CHAPTER 97: BEAST TAMER

"It bleeds, that’s for sure," Ayan said, raising the katana that had wounded the creature to show its crimson stain to her subordinates. The blood glistened on the blade’s edge, proving that this seemingly invincible monster wasn’t beyond their reach after all.

The monster, however, didn’t wait for them to strategize. Spiked protrusions elongated from both of its clenched fists with an ominous scraping sound, and the team immediately recognized the telltale signs of an incoming attack.

But just as they noticed the threat, the beast was already moving. It covered the distance between them in a single, devastating lunge and aimed its right fist, with a spiky protrusion—straight at the group.

The team immediately scattered in all directions, leaving only Jeremy, who raised his massive shield and braced his weight behind it, hoping to absorb the monster’s strike. Unfortunately, the creature’s spiked fist rammed clean through the reinforced steel shield as if it were paper.

The protrusion passed through and stabbed deep into Jeremy’s chest, blood gushing from the wound as he was pushed backward, his boots carving deep grooves in the concrete as he slid.

"Jeremy! No!" Wilson’s voice cracked with desperation from his position floating above the battlefield. Without hesitation, he released several concentrated blue energy blasts at the beast, the magical projectiles streaking through the air like falling stars.

The monster casually raised its left hand above its head to deflect Wilson’s incoming attacks, the energy blasts dissipating harmlessly against its armored arm.

Gabby rushed back into the fray immediately, scooping up their wounded teammate as Jeremy’s destroyed shield clattered to the ground. With Jeremy cradled in her arms, he leaped away to safety, with her enhanced strength allowing her to clear several car lengths in a single bound.

Meanwhile, the other two fighters, Marcus and Tony—rushed back toward the monster’s flanks, moving in perfect synchronization. But the monster saw them coming and with a single, almost lazy swipe of its massive right fist, sent both experienced fighters flying backward.

Their bodies struck nearby vehicles with sickening crashes, Marcus hitting a sedan hard enough to crumple the metal, while Tony went clean through a truck’s windshield.

Wilson continued his ranged assault from above, flying to different angles to release his blasts, but none seemed to inflict any significant damage on the armored beast. It was like trying to chip away at a mountain with a toothpick.

Ayan gritted her teeth as she watched her elite team being thrown around like ragdolls by this single creature. It had taken just one wounded teammate for them to lose their battle formation entirely.

She was about to lunge headlessly into the fray herself when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder.

"Mind if we step in now?" Liam’s voice was calm, almost conversational, as if he were asking to borrow something rather than offering to face down a monster that had nearly just demolished an entire team of S-Tier visors.

He didn’t wait for an answer, already moving forward with unhurried steps. Brian walked alongside him until Liam put out his arm in a gentle gesture. "Don’t worry, man—I’ve got this one," he said with confidence that made Brian nod and step back without question.

Liam walked slowly toward the monster, his magical energy surging slightly as the ground beneath his feet began to crack and spider web outward with each step, small stones and debris floating upward around him. "So this is what it means to have the strength stat at one hundred," he whispered to himself.

Ayan, watching from behind him, felt her eyes widen in disbelief at the sheer power radiating from this agent.

Wilson suddenly stopped his aerial attacks after sensing the intense magical presence and had to back away from the monster entirely.

Even Gabby, who had been preparing to rejoin the fight, stopped dead in his tracks.

The monster itself noticed the dramatic change in the battlefield’s dynamics. It acknowledge the magical energy emanating from this new arrival, and for the first time since the fight began, it showed something that might have been caution.

Normally, it would have lunged without hesitation at any human who approached with both hands casually in his pockets and his guard seemingly down.

However, before the monster could choose a course of action, something extraordinary happened...

[Authority: Beast Tamer Active]

The effect was immediate and absolute, and the monster felt an overwhelming pressure crushing down on it from all directions, and it wasn’t just physical force. It opened its massive maw and roared with a sound that shook the surrounding.

The beast tried desperately to break free from whatever invisible chains now bound it, its muscles straining and magical energy flaring wildly, but nothing worked. It felt this human’s will asserting dominance over its own, completely overwhelming its entire existence.

Brian watched with growing fascination, "What is he doing to it?" he muttered to himself.

Everyone else wondered the same thing as they watched the fearsome monster struggle against some unseen force that held it completely immobilized.

Then, impossibly, the monster’s struggles ceased, and it slowly, reluctantly, fell to its knees before Liam.

Brian felt the words leave his lips before he could stop them: "That’s impossible."

But Liam wasn’t finished. He slowly pulled his right hand from his pocket and stretched it forward, the air around his palm crackling with gathering electrical energy.

He clenched his fingers into a fist, leaving only his index finger extended, and all that raw power condensed into that single point until it blazed like a tiny star.

When he touched the monster’s golden armor with just the tip of that finger, the beast’s supposedly impenetrable armor actually cracked at his touch. The fracture started small but began spreading like ice breaking on a frozen pond, the cracks webbing outward until entire sections of golden plating began falling.

The remaining conscious members of the Hollow Demons team stared in stunned disbelief. How was it possible that something they had thrown their most powerful attacks against was now crumbling from a single gentle touch?

Liam leaned down until his face was level with the kneeling monster’s head and spoke quietly: "You would have been a good addition to the collection, but these people need to go home with some compensation for their trouble."

His voice carried no malice, just this calm finality. Then, with a movement so swift, he swept his hand across the creature’s exposed neck, and the monster’s head separated from its body, and dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

A cascade of thoughts raced through Brian’s mind, but one remained consistent and troubling. "There has only been one person in recorded history who has been able to make creatures of magic kneel in submission like that," he thought, "No, no, you’re overthinking this—it can’t be."

He shook his head as if trying to physically dislodge the dangerous thoughts, then muttered to himself, "Humans are growing faster and stronger than we ever thought possible."