Debuff Master

Chapter 581

“Ah, hello,” Serengeti replied nonchalantly. Then, he turned to his coaching staff and continued the discussion that he was having with his coach.

“So what we gathered from his previous match was that... he’s fucking fast.”

“Huh? What did you say?” Serengeti grimaced at his coach’s words.

“I said he’s fucking fast.”

“That’s all you got?”

“He’s extremely strong, too. He finished Nasoguri in just three seconds.”

“What? Nasoguri lost in just three seconds?”

“He instantly closed the distance and smashed Nasoguri’s head open. He’s so fast that Nasoguri did not even have the time to react.”

“Hmm...”

“That’s all I got for you, so you better be careful.”

“All right, I understand.”

Serengeti did not get any helpful tips from his coach. Well, the tip he received was not useless or anything like that. In fact, knowing that his opponent was extremely fast and being on his guard about it would spare him from losing right at the start of the match.

‘I wonder how fast he is,’ Serengeti wondered.

He proceeded to summon his pets before tapping the "Ready" button. An Adventurer was allowed to summon up to three pets in the Hall of Martial God, and summoning them before the match started was a no brainer.

Wooong!

Serengeti gathered his mana and summoned his pets.

“Grrr!”

“Awoooo!”

“Roar!”

A large grizzly bear, sabertooth tiger, and dire wolf appeared in front of him.

Serengeti’s class was Beast Druid, which was a hybrid of a melee combatant class and a summoner-type class. His class allowed him to wield axes while fighting alongside the spirit of the forests in the form of animals summoned.

“Ready when you are,” Serengeti said, tapping the "Ready" button.

“Hmm...” Siegfried muttered and looked at the spectator’s booth right behind him.

The spectator’s booth he was looking at was the VVIP area, and his kingdom’s officials as well as his family members were seated there.

Munch! Munch!

Siegfried was specifically looking at one person. This individual was busy munching on nuts while relaxing in his seat.

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu?”

“Come over here for a second.”

“Kyu? Do you want Hamchi to fight, too?”

“Look at those guys,” Siegfried said, pointing at Serengeti’s spirit beasts. Then, he smirked and added, “It looks like they’re getting ready to gang up on me.”

“Kyu! Hamchi will teach them a lesson!” Hamchi exclaimed, shoving his packet of nuts into his pocket

between his fur. He then jumped over the barrier and ran up to the arena.

“Pfft!” Serengeti scoffed.

What could a mere hamster do against these ferocious beasts?

Serengeti wasn\'t sure whether his opponent was joking or not, but it was a funny joke if it was a joke.

‘Why are you so desperate to see your pet get ripped to shreds? You should just fight alone and leave that thing out of this,’ Serengeti thought. He could not understand why Siegfried would drag his gigantic hamster into the match.

The two tapped on the "Ready" button again, and the match countdown timer started.

[3... 2... 1...!]

[Fight!]

The duel started.

Serengeti jumped back and formed a barricade in front of him with his spirit beasts. He was worried that Siegfried would try to finish the match in a matter of seconds, just like in his previous match.

“Huh? He’s not attacking...?”

However, Siegfried didn\'t budge even an inch, bewildering him. His coach told him that Siegfried was extremely fast, so he thought Siegfried would come at him from the start of the match.

Unfortunately, he was mistaken.

***

Siegfried did not bother attacking or doing anything, unlike Serengeti, who immediately jumped back to protect himself. Instead, Siegfried looked at Hamchi and had a little chat with him.

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu?”

“Are they higher-ranking than you?”

“Kyuuu! Hamchi is a great spirit! Those punks are just slightly high-ranking spirits! Hamchi is waaaaay senior than them!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Kyuuu!”

“Then you should be able to teach them a lesson, right?”

“Kyu! That’s right! I’m going to teach those punks some manners!”

Serengeti was perplexed by Siegfried’s conversation with Hamchi.

‘What? That hamster is a great spirit? No way, they’re probably talking about something else or just bluffing,’ Serengeti thought that a great spirit would have an imposing appearance rather than the appearance of a large hamster.

Thus, he decided to continue with the match as usual.

“Go rip them into shreds,” Serengeti commanded his spirit beasts.

A few seconds later...

“Hmm?” Serengeti was flustered, as his spirit beasts weren\'t moving an inch. “What are you doing? I said go and rip them apart.”

However, the spirit beasts refused to move.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The grizzly bear, the sabertooth tiger, and the dire wolf did not budge as if they could not hear his command.

“Guys? Can’t you hear me? Hey! Bear! Tiger! Wolf! Go and rip them to shreds!” Serengeti shouted, calling them by their nicknames, but he did not get any response from them.

The spectators started murmuring to each other, as even they could see that Serengeti had lost control over his spirit beasts.

“What’s going on?”

“Why aren’t they moving?”

“Maybe he forgot to feed them?”

“But they listened to him just fine in his first match.”

Everyone was confused about what was happening.

“Kyuuu!”

And that was when Hamchi took a step forward...

“Head on the ground, now! Kyuuu!” Hamchi commanded the spirit beasts.

“Rawr...”

“Awoo...”

“Grr...”

The spirit beasts hesitated for a few seconds but eventually listened to his command and put their heads on the ground.

“W-What the hell?!”

Serengeti was shocked out of his mind.

***

“What’s going on?”

“Are those spirit beasts planting their heads on the ground?”

“Whoa... Are they listening to that hamster instead of their master?”

“Is Siegfried’s pet overpowering Serengeti’s pets without even fighting?”

The crowd was utterly perplexed upon witnessing the spirit beasts planting their heads on the ground.

“Hey! What are you guys doing?! Get up, Bear, Tiger! Not you too, Wolf?! You’re the most loyal one here!” Serengeti shouted, sounding frustrated.

The dire wolf was the most loyal one among his pets, but it refused to listen to him no matter how much he yelled at it.

“Roll to the left! Kyuuu!” Hamchi commanded, putting on a scary face.

“Roar...”

“Awoo...”

“Grr...”

The spirit beasts did as they were told.

“Roll to the right! Kyuuu!”

“Roar...”

“Awooo...”

“Grr...”

The spirit beasts rolled left, right, front, and back on the arena floor before planting their heads on the floor again. They completely ignored the commands of their master and only listened to whatever Hamchi told them to do.

How was it possible that the pets would ignore their master and instead listen to some gigantic hamster?

Serengeti’s pride as a Beast Druid was shattered into pieces.

“Hey, Hamchi,” Siegfried called out.

“Kyu?”

“Keep drilling those guys. I\'ll drill that one myself.”

“Alright! Kyuuu! Leave these punks to me! They’re waaay below me in rank! Kyuuu!”

“Okay, have fun,” Siegfried replied. Then, he walked leisurely toward Serengeti.

Serengeti’s eyes shot wide open as he asked, “W-What the hell are you...? How did you—”

Siegfried smirked and cut him off, “Hamchi is a Great Spirit of the Forest, so his rank is quite high.”

“I-Impossible! How can I lose control over my own pets? It doesn’t make sense even if he’s a great spirit!”

Serengeti was right. He was aware that the spirits had a very strict hierarchy that could interfere with their loyalty toward their summoner, but he had never heard of the spirits being so subservient without even attempting to resist.

“Beats me,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

Actually, he did not have that much information regarding Hamchi. He knew there was something special about Hamchi, but that was about it. He did not have enough information to say how Hamchi managed to seize control of other spirits from their summoners.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself if you’re so curious?” Siegfried said.

“W-What nonsense is—”

“Anyway, let’s set our pets aside and have our own lovely time, shall we?” Siegfried asked, taking out his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

“Argh...”

“How does one-on-one sound to you?”

“Damn it!” Serengeti growled and gripped his axe tightly. What could a Beast Druid do without their pets? It would be like fighting with half of their strength sealed. In other words, Serengeti could not use his class’ advantages at all, and this was the worst-case scenario for him.

“All right, shall we wrap this up?” Siegfried asked before lightly jogging toward his opponent.

Bam! Clang!

Sparks flew as their weapons collided in mid-air.

Surprisingly, Serengeti managed to block the first attack.

“Oh!”

“As expected!”

“He’s truly a gem!”

“Look! He can fight even without his pets!”

The spectators were surprised and impressed that Serengeti could fight toe-to-toe against Siegfried even without his pets.

The Beast Druid’s advantages were sealed in this fight, but Serengeti still managed to show everyone why he was one of the top talents of his team by displaying his excellent combat sense and reflexes. He did not back down and managed to withstand Siegfried’s attacks. Unfortunately, his resistance lasted only for a short while.

Fwaaaa! Swoosh!

Blaze Field and Shadow Hell were placed down, pushing Serengeti into a corner.

Bam!

Siegfried threw a low kick at Serengeti’s left leg.

“Ack!” Serengeti screamed in agony as his leg twisted at a horrible angle.

Thud!

Serengeti fell to the ground.

“I’ll make it quick,” Siegfried said before mercilessly swinging his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp at his opponent’s head.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Smack, smack, smaaack!

Siegfried smashed Serengeti’s head with his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp, but he failed to deal as much damage as he thought he would.

“Huh? He’s still alive?”

[Serengeti]

[HP: ??????????]

[Mana: ??????????]

[Stamina: ??????????]

Blaze Field had shredded Serengeti\'s Defense and Magic Resistance, but he only lost twenty percent of his HP despite getting smacked repeatedly on his face.