This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Outside, while Kain was meditating the others sat solemnly around him when approximately during the third hour, Kain's form suddenly emitted a slight violet glow.

Malzahir took an involuntary step back. "Is it supposed to do that?"

Serena's grip tightened on her dagger. "No."

Then, as quickly as it appeared, the light vanished. Fortunately, perhaps due to their awareness of Kain's 'uniqueness,' only Malzahir and Serena had been watching him rather than the surroundings. The others missed the brief light show.

Before Serena could contemplate the implications further, a deep, guttural tremor rolled through the cavern.

At first, it was a faint vibration beneath their feet, barely noticeable. Then, the walls began to shudder, dust falling down from the ceiling like fine rain, pebbles rattled across the floor, and an ominous rumbling echoed from the tunnel they had entered through. The sound grew louder with each passing second.

Zareth's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing. "What the hell—?"

Before he could finish, the rumbling intensified. The sound of skittering, scraping, and heavy footsteps echoed through the tunnels—growing louder. Closer.

Serena's gaze darted to Kain, her lips pressing into a thin line. 'Of course,' she thought bitterly. 'It's him.'

Malzahir, too, seemed to reach the same conclusion. His dark eyes flicked between Kain and the cavern entrance, his fingers twitching toward the knife at his belt. But without a contract, he was useless in a fight. He backed away, pressing himself against a nearby pillar, his breath shallow.

Then, they came.

A tide of abominations poured into the cavern—twisted hybrids of metal and flesh, their forms grotesque, their movements unnervingly coordinated. Their glowing eyes locked onto Kain with singular focus, as if drawn by an invisible homing beacon.

"Protect Kain!" Zareth barked, already summoning his spiritual creatures.

The others also reacted almost instantly, their own creatures moving to intercept the approaching tide.

The first abomination lunged.

Zareth's silver-metallic wolf intercepted it midair, giant jaws clamping around its torso. Unfortunately, the creature barely flinched. Its clawed hand lashed out, raking across the wolf's flank. Before it could continue its attacks, another one of Zareth's contracts, a giant millipede seemingly composed of dark steel, wrapped around its body to immobilize it.

"This one's core is a little higher up near its neck!" Lina shouted while her eyes were emitting a silver glow—likely due to some kind of gift.

Her serpent-like contract then struck with precision. Its fangs sank into the abomination's neck, piercing a pulsating violet node hidden beneath layers of twisted flesh. The creature convulsed, then collapsed, its body crumbling into a lifeless husk.

Jamie's contract, resembling a bright red bear, slammed another abomination into the wall, its massive paws crushing the core before the thing could recover and leaving no body behind as the energy-less abomination went up into flames.

But for every abomination that fell, another took its place, their singular fixation on Kain unrelenting.

"There's too many!" Jamie shouted, slicing through another as it paid him no attention, focused on Kain. "This isn't normal!"

Malzahir watched from his hiding spot, his knuckles white around his knife. He had never felt so powerless.

Serena's contracts also joined the battle. Serena remained next to Kain with both her and her Starweaver focused on sending arrows aimed at the abominations' cores as directed by Lina.

But even she couldn't hold them all off. One slipped past her guard, its claws outstretched toward Kain's defenceless form—

Aegis materialized in a burst of brown light, an earthen shield slamming into the abomination with enough force to send it flying. The golem's eyes burned with defiance as he planted himself firmly in front of Kain.

Barely visible threads of energy appeared next, ensnaring and attempting to control another abomination mid-leap. Although it was quite resistant, it provided enough of a pause for Serena to plunge an arrow into its core.

Still, the horde pressed forward, their sheer numbers threatening to overwhelm even the combined efforts of the group.

Then—

Kain's eyes snapped open.

Originally filled with joy, then confusion, then an intense hunger as he looked at the approaching abominations.

'Just what I needed. Looks like a meal just delivered itself to my door.'

Kain had just been lamenting due to the notification from the System that the majority of the energy he'd managed to recover had been spent on strengthening the containment on Pangea so that it wouldn't interfere with his advancement.

Now the opportunity for a quick refill was right here!

The abominations—twisted, corrupted things—no longer filled him with dread. Instead, he saw them for what they were: fuel.

He immediately released his other contracts, including the Vespid guards which immediately eased their numerical disadvantage.

The guards, while physically unable to confront the abominations, moved around busily as a distraction and harassed them with well-aimed stingers from afar. They even managed to kill many of them, sending stingers into the cores once the locations were called out by Lina.

The group soon fell into a rhythm of the more physical hardy contracts like Aegis or Zareth's wolf, restraining the movements of the abominations as they still unswervingly advanced toward Kain; while others like Serena, her Starweaver, and the Vespid guards acted like an archery unit aiming at the locations Lina directed.

Occasionally, an abomination would still manage to reach Kain though—not that he minded.

Another abomination lunged, its grotesque arms stretching forward as it aimed for his throat.

He didn't dodge.

His hand shot forward, fingers clawing into the abomination's chest. The moment he touched it, something shifted. A sickening pull spread from his palm, and the creature's movements faltered. Its core flickered wildly, pulsating as if resisting an unseen force—only to collapse in on itself, its energy siphoned directly into Kain.

A shudder ran through him, but it wasn't from pain. It was intoxicating.

The abomination crumbled to the ground, its body hollowed out, its energy gone.

Kain inhaled sharply. His gaze flickered to the others still advancing toward him, their grotesque forms locked onto him like moths to a flame.

'Good. Come to me.'

He stepped forward, his gaze locking onto the next target. The others were too busy fighting to notice the subtle drain—especially since Kain remained behind them, out of their field of vision.

Serena, however, saw.