Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons

Expansion being the price he paid for each large energy investment. And using lightning during cleanup had been particularly costly in terms of feeding the corruption propagating through his system.

Each technique fed the darkness. Each moment brought him closer to the tipping point where corruption overwhelmed his control completely and left only a beast wearing his face.

He could feel it… The wrongness. That foreign presence in his cultivation base. The thing that wasn’t him making decisions. And he couldn’t stop it. Could only ride the wave and hope he retained enough self to stop before doing something irreversible.

Ren launched himself more chaotically against the nearest monsters after securing the breach.

Abandonment of control being obvious in how he moved without appropriate consideration of positioning or energy conservation. Violence that was instinctive. It wasn’t defense anymore.

It was just pure and simple brutality. And it was consuming him.

The corruption fed on his power and his rage in equal measure.

And Ren kept killing.

Just kept killing until either the mutants were gone or he was something else entirely.

Whichever came first.

♢♢♢♢

Lin arrived after fighting her way through mutants interposing between her previous position and the place where Ren now operated.

The last part of the trajectory being marked by corpses of creatures he’d eliminated with brutal efficiency. And she found Ren considerably more uncontrolled than he’d been when she’d seen him last, just moments before.

The difference was stark. His movements were frantic, each strike landing with a force exceeding by much what was required.

And the black veins weren’t just visible. They were pronounced and prominent. Pulsing with wrong energy that made her senses recoil.

He wasn’t fighting mutants anymore. He was slaughtering them.

“Ren!” she called while positioning herself near him. Attempting to establish visual contact that could help anchoring his rationality. “You need to use a calmer pacing! You’re going to exhaust yourself long before the battle ends and you won’t be available when we need you the most!”

It was advice with solid tactical merit. And she had called his name in a manner that should’ve been reflexive. That should’ve triggered an automatic response through conditioning that made it instinct rather than conscious choice.

Yet, nothing…

She tried speaking to him again. But she was gradually realizing Ren didn’t stop for anything nor fully listen. Continuing his assault without pause suggesting he wasn’t appropriately processing communication.

He didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Didn’t look toward her voice and didn’t slow. Just kept killing with a speed that would’ve been impressive if it wasn’t so terrifying.

This was worse than she’d thought. Now there was almost nothing of Ren’s consciousness left. Just violence.

However, she noticed something else that was deeply disturbing in its implications.

Ren wasn’t losing energy as he should’ve been given the combat pace he maintained.

In fact, he seemed to be gaining it somehow. Reserves increasing rather than diminishing when each attack should be draining mana or strength.

That was wrong. Energy didn’t come from nowhere. Mana didn’t regenerate alone during active combat.

Yet he struck faster with each passing minute instead of slower as fatigue would dictate.

Acceleration being possible only if energy was increasing rather than depleting. And his energy signature also grew visibly. Mana signature expanding to a point where Ren’s presence was more prominent than it had been at the battle’s start.

It was like he was fresh. Operating at full capacity or more despite hours of sustained combat. And the growth wasn’t slowing. Actually still getting stronger and faster. Getting more dangerous with each kill.

Lin observed closely and realized with growing alarm that Ren’s shadow and his wood element combined into black tentacles at his feet, that was likely what appeared to steal energy from the mutants he massacred.

And from the bodies touched by that shadow grew things. Vegetation maybe… Or fungi. Hard to tell , black growths sprouting and spreading across corpses. Dark vegetation/fungi briefly sprouting from the corpses and giving dim light before withering after extracting whatever they contained.

Or were they fungi? The more she looked, the less certain she became. They had characteristics of both. Whatever they were, they were working. The cycle was self-sustaining and Ren grew stronger. Kills faster… Process accelerates.

And in a certain way it seemed good that he eliminated the mutant beasts increasingly quickly. Efficiency being an advantage the defense desperately needed.

More mutants dead meant fewer threatening civilians. Meant pressure reducing on exhausted defenders. Meant buying time for reinforcements or whatever miracle might save them.

From some perspective, Ren’s transformation was beneficial.

But Lin didn’t believe it was much of a benefit if Ren ended more uncontrolled as a result.

If the price of increased power was rationality loss, the main thing separating him from the creatures he fought… Especially when stolen energy increased his corruption.

Then it would be net negative in the end.

She could see it happening. Each absorption making the black veins pulse brighter. Each kill feeding the darkness spreading through his system. Each moment bringing him closer to a point where he’d be lost completely.

And then he would be consumed until there was nothing left except a monster wearing a familiar face. A monster that may end up being worse than the mutants.

She had to stop him. Before transformation progressed to the point where it couldn’t be reversed.

Before the student she’d taught for years became something she’d have to kill to protect others from. Because caring about him meant not letting him become a monster he himself would try to eliminate… It was better to have the courage to stop it now, else stopping would mean having the way bigger courage to end him while he was still redeemable.

She tried speaking to him again. This time being much more insistent in tone while positioning herself directly in front of him to force acknowledgment.

“Ren! Look at me! You need to stop and regain control before you go too far!”

The voice that had always worked. It should’ve worked… Should’ve reached whatever part of him still existed beneath the darkness.

Should’ve. But didn’t.

And Ren finally reacted her. Yet not in the manner Lin had wanted.

He attacked her.