Eye to eye with a Dragon (Tg) (Patreon)

“Aaaaahhhhhh! HA! TAKE THIS!!!”

ROOOOOAAAAARRRR

A deafening bellow rang throughout the land, which would have startled anyone who was not prepared for it. With the insane defense of the scales broken after a long fight, Arthur finally managed to ram his custom-made massive claymore through the heart of the elder dragon, which was feared throughout the world as the legendary Malzeno.

ROOOAAARRR

Arthur quickly jumped back, drawing his sword that easily stuck half a meter inside the dragon, out of its body and slashed at its defenseless head again for good measure, causing the elder dragon to stumble on its legs.

It spread its wings, but they were in tatters and therefore useless. It tried to run, but its legs were barely keeping it standing as is. Not that Arthur would have let it go anywhere anyway. From the looks of it Malzeno really was on its last stand, and only barely so. It seemed like its throat had run dry, so it flailed around with its claws more or less randomly a bit, barely even keeping eye contact with Arthur.

When battling a vampiric dragon, it was always important to keep your distance and not give it the chance to drain anything, especially on its last leg. But this time, it really looked like the battle was nearly over…

ROOOAAARRR ROOOAaarrrr…

Craaaaash!!!!

As the bellowing roars of the mighty beast came to an end, the elder dragon finally fell to the ground, unable to carry its own weight anymore. And even if it still didn’t look like it was ready to give up just yet, its frantic movements steadily started to slow down. Arthur had seen this pattern many times before, so he knew what that meant.

After a few seconds the elder dragon finally stopped moving, and as it slowly closed its eyes for the final time in its life, Arthur raised his fist into the sky.

“Finally! No more mayhem at twilight! No more feasting on our life forces! Elder Dragon Malzeno has been defeated!!!” He shouted exhausted, but more relieved than he had ever been in his life. So much so that after just a few seconds, even he stumbled backwards and sat down on the battlefield, which wasn’t level anymore at all after the dragon's rampage.

Yeah, it was time for even the victor of this glorious battle to take a short break, before deciding what steps he should take next. After all, this grueling battle had went on for far too long…

“I still can’t believe it's finally over.” The hunter let out, looking at the remains of the white dragon, trying to figure out which parts of it were still usable. But he didn't really make any progress for a while as the flashbacks of Malzeno’s terror came back every time he got near it.

“Calm down, Arthur. It’s dead. There is no way it can hurt you anymore. No one’s energy is going to get drained in the future anymore.” He said, slowly getting closer to the beast's head and placed his hand on it. “And even better, I can now make use of its powers, depending on how well Minayle is able to process it. Man, my hours of studying Malzeno are really paying off. Not only for knowing all of its moves but now also for knowing approximately what the armor made from its parts will be able to do.”

He took a deep breath and let out a scream of victory, pumping his hand into the air again and starting to walk away from the battlefield. “Ahh~ Now I am getting excited again. Let’s go home and see, what sort of armor my smith can make for me~”

— a few days later —

“Hey Arthur! Good to see you!” Minayle, El Gado’s finest smith and good friend of Arthur shouted as she saw him pass by, giving him a hearty laugh right after. “Do you want to take a guess on what I finished last night?”

“No way! Already?!?” Arthur could have jumped for joy, but managed to hold himself back just enough to not let his excitement show. Though it was highly likely that Minayle had already seen through him anyways, as she did most of the time.

“Yap. Let me show you~” The smith laughed, turned around and before Arthur knew it, he was wearing a brand new, white full body armor with light purple tints. It looked absolutely incredible and it felt super strong too. Malzeno’s scales were no joke and its inherent ability to vampirically heal itself seemed to also be embedded into that armor, though Arthur did neither know how that was possible nor did he want to ask Minayle for her company secrets.

All he knew was that the power of an elder dragon was now his and his alone to command. And he was not going to lie: It felt great to know that.

“Hey champ. Now that you got this new armor, do you have any new goals in mind?” Minayle, looking about equally excited and scared for Arthur's life. Most likely because she already anticipated his answer before he even said anything…

“Of course. I have set my eyes on Rathalos, that pesky super strong wyvern that just seems to pop up everywhere lately. It honestly seemed like a really good target to try out this new armor, don’t you think?” Arthur smiled, posing in his new shining armor a bit while looking confidently at Minayle.

“That sounds dangerous, but then again, so did taking down Malzeno. Okay, I’ll trust you come back alive and well again, as you have so many times before.” The smith gave him a worried smile, but it was clear that she was neither capable nor willing to stop him from his hunt.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. You’ll see! In a few days, there will be one wyvern less we all have to worry about. Also, I am just itching to see what this armor can do!” Arthur laughed, patted his own shoulder and turned around. “See you again in a bit.”

And thus, Arthur headed out of the city, fully armed in new gear and with his trusty backpack where he carried the rest of the stuff he usually needed. You know… like food and spare clothes, and way too many traps and gadgets that he was never going to use anyways. But he did take them with him just in case. You never know.

Anyway, off he went to the large meadow near his village that he knew quite well by now, as that was, at least according to the sources in the hunter’s guild, where Rathalos was last seen. There was no guarantee that he would find the infamous wyvern there, but having a point of reference helped to at least point him into a general direction. Also, the information regarding monsters from the guild were rarely wrong.

The good thing was that the area he was looking for was very close by, meaning it shouldn't take all that long to arrive at his destination. The hard and long part was to track down the beast in this massive area, but that also got much easier with practice. Though there was one thing that Arthur really didn’t want to wait any longer for.

“Alright, you small fry! Come at me!” Arthur yelled, drawing his massive sword from his back and letting it crash to the ground, making sure the little group of Boggis heard that loud and clear. Just as expected, grabbing the attention of those literal birdbrains wasn’t very hard.

One might think that a five on one sounds unfair at first glance, but this is Arthur we are talking about. That guy needed a grand total of 5 swings with his super enhanced blade to take down the five mini wyverns and without even breaking a sweat at that. After all, killing them was only the first step.

“Now then, time to find out if this armor is really as impressive as I thought.” the hunter declared, cracking his knuckles and placing his hand on top of one of the Boggi’s remains. Anticipation filled his entire being as he attempted to use Malzeno’s abilities for his own for the first time.

And he was not disappointed. Energy immediately streamed into his body through his hand, filling what seemed like an endless void deep within him. It was like he was eating and drinking at the same time, while simultaneously getting drunk but without any alkohol.

No wonder Malzeno lavished in draining everything and anything dry. This feeling. This feeling of absolute superiority was super addicting, but also energizing like nothing else. Never before had he reached the meadows after this walk and felt like he could walk the rest of the area without any breaks. And this was only the energy of one of the five Boggis.

*More~* Arthur suddenly got the feeling, that someone else had whispered into his ears, yet he could not feel any hostility in that voice, only endless desire. His own endless desire.

The hunter quickly placed both of his hands onto two more fallen Boggis, and reveled in the energy those two gave off, letting it stream though his entire body again. This time though, he could feel his whole body react to it as well.

While he was busy lavishing in the feeling of draining a Boggi dry, his body started to shift. Not by much in the beginning, only that the wild and brisky body hair that was typical of a burly hunter started evaporating, one by one. At the same time, his skin also seemed to bleach out a bit, becoming much whiter than usual, though that was also hard to see considering the fact that he was wearing full body armor.

Though that fact may very well be changing soon…

Clank

"Huh?" The sound of metal pieces hitting the ground brought Arthur back from his drunken haze. Reluctantly, he stopped draining the remains for a moment to look at it, but quickly resumed with his feast shortly after. Though it made him wonder where a piece of metal like that could have come from.

*and now… the final… two*

Again, this voice rang through his ears. Arthur had a hard time telling whether it was male or female, or in front or behind him. All he knew was that it had a point, as the two Boggi remains in front of him were already drained dry again. And as he placed his hands on the last two defeated beasts, Arthur couldn‘t shake off that ominous feeling that someone else was watching him.

As the energy of the defeated monsters flowed through him again, all of his worries seemed to vanish instantly again. More eagerly than before, Arthur feasted on their lifeforce, yet failed to notice that his body also started to react more strongly than before to the devoured energy, as that was not the only thing his body was seemingly absorbing.

Clank Clank Clank

One after another, metal pieces of the armor dropped to the floor, as if Arthur‘s body had started to absorb the dragon parts within and rejected the excess useless metal parts. And with his armor slowly falling apart, more and more of his whiter, almost vampiric skin came to light.

Additionally, his entire body had started to grow in size, although only very subtly. Arthur had always been kinda tall in comparison to the others in the village, but now that his size had reached over 2 meter tall and still climbing, he would easily be the tallest person in all of El Gado.

Though when his backside started to hurt like hell, Arthur noticed that something was happening to his body. It was like all of the muscles started to drain from his arms, legs and rest of his body and flow straight into his behind. Or rather, right above his ass, as when the pressure reached an absolute maximum, something sprouted out from behind him.

Arthur collapsed on his knees, feeling the most weird he had ever felt his entire life. He was filled to the brim with energy, yet exhausted from the pain above his ass. And when he felt to touch the mysterious source of the pain, he felt… a tail?

„What the…? Wait… this is…!“ Arthur could only gasp when he touched the tail behind him. He could feel his own touch, which meant that it was definitely part of his body now. But even worse, this purple scaled design with the claw-like stinger at the end. He knew which monster this tail belonged to…

„Malzeno‘s tail?!? How? Why? Why do I have… one…?“ Arthur‘s vision became slightly hazy when another beast entered his line of sight. It was a… a…

For the first time in years, Arthur didn‘t recognize a monster on the plain he knew he hunted daily on. It was big and on four legs, but with his vision being so hazy he just couldn't recognize it at all. He did however see the massive and delicious life energy that beast emitted…

*Stab it!* The mysterious voice in the back of his head commanded. *Just look at all of that exquisite lifeforce.*

Arthur wanted to be very hesitant to listen to this voice in his head, but his body clearly wanted to hunt the beast as well. As the water ran inside of his mouth and his stomach growled for more, he went back into a battle ready position and charged at his food with full force.

With just one expertly swing of his normal sized blade compared to him, he managed to topple the quadruped. Then, more on instinct than anything else, he stabbed the beast square in its stomach with his tail, making him blink a few times as he tried to comprehend what he just did.

But his thinking didn't last long, as highly concentrated monster life force started to flow into his body, using his tail just like a straw in a smoothie. Only that this was much, MUCH more addicting for Arthur than a simple smoothie ever could be.

The lifeforce formly exploded into a rainbow of pleasure when it reached his ass, causing Arthur to give his absolute best to not fall to his knees and moan wildly. It just felt that good. And the worst part was, that his ass just seemed to get bigger and more sensitive the more energy flew through it.

And that wasn‘t just an arbitrary feeling, as his ass really did start to inflate like crazy with all of that lifeforce flowing through it. The entire rest of his entire body also began to grow again, now reaching over 2,5 meters, but that was nothing compared to how hard his hips flared out and his ass grew.

They just grew and grew, focusing most of the feasted energy in his bottom half. Though that meant that a lot of the energy also started to flow down into his legs, causing his thighs to also blow up like balloons, becoming thick and creamy as a result.

Clank Clank Clank

Empty metal armor started to peel of his ever growing body again, though only from his legs this time around, as scales had started to creep up from his feet, morphing them into dragon-like white claws all while making themselves at home all the way over his knees until they just barely reached his massive plump thighs.

*You need more!*

Arthur could only look in disappointment at the empty drained remains of the monster, then turned to look for any other potential victims of his seemingly insatiable hunger. And he didn‘t need to search for long.

With just one well placed kicking slash of his claw-like feet, he flung another beast clean across the meadow into a tree, absorbing its energy while doing so. With a stab of his tail, he killed another for more energy drainage. After a while, when he noticed that pretty much every part of his body was able to drain energy from his victims, he noticed that his sword was the only thing not being useful to him.

So he discarded it, causing his lower sword to also react to this gesture and retreat into his body, leaving nothing but a fresh wet slit behind. Though at this point, Arthur really didn‘t care anymore. Her energy razed frenzy was just way too far gone.

Though it did shortly bring her back to her senses when she literally grabbed two monsters with her bare hands, that she despite hazy vision, could identify as two Boggies. Meaning she had grown to such a size, that picking up small monsters was now easily possible, which fascinated her for a bit. Until she drained them dry like all the others.

With this, the energy flew straight through her arms, making her giggle as they began to tingle like crazy. As scales also started to appear on her hands and arms, she couldn't help but feel excited at the fact that her nails started to grow out and transform into formidable claws, the likes she knew could cut through and drain anything she damn well desired.

At this point nearly all of her armor had fallen off, though with how her body changed and adapted, that was not at all a concern of hers. Her entire body had a very feminine figure as well, but it was like her body did its best to cover up the bare minimum of her figure to not expose any private parts, as those were the places where her most beautiful fur grew.

With narrow shoulders, dainty arms, a tiny waist and her absolutely killer hips and ass, she was already a beauty to behold, although a very, VERY tall one, with a body size of over four meters. And when she saw another four victims right in front of her nose, she suddenly heard the voice again…

*Drink from them and they will fill you. You will become perfect*

She didn‘t need to hear that twice and just stormed towards her food again. Having slashed two with her claws, stabbed one with her tail and kicked one with the claw‘s on her feet, she stood in the middle of her prey, lavishing in the meals of energy they provided.

It became immediately clear to her that most of the energy went straight into her torso, though equally in front as in the back, accumulating four pressure points where something wants to press out again.

In the front, her two nipples that were well hidden under the fur pressed forwards, increasing the mass behind them and creating two mounds on her chest that were undoubtedly growing breasts. Though they just grew and grew, sending one shockwave of pleasure through her body after another, until they became as big as her head, dwarfing the breasts of any other girl in El Gardo. Though by her current size, that wasn't too difficult.

On the backside, two additional limbs pressed outwards, though at first she had a hard time telling what exactly they were. But she could move them and precisely even. And when she did, they had a certain pushing force on her, especially upwards… did she just grow wings?

*You became perfect! The legacy of Malzeno rests within you!* The voice in her head declared weakly, making the new dragoness feel incredibly proud. She didn‘t know why, she just did. *Now go! Go and destroy that human city that disgraced the name of Malzeno!*

„Yes! I will go and… destroy… humans?“ The dragoness stopped and held her head. Something wasn‘t right. It felt like her life’s mission was to eradicate that one human settlement, but something deep in her heart told her otherwise. Like she somehow belonged there and had to protect it. But that couldn't be true, right..?

*You are a mighty elder dragon, sitting on the top of everything. Lowly humans mean nothing to you!* The voice declared and the dragoness became increasingly unwell. Was that voice even telling the truth? Humans seemed so important to her, like they were familiars, friends and families.

*What are you hesitating for? You know who your real prey is!* The voice boomed, sending another headache through her head. Her real prey? That's right. She came here to hunt. How could she forget? Her real prey is…

„Rathalos!!!“ She shouted, dissipating all of the fog and haze surrounding her. „I am… was human… a hunter. My goal is to hunt Rathalos, drain his energy and bring his body back to… Minayle! I think.“

*N-no. You are Malzeno! The…*

„I im NOT Malzeno. I am… uhg… uhm… Zenia…? Yes! I am Zenia, a dragoness that works with humans! Your tempting words won't sway me!“ Zenia shouted, gathering energy in her mouth. „Now disappear, you siren’s voice! Never to be heard again!“

And with that, she spat out her flames in the form of Malzeno’s signature red energy beam for the first time, trying to breathe out the source of the voice that tried to act like a devil on her shoulder. The beam burned and burned, which also incidentally burned two trees and the remains of a monster that lay on the ground.

After a short while she stopped and waited for a bit, then raised her fist into the air. Zenia had won over the might of Malzeno once again, though in a different way this time.

She definitely took some losses this time, with her mind still being a bit foggy and not really recalling anything about the time where she was human, but that didn't matter to her. As long as she managed to come home safely to Minayle, anything was more or less acceptable.

„Now then, enough wasting time. The night is approaching and the twilight is coming.“ Zenia spoke, spreading her wings ready for take off. „Red lizard Rathalos, I hope you are ready for the fight of your life. Here I come!“

And with that, she took off, flying into the air over the meadow in search of her newest prey. Though one thought kept coming back to the front of her mind: Would Minayle be more surprised to see Zenia‘s new body or the fact that a dragon brought her the remains of another dragon to her smithy.

Only one way to find out…

—

How much do you think it takes for a monster hunter to see eye to eye with a dragon? I mean, new armor certainly helps…

Commissioned by anonymous