My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

The Sleeper unleashed its wrath.

Dozens of mountain-sized, saw-toothed tendrils slammed into the trench floor simultaneously. The kinetic impact shattered the tectonic plate beneath Nethros, sending catastrophic earthquake shocks and roaring hydro-wavefronts tumbling across the sea floor. Basalt cliffs collapsed into dust, and the dark water churned into a blinding tempest of silt and pressurized current. The very seabed groaned under the assault, fractures racing outward like lightning across black stone. Pressure waves hammered every living thing in the vicinity, rattling bones and armor alike as the abyss itself seemed to scream in protest. Clouds of pulverized rock and ancient sediment billowed upward in choking walls of gray-black murk, reducing visibility to almost nothing in the space of heartbeats.

”Hold the line!” Nerissa’s voice cut through the chaos like a silver trumpet.

Surrounding the Siren General, the two hundred remaining Vanguard soldiers locked their iron shields together, thrusting their hydro-spears into the bedrock. They channeled every remaining drop of their collective hydro-mana into a massive, translucent dome of solid water pressure, enclosing Lyrielle within its protected core. The barrier pulsed with collective will, its surface rippling under the constant battering of debris and residual shockwaves. Sparks of blue mana flared along the seams where shields met spears, each warrior’s face set in grim determination as they poured their strength into the defense. Outside the dome the world had become a grinding nightmare of collapsing stone and thrashing flesh, yet the formation held, a single point of order amid the ruin.

Inside the barrier, Lyrielle’s eyes flared with brilliant green light. Gripping her wooden conduit staff, she tapped into the deep roots of her Elf magic, weaving a high-tier wind-and-water acceleration matrix. Ancient runes ignited along the length of the staff in rapid succession, drawing power from the very currents that sought to crush them. The air around her—though they were deep underwater—seemed to thin and sharpen as elemental forces answered her call. Green light bled from her irises into the surrounding water, painting the interior of the dome in shifting emerald hues.

”Zephyr-Tide Sprint!” Lyrielle cried, sweeping her staff forward.

A pair of glowing, pressurized jet-currents wrapped around Vince and Vetra like ethereal wings. The spell took hold with a sudden, violent surge, compressing the water around their bodies into twin lances of pure force. Streamers of luminous green and silver spiraled behind them, marking their imminent path through the storm of silt and thrashing tendrils. The power of the matrix hummed against their skin, ready to hurl them forward the instant the command was given.

Across the titan’s colossal chest, hundreds of thermal vents flared wide open, spewing streams of boiling, superheated fluid to discharge the massive internal pressure generated by its strike. The water around those vents turned milky and turbulent, heat distortion warping the already chaotic currents into shimmering walls of deadly temperature. Each vent was a gaping wound in the creature’s armor, temporarily forced open by the violence of its own attack.

”Now!” Vince roared.

Propelled by Lyrielle’s spell, Vince and Vetra cut through the boiling current like twin lightning bolts. They darted between descending tendrils, their bodies blurring through the dark water as the massive chitinous plates above the vents began to slide shut. The acceleration was brutal. Water pressure slammed against them from every direction, yet the Zephyr-Tide matrix held, carving clean tunnels of reduced resistance through the chaos. Tendrils thicker than castle towers swept past mere meters away, their saw-toothed edges capable of shearing through solid stone. One near-miss sent a shockwave that rattled Vince’s teeth inside his dragonkin skull, but neither warrior slowed.

BANG-CRACK!

The heavy plates slammed together with the weight of falling mountains. But a split second before the gap sealed completely, Vince in his dark Dragonkin form and Vetra enveloped in her boiling flames squeezed through the narrowing fissure, plunging deep into the titan’s interior. The closing plates generated a final, deafening concussion that rolled through the water like underwater thunder. Had they hesitated even a fraction of a second longer, both would have been crushed into paste between the grinding chitinous jaws of the vent.

The world outside vanished, replaced by a suffocating, organic nightmare.

Inside, the titan was a cavernous labyrinth of pulsing, bioluminescent flesh and hyper-dense primordial fluid. The fluid was so dense and acidic that normal flesh would have dissolved into slurry within seconds. But Vince’s draconic scales and Vetra’s roaring fire core acted as an impenetrable shield, the superheated aura around them vaporizing the digestive juices before they could make contact. The walls of the passage throbbed with a slow, sickening rhythm, as though the entire tunnel were a living artery. Veins of soft blue and violet light pulsed beneath translucent membranes, casting shifting shadows that made the already disorienting space feel even more alive and hostile. The heat was oppressive, the pressure constant, and every breath—forced through enchanted gills or sheer force of will—carried the taste of ancient, corrosive brine.

SCREECH!

From the walls of the fleshy conduit, hundreds of grotesque, spider-like parasitic antibodies—each the size of a wolf, covered in chitinous barbs—swarmed toward the intruders. They erupted from folds of tissue and hidden cysts in coordinated waves, their many legs skittering across the pulsing walls with unnatural speed. Mandibles clacked and barbed limbs reached, driven by pure instinct to destroy the foreign bodies that had invaded their host.

”Get off!” Vetra laughed, her manic excitement reaching a fever pitch inside the claustrophobic tunnels.

She spun, her claws burning with white-hot plasma as she incinerated a cluster of parasites into ash. The purple crown mark on her lap blazed through her armor, filling her veins with boundless energy as she revelled in the chaotic carnage. Each swing of her claws left trails of searing light in the dense fluid. Parasites burst apart in clouds of blackened chitin and scorched meat, their dying screeches swallowed by the thick medium. Vetra moved like a living wildfire, her laughter sharp and bright against the wet, organic backdrop, utterly at home in the violence.

Outside, Nerissa swam directly above the closed chest vent. Thrusting her royal trident deep into the seam where the chitinous plates met, she unleashed her Siren hydro-kinetic mana, manually prying a small section of the vent open to maintain a fluid conduit. Muscles along her arms and shoulders stood out in stark relief as she fought the titan’s natural efforts to reseal itself. Blue light flared along the tines of her trident, forcing the living armor to yield just enough for a narrow channel of water to remain open.

”I’ll hold the exit open!” Nerissa shouted into the internal channel, her muscles straining against the titan’s muscular contractions. ”Don’t take too long in there!”

Deep within the creature’s core cavity, Vince and Vetra slashed through the final fleshy membrane, bursting into a massive, cathedral-like chamber at the very center of the beast. The membrane parted with a wet, tearing sound, releasing them into a space so vast it felt almost impossible given the confines of the tunnels behind them. The ceiling arched high overhead, supported by rib-like structures of denser tissue. Bioluminescent patterns swirled slowly across the walls, creating the illusion of a living sky far beneath the ocean floor.

Floating in the middle of the organic expanse was the Tide Core.

It was a blinding sphere of pure, swirling azure power, pulsing with a rhythmic, ocean-shaking beat that made the surrounding fluid hum with ancient authority. The light it cast was almost painful in its intensity, illuminating every fold and ridge of the chamber in stark, shifting blue. Each pulse sent a visible ripple through the dense fluid, a heartbeat that had driven the Sleeper for ages untold. The sheer presence of the Core pressed against the senses like a physical weight, heavy with primordial power.

As soon as Vince stepped into the chamber, a pale crimson System notification flashed across his vision:

[WARNING: REMOVAL OF TIDE CORE WILL CAUSE IMMEDIATE INTERNAL COLLAPSE AND ENTITY DISSOLUTION. HOST WILL BECOME A HOLLOW SHELL WITHIN SECONDS.]

Sensors inside the Tide Core registered the foreign presence. The azure energy surged violently, condensing into a towering, eight-foot-tall humanoid avatar of solid, pressurized primordial water, wielding a glowing broadsword made of pure hydro-kinetic force. The guardian took shape with liquid grace, its form solidifying from swirling currents into a being of terrible focus and power. Water continuously flowed along its limbs and blade, never truly still, as though the entire construct were one step from dissolving back into the Core that had birthed it.

Vetra stepped forward, her claws crackling with fire as her eyes locked onto the guardian avatar. ”I’ve got this one—”

”No, Vetra,” Vince interrupted, his deep, scaled hand grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back.

Vetra blinked, looking at him in surprise.

”Secure our exit,” Vince commanded, his reptilian eyes cold and focused. ”Fall back to the vent and clear a path through those parasites. Once I rip this core out, this entire beast is going to collapse into a hollow shell. We won’t have time to fight our way out.”

Vetra stared at him for a beat, then her wild, sharp smirk returned in full force. She trusted his strength completely. ”Don’t keep me waiting, handsome,” she purred, kicking off the fleshy floor and dashing back down the conduit channel, her claws already blazing to clear the path. Flames trailed behind her as she vanished into the tunnel, the sound of her plasma claws meeting parasitic chitin already beginning to echo back toward the chamber.

Left alone in the core chamber, Vince turned his gaze back to the primordial avatar.

The water guardian raised its broadsword, stepping forward with crushing fluid speed.

Vince didn’t flinch. He rolled his dragon-scaled shoulders, his dark claws crackling with un-magical kinetic density. A cold, dangerous smile spread across his draconic jaw. Every scale along his body tightened in readiness. The dense fluid of the chamber pressed against him from all sides, yet he stood rooted, a dark silhouette against the blinding azure light of the Tide Core. The guardian’s blade hummed with condensed hydro-kinetic force, promising devastation with every motion.

”Let’s make this quick,” Vince growled, stepping into the arena.