Beast Taming: Start With A Dragon Legion

Chapter 2: The Keeper of the Vault

The laughter echoed through the awakening hall.

"HAHAHA! A LIZARD!"

"Is that seriously what summoned all that light show?!"

"I thought we were about to witness a mythic rank awakening potential!"

The sound bounced off the stone walls, growing louder as more students joined in. Knox stood on the platform, his hand still raised from where he had pulled it away from the awakening pillar. The violet light was gone.

He looked down at what he had summoned.

A small creature sat on all fours beside him, barely the size of a large dog. Its scales were rough and dull grey, patched unevenly across its body. Its legs were short and thick, and its tail dragged behind it as it shifted its weight.

The creature stared up at him with ember-orange eyes.

"What a waste of time!" someone shouted from the crowd.

"The pillar must have malfunctioned!"

"How embarrassing for the Aston family!"

Knox clenched his jaw and forced his expression to remain neutral. He could feel every pair of eyes on him, could hear every whispered insult, but he refused to show weakness. His body wanted to shake, wanted to run, but he held himself still.

The Headmaster's smile had vanished completely.

The man looked at Knox with cold indifference, his face empty of all expression. "Complete the bond," the Headmaster said, his voice flat.

Knox looked down at the creature again.

It tilted its head to the side, studying him with those ember-orange eyes. The movement was slow and deliberate, almost curious.

Knox took a breath and reached down.

The moment his fingers touched its rough scales, everything shattered.

WHOOOOSH!

The awakening hall vanished.

Knox's stomach lurched as he was yanked backward, pulled through space like he had been grabbed by an invisible hand. The laughter disappeared. The platform disappeared. Everything disappeared into absolute darkness.

He fell.

His body twisted in the void, weightless and uncontrolled, and he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. Wind roared past his ears, deafening and violent, and then—

THUD!

Knox slammed into something solid.

He gasped and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his chest heaving. The ground beneath him was smooth and cold, like polished stone. He blinked and looked around slowly wide eyed.

He saw a fortress.

A massive obsidian fortress stretched out before him in every direction, its walls rising into darkness so thick he could not see the ceiling. The entire structure was black, carved from stone that reflected no light, and the air was heavy with pressure that made it hard to breathe.

Knox's heart pounded in his chest.

"Where—" he started, but his voice echoed strangely, distorted and wrong.

Behind him, something groaned.

He spun around and froze.

Cages.

Crystal cages stretched out in concentric circles around him, each one the size of a small building. The cages glowed faintly with inner light, and inside each one was a huge murky shadow.

Knox's throat went dry.

The shadows were not empty.

CRACK!

A sound like breaking ice echoed through the fortress, and Knox stumbled backward. The floor beneath him shifted, and he looked down to see glowing runes spreading outward from where he stood, branching out like veins across the black stone.

The runes pulsed.

Then the ground tilted.

"Ah—!"

Knox lost his balance and fell forward, his hands slamming against the stone as the floor dragged him toward the center of the fortress. He tried to stop himself, tried to grab onto something, but there was nothing to hold. The runes glowed brighter, pulling him faster, and then he was lifted into the air.

His body jerked upright.

Knox's feet left the ground and he was yanked forward, dragged through the air like a puppet on strings. The cages blurred past him on both sides, their shadows shifting and pressing against the crystal walls, and then he saw what was at the center of the fortress.

A throne.

A massive black throne sat at the center of the fortress, carved from the same obsidian as the walls. It was enormous, easily three times the size of a normal chair, and its surface was covered in the same glowing runes that had spread across the floor.

Knox tried to twist away but the invisible force holding him was too strong.

He was slammed down onto the throne.

THOOM!

The impact drove the air from his lungs and he gasped, his hands gripping the armrests as his body locked into place. The runes on the throne flared bright, searing light that burned into his vision, and then—

Eyes opened.

All around him, inside every cage, eyes opened.

Knox's breath stopped.

The shadows inside the cages were not shadows. They were beasts. Massive, ancient, terrifying beasts, and now they were all staring at him.

The pressure in the air multiplied.

Knox's chest tightened and he gasped for breath, his hands shaking as the weight of all those stares pressed down on him. It felt like the air itself was crushing him, like the fortress was trying to grind him into dust.

His vision blurred.

He could not move. Could not speak. Could not even think clearly.

Terror spiked through him, raw and overwhelming, and his heart slammed against his ribs so hard he thought it would break.

"Stop—" he choked out, but his voice was barely a whisper.

The eyes did not blink.

Then a voice spoke.

[KEEPER IDENTIFIED.]

The words echoed through the fortress, booming and mechanical, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

[SOUL COMPATIBILITY CONFIRMED.]

[SOUL RESONANCE: COMPATIBLE.]

[INITIATING BOND PROTOCOL.]

Knox's body jerked as something cold and sharp stabbed into his chest. He gasped, the air rushing from his lungs, and the pain spread through his body like ice water burning through his veins. The runes on the throne flared brighter.

His lungs tightened.

Knox's fingers dug into the throne's armrests, his nails scraping against stone. The pressure crushed down on him and his vision swam, dark spots appearing at the edges. Sweat ran down his face and dripped from his chin.

The eyes in the cages pressed closer.

I'm going to die.

The thought flashed through his mind and terror spiked through him again.

Then the voice spoke again.

[DRAGON VAULT SYSTEM ACTIVATED.]

[WELCOME, KEEPER.]

The voice paused.

[CURRENT ACCESS LEVEL: RESTRICTED.]

[UNLOCKING BASIC FUNCTIONS.]

[VAULT STATUS: SEALED.]

[DRAGONS IMPRISONED: ████.]

[████████: ████.]

[RELEASING CONTROL TO KEEPER.]

The pressure vanished.

Knox gasped and his body sagged forward, his hands slipping off the armrests as the invisible force holding him released. His chest heaved and he blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision.

The eyes were still watching.

And he felt utter terror at the attention which made him feel so small.

[BOND COMPLETE.]

[RETURNING KEEPER TO PHYSICAL REALM.]

The fortress shattered.

CRASH!

The obsidian walls exploded into fragments of light and Knox fell backward, his body yanking through space again as the void swallowed him whole.