全城危机

"Hold on, Aleyria. Buccephalas seems to have something to say about taming it." Alexander quickly stretched out his hand and held Aleyria back.

Aleyria frowned but remained still.

"What do you propose we do then? Quick, before the Wyvern kills anyone." Alexander urged.

"The key to taming ANY beast is relationship. The Wyvern is a noble creature. It must voluntarily submit. If Aleyria attacks and sends it into a frenzy, you would not be able to tame it. You must either make it submit out of respect.

Cage it, allow it to attack and struggle without attacking it back to exhaust its energy. And then demand its allegiance. It will reject you. But at that time, release the Power of Perses you have within you fully and then mete out your attacks in measured amounts, beat it down slowly and wear down its will. The Power of Perses will have a subduing effect on it. Once it is near death, with its physical and will power exhausted, coupled with the influence from the Power of Perses, you might have a chance to succeed in taming it." Buccephalas explained.

Alexander repeated all of that to Aleyria who looked back at him doubtfully. Alexander shrugged and turned to study the Wyvern. His mind began to race as he started to consider the various methods he could employ to take it down.

Featuring prominently among the methods currently racing through his mind was...

"Don\'t even think about using poison to knock it out. Dragons are noble creatures, and its progeny would definitely have its noble character. If it ends up despising you, it\'ll rather die than submit. Capture it straight up. Stare it down as it struggles. And then beat it down. That\'s your best shot. Try other strategies at your own risk." Buccephalas warned.

GROAARR!! The Wyvern beat its enormous and powerful wings and roared angrily at the town as it hovered over a bunch of collapsed buildings. It was a magnificent creature, almost twenty meters tall and fully covered with matt black scales. Two massive curved horns protruded proudly from its head. It glared at Alexander and Aleyria balefully with its yellow lizard-eyes.

Even with the distance between them, Alexander could feel his senses screaming danger. He fought down the nigh-irresistable urge to run and look for cover.

"It seemed to have noticed us." Aleyria said mildly. She was also feeling the full force of the Wyvern\'s dangerous aura and was fighting to stand her ground as well.

"Indeed, I think it has." Alexander agreed. "Would your spatial prison work on it?"

"It should. Let me give it a try." Aleyria raised her hand and began to channel her magic.

Behind her, the three girls tensed as well and began their preparations to defend against the Wyvern. Much of their magical energy was depleted in the previous fight, and they didn\'t have any opportunity to recharge their power according to their element of choice. So they had to make do with whatever remained. Of course, this did not apply to Liz\'An who was a walking magical turret with infinite mana.

However, at this moment, Fluff-fluff left her comfortable perch on Aleyria\'s shoulder and strolled along Aleyria\'s outstretched arm.

"Hey, Fluff-fluff, don\'t do that! You\'re distracting me." Aleyria chided with a nervous laugh.

Fluff-fluff turned its head back to look at Aleyria and purred very cutely. It then turned back and made its way to the very edge of Aleyria\'s hand.

"Meow!" It gave a sharp-sounding meow at the Wyvern and waved its cute paws, as if calling the Wyvern over.

"What on earth is that fat cat doing?" Buccephalas began to grumble.

GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The Wyvern suddenly gave a gentle growl and began to make its way slowly over. It\'s mouth was closed, and it seemed to have lost much of its previous bluster and aggression.

The tension in the air suddenly disappeared.

"Do not tell me…" Buccephalas gasped.

"What? What\'s going on?" Alexander asked Buccephalas while eyeing the approaching behemoth with trepidation. Although the dangerous aura was gone, it was still a massive cold-blooded monster. A single flick of its tail could possibly kill a person if it connected.

However, Buccephalas seemed to be too dumbstruck to respond to Alexander.

Aleyria tensed, but Fluff-fluff jumped back to Aleyria\'s shoulder and gave her a reassuring meow while patting the side of her head, as if saying to a little baby, "Don\'t worry, I\'m here."

The ferocious black Wyvern quickly ate up the distance between them and landed heavily on the ground in front of them.

BOOM.

Aleyria motioned for her guards to stand down as she stared at the Wyvern warily. This was no longer her show. It was all Fluff-fluff\'s.

GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The giant Wyvern lowered its humongous head slowly towards Fluff-fluff who was still perched on Aleyria\'s shoulder.

Behind her, Aleyria could hear Kan-Dari whimpering slightly in fear, and the follow up rustle as Shira put her arms around her best friend.

As the head drew closer and closer, Aleyria could see the details of the Wyvern in all its glory and magnificence. Its scales seemed nigh impenetrable and the entire presence of the Wyvern simply exuded pure physical power and ferocity.

With a joyful meow! Fluff-fluff jumped onto the Wyvern\'s head. It waved its paws excitedly at Aleyria, beckoning her to join her on top of the Wyvern\'s head.

"Aleyria, wait.." Alexander began as he noticed the cat\'s invitation to Aleyria.

However, a gleam of excitement flashed in Aleyria\'s eyes and she immediately teleported herself behind Fluff-fluff. She had been around the lucky cat long enough to know that although the situation seemed crazy, nothing would definitely go wrong. The cat was too lucky for that.

"Meow!!" Fluff-fluff gave the Wyvern an order.

It roared powerfully and leapt up into the air while flapping its wings hard. It soon took to the skies and began to fly around the town. On its head, Aleyria gripped one horn with all her might. She may be a gloriously powerful White Archmage, but riding on a ferocious behemoth and flying around the sky on it was definitely an exciting first. Plus it would be more than embarrassing if she actually fell off the Wyvern.

The Wyvern was born to rule the skies. It flew around the town gracefully, banking and turning with great agility.

Kan-Dari, Shira and Liz\'An stared in awe at the sight.

"I wonder if I\'ll get the chance to fly on it like Mistress." Liz\'An said softly.

"What?" Kan-Dari swirled her head around to look at Liz\'An in surprise.

"No-nothing." She said hastily.

Shira grinned. She too secretly thought that it would be a blast if she could ride on the Wyvern too!

"Soul taming." Buccephalas muttered at long last. "Never thought I\'ll ever see one happen. One of the rarest and most powerful abilities ever concocted by the Gods, one that only Gods could perform, and only on created beings, not on each other. Incredible."

Alexander ignored Buccephalas as he stared at the Wyvern and the now-whooping-with-great-joy Aleyria rather uneasily. Although he understood the concept of an Air Force where people were mounted on flying beasts and would perform various maneuvers in the air, possibly even dangerous swoops down toward ground targets, seeing a person he cared about doing it didn\'t really sit well with him.

"She\'s a White Spacemage, Alexander, the strongest Archmage in this little continent. She took down THREE white Archmages just a few days ago! Don\'t worry about her, you worry-fart." Buccephalas drawled. "Even if she did fall, she could just teleport herself back to the Wyvern."

"That\'s true." Alexander finally said. "She\'ll be alright." He added, sounding more like he needed to hear those words spoken aloud as reassurance instead of making a statement.

"You\'re definitely in love with her." Buccephalas said accusingly.

Alexander shrugged at Buccephalas\'s words. "It doesn\'t matter if I am or I am not. What matters is that I am feeling what I am feeling. It may be love, it may be something else. Whatever it is, I just have to stay true to my feelings."

"So you\'re a philosopher now, aren\'t you?" Buccephalas sulked.

Alexander laughed. "I\'m no philosopher. But I\'ve been through life enough to know that the greatest regret in life is not in giving voice to the deepest and most important feelings in your heart."

"Hmmmm."

"Anyway, what were you talking about just now? Soul taming? A skill only Gods can use?" Alexander finally tore his eyes away from the Wyvern who had flown so high that it was merely a dot in the sky.

"Yeah, soul taming is an incredible skill. It\'s simply out of this world. If we could use that skill at will, the entire universe would be ours, now that only Magius is left. And even he rarely appears now." Buccephalas said. "In essence, that giant monster over there? Around fifty times the size of the cat? Well it is now the cat\'s \'little\' plaything. Toy. Pet. Slave. Whatever the cat wants it to be, it will be. Complete and utter domination.

With such power and luck on their side, it truly is a miracle why the Eastern Phoenix Kingdom is still merely a Kingdom. They must have the worst luck in the history of the world."