The wolverine materialized on the field with a presence that imdiately captured the attention of every spectator.
The beast was large now, substantially. A creature that reached nearly three ters in height at the shoulder when standing in its normal quadrupedal posture. Its weight had to be considerable, though it moved with a grace that belied its size.
It was important to note that this still wasn't the largest wolverine that existed in the kingdom. Being a popular species among the nobility for its elental versatility, there were several specins in Gold rank distributed here and there among powerful families, not counting those belonging to Julius, Arturo, or Shizu. All of those were considerably larger than Ren's.
But Ren's wolverine was without doubt the strangest that most of the audience had ever seen.
In general, its body followed the standard morphology of the species. It was sowhat elongated and muscular, an anatomy that communicated considerable strength compacted into a relatively compact fra. The legs were thick and powerful, built for both speed and stability. The shoulders were broad, supporting a neck that was thicker than it appeared at first glance.
All wolverines had a tail with long hairs that moved expressively, communicating the beast's emotional state. Relaxed and swaying ant contentnt. Stiff and bristling signaled aggression. Tucked low indicated submission or fear, though few wolverines ever exhibited that particular emotion.
Their claws were large. Each digit ended in a slightly curved talon as long as a man's forearm.
The difference from other normal wolverines began with the fur.
In typical specins, the fur changed with the elent the beast had developed as a preference, color and texture adjusting to reflect elental affinity. A fire wolverine would display red and orange tones, the fur taking on a quality that seed to shimr with heat even when the beast wasn't actively channeling. One aligned to water would show aquatic blues and greens, sotis appearing slightly damp even in dry conditions. And so on for each elent.
Tars who raised wolverines guided them toward a single elent early, focusing all cultivation efforts on developing that particular affinity to its maximum potential.
Trying 2 or more would always end up with your beast stuck in a low rank, bronze or silver at most. A big part of the audience understood this almost instinctively.
On the back and head, wolverines had longer multicolored hairs when young. As they rose in rank and adapted to their preferred elent, those hairs gradually changed into physical manifestations of the elent itself. If the wolverine leaned toward earth, those hairs converted into mineral structures that grew like crystalline spines. In fire types, they beca perpetual flas that burned without consuming. In wood-attuned specins, they first transford into grass and then into small trees as the beast grew larger.
It was a distinctive characteristic of the species that allowed imdiate identification of which elent a wolverine had prioritized during its developnt.
Which brought everyone to the truly strange situation of Ren's wolverine, sothing that made it unique among all known specins.
There was a mont of confused silence as so observers tried to process what they were seeing.
"Why is it green? And… What elent is that?" soone said in the stands.
"I can't tell," another responded, squinting. "It's... multiple?"
"That's impossible. Wolverines don't work that way."
But the impossible was no more… The evidence stood before them in the arena.
The best way to describe it would be as an unconventional rainbow mounted on a small jade mountain.
The wolverine's back fur was a deep, lustrous black that seed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Shadow elent, clearly, though that alone would have been unusual enough. Shadow-attuned Wolverines were not attainable, at least not the last 500 years.
But that was just the beginning… Or the end? Well, the tail.
Interspersed throughout the black fur were patches and streaks of white-transparent hair that seed to glow faintly with an inner radiance. Light elent. The direct opposite of shadow, the yang to its yin. Having both shouldn't be possible even there… They were contradictory forces that typically canceled each other out or caused cultivation instability.
Yet Ren's wolverine displayed both in perfect balance. But that wasn't that weird anymore for a "Ren's beast"...
There was more.
The longer hairs along its back and head told an even stranger story. They hadn't transford into a single elent as nature intended. Instead, they had beco a spectrum of elental manifestations, each distinct and clearly developed.
Red-orange flas danced along portions of the spine, actual fire that burned without heat reaching the fur beneath. Fire elent, fully achieved and controlled.
Blue sections near the shoulders appeared liquid, water droplets that sohow remained suspended and flowing despite defying gravity. Water elent, impossible to miss.
Yellow crystalline formations jutted from other areas, mineral structures that caught the light and refracted it in rainbow patterns. Earth elent, solid and unyielding.
Brown-green growth sprouted in patches, actual living plants that seed to draw sustenance from the beast itself. Wood elent, vibrant and healthy.
Silver-white wisps of moving air surrounded the head, visible currents that shifted and flowed with the wolverine's movents. Wind elent, restless and free.
Seven elents total.
Not specialized in one. Not even split between two or three, which would have been remarkable enough.
All seven elents, each manifested, existing in harmony on a single beast.
Not five elents as would be the case with a legendary wolverine from the old stories that had cultivated affinity with all natural elents.
But seven complete elents including light and darkness, which were normally the exclusive domain of other specialized species.
On the back of Ren's jade-green wolverine, the elental transformations displayed themselves in an exhibition that gave everyone plenty to talk about and left little to hide regarding the beast's capabilities.
It was obvious even to a casual observer that there were seven different varieties manifested instead of the five that an extraordinarily versatile legendary wolverine might show. And although Ren had never used the wolverine with its complete repertoire before such a large public audience, the physical manifestations on the beast's back communicated the nearly undeniable truth about its capabilities.
Which was why the hidden observer's report in the stands had escalated to ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent certainty.
All of Ren's beasts could use the seven complete traditional elents including light and darkness, despite the observer not yet having seen the wolverine execute techniques with their own eyes. The physical evidence was sufficient to confirm what the battle with his hydra and mantis had strongly suggested.
The implications rippled through the crowd like waves through still water.
In the noble sections, house leaders exchanged glances weighted with aning. A tar who could have more than two and cultivate all multi-elent beasts wasn't just rare… it was unprecedented. The strategic value alone made Ren Patinder a prize worth considerable investnt, or alternatively, a threat worth neutralizing before he beca too powerful to control.
The rchants in the upper middle sections saw contracts, partnerships, exclusive rights to his services. The calculations were already running through their minds, profit margins expanding with each passing second.
The common sections simply stared in awe. This was the kind of tar that stories were written about, the kind that changed the ga entirely.
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