Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

The Mantis disengaged immediately, not wanting to be crushed by the huge foot…

Smart. Don’t overcommit when facing a superior opponent, better hit and fade. Accumulate damage through many small wounds rather than risking everything on a single decisive blow.

The pattern established itself over the next 30 seconds. Mantis would attack from an unexpected angle. Amphibian would shift position to minimize the damage, mantis would disengage before a counterattack could land. Repeat.

Ren watched the exchanges with a growing recognition that this fight was going to be longer and more difficult than he’d hoped. But it wasn’t unwinnable based on the amphibian’s reaction speed.

Ren smiled at the improvement in Min’s beast’s healing quality. A good healer friend was always welcome news.

Well, perhaps not when you were facing him in combat.

But this also revealed a capability that Ren hadn’t completely anticipated, a development demonstrating that Min had been training aspects of elemental control that exceeded what they’d discussed during previous sessions.

The amphibian could surely use light better now in its illusions, just like the Mantis could. It wasn’t only capable of becoming invisible but could now project more complex illusions using manipulated light.

The Mantis’s clone technique was out of question now since it wouldn’t work effectively if the enemy beast could interfere with its functioning, because it was already an ability the Mantis could barely control at her current level. At least it didn’t matter if additional copies of the amphibian appeared distributed around the arena, because with Ren’s mana perception, it was obvious which one was real and which were simply light constructs. The real amphibian had a spiritual signature that was impossible to fake completely, a density of presence that illusions couldn’t replicate no matter how visually convincing they appeared.

Even so, his friends continued surprising him. Min’s progress in light manipulation was faster than Ren had expected. Min had apparently compressed his timeline through focused training and creative application of theory.

”Interesting,” Ren murmured with genuine appreciation of the progress Min had achieved.

But as useful as it would be against most opponents, it still didn’t provide an advantage against someone who could simply ignore that visual aspect completely. Mana perception trumped visual deception, and Ren had that particular skill specifically to counter illusion-based tactics.

Min observed Ren’s lack of reaction and sighed again, this time with genuine defeat evident in the sound. ”Alright,” he said, ”I guess we’re doing this the old, boring way then. No elegant tricks. Just hitting each other until one of us falls.”

Ren’s smile grew wider at the declaration. Who does the harder hits…

It was time to test whether his friend had managed to improve his response to the greatest weakness in his construction as a tamer, an area that Ren had identified would take considerable time during the planning of his beasts’ long-term cultivation development.

Min would have to reach close to Selphira’s level in water control to have a proper counter. An ice counter against the wood element.

Wood had a natural advantage over water in the elemental cycle. Water nourished wood. Wood grew stronger when exposed to water while water became depleted. The relationship was fundamental to how elements interacted, and it created a vulnerability that was challenging to overcome without exceptional skill to counter for the disadvantaged element.

For the amphibian, a creature that was fundamentally water-aligned, wood represented a threat that went beyond simple elemental matchups. Wood could drain the moisture that the Amphib depended on for its transparency, its healing, its defenses. Could compromise the creature’s core functionality in ways that raw damage never could.

And Ren’s Mantis had wood affinity among its array of elements. Not the strongest affinity, wind was primary, but accessible and developed enough to be tactically relevant.

He didn’t want to use it so soon since poor Min would have it really hard against it…

But that healing was a problem, no pity today.

Ren had observed the Amphib’s response speed throughout the battle so far. Had calculated that a more powerful and heavier attack, although slightly slower, was possible. In theory, the Mantis would have sufficient time to enter and exit the strike range before the Amphib could mount an effective counterattack.

Should... Theoretically.

But theory and practice diverged when opponents had spent months preparing specifically for predicted tactics.

The mantis attacked with everything, taking advantage of her speed superiority to close the distance and execute a powerful cut with scythes that gleamed with wood elemental energy. She struck the Amphib’s side in an enormous display of speed, with force that would have penetrated through the defense of any similarly ranked beast, using a refined technique that concentrated power at the impact point to maximize penetration.

But instead of simply receiving damage or attacking clumsily in response, the Amphib did something that completely surprised Ren.

The area where the Mantis had struck exploded.

It wasn’t a fire explosion or detonation of stored energy but rather something closer to a chemical reaction that occurred instantaneously at the point of contact.

The explosion was violent. A flash of heat and force that expanded outward from the impact site in maybe 0.1-0.2 seconds. The blast launched the Mantis backward several meters through the air, with her exoskeleton cracked and superficially burned by the sudden heat. She tumbled through maybe 8-10 meters before managing to right herself and land in a controlled skid that took it another 3-4 meters before it stopped completely.

It wasn’t incapacitating damage, but barely. The cracks in her exoskeleton were maybe 2-3 centimeters deep in places. The burns were first-degree across maybe 15-20% of her surface area. The structural disruption in her scythes meant their cutting edge was compromised by maybe 30-40% effectiveness until they could be repaired.

And it was considerably more than the initial planned elemental attack should have cost, considering that the Mantis had been the attacker in the exchange. Normally the attacker accepted minimal risk while the defender absorbed damage. This reversed equation violated expectations completely.

Ren’s mind worked faster than before, trying to process what had just happened.

The reality of Min’s statement about ”doing this the old, boring way” was becoming clear. It was a declaration that considerably understated what Min had actually planned. Because while his approach might be ”direct” in the sense of not depending on visual deception, the underlying strategy of his explosions was anything but simple.