Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 954

Chapter 954: Chapter 954 - Stubborn Tamer Rulers - 2

Orion had spent enough years practicing his agility and sensitivity in combat, preparing for this day when he would take down the opposing leaders, for his body to react before his mind had even finished understanding what was happening.

He had spent years drilling the instincts for exactly this kind of moment.

Not for this specific situation, but for the general shape of it, the possibility that any engagement might open a second front in a direction he wasn’t watching.

His body half transformed into his Black Tiger and moved before his mind had finished processing what was happening, throwing him sideways on pure reflex.

Several of the feathers passed through the space where his back had been a half-second earlier.

They weren’t decorative. They were the size of long daggers, each one edged with a density of concentrated mana that drove them into the stone floor up to their shafts when they missed their mark.

But several didn’t miss entirely... He felt impacts across his back and upper legs, sharp and immediate, the kind of pain that registers as fear of death before it registers as pain, and that told him the damage was serious before he’d even hit the ground.

He activated the barrier from the floor before he even finished falling.

He had made that decision instinctively too, before thinking of standing up, because standing first would have cost him a moment he didn’t have.

The barrier expanded outward around him and caught the second wave of feathers that followed almost immediately after the first. When he finally got himself upright and oriented, he realized two things first in rapid succession.

Not that he was obviously under attack, but...

The beam he had been directing into the tunnel no longer existed.

And the entrance was open.

He moved almost instantly after touching the ground to reposition the barrier over the tunnel mouth. One fast scramble pushing his body with his tiger claws to close the angle, to block what he already knew had to be happening below.

He didn’t make it.

Selphira had been ready thanks to her sheer stubbornness.

That was the only reason. She also hadn’t waited for the situation to explain itself to her, she’d felt the pressure disappear and moved before the reason had time to matter.

She had survived for too many years and knew not to wait for explanations when riding the moment.

She came out of the tunnel at top speed, dragging Victor with her, burning what remained of her fusion into pure velocity because velocity was the only currency that meant anything in those specific seconds.

Orion turned to take in what was behind him.

They were giving ground deliberately, at their own pace, toward tunnels they had already used.

Slowly, the reinforced stone between them and Orion’s remaining forces grew.

♢♢♢♢

Pulling those feathers out was the kind of pain that demanded full attention and didn’t accept negotiations about timing.

He dealt with it. He had spent a long time training himself not to let physical pain restructure his priorities, and he applied that training now with the same systematic approach he applied to everything else. The healer he’d kept assigned to himself worked quickly, and within a few minutes the damage had moved from urgent to manageable.

Removing those enormous knives from his body hurt, but being left without his hostages hurt even more.

He could have used those two to eliminate Arturo, but it was too late now...

Orion left the underground and stepped out through the castle.

The air outside had the particular weight of a battlefield that had been running for hours. Heavy with dust and residual energy, the distinct quality of large amounts of mana burned in a compressed space over a short time. He took it in without commenting on it, because it was a detail and not the detail that mattered.

His army had changed shape since he’d gone underground.