Genetic Engineer in a Tamer's World

The iron scent of blood had become a permanent resident of the Tigerwood Forest. The previous wave of the Beast Tide, which had threatened the very foundations of the Greenroot Guild, had finally been repelled. It left behind a ruined battlefield of mangled chitin, broken vines, and scorched earth.

However, the brief respite was nothing more than a hollow illusion. From the vantage point of the Iron-Bark Flats, a sprawling root-plateau that served as the southern gateway to the gargantuan tree, the horizon was once again darkening with danger.

Kale Ardentis stood at the very edge of the plateau, his light green hair whipping around his face in the violent wind; the wolfberg mercenary team had grown stronger due to the experience of the previous battle.

”Hold your positions,” Fabio commanded, his voice carrying a grit stronger than before.

Beside him, his Pyro Cobra was coiled and ready, its scales radiating a dull, orange heat that shimmered visibly in the damp morning mist.

Paula’s Prism Hornet hovered just above them, its crystalline wings vibrating at a high frequency that kept the surrounding air in a constant state of shimmer.

The Greenroot Guild forces had reorganised quickly after the Sundered Root-Gap massacre. This time, the battle was not confined to a narrow, easily managed ravine.

They were in the open zone, a high-exposure sector where countless powerful combatants were currently stationed.

Master-rank Tamers commanded small squads of disciplined soldiers, while Grandmasters acted as mobile anchors across the line, their Ravager-rank beasts crushing any Alpha-rank leaders that dared to emerge from the forest depths.

Kale and his team had been allocated to the backline, specifically Reserve Line 4, to minimise their exposure to the most devastating surges of the ravenous horde.

It was a tactical placement designed to preserve their strength for the tedious mopping-up duties. Despite this, the proximity to the front lines was still close enough that the earth quaked with every clash of higher-order powers.

”We’re too close to the blast zone,” Shane muttered, his Sulfur Hyena pawing at the thick bark nervously. Ergo’s Gloom Weasel had already retreated completely into his shadow, sensing the overwhelming presence of the darkness-elemental creatures that often led these secondary waves.

Kale ignored the nervous chatter around him. His eyes were fixed on the line of fire a few hundred meters ahead. There, Grandmaster Echidna was a virtual storm of bronze and violence.

She had summoned all three of her primary beasts into the fray. Her Stone Rhino, now further strengthened by her vast reserves of mana, was acting as a living wall against a massive flood of Feral-rank Sabres. Her two other beasts, a pair of agile, multi-limbed wind-predators, were tearing through the upper air, intercepting any flying threats that managed to bypass the main aerial defence grid.

”Sir David is taking the left flank, and Echidna is holding the centre,” Jorg noted, his Impact Bison snorting loudly as it braced its iron heels against the root. ”But the mayhem... it’s increasing.”

Indeed, the battlefield had descended into chaotic slaughter. The air was filled with a deafening cacophony of Rattling Roars, elemental explosions, and the wet, heavy thud of falling carcasses.

Mana fluctuations were so thick in the atmosphere that Kale could feel the prickling sensation directly against his Hexarion Human skin, a constant reminder of his Absolute Affinity with all paths of power.

Kale mentally checked his status.

[Mana: 400/400]

[Beast Force: 400/400]

The palm-sized Nemesis Hydra on his shoulder shifted its weight, its three heads looking in three different directions with distinct draconic arrogance.

Through the bond, Kale could feel Neo’s intense predatory hunger, a deep greed that sought the powerful cores of the monsters currently being butchered by the distant Grandmasters.

”Wait,” Kale whispered, his pupils narrowing into monstrous slits as he activated the Dragon Bane title’s passive boost to his senses.

His Lesser Mana Manipulation skill allowed him to perceive the surrounding environment with surgical precision. Amidst the high-intensity mana signatures of the fighting Grandmasters, he suddenly noticed a void, a silent, moving absence of mana that was slithering through the deep shadows of the massive tree roots.

It was a darkness-based creature, likely of the Ravager rank.

The entity was an Umbra Stalker, a beast that specialised in high-level concealment and swift assassination. It moved with an unnatural fluidity, completely bypassing the Stone Rhino’s detection methods and sliding beneath the attention of the busy Master-rank squads. Its final destination was clear: Grandmaster Echidna.

At that exact moment, Echidna was completely occupied. Her Stone Rhino was currently wrestling with a pair of massive Alpha-rank Thorn-Husk Bears, and her aerial beasts were dealing with an aggressive swarm of acidic wasps.

She was in a state of high focus, her mana being channelled entirely into maintaining the defence of the centre line. She was a Tamer at the absolute peak of her power, but even a Grandmaster was vulnerable when their beasts were busy, and their back was turned to the dark.

The Umbra Stalker emerged from a shadow barely ten meters behind her, its form an abstract mess of black smoke and elongated, razor-sharp claws.

”Echidna! Behind you!” Kale roared, but his voice was instantly drowned out by the thunderous stomp of the Stone Rhino nearby.

There was no time for reinforcements to reach her. The Master-rank guards were too far away, and the immense chaos of the melee had created a blind spot that only Kale, with his unique perception, had witnessed.

Abandoning his position in the backline, Kale didn’t hesitate for a single second. He channelled his Beast Force through his newly carved internal pathways, his body operating at 150% capacity as the volatile green energy of the Nemesis Hydra reinforced his straining muscles.

”Neo, Maximum Compression!” Kale commanded through the bond.

Kale blurred into motion. To the watching mercenaries, he became a sudden streak of light-green mana, leaping across the giant roots with a speed that exceeded thirty meters per second. He cleared the vast distance in a matter of seconds, his daggers drawn and coated in a vibrating edge of pure, condensed mana.

The Umbra Stalker lunged forward, its smoky claws reaching directly for Echidna’s unprotected neck.

In that split second, Neo shot off Kale’s shoulder. Mid-air, the Hydra’s three heads opened their maws wider than they ever had during their regular training sessions. This wasn’t a standard Rattling Roar; it was a completely concentrated psychic frequency, aimed specifically at the darkness-elemental structure of the Ravager-rank beast.

”GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

The intense psychic shockwave hit the Umbra Stalker at point-blank range. The darkness-based creature, which relied heavily on the stability of its mana-form to exist, was suddenly violently disrupted. Its body flickered erratically, the shadows that composed its figure scattering wildly as the Rattling frequency completely shattered its focus.

The Ravager-rank creature was frozen in place for exactly half a second.

That half-second was an entire ocean of time for an experienced Grandmaster.

Echidna felt a sudden disruption in the air behind her, her honed survival instincts flaring. Without even looking, she performed a rapid lateral roll, her body narrowly avoiding the now-paralysed claws of the Stalker.

She immediately recalled her wind-predator beast, which dove from the sky to form a defensive shield around her.

”What!?” Echidna gasped, her eyes widening in surprise as she saw the small, three-headed creature hovering in the air and the green-haired young man standing directly between her and the monster.

But the desperate intervention came with a brutal price.

The Umbra Stalker, having quickly recovered from the momentary paralysis, let out a silent, soul-shaking hiss of pure rage. Its task of assassinating the Grandmaster had been completely ruined by an insignificant insect.

The Ravager-rank creature shifted its focus away from Echidna. Its yellow, reptilian eyes locked instantly onto Kale. The intense pressure it emanated was no longer hidden from the world; it was a crushing, malevolent weight that made the Feral Sabres in the immediate vicinity flee in absolute terror.

Kale stood his ground firmly, but his heart was hammering violently against his ribs. He had just attracted the full, unbridled attention of a Ravager-rank creature, an entity equivalent to a Grandmaster-rank human, while he was still merely an Apprentice.

The Umbra Stalker’s form expanded outward, the shadows around its body rising like a tidal wave of thick black ink. The ground beneath Kale’s feet began to rot instantly, the corrosive darkness element eating away at the very mana of the ancient tree roots.

Neo returned to Kale’s shoulder, its three heads hissing in fierce defiance, but even the brave Nemesis Hydra was not the Umbra’s match. They were completely overwhelmed.

The gap between a Lesser Feral beast and a true Ravager-rank predator was a chasm that could not be crossed by talent alone.

”Kale, get out of there!” the Female Grandmaster’s voice boomed from the distance, but the mayhem of the fighting horde was too great for any immediate help to arrive.

The Stalker lunged again, but this time it wasn’t a stealthy strike and an inconceivably fast strike. It was a blur of absolute darkness, moving with a speed that Kale’s eyes could barely track. He crossed his daggers defensively, activating Mana Enhancement to its absolute limit, feeling the Beast Force pathways in his body scream under the extreme strain.

Kale’s life was in grave danger. As the shadow-claws descended, he realised that for the first time since his regression, he was facing an enemy that his ingenuity might not be able to bypass.

The shadow enveloped him completely, and the world went cold.