My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

The heavy silence hanging over the obsidian arena was deafening, broken only by the crackle of stray embers dancing along the edge of the ash storms.

Vetra stood loose, her long, heavy tail swaying lazily behind her.

She didn’t drop into a defensive guard; her posture was completely open, radiating the effortless, overwhelming confidence of an apex predator that had never known defeat.

Opposite her, Vince stood low, his knees slightly bent, his weight distributed evenly across his boots as the mana circulating through his pathways hummed like a suppressed engine.

Vetra’s slitted amber eyes locked onto Vince’s calm face.

”Before you die, human,”

She purred, her husky voice carrying over the whistling wind,

”state your name. I prefer to know what to write on the gravestone.”

A faint smile touched Vince’s lips.

”The name’s Vince. And I’ll have you know... I’m leaving this mountain victorious. And you’re coming with me.”

Vetra let out a low, amused huff, her sharp fangs glinting in the orange ambient light. Knowing his fate would end in the exact same bloody pile as every warlord and champion before him, her expression turned cold.

”Are you all talk, Vince? Or are you actually going to do something to defend those words?”

Vince didn’t bother answering with speech.

He planted his back boot into the scorched stone and lunged forward, closing the twenty-pace gap in a fraction of a second.

Mid-air, he twisted his torso with fluid precision, driving a heavy, mana-boosted roundhouse kick straight toward her jaw.

Clang!

Vetra didn’t even flinch.

She simply raised her scaled forearm, casually blocking the kick as if catching a falling leaf.

Without breaking momentum, Vince dropped back to his feet and unleashed a rapid-fire flurry of strikes—a lightning-fast combination of jab-cross punches, spinning back-elbows, and low kicks aimed at her joints and torso.

The air popped with kinetic force from every strike.

Yet, Vetra stood entirely still, taking every single hit head-on without bothering to block or dodge.

Vince’s knuckles slammed against her crimson scales, producing heavy metallic thuds, but he couldn’t even leave a surface scratch on her armored skin.

Woah,

Vince thought to himself, his pupils dilating slightly as the shockwave bounced back into his wrists.

She really is that tough.

Before Vince could pull back to reset his distance, Vetra’s clawed hand shot out like a striking viper, her thick fingers clamping around his wrist with a crushing, vise-like grip.

”Tell me,”

Vetra murmured, her voice dripping with sheer disappointment as she looked down at him.

”Was all of that meant to hurt?”

Vince’s breath hitched.

Through his perception, he caught the sudden, violent surge of volatile fire mana pooling into her other fist.

Her broad shoulder pulled back, her knuckles glowing with a terrifying, white-hot heat as she prepared to deliver a fatal, chest-caving blow.

”I guess you’re all talk,”

She said, her massive fist setting into motion.

Ah, shit,

Vince cursed silently.

In a fraction of a millisecond, Vince channeled a massive, concentrated burst of mana straight down into his left foot.

Instead of trying to pull his trapped hand away, he snapped his left leg upward, kicking her wrist from below with explosive force.

The sudden, precise impact loosened her grip for a split second.

Vince seized the micro-opening, tearing his arm free and throwing himself into an aggressive, low danger roll along the hot obsidian stone.

Vetra’s glowing fist smashed through the air directly above him, the sheer atmospheric shockwave scorching the stone floor behind where Vince had just been standing.

Vince tumbled twice, driving his hand into the ground to arrest his momentum before springing back onto his feet, placing ten paces of safety between them.

He let out a sharp exhale, wiping a speck of ash from his cheek.

”That was close.”

Vetra didn’t immediately follow up.

She lowered her hand, her slitted eyes narrowing into dangerous, sharp slits as she glared at him.

”Why are you holding back?”

Vince tilted his head, playing dumb.

”What do you mean?”

”Are you trying to insult me, human?”

Vetra’s voice dropped an octave, her raspy tone twisting into raw, visceral disgust.

”You come up my territory, demand a duel, and then fail to give it your all? You fight me with bare fists and half-hearted tricks?”

”I am doing my best, Vetra,”

Vince replied smoothly, keeping his voice level.

”Arrogant,”

She spat, the scales along her jaw flaring with heat.

”You think you can play games with me.”

Before the last word even finished echoing off the rocks, Vetra blurred.

She vanished from sight entirely, her speed so absurdly high that she bypassed the air pressure itself. She materialized directly in front of Vince, her two-inch obsidian talons raised to rip him apart before he could even register her movement.

Too fast to dodge!

Instinct overrode thought.

Vince immediately materialized Executioner’s Edge into his right hand.

The massive, double-edged blade manifested just in time, and Vince brought the flat of the steel up to cover his chest.

CRASH!

Vetra’s talons slammed directly into the heavy blade. Bright, blinding sparks exploded into the air as the sheer kinetic weight of her strike pushed Vince backward, his boots carving two deep, smoking trenches into the solid obsidian floor before he managed to stop his momentum.

Vince stared at the heavy steel blade trembling in his grip, his heart pounding in his chest.

No kidding... I really could have died just now.

A dry, wry chuckle escaped Vince’s lips.

He spun Executioner’s Edge around with a tight wrist flick, resting the broad blade comfortably over his shoulder as a dark, suffocating aura suddenly erupted from his body. The purple rings in his eyes flared with brilliant, dangerous light as his mana core went into full overdrive.

”Alright, alright... you caught me,”

Vince said, offering a casual, sheepish smile.

”Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Vetra felt the sudden, massive shift in the atmosphere.

The weak, playful human from a moment ago had vanished, replaced by a warrior whose radiating mana actually made her skin tingle with anticipation.

A slow, predatory smirk tugged at the corners of her lips.

”Let’s begin.”

In the very same millisecond, both figures blurred out of existence, leaving behind twin shockwaves that shattered the stone floor beneath them.