"Wait, you said you want to subdue it?" Liora's voice thundered from her massive jaws, the question carrying more confusion than shock.

"Yes, why?" Adyr asked, noticing the oddness in her voice while his gaze tracked the dragon's slow, furnace-lit movements.

It would not be the first time he tried to subdue a Rank 4. Sszhar was the first, and he believed he already had enough experience for this.

The memory of that fight returned to him clearly: each move, each moment of resistance, and the way he finally forced the creature to submit.

Though the Blood Dragon was much stronger than any Rank 4 Spark, it still had to follow the same rules and logic, right?

"Well, since its master, Sevrak, is dead, there should not be any problem, but..." Liora searched for the right words, her lips parting and closing as she tried to explain the unease churning inside her.

Throgar stepped in, putting into words what she struggled to express. "If you want to subdue a Spark, you first need to break its will and make it willing to come under your control." He put the words down unhurriedly, with the easy cadence of a veteran speaking from experience.

In theory, this matched what Adyr knew. He had done the same with Sszhar, first breaking its body and then its will until submission was the only path left.

But the Blood Dragon seemed different, as Throgar continued. "I do not know what Sevrak used, but this Black Dragon is not the same anymore. It does not have a sane mind, from the look of it. You cannot break the will of such a Spark just by beating it." His last words made the warning sound reasonable.

Zephan added another critical point. "Apart from that, I don't know if you've noticed, but the Spark should no longer be under subdue, though it still is. For some reason, we still cannot see its system message."

Now, hearing these and looking at the Blood Dragon, which had already recovered and had started coming toward them slowly, Adyr fell into thought.

He also realized the Spark looked unhinged. From what he had seen so far, it moved with a broken rhythm, shifting between a dull, watchful lull and sudden, senseless bursts of violence.

It was either too idle, not attacking and only watching with flat, empty eyes, or in a blind rage, making it impossible to predict which impulse would drive it next.

Adyr still had a plan because he had Malice. His bloodline talent could put fear even into an emotionless stone, so it was a very good tool for subduing strong-willed Sparks, like a cheat. But the system part made him question things, as it was really strange.

"Maybe we need to get close or touch it for the system message to appear?" Adyr asked, drawing on his own experience. His eyes narrowed as he traced a path in his mind toward the dragon's throat and crown.

Sszhar had been like that. Until he touched it, he did not receive any system message about the Spark's information. Maybe this Spark had the same requirement, even if everything else felt different.

But the three titled Practitioners, with more years behind their eyes, saw it another way.

Zephan weighed his experience and said, "I have known Black Dragon for a long time. I even had the chance to fight it once. But this Blood Dragon..."

He paused, then spoke more firmly. "There is something strange about it. Very strange." The certainty in his tone sounded like it came from scars, not guesses.

As Adyr kept listening to them, all he could hear was that they were trying to persuade him to change his mind from subduing it and just go for the kill.

As these people were all hundreds of years old, each with a lifelong, well-honed poker face and the ability to control their emotions, Adyr couldn't properly read their faces or intentions, because they could deliberately hide their true intentions.

However, what he was feeling was telling him one thing. They seemed completely sincere to him about their warnings.

Should I listen to them? Adyr considered silently.

With 2 nuclear weapons at hand, Malice under his control, and 3 Titled Practitioners backing him, he had high confidence that he had all the necessary power to subdue it.

But maybe these were the things making his judgment cloudy and pushing him into greed and arrogance by thinking of and wanting to subdue his third Rank 4 Spark.

Now he fell into doubt, and an instinct began to rise in him, saying there was something dangerous waiting for him if he went on with the plan of subduing it.

"Okay" Adyr let out a slow breath. "I will heed your warnings. Let's just kill it." The decision settled in his chest and cooled the heat there.

There were times when he respected and valued other people's knowledge and opinions, even when it pulled him off his preferred path. This was one of those times.

Especially considering that the people warning him were natives of this world with centuries of experience, ignoring them would be baseless arrogance and stupidity.

I'm not a hero or a novel's protagonist... there's no plot armor to save me if something goes wrong, he thought, faintly amused at his own restraint.

"Then let us change the plan. Make it open its mouth and swallow these missiles, so I can damage it from within and kill it in one attack," he said, sharpening the plan to a single lethal point.

"That is the right decision," Silverlight Zephan said, smiling with approval.

Despite Adyr's youth, Zephan found it both surprising and respectable that he had not fallen into power intoxication and, despite his background, had not been blinded by arrogance like many young heirs.

The older man's gaze softened slightly.

I wish my daughter Thalira were a bit like him, he thought with a sigh.

He knew her pride might one day lead her to a death he never wished to see. "Alright, if the decision's made, I'll make the first move." Liora's energy was back. She laughed loudly as she spun the massive stone staff in her hands, cutting the air and whipping up harsh currents that sent dust and hot wind into spirals across the ground.

"Liora, please attack the dragon, not us," Adyr said in a slightly mocking tone as he braced against the gusts so he would not be blown off his feet.

"Ah, right, sorry." Realizing her excitement had slipped its leash, Liora halted at once and spoke apologetically.

Also, she realized it was the first time Adyr had used her name instead of 'Lady Liora. Though she kept her face still, it still drew her a little closer, because for as long as she could remember, only her sister Mirela had been calling her without an honorific.

Now, with renewed resolve and the belief that they could finally defeat the Blood Dragon, Liora charged back into the fight, sprinting toward the Rank 4 Spark with her new favorite weapon gripped firmly in her hands for round 2. There were less than four minutes left to make the dragon swallow its death.