Claws thicker than a human’s arm break free as the blood orb dissolves into Ether. The presence of the creature is overwhelming as it steps into the dimly lit cave anew. A slightly transparent throat bobs up and down as stores of excess blood move around behind it. Crimson scales imitating muscle run along its body, the “flesh” matched by a thick skeletal framework that juts out like monstrous adornments to a wicked armor. Spines of bone running along its back and sharp white fangs splitting into a joyous grin.

  Talons that are dyed a coppery red, as though they have already bathed in the blood of countless foes. Whipping behind the monstrosity is a tail covered in sharp bone plates, all ending in a serrated point, a perfect weapon for drawing blood. And that is what this creature loves most, blood.

  Looking back at them with its dimly glowing eyes, more red light fills the cave, and it blinks.

  As practiced adventurers the party quickly arranges themself in a strong formation for battle.

  The creature raises an eyebrow.

  The staring contest holds for several seconds when Lupis nervously speaks up. “I-Is it not going to attack?” His hands are shaking a bit, for all his bravado when talking of magic, he is a bit of a coward. The party tenses as they sense Ether moving around the monster and get ready to attack, only to freeze when letters form above the monster’s head in blood.

  “As long as you don’t attack, I won’t.”

  The party just stands there blinking. Dahlia’s eye twitches a bit at the casual stance of the monster. What in The Abyss am I even looking at? The whole situation is hard to wrap her head around so she quietly has to ask aloud. “Am I going crazy or is the monster writing in the air using blood?”

  It is a ridiculous sight, especially the cutesy font that the blood is writing in. “No, I see it too… Also, that thing… The way it controls Ether, i-it is just abnormal. I have only seen masters with such f-fine control.” Lupis struggles to form his words properly as his brain short-circuits.

  “But it just hatched!” Greg can’t help but cry out. The idea of a monster with such fine control over Ether just appearing near their “starter town” —as it has recently been called by some strange people— is just ridiculous!

  “No… it didn’t hatch, it evolved.” Nadia, the resident monster expert, is the only one that has an edge of calm. They followed the creature from its slaughter of that [Greater Basilisk] to find an egg. It is the only logical explanation.

  “Are y'all players or not?” The monster’s words appear in blood again, floating gently in the air.

  “Players?” Lupis mumbles the word on his lips, unable to recognize where he heard the term before.

  “The term the otherworlds brought to this world by the Goddess use to refer to their people.” Dahlia lets herself relax for a moment. If this creature is one of those otherworlders, then it is likely they won’t need to come to blows. “You are one of them I assume?”

  “Yep! Guess that means you aren’t. So, can you all like, leave? I wanna test out my new powers and shit.” Once again, the cutesy text is completely at odds with the terrifying form of the monster writing them.

  As the party begins to discuss among themselves, they find opinions slightly split. Gred seems intent on just leaving the monster to its things. Dahlia does not know what to think, but prefers to keep her guard up. Lupis is interested in the creature’s magical skills, and yet still votes on leaving.

  Finally, Nadia has a realization. “Did you meet the scout that was sent out here?” Her words cause the whole group to tense up.

  “Scout? What scout?”

  “An elven man was sent to investigate the basilisk in the area and never returned.” Nadia’s face is scrunched as she replies to the monster, its innocent head tilt not making her any less nervous.

  “Oh, that guy? Asshole tried to kill me after I defeated one of those annoying snakes and was practically running on fumes from several battles. Chased me down and cut my fucking arm off! He got what he deserved.” Punctuating its declaration with an evil grin, the bloody thing casually rattles off her experience with the scout.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Suddenly the atmosphere shifts. A growl coming from the side of the party’s formation. “So, you killed him.” Lupis’ hands are shaking but his voice is filled with hate.

  “Self defence my guy. He attacked me first, I tried to run.” Despite the aggressive stance Lupis is taking, the monster still seems completely relaxed. Its reflective slit eyes staring them down without a care in the world.

  The ulfr man begins to prepare to attack at the casual response when the bloody words shift again.

  “Hey wolf boy, I can see your Ether movements. I promise you I can tear your heart out faster than you can hit me.” Its calm stance never abates, but the monster’s words are somehow full of terrifying conviction. Dahlia quickly shouts to her party member in hopes of calming things down. “Lupis! Stand down!”

  The ulfr winces for a moment, but gathers his resolve to speak. “Why?” A deep halting growl escapes his lips. “It is a monster that killed a human, that makes it an enemy.” Dahlia, however, does not care for Lupis’ take on the situation. That monster is far too strong, why are you provoking it?! “It said it was self defence and I believe it. Also, I am not sure we could take it down even if we tried.

  “I am a she not an it, by the way.”

  “S-Silence monster!” Lupis starts to lose it as the monster continues its casual approach to the conversation. The fear of how the beast before him does not seem to care for their party’s might, making him lose control.

  “A: I am writing everything, so it is already silent on my end. B: You have 5 seconds to stop charging your Ether before I gut you.” Finally, the monster’s eyes take a serious glint and its relaxed stance shifts to one of preparation.

  “LUPIS! STAND DOWN!!” Dalia is practically screaming at this point as she glares at her party member.

  “Tch.” Clicking his tongue, the ulfr returns his Ether to a resting state.

  I narrow my eyes, he is still clearly ready to try and attack again at a moment's notice. These people found my cave.. I really don’t want to give it up but that guy seems like he will cause me problems in the future. I might need to deal with him now. Evolving seems to have increased my Ether by quite a fair bit, I may even be able to reach High Rank in my [Blood Magic] with this much! but before that, I need to get these humans out of my cave.

  Can I take them? I just evolved, so I don’t have a good judge of my new body. Any fighting would likely be difficult as I need time to adjust. I really should just get them to leave by talking to them, but the wolf guy is not going to make that easy. He is the kind of person who lashes out when he’s scared. How an idiot like that is still alive as an adventurer is beyond me.

  The fear in his eyes is so real looking though, almost too real. I know the game devs pride themselves in the realism they put into HWO, but being looked at like that feels weird. I mean, I fully plan on playing the part of a badass dragon, so I just need to get over it. Still… something is strange about how detailed the AI is. It sends a weird shiver up my spine. Or exo-skeleton? I seem to have a bunch of bones all over my body for some reason. I guess bones do have a relation to blood so I can’t complain.

  I don’t think I can win a fight if they all work together, so in the end I may have to find a new cave. Ugh! So annoying! Clearly, my annoyance must have shown, because the cute fox girl —who I am guessing is the party leader by the way she acts— moves to apologize. “We are sorry about him, you were attacked so you had every right to fight back. The scout’s job was to learn about the basilisk, but it was their choice alone to go after you. I hope you do not hold it against the town.”

  “I wouldn’t hurt someone who has not caused me harm.” Making my words sound a bit more fancy, I try and play up my magnanimous dragon side. Muahaha! I, the mighty blood dragon, am a generous one!

  They all sigh in relief, well, all of them but the wolf, who is gritting his teeth.

  “However-” They all freeze up as I start. Time to act all badass dragon like! “-in exchange for your lives here, I expect you to keep that wolf on a tight leash.” Honestly, that guy will probably hire a bunch of thugs to attack me the second I let him go, so I need insurance.

  “How dare-?!” Said unleashed wolf boy immediately goes to attack me as he shouts. Damn it! I pushed things too far!

  Before he can even finish cycling his Ether though, I cram all the blood I have been using to write into his face and then proceed to drown him in lightning. A charred body slumps to the ground, and the rest of the humans all ready their weapons.

  Oops.