I am Just an Average Tamer

Scene: Azurean Academy – Professor Elric's Office

The morning after the Direhorn incident, Kai was summoned.

No official reason. No explanation. Just a formal summons by Professor Elric, the head of Beast Studies. He was a quiet, stern man with a passion for rare creatures—and a reputation for "disciplinary thoroughness."

Kai knocked once.

> "Enter."

Scene: Beneath the Arena — The Forgotten Archive

The entrance to the old crypt wasn't on any academy map.

Kai knew of it only because of Theron—who once joked about secret duel chambers and forbidden spell vaults left behind by the founders. But it wasn't a joke now. Not when black veins were spreading through the stone above, and faint whispers echoed from cracks in the floor.

The spiral fragment in Kai's hand pulsed faintly.

> "It's guiding us," he muttered. "It wants to be home."

> "You sure this is smart?" Rashira asked, gripping her staff tighter.

> "No. But we don't have time to be careful."

They passed a collapsed corridor where the wall had crumbled. Behind it was an ancient iron door, rusted shut—except something had carved a spiral into the metal. Recently. Too recently.

Vex phased through the crack and unlocked it from inside. The door groaned open.

Darkness swallowed them.

Rashira cast a soft illumination spell. Her serpent hissed low, unsettled.

> "This place reeks of old blood," she whispered.

The archive was massive—circular in shape, with tiered shelves descending into the earth like a spiral staircase. Each shelf was filled with books, tablets, scrolls. Most were coated in dust. But at the very center stood a dais—and upon it, a pulsing obsidian crystal the size of a human head.

The heart of the Spiral beneath Azurean.

And chained to the crystal… was a corpse.

No—not a corpse.

A person.

Barely alive.

---

❖ Scene: The Last Archivist

She was ancient. Skin like parchment, body thin and shriveled, veins glowing faint blue. Her eyes opened as Kai stepped closer—and they were clear. Untouched by the Spiral.

> "Ah... it calls to you," she rasped. "You're the one who stepped beyond its edge."

> "Who are you?"

> "I was the first Beast Archivist of Azurean. Long before they built towers. Before they caged the Spiral with song and stone."

> "You're… over two hundred years old."

> "Three hundred and twelve. I was meant to be the lock. A living seal."

Rashira knelt beside her, wide-eyed.

> "What is this place?"

> "This is the wound," the Archivist said softly. "A piece of the Spiral fell into our world long ago—an echo of something older than time. It infects ideas. Breeds madness. It cannot be killed. Only caged."

Kai frowned.

> "You're saying the Spiral isn't a creature. It's… what? A concept?"

> "A parasite. One that feeds on chaos and desire. It whispers to the ambitious. It offers strength, clarity, purpose—then devours the mind."

> "And the beasts?"

> "Sensitive. Closer to the old echoes. They succumb first. Then the mages. Then the world."

She coughed violently, blood staining her lips.

> "The seal is breaking. You must act. Take the key."

She pointed to a pendant around her neck—woven silver, shaped like a hawk devouring a snake.

> "Find the Songbearer. She still lives. Her voice can stitch the cracks shut… but only once."

> "Where is she?"

> "Where the Spiral first sang."

And then, with a final exhale, the Archivist went still.

The obsidian crystal pulsed once—then cracked.

And something awoke.

---

❖ Scene: Back at the Academy – Same Time

Above ground, chaos had begun to spread.

A low hum vibrated through the walls. Students fainted mid-training. Beasts began to wail in unison, as if hearing a melody none of the humans could perceive.

Theron stood on the training field, trying to calm a trio of first-years when he heard the siren call.

> "What the hell is—?"

The room was lined with beast skeletons, fossil displays, and bottled specimens—each one humming faintly with residual energy. Elric sat behind a massive desk, spectacles perched low on his nose.

His eyes didn't lift.

> "Close the door."

Kai did.

Silence followed.

Then, Elric spoke—without looking up.

> "A Direhorn died last night. A promising specimen. Top-tier. Tamed under academy protocols."

"It attacked first."

"So you admit you were there."

"I was followed. I acted in defense."

"And what, exactly, do you think it was doing out there? Alone. Unstable."

Kai didn't answer.

Elric finally looked up. His eyes weren't normal.

A spiral spun in his iris—barely visible.

> "You're curious, Kai. That's dangerous. Curiosity leads to dark places. You should let us worry about the beasts. You're here to be trained, not to dig."

> "You're already compromised," Kai said quietly.

> "We all are."

A silence hung.

Then, without a single signal, Elric moved.

He flung a vial across the room. It exploded mid-air, releasing a violet mist. Kai dove aside, rolling into a crouch as the professor's desk shattered—a massive black-furred shape bursting forth from underneath.

A Spiral-hound.

At least eight feet long, with eyes like broken glass and a maw that split into four jagged segments. Tentacles twitched along its spine.

> "You shouldn't have come here, Kai," Elric said, voice distant, layered with something else. "Now the Spiral will claim you, too."

---

❖ Scene: Battle – Professor Elric's Office

Kai blinked once—activating Ghost Steps—and vanished.

The hound slammed into the floor where he'd stood, crushing the tiles.

> "Vael," Kai whispered, mentally. "Eyes above."

> "On it."

Vael's screech echoed from above as the Windsight Falcon swooped in through the skylight, wings slicing like blades. He struck the hound's side, drawing blood—but the Spiral-hound barely reacted. Its body shimmered, shifting like a bad dream.

> "It's regenerating," Vael warned.

Kai ducked behind a bookshelf as the beast swung its tail, tearing shelves apart. He hurled three senbon—one laced with sleep venom, one with rotbane, one blank—to test reactions.

The first melted mid-air.

The second passed through.

The third embedded.

> Real enough to hurt.

Kai rushed in. Vex burst from the shadows, slashing the Spiral-hound's back legs with a phantom-enhanced pounce. Kai followed, dual daggers spinning—he leapt off the beast's flank, kicked off its shoulder, and plunged both blades into its eye.

It howled.

But not in pain.

In delight.

Then it exploded in a burst of black mist, covering the entire room.

Kai fell back, coughing. The tendrils reached for his skin, trying to sink in—but his aura, sharp and resistant, burned them away.

> "Can't hold this form for long," Elric muttered. "You're resisting the call. Why?"

> "Because I'm not weak enough to beg for power."

A long pause.

Then Elric did something unexpected.

He smiled.

> "You will be."

With a snap of his fingers, the Spiral-hound reformed—this time, glowing with burning sigils across its body. Its size doubled. Spines cracked through its back. A second mouth opened in its chest.

Final form.

> "Kai—" Vael shouted. "He's summoning from below!"

The Spiral beneath the academy was feeding Elric power in real-time.

They couldn't win here.

> "Fall back," Kai ordered.

> "But—"

> "We need help. Now."

---

❖ Scene: Azurean Academy – South Tower, Moments Later

Rashira was mid-practice with her Riverwake Serpent when she heard the explosion from Elric's office.

Without hesitation, she dropped everything and ran.

By the time she reached the upper floors, smoke billowed through the corridors. Spiral taint bled from the walls—flesh-colored vines pulsing through stone, wriggling like veins.

Students screamed and fled. Some didn't make it.

She summoned her serpent. It coiled protectively around her as she entered the chaos.

> "Kai!"

No answer.

Then—bang!

He crashed through a wall, bloodied, eyes wild.

> "We need a containment field. Fast!"

Rashira reacted instantly, drawing her staff and slamming it into the floor. A ring of green sigils burst outward, forming a containment dome around the area. The hound bounced off it, roaring in rage.

Elric stood behind, eyes now completely spiralized. His arms split open, revealing tendril-bone limbs.

> "You can't win," he hissed. "You're still playing by rules that no longer matter."

Rashira stepped forward, eyes fierce.

> "Then let's break the rules."

She raised her staff. The Riverwake Serpent surged forward, fangs charged with arcane lightning. Vex and Vael flanked from the sides.

Kai leapt high, daggers glowing with spectral venom.

They struck together.

A coordinated assault—beast and tamer, in sync.

The Spiral-hound couldn't defend on all sides.

Its form faltered.

Elric screamed—once, sharp—and then the entire spiral-bonded form collapsed in on itself, shrinking into a black stone no larger than a coin.

It rolled to Kai's feet.

> "What... the hell is that?" Rashira asked.

> "A fragment," Kai said, picking it up with tongs. "Part of the deeper Spiral."

> "What do we do with it?"

> "Hide it. Burn it. Destroy it later. For now, we run."

> "Where?"

He looked out the broken window toward the northern spires.

> "To the crypts. To the old archive beneath the arena. The Spiral is waking. We need answers before it eats the rest of the academy."

---

❖ Scene: The Spiral Beneath

Miles below the surface, in chambers sealed with ancient magic, the Spiral twitched again.

The loss of one of its pawns didn't matter.

It had hundreds more.

Across the academy, subtle changes began.

A beast tamer vomited black sludge in the middle of class.

A professor fainted, his skin covered in arcane burns.

One of the crystal pillars that kept the protective dome over Azurean began to crack.

The Spiral didn't rush.

It waited.

Patient. Eternal. Hungering.