Chapter 1309 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons - 13

Chapter 1309: Chapter 1309 - Taming the Old World - Light Dragons - 13

Ren furrowed his brow, dialing his mana perception to its absolute limit to study the point of impact.

The obstruction was not made of bone or dead tissue; it was a shell of hyper-concentrated energy, possessing a density far greater than anything else on the creature’s body.

The fake heart was shielded by a nearly impenetrable crust of golden hyphae. The parasite had localized its ultimate defense entirely around the single place that actually mattered, operating on the exact same biological logic Mooshito used when forming a protective cyst.

"It is heavily shielded," Ren muttered, executing two short spatial jumps to clear the path of another incoming beam, noting that this blast carried traces of the dark ether it had just absorbed from him. "Incredibly well-defended. It does not care if we butcher the rest of the host, so long as the core remains untouched."

He tested the theory again... He fired a much heavier volley, feeding extra output from his Shadow Ring to maximize the armor-piercing potential. The result was almost identical; the beam dispersed against the golden crust, barely leaving a scratch while feeding the abomination even more shadow mana.

Breaking that specific shell through a frontal assault was going to eat up far more time than the Vanguard had left on the clock.

As he weighed his options, another detail caught his eye.

The golden mushrooms were visibly sprouting every time they absorbed an attack.

Clusters of thick golden fungi were blooming all over the reanimated carcass, anchoring their roots into the dead light tissue, with the largest and most grotesque cluster crowning the stump where the dragon’s head used to be.

Perhaps he could bleed its energy reserves if he pruned that garden.

Ren looked at the sprawling growths with a sudden shift in perspective. As alien and dangerous as this network was, it shared a fundamental biological architecture with Mooshito.

And if the structures were compatible, they could prove incredibly useful. He could study the tissue, perhaps even cultivate it.

He did not know exactly what he would use it for just yet, but the potential was too rich to ignore. He was not about to walk away from a chance to harvest rare organic materials while simultaneously weakening a target.

"Target the legs!" Ren commanded the squad. Forcing the beast to constantly burn fuel to rebuild its limbs was a far better strategy than feeding its core with direct attacks.

While he danced around the incoming fire and his squad pinned the behemoth in place by repeatedly shattering its limbs, Ren swept in from a blind flank. Using razor-sharp blades of concentrated shadow, he began harvesting the largest fungal clusters off the creature’s back.

The massive bloom crowning the neck proved to be the most difficult prize... It sat far too close to the creature’s hypnotic eyes, but Ren managed to blind the beast for a second with a quick burst of freezing ether. Seizing the opening, he delivered a crushing shadow strike to snap the thick stem, snatching the enormous golden cap out of the air and tossing it straight into his shadow space for safekeeping.

The abomination thrashed in annoyance, yet it made no real effort to guard the external growths. The harvested mushrooms were already slowly beginning to sprout again, proving they were a secondary priority compared to the safety of the core.

Harvest complete. Ren pulled back, satisfied with the secured samples.

However, as the skirmish dragged on, an undeniable pattern began to emerge.

The beast was exclusively targeting him.

Luna, Larissa, Liu, Sirius, and Liora had spent the last several minutes battering the creature from every conceivable angle. They were burning its flesh, severing its joints, and completely dismantling its mobility, yet the parasite ignored them entirely.

It would shift its weight to dodge or raise a shield to block, but it never retaliated against the rest of the squad.

Every single blinding beam, every bone-crushing sweep of its tail, and every ounce of its murderous intent was funneled directly at Ren. It was operating as if the other five tamers did not even exist.

As if Ren were the only threat standing on the battlefield.

Dodging another sweeping laser, Ren rapidly pieced the variables together.

What exactly did he bring to the table that the others lacked? His offensive output against the core was not drastically different from theirs at the moment. Even though he possessed the highest damage ceiling, he was currently busy playing evasion while the others actively shredded its flesh.

Except for one crucial detail... The corruption.

He had used a concentrated pulse of corrupted ether to purge the golden roots from the Light Guardian’s heart. The other five commanders carried almost zero corruption in their systems, save for the faint trace bleeding through their symbiotic links, which was a drop in the ocean compared to the massive spiritual crack in Ren’s core.

And the creature had awoken the very millisecond that dark pulse brushed against its golden web.

Was it terrified that its artificial heart would be melted by the dark ether?

Whatever the underlying logic, it all traced back to the corruption. That distinct poison was very likely the beacon painting a target on his back.

For reasons he could not fully grasp, this alien fungal network harbored an absolute, consuming hatred for corrupted energy above all else, and it had officially marked him as the source of the infection.

It was no longer fighting to defend the mountain...

It possessed none of the territorial obligations that anchored true dragons to their lairs. It only wanted to eradicate Ren because of the venom pumping through his spiritual veins.

The exact instant that realization clicked into place, Ren formulated a plan to exploit it.

Weaponizing his own corruption to breach the core was certainly an option, but he had a much better idea.

????

"Listen to me!" Ren shouted over the roar of the battle, executing a tight barrel roll to evade yet another sweeping beam. "This abomination only wants me! It is hunting the corruption in my core! It is not a guardian anymore, which means it will not stay here to defend the mountain or the vault entrance! I am taking it off the site!"

"You are taking it WHERE?" Larissa yelled back, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Hold the perimeter around the entrance! Or better yet, head down and secure the elemental ring if you think it is safe. The path is completely open, there is nothing left standing in your way!" Ren was already charting a flight path in his head, factoring in wind speed and elevation. "I trust you to handle the vault! This overgrown mushroom is exclusively aggroed on me, so I will deal with it on my own terms!"

He expanded his mana perception as far as it would stretch, sweeping the southern territory for a specific signature. Selthia had evacuated the bulk of her forces, yet she had left a handful of spotters behind to monitor the outcome. Among those scouts, there had to be at least one unit sturdy enough to serve Ren’s purpose.

He found it...

A Platinum-tier mutant, one of the heavily armored variants, was buried in the dirt a few miles away from the peak, silently observing the clash.

’Perfect.’