The sword strike she had just received was burning in her rump, blood oozing down her rear leg.

She leapt away, hoping to gain some distance by flapping her wings.

Rue landed and ran, the huge shiny human was right on her tail. He was large, she could use that to her advantage. A huge roar came from behind her and the large human over doubled in speed. She darted around a tree and into a thick group of bushes and thorns. She heard crashing and bellowing behind her that gradually faded into the distance as she gained distance on the human.

Thankfully he was too large to fight his way through the tangling thorns and thick undergrowth. She had lost him.

The adrenaline faded from her system and she began to slow down. She hurt, a lot. Two of the sharp wooden sticks were stuck in her and her back left thigh was opened with a vicious gash. Only now was the blood beginning to slow further as she no longer constantly tore the wound open while running.

She was panting even harder and as she felt a small amount of safety. She sat, once again she was made aware of the wet crunching feeling in her chest. It was even harder to breathe now. Something had shifted, one of her bones coming further out of alignment. It was probably one of her ribs.

Rue lay down and curled her head around her body to inspect the damage. She carefully gripped the arrow in her shoulder with her mouth and pulled. It took some wiggling and further pain but eventually it came out. A small rivulet of blood flowed down her body for half a minute before coming to a halt.

She repeated this with the other arrow and waited for that wound to stop bleeding as well. With this small rest, she decided to abandon the blood-smeared… arrows and walk back towards her cave.

She sniffed the air and set off in the direction her [Den Sense] was pulling her. She walked for a mile and decided to have another rest, her chest was still extremely painful and causing her breathing issues, her progress was slow and excruciating. She looked at her left flank and saw a huge mess of clotted blood and dislodged scales. Deep in the wound she could feel little bits of bone that had chipped off, it was a messy wound, but thankfully not in a vital area. Rue began by licking and nibbling at the scabs on the wound. It had been ripped open so much in her flight and resealed so many times a ridge of scabs and blood had formed.

She cleaned the blood off and removed the broken and detached scales. Then licked the wound as another trickle of blood flowed out. Her saliva and natural blood clotting made the wound reseal in under a minute, now much neater and cleaner than before.

Now the only pressing injury was her breathing, closing her eyes and trying to feel the wound she sensed a rib had snapped and was pressing against her lung. She hadn't coughed up blood at any point so her lung wasn't punctured.

Her breathing had become easier so perhaps it would naturally realign with time? Maybe that would happen. She pressed a paw on the outside of her chest where the pain was coming from, it felt softer than it should. Even though her thick scales she could feel the depression before she felt her rib, it was further than it should be.

She tried taking long deep painful breaths and felt the rib shift. After one especially large and painful lung full of air the bone shifted enough that it seemed to slip back past the other half of her rib. With a yelp, she felt it pop back into place. It still ground and hurt at the fracture point but her breath was no longer restricted, if still painful.

She got back upon to her feet and paused, her body was still aching from various bruises and trauma as well and the small chip in her hip and a broken rib. But she felt much better relative to 30 minutes ago.

Following her [Den Sense] she navigated through the undergrowth back to her cave. Once she warmed some stone with a blast of fire and sat down in the relative safety of her domain the systems messages came flooding into her.

Ding! For Slaying [Human Lv23] In Combat +377xp

Ding! For Slaying a Foe [7] Levels Above You Own [+7%] xp +26xp

Ding! For Slaying [Human Lv18] In Combat +233xp

Ding! For Slaying a Foe [2] Levels Above You Own [+2%] xp +5xp

Total Xp Earned From Combat Encounters +641xp

Ding! Level Up x2 … [Stat Points] +10

Ding! Stat Points Allocated For Species [Dragon - Wyrmling] +12 {S4 V4 D2 I2}

Ding! Stat Points Allocated For Species [Red Dragon - Wyrmling] +12 {S6 V6 D0 I0}

Ding! Intelligence Threshold Reached

Ding! Ability Gained +[Regeneration 1]

Ding! Ability Evolution [Scaly Skin 1] => [Scaly Skin 2]

Race

Level

XP/Growth

Stat Points

Dragon [Red Dragon]

18

78/370 [-15 /pd]

0

Strength

Vitality

Dexterity

Intelligence

100 +[10]

88 +[10]

62 +[12]

51 +[2]

Ability

Effects

Roar [1]

You have learned to let out a mighty roar from your throat, you will find it easier to intimidate opponents and prey. Increased effectiveness against opponents below your level. When combined with fire increases trauma.

Identify [1]

Tells you the basic [Species] and [Level] of targets. Can appraise targets up to [30] Levels higher than you.

Dragon Breath [2]

Racial ability, allows expulsions of biologically created [Ethanol] from glands near the stomach. This can be ignited via [Fire Magic]. Expending Mana the fire can be enhanced to have Magical properties. You gain Further resistance to [Heat] and [Flame] attacks and damage.

Den Sense [1]

You have an instinctual sense for the direction of your primary [Den] and [Territory]

Scaly Skin [2]

Your scales have reached the point where it can turn even the most fearsome natural weapons. The higher your [Vitality] the tougher your scales. Your scales become highly resistant to [Fire].

Regeneration [1]

Through combat and your naturally high healing your [Body] and [Mana] have learned how to speed up your natural [Recovery]. Your wounds will heal faster and cleaner, you are more resistant to [Infection] and [Disease]. Natural [Recovery] is increased by [Vitality].

Rue added her 10 free stat points into dexterity. Her last fight made her feel sluggish in comparison to the huge human. He had moved so fast, all she could do was desperately fight her way to the edge of the group. She felt the energy from levelling up rush into her body, and then instead of feeling a rush of power, she felt a sharp pain that twinged her entire body. She tried to get up but none of her limbs responded to her. She felt her mind respond sluggishly, panic rising as she told her body to move.

Ding! Essence Capacity Overload...

Ding! Biological Maturity Insufficient… Capping

Ding! Essence Conversion… Success [79%]

Ding! Essence Containment… Failed [12%]

Ding! Attempting Essence Binding… Success S[8%] V[22%] D[27%] I[43%]

Rue’s eyelids had been forcefully closed and her body lay still, completely out of her control. The pain had grown as the messages appeared in her mind. The usual friendly and positive ding of the message now sounded high and harsh. What had happened? The pain was increasing and she felt the blackness encroaching.

Ding! Updating Status…

Before she could muster the strength to investigate, another surge of pain and what felt like a part of her being cut away caused her to lose consciousness. Blackness fell.

………………………

Noe awoke in the corner of his cage, they had recently moved him into a much larger one to accommodate for his future growth. He had watched a recent operation in the cells next to his, the other dragons that had been kept adjacent to him behind stone walls had been growing more and more aggressive. As their size grew, they began to see the humans that fed them as either prey or a threat.

Many had lashed out and attempted to kill the handlers, they instead had been killed. The scaley bodies carried out and sentenced to desecration. He growled at the thought of his brothers and sisters, lamenting their lack of intelligence. Many growled and hissed even now.

Noe had figured out what they wanted with the dragons, to tame them. Make them docile towards certain humans. Initially, they had shown kindness, feeding and catering the hatchling dragons every need. This had worked for some. They had still been small and young, impressionable. They had begun to see the humans as their mother, their feeble intelligence not remembering their true mother.

Noe growled, both at their failure and the audacity of the two-legged creatures. Those dragons had been removed early to be kept in a presumably better environment and undergo further training. As far as his senses could tell three such dragons had been taken away.

The remaining 8 dragons including himself were subjected to that nice treatment no longer, the more aggressive dragons were beaten until they could barely draw breath. He had tried to look docile and non-threatening and they had not beaten him, yet he was still here. he had not resisted since the very first days. This was strange and kept Noe awake at night thinking of possible reasons, why had he not been taken?

He got to his feet and the guard shifted outside his iron bars. Padding towards the bars he saw the human tighten its hands on the spear. Noe sidestepped at the last moment and bent down to his meat bowl. He grinned in his mind, watching with his mana sight as the human relaxed, his heart still beating extremely fast. One of his few pleasures in life was torturing this guard, and part of his future plans of course. But he did enjoy it.

After consuming the remainder of the meat he retreated to a dark corner of his cell and checked his status.

Race

Level

XP/Growth

Stat Points

Dragon [Black Dragon]

5

35/45 [+3 /pd]

0

Strength

Vitality

Dexterity

Intelligence

6

16

17

53

Ability

Effects

Wisdom[1]

You have watched and learned from the shadows for all your life, [Analysing] and [Explaining] the [Unknown], [Guessing] and [Reasoning] the minds of other [Sentient] species. Increase the effect of [intelligence] on other [Abilities] and [Resistances] to intelligence based abilities.

Identify [2]

Tells you the basic [Species] and [Level] of targets. Can appraise targets up to [40] Levels higher than you.

Shadow Scales [1]

Your scales passively absorb [Light] and work to blend you into the [Shadow].

Mana Manipulation [1]

You have gained understanding of the [Magical Energies] of the world, [Move] and [Shape] the [Mana] you naturally produce.

Mana Sense [1]

Using a small wave of [Mana] you can [Sense] the area around you. Distance scales with [Intelligence], not occluded by mundane materials.

He was progressing, continuing with his slow improvement. The humans did not feed him enough to level up quickly. Now that he had advanced his intelligence the next few stat points he achieved would go into increasing his physical might.

Even if he had to stay in here for years, eventually he would accumulate the power needed to escape. For now he sat and listened, slowly torturing that one guard. Watching him slowly being ostracized, the others getting tired of his paranoia for a beast that was less than a meter long. He was left alone more often than not. Guarding the stone passageway while his peers enjoyed a warm guard hut.

Murmuring voices could be heard from inside the well-lit hut and Noe listened in. His understanding had started to reach near acceptable levels.

“The ******* said we **** leave the beast another ****. The **** that haven't ********* yet **** never *** now. We **** kill all the dragons **** the black ***.”

“Why not the black ***?”

“Maby Greg wants to keep him as a ***, hahahahahha” Raucous laughter came from the glowing room. The guard in the hallway dropped his shoulder.

“Bloody ***** ****** on about ****** and dragons, ***** pick it up with my hand it’s ** small. Bloody ****.”

Noe turned towards the guard in the hallway and bared his sharp teeth. Concentrating for a moment he pushed air out of his snout and made crude tongue movements to shape the air.

What came out was a low hissing, halting word. Just loud enough to be heard in the halfway, but not the hut.

“sssgGGgrrReEEeGgass”