Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Chapter 1261 - Taming the Old World - Shadow Dragons - 8

"Now," Ren said, and sheer determination in everyone's eyes washed away everything else.

He turned toward the Darkness dragon looming just a few miles away, then glanced at the three girls standing ready by his side.

"It is time," he declared, "to crush the indecisive corrupted lady and a northern Dragon!"

And for the very first time in this campaign, launching an offensive did not feel like a desperate gamble; it felt like a genuinely earned advantage.

♢♢♢♢

Ren's Vanguard detachment moved and launched their assault.

The moment they broke the stealth protocol they had maintained throughout a long day of travel and waiting, they were already pooling immense energy to deliver the opening blow. This was no probing maneuver or cautious scouting attempt.

It was a direct, heavily concentrated strike designed to incinerate the saturated layer of corpses choking the swamp, along with every single live mutant standing on top of them.

The primary strike force was united once again…

Ren, the three girls, his three closest academy friends, Selphira, Julius, Wei, and the remaining elite core of the royal guard and maids moved as one. They were missing a few of their normal key figures, as Mayo and Matilda were providing support on another front like Hikari, Umi, Mako, and Shizu. From the inner circle of attendants and guards, only Maria, Kira, and Hana remained as direct backup, with Wei standing by to weave his ethereal net if the situation demanded it.

But for the time being, his net was unnecessary.

This initial bombardment only required the core four consisting of Ren, Luna, Larissa, and Liora, while the rest of the squad provided covering and support.

Liora's spiritual incineration, drastically amplified by the other three, served as the beating heart of the attack. Every other operative existed solely to ensure that specific fire reached its destination.

However, the maneuver carried a distinct risk.

The Darkness dragon was far from mindless. It was highly agitated, overstimulated, and had been fighting a relentless war of attrition for a very long time. Its senses were razor-sharp, allowing it to instantly detect the massive accumulation of fire mana rapidly expanding in the sky above.

The ancient guardian perfectly understood the impending threat; a devastating fiery bombardment aimed directly at the swamp and itself.

The beast immediately prepared to cancel the cast.

It reared its massive head back, its throat swelling as it readied a huge breath attack to obliterate the gathering flames before they could drop. If that counterstrike connected prematurely, it would not only spare the dragon but also forcefully scatter Liora's charge. It would catch the girls and Ren suspended in the air, leaving them relatively vulnerable while channeling such a dense spell.

Although they still possessed the capacity to jump and dodge at the cost of additional mana, this was the most fragile window of their strategy, and a disruption could cause them to lose the thread of the complex attack and fail the assault.

That was precisely where the support team stepped in.

♢♢♢♢

Julius and Taro moved in perfect tandem.

Putting their hands in the ground at the same time to strike from a distance, the two double and pure Earth users manipulated the subterranean bedrock, threading their control deep beneath the murky swamp until it reached the solid ground directly under the dragon.

They fused and coordinated their control output as if operating a single shared mind to be able to move the high mana density Platinum 3 soil. First, they shifted the tectonic plates to throw off the beast's aim, then quickly erected jagged rock formations and altered the terrain to obstruct its firing lines.

Their combined efforts barely were enough here, but ensured the guardian could not lock onto Ren or the girls in the sky.

Every time the beast attempted to angle its swelling throat upward, the earth churned beneath its heavy claws, destabilizing its footing and ruining its trajectory.

Selphira delivered the final, punishing blow the exact moment the dragon unexpectedly abandoned his guard position for a moment and attempted to take flight to avoid depending on the shifting ground.

Operating in full fusion too, she hurled a condensed ice spear straight at the creature's lower jaw. The projectile carried a staggering volume of freezing mana, and upon impact, it did not merely snap the beast's mouth shut to interrupt the half-formed breath attack.

It froze the jaw solid.

A thick crust of impenetrable ice sealed the guardian's maw, trapping the pressurized breath attack deep inside its throat with nowhere to vent. The counterstrike died before it could even leave the dragon's mouth.

With the sovereign beast silenced and its primary defense neutralized, the four airborne tamers finalized their charge.

Liora's spiritual fire reached a terrifying magnitude. It was stabilized in the physical realm by Luna's own flames, constantly fed and guided by Larissa's swirling gales, and meticulously buffed by Ren's jade wind and fire energy. Ren also introduced crackling electrical currents into the mix, elevating the combined spell to a level that made the surrounding atmosphere tremble. A miniature sun of spiritual fire hung suspended over the black swamp, primed to fall.

The dragon was not the only entity to register that colossal spike in mana… Selthia felt it too.

Somewhere deep within her corrupted network, the hive mind realized exactly what was happening, though the revelation arrived far too late. She finally understood that humanity's most lethal Vanguard had never been deployed to the south or the capital.

The northern front, which had appeared tantalizingly vulnerable, was actively hiding the four specific tamers capable of erasing an army in a single breath.

Her precious mutants, densely packed on top of the corpse-filled swamp, were standing in the worst possible geographic coordinate!

She instantly ordered a full retreat across the northern board.

"FALL BACK!" The desperate command pulsed through her neural web, screaming into the mind of every single mutant in the sector.

But the warning was tragically late.

♢♢♢♢

The fiery bombardment dropped.

The sun of spiritual fire descended upon the sprawling swamp, causing the northern horizon to blur into a dancing mirage of superheated air. The flames surged across the saturated layer of corpses, igniting every single body long before the encroaching mutants could even attempt to consume them. The blaze rapidly engulfed the live beasts standing on top of the pile, creatures that hadn't even managed to turn around following Selthia's frantic command, their muscles paralyzed by Ren's precise electrical additions.