Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 560

Chapter 560: Chapter 560 - Taming the Fourth Year: Lin’s Punishment - 2

Lin launched a barrage of kicks that forced Ren to use the dagger as a shield. The teacher was so fast she could avoid the blade at the last moment of impact by moving her foot and claws around it.

Each strike tested the limits of physics and his reflexes.

The golden crystal blazed intensely with each impact, dispersing the kinetic energy that would have knocked Ren out with the first successful hit. The weapon hummed each time with the canceled force.

"Isaac really outdid himself with that thing," Lin murmured appreciatively while pulling back to recover momentum. "But like your body, a weapon is only as good as whoever uses it. And you... you’re still acting like prey instead of predator."

She paused mid-circle, her eyes narrowing.

"Accept that you’re not ready to help with this. Let someone else solve it. It’s not your responsibility."

Ren felt a spark of genuine anger, an emotion similar to the day Leopold had dared to place his problems above Ren’s. An emotion he had been trying to control since losing his fungus.

The feeling burned in his chest like molten metal.

"I’m not prey," he finally responded, his voice filled with determination that surprised even him. "I won’t step aside, and I decide what’s my responsibility."

"Not?" Lin smiled, beginning another circle. Her claws clicked against stone with each step. "Good. I don’t dislike stubbornness in my student... but then prove it. Stop reacting to my attacks and create space for your own. Stop depending on that shiny toy and use your body as the extension of your will it should be."

The criticism was fair but painful.

And ultimately, although Lin accepted that he could "play" and develop however he wanted, she also didn’t love the idea of learning to use weapons.

Still, she was right. Throughout the entire fight, Ren had been in defensive mode, using the dagger to compensate for his disadvantages instead of creating offensive opportunities.

Lin concentrated, and Ren could feel her mana pressure intensify. The air itself seemed to thicken around her transformed form.

When she attacked this time, it was with the clear intention of ending the combat.

Her legs moved with the same techniques that Ren recognized from years of observation, but executed at a speed and with a force that surpassed everything he had faced until now.

She was no longer trying to ’softly’ knock him out.

She was trying to finish this now.

Ren found himself constantly losing ground. His dodges became more desperate, his counterattacks still failing to begin. The large difference in basic statistics was starting to show its inevitable weight.

The dagger increased Ren’s arm reach, yes. But Lin’s reach was still greater. Her transformed extremities gave her advantages that no amount of basic ’elemental tricks’ could completely compensate for.

One strike passed so close to his head that he felt the air displacement cut strands of his hair. Another blow resonated against the side of the dagger on his left arm with enough force to temporarily numb it.

The impact traveled up his bones.

His grip faltered for a heartbeat.

"Very good, very good," Lin stopped abruptly, her eyes shining with something that could have been genuine pride. "You’re still standing... You’ve improved incredibly in technique since you lost half your power."

She relaxed slightly, though she maintained her guard.

"A week ago, this fight would have ended in our first exchange."

But her expression hardened again, focus returning.

"But I’m not going to let you go anyway... So now comes the hard part. I’m going to come with every intention of hurting you again. Are you ready?"

It was a genuine question, not mockery. Lin really wanted to see if Ren had developed a solution for the apparently unsolvable problem she represented.

A teacher’s challenge wrapped in a threat.

Ren felt emotions intensifying in his chest, combining in a resonance that made the energy encysted in his core respond with greater force.

He concentrated on them, released air slowly. The mana flowed more freely through his body from his chest, and his elemental control sharpened. Wind responded with greater precision, earth obeyed with more fluidity.

The world seemed to slow by fractions.

Lin noticed the change immediately.

"If you still want this," she murmured, studying the way Ren’s mana had begun to flow more naturally.

She attacked again, but this time Ren was prepared in a different way.

Instead of simply reacting, he began to anticipate. His intimate knowledge of Lin’s movement patterns, combined with his perception enhanced by the intense emotional state, allowed him to see the tiny openings he had been missing.

Three years of observation crystallized into true understanding.

The dagger moved with real offensive purpose for the first time in the fight. Not just blocking or deflecting, but actively seeking opportunities to counterattack.

Lin had to retreat half a step when the golden blade passed dangerously close to her left thigh.

The golden dagger blazed like a miniature sun when Ren channeled luminous energy through the crystal. The flash was instantaneous and blinding, designed specifically to exploit the golden weapon’s crystal body.

The burst of radiance turned the rocky clearing into a miniature dawn.

Lin, with her senses enhanced by transformation, received the full impact of the flash directly in her enhanced eyes.

For the first time in the entire fight, she faltered.

Her eyes closed instinctively, tears beginning to form from the sudden intensity of light. Her perfect posture wavered for one crucial moment.

And in that moment, Ren finally saw his opportunity.

The dagger poised directly before his teacher’s chest.

Anger still flowed through his veins. The golden dagger was perfectly aligned with Lin’s chest, barely centimeters away.

One simple, direct thrust, and his teacher would be... incapacitated?

But as energy coursed through his muscles, preparing them for the decisive blow, the image of Lin collapsing with a serious wound materialized in his mind.

The woman who had trained him for three years.

Who had molded him from a child into someone who could face this level of technical battle.

Who had believed in him at the beginning when no one else would.

The power that had been flowing so naturally began to falter. Frustration, determination, love and respect for his master... everything mixed together. Guilt blended with anger, creating a dissonance that weakened his control when he needed it most.

The internal war raged in milliseconds that felt like hours.

’I can’t...’ The thought paralyzed him for a crucial fraction of a second. ’I can’t risk her life like this.’

The hesitation cost him his victory.

Lin, still with her eyes closed and tears forming at their corners, felt his mana signature shift. Her combat instincts, honed by decades of experience, reacted automatically.

Her right leg bent like a compressed spring, using her hip as a pivot in a contortion that defied normal anatomy.

The kick came from an impossible angle, seeking Ren’s face.