My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

On the morning of the fourth day, the oppressive, heavy air of the north finally gave way to a dramatic sight.

Standing atop an elevated, jagged rock formation, Vince and Lyrielle looked out across the horizon. There, piercing through the swirling grey clouds, were the massive, smoke-plumed silhouettes of the volcanic peaks.

Lyrielle’s face lit up with a brilliant, excited smile, her emerald eyes reflecting the distant, dull orange glow of flowing magma.

”Vince, look! We’re actually here. At this pace, we’ll reach the base of Mount Ignis in less than a day!”

Vince didn’t answer immediately. As they began to walk down from the ridge, he habitually expanded his perception radius, pushing his sensory aura outward to scan the desolate rocky terrain for any hidden threats.

For a few minutes, there was nothing but the whistling of the sulfurous wind.

But just as he was about to pull his perception back to a smaller, energy-saving range—he felt it.

A sudden, violently cold, and sickeningly rotten aura scraped against the outer edges of his senses.

Almost instantly, a sharp, flashing interface flared in his vision:

[WARNING: HOSTILE ENCOUNTER DETECTED]

> Target: Commander Rin (The Plague Weaver) – Second Dread Commander.

> Status: Approaching via spatial distortion.

> Ability Overview: Master of Necrotic Magic. Specializes in mana-rotting, aura decay, and internal core poisoning. Do not allow his spells to breach your active mana flow.

Vince’s expression instantly locked down, his eyes narrowing.

Lyrielle, noticing the sudden shift in his demeanor, stopped walking.

”Vince? What’s wrong?”

Before she could even finish the question, the heavy, suffocating weight of the approaching aura hit her too.

She gasped, her elven instincts screaming at the sheer malice bleeding into the air.

Vince kept his face entirely neutral, his mind moving at a hyper-calculative speed.

Rin,

He thought, recalling the details.

He’s probably the one with the staff back at the academy when I was captured. I don’t know the guy’s exact abilities, other than the fact that he’s a rotten mage who probably plays incredibly dirty.

To avoid any unnecessary collateral damage to himself or Lyrielle, Vince decided not to hold back a single ounce of his strength.

He pulled up his interface, mentally activating every single skill, passive, and attribute he possessed, locking them on absolute standby.

First, he reached deep into his connection with his territory, activating the core he shared with his first bonded powerhouse.

---

Hundreds of miles away, back within the grand stone walls of the Oakhaven Academy.

Elena was standing by a grand arched window, reviewing a stack of institutional ledgers.

Suddenly, a violent, searing warmth flared beneath her robes. She gasped softly, her hand instantly flying to her chest, pressing hard against the spot where Vince’s purple Sovereign Crest was permanently imprinted into her skin.

The crest throbbed with a massive, roaring torrent of power, drawing heavily from her magic pool. Her breaths came in shallow, sudden puffs as she felt his presence flare across the continent.

”Master...”

She murmured, her heart racing as she stared out toward the northern sky, praying for his victory.

---

Back in the rocky foothills, Vince felt the raging, destructive fire magic of Elena’s core flood his veins, perfectly blending with the S-rank botanical passives he had recently acquired from his time in the Canopy and his conquest of Queen Moriele.

His purple eyes flashed with a lethal, multi-colored brilliance.

”Get behind me,”

Vince said calmly.

He turned his head, looking directly back at the elevated rock formation they had just stepped off of.

Lyrielle didn’t hesitate, immediately drawing her green elven mana and stepping into a fluid, defensive combat stance right beside him.

Right on cue, the space directly above the rock groaned.

The air tore open with a violent, sickening screech, bleeding a dark purple, unstable spatial energy.

From the center of the tearing vortex, a figure stepped out.

Dread Commander Rin.

He wore tattered, emerald-green robes that billowed in the wind, smelling faintly of old blood and stagnant rot.

In his pale, vein-popping hand, he held a dark wooden staff topped with a cracked, heavily pulsing necro-crystal that cast an eerie, sickening green glow across his gaunt, shadowed face.

His unhinged, piercing eyes scanned the area before locking directly onto Vince.

Rin let out a low, rasping chuckle that sounded like rusted metal dragging across stone.

”You truly never cease to impress me, Vince. First, I witness you take out Moira at the Academy... and now, I come to find out you actually survived Balthazar? The Crimson Shield himself fell to a magicless human?”

Rin tilted his head, a manic, mocking grin spreading across his face as the necro-crystal on his staff hummed louder.

”Tell me... are you even human at this point?”

Vince stood entirely still, staring him dead in the eyes without uttering a single word. The silence was deafening.

Angered by the intruder’s blatant arrogance, Lyrielle stepped forward, her voice ringing out with royal authority.

”Who are you?! What do you want here?!”

Without shifting his gaze from Rin, Vince replied to her in a low, ice-cold murmur.

”He’s here to kill me.”

Rin burst into a loud, mocking laugh, his shoulders shaking under his tattered robes.

”Ah, I see you’ve already gone and got yourself a beautiful elven companion. As expected of a lonely, pathetic being. Always hiding behind others.”

Feeling deeply offended by the crude insult to both her and Vince, Lyrielle’s emerald eyes flared with absolute rage.

Fwip!

In a burst of pure speed, she activated her elven movement magic, blurring across the stone ground directly toward Rin to strike him down.

Rin’s grin widened into a grotesque, predatory smile.

He didn’t even raise his staff. He just waited for her to step within his passive aura radius—the exact zone where his necrotic magic would instantly invade her body, rotting her mana core from the inside out.

Sensing the invisible, toxic trap through his hyper-extended perception, Vince’s eyes snapped open.

Vector Drive!

Before Lyrielle could take another step into the dead zone, an invisible, absolute gravitational force slammed into her mid-air.

The trajectory of her movement was instantly rewritten, snatching her backward through the air and dropping her firmly back onto the ground right beside Vince, completely out of Rin’s lethal range.

Rin blinked, his smile faltering slightly as he raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise.

”You’re fast. And incredibly calculative, I’ll give you that. But it’s going to take a whole lot more than just speed to deal me any actual damage, boy.”

Lyrielle, looking at the dead, blackening grass where she had almost stepped, realized the terrifying nature of the trap she had almost walked into.

Seeing the absolute seriousness behind Vince’s calm, unmoving profile, her pride melted into a quiet, apologetic whisper.

”... I’m sorry. I was reckless.”

Vince didn’t look back, but a soft, confident smile touched his lips.

”Don’t worry about it. Just keep your distance behind me at all times from here on out.”

She nodded quickly, stepping back and letting her mana stabilize.

Vince adjusted his footing, his purple eyes locking onto the tattered combat caster with a cold, piercing intensity.

”I know Duke Owen sent you. I know you’re one of his Dread Commanders. But that’s quite some power you got there. what exactly are you?”

The wind howled between them, carrying the heavy scent of sulfur and imminent death.

Rin chuckled softly, the cracked necro-crystal on his staff bleeding a thick, fog-like purple vapor that began to pool around his boots.

”I’m Rin Riley,”

He replied, his voice dropping into a chilling, theatrical purr.

”Some call me the Raven. I am a walking plague. A true master in the magic arts. To me, mana is nothing more than a plaything.”

Rin’s eyes flared with a sudden, dark gravity as he gripped his staff tighter.

”But even a monster like me doesn’t stand a single ghost of a chance against Garreth... let alone the Duke himself. Therefore, Vince, I am here to take your head for your little insurrection, before you become a real problem.”

Vince exhaled a slow, quiet breath, a faint, dangerous smirk returning to his lips as his skills hummed in perfect synchronization.

”Take my head, huh...”

Vince whispered to himself, his muscles tensing as he prepared to launch forward.

”This is going to be a real pain in the ass.”