Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 475

Chapter 475: Chapter 475 - Taming Opportunism - 2

These weren’t the jumps of a desperate predator driven by hunger or territorial instinct that was behind Zhao.

They were those from apex predators with too much time and power, they had moved into the realm of recreational violence.

The feline appeared in his peripheral vision, moving from trunk to trunk with speed that seemed impossible for its size.

Zhao didn’t stay to see how interested the creature was in him.

He flew.

The long flight that followed was a nightmare of speed and terror. The "playful" Cat wasn’t just fast; it was intelligent. It anticipated Zhao’s movements, cutting angles and using the positioning of the forest "trees" to shorten distances.

Each leap covered impossible long distances, the creature’s enhanced musculature allowing it to treat the massive trunks like stepping stones. Its claws found purchase on surfaces that should have been too smooth to grip, and its reflexes expected Zhao’s evasive maneuvers with uncanny accuracy.

"Think, think!" he told himself while navigating between the giants, each maneuver consuming more mana. "What would make it lose interest?"

His enhanced eyes provided constant information: pursuer speed, movement patterns, possible escape routes. But it all came down to one simple reality: he couldn’t maintain this pace for much longer. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He had to flutter as hard as possible. Silent fly relaxed tempo and speed was out of question.

The Cat Bear had reserves of power that dwarfed his own, and it meant it could maintain this play pursuit much longer. For it, this was entertainment. For him, it was a death sentence being slowly executed.

The Playful Cat emitted a sound that was part purr, part laughter, the sound of a predator having fun with its toy.

♢♢♢♢

After several minutes of pursuit.

A clearing appeared like an oasis in the middle of the nightmare.

Perhaps here the Cat Bear couldn’t jump so easily to follow him.

Zhao launched himself toward the open space, his lungs burning from the sustained effort of flapping with everything he had. Only when he was halfway across did he realize what he had found.

The body of a massive Royal Golden Nose lay in the center of the clearing, its form so immense it had created its own ecosystem in death. The "trunks", because that’s what most of its body was, extended for hundreds of meters, creating a natural open space.

The scale was staggering. This hadn’t just been a large creature; it had been a living mountain, a being whose death had reshaped the local geography. The clearing existed solely because nothing could grow in the shadow of its massive ’canopy’ when it was standing.

But the body wasn’t alone.

Carrion Sprouts surrounded the corpse like voracious satellites, their flattened forms invisible beneath the surface. They had been feeding on the dead giant for who knows how long.

The feeding frenzy was a rare spectacle. Zhao could see the patterns in the disturbed earth, the way the carrion plants had positioned themselves to maximize their access to different parts of the corpse.

For the first time since he had begun this suicidal mission, Zhao allowed himself a moment of rest.

The claw tree was more solid than it appeared.

Zhao settled into a stable fork, his senses analyzing his new refuge. The matter of the "hand" emerging from the corpse seemed completely dead, but its structure remained intact. There was something unnatural about the way it had been preserved, and if it was that old how had it crossed the body of such an enormous giant without damage...

The preservation was too perfect, too complete. Normal wood or rock would have been flattened by the giant body.

"What killed you two?" he murmured.

The Playful Cat had found an elevated position on a trunk from where it could observe, its eyes fixed on Zhao with a patience that was more disturbing than its previous pursuit. The creature knew he would eventually have to move, and when he did...

But for now, Zhao had time to evaluate his situation.

The medicinal grass was more abundant than he had ever seen in any one place. Thick, juicy leaves that practically radiated healing potency. If he could process even a fraction of this...

The quality was exceptional, far superior to anything he could have purchased in the city. The grass had been feeding on the nutrients from a creature of incredible power, concentrating and refining those energies into pure medicinal essence.

"I could make it to the platinum rings and back," he told himself, mentally calculating the doses he would need.

Zhao began planning his next move, aware that the Playful Cat was still waiting, aware that the time he could hold out was limited, but for the first time since he had left the king’s empty cave, feeling that maybe, just maybe, he had a real chance of success.