I left soon after Luke showed me where he had fought the lieutenant. After I left the town hall, I grew to 5 meters tall crouched, and fully flexed my wings causing quite the commotion, but I no longer cared, I had a new opponent. I lunched myself over 100 meters into the air then took off towards my meal. No matter what Luke said this was a fight to the death and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Over the flight, a smile engraved itself on my face. I haven’t had a good fight since the dungeon, and it was high time to fix that. Flying at my maximum speed I quickly approached where Luke had fought lieutenant and I noticed that it was built for fighting. An area of over 500 meters was cleared and flattened. I was impressed and excited now. This meant that the lieutenant also wanted a good fight.

When I got closer, I saw the lieutenant for the first time and my body flexed in excitement. The lieutenant was 5 meters tall with a muscular blue body. It was sitting down in the lotus position with its weapon, a large metal cub with spikes, lying next to it. I switch out my web skill for monster brawl knowing I would need it. When I landed the lieutenant looked up at me and mirrored my smile. It spoke.

“Ah, another like me. This will be much better than that sickly hero. No real fight in that one. Ran before it was over.” Its smile grew. “But I’ve heard that dragons are different. I’ve heard that if you want to die you fight a dragon. Let us find out if that's true.” And with that, it grabs its club and charges. I need this, I need to fight, to consume. It was time to shed my human instincts and embrace what I was. I was a dragon, and as he said a dragon does not lose.

I kick forward meeting this lieutenant between us. Its eyes widen at my speed, but its smile deepens, it also wants this. Our first clash leaves me on the backfoot as my fist meets his club and both attacks are knocked aside. The lieutenant seems to take this as a challenge and quickly reverses his club faster than I can react getting the first real hit in. The blow staggered me, but I used the momentum I had saved to counter the force making me barely move a centimeter. My left hand flashes out with a hook into his ribcage, I absorb the momentum that bounced back to my hand filling my skill back up.

The lieutenant takes the first step back with promises of brutal death in his eyes. A green halo wraps itself around the air above its head and immediately the wind picks up. its next blow comes much faster than I expected with the club slamming into my clavicle. I can hear my body groaning under the pressure, but I don’t let this attack go unpunished. My right hand goes for a wild haymaker impacting its chest and I can feel one of its ribs break. This proved to be a mistake. Its smile grows even wider, and it starts to laugh. “For shame for shame, even the mighty dragon will fall to me.” The lieutenant boasts as he much more easily hefts his club. I vaguely remember Luke saying something about the lieutenant getting stronger the more damaged it got but it hardly mattered as it was time to put my scales to the test.

In a blink, both monsters were in front of each other trading blows. I was throwing out everything I had but my breath attack even as I was progressively pushed back with my opponent gaining more and more power from each blow I dealt it. All though unaware I was also growing at a rapid pace with my scales and body refining themselves in this crucible. Then came the first crack in my scales. Its club descended on me like an angry god landing on my shoulder seeking vengeance for a crime I did not commit, cracking every scale it came in contact with. But I didn’t cry out as that was a sign of weakness for monsters like us and I was not weak. I roared in defiance and the lieutenant froze for a second. I capitalized on this by smashing my fist into the lieutenant’s face sending it stagging backward I took this opportunity to use my breath attack, but I was too slow. Immobilized by my charge up I was unable to stop the lieutenant’s club from crashing into my knee nearly breaking it. If I had done a bit more damage to the lieutenant, I might have lost the fight right there. But I did not fall, and my attack went off enveloping the lieutenant’s torso with a beam of fire. I mentally panicked at the fact that the lieutenant could have dodged that attack but chose not to. As the smoke and dust settled, I felt real terror for the first time.

Nothing had hit this level in my short life as it did when I saw the melted and mangled body of that smiling lieutenant. I knew that this was probably the end but rather than let the fear hold me I used it as fuel. Fuel to survive.

This mattered little as in the time it took for me to blink its club was curving into my torso shattering every rib on my left side. Even in my pain, I tried to use my saved momentum to help with the knockback. It didn’t help much and my broken body twisted into the air before sliding on the ground. I did the only thing I thought would help me now. I grew as big as I could, and the feverish beating of my heart was now shaking the earth. I was larger than ever and slowly I pushed myself up much to the surprise and terror of my meal. It had hit me hard enough to kill anything but me on this planet. As I get to my feet I turn around to look my prey in the eyes one last time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Temmet had never really felt fear before right this moment. Back on his homeworld Temmet was a powerhouse with his bloodline ability to get stronger the more damaged he got. Thanks to that he was selected to be an invader of a new world. He had thought he would be a general but after seeing what that real monster could do, he understood why he wasn’t. So far this had been a predictable fight with him losing at the start then taking a final attack and surviving then finishing the fight in one last hit. It had work until that last part. Something had changed.

Temmet watched in complete fear as his opponent grew to over 20 meters tall with his wings stretching out to blot out the sun. But what truly terrified Temmet was his face, he was smiling. Even after taking a hit that would have killed Temmet outright, he was able to stand up and smile. Then came the roar and Temmet realized that as that awful prideful sound blanked the surrounding area that something had changed it wasn’t just a fight to the death anymore, no this was a hunt. And he was the prey.

Temmet’s mind sputtered to understand what had changed in his opponent, no hunter. He was supposed to be near death not able to make him freeze in fear. Rage began to bubble up filling Temmet’s mind and soul. Who did this weak dragon think he was making him feel fear? It was time to show him what real fear was. Kicking off the ground hard enough to make a crater Temmet launched himself at this weakling. Then he felt a buildup of wind magic, but it wasn’t targeting him but the dragon. The dragon was attacking itself, Ha, he must have given u- a fist the size of his torso ripped into him sending him bouncing from the ground into the air. As Temmet floated at his apex he wondered what had happened. How had the dragon gotten so fast? Was it that wind magic, no that only pushed down on him. As he started to fall Temmet felt another change in the air. An aura of hunger billowed out of the dragon as everything clicked in Temmet’s mind. The dragon had unlocked his bloodline. Every dragon had one, Temmet had assumed it was his durability, but it was something else entirely wasn’t it. Temmet felt failure for the first time in his life as he fell from the sky. From a young child, he had dominated were ever he went but now he had failed in the ultimate way and truly understood why people stayed away from dragons. They were all crazy. Temmet wouldn’t just die though and turned to look that the massive beast he was fighting and readied his true ultimate attack. It drained him down to 1 HP and doubled that damage of his next attack. It was his reward for hit level 50 back on his home planet. His blood visibly flowed from his wounds and covered his club as power filled his broken body making him stronger than ever. He might die here but he would take this walking calamity down with him. Then he noticed that the dragon never stopped smiling, it was enjoying this. It wanted this. As the thoughts tore through his head, he questioned everything he had heard about dragons. They got crazier the higher their level right. Why was this low-level one already acting like this? Temmet hadn’t been alive during his universe’s dragon war, but it took at least 100 years to start from what he was told. How could this dragon already be this insane at the start? Temmet was glad that dragons were stuck to their home universe as he would have feared for his home otherwise. Then words that seemed to warp the air rippled out of the dragon. “See you in hell.” Those words were followed with the loudest noise Temmet had ever heard and a beam of fire that screamed of hunger. Temmet brought his club to meet it in a show of force, but the beam engulfed him taking his last breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I watched my meal fall from the sky unable to move. After everything I had done my body was broken in a way, no human could have survived before the system. I let out a breath and passed out with the largest smile I had ever had on my face.