This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange - Chapter 846: 846: 'A Brilliant Idea'
Chapter 846: Chapter 846: ‘A Brilliant Idea’
Kain’s eyes snapped open. The world of Pangea bled away, the drifting streaks of soul light and the contracting beasts fading into mist. His vision adjusted to the dim chamber once more—the recruits slumped in their seats, tattoos still faintly glowing, their breathing shallow.
For a long heartbeat, silence reigned. Then, one by one, the initiates stirred.
The woman with the collapsed lung sat up first, her chest rising evenly, her rasp gone. She pressed a trembling hand to her ribs, eyes widening behind the mask.
Excitement boiled over. Without hesitation, the recruits summoned their new contracts.
Kain opened his mouth to order restraint—but it was already too late.
The chamber erupted in chaos. A crimson hound of molten stone lunged into existence with a growl, flames licking from its jaws. Its master shrieked as his hair caught fire. Another recruit yelped, his fish-like contract flopping across the floor, releasing a torrent of water that drenched three other recruits from head to toe. The man scrambled to apologize, but as he approached the others he fell flat on his face, slipping on the sudden puddle. A hawk made of glass-like feathers burst into the air, shattering light across the walls as its master clapped in delight.
Darius and the others at the back exchanged smirks, reminded of their own first days as beast tamers when excitement overrode sense. They made no move to stop the mess.
And eventually, Kain too just decided to let them be. ‘Let them taste their power,’ Kain thought. Better to see their joy now before the weight of responsibility settled on them.
More creatures appeared, each stranger than the last. A black winged serpent coiled around its owner’s shoulders. A jagged metal warhound barked sparks onto the floor. One recruit screamed as his ice elemental contract lost control and hurled an ice ball into the crowd. Nearby, the miner who was going blind, now no longer fully blind, dodged the errant ball of frost that whipped across the chamber, his white eyes alive with astonishment. Laughter broke from his throat, wild and disbelieving. “I… I can see!”
“Order!” Kain’s voice cracked like a whip.
The contracts stilled. Their masters froze, some dripping wet, some singed, all trembling with exhilaration. Even muffled by masks, their laughter, their shock, their awe rang loud.
And then, at last, Ronan stirred.
His eyes opened wide, his breathing heavy. For a moment he sat still, disoriented, before slowly raising his hand. Power thrummed through his chest. With trembling fingers, he summoned his contract on extinct.
The chamber shook.
From the floor rose a towering figure, dwarfing every other contract in the room. Blackened stone, muscles like thick slabs of stone, limbs plated in jagged armor. Glowing cracks pulsed along its body like embers beneath ash. Its head was faceless save for a vertical slit of molten light running the length of its face.
The recruits froze. Even the female mercenary’s large warhound, what was originally the largest contract in the room, shrank back. All eyes turned to the massive presence filling the chamber.
Ronan’s jaw fell open. He stared with wide, sparkling eyes, unable to breathe. The connection pulsed through him, raw and overwhelming. Tears gathered unbidden, as he reached out to touch it.
And then the Juggernaut vanished.
Ronan gasped. His hands flew out in panic. “Where—where did it go?!”
He staggered, nearly falling as the weight of his own body suddenly shifted. His skin prickled, his muscles surged, and then he realized—it hadn’t disappeared at all.
Black armor covered him, jagged and glowing faintly with ember lines, reshaping his thin frame into something towering and fearsome. His hands flexed, gauntleted fingers crushing air. Power coursed through him, thick and unyielding.
“I—I can feel it,” Ronan stammered, voice barely more than a breath. “It’s… part of me now. Strength… beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I feel like I could crush mountains with my bare hands.”
The recruits gasped. Some flinched back. Others leaned forward, envy sharp in their eyes.
Kain’s gaze narrowed. He hadn’t missed a detail. Fusion. The boy had fused with his contract—but as the owner of Pangea he naturally could get info on his contract, but there was no trace of such a skill in his contract’s System panel. A gift, then. Unexpected. But a pleasant surprise.
Malzahir tilted his head. His voice rasped through the mask, low but audible throughout the room. “It seems he’s fused with his contract. Southerners do this often.”
The recruits all turned, murmuring, touching their own contracts. A few reached to press against their beasts, concentrating. Nothing happened.
Confusion rippled. Anticipation too.
Kain stepped forward, his posture measured, his voice carrying weight. “No. This is not your contracts’ doing.”
The chamber fell silent.
“This,” Kain said, letting the pause stretch, “is his gift.”
Gasps echoed. Even through masks, eyes widened. Envy burned hotter, but so did awe. The idea alone—that awakening as tamers could come with a gift—was enough to fan fanaticism.
Ronan froze. “A… gift?” He looked down at his armoured hands, then clenched them tighter. His panic shifted into wonder. “So this… this is my own strength, not my contract’s.”
The recruits erupted with murmurs. Some reached desperately to summon power beyond their contracts. But pretty much all of their attempts failed. Faces drooped beneath masks, disappointment heavy.
Then one recruit—young, sharp-eyed—stared at his firebird-like contract, then at his own hands. He concentrated. Heat shimmered around his palm. Then, with a cry of triumph, a flame bloomed in his grasp.
He shouted, laughing wildly, waving the fireball. “Me too! I have a gift too!”
The others turned sharply, stares stabbing into him. Envy radiated in the room, even through the masks.
The recruits’ gazes, their envy burning hot, drew a small twitch of amusement from Kain’s mouth. He stepped forward, “Sometimes gifts remain dormant,” he said, voice steady but kind. “Even the most talented beast tamers may not sense them for years even if they have one. Don’t give up hope.” The recruits calmed down and their burning gazes boring into Ronan and the man lowered back to their own contracts.
Interestingly, at the news Darius and the others also perked up subtly, never before admitting their jealousy at Malzahir’s gift. Kain barely suppressed a chuckle at their suddenly uplifted demeanour.
———————-
Kain scanned the room, watching the recruits still trembling with the afterglow of newfound power. Their masks now felt like barriers separating them from their peers—from each other. He took a step forward.
“Since you are now all allies, brothers and sisters,” Kain began, “you can remove your masks. See each other’s faces for the first time. No secrets between you, no barriers. Trust starts here.”
One by one, the masks came off. Faces lit with excitement, astonishment, and nervous laughter. Eyes met eyes, and an unspoken bond began to form.
Kain’s gaze turned to Darius. “Take them to the HQ. Begin training immediately. They have power, yes, but as it stands, they are nearly useless against Abyssals. We need control, coordination, and strength.”
As the new team moved, Kain remained behind, pacing slowly. Thoughts of his current recruitment strategies to prepare before the Abyss launches a full-scale attack, circulated in his mind.
Airalai had left to begin recruiting Black Dawn deserters to increase their ranks—strong, experienced, yet perhaps unpredictable allies—but he knew they needed more.
Now, here was the first batch of recruits and Darius would continue to gather more. But at this rate, neither recruitment method would get enough people to create a substantial enough deterrent force. They needed more.
Much more.
He paused, staring out of the window at the darkening skyline. His mind lingered on one particular place, a place of massive opportunity but even greater risk—the Eastern Continent.
———–
“You’re insane.” Serena said upon hearing his ‘brilliant idea.’
Kain didn’t take offense. He leaned back in his chair, hands folded, voice calm but unwavering. “Think about it. Millions of people are scattered across the Eastern Continent right now. Ordinary people. Families. Survivors. The beast tamers would have fled long ago—some may even have been brought quietly to the Central or Western Continents as ‘guests,’ waiting to be used as additional fighting force when the time comes. But the ordinary ones? They’re left behind. No one is trying to recruit them since they are just ‘useless burdens’. They’re hiding in ruins, in forests, in holes in the ground, terrified and without hope.”
Serena’s brows pinched together. She wanted to argue, but the picture he painted was too vivid, and she wasn’t naïve, she knew their was little hope of the Empire taking risks to bring over millions of foreign refugees. Refugees they’d have to feed and would spread panic amongst the local populace.
“I can give them hope. More than that—I can make them tamers. An army of people who right now are powerless. The Empire isn’t looking their way, the Church isn’t, and the Eastern dynasties have likely already collapsed. They’ll come to me, Serena. And they’ll fight because I gave them back their future.”
His conviction filled the room. But Serena still frowned, arms crossed. “That all sounds very… heroic. Even possible. But tell me one thing, Kain.” Her tone sharpened. “How exactly do you plan to get there?”
The question felt like a hammer to the back of the head. Kain’s mouth opened, then closed again. The fire of his speech cooled instantly, his thoughts screeching to a halt. Of all the problems he had been spinning in his head—recruitment methods, training regimens, keeping morale high, keeping secrets—the most mundane and obvious suddenly loomed largest.
Getting there.
