Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

The others finally freed their beasts from their backpacks and fused completely with them.

Relief flooded through the group, as fusion took hold and transformed vulnerable students into proper combatants. They'd been fighting at a disadvantage.

Now the playing field was level… 4 vs 4.

Or it would have been, if the enemies still had any fight left in them.

The wind user stepped back, his confidence evaporating like morning dew under harsh sunlight. He looked around at his fallen teammate, at the mantis that had appeared from nowhere to disable their healer and at Klein who'd just demolished their wood user.

The close-range fighter looked backward too, searching for the healer who was no longer available, immobilized by Ren's invisible mantis with blades at his throat.

And the earth user from distance stopped launching projectiles for a moment, processing that this was no longer gonna be an easy victory.

That maybe it had never been an easy victory. That they'd been sold a lie by people who either didn't understand Ren's capabilities or those of his group and ended up trying to execute an impossible task.

"Now!"

The hawk kid's voice cut through the moment of doubt. Finally free from the roots, he launched a wind cut toward the other wind user.

The attack was brutal…

The compressed air blade caught the wind user's shoulder, cutting deep through fusion-enhanced flesh. Blood sprayed in an arc as the technique interrupted his elemental concentration just when he was trying to launch another attack.

The kid screamed, his hands involuntarily releasing the mana he'd been accumulating. The half-formed wind construct collapsed, backlashing against his own spiritual channels with painful feedback.

Klein, with his arms still burned but functional, roared again and launched himself toward the earth user.

The adrenaline was carrying him now. Pain existed somewhere in the background, distant and manageable. What mattered was ending this, securing his team, proving that his declaration hadn't been empty words but commitment backed by action.

The guy tried to create a stone wall to defend himself. The technique activated, mana flowing into earth manipulation that should have produced a solid barrier.

But the wall came out weak. Cracked, more symbolic than functional.

Paralysis and fear making precise mana control impossible.

Klein tore through it with a phantom cut, the golden energy of his lion destroying the stone structure like it was wet paper.

Pieces of rock scattered across the tunnel floor, the wall's failure so complete it might as well have never existed.

Then he was on top of the earth user, his claws pressing against the kid's throat in clear warning.

"Surrender," Klein growled.

The earth user raised his hands, understanding that he'd lost.

The hawk kid and Klein were joined by their teammates just moments later. The close-range fighter was already on the ground soon after, overwhelmed by numbers now that Klein's group had proper support.

"I surrender," he sobbed, all bravado gone, replaced by terror of children who'd realized too late they were in over their heads. "I surrender, please."

Five attackers neutralized. The rear guard secured.

Klein looked at his teammates, everyone breathing heavily.

But they'd won.

Together.

"Thanks," Klein said, his voice hoarse from roaring and exertion.

"No problem," the hawk kid responded with a tired smile, relief evident in every line of his face. They'd survived. Against odds that should have crushed them, they'd actually survived. "Now let's go help..."

They all turned toward where Ren had been fighting against nine attackers.

And stopped dead.

♢♢♢♢

It was time to help Ren.

But when they turned to join the battle...

Ren had already finished his side too.

Alone.

Without even fusing with any of his beasts, which remained calm, tranquil, carrying their multiple backpacks loaded with silk as if nothing extraordinary was happening around them.

The nine kids who'd planned to attack him along with Jin were all beaten and bound with roots emerging from the ground and tunnel walls. The plants coiled around their bodies, keeping them immobile.

Some were conscious, groaning in pain. Broken bones, torn muscles, the kind of injuries that would heal but would hurt for weeks. Others were completely knocked out, heads hanging lifelessly forward, consciousness fled to escape trauma their bodies had endured.

Klein watched with growing astonishment as the tunnel itself seemed to breathe, expanding and retracting subtly to the rhythm of Ren's mana control.

The silk-covered walls pulsed. Roots shifted beneath the surface. The entire environment responding to Ren's will like it was an extension of his body rather than separate terrain.

'If anyone has more wood elemental control in this cluster of people, it's him,' Klein realized. 'The tunnels expand and retract at his whim.'

And it was true.

If he hadn't used it before, it was clearly to save energy. Because inevitably it would be necessary to enlarge the smaller Iron-ring tunnels so that larger beasts could continue carrying their share on the return journey.

Just a matter of resource management.

That was the difference between talented students and genuine prodigies. Talented students optimized for the immediate problem. Prodigies optimized for victory conditions that hadn't even appeared yet.

Ren had simply jumped through shadows, appearing everywhere like a ghost, knocking out left and right while binding them as he went.

Klein tried to reconstruct the fight from the evidence. Nine opponents, all attacking simultaneously from different angles and with different skills. Ren moving through shadow-steps, appearing behind one to strike, disappearing before the body hit the ground, reappearing at another's flank to sweep legs and follow with a precision strike to the solar plexus that expelled all air and left them gasping.

Systematic dismantlement of superior numbers through mobility and precision.

Like watching a professional dance, if dance was about rendering people unconscious through targeted violence…

And Zhao, for his part, didn't let the wounded adults move from their places. Feathers glowed threateningly around each one, ready to penetrate deeper at the slightest hostile movement.

Eight veterans, most with Gold-rank beasts, all with years of combat experience, all completely neutralized by a single teacher who'd been fighting while simultaneously protecting students and monitoring the entire battlefield.

The situation was finally controlled.

"We're going to have a lot to talk about," Zhao told the Strahlfang watcher, his voice dangerously quiet.