Chapter 706: Chapter 706 - Taming the Fifth Year - Choosing Sides

Ren had demonstrated today, with actions more than words, that if anyone could find extraordinary solutions to impossible problems, it was him.

Klein launched into defense, his lion fusing with him.

The golden mana surged through his body, transforming his muscles and reflexes, sharpening senses until he could track multiple opponents simultaneously.

Now, finally, he was using his power for something that mattered.

The first attacker was a close-range fighter. Klein dealt with him with relative ease, his beast giving him superior speed and strength that let him dodge the heavy blows and counterattack with precise cuts that forced the kid backward.

The heavy beast fusion made his opponent strong but slow.

Predictable...

Each punch telegraphed seconds before execution, each grapple attempt visible in the shoulder positioning and weight shifts.

Klein had trained a lot. Had learned to read combat movement like text, to see openings that others missed, to exploit the microsecond vulnerabilities that appeared in every defensive stance.

His claws raked across the other kid’s arms. Sadly not deep enough to sever tendons, but enough to make the muscles scream in protest, to force defensive reactions that created more openings for follow-up strikes.

Klein had basically won already...

But a second attacker launched a wind blast from several meters back that pushed him, making him lose balance.

The timing was bad... The moment Klein committed to his attack on the first enemy, the air user struck from range, exploiting the opening created by Klein’s forward momentum.

Klein stumbled, his footing shifting on the silk-covered tunnel floor. For a heartbeat he was vulnerable, unable to dodge or counterattack effectively.

The first enemy recognized the opportunity immediately. Lunged forward with renewed confidence, massive fists swinging toward Klein’s exposed head.

Klein roared his characteristic skill, the deep resonant noise that made the air itself vibrate. His fusion deepened, the golden lion manifesting more completely in his hair with a long flowing mane that seemed to glow with captured sunlight.

The roar wasn’t just sound. It was compressed energy, the vibrations disrupted opponent concentration, made their fusion waver for critical instants, created psychological pressure that could break weaker wills.

He launched a phantom cut, his most practiced technique. The claw of golden energy flew through the air, visible as a razor-sharp crescent of condensed mana, and impacted the elemental wind user.

The small paralysis effect that came with his roar lasted only a moment. A fraction of a second where electrical impulses couldn’t reach muscles properly, where the body seized and stopped responding to mental commands.

But it was enough.

The wind user fell, his support attack interrupted mid-cast. The half-formed wind blast dissipated into a harmless breeze, his concentration shattered by the pain from the cut.

But then the close-range fighter recovered and returned to battle, more cautious now but still dangerous. And behind him, a water user began healing the superficial wounds Klein had inflicted on the wind user.

Klein glanced backward. The kid with the hawk had finally managed to remove his backpack and was arriving to help, his flying beast giving him wing-like arms as he prepared to attack.

Two against five. Better odds than before, but still not great.

A guy with an earth beast began attacking from distance too, launching rock projectiles that forced Klein and the hawk kid to maintain constant movement facing the slight elemental disadvantage.

Earth techniques hit hard. Crushed and battered, not really affected by the wind. Each rock projectile carried enough force to break bones if they connected directly, to leave massive bruises even through glancing hits.

The other Ren’s teammates didn’t have beasts exempt from carrying like the hawk one, so their beasts remained stuck with multiple backpacks when the fifth member of the attacking group finally moved.

A wood user with natural advantage for using the tunnel roots.

The roots exploded from the ground and walls, wrapping around the legs of Klein and the hawk kid. The grip was iron strong, relentless, tightening with each second that passed.

Wood types were nightmares in confined spaces. Could use existing plant matter as weapons and anchors, could control entire environments with minimal energy expenditure. In open terrain you could outmaneuver them. In these tunnels lined with roots and silk...

They were big trouble.

Klein defended himself barely from the combined attacks of wind, wood, and earth, roaring while trying to maintain his position by launching phantom claws to cancel the impacts.

Each defensive technique drained more energy. Each phantom cut required focus and mana. Each moment spent immobilized was a moment where his opponents could coordinate, could heal their wounds and could set up the killing blow.

When the now healthier close-combat user took advantage of the moment to enhance his claws with concentrated mana and jumped into attack.

But something cut his back and leg simultaneously, launching him against the tunnel wall with big force.

The kid was disabled, crumbling to the ground with agonized groans. Blood spreading across silk where he’d impacted, his fusion flickering as consciousness wavered.

For a moment, Klein saw the silhouette of Ren’s mantis. A brilliant jade flash, blades reflecting the dim light, absolutely lethal in its perfect predator elegance.

The insect was beautiful in a terrible way. Every line of its form designed for killing, evolution having stripped away anything that didn’t contribute to its function as an ambush hunter. Four bladed limbs that could strike from impossible angles, camouflage that bent light itself, speed that made tracking nearly impossible.

Then it became invisible again, active camouflage converting it into nothing more than a barely perceptible distortion in the air.

If you didn’t know where to look, if you didn’t have the right sensory techniques, you’d never see it coming. Would never know you were being hunted until the blades were already sinking in your flesh.

The mantis reappeared behind the water user a second later, its blades pressing against the kid’s throat in clear and silent warning.

The healer froze, hands raised, immediately understanding that one wrong move meant blood. That the creature at his neck could decapitate him faster than his healing techniques could possibly respond.

Ren had exempted the mantis from carrying duties again.

♢♢♢♢

The Strahlfang watcher was watching from farther back, hidden in shadows with a strategic view of the chaos.

His expression had passed from anticipated satisfaction at seeing the large numerical advantage to growing concern and now bordered on something resembling panic.

Even worse...

’Klein shouldn’t be defending them.’