So… what does an undifferentiated flesh being pretending to be human do to kill time? After shopping for her girlfriend, that is…

Murder, of course!

With my four pointed legs dug into the soil and the long grass brushing against my carapace, I swipe with one of my long scythes. The long centipede creature squeals as its internals become its externals. The horrible-looking rope of brown shell goes cold as its life leaks out into the dirt.

This is boring. These monsters are boring. I’ve killed eleven of these centipedes, eight giant rats, four electric frogs, and one invisible… something. And all of them died in one swipe of my awesome scythe claws. …Maybe this form is too powerful? Did I break the game balance or something?

That can’t be, that robot would’ve kicked this form’s ass… So these monsters are just weak. So I need to find a strong monster… How do I do that?

Jumping high into the air, I unfurl my wings. The transparent films vibrate as they keep me up, and I use my nauseating compound eyes to scan the area around the town.

Something strong, something strong… I could… fight one of those stequillians. Betton said not to… but when have I ever listened to him? In the end it doesn’t matter, since all I see is weak-ass monsters hiding in the grass, waiting to pounce on each other. Cowards.

Suddenly, I’m almost knocked out of the sky as a shockwave passes over me. The grass below ripples as the invisible wave of force moves through the area. Stabilizing, I turn towards the direction it came from.

Something is there, far in the grassland, something strong. I’m not sure how I know, but I can feel it. Without thinking about it, I quickly fly towards imminent danger.

────────────

It takes me a few hours to reach the source of the weird feeling. Which is… an old lady, walking along the path. What the hell? Maybe I’m confused? But… the energy is clearly coming from her old, brittle frame.

I land near the woman with a thud, my wings snapping shut on my back. Contrary to my expectation, the woman doesn’t seem afraid of me. Actually, she doesn't even seem surprised, smiling up at me.

“Hello, dear, can I help you?” Her voice is weirdly genuine, no threat behind it or anything. Despite that, the words themselves vibrate with power. What the hell is this thing?

I quickly – well, as quickly as I can manage – shift back into my human form. The wispy-haired woman watches in awe as my flesh warps and writhes. She’s really tall, very thin, and wears a light blue dress. I bet she was pretty when she was younger…

When I finish shapeshifting, I straighten out my dress and smile.

“Hi!” I say eloquently.

“Well, hello there,” the older lady says with a huge grin. “I’ve never seen someone pull that off, very impressive.” She taps her chin. “Are you a slime?”

I shake my head. “I’m a mistake!” I declare with a smirk.

The elderly woman chuckles. “Most children are…” She looks at me again. “So, why did you come to see me?”

I feel… weirdly shy, in front of this woman. “W-well… I was bored, and killing monsters around the nearby town. Then I felt your energy, and thought you might be a powerful monster…” I stare at the ground. What’s wrong with me?

“Ah… I see now,” she says wisely. “You wanted to fight me… Well, I wouldn’t be against sparring, but I’d like to look you over before that.”

I look the lady in the eyes, confused. “Haven’t you already?”

She shakes her head. “No, I mean really look you over. The feeling can be quite unpleasant.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Oh!” I exclaim. “Go ahead.”

The woman smiles just before her eyes start glowing a bright blue. My body twists and tries to escape my human shape as a horrible sensation of being watched fills me. It lasts only a second, thankfully, and I’m able to keep my human shell.

I meet the elderly lady’s eyes and am surprised to find them filled with confusion.

“Well… I have no idea what to make of that… But you should be safe to spar with.” She taps her arm. “This is sparring, no lethal moves, understand?” she asks, her eyes glowing menacingly.

I nod, excited. I’m gonna get to fight this lady, whose power is almost knocking me over.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll go into my real form.” she says with a smirk. The wind around us suddenly whips up, pulling the clouds above us down out of the sky. The fluffy white pillar rapidly obscures the woman. The sudden windstorm lasts but a moment, and when it recedes, something insane is in the woman’s place.

A long, thin dragon with snow white scales.

It stares down at me, grinning. “My name is Oasi Glimmax, air dragon,” she says proudly.

My skin shudders in anticipation, and I smile up at the massive creature.

────────────

The dragon makes the first move, vanishing with a slight breeze. Next I know multiple somethings are piercing my head, and the massive form of the dragon is directly behind me. Not wasting the opening, I shoot out barbed vines, trying to anchor myself to the limb embedded in my psuedoskull.

Oasi tries to pull her claw out of me, but my head splits into a maw, clamping down on her hard scales. While my fangs can’t punch through, they do manage to get a bit of purchase on the smooth surface.

“Oh, gross…” the dragon rumbles.

I giggle with a mouth on my back. “I thought you said no lethal attacks,” I chide with another.

“You didn’t die, did you?” the older woman says offhandedly.

“True.” I manage to get out just before her other foreclaw comes around and crushes me against the first.

I abandon the human form completely, returning into a pile of pink flesh. No point if she’s going to keep destroying it. Before the hag can pull either hand away, I cover myself with teeth and spines and start trying to dig into her flesh. I quickly find purchase in multiple places, which causes the dragon to yank her limbs back.

Mild pain suddenly pricks my consciousness as I lose multiple parts of my body. I watch as invisible blades of air cut through my flesh, turning my many pink tendrils into inert liquid. Annoying.

I retract my limbs, hardening my exterior. After a few painful hits from the dragon’s magic, I’m able to defend myself. Air is still a physical thing, after all. My attacks now more limited by the stony flesh protecting me, I decide to go completely on the defensive.

From my perch on Oasi’s arm, I hunker down. I harden my exposed flesh even further, until it can’t get any sturdier, and start burrowing inwards. Like some fucked kind of oil well, I start drilling into the dragon’s body.

“How irritating, pretending to be a barnacle, are we?” the older woman says, clearly amused by my tactics.

Something around me shifts, and I start feeling a pull away from the dragon. She’s not using her hand, or trying to pry me off, it’s like the air above me is gently tugging only me. Then I notice something else…

The temperature quickly starts dropping. I feel the heat being quickly leeched from my shell-like flesh, pulled out into the air around me. Ice starts forming inside me, the skin losing cohesion. My outer crust starts to fracture slightly.

And then a huge wall of air slams into me. My outermost layer shatters into dust, leaving me exposed. Before I can whip up another round of defense, the dragon excises me from her scales with a surgical wind blade. I plummet to the ground, unable to latch on to anything due to my slowed growth.

Landing in the grassy soil, I stare up at the massive face of the dragon. She smiles down at me, joy sparkling in her blue eyes.

“That was very enjoyable, little one.” A quick pillar of clouds later, and the dragon is replaced with an elderly woman. “Thank you for that bout of fun, it’s been a long time since someone’s gotten the better of me like that.”

I glare at her with myriad eyes, rapidly reforming my human shape. Is she joking? She thrashed me! While holding back! As I angrily try to reform, the old woman walks over to some tree stumps.

It takes me less time than normal to reform, for whatever reason. When I can finally walk again, I hobble over to the elder, my legs still a bit more fluid than solid. She smiles up at me as I approach and motions to the stump next to her.

“Sit, I’d like to chat.”

***************************

I glare at the elderly woman, who is probably way older than elderly. Her blue eyes sparkle in amusement as she meets my angry gaze.

“So… what did we learn?” She asks, just like a gradeschool teacher.

“Don’t fight a dragon.” I answer, annoyed.

The wispy woman laughs. “Well that’s good advice, but not what you should’ve taken from that little bout.” She taps her chin with a long fingernail. “Is that really all you can think of?”

This woman is bugging me. She already kicked my ass, why is she gloating in such a weird way? I sigh. “Cold is shockingly effective on me?”

She nods excitedly. “Yes! That’s one! What’s the other now?”

I just blink at her. What does she want? That’s all I noticed.

After a few minutes of silence, the dragon takes pity on me.

“You need to be ready to escape! The way you fight tells me you haven’t lost much, you over-commit to attacks.” She makes a small tornado in her palm. “Be ready to change strategies on the fly!”

…I feel like I do that already, but I’m not one to argue with an ancient dragon.

“Alright.” I mutter.

She smiles. “Well, now I have to get going.” She stands abruptly, the wind blowing her dress. “Nice to meet you, Alex.”

Without another word, the strange woman heads back towards the road.