“It would be a shame to let you go.” Nathalia stood tall and crossed her arms over her scaled boobs, “Therefore you will come with me.”

“Ehm, don’t I get a say in this?” John tried to make his opinion heard. Nathalia raised one of her long eyebrows,

“What? You are going to decline?”

“If that… is an option…?” The Gamer looked over to Rave. Between death and following the ancient dragoness, he would choose the latter, but he really did not want to be separated from his girlfriend.

Nathalia was instantly in his face and stared him down. She truly was tall, doubly so for a woman. It made him gulp. Her golden pupils searched in his brown eyes for the truth as she continued probing. “Was this not the greatest sex you’ve ever had?” John shot another, slightly guilty glance at Rave. Quickly, his eyes were forced back by Nathalia grabbing his chin. “Look at me, John Newman and answer.” There was no magic in her voice, just the cold, impatient threat of somebody with powers of cataclysmic destruction.

“Yes, it was,” he answered truthfully.

What he just had experienced was greater than anything he had done with Aclysia and Rave. There was something missing in it, the emotional note, but on raw physical satisfaction it had been intense. “Yet you do not wish to taste this every day?”

“I do, but…” he hesitated.

“What, small one? Speak clear, my patience runs thin.”

“I love her!” John justified his decision, while blushing slightly. “I love Jane, it doesn’t matter if the sex with you is much better if I feel nothing for you!”

Nathalia let go of his face and turned to Rave. “That little girl….”

“Yeah, this little girl!” Rave raised her voice and hurried over to John to hug him. “Still my man, ya oldie. Now go crawl into another chest, he made his decision!” She stuck her tongue out to the dragoness.

Nathalia’s eye twitched. The entire underground complex shook. “I don’t care about your decision!” she growled and the trembling intensified.

A sound like a geyser of lava, and a long black tail burst from her hips, a sharp thing of polished black, bladed segments. Moments later the skeletal outline of wings extended from her upper back. As they spread out, membranes of molten rock spread between the fingers. The shaking reached a level where it was hard for John to stand.

“You mortals trifle and ridicule me? Me, a high dragon of ancient times. Me, the Fire of Destruction. Me, Nathalia?! I should reduce your bodies to ashes and bury you in the sands of time. I should watch you join Remus in eternally living and dying. Mongrels, a thousand times you will experience incineration, and your bodies being pieced together again ember by em-“

“Sol was completely right about you.” The quivering suddenly stopped and everyone looked at the cat between them. Copernicus lazily lied on his side and played with his tail.

“What do you know of Sol, cat?” Nathalia asked.

“Name is Copernicus. Hate to see you too.” The solar cat meowed. There was a slight trembling but Nathalia kept herself under control.

“Explain,” she demanded.

“Before I went and made my contract with this annoyance of a Lightbearer…”

“Hey!” Rave was pissed enough as is without getting complaints from her cat.

“You are both equally annoying. Continue!” Nathalia shouted the last word, her wings spreading violently, scattering lava behind her.

“…I occasionally got to speak to Sol and she told me that you’re an egotistical, short-wired  anarchist who would have been better off as a nymph or succubus,” Copernicus finished quickly.

“Radiant cunt,” Nathalia cursed. “Still, what do I care? These mortals are mine to kill or enslave how I wish. Sol is with Romulus on the other side of the planet. It is not like they enjoy his personal protection.”

John saw a shimmer of light and cleared his throat. “Actually!” He started and pulled the attention of the dragoness back to him, “he is interested in me.”

Nathalia narrowed her eyes, “Can you prove that?”

He could, thanks to the wonders of the 21st Century. “Jane, could I borrow your phone for a moment?” His still didn’t have the capability to receive signals inside an Illusion Barrier.

“Sure, here ya go.” Jane gave it to him with a grin.

John opened the Discord and scrolled to the name list. He turned the screen to Nathalia. “See?”

“What even is this?” Nathalia asked, inspecting the phone from multiple angles. She put a claw on the display. Then she tilted her head. John distantly caught that the device was reading Nathalia’s aura. A moment later, words appeared on the screen at rapid speed. Nathalia growled as she read them, her claw etching a trench into the glass. “Fine!” she spat out and pulled her hand back. “Latebloomer. Romulus ‘protects’ you. The Abyss Auction makes that much clear.”

‘Just how old is the Abyss Auction?’ John asked himself for the first time. If Nathalia knew what they were, that made them at least 560 years old. He and Rave both relaxed tremendously, as the wings and the tail both collapsed back into the dragoness’ body.

“You have his attention and there are people who don’t want you removed before your time…” Nathalia crossed her arms again, thoughtfully shifting her hips to the left. “Yet still, I want you, John.”

“We can repeat this anytime,” he willingly offered.

“No.” The denial came swift. “I want you, John Newman. I will use that cock of yours for as much relief as it can bring me. Romulus be damned, the fool can try catching me. The other side of the planet is a long distance away, even for him.” Nathalia’s stomach growled and she eyes Rave hungrily. “I really don’t have a taste for humans, but…”

John raised his arm in front of Rave, “If you touch her you can forget ever getting what you want from me.”

“I get what I want, little one. I always get what I want,” Nathalia growled in the tone of a woman that really was not used to making compromises. “Give me a great reason to march out of here to find food.”

His mind was racing. There must be a way to get out of this, something that would convince Nathalia to leave him alone, something that she wanted. Some way to appeal to her pride and lust simultaneously.

“It gets better!” John exclaimed and Nathalia raised an eyebrow.

“What now? Just explain, don't make me ask for everything.” Her patience was clearly at an end. “I am too hungry for this!”

“I have an Innate Ability, things I do get better by repetition. If you just leave me alone for a while, the next time we meet will be even better for you.” John made his case.

“If it gets better by repetition, you can just fuck me every day,” Nathalia countered and crossed her arms again. “Just another reason to keep you, if anything.”

“That is true, but I am also able to increase my abilities by killing monsters, my Strength for example.” Nathalia hesitated and John knew that he almost had her. “Think about it Nathalia, if you just leave me running around, I could give you a proper pounding. I could fix being scrawny. All you need to do is check on me when it pleases you and I will be better than before.”

The dragoness was in deep thought. “True, your thrusts, while pleasurable, were not especially impressive,” she mumbled to herself. Then she nodded. “Fine then, John. I will find you again in a few weeks to check on your progress.” John was almost at ease. “Girl, tell me your name.”

“Jane Hollmey,” Rave said in a challenging tone.

John admired her for her bravery most of the time but sometimes it crossed over to being thick. This whole situation had just been dragged from the edge of catastrophe.

“Jane. You either work on becoming worthy of pleasuring me too or prepare to be removed from this man’s life.” That was all Nathalia had to say to her. Ignoring Rave’s complaints, she turned back to John. “Can somebody assist you in the process of killing monsters or do you need to absorb the souls of the fallen personally like my brother Tilgun?”

“I need to invite you to my group…” Confusion in her golden eyes, John decided to just show it to her. “Invite Nathalia.” 

Nathalia looked with even more confusion and bewilderment at a spot in the air. She clicked accept and was added to the group. “I take it now you would profit from the murdering of foes?”

“That is correct.” John had no idea how he ended up with a dragon in his party but that is how these things went sometimes. “We should try finding the bo-“

Nathalia stomped once and suddenly EXP started rolling in.

“All the enemies on this layer of existence are dead.” Nathalia stated. “I am leaving your group.” The verbal statement was registered by the system. Nathalia was promptly removed from the menu she had just entered. “I give you that as my gift for a nice awakening. I also gift you this.” She bit into the back of her hand and pulled out a single one of her scales. The lava underneath pulsed once and then a new one grew in its place. She handed the thumb sized shard of obsidian to John. “Do not lose it or give it away. I will know and my wrath will know no bounds.” She glanced over to the still frozen Aclysia. “You can feed it to that Artificial Spirit of yours. It should be safe there.” Immediately after saying that, she turned her deliciously plump rear towards them. “I will find you again. Do not disappoint me, John Newman.”

Long struts brought her down the corridor. Her flaming hair kept her visible, beyond the mild illumination of the crystals. Once she vanished around the corner, John finally allowed himself to relax fully. He was at ease.

Which prompted a flood of windows.