Genetic Engineer in a Tamer's World

Chapter 79: The Bottleneck Slaughter

The air in the Tigerwood Forest was no longer the damp, earthy scent of rotting leaves and moss. It had been replaced by the heavy, metallic tang of blood and the electric charge of elemental mana in a state of chaos.

From the vantage point of the lower root-walkways of the Greenroot Guild’s gargantuan tree, the horizon was a roiling sea of fur, scales, and snapping maws. The Beast Tide was no longer a threat; it was a physical weight pressing against the Guild’s fortifications.

Kale Ardentis stood at the mouth of a narrow ravine known as the "Sundered Root-Gap."

It was a natural bottleneck where two massive, ancient roots of the main tree had split the earth, creating a path barely five meters wide. It was the perfect killing floor.

Behind him stood the eight members of the Wolfberg mercenary team, their faces taut with a mixture of professional grit and the lingering fear of the Failed Tamers they once were.

Master Igor, his expression unreadable behind a thick leather collar, pointed a finger towards the dark mouth of the gap. "Tamer Kale, your unit is the last line of defence for the Southern sector’s irrigation ducts. If the Feral flood breaks through here, they can bypass the Grandmasters’ frontline and attack the inner bark. You are to hold. Do not let a single creature through."

"Understood," Kale replied, his voice devoid of emotion. His green hair, now long and vibrant, whipped in the wind. On his shoulder, Neo, the Nemesis Hydra, shifted its three heads; all six eyes locked onto the darkness of the ravine.

"Form up!" Fabio roared, his voice carrying the authority of a man who had been given a second life.

Beside him, his Pyro Cobra hissed, its scales shimmering with a dull, heated red. Ergo’s Gloom Weasel melted into the shadows of the root walls, while Paula’s Prism Hornet hovered high, its crystalline wings buzzing at a frequency that set Kale’s enhanced teeth on edge.

Then, the ground began to tremble. DHUMMMM... DHUMMMM... DHUMMMM.

A flood of grey-furred shapes burst from the foliage at the other end of the gap. Feral-rank Shadow Sabres, hundreds of them, poured into the narrow space like a river of claws.

"Engage!" Fabio commanded.

The mercenaries moved with practised coordination. Shane’s Sulfur Hyena coughed out a cloud of noxious, yellow gas that filled the front of the bottleneck, causing the lead Sabres to gag and stumble. Kurt’s Quartz Gopher dove into the earth, causing jagged stone spikes to erupt beneath the charging beasts.

CRACK... SQUELCH.

The sounds of breaking bone and pierced flesh echoed in the narrow space.

The mercenaries were performing well.

Leda’s Zephyr Kestrel sent sharp wind blades that decapitated disoriented wolves, and Jorg’s Impact Bison served as a living wall, headbutting anything that got too close with bone-shattering force.

But they were Apprentice-rank Tamers with newborn Feral beasts. Against a flood that seemed to have no end, they were slowly being pushed back.

"There are too many!" Paula shouted, her Prism Hornet’s flashing light blinding a Sabre that had almost leapt onto Mina. "The Alphas are coming! I see them!"

At the back of the Sabres’ flood, two massive figures emerged. Alpha-rank Gore-Husk Apes. They were three meters tall, covered in matted red fur, their eyes glowing with a maddened, Tide-driven bloodlust.

They didn’t just run; they threw the smaller Feral Sabres out of their way, clearing a path through their own kin to reach the humans.

"Fall back to the second line!" Fabio ordered, his Pyro Cobra lashing out with a searing whip of fire. "We can’t tank the Alphas!"

"Stay where you are," Kale said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the cacophony of the battle like a cold blade.

He stepped forward, passing Jorg’s Bison.

His presence changed. The Dragon Bane title activated instinctively, a cold, predatory aura washing over the ravine. The Sabres at the front line skidded to a halt, their animal instincts screaming at them to flee the "Dragon Slayer" standing before them.

"Neo, let’s feed," Kale whispered.

The Nemesis Hydra shot off his shoulder like a green arrow. Mid-air, Neo’s aura exploded.

[Beast Ability: Monarch Beast activated.]

A visible ripple of supreme pressure slammed into the Shadow Sabres. The creatures didn’t just stop; they collapsed, their legs giving out as their bloodlines buckled under the weight of an ultimate predator.

Kale didn’t wait. He channelled Beast Force through his newly carved internal pathways, his body operating at 150% capacity. He blurred.

To the mercenaries, Kale became a streak of green. He met the first Alpha Gore-Husk Ape head-on. The Ape roared, swinging a fist the size of a boulder. Kale didn’t dodge. He used Lesser Mana Manipulation to coat his daggers in a vibrating, high-frequency edge of pure mana.

SHIIIING... SQUELCH!

Kale slid beneath the Ape’s legs, his daggers severing the beast’s hamstrings with surgical precision. As the Alpha fell to its knees, Neo descended from above.

All three heads opened their maws. [Beast Ability: Rattling Roar].

At point-blank range, the psychic shockwave turned the Alpha’s brain to mush. Its eyes rolled back, and it slumped forward. Neo didn’t hesitate. The central head unhinged its jaw unnaturally wide.

[The Nemesis Hydra has activated the ability: All Devour]

The Hydra tore into the Ape’s chest, pulling out the pulsing, dark red Alpha Core and swallowing it whole.

[The Nemesis Hydra has devoured a Greater Alpha-rank Core]

[Physical Strength increased by 1%]

[Ape-might trait integrated: 0.2% progress]

The second Alpha Ape, seeing its comrade slaughtered in seconds, let out a terrified screech. It tried to turn, but Kale was already there. He activated Gaze of the Monarch. His pupils became black slits. The Ape froze, locked in absolute terror.

Kale didn’t even use his daggers. He punched the Alpha in its solar plexus, his fist reinforced by Beast Force. The impact sounded like a cannon blast. The Ape’s chest cavity caved in, its heart ruptured by the sheer transfer of kinetic energy.

Neo landed on the second corpse, systematically tearing through the ribs to reach the second core.

The flood of Feral Sabres, seeing their Alpha leaders turned into literal snacks, broke. The hivemind of the Tide was overwritten by primal fear. They turned and trampled one another to escape the Sundered Root-Gap.

The clearing went silent, save for the wet sounds of Neo eating.

The mercenaries stood frozen. Fabio’s Pyro Cobra was trembling. These were the people who had seen Kale hold 60 kilos as a kid, but this... this was something else. This was a slaughter.

"Is he... is he really just an Apprentice?" Ergo whispered, his Gloom Weasel shivering in his shadow.

***

Two hours later, the sector was secured. Master Igor and Grandmaster Henry arrived to inspect the "Sundered Root-Gap." They found a clearing littered with hundreds of Sabre corpses and two mutilated Alpha Apes, but not a single scratch on the Guild’s root system.

Henry looked at Kale, then at the palm-sized Hydra currently cleaning a stray drop of blood off its middle head. "Tamer Kale... You’re much stronger than I thought, not bad, not bad, indeed."

"They were in the way," Kale said simply.

Henry chuckled, a trace of admiration and wariness in his eyes.

"The Guildmaster will be pleased."

He continued after a pause,

"For holding the Gap alongside your team and eliminating two Alphas, I will transfer you a total of 800,000 Accredit. It will be transferred to your token."

Henry then looked towards the rare Beasts of each mercenary, and his eyes flashed as he asked, "Kale, you got them from the Swamp Hatchery, right?"

Kale smiled but did not answer that query as he only said. "Thank you, Grandmaster."

Henry shook his head and did not mind it as the man left.

***

The silence within room 555 of the Greenroot Guild’s gargantuan tree was a stark contrast to the cacophonic slaughter that had unfolded hours earlier at the Sundered Root-Gap.

Outside, the Tigerwood Forest still exhaled the heavy, metallic tang of blood and the acrid ozone of chaotic mana, but inside the fortified wooden walls, only the rhythmic breathing of a predator remained.

The wooden walls of the chamber hummed slightly, vibrating with the natural life force of the massive ancient tree, but Kale Ardentis barely noticed.

His entire body ached from the physical toll of the battle, and his mind felt bruised from the constant mental strain of directing his beast through such a chaotic mess.

Kale sat at the large stone table. His light green hair reflected the soft, ambient glow of the Artificing Lab’s specialised lamps overhead, casting quiet shadows across his sharp features. On the cold stone sat the two pulsing, dark red Alpha-rank cores that Neo had extracted from the Gore-Husk Apes.

They leaked a faint, warm vapour that smelled of copper. Beside them, Neo, his Nemesis Hydra, was coiled contentedly. The beast was remarkably relaxed, its three heads occasionally nudging the cores with a mixture of greed and curiosity, its scales dry and raspy against the stone.

"Check status," Kale whispered, his voice low and raspy from the day’s exertion.