My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

Vetra and Lyrielle cut through the dark water, taking their positions at Vince’s flanks. Vetra’s lips peeled back into a wild, sharp smirk, her claws flexing in rhythmic anticipation as her body physically ached to hurl itself into the fray. On the right side of Vince, Lyrielle’s posture went rigid, her fingers tightening around her wooden conduit staff as she took a deep, steadying breath, preparing her support matrices.

”Let’s go!” Nerissa’s voice rang out like a war horn.

In a synchronized flash of hydro-kinetic velocity, all five of them kicked off the basalt ridge, swimming at breakneck speed toward the mountain of saw-toothed chitin descending from the black sky.

Nerissa reached the titan’s limb first. Her scaled finned abdomen propelling intensely, she thrust her palms upward, channeling every drop of her royal blood into a dense wall of solid water pressure. The colossal tendril slammed against her barrier, the sheer physical gravity of it grinding her back against the bedrock. Her jaw set, muscles straining to the point of tearing as her golden eyes blazed with desperate resolve.

Vetra arrived a second later, blurring around the edges of the limb. She swung her coated claws in a relentless frenzy, slashing and scratching against the black plates to carve a hold or draw blood. Sparks of kinetic force burst off the shell, but when the bubbles cleared, the thick armor remained completely unmarred.

Vetra froze, her wild eyes widening in genuine shock. ”What the—”

”It’s no use!” Nerissa shouted through the roaring currents, her teeth dripping royal blue blood from her split lip. ”Your slashes won’t pierce its skin!”

Lyrielle swept into position above them, slamming the base of her staff into the open water. A brilliant blue lattice of defensive runic circles spread over Nerissa and Vetra, attempting to reinforce their positions. But the sheer weight of The Sleeper’s descending limb was absolute. It did not care about magic, shields, or mortal resolve. Slowly, relentlessly, the saw-toothed mass pressed down, crushing their combined defenses and forcing them toward the trench floor.

In front of them, Vince swam in the opposite direction. He created a twenty-yard buffer, gliding backward through the dark abyss with smooth, unhurried strokes. His dark eyes flicked over the three women struggling against the colossal weight.

System..., he thought.

As if reading his intent, a pale purple interface flashed across his vision:

[ABILITY ACTIVATED: MAN-BEAST FORM]

A violent surge of un-magical power erupted from his core. Dark, impenetrable dragon scales rippled across his flesh, wrapping around his chest, shoulders, and arms like overlapping plate armor. His muscles swelled with unnatural density, and two obsidian horns curled backward from his brow.

The violent shockwave of his physical transformation instantly shattered Lyrielle’s air-water bubble surrounding his head. Vince didn’t care. In this form, his lungs transformed, his flesh ignoring the crushing pressures of the deep sea entirely. He didn’t need oxygen—he was pure, dense force.

Vince’s mouth curved into a dangerous, dark smirk.

He kicked off the water. The kinetic push off empty space sent a sonic ripple through the sea, propelling him forward like a peregrine falcon diving for a kill. His scaled form blurred through the dark current, cutting through the fluid resistance in a straight, uncompromising line.

BOOM!

Vince slammed head-on into the center of the giant tendril.

The impact was catastrophic. The sheer physical kinetic density of his strike violently arrested the tendril’s descent, shattering the titan’s momentum in a fraction of a second. A massive, realm-shaking shockwave erupted from the point of contact, blasting the mountain-sized limb backward into the abyss and clearing the entire ridge of water pressure in a single, roaring explosion.

The saw-toothed tendril reeled backward, its chitinous plates cracking from the raw force of the blow.

Nerissa spun her heavy trident, stabilizing herself in the churning aftermath. She took an agile battle stance, her sapphire tail fin curled beneath her to grip the water. She wiped a trail of blue blood from her chin, her golden eyes locking onto Vince with a sharp grin.

”I was starting to think you ran,” Nerissa called out over the rushing currents.

Vince rolled his heavy, scaled shoulders, his glowing draconic eyes illuminating the dark water around him. ”Run? Why would I run?”

Nerissa’s smirk deepened. A sudden, exhilarating rush of adrenaline surged through her chest, burning away the lingering fatigue of her earlier defeat. Standing beside this unshakeable stranger from another sky, the impossible boss fight before them suddenly felt less like a losing game.

Vetra and Lyrielle touched down beside them on the basalt shelf. Vetra’s scaled tail flapped rhythmically against the stone, her eyes wide as she stared at Vince’s transformed state in open awe.

Vince narrowed his eyes, surveying the mountain of translucent flesh and violet eyes rising out of the trench. ”Finding a weak spot on this thing is going to take a quite while...”

Before he could finish his sentence, Vetra let out a feral roar. ”Who cares!” She kicked off the ledge, propelling herself back toward the titan like a streak of lightning.

Nerissa stared after her in absolute bewilderment. ”Is she nuts?!”

Vince just chuckled, his deep voice vibrating through his chest plate. ”She’ll be fine.”

”She’s always like that,” Lyrielle added with a soft, helpless unbothered sigh, though her staff was already glowing as she prepped a long-range support weave to cover Vetra’s approach.

Nerissa turned away from the fray, her eyes descending to the two hundred elite Vanguard soldiers waiting along the ridge below. Their faces were pale, their hands trembling around their hydro-spears, but the sight of Vince’s devastating strike and their General standing unbroken at the front lines had reignited the dying embers of their spirit.

Nerissa raised her trident high into the dark waters. Her voice rang out across the sea floor like a striking iron bell, carrying the full, resonant weight of her royal lineage:

”ATTACK ON ALL FRONTS! TO THE DEATH—FOR YOUR PRIDE, FOR YOUR HERITAGE, FOR NETHROS!”