This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 780: Chapter 780: Cassian Vs Kain (5)

The Solar Dragon growled as Vauleth descended. The domain flared.

Vauleth responded with a snarl of his own, igniting the air with a surge of molten energy. His crimson scales shimmered with battle fervor as he twisted midair and crashed toward the enemy like a blazing comet. Their eyes locked, and without hesitation, both dragons lunged.

Claws collided.

Talons scraped.

Light clashed against flame in a storm of elemental fury.

But to Kain’s sharp gaze, something felt off. Vauleth’s corrosive breath had clearly injured the Solar Dragon earlier—yet now, even as the fight intensified, its damage seemed… limited. The Solar Dragon should have been far more compromised by a direct hit of that magnitude.

The answer was obvious.

The domain.

Although the domain, for some reason, was unable to exert its full strength, it was dulling the impact. Weakening the damage before it could set in. Bruising the Solar Dragon instead of maiming it.

Kain clicked his tongue but didn’t despair. In fact, he was almost pleased.

“Good,” he murmured. “Push him harder.” And by him, he actually meant Vauleth. Everytime Vauleth had been pushed in the national tournament so far, another ability had been revealed. Kain was eager to see what else he may be unintentionally hiding

The Solar Dragon retaliated with a violent burst of solar fire, chasing Vauleth through the sky in a spiraling blaze. Vauleth answered with another stream of black-dragon breath, not quite as impactful as the first, but still forcing the Solar Dragon onto the defensive. Vauleth seemed to still be adjusting to the new dragon’s breath and was even showing signs of alternating between it and his standard Red Dragon’s breath at will.

Down below, Cassian’s brows furrowed.

He was realizing it too. The deeper the battle went, the more Vauleth seemed to thrive.

Kain crossed his arms, eyes still fixed on the sky.

’Good. Feel the pressure. That’s how you evolve.’

————————

While the sky trembled from their clash, the ground battle was just as dangerous.

Aegis grunted as he deflected a strike from the fusion dragon. The plant-light hybrid was fast—faster than even he expected—and it was fighting like something unhinged. The bark-like segments of its body flexed with unnatural elasticity, its claws darting in and out of the ground like spears of rooted wood.

But Aegis wasn’t backing down.

He waited.

Analyzed.

Kain had given him an order, and he wouldn’t act prematurely.

The moment came suddenly. As the fusion dragon lunged with a sweeping tail strike, Aegis rotated his stance and let it pass narrowly overhead. In the same motion, his hand snapped forward and skewered the creature’s side with his spear transformed—not for damage, but for contact.

Abyssal energy pulsed into the dragon.

For just a moment.

Kain winced, even from a distance. He could feel it.

The dragon froze.

Then convulsed.

The photosynthetic vines wrapped around it from earlier began to squirm erratically. Tiny, hair-like tendrils on its bark-textured body blackened and curled. The bright gleam in its eyes dimmed, then flared wildly.

The dragon screamed.

It was no longer coherent.

Its mental signature—once stable if aggressive—spiked into chaos. It thrashed in place, lashing out at everything around it. Even the nearby Dream and Nightmare Dragons, still locked in psychic deadlock with Bea, recoiled instinctively.

Bea, sensing the mental collapse, briefly turned one sliver of her focus toward it.

Fragmentation… destabilization…

The Abyssal energy hadn’t merely purged the inheritance like it had in the Solar Dragon. No, this time—it had broken something deeper. Perhaps the fusion. Perhaps the mind. Perhaps both.

Kain’s gaze narrowed. ’That one… must be tied more closely to the Verdara inheritance.’

It made sense. The strange, unnatural merging. The ancient look in its eyes. The bark-like horns. It wasn’t just a light dragon with the Verdara inheritance laid atop it.

Maybe it was the inheritance.

And now, it was unraveling.

But even then, the Abyss was too dangerous to leave uncontained.

Aegis surged forward again. With precise movement, he drove another strike into the creature’s side—this time to pierce and cleanse. The same spike that had injected Abyssal energy now acted as a siphon. A pulse of black flickered out of the fusion dragon’s body and traveled back into Aegis.

He absorbed it.

All of it.

Nothing remained.

Kain exhaled in relief. No residual Abyssal traces. Nothing to detect.

But the effects remained.

The dragon was still alive, but twitching. Disoriented. The photosynthetic vines had withered completely, falling off its frame like discarded cords. The green glow that had once pulsed in its abdomen was dark. No healing. No regeneration. No light conversion.

Whatever link it had to the inheritance, it was gone now.

The battlefield had shifted.

And Cassian, watching from the far end, finally showed a crack in his calm.

His gaze fixed not on the fusion dragon—but on Kain.

It was the look of a strategist recalculating.

Kain met his eyes, unflinching.

’You’re not the only one with trump cards.’

But even as Kain held his ground, he knew this wasn’t over.

Far from it.

Cassian still had four dragons operating at peak condition. And even if two had lost their inheritance-linked enhancements, they were still blue-grade creatures of immense power. And there may be even more hiding fledgling domains.

Not to mention that in all of his competitions, nor even in private, has Cassian ever revealed his gift.

Even his own family member Soren had not even a clue as to what it might be. So unless Cassian just didn’t have one (which absolutely nobody would believe), he still also could have that up his sleeve.

’I’m going to make it so that he can’t hold back anymore. The more of his trump cards exposed for Jade, the better.’

Kain readied himself. Because now, it was truly a battle of attrition.

And he wasn’t sure who’d last longer.

—————-

In the air, Vauleth had noticed the change.

He saw the fusion dragon thrashing, destabilized. He saw Cassian stiffen, lips thinning, a muscle ticking in his jaw. He saw a sliver of panic—tiny, but there.

And it made his blood burn.

A vicious bloodthirsty grin spread across his giant fang-lined mouth.

Then he dove.

A fresh roar shook the battlefield as he surged downward like a meteor. But something about this roar felt different from his usual one. Like the voice of more than one dragon layered atop one another.

Kain’s heart kicked in his chest.

’Finally’

Another change in Vauleth was coming.