The ones who hold the runic ropes, which mostly consisted of Berserkers who typically possessed the highest strength stat, started spinning the ropes as if cowboys spinning their lassoes. They threw the ropes in concert.
When these ropes touched the flame drake’s body, the runes on its surface glimmered. The ropes came to life and coiled around the drake’s body by itself. The Berserkers planted their feet on the ground. Others came and held their bodies to add their weights.
The drake struggled under the restrain, but the players holding the rope were still getting dragged. This showed how much stronger the drake was. Jack cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains to help. Only then did they stop the drake’s movement.
Arlcard, in the meantime, didn’t stop stabbing the flame drake.
“Stop! Arlcard, stop!” Jack shouted at him when he saw the drake’s HP continued to deplete.
With the expression as if had remembered something, Arlcard stopped.
Jeanny threw the small cube to the ground where the drake was. The cube broke apart into components. The components enlarged exponentially and formed a giant cage with metal bars. The drake was situated inside this cage.
“Okay, release,” Jeanny uttered.
The berserkers deactivated the runic ropes. The runes on its surface stopped glowing. The ropes detached from the drake’s body and returned to their holders.
The flame drake was banging the cage furiously. There was an HP bar above the cage. Every time the drake banged or bit on the cage, the HP bar decreased.
“Hurry proceed with the taming!” Jeanny called to Jack. She had given him all the six taming scrolls.
Jack immediately went up to the giant cage. When he was close, the drake opened its maw and breathed its fire.
Jack was taken aback. He instinctively used Roll and dodged to the side. But after his roll ended, he saw no flame come to where he was. The drake was still spewing flame, but the flame was halted within the cage. None of its fire escaped the cage. Although the cage’s HP bar decreased even faster.
“The monster’s attacks won’t hit anyone outside the cage. There is no need to worry,” Peniel assured him.
Jack ran again to the cage. He needed to have direct contact with the cage for the taming scroll to activate.
Arlcard was standing right next to the cage. When Jack arrived, the vampire said to him, “Can I leave now?”
‘Brother? Do you have lots of urgent matters?’ Jack thought inside. Outside, he said, “Please stay! There is a chance this beast will break free if the taming process fails.”
Arlcard sighed. “All right. One more time. After this, I really have to leave,” he said.
‘Ugh,’ Jack started to wonder if it was truly a boon to get this vampire as his companion.
Jack activated the Tame Draconic Guardian scroll in his hands. The scroll disintegrated, replaced by burning runes that encapsulated the entire cage. The drake seemed to be enraged by these runes. It increased the pace of its attacks. The cage shook from all the batterings, its HP continued to reduce.
Suddenly, Jack saw a wheel appear above him. The wheel was mostly yellow, with a small portion that was blue, and a very tiny portion that was red. A white needle was rotating swiftly around this wheel.
“What the…,” Jack was baffled by the sight.
“You need to hit the blue or red area when the needle was inside them!” Peniel explained. “If you managed to hit the red area, the taming process will be successful. If you hit the blue area, you have to do it five times for the taming to be successful. If you hit the yellow area, the wheel will break, and the taming fails.”
“What the f*ck! A mini-game?!” Jack uttered in consternation.
“Hurry! If the cage’s HP is depleted, the taming process will also fail and the drake will break out of the cage with full health,” Peniel said.
‘Bloody heck! Why didn’t you explain about this mini-game before we attempt this taming process then?’ Jack cursed in his mind.
“How do I hit it?” Jack asked.
“With your mind!” Peniel answered.
“Of course,” Jack grumbled. He looked at the rotating needle. It was so fast. Ideally, hitting the red area would be best since he only needed to hit it once. But the area was so tiny. Any faster or slower, he would hit the yellow area instead. The blue area was not that big as well but was more accommodating compared to the red.
Jack decided to play it safe. He focused his mind. When the needle was almost over the blue area, he sent his thought. The needle vibrated with a ping sound. The needle continued spinning, the wheel was still intact. Jack breathed a relieved sigh. Now, only needed four more times.
“Not enough time, go for the red one!” Peniel uttered.
“What?” Jack then noticed the cage’s HP as well. It was almost depleted.
“F*ck!” He cursed. They had wasted quite a lot of precious time learning this taming process.
“Use your runestone of probability! You will be able to widen the area on the wheel.”
‘Lady, again! Why didn’t you explain all this before we start?’ Jack lamented.
The runestone appeared beside him. He injected his willpower inside, the runestone flared brightly. He saw the red and blue area widen… a tiny bit.
“F*ck! It barely helps!” Jack cursed.
But he had a cheat skill for this mini-game. Jack smiled and activated Dragon’s Eye. His smile froze when he saw everything else become slow-motion, yet the spinning wheel continued to spin at the same rate.
“F*ck! This skill didn’t affect the taming wheel,” he cursed again.
The cage HP bar was almost empty. No time to dally anymore, Jack focused all his attention on the needle. When it almost hit the aggravatingly tiny red area, Jack hit the needle. The needle vibrated, but the ping sound was different. The wheel broke! The needle had gone past the red zone and hit the yellow area.
The fiery runes dissolved. The cage’s HP drained soon after. The cage broke apart, the flame drake came out roaring. Its HP had fully recovered.
“We fail! Everyone, go back to position!” Jeanny hurriedly gave the command.
Jack was also backstepping to put some distances. “Where is Arlcard?” He asked. ‘Don’t tell me that companion has truly bolted without permission?’
“Move aside!” Jack heard Arlcard’s words. He turned to the voice behind him and saw the vampire was being enveloped by multiple runes.
“Rune technique?” Jack thought when he recognized the move. Apparently, Arlcard had been gathering the energy when Jack was still doing the taming attempt.
“Damn! He has so little confidence in me succeeding the taming process?” Jack grumbled and jumped to the side.
Arlcard turned into a sword shadow and rushed past Jack. The shadow stabbed into the drake’s giant body. Jack saw a repeated scene of what had happened to Aubelard. Countless smaller sword shadows pierced out from the drake’s body before turning back and stabbing in again. The drake roared in pain as it stomped around haphazardly.
The others were captivated by the sight. Some were snapped back into action after they saw Jack shooting range spells and attacks. Soon, everyone resumed their offense, further increasing the pace by which the drake’s HP went down.
The flame drake’s HP hit the 30% mark much sooner than previously. Everyone repeated the process, The Man led the others as they threw the restraining runic ropes. Jack’s Myriad Ensnaring Chains had not gone off cooldown, but Arlcard helped by using his Shadow Lock spell.
Jeanny threw the second cube. The flame drake was again caught inside the cage.
Jack didn’t dawdle this time. He hurriedly went to the side of the cage.
“I’m off,” Arlcard said and vanished.
‘F*ck! The fellow didn’t even ask for permission this time,’ Jack cursed inside, but he didn’t let it distract him. He touched the cage and activated the Tame Draconic Guardian scroll.
The fiery runes again wrapped around the cage. The taming wheel appeared. Jack summoned his runestone of probability to increase the area of the blue and red zones by a little. Any increase helped. His Hundred Synchronous Thoughts allowed him to focus one thought on forcing his willpower for his runestone while another thought on the spinning needle on the wheel.
He decided to take the prudent way. He was gunning for hitting the blue zone five times.
Everyone watched on with hopeful eyes. They couldn’t see the taming wheel, but they could see from Jack’s expression that he was concentrating hard on something.
Unfortunately, his concentration wavered on the fourth hit. The noise of the drake banging on the cage was not helping. The needle missed by a tiny margin and hit the yellow area. The wheel broke.
“F*ck!” Jack cursed. He couldn’t remember anymore how many times he had cursed since the first taming attempt started.
Everyone watched with disappointment as the fiery runes dissolved.
Jack took out the third taming scroll. He looked at the cage’s HP. It was less than half already. If he tried to do the taming again, he won’t have enough time to hit the blue zone five times. He had to gamble with the red zone.
He didn’t waste much time thinking, he didn’t have the luxury of time. He activated the third scroll, repeating the taming process. The flame drake was getting even more agitated seeing the fiery runes appear again. It spewed its flame breath all around the cage in rage.
Jack ignored the drake’s tantrum and had all his concentration focused on the spinning needle. Jack let it spin a few times to grasp the rhythm. The cage’s HP continued to go down. Peniel was staring at the cage’s HP bar with worry, but she didn’t dare to utter a sound, worried that it might distract Jack.
When the cage HP bar was almost depleted, Jack hit the needle.
