Wyvern Legion

An ancient dragon of staggering size beat its wings without restraint, carving through the open sky. The steel basket the Americans had prepared hung from thick iron cables clenched in the dragon's hind claws, and nearly thirty elite hunters rode inside it.

"Seongho! How much farther?"

"About thirty more minutes! We're almost there!"

"This volcanic heat is driving me insane!"

"No shit, me too!"

The air slamming into our faces burned like fire. Of course it did — we were flying over a volcanic region. But my mood kept climbing all the same. It meant the destination was close. After a stretch more of flight, I finally got to deliver the good news.

"Wyvern Den, you bastards! There it is! Look down!!"

One by one, wyverns came into view — bathing in lava. Red Wyverns. Completely immune to fire damage. They'd soak in the molten rock for a while, and when hunger hit, they'd range the surrounding area for prey. When the hunting nearby dried up, they'd fly dozens of kilometers on expedition hunts. I'd killed a few of them back when I was still stationed at the Korean outpost.

The wyverns lounging comfortably in their lava baths scattered in panic the moment an ancient dragon of overwhelming presence appeared overhead. A few even scrambled into the air in a desperate rush. I locked onto one of the ones that had taken flight and snapped the dragon into a new heading.

"Catch it!"

The wyvern fled for its life, but nothing could outrun the crushing speed generated by those massive wings. It wasn't long before the ancient dragon overtook it with ease.

"Subdue it!"

At my command, the dragon seized the wyvern roughly in its jaws. The creature clamped in its mouth trembled in pure terror, staring up at the ancient dragon without even the will to resist — completely crushed under the subtle pressure of Dragon Fear.

"Good. Hold still a second."

I reached toward the wyvern in the dragon's mouth. Chains of Submission activated.

The wyvern thrashed for a moment, then — without putting up any real fight — was tamed. Its health was still near full. I hadn't dealt a single point of damage. And yet it was done.

"Wahaha! Already?"

"Holy shit! The ancient dragon is the best!"

I ordered the dragon to release the tamed wyvern, and it opened its jaws wide. The creature took to the air again, then — following my command — slowly descended toward the basket where the hunters waited.

"One of you, get on!"

"I'll do it!"

A hunter scrambled onto the wyvern's back, grabbed one of its protruding horns, and started steering.

"This is fucking awesome!!!"

Watching him laugh as he piloted the thing, the other hunters started getting restless and hounding me for their turn.

"That guy's insane! Boss! Me next!"

"Give me a wyvern too!"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I burst out laughing.

"Hold on! We're going after the next one right now!"

And so the hunt continued. Grab a wyvern that had taken flight, pin it in the dragon's jaws, tame it with Chains of Submission, then put a hunter on its back. As time passed, the formation of wyverns flying alongside the ancient dragon steadily grew.

"This is crazy. This is exactly why I wanted to join the air force!"

"Then why the hell are you a hunter?"

"You serious? They saw my mana affinity and forced me in!"

"So how does it feel playing air force now?"

"It's the best, boss!"

It was a spectacle. Red Wyverns averaged somewhere in the high 800s to low 900s in level — and those monsters were flipping to our side with almost comical ease just because one ancient dragon had shown up.

Before long, the basket was empty. Every hunter was astride a wyvern of his own, soaring through the sky. And we didn't stop there.

"From here on, we drive them!"

Thirty wyverns swarmed across Wyvern Den in packs, terrorizing and herding the remaining wild ones. The key was to push them toward me. And the moment a cluster came flying in—

"Use Dragon Fear."

The ancient dragon unleashed a full-throated roar. It was a method I'd figured out after taming about thirty of them — the know-how that came with practice.

Anywhere from three or four to a dozen wyverns mid-flight seized up under the Fear and dropped from the sky. The wyvern riders darted in, scooped up the falling creatures, and hauled them to me. I casually converted the thrashing, paralyzed beasts with Chains of Submission. A single drive-hunt like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that made the formation explode in size.

I took the expanded flock and ran broader and broader drives, and each time the numbers swelled again.

How much time had passed?

"Holy shit, Seongho. We're a fucking legion."

"Damn right we are. Hahaha!"

Nearly two hundred wyverns now wheeled around the ancient dragon, moving at my command. Two hundred fully healthy Red Wyverns. With that many, it was time to see what they could do.

"No more hunting wyverns. New target!! Those Crystal Pangolins on the ground!"

Crystal Pangolins. Level 900 monsters. Slow, but armored in massively hardened crystalized hide. For some reason, a pack of about thirty had once pushed all the way to the edge of Korean territory and tried to open a Rift — so I'd hunted them before. I knew their traits cold.

Physical destruction was nearly impossible. Their crystal hide resisted electricity and magic. Living in a volcanic zone, they had enormous heat resistance too. The only thing that could break that armor was transcendentally high temperature. Hit them with high-level extreme-heat magic, or have a tamed wyvern breathe fire hot enough to melt the hide, and they instantly became fragile prey. And the flame breath of Red Wyverns raised in a volcanic region was more than hot enough to melt a pangolin's outer shell.

"Attack!"

The wyvern formation diving high above plummeted in a vertical drop alongside the ancient dragon. In an instant they fell from sky to earth and unleashed a merciless barrage of flame ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠breath on the Crystal Pangolins clustered below, moving as a herd.

The pangolins screamed.

That supposedly indestructible hide melted away in seconds under the dragonfire. And once it was gone, they were left as nothing but trembling skeletons staring up at us.

"Puhahaha! Look at those bastards!"

"Those things are not supposed to go down this easy!"

"Seongho! Keep commanding the wyverns! We'll drop down, finish them off, and harvest the Magic Stones!"

"Yeah! Go for it!"

The hunters dismounted. They walked up to the pangolins — now reduced to bare frames — and casually beat them down. One after another, the luminous red Magic Stones of Level 900 monsters began filling their hands.

"Nice work! Dump them in the basket!"

In no time, the steel basket clutched by the ancient dragon was filling with an enormous haul of Magic Stones.

Even Level 700 Magic Stones had made the Americans lose their minds buying them up. So what was a Level 900 stone worth? Just imagining it made me grin.

We harvested and harvested in a frenzy. The Crystal Pangolins across the entire area were massacred in droves, but I wasn't worried. Monsters in the region respawned on a cycle.

Back when I was stuck playing Korea's watchdog at the outpost, that respawn phenomenon had been a genuine pain in the ass — it just meant more fighting. Now it looked like infinite money printing.

"It's money, you bastards!! Money!!! Puhahaha!"

"How much is all this even worth?"

The basket loaded up full of Magic Stones. We lost track of time, ranging across every corner of Wyvern Den, slaughtering pangolins and other high-level monsters in bulk and stockpiling stones.

When I judged we'd taken enough—

"This is good! We're heading back!"

"Yes, boss!"

I decided the operation could end here. Both the Magic Stones and the wyverns had exceeded every projection. This was more than enough of a contribution for the Americans to quietly overlook us bringing hunters over from the Korean outpost.

No matter how furious Association President Volkov got, the moment he saw these stones he'd have no choice but to smile like a damn Buddha. And America would decide we were people they absolutely could not afford to throw away.

"Good work! Once we're back, we sell this haul and rest for real!"

"This is insane. With the wyverns, combat efficiency is off the charts, boss!"

"That's why we came to tame them. Let's get back. Yeonghak's probably waiting."

All he'd had to do was pick up the re-conscripted hunters, so he should have returned well ahead of us. I hurried back toward Sector 32, already looking forward to the looks on the faces of the hunters Yeonghak would bring when they saw these stones. But the moment we arrived at Sector 32, I realized my prediction was wrong.

"Yeonghak? He hasn't come back yet."

"He hasn't?"

"No. I was starting to think he was running a little too late myself."

A bad feeling settled in. Something had gone wrong — I could feel it in my gut.

"Hahaha! Long time no see, you bastards! How've you been........"

Lee Yeonghak descended into the outpost with three wyverns, then cut his laughter short the instant he registered the ice-cold atmosphere. Officers in military uniforms clutching broken fingers, trembling. Hunters gripping their weapons, seething with rage. Something had gone badly wrong — that much was obvious without a single word of explanation.

"What the hell happened? Explain it to me. Now."

At Yeonghak's words, Go Jaewan hurried toward him, ready to speak. But before he could, the lead officer exploded with a bellow like a train whistle boiling over.

"Lee Yeonghak!!!! What the hell are you doing here!! This is a violation of international law!!!"

Yeonghak's answer was ice-cold and casual.

"Yeah. I broke the law. You fucking bastards."

He drew his sword. Aura blazed along the blade. The three wyverns snarled as well, murderous intent locked on the officers.

"So what the fuck are any of you gonna do about it?"

"You!......"

"Shut your goddamn mouth. Just looking at your faces pisses me off."

After casually subduing the officers, Yeonghak turned to Go Jaewan.

"Go Jaewan. Long time. Didn't think I'd see you here again after discharge. This is fucked, isn't it? Talk. What happened?"

The moment Jaewan saw Yeonghak, everything he'd been holding in seemed to break at once. Voice thick with tears, he laid it all out — the forced re-conscription. The open fraud after they'd been promised a fortune in Magic Stones. Watching Seo Yeongcheol get carried away, and the message that had just come through: he was dead.

Yeonghak listened to every word in silence. Then he strode toward the officers.

"Died during disciplinary punishment, and they're calling it heat-related illness?"

Yeonghak started to laugh.

"Forget it. My mistake for expecting common sense from this shit-stain of a country."

He swung his sword. In an instant, every officer except the one at the front was carved apart and cut down. The reek of blood and the sticky spray of it painted the face of the sole survivor.

"Well, sir. Looks like your colleagues all died of 'pre-existing conditions.'"

The officer froze solid under Yeonghak's snickering. Yeonghak pressed the blade to his throat.

"The bitch who killed Seo Yeongcheol. Where is she? Why isn't she inside the Gate?"

The officer shook like a leaf. For all the title of an officer commanding hunters inside a Gate, he was a man who had never watched anyone die up close — and the killing intent Yeonghak radiated while carving people apart with a sword was more than he could endure.

"Th-the, the disciplinary training unit. Th-there's a female officer......."

Until a few days ago, Lee Yeonghak had still been a Korean-affiliated hunter. He knew exactly which female officer the man meant.

"Disciplinary unit officer, huh...... That bitch is an Awakened. Why isn't she at the outpost?"

"Orders from above...... If the hunters revolted, female officers might get hurt....... So only male officers were to be stationed......"

"You've got no sense, and now you've got no neck either."

A wet thud, and the officer's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head flew. Yeonghak shook the blood from his blade and tossed the longsword to Go Jaewan.

"One question."

"Yes. Go ahead, boss."

"Anyone here want to stay? Anyone want to throw their life away sealing Rifts for pocket change in the name of the Republic of Korea?"

Not a single hand went up. Of course not.

Yeonghak smiled.

"Then two favors. Feed these officers who died of 'pre-existing conditions' to Yongdul and Yongsam for dinner — then take Yongdul, Yongsam, and smash this outpost to pieces."

"Smash the outpost?"

"Yeah. These bastards treated hunters like dogshit. We return the favor."

Jaewan looked at his comrades. All 133 of them showed no resistance — the mood was clear: they would follow Yeonghak. Jaewan had no intention of going against it either.

"Then what about you, boss?"

"Gotta go grab that officer bitch. She should get exactly what she earned, right?"

"How, though? She's outside the Gate."

Without a word, Yeonghak tore the dead officer's uniform jacket into a makeshift hood and wrapped it around his face. Then he called Yongil over.

"Jaewan."

"Yes."

"I'm gonna tell you exactly what story we stick to from now on."

Yeonghak pulled a mana potion from his pocket and poured it into Yongil's mouth. The wyvern drank the can dry. From this point, even outside the Gate, Yongil wouldn't have its summon canceled by mana starvation for a good while.

"A pack of mutant wyverns burned the outpost, and one of them crossed the Gate and went on a rampage. Got it? These special mutants could survive outside the Gate without a Rift or any mana supply."

Jaewan looked from the corpses of the officers to Yeonghak and back. Yeonghak gave him a crooked grin.

"It's a country that rushes to cover up every death, isn't it? Who says we can't do the same?"

"True. Nobody says we can't."

"I'll bring that officer bitch back. Handle things here."

Yeonghak slipped into the least visible space between the wyvern's forelegs and vanished from sight. Then, together with Yongil, he crossed the Gate.

And that day—

"Wh-what the hell!!! It's a wyvern!!"

"There's no Rift — how is a wyvern operating outside the Gate........ AAAAAAGH!!!"

The military unit guarding the Daejeon Main Gate was reduced to a sea of fire.