This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 782: Chapter 782: A Ticking Time Bomb

Flashback to The Verdara Trial…

Cassian’s sword bounced uselessly off the bark-like scales.

Again.

And again.

Blades of light. Searing flame. Mental attacks. The collective fury of his remaining dragons. All rained down on the wooden dragon in a desperate attempt to stop what was happening.

Nothing worked.

The dead-eyed wooden dragon didn’t even flinch. Its jaw remained closed around the juvenile light dragon it had swallowed whole, and even the pressure of Cassian’s soul bond screaming in panic did nothing to sway its slow retreat toward the center of the massive floral chamber.

“STOP!” Cassian shouted, raw and guttural. His voice echoed off the pulsing walls inside of the giant flower. The Dream Dragon, perhaps the most empathetic of his contracts due to its mental attribute, sensed his panic and let out a high-pitched cry beside him, half-mad with confusion and rage, and lunged again. Still, the bark held.

His light dragon—his smallest, weakest companion, the one who had always followed behind the others with quiet determination—was gone.

But the soul bond hadn’t broken.

That stopped him cold.

His heart, racing moments ago, suddenly froze. Then, just as fast, it skipped a beat.

The bond hadn’t severed. And more than that, the soul bond that was gradually weakening due to the declining state of the juvenile dragon was growing.

Stronger.

At first, Cassian thought it might be a trick. Some kind of spiritual backlash. Or the last flare of life before a contract’s death.

But it wasn’t that. Naturally, he didn’t have firsthand experience with a dying bond, but he was confident that this wasn’t it.

This bond—it was stabilizing.

Deepening.

Changing.

His sword strike stopped. The other dragons, sensing his sudden stillness, halted as well. The wooden dragon, having retreated to a twisted tangle of roots in the very heart of the relic chamber, slowly curled its massive frame around itself. Vines began to bloom from its shoulders, glowing faintly gold. The air thrummed.

Cassian stepped forward, chest heaving.

“You’re still in there,” he whispered. Not to the wooden dragon. But to what might still be inside.

Time passed. A minute? Ten? He didn’t know.

Then, with a low crack and groan, the dragon’s bark-like hide split.

Not from damage.

From growth.

The same process Kain would one day witness: a violent splitting, like a grotesque Matryoshka doll, birthing something newer, stranger.

What emerged was no longer just the light dragon.

It was a fusion.

Wood and light. Old and new. The dragon stared at Cassian with new eyes—wiser, steadier. Its body was still vaguely familiar in shape, but its mental signature had changed greatly. And yet, the bond between them pulsed strong and sure.

Cassian lowered his weapon and reached forward without too much caution. With the bond still intact, even despite the change in personality he was witnessing, he was confident that this was his contract.

Its body wasn’t ‘hijacked’ or ‘possessed’ or anything. At least not entirely. Cassian knew this because the bond between a beast tamer and their spiritual creature was forged at the level of the soul. If the mind or soul of a contract were replaced or destroyed, the bond would have broken completely. No imposter could maintain it. That bond was still there—still pulsing strong. Different, yes. But undeniably his.

The dragon didn’t retreat. It dipped its head.

That was all the confirmation he needed.

Moments later, the vines behind them parted.

A golden seed hovered in the air.

The final reward.

The Verdara Inheritance.

Cassian approached. The moment he touched it, the seed melted into his chest, sending a rush of knowledge so overwhelming he collapsed to one knee.

Visions. Memories. Roots. Civilizations of plants. A society where plant-life, not humans, ruled. Where photosynthesis was more than life—it was power. Where healing, sustenance, growth—all stemmed from nature’s manipulation of light.

And then—

A scream.

Darkness devouring light. Tendrils of Abyssal rot creeping into even this lush paradise. The Verdara, once supreme, failing. Desperate. Creating something to survive.

Cassian gasped as he forcibly repressed the visions, knowing that he’d need a long time to fully digest the knowledge contained within the inheritance.

He staggered to his feet and stumbled out of the relic chamber.

The petals of the flower opened once more.

Light greeted him.

And behind him, his sixth dragon followed now completely different.

————————

Cassian would spend the following weeks delving through the inheritance at a frantic pace. Desperate to understand what had happened. What his dragon had become.

He never got a perfect answer.

Only hints.

The wooden dragon was called a Verdant Sovereign.

It was once one of the guardians of the entire civilization. An ancient protector. One that only knew how to kill to protect the Verdara planet.

But unfortunately…Cassian hadn’t yet reached the part in the inheritance on how to control it.

Now that very wooden dragon on the field was a ticking time bomb that could go overboard and try to kill the opponents, its own allies, or even… Cassian himself.

Cassian’s stomach turned as he watched the dragon tilt its head unnaturally toward Aegis, body creaking with slow, deliberate movement. A guttural hiss followed. The air around the dragon trembled faintly from an overwhelming spiritual pressure that belied its actual blue-grade spiritual power reading. It felt like a true indigo-grade contract, only without the complete domain.

Then it struck.

A sudden swipe of its bark-armoured claw, sharp as splintered stone, continued launching attacks at the fallen Aegis with a thunderous crash. Everyone watching the match flinched.

That hit hadn’t been for sparring. It was meant to kill.

The Vespid guards—those buzzing nuisances that had been pecking at its hybrid form earlier—continued swarming to intercept. But now? Their stingers barely dented its bark-like hide. They bounced off harmlessly.

With a flex of its wooden tail, the dragon swiped another 2 of them—crushed mid-air before Queen could even attempt to react. Their forms hit the ground and didn’t move.

After the numerous battles throughout the tournament to get to this point, Queen had managed to keep the majority of her Vespid guard’s numbers intact. But now, since the match with Cassian began, the number of guards was already into the single digits.

Thankfully, it didn’t continue to swat at the pesky wasps that were too weak to injure it. Instead, without warning, the wooden dragon turned its massive head toward the wounded Solar Dragon that was limping behind the protective water-light barrier of the Coronaflow Dragon. Its eyes narrowed—not with curiosity, but with unmistakable hostility. The bark creaked and cracked as its limbs tensed, body lowering as if preparing to lunge. But just as suddenly, it snapped back around, refocusing on Aegis with a renewed fury.

Cassian’s eyes flicked toward the Solar Dragon. He didn’t know how long its reprieve would last—but one thing was certain.

The Verdant Sovereign no longer recognized friend from foe. Only those bound to the inheritance were safe.

Cassian’s jaw clenched.

It wasn’t just attacking Kain’s contracts.

It was attacking everything that didn’t bear the Verdara inheritance. Even the Solar Dragon, now stripped of its connection to the relic, was no longer safe.

Which was precisely why Cassian had had zero intention of activating this form…

‘Just what could have triggered the awakening of this maniac?!’