Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 741 - Taming the Fifth Year - Stars of the Past - 7

Sirius took the light spirit while Orion engaged the dark one, their tigers working in parallel despite the hatred between masters. Coordination born from years of training in similar styles rather than any remaining affection.

Ten seconds of combat before both spirits fell, efficiency born from desperation and skill that hadnʼt been completely eroded by exhaustion.

The rewards: four artifacts and a pile of crystals that would have made them happy under different circumstances. Now they just felt like a small payment for enormous suffering that couldnʼt be compensated.

SIXTH CHAMBER

Four spirits materialized, a mix of light and darkness that attacked perfectly coordinated to the level of shared consciousness or central control. All of them touching the threshold of low Gold-rank power, actually threatening despite the soldiers numerical advantage.

The soldiers whoʼd followed Sirius and Orion began helping here, their presence making the difference between manageable fight and potential disaster.

”Conserve your beasts without using mana,” Sirius ordered with the tone of someone used to command even in crisis. ”Reinforcements will come eventually, and forcing yourselves beastless is dangerous in these ruins.”

They had sent two soldiers to call for reinforcements…

The battle took several minutes, both brothers ending up gasping for breath. Every subsequent fight was draining reserves that were already nearly empty.

The prizes: six artifacts and even more crystals that were starting to pile up.

EIGHTH CHAMBER

The chamber opened before them like an enormous cavern, twice as large as any of the previous ones theyʼd encountered. Eight spirits floated in the central space, all mid-Gold rank in power, moving in perfect coordination with each other like dancers following a choreography written centuries ago.

One of the remaining soldiers let out a strangled sound. ”This is suicide.”

He wasnʼt wrong, and nobody could blame him for the assessment. Of the more than a hundred men whoʼd begun the battle against the draconic wolf, only fifteen remained standing, and those looked like one more hit would send them straight into unconsciousness or worse. Sirius evaluated them with a cold gaze. ”Stay back then.”

The terror on the soldiersʼ faces was evident, fear warring with duty and pride. None would dare let their leaders fight and die alone, not when retreat meant living with that shame for whatever remained of their lives…

Better to die trying than survive as cowards.

Sirius gazed at Orion. Orion returned the look without flinching. There were no words of coordination, no ”letʼs work together” or sentimental stupidities of that nature. Just Siriusʼs silent understanding that they needed to not kill each other in the next few minutes if they wanted to survive what came after.

They advanced into the chamber side by side, brothers now united by necessity rather than affection.

The spirits reacted instantaneously, launching themselves in waves that forced the soldiers and both Sirius and Orion to separate. Siriusʼ Celestial White Tiger roared, its concentrated light claws tearing through the first spirit that dared approach too close. On the other side of the chamber, Orionʼs Black Tiger consumed another in its jaws of pure light, the contrast between their techniques highlighting how similar their training had been despite philosophical differences.

Forty minutes. Thatʼs how long it took to eliminate all eight spirits.

Forty minutes of combat where each wrong movement could mean death, where the spirits covered each otherʼs weaknesses with intelligence that suggested something more than simple programmed responses. Siriusʼs serpent had coiled around one of the spirits and strangled it until the ethereal form dissolved into nothing, but even that had required minutes of sustained pressure that left the beast gasping.

The last two fell when both tigers coordinated an attack that neither Sirius nor Orion had planned verbally, only executed through pure necessity. Old training taking over when conscious thought became impossible, muscle memory and shared technique doing what hatred couldnʼt prevent.

When the final spirit faded into nothingness, both brothers were left gasping for breath. Exhausted beyond measure but still without serious wounds, which felt like a miracle given what theyʼd just survived.

The soldiers whoʼd lost their beasts in the battle collapsed against the walls, bodies giving out now that adrenaline no longer sustained them. ”We canʼt continue, Lord Sirius,” one admitted with a trembling tone that carried shame alongside exhaustion. ”Weʼre sorry.”

Sirius nodded without bothering to respond, dismissing the apology because it changed nothing about their situation. Now only useless soldiers with no reinforcements coming because nobody else knew where the hell those reinforcements had even gone. Now only he and Orion remained capable of continuing, two brothers bound by desperation and mutual hatred in equal measure.

The rewards: eight artifacts and enormous quantities of crystals that were approaching decent wealth if converted to modern currency.

They divided everything equitably without discussion, both understanding that arguing over treasure when their wives were dead or worse would be obscene even by their currently low standards.

The stairs descending further waited for them like an open mouth leading into darkness. Sirius looked at them and began descending without saying a word, his expression set in grim determination that suggested nothing would stop him short of death.

Orion followed in silence loaded with doubt, uncertainty about whether continuing made sense when they were this depleted and this alone.

But he didnʼt dare question his brother yet, not with Siriusʼs face carrying hatred toward him barely contained by circumstances…

Not when one wrong word might shatter whatever fragile cooperation kept them both alive.

NINTH CHAMBER

The ninth chamber was the same size as the eighth, but what waited inside made Sirius stop dead in his tracks.

Only two spirits, which should have been relief after fighting eight. But these werenʼt like the previous ones, not even close.

They were fused together, light and darkness intertwined so perfectly it hurt to look at directly and think about the way two contrary elements could exist like that. Not a chaotic mixture but impossible balance, as if someone had taken opposing forces and compelled them to coexist in lethal harmony.

They were high Gold-rank, yes, but it wasnʼt the rank that made them dangerous. Rank made them only twice as strong as individual spirits from before, but the problem was the elemental synergy that shouldnʼt be possible.

And the density of their connection. Two spirits, each containing power equivalent to not just two but four from the previous chamber, all that energy compressed into smaller, more concentrated forms. That meant more solid defenses, greater resistance to conventional attacks, efficiency that turned normal advantages into liabilities.

The spirits didnʼt wait for analysis or strategy… They attacked with huge speed.

Dagzo