“It was fun, but this is the end,” Luke said with a smirk, preparing another warrior spell. “Dark Bla—”
“W-w-w-wait!! Wait a second, please!!”
Luke’s sword halted right in front of the ice dragon. The release of pressure from the mighty swing sent dirt and dust swirling up into the air.
“…What are you playing at?”
“I-I-I-I offer a…f-full sur…r-rend…er…” it choked out.
The dragon kept its head down, tail wrapped around its legs to make itself as small as possible. It was the ultimate mark of respect from a dragon—a show of obedience.
✦ ✦ ✦
Dragons were, quite rightly, seen as the strongest beings in the world. They had scales that were tough as armor, fangs and claws that could easily rip through steel, and wings that let them soar through the sky. Not to mention their myriad other special abilities, such as their breath attacks and free use of magic spells.
Typically, dragons were solitary creatures. They barely even raised their young, and a dragon hatchling would be cast out of its nest after one or two years. Some species simply left their eggs unattended entirely and let them fend for themselves.
The ice dragon had never met its parents, nor did it have any interest in them. It was born into the world roughly two hundred years earlier and never doubted for a moment of its life that it was the strongest being in the world. Every single aspect of its environment served as proof of that fact, after all. The dragon went wherever it pleased, or wherever the wind blew it. It killed anything that bothered it even a little and lived its life gathering whatever treasures took its fancy. At a certain point, the dragon found that nobody dared to oppose it at all anymore. Dragons were the strongest of all the races, after all. Nobody in the world could stand against an ice dragon, master of elemental magic.
And then, unexpectedly, its world was turned upside down. The reversal came quite suddenly when, one day, the dragon sensed that someone was drawing close and slowly opened its eyes to observe the intruder.
A human.
The ice dragon felt intense disgust and irritation at their presence.
This human has disturbed my sleep. For that alone, they deserve a thousand deaths.
Just as the dragon arose in order to kill the intruder, the sound of a whistle wormed its way into its ear. The dragon didn’t know it, but it was a magic tool called a “Whistle of Domination.” It had been developed independently, not by any state or kingdom but by a certain organization.
Shiver.
The ice dragon’s body trembled, just slightly. It did not know the name of the emotion it was feeling—it did not care to know. With draconic senses far more honed than any human’s could ever be, the dragon detected the danger that, by rights, should not even have been there. It felt as if the inside of its head was dyed black and a part of its mind was being peeled away, ripped from it. Eventually, the ice dragon came to the realization that the emotion it felt was fear.
This human…it is trying to overtake my mind.
It cannot be. It is not possible. A mere human would never be capable of such a thing.
“Grrraaaaaah!! You…you damned humaaan!!”
With a bloodcurdling roar, the dragon resisted with all its might. However, despite this, the human’s foul magic continued to eat away at the monster’s consciousness. It had no time to launch a breath or magic attack against its assailants. The dragon knew that all of its energy had to remain focused on simply resisting, or else its mind would be overtaken in an instant.
Long years of research and constant revisions and improvements had finally yielded results in the Whistle of Domination—a magic tool capable of dominating the strongest race in the world.
“Brilliant…it worked! Arthur’s going to be happy about this!”
And yet the whistle’s control was not absolute.