the meat aside.
"I have to find water soon," he said, more to himself than anyone else. Then his eyes sharpened. "But not before this."
The dust cloud split, shapes bursting through like arrows loosed from the earth itself. Seven sand wolves, lean and scarred, their fur the color of dried blood and ash. Six spread out instinctively, fanning wide, while the largest stalked forward at the center. Its eyes were dull gold, its frame heavier, movements calmer. A Circle of Spirit beast.
"They really never learn," Rex said quietly.
He rose from the boulder, joints popping softly as his full height unfolded. The air around him shifted. The heat seemed to pull inward, drawn toward his body. Sand at his feet trembled.
"Seven," he continued, gaze sweeping over them. "Six Circle of Body. One Circle of Spirit."
His lips curled, not into a grin, but something colder.
"Weak."
The wolves lunged.
Rex dropped into a crouch, fingers digging into the stone beneath him. The rock groaned under the pressure, fine cracks spreading from where his hand pressed down. He inhaled once, deep and steady, then ripped the chunk free as if tearing meat from bone.
Before the wolves could fully close in, Rex moved.
He twisted his body sharply and leapt.
The motion was brutal and efficient. His legs coiled and released, launching him high as his torso rotated midair. At the peak of the jump, his arm snapped forward, and the boulder left his hand.
The stone screamed through the air.
It struck the frontmost sand wolf head-on, not smashing so much as erasing it. Bone, fur, and blood exploded outward as the impact continued through, slamming into a second wolf behind it and driving both into the sand in a broken heap.
Rex landed heavily a moment later, feet digging trenches into the ground. The Circle of Spirit pressure rolled off him then, dense and crushing, washing over the remaining wolves like a physical wall. His aura even had a hint of the level, Circle of Mind, meaning he was very close to ascending to the next level.
Two of the Circle of Body beasts froze outright, legs trembling, instincts screaming at them to flee.
Rex stepped forward. The rest of the fight did not last long.
...
Bahamut and Ren had reached the entrance of a forest, causing them to halt. Looking behind them, they saw the hill a distance away.
GROWL!
Bahamut stared down at his exposed belly...
"I'm hungry..." he muttered, like he was confused at what was happening.
"You didn't take any of the beasts, idiot. We would have to hunt," Ren spoke with a mocking tone, making Bahamut click his tongue in annoyance.
"I'm sure this forest would have a good number of edible meat..." Bahamut spoke as he walked forward and entered the place, his boots padding the ground loudly, like he was intentionally calling out to the beasts around.
"Before I forget... System?" Bahamut suddenly stopped, holding his chin.
[How may I help the host?]
'Is it possible that we are being recorded?' Bahamut asked, recalling a past event from one of his lives when he was a game streamer. He remembered that they could record players.
[Yes. Do you wish to appear unseen?]
'If it is possible, but it would raise suspicion...'
[You don't have to worry about that. I can make them see what you want them to see.]
'Hmm... then can you make it so I pay as I normally do? With battles and all that? I want to use the beast trait manifestation skill, but with another beast.'
[Consider it done.]
'Thank you.'
Bahamut stated as he fully entered the forest, getting plunged into darkness. Though it didn't really affect him, since he was in constant darkness naturally. And his senses were so sharpened that the darkness was nothing.
[Activating Beast Trait Manifestation...]
His feet began to change, bones stretching with a muted grind as his boots split apart and fell away in torn strips of leather. The transformation was not bulky or heavy. It was refined. His legs lengthened slightly, the structure reshaping for balance and speed rather than raw mass.
White fur spilled down over his skin in smooth, tight layers, sleek and short, clinging to muscle built for sudden bursts of motion. The feet narrowed into powerful pads, clearly leonine but leaners, shaped for silent landings and rapid direction changes. From each toe curved dark gold claws, long and razor-clean, catching the little sunlight that spilled through the trees as they flexed. They looked light, deadly, and made not to crush but to chase, to spring, and to tear in a single flowing motion.
When he shifted his weight, the ground barely reacted. Yet the tension in his stance promised violence the moment he moved.
Bahamut then reached up and hooked two fingers under the edge of the blindfold. He paused for half a breath, then pulled it free.
Light slammed into his vision, not as pain but as information. His eyes shifted instantly, the whites darkening, the pupils compressing into sharp vertical slits before rounding again into something unmistakably predatory. Gold flooded his irises, layered, faceted, and alive, unlike his normal, dead, and blind ones. They gleamed like polished metal held to the sun. When he blinked, the glow intensified instead of fading, and he didn't feel uncomfortable with it. It was like it was already a part of him.
The world snapped into clarity. Distance collapse, depth sharpened.
Every grain of sand, every twitch of muscle, every ripple of heat in the air aligned into clean, readable patterns. Movement stood out like a scream.
[Beast Traits:
1. Radiant King Feet
2. Golden Sun Eagle Eyes]