Beast Tamer Era: Capturing SSS-ranks with the Strongest Taming System-Chapter 124: The Castle Guards fully assembled (last)

Watching Tzharakh, the hunter who had never failed a hunt, meet his first defeat at Ray’s hand, the onlookers gaped, their jaws hanging so low it looked as though they might scrape the ground.

They hissed and murmured, disbelief rippling through their ranks.

"Too fast! He is too fast. My eyes can’t follow his movements. I didn’t even notice where he disappeared to until he planted his boot in Tzharakh’s face."

"I was wondering when Tzharakh’s epic streak would come to an end. I didn’t expect it would happen today and at the hands of a human, no less."

"Guys, did you notice? The fight had lasted barely longer than the one before it."

"He defeats the strongest bronze rankers our tribe have ever known like they are nothing."

"Could he be..."

"No way. Such an esteem figure wouldn’t bother coming to a place like this."

They still couldn’t grasp the true nature of his power, but one thing had become undeniably clear to all. Ray was terrifyingly strong!

Ray looked down at the unconscious serpent sprawled before him. With a flick of his hand, a dark spatial rift opened beneath Tzharakh, swirling with violet light. The serpent’s limp body dropped through it before anyone could react.

"And just like that," Ray murmured, a faint smirk on his lips, "another snake-man joins the rank of my castle guard."

Then, more loudly, his gaze sweeping the crowd like a blade, he said:

"Who else has a problem with serving as my castle guard?"

He was dead set on making use of this opportunity to build himself a powerful force.

Success would mean having two armies at his beck and call.

One army would be made up of all kinds of slimes. The other army would consist of a variety of serpentine creatures.

’With these two armies at his command, no one under the gold rank would be a threat to me.’

Ray’s blood boiled just thinking about it. The future was going to be exciting!

"I do," a deep voice rumbled from within the ranks.

A path opened as the serpents stepped aside. Morrack emerged.

He was the strongest general under the Flying Serpent, and that made him the second strongest fighter of the entire Serpent Tribe. His body gleamed with thick, emerald-green scales that reflected the torchlight like metal plates; they overlapped so tightly it looked as if he were wearing an armor forged from jade.

"Morrack! Morrack! Morrack!"

The gathered serpents erupted into chants as soon as he stepped forward, the air trembling with their voices.

Their hope, their pride, their desperation—all rested on his shoulders.

The chanting only fueled Morrack’s confidence. His crimson eyes burned like twin moons of Veloria as he faced Ray, muscles coiling beneath his scaled skin.

"The way you handled Sarthan and Tzharakh," Morrack said, his voice rumbling through the chamber, "almost makes me believe you’re a Silver-ranked expert. But there’s no force field around you. You’re close—infinitely close—to that level, but you haven’t reached it yet."

He took a step forward, the ground cracking under his weight.

"That means I can still think contest." He raised his twin axes, each glowing with a sickly green hue, as he continued, "After all, to win, I only need to leave a scratch on you while you need to knock me out."

He truly believed he could win.

He was stronger than Sarthan and Tzharakh combined, his physical power immense and his venom potent enough to corrode bronze. In his mind, Ray would have to struggle this time—to move faster, hit harder, defend longer.

And during that struggle, Morrack was certain that an opening would appear.

One chance to strike.

One chance to reclaim the tribe’s lost pride and restore its honor to where it once stood.

And he was confident in his ability to grasp it.

At his words, Ray internally rolled his eyes.

’He doesn’t realise he’s being overconfident and underestimating me. I am as strong as a silver ranker because I already possess soul force. Its a bit lacking in volume so it hasn’t generated a force field that can block attack. But it would change in the near future."

Ray only needed to breakthrough to the advanced stage bronze rank for his soul force to hit 100 units. Once that happened, the volume of his soul force would be dense enough to produce a force field around him.

That force field would protect him from harm around the clock. As long as his soul force didn’t decrease beyond a certain point, it would exist!

It was the reason why assassinating silver ranker was so hard. Their force field protected them even in their sleep!

"If you’re done talking, make your move," Ray said, beckoning Morrack to show his worth with a casual flick of his hand. His expression was almost lazy, his tone dry.

Morrack roared, not liking his attitude.

The stone beneath his feet shattered as his figure launched towards Ray like a rocket reaching for the moon, twin axes carving twin arcs of viridian light in the air.

Swoosh!

The pressure of his charge howled through the cavern like a hurricane. He was fast, far faster than any of the others Ray had faced.

But speed of that level meant nothing before him.

A whisper of motion, and Ray vanished.

The next instant, he was behind Morrack, standing tall, his expression one of extreme clamness and exposure.

His hand rose and came down like a guillotine, striking the side of Morrack’s thick neck.

A dull, heavy sound echoed through the cavernous chamber as the blow transmitted a great deal of overwhelming force through Morrack’s scaled flesh, shaking up his insides so badly his breath hitched, his knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground, perspiring crazily.

A glint of suprise flashed through Ray’s eyes as he uttered, "That didn’t knock you out? Looks like... I held back too much."

If Ray had used his Fortification Skill or Empyrean Amethyst Wind technique to enhance the mighty of the neck chop he had performed on Morrack, the blow would have decapitated him outright.

But he hadn’t done that for a good reason.

He held back because his goal wasn’t bloodshed. It was to win over the serpent tribe through domination and mercy!

By the sacred right of Conquest and Mercy, they would all become his if he managed to subdued them without killing them. Since they all believed into it, they would honour the agreement and serve him faithfully no matter how unwilling they were.

"If I knew you could have endured it, I would have put in a little more strength in that attack to knock you out. Oh well, this should do the deal," Ray said, gently slapping Morrack’s neck, but due to the consecutive lucky shot trait even this strike carried the strength of an initial-stage physical type beast specializing in strength.

It was barely a fraction of his true might, and it wasn’t enough to kill Morrack outright as his emerald scales could withstand thousands of pounds of pressure. But it was concentrated in a single point and had landed precisely where Morrack’s scales was thinnest.

The result was inevitable.

A heartbeat after Ray’s hand made contact with his neck again, Morrack’s eyes rolled to the back of his head.

His massive body went limp and crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud, the vibrations shaking the rocky pillars of the chamber.

He was unconscious before he even hit the floor. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

♦️ Congratulations, Host. You have secured your fourth bronze rank guard. Keep up the good work!

Ray exhaled softly and coolly dusted his hands off before he turned toward the gathered crowd.

Thee faces of the serpentine creatures around him were a blend of disbelief and despair. Their eyes were wide. Their mouths were slightly open, and the faint shimmer of fear could be seen glistening in their vertical pupils.

Their strongest warrior had fallen in a single exchange, their proudest general had been swatted aside like a fly. If even Morrack, the fiercest among them, had been defeated so effortlessly, what chance did the rest of them have?

They realized then that their fates were already sealed. The weight of that truth pressed heavily on their hearts as the thought that they would be reduced to being a human’s guards made them feel suffocated.

The humiliation of serving the member of the very kind they had long despised wasn’t something they could easily swallow.

Their pride bled quietly, strangled by helplessness.

But in that very darkness, when despair had all but swallowed them whole, the man standing before them, the very man who sought to chain them in servitude, did something none expected.

"All of you, come at me together. If you fail even then, I hope you won’t have any regrets about serving me."

The words cut through the silence like a blade.

At first, there was only confusion.

"Did we hear him right?"

Then, as if a spark had been cast into oil, the eyes of the despairing serpentine creatures lit up in hope.

"He is okay with such a handicap?"

"This is our chance."

"Let’s not lose it!"

"Attack!"

Suddenly, thousands of serpentine creatures came crashing down towards Ray in a maddening frenzy!