My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

Rin’s piercing, unhinged eyes flared with an eerie green brilliance as he aggressively scanned Vince’s body.

A sudden, sharp look of genuine surprise crossed his gaunt face as his gaze locked onto the center of Vince’s chest.

”A mana core?”

Rin muttered, his voice dropping into a raspy, bewildered hiss. He tilted his head, his grip tightening on his necro-crystal staff.

”A magicless human possessing a structurally stable mana core... Tell me, Vince, is that the work of some high-tier artifact you managed to steal?”

Vince adjusted his footing on the jagged stone, a casual, incredibly mocking smirk playing on his lips.

”Maybe.”

Rin’s face twisted into a grotesque, infuriated sneer.

”Let’s see how well that artifact protects you when your own power turns into your executioner!”

With a violent roar, Rin slammed the base of his dark wooden staff into the elevated rock.

”Putrid Domain!”

Instantly, a sickening, viscous purple and green fog erupted from the stone, rapidly rolling across the ridge like a toxic wave.

The air hissed, the grass blackening and dissolving into slime the moment the mist touched it. It was a localized disaster zone designed to drain and rot anything harboring a single drop of mana.

A sharp system interface flashed crimson in Vince’s peripheral vision:

[WARNING: PUTRID DOMAIN ACTIVE]

> High-density necrotic fog detected. All active mana paths will suffer internal decay and core poisoning upon contact.

Vince didn’t waste a single millisecond. He snapped his head back, his voice cutting through the whistling wind.

”Lyrielle! Get far away from here! Now!”

Understanding the gravity of the situation, Lyrielle didn’t utter a single word of argument.

Fwip!

She activated her movement magic, her figure blurring into a streak of green light as she flash-stepped hundreds of yards away, retreating to a safe distance.

Vince utilized a precise burst of

Vector Drive,

Pushing his body backward through the air to buy himself a few seconds of breathing room as the heavy fog chased him down.

His mind raced at hyper-speed as he analyzed the system warning.

The fog only affects objects and entities possessing active mana.

A cold, dangerous grin spread across his face.

System,

Vince commanded mentally,

deactivate my mana core. Return me to a magicless state.

[COMMAND RECEIVED: MANA CORE DEACTIVATED]

The multi-colored brilliance in Vince’s purple eyes instantly vanished, returning to their natural, deep hue.

The raging torrent of Elena and Moriele’s magic inside his veins went entirely dormant, leaving him as a completely ordinary, magicless human.

Vince slid to a halt on the rocky ground, crossing his arms as he stood completely still, letting the towering wall of rotting purple fog wash entirely over his body.

From the distance, Lyrielle gasped in absolute horror.

But inside the mist, Vince just grinned.

The toxic vapors swirled around his skin, searching for a magical signature to latch onto and decay—but found absolutely nothing.

It passed right through him like harmless, warm air.

Rin’s eyes glowed green once more as he scanned his domain, expecting to see Vince’s core violently imploding.

His manic smile completely faltered.

”What...? Where is it? Where did your core go?!”

Rin frantically waved his staff, trying to pierce the mist.

”Are you cloaking it?! Speak!”

”Right behind you.”

Rin’s instincts screamed. Before he could even turn, Vince materialized from the fog using a flawless, silent burst of Vector Drive, his fist driving forward to deliver a fatal, skull-shattering blow to the back of Rin’s head.

But Rin was a Dread Commander for a reason.

Driven by pure combat reflex, he swung his staff blindly behind him.

Clang!

The dense, enchanted wood intercepted Vince’s fist, the sheer kinetic force forcing Vince to step back and land firmly on the ground.

Rin hissed, a drop of cold sweat rolling down his temple.

”Like I said, boy... you’ll need a hell of a lot more than just speed to deal me some actual damage!”

Vince stared at the unhinged caster, his eyes narrowing slightly.

”Is that so?”

He stretched his hand out to the side, opening his palm. In a flash of light, his heavy, double-edged steel sword materialized out of thin air from his inventory.

He spun the blade effortlessly around his wrist, the steel cutting through the sulfurous air before he lunged forward with terrifying physical speed.

What followed was a brutal, claustrophobic symphony of violence.

Vince and Rin traded high-speed strikes, the heavy clashing of steel against the enchanted staff echoing across the foothills.

From her distant vantage point, Lyrielle’s eyes widened in absolute awe; the combat was so blindingly fast that she could barely keep up with their movements.

Mid-clash, as their weapons locked, Rin’s face twisted into a maniacal grin.

”Die, rat! Touch of the Carrion Raven!”

Rin didn’t cast a standard elemental spell. He bypassed Vince’s sword entirely, his free hand thrusting forward to plant his glowing, diseased palm directly onto Vince’s shoulder.

Vince violently pulled back at the last second, breaking the weapon lock, but it was too late.

A sickening, dark purple rot instantly seeped through his leather clothing, embedding itself into his flesh.

[CRITICAL WARNING: CALAMITY PLAGUE INFLICTED]

> Type: Biological Parasitic Rot (Non-Poison).

> Effect: Cellular necrosis.

> Time until total organ failure: 60 seconds.

> System Note: Passive immunities from [Sovereign Resonance Core] are ineffective against plagues.

Vince felt a sharp, agonizing burning sensation spread through his chest, his flesh rapidly turning a bruised, decaying black.

He grimaced, realizing that if he didn’t end this immediately, he was dead.

Base physical abilities aren’t going to cut it anymore.

”Let’s see you block this,”

Vince growled, his voice laced with absolute killing intent.

He mentally activated Micro-Kinetic Harmony, attuning the atomic vibrations of his own physical body and his sword to match the frequency of Rin’s inorganic staff. At the exact same time, he triggered Mirage Veil.

Suddenly, the fog rippled as five identical copies of Vince materialized from the shadows, all drawing their blades and lunging at Rin from every single angle.

”Tricks! Nothing but pathetic illusions!”

Rin screamed frantically, completely blind to Vince’s lack of mana.

He swung his staff in a massive circle, unleashing a violent wave of necrotic energy that instantly dissolved the five illusionary clones into smoke.

”I found you!”

Rin spun around, triumphantly raising his legendary staff to block the real Vince, who was descending upon him from above with a heavy, downward sword strike.

Rin smirks, expecting his reinforced weapon to hold just like before.

CRACK!

The moment Vince’s steel blade touched the wood, Micro-Kinetic Harmony discharged.

A hyper-frequency atomic vibration surged violently through the weapon. The ancient, legendary wooden staff and the priceless necro-crystal didn’t just break—they molecularly fatigued and exploded into a fine, glittering cloud of useless dust right in Rin’s hands.

Rin’s brain completely broke.

He stared at his empty, trembling palms, his eyes wide with unadulterated terror.

”My... my staff... how?!”

Before the Dread Commander could even process the loss, Vince dropped his sword.

Reaching through the cloud of dust, his hand clamped around Rin’s throat like an iron vice, violently slamming the back of the mage’s head straight into the jagged volcanic bedrock.

Rin coughed up a thick spray of blood, pinned completely beneath Vince’s boot.

The remaining 30 seconds of the plague were suffocating Vince, his vision blurring as the black veins crept up his neck.

Desperate, Rin raised his trembling, empty hands, trying to mouth the incantation for a wandless execution spell.

”I’ll... I’ll take you with me...”

”You won’t do a damn thing,”

Vince whispered, his face inches from Rin’s.

Vince violently activated Infernal Overdrive.

A blinding, white-hot volcanic heat exploded from Vince’s body, drawing directly from Elena’s core. The sheer, terrifying temperature instantly melted the surrounding stones and marble ground into bubbling, glowing lava.

The intense heat blasted directly into Rin’s body, his skin bubbling and charring as his clothes burned away.

Yet, through the agonizing, flesh-melting torture, Rin didn’t scream.

He just threw his head back, bursting into a manic, blood-choked laugh that echoed through the valley.

”Burn me! Melt me! It changes nothing, Vince! You will forever be hunted! Garreth... Duke Owen... they will flay you alive! You will forever be haunted by the shadows of Oakhaven!”

Vince didn’t hesitate. He didn’t let him finish. He didn’t care about the monologue.

With a cold, remorseless flick of his wrist, Vince snatched his fallen blade from the ground and swung it in a perfect, horizontal arc.

Slight!

Rin’s unhinged laughter cut off instantly as his severed head rolled across the melting, molten stone, his body going completely limp beneath Vince’s boot.

The moment the Plague Weaver died, the biological anchor of the spell shattered. The decaying black veins on Vince’s chest and neck rapidly receded, his flesh returning to its healthy, pristine state just as the timer hit zero.

Vince stood alone in the center of the smoking, melted crater, breathing heavily as the white-hot flames of Infernal Overdrive slowly dissipated.

He wiped a smudge of ash from his cheek, looking down at the corpse of the Second Dread Commander with an unbothered, predatory calm.

”Let them come,”

Vince murmured to the empty, desolate northern wind.

Right on cue, a heavy, resonant chime echoed directly inside his mind, bringing up a glowing, golden interface over the smoking battlefield.