Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 674

Chapter 674: Chapter 674 - Taming the Fifth Year: Descent - 2

The Mantis was falling like a stone toward answers.

Toward truth.

Toward whatever waited in the depths below.

It fell in complete silence, passing centimeters from the mutant’s coiled body. So close it could smell the stench of its corrupt flesh, its unnatural tissue.

But it didn’t touch it.

It landed on the stairway fifty meters below, its legs absorbing the impact without making more noise than a whisper.

Perfect execution... it had succeeded.

The stairway descended in a tight spiral, carved from the same stone as the walls. The runes continued here too, lines of white light guiding the path downward.

Downward.

Toward another floor.

Another chamber. Larger than the previous one, the ceiling higher, the darkness deeper.

And another mutant.

This one was bigger, its extremities thicker, its carapace darker. It coiled in a similar manner around another stairway, body wrapped protectively around the descent.

To another level below.

The Mantis repeated its strategy. Ceiling approach, controlled fall, silent landing. The same technique was executed now even with some practice.

It worked again.

By the third level, the Mantis didn’t even hesitate and changed its glide’s direction quickly to fall through the next opening. Confidence building with each successful bypass.

The mutant here was slightly larger than the previous one again. Its eyes glowed with murky intelligence while staring toward nothing in particular. Simply waiting with the patience of something that had all the time in the world.

Fourth level.

Fifth.

Sixth...

Each guardian was bigger than the last, more powerful, more perceptive. The escalation was systematic and deliberate, as if whoever had placed them understood the principle of layered defense.

By the seventh level, the Mantis began to suspect something had changed.

The mutant here stirred when it passed. It didn’t see it, didn’t smell it, but it sensed something.

Eighth level.

The guardian stirred more violently, its massive head turning toward where the Mantis passed, though its eyes didn’t focus on it directly. Getting closer to seeing what shouldn’t be visible.

And below, even deeper into the earth, there was a ninth level. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The penultimate chamber before whatever goal lay at the bottom. One step away from answers.

But the guardians were becoming increasingly alert with each descent.

The Mantis began its descent to the ninth level, moving faster now. If it was going to be detected anyway, speed became more valuable than stealth.

It was the right call...

The mutant of the ninth level lunged.

Not toward where the Mantis was, but toward where it would be a second later, predicting its trajectory with impossible precision.

Through the bond, Ren transmitted an urgent order. ’Forget stealth. Forget integrity. I just need a glimpse.’

Not to the point of generating true lightning. Ren could only use that because corruption and the seed had pushed him to an extreme state, but for the mantis it would be too much. The energy requirements exceeded what its form alone could channel.

Still, with the enormous bonuses of extra elemental control, it should be enough. The Mantis’s wings ignited, not literally but with external fire, and the wind was for directing the explosion’s impulse.

The maneuver saved the Mantis by launching it sideways with speed no normal Bronze 1 beast should possess. The mutant’s attack passed centimeters from where it’d been an instant before.

And the Mantis crossed the threshold from ninth level to tenth, moving too fast, out of control, but inside.

Finally reaching the last chamber.

But the last guardian was too fast and attacked again, the mantis using propulsion to maximum capacity but despite the high velocity, it wasn’t enough and the attack managed to graze its side.

The Mantis impacted against the stone floor with force sufficient to crack more plates. A second, third, and fourth leg broke. Its abdomen was bent at an unnatural angle, internal structures compromised.

But it was still alive.

Functionally destroyed, but alive.

Until the mutant arrived, and then no more.

The final strike was absolute.

♢♢♢♢

POV Ren...

The pain arrived without warning.

Like a dagger in his chest, as if something vital had been violently ripped from him. The bond with the Mantis, the connection shattered like glass under pressure.

Broken.

Ren staggered, his hand shooting to his chest where the pain was most intense. For a fraction of a second he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, could only feel the void where the connection had been. Emptiness where there should be presence.