Legendary Boss Tamed
Parties 41, 42, and 43 were known as the Rebel Squad.
Hunters who'd attempted escape at least once, serving five or seven years instead of the standard three. Bastards who'd somehow survived this long without dying. Because of that, they were people who'd worked with Yeonghak for years — and when it came to teamwork, they were monsters.
"Seongho! Pin its legs with the Abyss Worms! Focus only on restraining it!"
"Yes, hyung."
"Everyone else — same as always!!"
At my command, the Abyss Worms erupted from the ground and coiled around the legs of the ancient dragon that had been looking down on us with open contempt. The moment it was locked down, Yeonghak and the melee dealers charged in.
"Blunt weapons!!"
Hunters stowed their blades and drew blunt weapons. Only Yeonghak still held his longsword. Without anyone needing to tell them, they zeroed in on the ancient dragon's joints.
"Looking somewhere else?"
While Yeonghak drew aggro by hurling Aura Blades at its face, the rest of the party hammered the legs. From the rear, archers armed with compound bows loosed arrows loaded with piercing skills and aura.
The mages layered debuff after debuff onto the ancient dragon, making it harder and harder for the creature to move.
Up to this point, the fight was going exactly as planned — the way we'd always fought.
Abyss Worm has died. Can no longer be summoned.
"You little shit—?"
Just as its HP was steadily dropping, the ancient dragon suddenly flexed and casually tore apart the Abyss Worms gripping its feet. Those massive, powerful worms ripped apart like paper. Then it started swinging its forelegs.
"Dodge!"
The melee dealers slipped the attacks with ease. But that was exactly what the dragon wanted. The moment they backed off, it opened its jaws without a second's hesitation. The surrounding air and mana began sucking into its mouth at tremendous speed — and moments later, it erupted in a blast of transcendent heat.
"Into the defensive magic!"
The mages slammed up barriers at once, and the melee dealers dove inside, surviving the breath attack.
But—
"The mana drain is insane!"
"Yeonghak! We can't tank this more than twice even if we die and come back! We need to end this before then!"
The breath's overwhelming power had gutted the party's mages of their mana. Yeonghak paused at their words. He was probably rewriting the entire strategy at lightning speed.
"Archers, pull aggro! Mages, keep the debuffs up! Seongho!"
"Yes, hyung!"
"Wherever the melee dealers and I are hitting — you hit there too."
The moment the words left his mouth, Yeonghak charged out. Together with the melee dealers, he began mercilessly pounding one of the dragon's hind-leg joints. Just from watching, the rest of us understood exactly what he was going for.
"He's trying to immobilize it!"
"Ranged DPS, keep the face aggro up!"
As the archers relentlessly targeted the dragon's eyes and eyelids, it couldn't open them properly and staggered. Meanwhile, my legion of dozens of monsters and the melee dealers all swarmed the hind-leg joint.
No matter how well armored in hard dragon scales, joints were structurally weak points. With Yeonghak's Aura Blade, the melee dealers' indiscriminate blunt-weapon thrashing, and my monster legion's raw power all focused there, it wasn't long before a sickening crack of bone rang out.
KRAAAARGH!!
The ancient dragon screamed in agony. Seeing it limp, proper movement was out of the question.
Then it spread its wings wide, intending to take to the sky and create distance.
Ironically, this was the exact moment Yeonghak had been waiting for most.
"Wing membrane exposed!!"
Our party had hunted dragonkin many times before. Even with an ancient dragon, we knew exactly what it would do in any given situation. The moment its folded wings spread and the membrane was exposed, the archers' aura-loaded arrows and the mages' offensive magic detonated against it.
Even the wing membrane — protected by overwhelming durability and the mana flowing around the ancient dragon's body — was struck cleanly by piercing skills and the powerful mana loaded into arrowheads and spells. With its membrane ruptured in a single volley, the ancient dragon was left unable to fly.
At this point, even it looked a little flustered.
"It's an ancient dragon, but it only just molted — so the difficulty itself isn't much different from a Wyrm-class!! Same patterns, just enhanced attack power!!"
At Yeonghak's analysis, the raiding party's fighting spirit soared.
"Hit the body!! Keep stacking damage! Drop its HP below ten percent! Don't kill it!!"
The dealers started attacking the torso. Attacks combining blunt weapons with defense-ignore skills punched straight through dragon scales and mana defense, and the damage began to pile up.
The archers obsessively targeted the eyes with arrows, and the mages kept stacking debuff after debuff.
Unable to fly and limping on a shattered leg, it had nowhere to run.
KRAAAAAH!!!
The ancient dragon eventually changed tactics, loading its forelegs with mana and swinging them like a mad thing. Overwhelmingly faster than a Wyrm-class — and a single hit would mean certain death.
But that was all.
Its actions didn't stray far from Wyrm-class patterns.
With Yeonghak and the melee dealers' experience and skill honed over long years, they could dodge well enough.
Still, when a dangerous moment came—
"Block it!"
Twin-Head Ogre has died. Can no longer be summoned.
I sacrificed a monster to block the attack.
Even a rotten herring is still a herring.
No matter how freshly ascended, an ancient dragon was still an ancient dragon.
My precious monsters were dying in droves. The melee dealers' fatigue was skyrocketing from dodging one-hit-kill attacks. The mages' mana was running dry. The archers' arrows were running out. After three breath attacks and dozens of foreleg swings that had reduced the surrounding area to scorched earth, the ancient dragon's HP bar finally dropped below ten percent.
"Seongho! Now!!!"
The moment the last Twin-Head Ogre sacrificed itself as a shield for the melee dealers, Yeonghak roared at me.
I stretched my hand toward the ancient dragon.
Please.
End it in one shot.
"Chains of Submission!"
My exclusive skill activated.
The ancient dragon, about to make a final desperate struggle, suddenly froze.
Casting Chains of Submission on target <Flame Dragon of Despair>!
Target's level is extremely high!
Target is beginning to resist!!
"Ghk!"
As expected, this was no ordinary foe.
The ancient dragon's resistance — desperately trying to escape my Chains of Submission with tremendous willpower — far exceeded anything I'd imagined.
But I was desperate too.
Pouring mana and mental strength into it, I continued the tug-of-war with the dragon. When it resisted, I tightened harder. Then it would match me with even stronger resistance.
"This fucking bastard...... is resisting...... so damn hard."
The tug-of-war dragged on for over ten minutes.
Honestly, both the dragon and I were exhausted.
But I clenched my teeth.
I scraped together every last scrap of mental strength and mana.
Sangmin's face floated into my mind.
What that bastard Cho Geunseong had done to us.
Using rage as fuel—
I squeezed out my final mental strength and began crushing the dragon's mind.
The scales tipped.
I could feel its mind coming under my control.
You think I'm gonna fucking die?
I will never.
Die a miserable death.
You told the male parasites to bounce back, right?
I'm not bouncing back.
I'm going to survive right in front of your faces.
And I'm going to survive well.
And this time, we'll treat you as disposable the way you treated us!!!
"Stop thrashing and...... bow your fucking head, you piece of shit!!!"
With my roar, the ancient dragon's mind finally fell completely under my dominion.
Light returned to the dragon's glazed eyes.
And then—
Deep Contract
You can now call forth and use one skill from a monster tamed with your Unique Skill!
"Cancel summon."
At my single word, a magic circle formed beneath the battered ancient dragon's feet, and its form vanished.
That meant the taming had succeeded.
Flame Dragon of Despair is recovering in subspace!
Full recovery in 3 days 12 hours.
"We did it!!!"
At my shout, everyone started yelling together without waiting for anyone else. We hugged each other and laughed for a long time. Miraculously, not a single person had died or been seriously injured. The worst injury was a guy with a clawed chest bleeding — and a mage healed him right away with recovery magic.
"Let's head back to base."
After treating the wounded and destroying the Rift Stone to completely seal off the rift leading to Earth, I immediately resummoned three Wyverns and started heading back to base.
"What did you mean by what you said just now?"
On the way back with the three parties, Yeonghak asked me that.
"I saw the news. In America, they refined Magic Stones into a substance called Elixir. They say it can create room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors."
"Magic Stones........ are worth money? Weren't they just rocks?"
"Apparently not. If the news I saw is accurate, that is."
Hyung's expression brightened.
"There's a mountain of them piled up in the base warehouse."
"Right. And we're going to take all of it."
"What?"
"Why shouldn't we? We earned that grinding our lives away."
Yeonghak shook his head.
"The base leader and the female soldiers managing the base have the warehouse keys. What are you going to do — rob them?"
"If we have to, yes."
"Are you serious?"
"Dead fucking serious."
"What if they resist?"
I was silent for a moment at Yeonghak's words. But from my chilling expression, he seemed to figure out exactly what I intended.
"You're really going to go all the way?"
"If I wasn't going all the way, I wouldn't have started."
"Public opinion against us might get completely destroyed."
I burst out laughing at that.
"Hyung. When has the media ever been on our side? Those bastards who'd drop celebrity news at the perfect timing whenever one of our party members died?"
"......."
"Has South Korea itself ever been on our side? Those bastards want to take the Magic Stones we've piled up over the past ten years grinding hunters' lives — and we're just supposed to watch? That's ours. We're selling it. To whichever country offers the best price."
"And that money — we keep it?"
"We keep it. Split it fairly."
Yeonghak was silent for a moment at my words.
But what he was going to say was already decided.
"Fine. We take it. Fuck it."
Hyung grinned at me.
I grinned back at him.
In the distance—
the base was coming into view.