Rue came in and out of consciousness. Every time she was awake the pain would come. Seeking to eat her, drag her into the deep comforts of oblivion. Each time she resisted for longer.

Sometimes she would awake and claw frantically at unseen teeth nipping at her. There seemed to be something blocking her eyes, her only indication of what time it was the glow that filters through her eyelids.

When the irritating creatures would continue to nip at her she would wreath the area in flames. Using her dwindling reserves of flame to keep them at bay. It was when she next awoke, more lucid than normal, she heard the scratches and skittering of tiny claws on the stone floor. She felt one of the creatures climb onto her still form and shook with what little might she could muster, trying to shake it off. She failed, and as more of the creatures swarmed her she struggled as they nibbled at her scales.

They could not get through but she felt some of them target weak points like her barley closed wounds, still not closed because of the bastard creatures. As Rue felt small teeth rip into a bit of soft flesh she used a small blast of flame, it wreathed her body. And the creatures fled, some of them burning. She moved her head, sniffing to try and find a charred body. Maybe one had died closer this time. She had been lucky in the past if she found bodys.

This was her lucky day and as she found the small burned body she swallowed it whole, feeling a warmth flow through her body. With every small meal, she got just a little better. It wasn't long before she drifted back off into the dark. And not long before the scratching and nibbling started again.

………………………………..

Sergeant Jasper sat on a horse trotting down the road as part of a 50 man convoy. He was reading, for such a large and physically inclined man the tiny book in his hands seemed rather ridiculous. His gruff face, many scars and contemplative temperament gave him a warrior's presence. It was his firm belief that knowledge was power, in this case, the book he was reading was a bestiary.

This was a relatively common academic book on the monsters of the area and many of their weaknesses.

Just to list a few, there were.

Bugbears: The Bugbear is an especially large breed of bear showing higher intelligence than many of the common species. It tries to avoid settlements but will not shy from combat. Fully grown Bugbears can be as long as 5 meters and stand 2 meters tall at their shoulder. They have many defensive and offensive abilities and despite their size can run extremely fast.

Level: Juvenile 1 - 10 Subadult 11 - 20 Adult 20+

These are just guidelines, variance applies and level does not correspond to size.

Jasper had a healthy respect for the forest environment they were about to go into, with goblins, bugbears, serpents, wolves and perhaps worse; Dragons.

The entry on dragons was a rather healthy size. Not too common in most parts but this area seemed to have a reputation for small dragon sightings. Many try to raise dragons in captivity, but due to the nature of dragons, this became harder as they grew older. You could lock up a two-foot dragon easily enough, control it with punishments and rewards.

But unlike most beasts and species, they grew faster and larger the more they levelled up. Most creatures would grow naturally in size and this would not be affected by their level. Some species had a level cap until they reached a certain maturity. Humans were one such example, a child could only level up to Lv5 until they reached the age of ten where the limit was removed. Children wouldn't even gain their status until the age of two. This differed from species to species.

Certain actions could yield abilities, but most abilities were unlocked at a certain level. For beasts that were, the human race gained very few abilities from their racial class but was able to train themselves in other abilities, intelligence was what separated them from naturally powerful creatures and gave them fighting chance.

Jasper did not think very many dragons would be in the woods they were heading too, even less chance that they would encounter a large one. The green species that was said to live in this area didn't grow very large and their party of 50 could take down a fully grown adult if necessary. Unless it was level 30 or more they would be fine.

Jasper closed his book and took to inspecting his men.

‘Not long now’