This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Chapter 861: Chapter 861: The ’Big Boss’

The forest held its breath.

Then the world screamed.

The roar detonated the surroundings like a bomb. The shockwave flattened the remaining trees and split the sky, sending flocks of charred birds in the distance tumbling from the air. Every instinct in Kain’s body screamed to run. His knees nearly buckled from the weight pressing down on his spirit alone.

The tremors deepened, growing so violent that the ground sagged in waves. Then, with a groan like the world collapsing, a fifty‑meter ring of forest sank into itself as the soil crumbled away—trees, roots, and stone swallowed whole as if by a forming sinkhole.

From the torn earth crawled a beast that shouldn’t exist—serpentine like the last, but draped in burning shadows. Its scales glowed like molten obsidian, and every exhale vomited flame that twisted between black and crimson. Its eyes—two perfect orbs of violet fire—locked onto them from across the valley.

Serena’s breath caught. “It’s—”

Kain didn’t let her finish.

“Move!”

In a blur, he grabbed her wrist and hurled her onto the nearest Vespid. Before she could even register what happened, his shout cracked through the telepathic link he’d established via Bea at some point in the battle.

’Withdraw all your contracts—NOW!’

She didn’t argue. One after another, her contracts disappeared, the battlefield growing suddenly emptier. Kain did the same, pulling all of his except the Vespid guards, the invisible Bea, and the nearly weightless Chewy. The instant their extremely noticeable presences vanished, the oppressive pressure lessened just enough to move.

“Go!” he barked, and the Vespids dove low. The swarm scattered in all directions, but Kain and Serena’s pair streaked east—away from that impossible to beat presence and their original destination

Behind them, the valley lit up like the sun had descended upon the earth. A pillar of black fire erupted where the indigo serpent’s remains had been, consuming forest, air, and light alike. Even at this distance, the heat made the air waver and hiss.

Kain risked a glance back.

Through the inferno, two colossal violet eyes burned like twin suns, turning as if they could see him through layers of space itself. The pupils contracted—and the earth behind them exploded.

“Left!” Kain shouted.

The Vespids banked sharply just as a torrent of flame erased the path they’d been flying through. Trees and soil vaporized in an instant, replaced by glassy craters glowing faint red.

Serena gritted her teeth, wind whipping her hair. “It’s tracking us!”

“Working on it!” Kain said quickly, eyes glowing faintly with spiritual power. Threads of light flickered into view—hundreds of them, tangled and shifting in all directions. The Threads of Destiny.

Every heartbeat, a dozen of them snapped, turning black as death marked their endings. The safe ones—the thin, elusive white threads—kept shifting faster than he could follow. It was even harder since he needed to account for the survival of both himself and Serena, rather than only one of them.

’Bea! Help me sort these!’

Her voice whispered through his mind, calm but strained.

’Already trying. There’s… too many. Wait—two white threads, three degrees northeast.’

“Got it!”

The Vespids veered again, narrowly dodging another blast that incinerated the space where they’d been. The shockwave tossed them through the air like toys, and Kain held on to Serena’s arm, stabilizing both mounts with a burst of spiritual power to give them an all-round boost. While not as effective as a boost from Queen, it was still effective..

Seconds bled into minutes. And they were all exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. Everyone, that is, except for Chewy, who was absorbing some of the remnant energy from the blasts to feed to the Vespid mounts.

But even still, Kain wasn’t sure how much longer they could holf out for. Explosions behind them. Shattered trees. Sky filled with ash. The abyssal’s presence followed like a tidal wave of fire and despair.

Then—silence.

The pressure vanished. The firestorm dimmed behind them. The Vespids buzzed uncertainly, wings beating slower as the sound of the inferno faded.

Serena exhaled shakily. “Did… we lose it?”

Kain didn’t answer.

He could still see the threads.

All of them—black.

Not one white strand remained.

…”No,” he whispered. “Something’s wrong.”

Serena turned, confusion flashing in her eyes. “What do you mean wrong?”

Kain’s tone was flat. “There’s no future here. No direction forward that leads to survival.”

Her stomach dropped. “What?”

He called out mentally again.

’Bea. Check again.’

’I already did. Her voice trembled now, faint static running through their link. Kain, there’s nothing. Every thread I can see is black. No path, no escape.’

Kain’s mind raced. “That’s impossible unless—”

Then realization hit him like lightning.

Without hesitation, he leapt from the back of his Vespid.

“Kain?—!”

He tackled Serena off hers mid-flight, wrapping an arm around her as they fell. The ground rushed up in a blur of motion and wind. They hit hard, rolling through dirt and ash—but he didn’t let go.

Almost the instant they came to a stop, the sky above flashed white.

Their Vespids exploded.

Flames consumed the air where they had been seconds earlier—black fire laced with violet. The shockwave blasted through the trees, showering them with burning debris.

Serena’s eyes widened, realization dawning.

Kain lay on his back, panting, the faintest smirk curling his lips at having his hunch proven correct.

’Yeah… the reason there were no paths forward—’ He looked up at the burning wreckage, the smoking crater where their mounts had been. ’—was because what we were on was the thing that would kill us.’

’Now’s not the time to pat yourself on the back,’ Bea scolded, her tone sharp and clear despite the constant ringing in his ears from the blast. ’If your mastery were higher, I’d have more to work with. But since you’ve been slacking off your own training while drilling the rest of us on forming pseudodomains, all I can read are the directions, not the actions that might open new paths of survival.’

Kain coughed awkwardly, the proud smirk falling from his face at Bea’s scolding. “Yeah, yeah… noted,” he muttered, scratching the back of his head.

Serena looked at him—mud-streaked, half-burnt, exhausted—and couldn’t help it. She laughed, breathless and shaky. “You’re insane.”

He grinned weakly. “And you’re still alive, aren’t you?”

Far in the distance, the fiery glow pulsed again—closer this time.

Kain’s smile faded. “…But let’s not test our luck twice.”