Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 559: Chapter 559 - Taming the Fourth Year: Lin’s Punishment

Lin landed as always with feline grace, but her eyes were never as wide with genuine shock.

Ren had achieved the impossible.

He had dodged her completely.

”How...?” Lin murmured, her voice carrying huge disbelief.

”I didn’t have a choice,” Ren replied, his voice firmer than before.

The emotional intensity had unlocked something in his connection to the encysted seed. It wasn’t his full power, but it was more than he’d had access to in months. More than he’d dared hope for.

The wind had helped position his body faster, redirected him at crucial moments, while the earth sank into simple formations he could generate quickly to alter his trajectory. Basic techniques, but executed with a precision born of desperation.

Lin didn’t have boosts that were too high, they were actually slightly lower than Ren’s even at his now half power. But that was in her base form. Now that she was fused and tripling her statistics, she was operating at more than double Ren’s base capabilities.

Not only that, but Lin had always been much stronger than her statistics suggested in one-on-one fights against humans. It was her specialization, what could be called her genius aspect.

Even with a Bronze beast, she had been recognized for her skill in personal combat.

Now that her statistics surpassed Gold Rank tamers, she was a true calamity.

Ren, on the other hand, had much less experience. Although he was managing a partial fusion right now, it didn’t even double his base statistics. He had been facing Lin for more than three years, learning with careful attention to every detail. But he was still far from reaching her level, not even when he had his fungus had he truly defeated her in fair combat.

Seeing her in slow motion when he’d had more than double his current base perception, using intense elemental control to exploit her range disadvantages back when he was surpassing her and becoming more arrogant... that hadn’t been a true victory of learning at all.

Rather, it had been a shortcut that was now collecting its true detrimental cost.

Lin walked around him in a slow circle, studying Ren with an intensity she hadn’t shown in their years of training. Not even when he’d had access to his full power.

Each step was a potential promise of violence.

”It doesn’t seem to be the case...” she murmured, her voice now altered by the transformation, deeper and more resonant. ”For a moment I thought you had recovered your full power. But your mana signature is still pathetic compared to your old maximum fusion.”

She continued moving in a slow circle around him, each step still threatening to launch her toward him. Her claws left small holes in the rocky ground, gouging stone as easily as paper.

The scraping sound set Ren’s nerves on edge.

”Those weren’t just reflexes...” Lin paused mid-step, her transformed eyes never leaving his face. ”You know me too well, don’t you? Three years observing every one of my movements.”

She stopped completely, tilting her head like a bird of prey evaluating its victim.

”What a dedicated student. Although dedicated doesn’t always mean competent.”

Ren didn’t respond. He concentrated on keeping his breathing stable while summoning his dagger from his wolverine’s dimensional space. The weapon settled in his left hand with practiced naturalness, the golden crystal gleaming with an internal light that pulsed in rhythm with his accelerated heartbeat.

The weight felt perfect in his grip. Balanced. Deadly.

Lin’s eyes immediately fixed on the weapon, and she showed genuine surprise for the second time in their encounter.

”That crystal density...” She stopped after half a step, examining the dagger without lowering her guard. ”Did you pay Isaac several million for a new upgrade again? You had said it was too expensive before, but I see now... When you decide to stop being stingy to become stronger, you really let everything go.”

The dagger had ”cost” an amount that the Ren before losing his power wouldn’t have spent on ”something like that”. Of his three weapons, it was an investment that had cost a good part of his ”non-cultivation” savings. But Isaac had worked with Rank Gold 3 crystals and materials that had exorbitant costs on the market.

Yet it hadn’t been too much since Ren could obtain most of the materials himself. The result was a weapon that could cut through practically anything, including the insanely hardened enhanced legs of his master.

Lin had never taught him weapon techniques since she herself didn’t use one nor knew how to do so more effectively than her own body. Ren had learned and developed alone this style that would normally be considered inferior by most tamers, since the vast majority saw weapons as inferior to their natural claws or fangs.

Anything else was a patetic attempt to match the real bestial power.

Lin stopped in front of him, her eyes shining with maternal approval that seemed at odds with her predatory stance.

”You feel like an underdog... you’ve developed your own style ’for the weak’, don’t you?” Her voice carried a note of genuine interest. ”You adapted my technique so that holding that thing would feel natural. Little by little, with small variations in the techniques. Very intelligent. Very different. Very... you.”

Ren got into guard position, the dagger extended in a stance he had perfected during years of practice. The weapon didn’t limit his mobility and significantly extended the reach of his left arm, converting each jab into a mortal threat.

Now he could say he was good with it. Using it left him better positioned than not using it.

The familiar weight brought some confidence he desperately needed.

”That artificial ’fang’ you created...” Lin smiled, showing teeth that were now genuinely sharp. ”It’s truly strong and dangerous. Could cut my legs if I’m careless. But it seems amusing to me that it can level the playing field, even if just a little.”

It was undoubtedly a small advantage, but having a counteroffensive against Lin’s otherwise immune legs was undoubtedly significant.

Ren maintained his focus on ”the simple” and concentrated his elemental control specifically on wind and very little on earth. Wind to maintain the mobility he would desperately need, earth only to create strategic support points and counter the explosions of wind and fire that Lin used to propel herself.

It was a minimalist approach compared to the multi-elemental control he could use, but his reduced processing capacity didn’t allow for luxuries. Each element had to fulfill a completely necessary purpose, simple and inevitable.

No wasted effort. No fancy combinations.

Just survival.

Lin attacked without warning.

This time it wasn’t a single devastating kick, but a fluid combination that utilized the full length of her transformed extremities. Her legs extended like whips, each strike designed to test different angles of attack.

The speed was fully inhuman.

Ren dodged the first by centimeters, rotating his body to one side. Wind helped guide his movement, making the impossible margin possible.

He used his dagger to ’scare away’ the second strike.

The third forced him to jump, letting himself fall backward and using his control to adjust the angle of the earth while a column of wind served as a trampoline.

His heart hammered against his ribs.

”You’ve gotten much better!” Lin exclaimed with genuine pleasure while advancing to give Ren no respite. Her movements flowing like liquid violence. ”But you’re still too defensive. In a real fight, passivity will kill you at some point.”

”I just have to hold out for 15 minutes!” Ren called back, already breathing harder than he’d like.

Lin’s laugh was predatory and knowing.

”Yeah? Let’s see if ’just’ the first 3 minutes seem short to you...”