Dragonlayer

The world of Brockton Bay is one beset by entities, powerful beings who choose a single mortal to act as their champion and representative. Each and every one fashions an expression of their nature, known colloquially as a power, to bestow upon their chosen individual.

They do not simply leave after taking this action. No, they stand by, watching and aiding their chosen one. There’s often quite a bit of affection, and direct material aid in the form of calculations, management, and even offloaded cognitive processing. Just about every cape has at least one being, as alien as they may be, that is thoroughly in their corner. What, then, will happen when this invisible assistance is severed? When a cape goes somewhere their passenger can not follow, with nothing available to fill that void?

The spear in Rose’s hand drank in energy, just as she’d grown accustomed to. What was new, however, was that the flow of energy did not stop. She had intended to imbue it with just enough energy to pass cleanly through about five feet worth of space, allowing the spear to phase partially out of existence and fuse with both the dragon’s body and the stone wall. Instead, she added quite a bit more energy than she expected.

Splinters went flying as the wooden shaft shattered, most thankfully following the grain of the wood and flying forward or backwards from the point where Rose gripped it. Each and every splinter flew in a perfectly straight line, cutting through air, stone, or flesh with equal ease. The cave wall behind her was suddenly riddled with pinprick holes that let the sunlight in, and the dragon was woken from its slumber by an injury that didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as a hole the size of a human head should have. The splinters did not displace matter, nor did they tear it. Where they passed, there was only a hole.

The sudden exposure of nerve endings was more than enough to cause the dragon to immediately awaken and roar its displeasure, however. It was very much not pinned, and so with speed far greater than one might expect from a creature of its size, it surged forward and turned to face the intruders in its lair, letting out an aerosolized spray of bright orange liquid that shimmered with heat.

Gil’s bikini armor protected him from most contact with the spray, which he was extremely thankful for. The one place it did pierce, where a stray splinter had shot straight through his armored thigh, hurt like nothing else Gil could remember as it hissed and bubbled in the open wound, bleaching and cauterizing the flesh. Even where it didn’t touch him, Gil could feel the intense heat of the spray micrometers from his skin.

Gawain either hadn’t been hit or didn’t care, as he immediately rushed forward, arms wide, and tackled the giant, snakelike head into the wall. There, with a roar of effort, he was able to pin it for precious moments. He was obviously struggling, constantly adjusting his footing to keep it in place, but he managed it for precious seconds. The shriek of metal as his sabatons bit into the stone floor was deafening.

“Now!” Gawain yelled. “Do it!”

Gil hadn’t been quite so adroit as the Knight, but he’d adapted quickly enough. Most importantly, his quick eyes locked onto an opportunity, as was his nature. Rose had made a safer opening.

Instead of rushing for the wide, poison spewing jaws, Gil dashed for the large hole where the spear head had punched clear through the dragon’s body. There, he popped the top with a brief act of will, poured the spores into the open wound, and scrambled away from the wildly thrashing tail. He didn’t bother watching the proceeds, as he had something else equally pressing to address.

Rose, seconds after her hand was obliterated, had been swept off of her feet by the long snakelike coils of the dragon. She’d tried to catch herself and kip up, but had not quite processed yet that she only had one hand and thus tried to catch her weight partially on a raw stump. Her prone form was then snatched up in the dragon’s coils. Gil heard a sickening crunch as the powerful coils crushed Rose’s body.

Gil rushed to her, and applied a jolt of electricity to the dragon near Rose. It spasmed, but since it had already been squeezing her as tightly as it could, that mostly meant that Gil got an opportunity to haul her out of danger and start healing her with his cure materia once they were close to the mouth of the cave. Bones clicked back into place, but she still flopped limply in his arms. The important thing was that she was still breathing.

Once she was stable, Gil turned back around to see Gawain still locked in battle with the dragon. A noticeably different dragon, in fact, and one whose otherwise potentially fatal injury had mended shut as part of its transformation. The snake head was gone, replaced with an emerald green humanoid torso, complete with short messy green hair. The torso would have been massive on a human, with the transition from torso to tail looked like nothing so much as wide flaring hips. The body itself was squat and, frankly, hideous, as one might expect for a malnourished feral woman that was comfortable eating people.

Gawain had abandoned the grapple with a creature ten times his mass, and had drawn a plain steel sword to fend off the dragon’s clumsy haymakers. He kept dancing back and lashing out with his blade, keenly aware of the dragon’s attempts to trap him in a deadly circle.

“Gawain, get out of there!” Gil shouted. “Get Rose to safety, I can handle things here!”

Gil darted in, waving his arms at the dragoness to get her attention. Since she was infected with a variant of the parasite binding, that meant that she considered Gil her rightful mate and, unfortunately, would not be fully captured until that relationship was consummated.

“Hey!” He yelled, “Hey, leave him alone!”

The dragon locked eyes with him, and the feral smile she’d had moments before became far more pensive. Nessa had been so pent up after several days that she’d been unable to think straight. This dragon probably wasn’t anywhere near as sophisticated as her, but was also probably only moderately horny by the standards of the parasite binding. Enough for Gil to distract her and let Gawain out, at least.

“Hey, hey…” Gil said gently, stepping to the side to let Gawain past. “How about you relax. I know we might have startled you…”

The dragon snapped her jaws at him. Gil imagined it would have been quite a bit more intimidating if they’d still been large enough to swallow him whole. As it was, it was almost cute despite her being fair bit larger than him even before the tail was factored in. Gil took her by the hand, and she shuddered with altogether more pleasure than the small motion deserved. Her upper body was scaled, but they were tiny, smooth scales that might have been dry skin. Gil touched her on the waist, and she shuddered with pleasure again. That was good.

“At least it’s a girl…” Gil muttered, his voice low and soothing.

Gil could pleasure someone he didn’t find attractive, he’d even gone gay when the pay was good enough, but there was very little chance he’d be able to actually get erect for a butterface like this. Thankfully, the dragon's newly formed torso was unbelievably sensitive. After all, it had never had such delicate skin before, and Gil’s fingers quested gently downwards towards the dragon’s nethers. From her reaction, he could tell it was just as sensitive as she should be. He only needed to finish her off to complete the process.

It was an easy enough process, and the dragon just about passed out when she reached climax. Gil decided that, since she’d already been sleeping when he arrived, he might as well let her have her beauty rest. He had other things to attend to, and she’d probably be out for at least a little while.

Gawain stood grimly next to Rose, and the glare he leveled at Gil was accusing. Rose herself was leaned against a rock staring at her stump, held up next to her perfectly intact hand. She didn’t look like she was in shock. Her look of intense focus was matched only by that of Nimue beside her, studying what she was doing.

With a sickening crack and a gasp of agony, a bone punched out of the end of her stump, only to be immediately wrapped in flesh and muscle. Moments later, the lump expanded as Rose redirected biomass to replace the hand one bone at a time. Nimue’s eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly, in clear delight.

“Oh, excellent. I’m sorry it’s painful, but that could have gone a lot worse.” Gil said. “If it helps, we have a dragon now. So, do you want to talk about what happened in there before or after you fix up your hand?”

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Dragon - T5 no name - 5 credits, Glory of the White Knight + added to shop, Dragon Parasite variant binding added to Parasite shop.

Glory of the White Knight: Choose one target and tag them with this item, causing them to be exponentially more impressed than they otherwise would have been when you defend or save them in the future. The degree varies based on their personal preferences and perception of needing help, but negates any chance of her being annoyed or angered by your actions. Stepping in to take a woman’s part in an argument will get a mild sort of affection if it was totally unnecessary, but if nobody has ever stood up for her they may develop a deep crush. Saving a woman who was certain that she was about to be raped to death and then eaten will likely result in utter devotion.

••••••••••

So we have a dragon. What do we do with her?

https://strawpoll.com/jVyG251B1Z7