A pointed snout and slitted eyes.
Between the gaping jaws, rows of sharp, jagged teeth were visible.
Its wings, spread wide enough to block out the sky, had thin membranes, exposing grotesque, throbbing veins.
The Wyvern’s Hunter Level was a staggering 250.
It was not a foe any of the current participants could handle.
“Kkiing, ngk……”
It wasn’t just humans who were affected by the Wyvern’s cry.
Even the monsters that had been throwing themselves against the protective barrier just moments before now cowered in fear.
Those with especially low levels rolled their eyes back and fainted, white froth bubbling from their mouths.
“Guhh……”
“Get a hold of yourself!”
If even monsters were like this, there was no way humans would be fine.
Civilians who weren’t Hunters clutched their chests and collapsed to the ground.
Those still conscious hurried to support the fallen, checking their complexions.
If someone was merely unconscious, it was a relief.
Some had even suffered cardiac arrest, so hands were busy performing emergency treatment.
“Why are those things here……?”
While everyone was paralyzed with fear, Roy’s eyes widened, his gaze fixed on the sky as if nailed in place.
It was because of the human figure riding on the Wyvern’s back.
Those clad in full armor with flags planted behind them were all too familiar to Roy.
The flag was embroidered with a large scarlet gerbera on a snow-white background.
Fluttering in the wind, the petals looked so lifelike it seemed as if they would scatter at any moment.
‘……It’s the Wyvern Unit of the Lumen Empire.’
It was one of the elite units Kairus had painstakingly trained.
Wyverns were high-level monsters even on the Continent of As.
Moreover, their ferocious temperament made taming them an almost impossible task.
‘I should have known there’d be this much danger, considering it’s about forming a Wyvern Unit.’
Even when Roy tried to dissuade him, warning of the risks, Kairus only grinned and personally went out hunting for Wyverns to tame.
Eventually, the mages of the Mage Tower all worked together to develop an artifact capable of taming Wyverns.
“……We have to destroy that.”
Roy pointed at the scarlet gem embedded in the center of the Wyvern rider’s chest.
That artifact was what allowed the Wyvern to obey its rider’s commands.
The Wyvern alone was dangerous enough, but one under a rider’s command was even more so.
“They’re coming this way!”
As one participant shouted, the Wyvern, which had been circling the sky as if it owned the place, suddenly dove toward the area where the most people were gathered.
The rider, seated in the saddle on the Wyvern’s back, could be seen whipping its sides.
The Wyvern’s eyes blazed bright red.
“Kiiiii!”
Even though it had been brainwashed by an artifact and forced to submit to a human, somewhere deep in its instincts, it still resented being controlled.
Since it couldn’t attack the one giving orders, it intended to unleash its ferocity on the helpless prey below.
“Everyone, move somewhere else!”
In the path of the descending Wyvern, Lee Jian appeared.
Of everyone on the island, she was the highest-level person present.
Even though the Wyvern’s Hunter Level was 250, Lee Jian’s was an astonishing 301.
However, this was also Lee Jian’s first time facing a Wyvern alone.
On top of that, her Hunter class was Healer.
‘At times like this, my class really sucks.’
But she couldn’t back down.
She knew all too well that if she retreated, there would inevitably be casualties.
“Roy hyung!”
As Roy couldn’t tear his gaze from the fluttering flag, Kim Chan grabbed his arm and pulled.
Roy’s fingers trembled.
With every flutter of the gerbera-embroidered flag, memories he had tried so hard to bury resurfaced one after another.
‘There are so many who follow you. Even the people praise you as a hero, not me.’
They had grown up like brothers.
Roy had spared no effort in using all his abilities for him.
If there was one person in the world he could entrust his back to, he believed without a doubt that it would be Kairus.
‘Urgh…’
But that very person betrayed Roy.
Not only did Kairus betray him, he even drove those who followed Roy into deadly traps and killed them.
All of them were Kairus’s own people.
They were Roy’s subordinates, but they had devoted everything to help Kairus unify the Continent of As, following Roy’s will.
“Kr…”
“Hyung, what’s wrong?”
Roy’s body collapsed to the ground.
Though there was no visible wound, he pressed his palm firmly over his heart.
It felt as if a sharp blade was piercing his chest at that very moment.
He could even vividly recall the merciless hand twisting the blade to finish him off.
“Die!”
“Kiiiii!”
While Roy was lost in his memories, the Wyvern and Lee Jian clashed.
As the Wyvern neared the ground, Lee Jian swung her Healer Stick with both hands, striking the Wyvern’s head.
Thanks to that, the Wyvern reeled, hovering about three meters above the ground, shaking its head.
“There’s a person on the Wyvern’s back!”
“No way! Someone actually tamed a Wyvern?”
After Lee Jian barely fended off the Wyvern’s charge, the faces of the participants watching the battle were filled with shock.
While the Tamer class did exist among Hunters, it was exceedingly rare.
And the types of monsters that could be tamed were so limited that most Tamers couldn’t even use their class to its full potential.
“What are you all doing? Attack!”
“But it’s a person……?”
The participants were thrown into confusion.
There had never been a person appearing inside a dungeon before.
Wyverns were monsters.
‘So, was the person controlling the Wyvern also a monster?’
It was a simple question, but one they had never considered before, so panic set in.
“They’re definitely human, but it’s fine to attack! That’s the one controlling the Wyvern!”
Lee Jian tried to calm the panicked participants.
She herself was doing her best not to show it, but was internally flustered as well.
Wyverns had high attack power, but their intelligence was lower than other monsters of the same level.
As long as you understood their charging attack pattern, the fight could be managed much more easily.
“You bastard, why don’t you get down from up there instead of just sitting pretty?”
But because of the one controlling the Wyvern, its attacks became more unpredictable.
Every time Lee Jian tried to land a decisive blow, the rider would steer the Wyvern away into the air.
The Wyvern, incensed by being attacked, kept trying to lunge at Lee Jian, but under the rider’s control, it went against its own instincts.
“Haa……”
Lee Jian took a ragged breath, pushing back her disheveled hair.
Her neatly tied hair had long since come undone and now hung wildly.
“If only my teammates were here.”
Even though they bickered every day, her close-knit teammates’ faces flashed before her eyes.
As a Healer, Lee Jian was a non-combat member.
When stressed, she’d sometimes use her Healer Stick to whack monsters like a game of whack-a-mole, but that was just for fun.
In a real battle like this, being a Healer was utterly useless.
The only reason she was managing was because her level was so much higher than the Wyvern’s, so her physical attacks were effective.
“Ber, Aqua.”
“Pii!” (I’ve been waiting for you to call me!)
“Pororoo!” (That’s right! I’ll never forgive that Flag of the Lumen Empire!)
Shaking off the thoughts clouding his mind, Roy gave instructions to Ber and Aqua.
Although Lee Jian was holding on, she was barely dodging the Wyvern’s claws each time they swung at her.
“Ugh! How are we supposed to dodge that?”
The other participants couldn’t even get close to the Wyvern. Lee Jian at least had a high level.
For the participants, even a glancing blow could mean serious injury.
“Anyone who can attack from a distance, please help! Don’t get close no matter what!”
Knowing that, Lee Jian drew the Wyvern’s attention by striking its head with the Healer Stick whenever it seemed the participants were in danger.
“Piiik!” (How dare a mere Wyvern!)
With a piercing cry, Ber soared into the air.
His eyes blazed with fury, but even when the Wyvern was showered in Ber’s flames, it seemed to feel little pain.
“Kkii?”
In fact, the Wyvern seemed to enjoy the warmth, spreading its wings to catch the flames rather than avoid them.
“Por!” (And you call that an attack?)
Aqua, thinking quickly, wrapped a huge water droplet around the Wyvern’s face.
The same was done to the rider on its back.
For the first time, the rider let go of the reins he’d been holding.
He raised his hand, trying to wipe away the water droplet covering his face.
But his hand simply slipped out of the droplet, unable to achieve its purpose.
“Kiiiiik!”
However, Aqua’s water droplet attack didn’t last long and soon dissipated into the air.
Right after the Wyvern, gasping for breath, let out a powerful cry.
“Everyone, get over here!”
The production crew weren’t just standing by, either.
In preparation for emergencies, they had various artifacts ready.
The staff who activated the protective artifact quickly guided participants who hadn’t evacuated yet to the inside.
The dome-shaped artifact could easily accommodate dozens of people.
“Lee Jian! Catch this!”
The staff then tossed a round, orb-shaped artifact to Lee Jian.
“‘Binding Net,’ is it?”
It was an extremely expensive artifact.
At this level, it could even restrain a Wyvern.
The only problem was that it required enough magic power to activate it, so no one else could use it.
“Let’s see you stay still for once!”
As Lee Jian poured her magic into it, the previously white orb gradually turned blue.
She aimed precisely at the Wyvern’s head and threw the orb.
The Wyvern, struck hard on the crown, shook its head irritably.
The blue light from the orb quickly spread, and in an instant, a dense net wrapped around the Wyvern.
“Kiiiiik! Kiik!”
The Wyvern thrashed like a fish caught in a net. Lee Jian dropped to her knees, gasping for breath.
“PD-nim, what about other monsters besides this Wyvern?”
“For some reason, only this Wyvern and that mysterious person came out of the dungeon.”
Hearing that, Lee Jian’s eyes widened.
It was surprising enough that a sudden dungeon had appeared on the island, but for only one monster to emerge?
Of course, it was a relief.
If there had been even five Wyverns instead of one, there would have been casualties for sure.
Even for Lee Jian, fighting five Wyverns at once would have been impossible.
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