Haven Online

Chapter 45: Flare Dog*

Xinya had no time to think about what to do. Before he could blink, the monster appeared again and started attacking Melting Snow. While they were battling, Xinya could finally see what type of monster it was. He couldn't believe it, it was a Flare Dog, one of the monsters that Melting Snow wanted to tame.

Melting Snow must have realized it too because instead of fighting he tried to push back the Flare Dog. To tame a monster a player needed to bring down the monster's health down to exactly 50%, with a taming cane. The taming canes are designed to hit the monster until it's health is only 50%, but if a player uses their weapon first they won't be able to use the taming cane.

"Drifting Cloud, I need your help!!" Melting Snow said desperately while holding the monster off. "I have to tame this Flare Dog."

Xinya knew that it would be tricky, Flare Dogs are extremely territorial and it probably locked on to Melting Snow because he's a beast type, a dog type at that. Thinking about it, Melting Snow said that he felt that the monster was curious. Maybe, since they were about to leave the forest, the Flare Dog wanted to test its strength, but Xinya was wasting time. With a dreaming dust potion in hand, he threw it at the flare dog only for it to dodge.

It was extremely fast, and once again its enormous black and white furry body disappeared. The glare from its glowing sun tattoos was the only thing left as it departed. Melting Snow hurried and put away his swords and brought out his taming cane, getting ready.

"Drifting Cloud, stand back, don't use any more of your dreaming dust potion. The flare dog is too fast and it would be a waste. I got this, don't worry." Melting Snow said to Xinya just as the Flare Dog appeared again. 

Swirling the cane around in his hand, Melting Snow jumped at the monster and smacked it in the face, causing the Flare Dog to be knocked back a couple of feet. The Flare Dog started growling at Melting Snow, it didn't phase him at all instead he smirked and said, "Bring it on."

The Flare Dog launched three fire attacks at Melting Snow, which he dodged with ease, but the Flare Dog was just distracting him. While Melting Snow was dodging the fire attacks, the Flare Dog used its incredible speed and snuck up behind Melting Snow and used another fire attack. It happened so fast that Melting Snow wasn't able to react and got blown away by it, slamming against a tree.

"Urg" Melting Snow painfully moaned. "Damn, that hurts even when the pain setting is on low."

"Be careful, this dog is smarter than it looks," Xinya told him. 

"Don't worry, I'm well aware of that now." Melting Snow said while gulping down a health potion. 

Seeing that its prey was back on its feet, the Flare Dog charged at Melting Snow once again, but this time Melting Snow was ready. As soon as the dog was a couple of inches away from him, Melting Snow jumped over it while delivering consecutive blows on it. By the time Melting Snow landed on his feet he already did 50% damage to it.

He quickly put away his taming cane and brought out a pet carrier, once Melting Snow put it on the ground it grew to be roughly 10x the size of a normal one. Melting Snow needed to lure the Flare Dog inside for the taming to be complete, but the flare dog wasn't having any of that.

"What do I do? How do I lure it inside the carrier?" Melting Snow asked as the Flare Dog kept charging at him throwing attacks.

Seeing that Melting Snow wouldn't be able to keep dodging all of the monster's attacks, Xinya thought of an idea. He wasn't sure if it would work, but after everything Melting Snow did for him, he wanted to help him get the Flare Dog.

"Melting Snow, start running, make the Flare Dog chase you around, and then run into the pet carrier," Xinya said.

"Run into the pet carrier?!? If I do that, I will be trapped inside with it." Melting Snow replied dumbfounded at Xinya's idea.

"Don't worry, as soon as you're inside the carrier, I will throw one of my dreaming dust potions at the Flare Dog, making it fall asleep. Once it's knocked out, you can escape and capture it," Xinya said.

Seeing that it was a sound plan, Melting Snow aggravated the Flare Dog enough that it started chasing him all around, with Melting Snow jumping and dodging all of the incoming attacks from the monster. It was quite a funny sight, well, at least for Xinya. Finally, Melting Snow got the Flare Dog to follow him into the carrier, once they were trapped the monster cornered Melting Snow and was going in for the kill, when Xinya threw the Dreaming Dust potion inside, knocking the flare dog out.

Melting Snow ran out of the carrier and closed it, causing it to shrink back to normal size and making the monster within turn into a cub. Melting Snow paused as if he was reading something and a happy smile appeared on his face.

"I did it! I tamed my first monster." Melting Snow said excitedly.

Smiling fondly at him, Xinya said, "That's great. Let's get out of these woods now, the sooner we get back, the sooner you can start training your little one." 

"You're right, let's go!" Melting Snow said, following Xinya out of the forest while cooing at his newly caught monster at the same time.