Genetic Engineer in a Tamer's World

The absolute blackness was not a void, but a suffocating pressure that screamed with the roar of displaced air.

Kale felt his internal organs lurch toward his throat as gravity took hold, his white coat snapping violently in the gale. Beside his chest, he could feel the frantic, rapid thumping of Neo’s four hearts through the shared bond.

”Neo, transform back!” Kale shouted, his voice instantly swallowed by the rushing wind. ”The chameleon form is useless here! Shift to the hydra state and give us some lift!” He didn’t wait for a verbal response, instead forcing the command through the soul tether with the weight of his absolute authority.

He tried to activate the tactical overlay of the system to calculate their descent speed and the depth of the shaft. However, his vision was met only with a chaotic mess of flickering blue artefacts and scrolling nonsense.

The mechanical voice in his mind was distorted, emitting a sharp and rhythmic screech like a broken radio losing its signal in a storm.

[whrr... bzzzt... CRITICAL... ERROR... INTERFERENCE DETECTED... whrr...]

Kale cursed under his breath, his analytical mind racing even as his body weight vanished into the abyss. He drew upon his Hexarion physiology, his enhanced energy senses flaring to life as he bypassed the malfunctioning system.

Through the Dragon Bane title’s passive sensory boost, he began to map the darkness with the residue of his mana.

He could feel it now, a change in the air pressure that indicated a fast-approaching terminus to their fall. The dense, stagnant energy of a floor was rushing up to meet them, a solid barrier that would turn them into meat paste in seconds.

”Neo, now!” he roared again, his mental pathways screaming with the effort of the command.

The matte black scales of the chameleon form began to ripple and tear away, replaced by the brilliant, shimmering green of the Nemesis Hydra. The three draconic heads emerged with a sharp hiss of defiance, and the small green wings snapped open.

The sudden drag was violent, catching the updrafts of the abyss with a sound like a cracking whip.

Neo let out a resonant growl from all three maws, its claws extending to latch onto Kale’s right arm with a desperate grip. The force of the sudden arrest was enough to nearly dislocate Kale’s shoulder, the weight of his falling body pulling hard against the hydra’s strength.

It was not enough to stop them, but the terminal drop slowed into a violent, angling glide.

Kale didn’t waste the opportunity as he saw the jagged stone of the cavity wall flickering past in his peripheral vision.

He reached into his storage and brought out his two artefact daggers, the metal shimmering with a dull grey light. Using Lesser Mana Manipulation, he coated the edges in a high-frequency vibration that hummed with a deathly song.

He twisted his body mid-air, guiding his momentum toward the stone face of the tunnel while Neo flapped its wings madly to offer stability. With a grunt of focused effort, Kale slammed the daggers into the wall.

The impact sent a jolt of fire through his wrists and up into his collarbones, the blades biting into the rock with a screeching protest.

A trail of bright orange sparks erupted from the point of contact, illuminating the vertical tunnel for a brief, flickering second. Kale watched the rock peel away like parchment under the high-frequency edge, the friction generating an intense heat that he could feel through his gloves. His arms felt as though they were being torn from their sockets.

”Hold on, buddy!” Kale yelled, his boots scraping against the wall as he tried to find purchase to further slow their descent. Neo’s claws were dug deep into the fabric of his coat, the hydra using every ounce of its draconic strength to keep them from spiralling away. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and ground stone.

The speed of their fall was still far too high for a safe landing, the momentum of several hundred meters of dropping energy defying their attempts to stop. Kale pushed his Beast Force to its absolute limit, the green energy of the hydra surging through his pathways to reinforce his straining muscles and settled grounding.

He felt the tension reach a breaking point just as the sparks died out and the daggers finally lost their grip on the crumbling rock. They were cast back into the absolute dark, but the ground was no longer a distant threat. It was right beneath them, a pale expanse of stone that emerged from the shadows like a rising moon.

Kale had only enough time to tuck his chin and roll as they hit the floor with a resounding crash that echoed through the vast silence of the deep. The impact was brutal, the sound of his ribcage shattering like dry wood filling his ears.

He felt his legs twist and snap under the kinetic transfer, the bone ends grinding against his internal tissues.

He skidded across the ancient stone for several meters, his body coming to a stop with a limp and heavy thud. For a long minute, there was only the sound of his ragged, shallow breathing and the frantic hissing of Neo, who had been thrown a short distance away. Kale coughed, a spray of warm, copper-tasting blood painting the marble beneath him.

The pain was a white-hot tide that threatened to pull him into unconsciousness, but he forced himself to remain lucid. He could feel the biological discord within his frame, the Hexarion blood fighting to stabilise his heart rate. Slowly, a faint green light began to pulse from his skin as the Octagon trait activated through the bond.

Neo crawled toward him, its three heads weaving together in a display of intense worry and anger. The hydra nudged Kale’s shoulder, its warm scales acting as a grounding point for the regenerative energy.

Kale watched the distorted blue windows of the system flicker back into a stable state, the failures clearing away like smoke.