Rex’s first hunt wasn’t much of a hunt. Instead, he was brought into an arena by Blake, who looked a bit hungover and surly in the mid morning sun.

The arena was essentially a large hole in the ground, reached by two long dirt ramps on either side that both ended in heavy, iron reinforced, wooden doors. Inside the doors, there was a large circle of ground that was open to the sky. As the whole floor of the arena was well below ground level, the stone that formed the walls of the arena was backed by dirt.

Above those walls, at ground level, a large, thick metal grate covered the top of the pit, caging in the participants. Spectators could sit at seats near the pit’s edge and get a proper view as the walls sloped outwards a bit.

As Rex entered the pit on a long leather collar Karla had anxiously begged him to wear, he noticed a large wooden box already inside. The box shook from the fury of the beast contained within. A rope dangled from the side of the box up to the roof above. As soon as Blake left, they planned to release whatever snarling creature was inside, Rex realized.

Idea told Rex,

Rex observed dryly. Searching for a word, a process that Idea identified as Rex’s unconscious ability to tap into the cybernetic databases they shared, Rex added;

Idea was endlessly fascinated by the crossover between Rex and itself, the way Rex could use Idea’s own databases was purely subconscious. And Idea borrowed Rex’s brain in order to process emotions, in this way, they both borrowed something from the other. It wasn’t surprising then, that they both felt the same dislike, but their reasons for it were different.

As soon as Blake stumbled through the wooden door and climbed the ramp to join Able, Ashe, and Leonard who were watching from above, Ashe pulled the rope releasing the beast that he’d captured.

From inside the wooden box a very angry and terrified creature burst forth as soon as the rope released the latch. It was somewhat fox-like, with a conical head and sharp teeth on a dainty jaw. The eyes were intelligent, though feral, rounded and mostly filled with brown irises. The yellow fur bunched up into a mane-like fluff around the neck and instead of one tail, it had three, all tipped in a tuft of white fur. The paws were standard for a canid, with short stubby claws.

Rex thought the creature was cute, but could see that it was in a panic and probably half starved. It was going to attack out of sheer desperation.

Idea didn’t think the creature was cute, rather, on analysis of its combat potential, the AI thought that the creature was outclassed. As dangerous as this creature might be to a common human with no combat skill, against a dragon? It’s teeth were too small, it’s claws were not meant for slashing, rather just for traction. This beast had no chance against even a hatchling dragon. Despite being about as tall as Rex, it clearly massed only half as much.

This probably explained why so few people had come to watch the fight. It was a forgone conclusion, this was meant to be easy prey for the dragon, not something that could potentially harm Rex. This was just a feeding, not a real fight. But, regardless of Idea’s rapid evaluation of it’s poor chances, the creature made a rapid charge of its own, clearing the distance between them in a surprising burst of speed.

Rex nimbly moved out of the way. A normal dragon hatchling might have been clumsier, but Idea had spent some time optimizing Rex’s motor functions as well as enhancing his intelligence. Rex was a lot more agile than a normal hatchling of the same age.

Rex asked hesitantly, not certain what to do. They both shared the same reluctance to fight the desperate creature, but Rex knew that he couldn’t just keep dodging forever, eventually, the fox would land an attack. Rex hopped backwards, barely avoiding the small but sharp teeth as the creature spun around and lunged.

Idea replied, Idea began moving nanobots towards Rex’s forelimbs, causing them to darken a bit as more and more of the mostly carbon nanotube based, cell sized, robots built up in his fingers. Idea instructed.

That was easier said than done, Rex thought to himself, but then he had an idea. Why not simply let the creature catch him? Rex sat up on his haunches and waited for the next lunge with arms outstretched, as if to give a nice happy hug.

The fox-like creature took the bait, attempting to leap up and reach Rex’s neck, it allowed both of Rex’s front paws to grip onto it’s shoulders.

*ZAP!* Idea forced the nanobots in one hand to discharge their stored negative charge, creating a taser like effect as current ran from one hand to the other where other nanobots waited with a built up positive charge. Rex winced, that had hurt. But the fox creature convulsed wildly, then collapsed, still alive, but completely knocked out. The electrical shock had worked.

Idea said.

Rex opined, pleased that he wouldn’t have to kill the creature.

Up above, the four men had been watching in silence.

“Was that a spell?” Able asked, puzzled by the sudden dramatic collapse of the fox beast.

Leonard shook his head, he’d been running an Analysis spell the whole fight, to see the flow of magic and anima. He’d seen the electrical discharge, but had no idea what had caused it. “I’m not sure what Rex did,” he admitted, “But the way he put both hands on the creature before it was shocked with lightning? Could only be deliberate. Our little dragon is more dangerous than we thought.”

Ashe nodded, still feeling guilty about not having fully shared where he’d found the wasp, he mentioned it again now. “I think it all has to do with that wasp,” he opined. “Your spell said It didn’t have magic either, right? What if it did something to that egg that we can’t see because it hides itself from your analysis spell. Maybe it’s hidden magic of some sort.”

Leonard pulled his beard contemplatively. “I suppose it is possible to have magic that hides from other magic, though I’ve never heard of any such. It is strange that both the wasp and whatever Rex just did seem to have used no magic, yet clearly couldn’t be explained without magic.”

Ashe nodded in agreement. “This strange not-magic magic worries me.” he said, unironically.

Blake shook his head, dismissing the nonsense the hunter and mage were currently discussing. What he cared about was raising the dragon. “Kill that beast and absorb the anima, Rex! I know you can understand me! Kill it!” He yelled down at the stubborn dragon.

All four men were somewhat less than surprised when the dragon deliberately crossed its arms in a very human gesture and shook his head, clearly refusing to finish the unconscious fox.

“Well, it’s as stubborn as it’s master,” Able said, the steward was a bit amused by his own wit. He didn’t see the problem if the dragon refused to kill the fox creature. He had found this whole exercise distasteful and fancied that if he had been thrust into a cage he might have stoically refused to murder for the amusement of others. It made Rex seem a bit noble in Able’s opinion, though he’d never share that opinion.

“Rex needs to fuel his beast core,” Ashe said softly. “But if I shoot the beast, that should be good enough.” He suggested, pulling the bow from his back.

But before Ashe could string the bow and deliver the finishing strike, Blake exploded in fury. How dare the dragon disobey an order like that? He was the stablemaster, the dragons did what he told them to do. That Rex was smarter than the other dragons only made this disobedience more difficult to deal with! Blake felt humiliated in front of the other men, that his competence as stablemaster was called into question by this disobedience. He did not care that the other men didn’t see it that way, he felt the humiliation keenly. “I will punish you if you don’t do what I say!” He yelled down.

The dragon stubbornly ignored this latest threat.

Able summed up what Rex was thinking by saying, “It’s an empty threat, Eric wouldn’t let you do anything.” He suggested. All four men knew that the young heir was infatuated with the hatchling and if Blake carried through his threat, he might well risk being fired.

“I will punish Karla if you don’t do what I say!” Blake yelled down. This threat was a lot more credible. For all of Eric’s mild affection for Karla, his father, the duke, wouldn’t complain if Blake disciplined a beastman stablegirl slave. Where the duke would object to any harm done to the dragon, the cat girl wasn’t nearly so valuable.

Rex considered this new threat, and with an inwards sigh, concluded that it was quite worrisome. Reluctantly, he kneeled down and bit the fox on the throat, killing it as painlessly as possible. Idea registered some energy flowing from the beast core of the dead fox beast into Rex’s own core, and added a new line to the status display:

Anima Progress: 35/100%

The structure of Rex’s beast core suggested discrete levels of growth, and now that Idea had done some analysis, he felt certain that he could properly gauge the anima needed for the next level. What changes such a progression would bring, Idea did not know.

What Rex knew was that as of this moment, with the taste of blood in his mouth, he was no longer happy to be a slave in this place. Rex told Idea,

Idea commented. This was easier said than done, they both realized.