Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Yang approached several groups discreetly, planting the same suggestion in a low voice: “I heard from a merchant that they’re going to open the gate in a few minutes. Something about orders that arrived from the capital.”

The lie spread rapidly among the anxious crowd like wildfire through dry grass. People began to stand up, gathering their belongings, approaching the closed gate again with renewed hope gleaming in their tired eyes.

Yang positioned himself strategically near the front of the group, but not completely at the head. He wanted it to appear spontaneous.

Through the gate’s bars he could see the two guards: an older man with mole fur covering his muscular arms, and a younger one with the bluish skin characteristic of aquatic toad users. Both Silver 1 rank, formidable against common workers, but below Yang’s level.

The older guard’s experience showed in his posture, alert but not panicked, ready for trouble but hoping to avoid it. The younger one fidgeted nervously, clearly uncomfortable with the growing crowd.

“Please!” a woman cried from the crowd, her voice cracking with desperation. “My children haven’t eaten since yesterday!”

“We have the right to work!” added another man.

The guards exchanged nervous glances. The crowd was growing more agitated by the minute, pressing closer to the gate like a tide that couldn’t be held back indefinitely.

Yang waited until the tension reached the breaking point, reading the crowd’s mood.

“Back off!” he roared, his Rock Behemoth manifesting instantly in all its massive glory.

The massive beast materialized with a roar that shook the earth beneath everyone’s feet. Without ceremony, Yang directed all his behemoth’s force against the reinforced gate.

The rock disintegrated like sand before its overwhelming power. The arch supporting the entrance cracked and collapsed, taking with it an entire section of the wall. Rocks and debris flew as a breach several meters wide opened where the wall had stood moments before.

The destruction was spectacular and immediate, the magical reinforcement reduced to rubble in seconds.

The guards reacted with high level speed to get out of the way just in time. The older man immediately summoned his Deep Menace, a giant mole nearly four meters tall with claws that gleamed with metallic energy. The younger one called forth his Armored Toad, a blue creature of similar size with plated armor covering its massive back.

Yang climbed onto his beast’s shoulders and smiled with grim satisfaction. Without wood-element beasts among his opponents, he had a decisive advantage in this terrain.

The Armored Toad was the first to attack, launching a torrent of pressurized water that could have knocked down any bronze or iron beast. The attack came with surprising force, the water compressed into a cutting stream.

But Yang’s Behemoth simply raised a wall of rock from the ground, splitting the attack and letting the water drain harmlessly to the sides. The defense was casual, almost contemptuous in its ease.

Yang counter-attacked immediately. His behemoth charged directly toward the toad, using its superior mass and elemental control to create a rock ramp that catapulted it straight toward its opponent.

The impact was devastating. The Armored Toad was crushed and buried several meters downward, its armor plating cracking under the force of the blow.

But the Deep Menace tamer was more experienced and problematic. The beast had submerged underground at the moment of the initial attack, using its natural excavation abilities to attack from below where his behemoth’s advantages were neutralized.

Yang felt the ground trembling under his feet just before the mole emerged directly beneath his behemoth, its metallic claws cutting through rock like butter.

The battle intensified rapidly. Yang used his beast’s elemental control to recover the damage and create favorable terrain, raising pillars and creating pits to limit the mole’s mobility and try to crush it. But the Deep Menace was persistent, appearing and disappearing underground, attacking from unpredictable angles with the patience of a practiced guerrilla fighter.

The Armored Toad had recovered slightly and now attacked in coordination with the mole, targeting Yang directly to distract him while creating puddles of water that turned solid ground into slippery mud.

It was an even battle until something unexpected happened.

The workers, seeing the breach opened in the wall and desperate after weeks of lost work, began moving toward the border with determination born of desperation.

“It’s our chance!” someone shouted.

“Now or never!”

The crowd surged forward like a dam bursting, but many didn’t limit themselves to simply running. Several workers with plant beasts began attacking the Deep Menace, recognizing an opportunity to help their impromptu liberator.

Individually, their Iron plants were useless against a Silver 1 beast. But when more than ten workers coordinated their attacks, using vines to limit the mole’s movements and roots to block its escape tunnels, the situation changed dramatically.

The Deep Menace, trapped on the surface for the first time since the battle had begun, became an easy target for Yang’s Behemoth. Without its underground mobility, the mole’s advantages evaporated.

The final blow was simple but effective. Yang directed his beast in a massive downward strike that crushed the mole against the ground with sufficient force to create an enormous crater.

The older guard screamed as his connection to the beast was abruptly severed, the shock of his companion’s destruction sending him to his knees.

Soon the workers did the same with the toad, their combined plant attacks overwhelming its defenses through sheer coordinated persistence.

The younger guard, seeing his fallen companion and his own Armored Toad gravely wounded and trapped, raised his hands in surrender.

“Enough! I surrender!”

But Yang knew this was only the beginning. In the distance, he could see dust rising from multiple directions, clouds that spoke of rapid movement and significant numbers. Reinforcements were arriving, probably alerted by the noise of battle.

“Cross now!” he shouted to the workers. “Everyone who can!”

The crowd needed no further incentive. Dozens of people ran through the breach.

Yang maintained his position, his Behemoth positioned defensively to cover the civilians’ retreat. He had achieved his objective.

With luck, Wei would have completed his part of the plan, and Chen would already be moving the refugees toward their designated crossing point while attention was focused here.

Yang calculated that he had perhaps five minutes before being completely outnumbered.

“Keep moving!” he roared, keeping his Behemoth ready to repel any attempt by reinforcements to stop the flow.

♢♢♢♢

Chen observed the border gate three kilometers from where Yang was creating his distraction.

More than a hundred people marched behind him, including the twenty families from the neighborhood, and they were about to add to the group of local workers who had been waiting to cross since before dawn.

The two guards at this post looked nervous, their eyes darting between the approaching crowd and the distant sounds of conflict. They weren’t accustomed to seeing processions this large, especially not after recent tensions at the border.