My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

Two years transformed the five strays into an iron-clad unit. What began as a scattered band of survivors operating out of a cold bell tower had grown into the sharpest edge in Malgrath’s underworld.

They moved as one machine. Gideon refined their gear in his subterranean forge, fashioning reinforced plates and weapon grips tailored to each member’s style. Kira’s alchemical lab produced destabilized gas canisters, lethal nerve agents, and quick-acting salves. Brian was the unyielding vanguard, Sara provided lethal wind-blade speed, and Vesper directed the flow from the dark.

Only one obstacle remained between them and absolute control of the city’s shadow network: The Red bulls.

The Red bulls were the oldest gang in Malgrath—a ruthless collective of seasoned mercenaries and black-market bosses who ruled the central iron docks. Recognizing the rising threat of Vesper’s crew, the boss deployed forty elite enforcers to corner them at the docks during a heavy midnight downpour.

It wasn’t a skirmish; it was a slaughter.

Rain slammed against the iron shipping crates as the battle erupted. Brian stepped forward first, his massive iron beam sweeping through three broadsword-wielding mercenaries like brittle kindling, his aura tanking crossbow bolts without flinching.

Behind him, Kira shattered two glass flasks against the rain-slicked cobbles. A dense, violet paralyzing mist billowed across the dock, sending the bulls archers into violent coughing fits.

Sara glided through the fog like a phantom. Her pale-green wind-mana wrapped around her rapier, leaving razor-thin wind trails through the air that severed spear shafts and leather armor in single fluid strokes.

Above the docks, Vesper stepped through the shadows.

SHADOW STEP

He materialized behind the Viper boss, his twin daggers coated in dark shadow-mana. Before the boss could raise his runic broadsword, Vesper’s blades slipped past his guard, slicing through his throat in absolute silence.

Within fifteen minutes, forty elite mercenaries lay broken across the drenched timbers.

---

Vesper stood over the dead Viper boss, wiping black blood from his dagger onto a scrap of leather.

As the rain began to taper into a light drizzle, a flock of jet-black crows descended from the dark storm clouds above. They landed heavily upon the corpses scattered across the dock, their dark, sharp beaks plucking at the silver buttons and fresh blood of the fallen syndicate.

Brian walked up beside Vesper, heaving his blood-stained iron beam onto his shoulder. He wiped a streak of crimson from his brow, looking out over the quiet harbor.

”We can’t keep letting the guilds call us ’the bell tower crew,’” Brian grunted, his deep voice carrying over the sound of lapping water. ”We just took the docks. We run this whole damn city now. We need an actual name.”

Gideon and Sara walked over, while Kira casually twirled an empty alchemical vial between her fingers.

Vesper looked down at the black birds feeding on the dead boss, the firelight of the burning docks reflecting in his red eyes.

”Crows,” Vesper said quietly.

Kira scoffed, a morbid smirk touching her lips. ”Crows? That’s way too casual. We didn’t just beat them, Vesper—we wiped them out.” She tossed her vial in the air, catching it cleanly. ”Death Crows sounds way better.”

Brian let out a low laugh. Gideon gave a quiet, firm nod, and Sara smiled, adjusting her leather belt.

”Death Crows it is,” Sara agreed.

That night, before leaving the docks, Sara took the point of her rapier and deeply carved the words DEATH CROWS into the dark stone archway above the harbor master’s office. It would become their signature—after every contract, after every boss fell, those two words were left written in iron or blood.

---

Three days later, deep inside their newly claimed sanctuary—the dark basalt fortress of Grimspire...

A single brazier burned in the center of the underground chamber. Kira stood over a stone altar, carefully mixing a glowing, midnight-black ink inside a brass mortar. The ink was a volatile mixture of crushed mana-crystals, rare alchemical ash, and five drops of blood drawn from each of their wrists.

”This isn’t ordinary ink,” Kira said softly, her expression turning serious as she prepared the tattooing needles. ”It’s an alchemical brand. A binding mark.”

She explained the dual nature of the Bloodmark.

”Passively, it links our core signatures. If any of us are bleeding out or running out of mana, the rest of us will feel the mark burn against our skin. We’ll always know where family is.”

She looked at Vesper, her dark eyes flashing. ”But if you force your mana directly into the mark... it activates it.”

”What’s the catch?” Vesper asked, leaning over the table.

”It draws upon your active mana and your raw life force,” Kira warned. ”It strips away your restraint, unlocking absolute peak potential for a brief window. But when it ends, your body pays the price in pure exhaustion and death. Use it only when death is the only other option.”

One by one, they took their seats by the fire.

Kira worked with steady, precise hands, etching the dark, curved crest of the Bloodmark into their skin—binding their spirits, their mana, the mark unique for each of them and their alter egos into an unbreakable pact.

---

By midnight, the ritual was complete.

The five of them stood together on the highest open balcony of Grimspire, eighty feet above the iron rooftops of Malgrath. The cold night wind howled through the basalt arches, snapping their coats against the dark sky.

Below them lay the city. The gangs were broken. The rogue noble proxies had retreated. The ironworks, the docks, and the back alleys all moved according to the quiet orders issued from the spire.

They were no longer strays running from the guards in the rain. They were the undisputed kings of the Malgrath underworld.

Vesper looked out over the sprawling city, feeling the warm, subtle pulse of the Bloodmark humming against his skin. Beside him stood Sara, her hand lightly resting against his arm, while Brian, Gideon, and Kira stood watch behind them.

They had reached the peak. But as Vesper stared out into the dark horizon beyond Malgrath’s walls, he knew that holding the top required a kind of power that even a city couldn’t buy.