Chapter 285: Ten‑Strike Dragon Down

The moment he saw it clearly, Lei En was certain it was a dragon.

Because it was far away—over ten li—the Soul Eye couldn't measure its size precisely, so based on surrounding objects he estimated its length at about twelve meters.

Lei En zoomed his view in a bit more and finally could see clearly.

It was a Flying Dragon, not a Red Dragon.

A single character separates them, yet their power differs by heavens. Flying Dragons belong to a dragon‑blooded race whose lineage descends from true dragons, and they are among the dragon‑blooded closest to true dragons, dubbed sub‑dragons, but they are still not true dragons; the gap in potential and intellect is enormous.

True dragons—what people call great dragons—are, like humans and elves, an intelligent race that once ruled this world, possessing a brilliant civilization and glorious history.

Flying Dragons, however, are merely draconic beasts; their bloodline grants them power, but fundamentally they differ little from other low‑intelligence beasts.

This Flying Dragon was covered head to toe in red scales, its build massive and majestic, its wings membranous like bat wings, its head resembling a Red Dragon's, eyes like fire, expression fierce; unlike the Red Dragon, it lacked a splendid horn crown, and beneath its belly were only two stout hind legs, no foreclaws—typical Flying Dragon traits.

Flying Dragons form a huge family, with at least fifteen distinct forms and habits.

Lei En could identify it without the monster encyclopedia on his phone; it must be a Flame‑Breathing Flying Dragon, commonly called a Flame Dragon.

Flame Dragons are the most renowned among Flying Dragons, ranking in the top three in strength; their bloodline stems from Red Dragons, inheriting the Red Dragon's ferocity, brutality, and greed, making them notoriously infamous.

It flew in from afar, apparently hunting, and spotted a Ghost‑Faced Vulture carcass on the ground.

After a terrifying roar, the Flying Dragon dived down.

It opened its jaws and spewed a high‑temperature flame, cooking the Vulture carcass and the dozen‑plus Plateau Wolves startled by its roar; with a boom it landed, claiming all food within a kilometer radius and began devouring greedily.

The Flame Dragon ate while glancing toward the airship.

Its eyesight was excellent, far surpassing ordinary monsters, but because it was so distant, it didn't notice anyone on the airship watching it.

Lei En withdrew his gaze and said, "Did you see it?"

"Flame Dragon?" Yisu replied uncertainly; he couldn't see such a distant object clearly, only guessing from its outline.

"Exactly," Lei En nodded, a hint of interest in his eyes. "Let's go take a look."

Yisu shook his head. "If you intend to tame a Flame Dragon, I advise you not to waste your effort. A Flame Dragon's temper is worse than a Red Dragon's; even a Red Dragon, however ferocious, at least possesses intelligence for communication and bargaining, whereas a Flame Dragon is almost mindless, only knowing how to eat, kill, and mate. I've never heard anyone tame a Flame Dragon."

"Ha ha, of course I know the traits of a Flame Dragon."

Lei En chuckled twice, calmly saying, "But how would I know without trying? If I can't tame it, I'll kill it and extract its magic soul."

He ordered the captain to slow the airship and halt to wait.

Yisu summoned a Summer Black Eagle from the Shadow Plane, revealing its true giant eagle form; Lei En leapt onto its back with him, flying toward the Flame Dragon.

The Summer Black Eagle moved at extreme speed, quickly closing the gap.

However, to avoid startling prey, Lei En had the Summer Black Eagle land, using a hillside a few miles away to shield their view.

Lei En took out his blood‑red cloak, draped it over his back, suppressed his aura, then gently brushed his invisibility ring, vanishing completely.

Yisu entered the Shadow Plane.

They raced onward, the Flame Dragon drawing nearer; Lei En stopped over three hundred meters away, now able to see it very clearly.

This Flame Dragon was fully grown and extremely powerful, equivalent to a Level‑9 Transcendent.

Flying Dragons' growth cycle is longer than humans' but far shorter than true dragons: under thirty years is juvenile, thirty to two hundred years is adult, and over two hundred years is senior.

Any Flame Dragon that reaches adulthood becomes a high‑rank Flying Dragon.

From its soul state, the Flame Dragon before them was about eighty years old, at the peak of its age.

If luck is sufficient, it may later ascend to Legend.

The Soul Eye showed that the Flame Dragon possessed many Elements, as many as ten.

More than half of those Elements related to fire: Flame Jet, Fireball, Flame Affinity, Flame Armor, Rage‑Flame Dive, plus the dragon‑blood traits "Dragon Skin" and "Dragon Roar", as well as Level‑6 Strength, Level‑4 Toughness, and Level‑5 Endurance.

Lei En had seen Borqi, the golden three‑headed dragon, one of whose heads was a Red Dragon.

A Flame Dragon is essentially a fully weakened version of a Red Dragon.

Although not a true dragon, its strength is not to be underestimated; it surpasses ordinary high‑rank magical beasts or Transcendents by far. Killing it is easy; capturing it alive is not.

Lei En continued observing for a while.

The Flame Dragon was vigilant but did not notice any enemies approaching; it kept swallowing several Ghost‑Faced Vultures and Plateau Wolves.

It disliked raw meat, always roasting it with flame before eating.

Obviously, this feast gave the Flame Dragon great enjoyment.

Lei En glanced at Yisu in the Shadow Plane; he had already positioned himself not far behind the Flame Dragon, waiting for his move.

He drew his Arcane Torrent Staff and Thunder Hammer, holding the staff in his left hand and the hammer in his right.

A portal opened before them.

The Flame Dragon, mid‑devour, instantly sensed the magical fluctuation, snapped its head around, two flame‑like pupils rising in its eye sockets, and spewed star‑like smoke from its nostrils.

It saw only the portal, not the enemy.

The next second, Lei En passed through the portal and appeared above the Flame Dragon, dropping straight onto its head with a hammer strike.

Roar!

The Flame Dragon reacted instantly, spewing flame from its mouth, then turning its head upward for a sweeping indiscriminate attack.

Its Flame Jet was a four‑ring spell, the high‑temperature fire capable of melting iron, but it met its match: Lei En's blood‑red cloak billowed behind him, a pale‑red aura shielding his whole body, blocking most of the flame's power; the remaining half was resisted by a crystal skin formed by Dragon‑Force technique, leaving only slight burns on his steel‑like hide.

Lei En pressed through the descending flames, hammer striking the Flying Dragon's head.

A muffled boom sounded.

The Flame Dragon's head was struck; the half‑spurted flame was forced back into its belly, and lightning from the war hammer erupted, scorching a patch of charred black on its scaled armor.

Lei En didn't use his full strength—about sixty percent—but triggered the hammer's Thunder Heavy Strike, amplifying force threefold, still smashing the Flame Dragon's skull onto the ground, eliciting a painful wail.

Its massive body rolled on the ground, suppressing the headache while vibrating its wings, then vaulted upward into the sky.

The Flame Dragon had realized the enemy's terrifying power and had no desire to fight.

Lei En, of course, would not give it a chance to escape.

He raised his staff to accelerate the spell, almost instantaneously, a flash closing the gap with the Flame Dragon, then he lifted his hand and unleashed a Thunderclap.

Boom!

A thunderbolt on a clear day rang out, the Thunderclap Technique exploded beside the Flame Dragon's head, nearly deafening it, and the violent shockwave knocked the stunned Flying Dragon down.

The Flame Dragon's resistance was outstanding; its fourth‑level toughness gave it extremely high defense, and before it hit the ground it shed the dizziness.

It rolled over to regain balance, looked around but found no enemy, its eyes filled with fear.

Bang!

Another heavy hammer slammed onto its head, making the Flame Dragon see stars, and it could no longer maintain flight, crashing heavily to the ground, kicking up countless specks of dust and grass stalks.

In panic, the Flame Dragon could not bother to track the enemy; it rolled while opening its mouth to spew wildly, and a series of fireballs exploded around it.

Within a hundred meters around it, flames engulfed the area, burning fiercely.

Lei En had long ago used a portal to stay beyond safe distance, calmly watching the Flame Dragon spew fire like a headless fly.

Half a minute later, the Flame Dragon had just ceased spitting, panting heavily, when an electric‑shimmering war hammer flew out of the flames and smashed hard onto its snout.

Aaa…

The Flame Dragon let out a mournful cry as it saw the war hammer being yanked back by a bolt of lightning.

The lightning was linked to a human, and it finally saw the enemy's form.

The Flame Dragon's eyes reddened as it desperately activated "Furious Flame Dive", flames igniting its wings to boost speed; with a roar, its massive body surged forward at breakneck speed, its legs leaving the ground as it lunged at Lei En.

However, what met it was a sphere of silver light.

The Electric Blast Orb detonated solidly on the Flame Dragon's body, unleashing countless bolts of lightning; even though Flame Armor Technique and Dragon Skin mitigated some damage, its flesh was still blown open, especially a deep, bone‑visible crater on its chest, blood gushing out.

It wasn't fatal, but enough to hinder the Flame Dragon's movements.

It could no longer think of retaliation and fled in panic again.

Just a few meters after taking off, another thunderclap exploded beside its ear, flipping the Flame Dragon over and sending it crashing to the ground.

While it was still dizzy, Lei En flashed over, swinging the war hammer to strike three times.

Bang bang bang!

After the three blows, the Flame Dragon rolled its white eyes and passed out, its wildly flapping wings ceased, its claws stopped struggling, and its body lay like a small mountain before them.

Yisu emerged from the shadow plane, helplessly saying, "I knew you didn't need me to act; you could handle it yourself."

Hehe…

Lei En smiled proudly; with his current strength, a mere high‑rank Flying Dragon was no challenge. If it weren't for wanting to capture it alive, he could have killed it with a single hammer blow.

Yisu circled the Flame Dragon half a turn, leapt onto its back, and stamped two steps.

He was somewhat curious, "How do you plan to tame it?"

Among the transcendants there is a profession called Wilderness Hunter; they excel at taming all kinds of beasts, monsters, even dragon‑born as companions. However, taming is done only while the target's mind is lucid, and soul contracts are likewise voluntary; no one has ever seen anyone complete taming in a comatose state.

Yisu knew this very well.

He had previously spent years and countless effort to sign a soul contract with the Shado Black Eagle, finally taming it.

Not to mention this was a ferocious Flame Dragon; Yisu saw no chance of success.

Lei En, however, was confident.

But he didn't intend to tell Yisu, smiling, "Sorry, that's my secret; you go wait for me on the airship."

Yisu shrugged, summoned the Shado Black Eagle to carry him away.

After he was far away, Lei En approached the Flame Dragon, looking at the massive creature weighing at least twenty‑to‑thirty thousand pounds.

He opened his mobile phone interface and activated the Taming Title: Master.

He selected Activate, consuming battery power.

Facing away from the airship, Lei En's hand produced a phantom sphere of red and white; after a few seconds it solidified, and he pressed it against the Flame Dragon's head, the sphere sinking beneath its skin.

A burst of white light radiated from the Flame Dragon's body, lasted a few seconds, then vanished.

"Failed."

Lei En muttered.

Half a year earlier, after the third Soul Transformation opened the Taming Title: Master, he had privately experimented with small animals in the castle, roughly grasping how this phone function worked.

Each taming attempt had a certain success rate, higher or lower, directly correlated with the target's soul strength.

The stronger the soul, the lower the chance of successful taming.

Using oneself as a benchmark, if the soul is weaker than one's own, multiple tries usually succeed; if stronger, it's essentially impossible.

That time on Zhu Bile Mountain, when taming a golden three‑headed dragon, Lei En merely gave it a try, holding a gamble mentality, like buying a lottery ticket—seeming odds of a few in a million—when in fact it was impossible from the start, infinitesimally close to zero, merely a psychological comfort.

The Flame Dragon's soul was strong, yet clearly weaker than his own, so the chance of successful taming wasn't low.

Lei En again formed a red‑white sphere, failed.

Failed.

Failed.

Failed…

Lei En's complexion grew darker, almost to the point of questioning his life.

Forming one red‑white sphere consumed two units of battery; he could attempt up to fifty times. In practice, Lei En could only try about forty‑five times, not wanting to drain the power and shut the phone down.

Finally, on the eleventh taming attempt, the white light on the Flame Dragon's body did not fade and grew brighter.

After a minute, the white light enveloped its entire body, as if wrapped.

"Success!"

"Damn, that was really hard…"

Lei En was both shocked and delighted—shocked that his face had turned so dark, a true unlucky streak with ten consecutive blacks; delighted that he finally had a decent flying mount, never needing Yisu's tailwind eagle again.

A flash of white light glittered, and the massive Flame Dragon vanished into thin air.

Lei En was not surprised; he knew that after successful taming, the pet would be stored in a unique space, ready to be released at any time.

A Flying Dragon image appeared in the Pet Taming Master's interface.

Its appearance was exactly the same as the Flame Dragon's, its whole body blazing red like fire, with wings and feet, and a ferocious demeanor. Beside the image, ten Elements were displayed, matching the Elements previously seen through the Soul Eye down to the last detail.

Lei En had previously explored this; he can choose one of these Elements and gain that Element's ability.

This is much like a Soul Contract, allowing the parties to share certain Elements.

However, the Pet Taming Master is actually a one‑sided contract: Lei En can obtain one Element from the pet, but the pet cannot, so the parties are not equal.

Additionally, Lei En can designate another person to become the pet's trainer, substituting himself, to forge an intimate bond with the pet and obtain one of the pet's Elements.

But once a trainer is designated, Lei En retains only control and no longer receives any Elements.

The background color of the Flying Dragon image also carries meaning.

Green indicates health, red indicates injury, gray indicates loss of control, black indicates death; in the upper right corner of the image is a number from 0 to 100 representing the pet's loyalty.

Lei En glanced at it; the Flame Dragon's loyalty was 50, an initial value, neither good nor bad.

If loyalty falls below 50, the pet is no longer that obedient to its master; below 30, the relationship becomes distant; below 10, it disobeys commands and often rebels; if loyalty reaches 0, the pet will flee and may even attack its master.

Generally, loyalty should be kept above 60 to be safe.

Simply spending time together and feeding the pet by hand will gradually raise loyalty; if it reaches above 80, the pet and master are in sync, needing no verbal commands and sharing exceptional rapport in battle.

Lei En is very familiar with these; they are the rules of the original pet‑taming game.

He immediately summoned a Flame Dragon.

If a pet stays long in the training space, its loyalty drops and it continuously consumes power, so it should be released as much as possible.

After a flash of white light, the Flame Dragon appeared before him.

It had already regained consciousness from fainting; the training space has some healing ability, and the injuries to its head and chest have stopped bleeding.

Its flame‑like eyes were somewhat dazed; when it saw Lei En before it, it instinctively tried to spew fire and then flee.

Suddenly it felt Lei En was very friendly and couldn't help wanting to get close.

Even the Flame Dragon's savage nature could not erase this sense of friendliness; it hesitated for a few seconds, then finally lowered its head and lay down before Lei En.

Lei En straddled the junction where the Flame Dragon's neck meets its body.

The scales here were broad and thick, like a chair without a back; once seated, his legs rested on both sides of the Flying Dragon's neck, the forward view was open, and the comfort was fairly good.

"Let's go, take off."

Lei En patted the Flame Dragon, and it immediately understood, vibrating its wings and soaring into the sky.

The gale howled, and the Flame Dragon's flight speed was slightly slower than the Xia Duo Black Eagle's, about one hundred fifty miles per hour, but that was sufficient.

A few minutes later, the Flame Dragon flew to the side of the airship.

The Extreme Warriors on the deck cheered wildly upon seeing Lei En on the dragon's back. Yi Su could hardly believe his eyes, extremely curious, wondering how Lei En managed it.

(End of Chapter)