Chapter 386: Undeniable Talent

Feeling Dandara’s proud gaze and smile fixed on him, Priam took a deep breath. Making passionate speeches and acting like that definitely wasn’t his style.

However, it had been the best tactic to make that army of arrogant idiots actually fight and survive.

The idea had actually been Dandara’s. At first, Priam had refused — he thought it was a little unfair to use subtle hypnosis on people, and he doubted it would work that well. But, as always, Dandara had been absolutely right about it.

Everyone seemed motivated to an unprecedented level.

Roars and violent explosions erupted nonstop.

Dandara’s beasts fought shoulder to shoulder with the army, serving as tactical support for the disciples while Dandara commanded them with precision from a distance.

Although the Specters appeared in all kinds of sizes, the most troublesome ones at that moment were a group resembling lizards covered in thick scales. Their claws looked like sharp hooks, and their teeth were completely serrated.

They weren’t terribly powerful — at most, they were equivalent to a peak Enlightened Sage. However, their claws and teeth cut like absurdly sharp weapons.

"Lord Priam, don’t you think this is a little reckless? They’re consumed by rage right now. If they fight at full strength from the beginning, they won’t be able to keep it up for very long," Nise’s calm and polite voice sounded behind him.

"First, let them kill a little to vent that anger. It’ll get them into the rhythm of war. Once they’re used to the chaos of battle, divide them into alternating teams. I’ll leave the organization to you," Priam replied calmly.

Nise was the formal leader of everyone, but she was willing to listen to and follow any guidance he gave her. She was certainly extremely powerful, and her calm and humble demeanor had convinced Priam that she possessed the talent necessary to become an excellent commander.

That was why he was taking this opportunity to train her. After all, Nise had been one of Dandara’s Missionaries in the past, and she would certainly become a great ally in the future. Helping her now would increase her reputation and prestige, making it easier for her to lead later on.

"And what are you two going to do?" Nise asked.

Dandara answered, flashing a mischievous smile.

"The Boss already told them everything they needed to hear. Now, all that’s left for us is to eat, drink, and enjoy the battle."

"You..." Nise was stunned, not knowing how to react.

Priam naturally added, "Don’t worry. Based on previous precedents, this Celestial Event will last between one and six months. At the beginning, the Specters aren’t that powerful — but they’re perfect for training the troops. For now, my main faction won’t intervene. There also aren’t many points to gain from enemies at this level, so it’s not worth wasting energy."

This would be a prolonged battle, and the truly fearsome enemies would only appear toward the end. Since Priam had already taken care of raising their morale and dispelling their initial fear, the rest of the management could be left to Nise.

Nise remained uneasy. Although she possessed a certain amount of prestige within the Inner Sect, she was far from having absolute authority and morale over those proud disciples. She feared the situation might spiral out of control, causing people to die needlessly due to failures in command.

Dandara smiled gently at the girl.

"Everything will be fine. Just close your eyes and give random orders if you have to. No matter what happens, the Boss will be here to deal with it. So, what are you afraid of?"

Nise nodded, understanding the message, although she was still hesitant. She then advanced toward the battlefield.

She walked slowly, but as she moved forward, her eyes and posture changed. A faint smile appeared on her lips, and then her body began to glow.

Dandara’s eyes followed Nise. As she approached the enemy hordes, the young woman drew two swift daggers, and an overwhelming aura of the wind element enveloped her.

"Wow..." Dandara murmured, genuinely impressed.

Nise moved with incredible agility and grace, executing smooth movements as if she were performing a deadly dance. Small, fast, and razor-sharp with every strike, she emanated a mesmerizing presence.

Not far away, Safira also stood out in a monumental way. As an Arcanist specialized in the water element, her lineage allowed her to create water that was far denser and heavier than normal.

Safira fired that aquatic essence like precision arrows, but their speed and impact were more like devastating missiles. Her offensive power was terrifying; every shot caused a Specter to explode into pieces, leaving it with no chance to defend itself.

The other two male Sages from the Sacred Families also showed their worth.

One of them acted as a true living fortress, wearing black armor and protecting his allies while unleashing heavy, crushing attacks of earth.

The other was a Holy Sage focused on extremely high-level healing magic. There were countless cases of severely injured disciples who were completely restored in less than three seconds and returned to the front lines.

These four were truly extraordinary talents. The difference between them and everyone else was immense.

Meanwhile, Priam turned his attention back to his own faction.

"Cousin! Come look at this!" Flaris exclaimed excitedly.

As he approached, Priam saw his generals holding a set of inscription runes that projected floating letters and numbers into the air.

It was an artifact that had been handed out beforehand as part of the preparations, capable of displaying the participants’ scores and rankings in real time.

Priam’s gaze was instantly drawn to a specific line:

*Dandara — Ironweald Sect — 13th Place.*

That position hadn’t been earned directly by Dandara’s own hands, but by the claws of her Beasts. The event’s system recognized the seven beasts on the battlefield as extensions of her own power — her ’weapons’ — and credited her with every kill they made.

For a Beast Tamer, this was a colossal advantage in events like this. Something so absurd that it bordered on cheating.

However... at the Sage Level, there theoretically shouldn’t be any true Beast Tamers.

No one was capable of genuinely taming Primordial Chaos Beasts. It was possible to impose slave seals on them to force them to fight, but that was brutal and inefficient servitude.

The slave seal fragmented the creature’s mind and rapidly burned through its life force, drastically reducing its actual combat power. Because of this, enslaving them had never been a viable way to form an army.

However, the entire world would soon be shocked when they discovered what Dandara was truly capable of.

"That’s ridiculous!"

Shione watched everything with her jaw hanging open. Dandara’s beasts had been unleashing devastating area attacks ever since the first Specters emerged, without stopping the slaughter for even a single second. Even so, Dandara was ’only’ in thirteenth place — she wasn’t even in the Top 10!

While she had accumulated 307 kill points, the first-place contestant had already surpassed the terrifying mark of a thousand.

"From what I could calculate by watching the points rise, at the current level of the Specters, every hundred kills are worth only one point," Lumiere observed.

Priam’s expression turned solemn. It was no wonder Mishnar had shown little confidence in his ability to take first place. The universe was simply too vast, filled with extraordinary bloodlines and abilities.

The Celestial Event had been announced many years ago, giving the great sects plenty of time to prepare their deadliest disciples, aiming for the maximum accumulation of points.

Monsters specialized in large-scale extermination were emerging now, taking advantage of the perfect opportunity to etch their names into history.

"A hundred kills for a single point?! In other words, Dandara’s beasts have already slaughtered more than thirty thousand monsters... And as for that first-place guy... what a freaking cheater!" Daraen exclaimed.

---

Time gradually passed. Little by little, Nise gained confidence in commanding the forces, and the coordination between the disciples improved by leaps and bounds.

Divided into eight battalions, they attacked with relative organization. They had overcome their initial terror and were facing the battle head-on.

Even so, despite the improvement, hundreds of disciples among the 50,000 fell dead by the end of the first day.

It was an unavoidable toll. Most of those young people were nothing more than hothouse flowers — accustomed to training in controlled environments and raising their attributes, but with no experience whatsoever in bloody life-or-death confrontations.

Unlike those who had risen through the sect from the outer ranks, the core disciples had never faced the true brutality of the wars against the Sorcerers. Instantly adapting to such a merciless meat grinder was simply too harsh a demand.

There was no room for a gentle learning curve. Those who faltered during the adaptation were mercilessly cut down. Only then, with the blade at their throats, did they understand just how terrifying the true nature of a battle was.

Even so, losing only a few hundred combatants out of a contingent of 50,000 was an extraordinary feat.

Nise possessed undeniable talent for command. However, behind the scenes, it was Dandara who watched everything with complete attention, orchestrating her seven beasts from afar to provide crucial support — assistance infinitely greater than Nise was capable of conceiving at that moment.