Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 418 - Tamers War - Bridge’s Sky (2/2)

As he held his daughterʼs hands, King Coleoran crossed the final line between reluctant leader and willing monster. The transformation was complete, sealed by a fatherʼs love.

The Grand Crystal pulsed with approval, as if it could sense his resolution. Soon, very soon, they would have the power to reshape the world according to their will.

And his little star would see her mother again, no matter the cost.

♢♢♢♢

Victor fused with his Qilin, and his transformation was spectacular. Yellow scale armor covered his body like a second skin, while golden horns sprouted from his forehead, pulsing with power that made the air around him distort with pure energy.

The contrast with his corrupt opponents was so marked that for a moment, everyone on the bridge stopped simply to observe.

The transformation wasnʼt just visual. Where abyssal corruption twisted and devoured, Victorʼs fusion radiated purification and harmony. It was like watching the sun rise in the middle of a storm.

”That day,” Victor said, his voice now amplified by the combined power of his beasts, ”you caught me by surprise.”

His gaze fixed specifically on the two triple tamers who had caused so much chaos at the Academy. The memory of that battle still burned in his mind.

”Too many innocents, too many hostages, too many children in the vicinity,” he continued, his tone growing colder with each word. ”I held back to protect them.”

Maximilian, floating at a prudent distance on his spectral crow, felt a chill that had nothing to do with altitude. There was something in Victorʼs voice… a promise of violence unconstrained by mercy or hesitation.

”But this time,” Victor smiled, and the expression was more terrifying than any battle roar, ”I have no intention of holding back.”

He raised both hands, power concentrating visibly as his eagle and his Qilin synchronized their energies.

”Mineralization Storm!”

What followed redefined what everyone believed possible in aerial combat.

Victor expelled a barrage of mineral stakes that materialized directly by enlarging concentrated dust from the air. These werenʼt normal projectiles, they were pure crystalline formations, each one imbued with enough power to pierce through abyssal armor and corrupt flesh alike.

The attack was both beautiful and terrifying, like watching deadly diamonds rain from every direction.

The first salvo hit ten of the lesser attackers simultaneously. Their beasts disintegrated on contact with the purified minerals, and the tamers fell from the sky screaming as pure energy burned the corruption directly from their bodies.

The first triple tamer managed to dodge, but Victor had anticipated the difference in agility and repeated the attack instantly.

This time the enemy couldnʼt escape unscathed.

A stake caught him in the shoulder, and the man howled as his Abyssal Scorpionʼs claw simply vanished, unable to exist in proximity to such purity.

For the other lower-level abyssal flying squadrons, things were again much worse.

”Scatter!” Maximilian shouted, but it was already too late.

Victor had transformed into a storm of destruction moving through the air behind them. His eagle executed maneuvers that defied physics while his Qilin provided a seemingly infinite supply of purified energy stakes.

Each attack was devastating. Every movement calculated to maximize damage against opponents who depended on abyssal corruption. Victor moved through the enemy formation like a natural disaster, leaving trails of golden light and falling enemies in his wake.

The second triple tamer tried to flee with a desperate attack, launching his scorpion directly toward Victor in a suicidal attempt to cause at least some damage or buy time.

But Victor caught it.

With a hand transformed by fusion with the Qilin, he simply grabbed the three-meter-long creature as if it were a normal insect and instantly purified it. The abyssal creature disintegrated in his hands, becoming golden dust that dispersed in the wind.

”Is that all?” Victor asked, his voice carrying across the silent aerial battlefield.

The survivors, Maximilian, the triple tamers with one wounded, and a handful of lesser soldiers, floated at a short distance, the faces of the weaker ones showing terror and disbelief.

In less than five minutes, Victor had completely dismantled an ambush that would have been certain death for anyone else.

”Next time,” Victor said, addressing specifically Maximilian, ”bring more soldiers. These werenʼt enough for a proper warm-up.”

The dominance was absolute. Even the troops on the bridge had yet to keep advancing, too fascinated by the aerial spectacle to continue their own battles.

Victor Dravenholm had established, by unequivocally decimating the ambush that should have meant his death, that mastery of the air over the abyss bridge belonged to him completely.

But he had made a fundamental tactical error.

In his fervor to leverage his superior power and pursue and eliminate Maximilian, he had pushed too far to the other side of the bridge. What had begun as a proactive-aggressive pursuit had now become a dangerously exposed position.

However, he still wasnʼt ready to throw in the towel. Victor intended to finish what he started...

He launched himself with everything against Maximilian.

Maximilian, despite having lost the direct aerial battle, demonstrated why he had been chosen to command this operation. Instead of fleeing in panic or attempting another direct confrontation, did something Victor hadnʼt anticipated.

He used his numerous troops as a shield.

”Defensive coverage!” Maximilian roared, directing his spectral crow in a tactical retreat that kept him just outside Victorʼs immediate reach, but within support range of his main forces.

Dozens of Yino soldiers responded immediately, reorganizing into formations that maximized aerial coverage.

And then… Maximilian finally had Victor where he wanted.

It didnʼt matter that Victor was vastly superior in individual combat, now he was within range of wind and fire elementals who could attack him simultaneously.

”Coward bastard!” Victor shouted, but even as he spoke the words, he recognized the tactical soundness of the suicidal maneuver.

They had stopped him from getting their leader just enough to get him here.

The first attacks came like a coordinated storm. Wind blades and fire spears converged from multiple angles, creating a net of destruction that would have been impossible for any normal flyer to escape.

But they were going to hit his own allies, not just Victor.

However, the enemy commander did something that completely changed the suicidal dynamics of combat.

”Total Release!” Maximilian roared, and all five of his beasts pulsed with concentrated abyssal power transforming him into an abomination.

The Spectral Crow, the Golden Basilisk, the Fire Polistes Wasp, the Abyssal Scorpion, and the Greater Vampiric Man oʼ war manifested simultaneously, creating an aura of corruption so dense that the air itself darkened around them.

Victor immediately felt the difference. The combined abyssal energy of five beasts leveled the battlefield, creating a power resonance that rivaled his own purified Qilin.

”Impressive,” Victor murmured, ”but still not enough to match the quality of...”

But Maximilian didnʼt use it to attack directly.

Instead, he extended his spectral crowʼs aura toward his surrounding troops, and for a moment that defied all of Victorʼs expectations, made them intangible.

The fire and wind projectiles that had been approaching passed directly through the soldiers as if they were ghosts, converging on Victor from angles that had previously been blocked by their physical bodies.

The coordination required was staggering. One mistimed moment would have killed dozens of his own soldiers, but Maximilianʼs control was precise enough to maintain the intangibility effect for exactly the right duration.

Hundreds of fire and wind projectiles arrived, creating a field of death that would have been impossible to avoid for any lesser tamer.

But Victor wasnʼt any tamer.

His eagle executed evasive maneuvers that defied the laws of aerodynamics, while his Qilin provided constant purification that neutralized the corrupt effects of the attacks.

For a moment, it seemed he might avoid all damage, but in the end even he couldnʼt evade every projectile.

Victor found himself suddenly in the center of a hurricane of elemental attacks.

He had no choice but to accept retreat.

”Damn it!” Victor shouted, recognizing that the situation had become untenable.

As he withdrew from the death zone Maximilian had created, Victor couldnʼt help but feel a mixture of respect and frustration toward his opponent. While he disagreed with throwing soldiers into suicidal attacks to fall back safe himself, he had to accept that it had worked to get him where they wanted.

ʼCowardly strategy,ʼ he thought bitterly, ʼbut effective.ʼ

Victorʼs combat philosophy had always been straightforward: the strong should fight at the front, facing their equals in honorable combat. Using weaker soldiers as defense against superior opponents seemed fundamentally dishonorable.

But in the end, it was true that the tactic had prevented him from winning. Maximilian had recognized his inferiority in direct combat and found a way to neutralize that disadvantage using resources Victor wasnʼt willing to use the same way.

”Commander Victor!” a voice came from the sides through the wind. ”The squadrons have gained position!”

Victor quickly looked to the sides and saw that his flying squadrons had completed their flanking maneuver, positioning themselves for a coordinated attack.

”Squadrons, retreat!” he shouted, his voice amplified by beast techniques.

An uncommon decision for him…

But his forces responded immediately, dispersing in formation. They werenʼt just numbers, they were his people.

ʼTheyʼre willing to sacrifice soldiers to protect those of greater value at all costs,ʼ Victor realized while regrouping with his squadron. ʼAnd the soldiers are disciplined enough to execute maneuvers that require absolute trust in their commander.ʼ

It was, he had to admit, a demonstration of unity and discipline that spoke well of Yinoʼs training and leadership in this battle.

But his squadron would have followed his orders even if they were similarly unjust. Thatʼs what he wanted to believe.

”Commander,” one of his lieutenants approached riding a silver hawk, ”orders?”

Victor observed the bridge stretching below, where Yino forces continued their advance toward Yano territory. Maximilian had managed to maintain momentum while stopping the most serious aerial threat… himself.

But then Victor remembered Juliusʼs words before the battle: ”Your main mission is to buy time.”

It wasnʼt about achieving glorious victory or demonstrating personal superiority. It was about keeping enemy forces occupied long enough for other elements of Yanoʼs strategy to develop.

A smile replaced his expression of frustration.

”Harassment formation,” he ordered. ”Fall back, weʼll make coordinated attacks against the bridgeʼs front line. Keep them busy and slow their advance.”

It was a mindset change he didnʼt like, he preferred decisive victories to wars of attrition, but it was what the situation required. He had to adapt and grow if he wanted to be Yanoʼs true leader someday.

The realization was humbling. True leadership sometimes meant accepting tactical defeats in service of larger victories. It meant putting the mission above personal glory.

As he led his squadron back toward Yinoʼs front line, Victor promised himself that the next time he faced Maximilian, he would be prepared.

Next time, there would be no retreat.