This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange-Chapter 537: A Glimpse of the Truth

Her arrow froze mid-draw, her blue eyes widening as she watched Kain consume the abomination's energy.

The way its energy drained into him—the way his eyes glowed faintly violet for just an instant. The hunger in his expression. All of it sent ice through her veins.

'He's doing it again.'

She had suspected something before—how could he give up the Earth's core fragments so easily?

The fragments that had nearly driven him mad with hunger, that had made him look at her like she was prey rather than partner. Yet he'd handed them over without protest, as if they meant nothing. That should have been her first warning.

But she'd pushed aside her doubts because he hadn't touched the creatures directly in the previous battles. Now, watching him familiarly absorb the energy of these creatures, the realization struck her that maybe he didn't need to…

'He gave up the core fragments... to do this instead. To continue absorbing energy right under my nose.'

Her grip tightened on her bow. Had she been too careless? Too willing to believe his words at face value?

"Kain!" she snapped, her voice cutting through the chaos. Her expression was far icier than normal.

He turned, meeting her gaze. For a fraction of a second, she saw it—the hunger, the need—before it vanished behind a mask of calm.

"Problem?" he asked, his tone deceptively light.

She wanted to call him out. To demand answers. But the others were still fighting, still unaware of what he was doing. If she spoke now, it risked the others hearing—

Another abomination lunged at her from the side, its weakened body already covered in bite marks.

Kain moved faster than she could blink. His hand lashed out, seizing the creature by the throat. It writhed in his grip, its core pulsing erratically—then dimmed as its energy was ripped away. The abomination crumbled to dust between his fingers.

Serena's breath hitched.

"Later," Kain murmured, his voice low enough that only she could hear. "We'll talk later."

Before she could respond, the cavern shuddered again—this time, with enough force to send cracks racing up the walls.

From the darkness of the tunnel, something lurched forward.

It wasn't like the others.

This abomination was massive, its body a grotesque fusion of half-melted metal and pulsating flesh. Multiple cores glowed in a row along its spine, each one pulsing in time with one another.

Its face—if it could be called that—was mostly just a gaping mouth of jagged, rusted teeth, and its limbs ended in serrated blades that scraped against the stone floor.

Zareth's wolf snarled, but even it took a step back.

"Fall back!" Zareth ordered, his voice strained. "Regroup!"

The abomination paid no attention to the retreating humans and spiritual creatures, its foocus was singularly on Kain.

And then it spoke.

A garbled, metallic voice, like rusted gears grinding together:

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"Ssssource…invaderrr…"

After that brief statement seemingly filled with hatred, it lunged at him with a speed that Kain and the others' eyes could barely follow.

The abomination lunged, its bladed limbs carving through the air. Aegis intercepted it, his shield raised—but the force of the impact sent him skidding back, cracks spiderwebbing across his surface.

While Kain dodged, he brushed his hand against its leg—hoping that the physical contact would trigger that new ability to absorb the Source energy in its cores without killing it.

Unfortunately, he came up empty.

The abomination shrieked, one of its cores flickering briefly before returning to normal, but it didn't stop. Its blade-like arm slashed downward, aiming to cleave Kain in two.

Serena's arrow struck its wrist, the force just enough to deflect the blow. The blade embedded itself in the stone beside Kain's head.

The near-miss sent a spray of stone shards flying, one cutting a thin line across Kain's cheek. He barely felt it—the adrenaline, the hunger, they drowned out everything else.

Seeing his predicament, his allies tried their best to help him. Unfortunately, the attacks coming from the numerous more normal abominations did not stop with the arrival of this one—if anything it grew stronger.

The surrounding battles still raged despite Kain and his contracts dealing with the most difficult one. And all of the other creatures were still trying to make their way towards him from under the blocking of his allies—suddenly his pressure had increased at least 10 times over. Thankfully, he had allies to watch his blindspots.

Serena released her arrow, piercing another abomination's core just as a giant millipede smashed one into the cavern wall. Another of Zareth's metallic contracts lunged, tearing through another's throat, while Jamie's bear crushed a foe beneath its massive paws.

On Kain's side, his contracts, particularly the Vespids, had managed to penetrate all of the exposed cores along its back…but it was still very much alive and kicking.

Unlike the singular cores of the other…this one clearly had several externally and likely internally as well.

"Lina!" Kain barked. "Where's the next core?!"

Her silver eyes flickered. "There's 2. Left side near its arm and in the center of its head."

Capitalizing on that information, Aegis manipulated the stone floor to temporarily seal its movements…with minimal success. The gap in raw power between the two was quite large.

Thankfully, this second delay was enough for Serena, who had heard Lina's words, to launch another arrow into its left armpit.

Roar

An otherworldly scream of what Kain assumed to be pain (if it could even feel pain) rang throughout the cavern, shaking the walls, before it lunged even more aggressively at Kain.

But this time, a massive dragon's claw appeared from its blind spot and hit its head.

Vauleth was unable to penetrate the tough skull but concentrated follow-up attacks from the nearby contracts of his allies, finally put the massive thing down.

With the toughest one out of the way, before long the rest of the battle was over.

And Kain had gotten exactly what he wanted.

*System Update: Source energy reserves at 37%. Partial functions restored.*

He exhaled, rolling his shoulders.

Good enough.

For now.