Chapter 31: Chapter 31
There was a good saying in my old life. 'Fucking around, and finding out.' But there was another step, a higher level of dumbassery to achieve as a living sentient being who purposefully courted death.
And there was little else to call our actions in trying to tame an Infant Dragon with our level one asses, other than courting death. Or at the very least, a very hearty mauling was in our future.
'Actually... What the hell am I doing? Typically Tina is the one telling me this kinda shit is a stupid idea, which is going to get us killed?' I thought wryly as I peeked down at the short blond figure next to me who was carefully walking over the thick branches and roots that covered the ground that came from the dead trees that filled the heavily fog-filled floors we were on.
But we kept going, deeper into the large caverns of the 11th floor carefully killing the monsters we came across and making sure we didn't end up getting crushed by Orcs, Hard Armored, or the massive Silverbacks which were besides the Infant Dragon, the strongest monsters on the floors ten to twelve.
Eventually though, our actions in seeking death paid off... As the prey we sought, was found. A loud hiss rang out as the horse-sized 'baby' dragon angrily turned towards the sounds of our footsteps coming towards it.
Its crimson glowing eyes, being a clear sign of it being controlled by the dungeon's will, tightened into a tighter slit as it took in our appearance and... Literally looked behind and around the clearing we found it in. Clearly looking for more adventurers.
"I feel insulted." I muttered but regardless I took a breath and took out my 'taming weapon' a Kanabo. Which was basically a wooden club studded with metal spikes and studs in order to beat people to death via the powerful weight-shattering bones under any armor the person or thing had.
This made the Kanabo the perfect weapon for taming monsters as I didn't have time to carefully beat down a monster into obedience with how small my adventuring party was. Unlike the Ganesha and other monster tamer Familia's, who went down in groups a dozen strong to tame monsters safely. After all, if I broke all the monster's limbs I could just toss it into the 'pet carrier' I used to carry that Jack Bird home and when I got home I could take my time beating it into obedience.
The Infant Dragon didn't give us time to formulate a plan, and nor did we bother to beforehand, as we were well aware the small dragon was physically much stronger than the both of us. Maybe Tina could directly overpower it with her Blood Fury, but at that level. I knew she would lose control over herself and although wouldn't hurt me, would probably just run on a killing spree in the dungeon until she exhausted herself.
And I wouldn't be able to follow her in that scenario.
The infant dragon's flame was like a blow torch aimed at us and I grimaced seeing the rocks under my breath turning red from the flames as we both dodged to the side and closed in on the stomping dragon.
Tina using her Blood Fury skill dashed forward at great speed and tried to ram her spear into one of the dragon's legs but the dragon's prehensile tail whipped at her an actually cracking noise with the Pallum ducking underneath the muscular tail that attempted to snap into her head.
While that happened I ran in on the other side and as the dragon and Tina were resetting from their attempts at killing or crippling the other. I stomped forward and brought down the Kanabo in a vicious axe-chopping motion that slammed the studded club into the orange-colored scales that covered its spine and upper ribs of the infant dragon. With a harsh cracking noise ringing out from the blow.
The dragon choked with gutted flames shooting through its jaws at me knocking the air out of its chest but seeing as it didnt collapse or something, I knew I hadn't shattered its spine to cripple, so I came back with another blow but the infant dragon hissed and with its long neck looked to the side and its large fang filled jaws attempted to close on my chest.
Seeing the fang-filled jaws and the flames within the back of the dragon's throat building, I rolled to the side quickly with the dragons mouth shattering the dungeon stone floor as it took a bite out of it and then screamed with Tina being the culprit as she had rammed her spear through both of the dragon's back legs like it was a deer about to be hung from a tree to be bled out.
Having a spear rammed through both of your legs as a quadruped must have really screwed with its motor control as the moment it tried to take a step to take a bite out of me again, I could see it stagger as its back legs got caught on the spear so with it staggering I was able to lay a punishing slam of the Kanabo directly onto the snoot of the dragon that made it hiss in agony.
"Jake spear!" Tina called and as I rolled back to my feet I took out my own spear and tossed it at her, with the spear obviously facing completely upwards so she could easily grab the shaft of the spear as flew towards her.
Even as Tina went to stabbing the front legs now of the Infant Dragon, I carefully danced between the lunges and lesser exhales of flames, though thankfully my leather armor under my scale mail was keeping the heat from the dragon flames from burning me from its indirect contact. Thus even as I danced between the dragon's blows, I treated the dragon's head like a Pinata with my Kanabo.
With Tina's spear lodged inside the back legs of the Infant Dragon, it literally could only remain on its feet, it couldn't take any steps backwards or forwards to help it lunge forward or even to reposition itself.
That blow Tina made. Made all the difference as all her other ones did squat as even as she carved into the dragon's front legs trying to bring it down. It didn't matter as much honestly. As after a half dozen blows to the head by the Kanabo, I could see the dungeon-branded hate in the dragon's eyes was dulling as the obvious concussion was scrambling the dragon's brains.
Finally as its head lolled, I with a batter's swing, swung with all the power of a pro baseball batter with my Falna-enhanced strength. And a loud crack rang out as my Kanabo shattered the dragon's jaw and the shock made the dragon freeze before its head lulled as it fell unconscious due to the blow.
"Ha... Alright, stuff the bastard into the dog house." I panted with exertion as I took out a healing potion. As now I could feel the burns on my hands that didn't have scale mail and leather separating my flesh from the heat from the dragon's flames.
But as I threw out the expanding trap house for monsters to cart the Infant Dragon back home. I froze, as a series of clapping rang out
"Most interesting... Why are you in the dungeon capturing an infant dragon, rather than working on the cure for Alfia and our adorable Materia?" A voice questioned coldly and from the nearby fog came a white-haired, curvaceous woman wielding a trident-style spear in one hand.
'A Hera member was following us?' I thought grimacing at the thought but was thankful they hadn't seen me fuse anything.