Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 816 – Taming the Fifth Year – Titans – End

Six times the normal strength meant that what should be impossible became feasible…

Stopping the beetle’s charge wasn’t a small feat considering that creature’s size and weight, but with multipliers of that magnitude, the hydra had the physical resources to accomplish it.

And not only that.

Selphira observed what many less experienced spectators had probably missed in the excitement.

The mana in the hydra’s core was almost visible through the transparent diamond scales, glowing with intensity that had increased noticeably in the last few seconds. And that mana was rotating faster now.

The recovery technique working overtime. The internal system Ren had taught it, pulling energy from the beast’s core to replenish what had been spent in the extended beam assault.

Taro had clearly noticed it too because his expression had changed from focused determination to something closer to fear. Because from the ground around the beetle, small roots were beginning to emerge. Not large wood structures immediately but thin filaments that emerged from the earth like exploratory tentacles seeking contact.

But when those roots touched the beetle’s legs, they began absorbing energy from the enormous beast.

Ren was finally turning things around as he’d hoped from the beginning. After extensively testing Taro’s defense, after confirming exactly how much power was necessary to pierce those multiplied layers of protection, he was finally using the element to which earth was fundamentally weak.

Wood…

Exceptional for stealing energy from beasts with earth affinity.

The roots didn’t need to break the physical defense when they could simply drain the mana feeding that defense from within. It was an elemental counter in its purest form, exploiting an inherent weakness in the system instead of trying to overcome all the strengths directly.

And as if adding salt to the wound, the hydra’s water control combined with the wood to create accelerated root growth…

What had been thin filaments seconds ago now thickened visibly, converting into more substantial structures that coiled around the beetle’s legs like constrictor serpents. Water fed wood’s growth while wood drained earth’s energy, recovering the hydra’s mana and strengthening the vines… a cycle that fed back on itself and accelerated with each passing moment.

Taro attempted having the beetle break the hydra’s heads’ grip, desperate movements communicating his understanding that he needed to separate now, before the energy drain progressed too far. But the hydra’s jaws didn’t yield, fangs buried deeply in the carapace’s cracks and held with all that multiplied strength that made liberation impossible.

With each second that passed, more roots emerged from the ground. More tendrils wrapping around the beetle’s legs, climbing higher up its body, seeking more contact points to drain from.

The beetle’s golden glow was dimming noticeably now as its mana reserves depleted under the sustained assault.

The hydra’s grip remained unbreakable.

Taro’s face showed the calculation running through his mind. How long could the beetle maintain itself under this drain? How much energy remained after generating all those defensive layers against the spiral beam?

Not enough.

The answer was clearly visible in the way the beetle’s movements were becoming more sluggish, more labored.

The roots continued thickening around the beetle’s legs, draining energy with implacable efficiency that communicated exactly how effective the wood elemental counter was against earth.

Taro could feel through the bond how his beast’s reserves diminished with each passing second, mana flowing outward faster than it could be recovered even with the recovery techniques he’d learned from Ren.

It was a desperate situation that required a desperate decision…

And Taro, knowing Ren better than most after already five years training alongside him, knew exactly what kind of decision to make.

Because Taro wasn’t just incredibly loyal to Ren, willing to follow him through any challenge that presented itself. He was also perceptive in ways others didn’t always recognize, capable of reading nuances in Ren’s behavior that passed unnoticed by casual observers.

And one thing Taro had come to understand during their time together was that Ren wanted to reach the final consequences whenever possible when it came to his analysis.

Yet with most opponents, Ren didn’t force that level of intensity…

He knew that breaking bonds hurt, that pushing beasts to complete disintegration caused unnecessary suffering to tamers who didn’t deserve that type of punishment.

So he contained his power appropriately, ended battles cleanly before they reached that point of no return.

But for Taro that didn’t matter in the same way…

He would endure the pain if it meant trying to surprise Ren one last time, to keep him sharp by forcing him to deal with tactics he hadn’t fully anticipated. Because that was what (in Taro’s mind) true friends did for Ren, push him even when it hurt, especially when it hurt, because he knew Ren learned more from battles that forced him to adapt than from easy victories.

So Taro took the only option remaining available when all others had been eliminated by Ren’s implacable strategy.

He couldn’t escape the hydra’s jaws’ grip… that had been clearly established when his liberation attempts had failed to even move the beetle a single centimeter from its position.

He couldn’t wait and trust that eventually the roots would weaken or that he’d find an opening, because waiting only meant losing all remaining mana drop by drop until the beetle collapsed anyway without having accomplished anything additional.

And creating more defensive earth structures was impossible when the hydra’s mana control for elemental constructions exceeded his at this moment, especially now that the roots were actively draining him and reducing his available mana.

But there was something the beetle was fundamentally better at than the hydra, a capability that came from its nature as a creature vital to the ecosystem of the deep caverns…

Creating living minerals.

It didn’t function as external structures made of compacted sand or manipulated rock but as extensions of its own body, materializations of its essence that shared properties with the golden carapace but could be molded with freedom.

Taro directed everything remaining of the beetle’s mana toward the top of the beast, concentrating energy in a single point instead of dispersing it trying to defend his lost position. The carapace in that area began glowing with renewed intensity, gold becoming almost white for a moment before something began growing from that focal point.

It wasn’t slow organic growth but an accelerated manifestation of solid mass.

Yellow mineral emerging like a massive tumor that expanded in all directions from its origin, absorbing all the remaining mana the beetle could channel.