44: Chapter 44 Your sparring partner is not as good as mine!

Spotlights shone directly onto the massive arena as Li Heng and Zhou Ming walked in at the same time.

Thanks to Lin Chen's day-and-night training, both of their strengths had improved by leaps and bounds during this period. They displayed dominant power in the earlier rounds, both advancing to the finals and successfully meeting each other.

Before the battle even began, the two followed competition tradition and started talking trash.

"Li Heng, right? Your strength isn't bad."

A confident smile hung on Zhou Ming's face, the curve of his lips gradually widening: "But this is as far as you go. Today, I will advance to the grand finals and take the championship trophy home."

Li Heng sneered, arms crossed over his chest, and retorted unceremoniously: "If I don't win within three minutes, it'll be because I'm not in my best form."

Their gazes collided in mid-air, almost sparking.

Lin Chen's mouth twitched upon hearing this. These two were perfectly amiable in front of him; who knew they would become like this as soon as they met?

The live audience was ignited by this tit-for-tat trash talk, erupting into even louder jeers and cheers.

The battle officially began soon after, with the Flame Eagle and Stone Armor Lizard confronting each other.

Zhou Ming's tactical plan was very simple: use the Flame Eagle's air superiority to compensate for the attribute disadvantage, constantly using long-range skills to wear down and kite the opponent, weakening the Stone Armor Lizard's condition before launching a fatal attack.

Because the Stone Armor Lizard was clumsy, it was helpless against the Flame Eagle circling high above, forced to take hits passively and only occasionally finding chances to counterattack.

After a fierce battle, the Stone Armor Lizard's condition dropped rapidly. Its thick rock armor showed streaks of charred scars, and it stood in place, panting heavily.

Although the Flame Eagle was almost uninjured, the continuous firepower suppression and skill bursts caused its stamina to drop rapidly, and it panted slightly.

Zhou Ming quickly made a decision: "Now is the time! Use Fiery Charge."

The Flame Eagle's Fiery Charge had broken through to the Proficient level, making it the most powerful among all the skills it had mastered.

Therefore, Zhou Ming had to capitalize on the advantage before the Flame Eagle's stamina was completely drained, dealing a heavy blow to the Stone Armor Lizard.

"Screech!!"

The Flame Eagle let out a high-pitched cry, its red flames surging to cover its body. In an instant, it transformed into a blazing meteor, diving fiercely toward the already exhausted Stone Armor Lizard.

The next moment! Boom!!! The Flame Eagle slammed into the Stone Armor Lizard. The latter was hit by the terrifying impact force, sliding backward several meters and plowing deep furrows into the ground, with even faint cracks appearing on its armor.

Zhou Ming was overjoyed at the sight. The Fiery Charge hit accurately; victory was right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Li Heng showed no panic. Instead, the corners of his mouth curled up, and a thought emerged: "Now! Bite it!"

The bait was successful; watch me pull a fast one on him!

The heavily wounded Stone Armor Lizard suddenly opened its sharp-toothed mouth and bit down hard on the Flame Eagle's lower limbs, which it hadn't had time to fully retract!

Zhou Ming's face changed drastically: "Shake it off!"

But it was too late. No matter how wildly the Flame Eagle struggled and flapped its wings, it couldn't shake off the Stone Armor Lizard that was biting down firmly.

In its panic, it took off from the ground carrying the Stone Armor Lizard, but the latter's terrifying weight became its greatest burden at that moment. Its flight posture immediately became crooked and extremely unstable. Not only was it unable to gain altitude, but it also started to descend.

"Now! Heavy Hammer Tail Strike!" Li Heng gave the command.

A fierce light shot from the Stone Armor Lizard's eyes. Its thick tail, like a siege hammer, swung from bottom to top with a dull sound of wind-breaking, slamming solidly into the side of the Flame Eagle's head!

Bang!! A teeth-gritting thud!

"Screech!" The Flame Eagle let out a shrill, miserable howl. The strength of its struggle slackened, and together with the Stone Armor Lizard that was still biting down, it fell crookedly from several meters in the air, crashing heavily to the ground!

Boom! Dust flew everywhere. The entire arena was silent.

The dust gradually cleared. The Flame Eagle's eyes rolled back, its head tilted to one side; it had clearly lost consciousness.

The Stone Armor Lizard had also taken a hard fall; blood spilled from the corner of its mouth, and the crack in the armor on its chest had widened. However, it struggled, using its trembling limbs to prop its body back up. Despite staggering, it still stood tall in the arena.

"Roar—!!" After a careful inspection, the referee raised the flag representing Li Heng's victory high in the air.

"The match is over! The winner is—contestant Li Heng!!"

After a brief silence, the entire arena erupted into earth-shattering cheers and applause.

No one had expected that the Stone Armor Lizard, which had been in passive defense and seemingly worn down to a precarious state, would actually trade injury for injury, using itself as bait to finally complete a comeback that decided the match in one blow!

On both sides of the arena, Li Heng rushed onto the field to hug the heavily wounded Stone Armor Lizard, while Zhou Ming stood in place, dejected and dazed for a long time.

It wasn't until the post-match interview that Zhou Ming's condition gradually improved.

He said in a deep voice to the camera: "It's a pity to only make it this far, but the Flame Eagle and I gave it our all. I can only say we were one move behind. I'll work harder next time."

He paused, then said: "However, I want to thank my sparring partner here. If not for his help over these days, I wouldn't have been able to make such great progress, let alone reach the finals."

"He is a very amazing sparring partner."

Lin Chen, who was watching the live broadcast, was stunned. He was involved in this?

Li Heng, who was also being interviewed nearby, heard this and the corners of his mouth curled into an arc. He said in a loud voice: "I also have a very amazing sparring partner, and I can guarantee that contestant Zhou Ming's sparring partner is not as good as mine."

Zhou Ming turned his head to look: "?"

After the interview ended, Li Heng called immediately: "Brother Chen, how was my performance today?"

"Impressive."

"Hehe, that guy even said his sparring partner was amazing. I was wondering, can his sparring partner be as amazing as Brother Chen?"

Lin Chen pursed his lips slightly and said: "His sparring partner is also me."

Li Heng: "...?" Li Heng: "Wait! I remember you've been working as a private sparring partner during this time, could it be..."

Lin Chen nodded: "You guessed right, he is my employer."

Li Heng fell into a long silence. After who knows how long, Li Heng's voice rang out again, mixed with laughter: "Heh, with the same sparring partner, Brother Chen, and the same help, he still couldn't win. This just goes to show that he is inferior to me."

"It seems it was only natural for me to advance to the grand finals."

Lin Chen couldn't help but chuckle.

I have to say, Li Heng's tactical arrangement this time was stunning.

He knew well that the clumsy Stone Armor Lizard would find it difficult to land effective hits on the Flame Eagle, so he chose a high-risk strategy of trading injury for injury, step-by-step luring the Flame Eagle into a trap, finally launching a desperate counterattack to secure victory in one blow.

But this tactic was extremely risky; if the Stone Armor Lizard had been even slightly careless, it would have lost. But Li Heng won, and as long as he won, his tactic was a success.

After hanging up, Zhou Ming also sent a call invitation. Compared to Li Heng, Zhou Ming's voice was significantly more dejected: "Brother Chen, I've let you down."

Lin Chen shook his head: "You are already very impressive, proving that you are one of the best rookie Beast Tamers in all of Qinglan City."

Hearing this, Zhou Ming's mood improved slightly: "It's still thanks to your help, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to achieve such results."

He paused for a moment, then said: "I've already transferred the money."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Chen saw a text message pop up: "You have received 30,000 yuan..."

He frowned: "Didn't you say you'd only pay 30,000 if you became the champion?"

Zhou Ming said with a smile: "It's fine. Actually, my parents and I are already very satisfied with the current result, even though I didn't defeat that annoying guy."

Mentioning this, Zhou Ming gritted his teeth and said viciously: "He just beat me, what's there to be so cocky about? If he's got the skills, he should go beat Su Qingyuan tomorrow."

Lin Chen smiled helplessly.

Zhou Ming continued, sighing softly: "And even if I had advanced to the grand finals, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Su Qingyuan, so the result really makes no difference. Just take this money. Although it's not much, it doesn't even cover my weekly allowance."

Lin Chen had intended to decline, but when he heard the second half of the sentence, his expression changed slightly, and he silently shut his mouth. Forget it, there's no reasoning with these young masters.

After hanging up, Zhou Ming looked through the car window at the city nightscape whizzing by, but couldn't help but think of the words Li Heng had said in opposition to him during the post-match interview.

He gritted his teeth and said: "He only won one match, what's with the act? Just wait. After I continue training with Brother Chen for a while, I'll let you know whose sparring partner is really better."