Dragon's Tale 63

Master Antonius proved that his reputation as a good leader was accurate. He stayed in the meeting room for another half an hour, casually talking to establish a good rapport before leaving. 

Oh, his attitude was completely fake, of course. His hidden disgust to actually spend that much time entertaining a slave was not too hidden, but his position didn’t allow him to apply a more even-handed approach. 

After he left, I stayed in a while more, just to further sell the idea that I was fascinated with the luxury they were putting in front of me. Not that I had to work hard for it. It was surprising how willing they were to believe the stupidity of a barbarian, no matter the evidence on the contrary. 

When I finally left the room and returned to the courtyard, I was met with a surprise. In the form of a cart, loaded with a cage that was radiating magic, eight guards around it, waiting tensely, escorting a very familiar locked figure. 

The Nemean lion. 

The beast clearly didn’t appreciate the cage, but its attempts to burst out were proven useless. The thickness of the ambient magic radiating from the cage suggested it was either the work of a sorcerer, or a group of skilled mage artisans. 

Either way, it was an expensive treasure. Though considering it was holding a beast that was much more precious, certainly not wasteful in its usage.

The beast smashed against the bars again and again, helplessly, trying to seek his freedom. Unlike our battle, however, I could see the hints of intelligence in its wild gaze. A great difference compared to its earlier madness. 

Whatever side effect it had been suffering after the death of its tamer, forcing it into a rage, had dissipated. 

Curious, I walked toward the cage. “Hey, no one is allowed to near it. It’s dangerous-” the guard started before his friend elbowed him in the ribs. 

“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” I said with a chuckle, pushing my chest out proudly, playing the smug barbarian role perfectly, including the dismissive glare sent to the guard’s way. “I have taken it down once, and I can take it down again.” 

The guards seemed hesitant at the claim, but they didn’t stop me as I walked closer to the beast. 

It was an impressive sight, a giant bundle of muscle and magic, danger incarnate. Unfortunately, it was helpless behind the bars. A roar made every guard tremble in pain, but not me. I just smirked and put my hand on the bars, close enough that a swipe of it could leave a significant wound despite the magically strengthened cage. 

“Stop,” shouted the guard in panic, no doubt afraid the star gladiator of the school would be wounded in a way he could be blamed for, but my warning gaze prevented him from moving. 

And he wasn’t the only one that was dissuaded from acting. 

The lion roared in anger once more, even louder, so much that the guards pressed their hands to their ears, grunting in pain. Some collapsed on the floor.

But the beast didn’t try to attack me. 

It didn’t dare to. 

So interesting. It was not a reaction that could be just earned by near-death experience it suffered in my hands. The beast was too strong, and too proud for that. A possibility arose in my mind, and I stopped suppressing the transformation of my arm, just for a moment, making a small scale appear. 

The beast flinched back even as it growled, its panic clear. 

“So, tell me, why is this little cat is here?” I asked even as I suppressed it once more. “I thought it belonged to Bestiaries School.”

“I-it’s a reward,” the guard managed to stammer, still unsettled by the roar. “For helping to suppress their accident.” 

“Oh, really,” I said with a smirk, then tapped the bars again. This time, the lion just growled, neither roaring, nor trying to attack. 

I retreated in a smug walk, leaving a murmuring crowd behind. But this time, my smirk wasn’t just about the effect I had on the beast, or impressing the crowd that surrounded me to push my fame even higher — though that certainly didn’t hurt. 

No, even as I was scaring the beast, I was flaring my magic slightly, testing against the supernatural aura radiating from the beast. 

A little trick I had learned from the book I acquired from his former master.

Another little bonus I acquired, but luckily, no one was aware of that particular fact. Not the Bestiaries School, not my Dacian school. 

On the way back to my room, I made sure to stop in a corner, the same one I utilized as a hiding spot, took back the small book I had swiped from the bag of my wannabe assassin. I had been escorted heavily on the way, of course, but sneaking a small book without them noticing hadn’t been a particularly difficult task. 

Especially since they had no idea they had been dealing with a sorcerer. 

And taking it back without any attention wasn’t any harder. 

When I arrived back at my room, everything was different. All my furniture was changed, well-made but functional maple furniture replaced by much more impressive mahogany four-poster bed and other fancy furniture, functioning yet ugly linen sheets replaced by silk. 

The room was better furnished than a noble’s bedroom, though with one interesting exception. There was no desk, or any kind of writing implement.

Why should a little barbarian need such tools, after all? 

As much as it was nice to see my character was holding true, it meant that studying my new books, found on the bag of my unfortunate assassin, about beast timing, was turned more inconvenient. Especially the book was simple one book on a more complicated subject, skipping whole subjects by assuming them as basic, or referring to others for a more detailed explanation. 

Luckily, as the dismissed bastard child of a noble family that had been banished to provinces centuries ago, it wasn’t the first time I had to learn magic from pilfered books without necessary support material, or a teacher to guide me. 

Due to the crisis I had faced, my training schedule had been emptied for the next two days, allowing me to study the contents of the books with leisure — though I had established a subtle ward around the room to alert me in case of a visitor. 

After some study, and deciphering the references, I was able to identify three main methods for beast taming.

Of course, these methods, or taming in general, weren’t the only way of commanding beasts. Many mages and sorcerers made familiars out of such creatures, something inherently different from taming. 

Familiars had their own advantages, magical empowerment of the creature the most prominent, not to mention perfect coordination and unwavering obedience. But it came with a drawback as well. Losing a familiar was a costly loss, damaging the magic of the owner, permanently in most cases.  

Also, it was impossible to make familiar out of creatures that were stronger than the mage. Some had tried to do so by bonding strong magical beasts in their infancy, only to lose control of the bond once the beast grew too much, reversing the bond. From there, madness was the likeliest end for both the familiar and the mage, often followed by a painful death due to chaotic magic. 

However, beast taming didn’t empower the beasts the same way creating familiars did, and controlling the beast was much more intensive. 

The first method was best defined as mind control, wrapping the beast with layers and layers of complicated wards, seeping deep into the beast’s mind to put it into a dreamlike state, and after some training, the beast could be easily controlled by the owner. 

At first glance, it looked like an excellent method. Truly a genius strategy, likes of which I had never seen anywhere else — though, considering war beasts were hardly used by Rome for military purposes, not too surprising. It relied on the resonance between many different wards to circumvent the specific resistance of the beast. 

The fact that it could be applied on a Nemean lion, a famous magical beast that could easily threaten a small army due to its unique abilities, was enough proof of its abilities. 

Unfortunately, its drawbacks were equally numerous, their impact no way lesser. First of all, it required a collaborative effort of several mages, working in coordination to create a tailored ward system for the beast in question. And those wards needed to be updated continuously to make sure they were working.  

And the higher levels of control weren’t always a perk. It meant that the natural instincts of the beast were suppressed by the commands of the controller, reducing its battle potential in most cases. 

Another obvious weakness was the one I discovered by accident. Killing the controller ruined the array, making the beast rage in a drunken rage. 

The second method was a more direct one, and unlike the complicated direct control that was only applicable as a luxury, widely used. It was essentially a punishment ward, coupled with some instincts, punishing the beast painfully the moment it violated one of the few rules. In the case of the Bestiaries, attacking its handlers, trying to escape, and most importantly, not fighting in the arena. 

As a drawback, it made the beasts angrier and angrier, making them even less suitable to control compared to their natural state. However, to Bestiary school, these beasts were destined for the arena, and ultimately death, and their explosive anger was hardly a problem. 

However, it was the third method that grabbed my interest. Compared to the first two, the third method was much less detailed. Not because it was a great mystic technique, but it was almost exclusively used to train weaker beasts, like horses with some supernatural ancestry, weaker beasts used for tricks, and magical dogs used as guards. However, it had the advantage of allowing better control, with much fewer drawbacks. 

But one important requirement was enough to limit its application significantly. It didn’t use complicated magical schemes or unlimited pain to tame the animal. Instead, the technique relied on the natural domination the trainer established on the beast, before reinforcing it with some wards that built on that sensation. 

They hadn’t used it to tame beasts like Chimera, or Nemean lion, because it was impossible for a trainer to do so. 

Well, I corrected with a smirk. Impossible for any trainer that wasn’t currently going through a transformation that somehow intimidated even beast in the caliber of Nemean lion. 

I had some experimentation to do.