Genetic Engineer in a Tamer's World

All three heads of the palm-sized, green-scaled Hydra stared coldly at Kale, sensing danger from its master for the first time.

Of course, though this standoff was mostly for show from both sides, Neo realised that perhaps it had underestimated its master a bit too much.

Kale spoke softly, ”Sorry buddy, but don’t blame me for being ruthless.....”

He then dashed forward at top speed, wordlessly, and plunged his dagger straight towards Neo’s three heads.

Neo’s posture shifted; the creature flapped its wings, and a violent wind burst forth as the propulsive force shot the Hydra in another direction, but Kale simply grinned, creating a burst of mana at the heels of his feet.

He changed direction, already anticipating that move from his Tamed Beast.

Thus, Kale caught up once more and attacked, and, unfortunately for Neo, this time the Hydra could not abruptly change direction again due to the nature of its instantaneous burst of speed.

That was one of its core weaknesses; however, Neo also possessed an uncanny amount of battle intelligence, which it properly displayed when fighting off against the Black Thorn Spider, as the creature had unsummoned itself onto Kale’s shadow to bridge the distance fast enough and save Kale in the nick of time.

In that instant, as the shining Dagger of Kale inched closer to Neo at unbelievable speed, Neo swiftly shifted its body and took the dagger’s blow with its scaled body part.

Protecting its three heads and four limbs.

And due to the impenetrable, unmatched defence of those scales, Kale’s steel daggers could do nothing.

Right afterwards, Neo launched a vicious counterattack against its master, letting out the rattling roar right on Kale’s face.

Which, to Neo’s shock, did absolutely nothing, because the Hydra itself possessed unparalleled defence because of the ’Mental Bastion’ trait, which also protected the mind of Kale, because if Kale is affected severely by any mental attacks, it would also break the mind of Neo.

Kale was empowering himself and his weapon with his great reserves of mana, which enhanced his blade’s deadly edge and served as a layer of defence for him.

But the Cursed Tamer was not channelling the Beast Force, allowing Neo to use it all; otherwise, Kale felt it would be somewhat unfair.

As the Rattling Roar didn’t work on him, Kale activated one of his abilities, Gaze of the Monarch, upon the Nemesis Hydra.

The result of it was just as lacklustre as Neo using the Rattling Roar on Kale. But that was something which the Cursed Tamer had already anticipated, so... he did not really count on it. Not completely at least.

Even though the ability did not work on Neo, as it originated from the creature’s status as the Monarch Beast in the first place, it still greatly discombobulated Neo for just one second.

That one second of chance was what Kale had been waiting for, as he had created that opportunity through carefully guided steps from the start.

Not to mention, because of his Dragon Bane title, he also received a significant boost to constitution when fighting Neo, due to the Hydra’s draconic nature.

With a merciless countenance, Kale stabbed right into the neck of Neo, and the Beast howled in pain and fury, but when the creature realised that Kale had no intention of actually stopping, Neo panicked, for the first time.

For the first time, the Nemesis Hydra felt fear as the cold, enchanted dagger slowly cut into its neck.

Neo desperately tried to unsummon itself and escape into Kale’s shadow, but Kale did not permit it, wearing a cold look and pressing the dagger down even harder...

Squelch....

Kale directly cut off one of Neo’s three heads. Green blood splattered all over the ground; the remaining two heads of Neo screamed in agony and helplessness.

Graaahhhhhh, Gruhh, greeeeeeeehehhhhh!!!!!

The creature writhed madly as blood continued to flow.

But at the same time, Kale dropped to his knees and coughed up an unhealthy amount of blood...

”Bleeeerrghhhhh”

”Cough, cough!!!!”

”Arghhhhh.....”

A deep gash appeared on the side of Kale’s neck, almost in the same pattern in which he cut off the head of Neo.

That was the price, the price for harming his own bonded creature, his own Tamed Beast, with his own hands.

He tightly held his hand on his neck, as he was bleeding, but due to the backlash of his outrageous act, he was bleeding from pretty much all of his orifices.

But Kale gritted his teeth and said to his Hydra, almost in a growl, ”Neo, get it together, damn it; why do you think I did something like this?”

”You possess an unparalleled healing factor, but it’s not activated yet; you have to get used to this pain, endure the pain, overcome the pain.”

Kale continued ruthlessly, ”If one of your heads is cut off in mid-battle, do you think collapsing in pain like this will do anything? It will only yield the result of you getting killed, and I also will die as a result.”

”Come on, damn it, activate the Octagon Trait, do it... right now, or you will die, and I will die too,” roared Kale on top of the bleeding Hydra, which remained in agonising pain.

As if hearing his furious spirit, the pained Hydra’s two remaining heads rose higher, as if gathering resolve; the creature, with its small wings and legs, stood up once more and roared madly towards the skies.

Echoing its defiant nature as the Nemesis Hydra, as it was antithetical to the Dragon Race, meaning it was antithetical to the very World Will itself.

Eventually, a notification flashed before Kale’s eyes.

[Ding!! Congratulations to the Host as your Tamed Beast has learned to activate the Octagon trait]

[Healing all injuries of the Nemesis Hydra.]

[Healing the lost head of the Nemesis Hydra]

[Healing host injuries through the bonding link of the Nemesis Hydra]

[The Hydra may devour corpses and the Core of Beasts with great regenerative capacity to further enhance the Octagon Trait’s effectiveness.]

Kale’s eyes gleamed as he witnessed the miraculous process of Neo’s lost head regenerating from the cut section of Neo’s third neck.

Thin bones formed, followed by tissues, muscles, blood vessels, and the skin; eventually, the head formed perfectly again, as if nothing had ever happened.

The rest of the small injuries on its body also healed immediately, and not only that, but the Beast Force reserves expended by the Hydra were also restored to full within Kale.

At the same time, the backlash suffered by Kale himself for hurting his own Beast healed instantly, as well as the deep gash on the side of his neck. Only some blood stains remained.

So, apart from the small mana expenditure, he and Neo were both as good as new.

Kale sighed and went closer to the little Hydra as he extended his hand, but the creature turned all three of its heads away, showing its silent anger towards Kale.

The Cursed Tamer inhaled as he conveyed his feelings through the bond; then he spoke, ”I’m sorry, buddy, but just like I said before, you have certain advantages that no other creature would ever dream of having, and you need to learn to use all of that to your absolute best.”

”You have to get used to the pain, my friend, because there awaits nothing but endless pain for us. If... we want to fulfil our purpose,” Kale iterated softly.

Only then did Neo begrudgingly stop moving away from Kale, letting him pat its three heads.

But Kale could see the Hydra was still salty about it; he sighed, as he had just said to Neo. It couldn’t be helped; Neo needed to experience something like that as a precaution, given that they would be taking part in the next battle against newer and more dangerous Beast Hordes.

Which would be far more brutal and vicious; while it was unlikely that the Greenroot guild would let Kale and his Hydra face any severe danger, he still wanted to make a big impact and kill as many Beasts as possible; only through that would Neo continue to grow stronger at a horrendous rate.

Otherwise, it would be nothing but a complete waste of Neo’s limitless potential, especially with the Devour trait it possessed.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door, and Kale realised the mercenary group had arrived. He went in, opened the door, and said to them all with a nod, ”Come in.”

The Wolfbern Mercenary team leader said with a smile, ”I guess you had a good rest; your complexion looks much healthier now.”

Kale was a bit surprised by the words, because, in all honesty, he expected the opposite kind of statement about his visage, considering he had just received a deadly backlash from the bond for attacking his own Tamed beast with the intention of killing.

He looked at Neo once more, bewildered, and thought, ’Is the Octagon Trait already that powerful?’

To heal him so thoroughly that even his basic complexion looks completely healthy?