Beast Taming: My Beasts Grind, Die, and Respawn

Chapter 58: One Star Too High

Chapter 58: One Star Too High

The guard dog attacked before Jin finished deciding not to fight it.

He was still weighing the numbers—3-Star Bronze, we’re 2-Star Iron, this is a bad idea—when the black water erupted and the Caiman came through it like a launched building.

For something that size, it had no business moving so quickly. It cleared the water in one explosive surge, jaws already open, and Jin’s stomach dropped as he recognized the oldest mistake in the book.

He had assumed big meant slow.

Move!

Glitch was already moving. He threw himself sideways as the Caiman’s jaws closed through the space he had occupied—and through a third of the maintenance platform with it.

Metal shrieked. A section of grating tore free and disappeared into the water as the beast dropped back beneath the surface. The air scrubber continued wheezing on a shelf that had suddenly become much smaller.

Jin exhaled through his teeth.

The Engine compiled what it had witnessed.

[Combat Data Updated]

[Observed Traits: Ironhide Scutes, Aquatic Ambush, Crushing Bite, Death Roll, Corrosion Resistance]

Okay. New plan.

The old plan had been don’t fight it. That plan was no longer available. The creature had chosen violence, and it stood between them and the deeper dungeon.

But their objective didn’t have to be killing it.

Glitch couldn’t overpower something one Star and one quality tier above him. The numbers said so, and the missing third of the platform strongly agreed.

So they wouldn’t try.

We survive, Jin sent through the bond. We protect the checkpoint and learn what it does. That’s the win.

Death itself wasn’t the danger. The real Glitch remained safe on a blanket forty metres above them. What they could lose was two hours to a respawn, valuable exploration time, and—worst of all—the air-scrubber checkpoint if the Caiman destroyed it.

Pride didn’t matter.

The save point did.

The Caiman fought nothing like the Slime King.

The King had fought like a repeating combat puzzle, its phases becoming predictable once Jin understood them. This creature hunted.

It sank into the black water and vanished. No ripples. No visible shape. Nothing.

Then the surface would swell somewhere else and the Caiman would explode from below in one savage line, snap its jaws, and disappear before Glitch could counterattack. Patient under the water. Explosive above it. A predator that had been hunting in darkness for a very long time.

Glitch tried fighting back directly once.

When the Caiman lunged past, he twisted onto its back and raked his claws across its armoured spine.

Nothing.

His claws scraped over metal-studded scutes without leaving a mark. The creature’s skull, shoulders, and back formed a single overlapping fortress that Glitch’s 2-Star claws couldn’t penetrate.

Then its tail came around.

One almost-casual sweep struck Glitch across the body and threw him the length of the shrinking platform. He hit a support hard enough to make the screen shake.

A frightening section of his health disappeared.

Lesser Regeneration activated, warm energy gathering around the injury, while his stamina bar fell to pay for the repair.

Jin’s jaw tightened. There’s the answer.

One tail strike caused more damage than the skill could cheaply restore. If Glitch traded blows with this creature, regeneration would empty his stamina within a handful of exchanges. Then he would have neither the health nor the energy to escape.

Attrition was a guaranteed loss.

Jin stopped trying to win and started reading.

With every surge, snap, and retreat, the Caiman’s limitations became clearer.

Sight was almost useless while it remained submerged, but the chamber provided other warnings. A heartbeat before each attack, the damaged platform trembled as the Caiman pushed against the floor. Loose bolts danced across the grating. The black water bulged toward the direction of its charge.

Jin sent those signs through the bond. Glitch lowered his body and stopped staring helplessly into the water. Instead, he felt the vibrations through his claws and watched the bolts near his feet. On the next ambush, he moved before the Caiman breached the surface.

The jaws missed him by an entire body length.

They still couldn’t hurt the creature, but it was no longer attacking from nowhere. Another piece of the unknown had become information.

It was terrifyingly fast in a straight line—but only in a straight line. On solid ground, its huge body turned poorly. Every charge committed it to one direction, and it couldn’t correct itself halfway through.

Its armour covered its back and skull. Beneath its jaw, however, where the plated head met its throat, one narrow seam remained comparatively soft. The weakness appeared only for a moment whenever it opened its mouth at the end of a lunge.

Fast but committed. Armoured above, vulnerable below.

That’s a lever, Jin thought. Now I need the dungeon to hold it for me.

Jin sent the shape of the plan through their bond rather than every movement.

The narrow walkway. The overhead pipe. The decayed support.

Bait the charge. Make it commit. Get above it at the last second. Let the building do the rest.

Glitch understood. Cold eagerness travelled back through the connection.

He dropped onto the damaged walkway and made himself bait, standing side-on where the Caiman could see him. He held his position on the corroded metal and waited.

The Caiman accepted the invitation.

It surged from the water and charged along the narrow span, all that armoured weight thundering toward Glitch as its jaws opened.

At the final moment, Glitch leapt.

He caught the overhead pipe, hooking his claws over its rusted curve and hauling himself clear. The Caiman rushed beneath him with no space left to change direction.

It struck the support at full speed.

The corroded metal sheared. A section of walkway collapsed, followed by the heavy pipe above it. Both crashed across the Caiman’s head and forelegs in a scream of tearing rust.

The creature went down beneath the wreckage.

Pinned—but not defeated.

Jin knew better than to believe a falling pipe could kill something one Star and one quality tier above Glitch. The Caiman was already heaving against the debris, its scutes grinding as it forced itself upward.

They had seconds.

Glitch didn’t wait for instructions.

He dove.

He ignored the armoured back and dropped beneath the trapped head, driving his claws into the soft seam under the Caiman’s jaw.

Dark blood welled from the wound—the first meaningful damage Glitch had inflicted.

The Caiman thrashed. Its jaws snapped shut, but Glitch was already twisting away. The teeth closed a fraction behind his tail as he scrambled back onto solid footing.

The Caiman tore itself free.

Then it did something Jin hadn’t planned for and respected enormously.

It considered the situation.

The old predator stood with blood dripping from its jaw and one eye fixed on the small black lizard that had wounded it. Jin watched it calculate. Its ambush had failed. The small creature was faster than expected and had already discovered the only vulnerable point on its body.

Continuing the hunt meant risking another wound for a meal that had become far too troublesome.

The Caiman decided Glitch wasn’t worth the price.

It turned, slid into the black water, and vanished without panic—an experienced hunter refusing a bad trade.

[Rustjaw Caiman Repelled]

[Elite Defeat Requirement Not Met]

[No Defeat Rewards Granted]

[Rustjaw Caiman Added to Bestiary — Partial Data]

[Exploration Progress: 21%]