I've Been Reincarnated As A Summoned Beast: Chapter 2

Zero

Since interacting with the inhabitants of this world had become monotonous, I decided the best way to entertain myself was to enjoy my soul link. Every living creature completely avoided my mountain peak anyway because of my aggressive nature over the past decade.

I’ve found out that this person is female, and their name was Euphemia Hawthorne. She had cherry blossom hair with innocent, deep pink eyes. Her personality seemed to overwhelm most of the people she interacted with. Euphemia was the daughter of the number one guild in the world, so her confidence to continue on her family’s legacy was through the roof.

She was currently entering her last three months at Beast Master Academy. The final test was to summon your own beast that would compete for the top spot at the end of term. Depending on the position your beast is able to place, it will show how competent you are as a beast summoner.

There is a catch, though, because of how many beasts one person is allowed to summon in a lifetime. You either summon three beasts with the very low chance for a high-level summon, or you bet it all and use all three chances for one ultimate opportunity. With Euphemia’s personality to succeed, she’s obviously overconfident in her ability and aiming for the three-in-one chance.

Only about one percent of the students every year try to gamble in this way. Over ninety-nine percent of those students fail to summon anything of worth. This summons only goes after the highest-level beasts, so if you miss, you get nothing. Then you will forever have no beast in a world where danger is always right around the corner.

That’s about the gist of what I understood from watching and listening to her interactions over the past month. Her parents are trying extremely hard to talk her out of it, but she is completely adamant about doing this. I wonder if she knows anything about me or can at least feel it. I assume she’s going to succeed and most likely summon me, or why else would I be able to see her in this way?

I’m most likely some mythical-level summon being the only fox in this current world. My abilities are also overpowered, and I can’t wait to be summoned in the care of such a cutie. It reminds me of the beast tamer anime I saw in my past life.

With the summoning in a few days, I’ve started trying to transform into a much smaller fox. Why is that, you ask? Isn’t that completely obvious? So I can cuddle with her, obviously! She’s an extremely beautiful eighteen-year-old girl, and I plan to take full advantage of my situation.

Hopefully sometime in the future I will get the chance to have a human form so I can act in a much more intimate way with her. She’s going to find out firsthand what it’s like to be with a yandere fox. I will straight up claw or kill any males who try to get close to her.

There’s another reason why I’m trying to power down, and it’s for a completely selfish reason. I want everyone to underestimate me before this competition in three months. I will slowly show off my full power by the end of the tournament. Sadly, I have no way of lowering my tail number, but I’ve found a way to compress my strength. So I’m less threatening. Should be a good time!

A few days later…

I guess if all goes well, this will be my last day in this boring world. Looking in on my soul link with Euphemia, I see she’s currently waiting for her chance to summon in front of the whole academy. I’ve been thinking of entertaining ways of being summoned so I don’t completely embarrass her by showing up as a much weaker version of myself.

My idea is to get summoned in my full form and let out my chilly aura over everyone in the arena, and then as visibility becomes zero, I will transform into my cute, huggable self. I couldn’t help but feel extremely giddy at the scene I was about to make. Hopefully Euphemia forgives me for making a bit of a show.

With those kinds of thoughts, I saw her stand up and walk to the middle of the stadium, approaching the area where every other student was summoning their beasts. My heart started to thump with excitement at what my future would hold and her face when I made my appearance.

***

Euphemia couldn’t help but have second thoughts about her decision as she continued her way to the center of the arena. Was it the correct decision to risk it all for a powerful summons that could actually become a nightmare? If something amazing didn’t get summoned, she would forever be a laughingstock of the entire academy, and also the idea of letting down her family really scared her.

She had been boasting since she entered Beast Hunter Academy about being the best one in the future. Euphemia wanted to continue the legacy of her father and the number one guild in the world. Her pride was through the roof having such amazing parents. Her mother was also very highly appreciated in this dangerous world for her great feats of the past with her husband.

The pressure she felt from having to walk in her parent’s footsteps was overwhelming, and keeping a very high pride was her only way of avoiding any dark thoughts impeding her progress. She wanted to make her family proud and prove herself in front of the world.

Euphemia has been having weird dreams ever since a month ago, when she was seeing an enormous fox with seven tails. She didn’t know why it was appearing in her dreams but had this suspicion that this could be her summons in the future. There were stories of people in the past having visions of their beast before they had a chance to summon it.

The most exciting part for her is that those people always became legends and reigned over the world as one of the strongest. This fueled her desire even more to risk it all and use all her chances to possibly summon this fox. It had to be fate calling out to her; that’s at least what she thought.

As she walked into the giant summoning circle that was created for the three-in-one summons, her heart was beating harder than it ever had. This was her future, and everything she had done up to this point was riding on this moment. Even though she was confident, there was no helping the looming thought of dread rushing over her.

At this time she was completely locked in, blocking out all the noise of the thousands of students in attendance waiting for her to take a shot at history. It’s been a very long time since someone was successful in the three-in-one summons.

You’re doing the right thing; don’t doubt yourself now! There has to be something to those dreams I keep having at night and also this inexplicable connection I started feeling. While it’s faint, it also feels like something very precious that I don’t want to miss out on.

She thought this was her best chance at summoning what she had seen and to make sure it would get the desired result. That huge, intimidating fox with those sharp, beautiful sapphire eyes, which would bring fear into any enemy, must become mine! “Please, if you can hear my words, allow me to summon you.”

'Call my name.'

What was that? Thought, Euphemia said, as a loud voice reverberated within her head.

'You already know it; just say it.'

A name… she thought long and hard. There was only one being who could be interacting with her in this way. It had to be that fox, but how would it be possible to know his name?

'I’m sure you’ve felt it since a month ago.'

So this is really that fox! She couldn’t help but squeal in joy as the beast she was aiming for was contacting her. It’s so rare for them to be able to actually communicate with their summoner. He must be really amazing. Euphemia knew she couldn’t miss her golden opportunity.

'There is already a bond between us; it may be faint, but it’s there.'

A bond… she thought while putting all her effort into looking deep within herself to find what the fox was talking about. What is his name? Find it! She had to find it! There was no chance she would give up until she succeeded.

The voice in her head had stopped. She couldn’t help but sigh at herself for not being able to find his name within her. Euphemia knew the name of a beast was the most important thing, and it was the link to call upon him into her world.

Ze… Ze… For some reason, these two letters kept creeping into the forefront. But there was more to the name. Ze what? She thought to herself. Think!

Ro… Ro… Wait a minute. These are for sure the second two letters in his name; now to organize them. So there are r, o, e, z… Could it be Roze? She thought to herself, that’s not really a male name. This whole time it felt like the fox was a male. Euphemia wasn’t sure how she knew it, but she was confident.

No wait, all of a sudden her face brightened as if it was the first time she had ever smiled so openly in her life. She had cracked the code that was her fox’s name.

“Come forth, ZERO!” She yelled as an overwhelming amount of pressure descended onto the arena, getting everyone’s attention.

It was a rather sunny and hot day, but in an instant that all changed. Everything in the arena chilled into an icy hell; anyone unlucky enough to have exposed skin on certain textures got instantly stuck to it. A white, ominous fog rushed in all directions, covering the whole area.

What followed was a guttural roar, which would cause anyone to leap to their feet in fear, looking for an exit. The power of the new summons sent everyone to their knees by the sheer pressure it was giving off. Then, it just vanished as if it was never there in the first place.

The only one who was unharmed by the actions of a certain fox was the one who called out his name. Euphemia was completely unaffected by Zero’s actions. She just stood there in shock at how amazing her summons seemed to be.

As the fog lifted from the arena, she couldn’t help but tilt her head at what she was seeing. Standing a few feet in front of her, sitting silently on his hind legs with his tongue out, was a cute little white fox. Was this really the one who showed such power a few seconds ago? She thought, pondering to herself.

She looked down at Zero, who was only up to her knee in height, and wondered where her big fox went. Is this really the one she saw in her dreams? Did something go wrong, or is someone playing a bad joke on her? There was no one else around, so all that pressure and coldness had to be coming from Zero.

'Up'

While she was deep in thought, that voice once again rang in her mind. Just what in the world was Zero trying to tell her by saying up" while looking at her with upturned eyes?

'Don’t you want to pick me up and cuddle?'

Ah, she thought to herself. Euphemia couldn’t deny the fox's words, and at the same time, she knelt down, allowing Zero to jump into her arms. She brought him tightly against her chest, and the fox just made himself at home. In her mind, she felt like something was off, but on the other hand, he was so extremely soft and fluffy.

“What happened to your size, Zero? In my dreams, it was much bigger than this. Like the size of a huge building.” She couldn’t help but ask this question.

'I’m just having a little fun; don’t worry about it. We can talk about that later.'

After hearing Zero’s words, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was talking about. At the same time, she felt something wet licking her lips.