"You're the... the Dragon? But... But how you're...H...H..."

"Human? I'm sure it does seem that way to you, little worm. But I can assure you that I am very much the Dragon that you met before."

Seth simply let the dragon cut him off and finish the sentence for him, not just because he could still remember the overwhelming power that scaled beast had exuded and knew all to well that she could easily kill him. But it was also for the fact that he didn't want to admit the word he was actually about to say was 'Hot.'

He couldn't help it, It was probably down to his past being intertwined with the dark and occult nature of all things, but he had always had a true weakness for the Gothic girls and this Dragon Lady was unfortunately hitting those buttons for him. They had caused plenty of trouble for him in his high-school years, but he just couldn't shake the hold they had on him.

Truly, he was a lost cause. The fact that he was currently half naked was not helping his mind from wandering, not that the Dragon seemed to care at all about the humans lack of clothing.

Seth was so busy controlling himself in the face of his ultimate weakness and trying to untangle himself from the confusing web of conflicting feelings, that he didn't respond to the Dragon Ladies statement. A silence that she seemed to take as disbelief of her claim.

So, to present herself as the real deal, she once more released the aura she had so carefully contained, sending it bursting forth so that it drowned Seth, and Seth alone, in her power.

Not a single drop of her overwhelming aura leaked from the room, all thanks to the perfect control of her energy that had allowed her to go completely unnoticed.

She strode forward, forcing Seth to take the brunt of her heaven defying aura more and more with every step closer, until her gauntleted hand clamped tight around his throat. The hand around his throat was like an iron vice, he had a literal metallic arm and even that felt like tinfoil compared to her hand.

His brain was rapidly being starved of oxygen, only getting enough for him to stay barely lucid, and even then that was on top of his mind being wrung like a sponge by her unbearable aura. It felt like her mana was pressing his brain into a singular point, trying to turn it into a tiny diamond.

A feeling that Seth was fighting against with all of his willpower, as she leaned closer to him and looked deep into his eyes. When she spoke, she did so with a rumbling hiss. Every word laced with venom as it escaped her lips.

"Now, you know who I am. So, little human, you will answer my questions or I will pour acid down your throat, so I can liquefy your organs and have you shit them out."

Straining himself against the crushing grip around his throat, and the magical pressure that was putting his miserable, sleep deprived mind under the weight of the heavens themselves, Seth stared defiantly into the Dragons eyes. A playful smirk danced onto his lips, as a single word managed to squeeze its way out from between them.

"...No."

Although the word was little more than a hoarse, wheezing gasp that could barely pass as a whisper, it seemed to cause havoc within the mind of the confident Dragon Goth. Her face twisted into one of utter shock and confusion, as if he had defied every known law of physics to deliver that single word.

It was a shock that was not just limited to her face, as her concentration wavered enough for her overwhelming aura to retract enough for Seth's mind to gain some relief. But the hand stayed exactly where it was.

In fact, when she broke from her stupor, the hand clamped tighter around his throat, as if she was preparing to crush his entire throat and decapitate him simply by pinching her fingers closed, a feat Seth had no doubt she was capable of.

Keeping him at arms length, her hand pressed underneath Seth's jaw as he was lifted into the air by his throat, his legs dangling helplessly beneath him. His hands grasped at the arm holding him up, but he just scraped uselessly at the gauntlets. He couldn't even leave a single mark on her armour, not even the smallest scratch.

He might've well as been a lowly ant trying to move an entire mountain with its puny strength. Yet despite knowing how seriously outclassed he was, his gaze remained defiant. Not a hint of anything but confidence within his eyes as he hung in the air by his throat.

He wasn't just an ant trying to move a mountain. He was standing there, commanding that it should move as to not inconvenience him with the effort.

"Are you really that foolish? You will comply, or I WILL kill you."

"Do it then."

"What?"

"I said, Do it! What are you waiting for? Kill me."

The dragon lady snarled at his defiance, bearing her mouthful of jagged, flesh ripping teeth. Her arm trembled as she held Seth aloft like nothing more than a doll, all she had to do was squeeze and this worm would be dead.

Yet... the squeeze never came. She simply held Seth there, her emerald eyes glowing with sheer hatred as she stared at his smirking face, her muscles trembling as they wished to end it.

"You can't do it, can you? You. Need. Me."

Every word of Seth's was strained, barely able to speak with the iron hand clamped around his throat and limiting his airways. But even still, he found the energy to let out a laugh as he gazed down at the enraged dragon with a smirk.

Eventually, the beast in human skin finally came to a decision. Her hateful expression melted away, quickly replaced by a soft smile of her own. As soon as her expression changed, she let out a soft chuckle and released Seth, letting him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Quickly gulping in the air, Seth rose to his feet and stood before the dragon once more. Any sign of her anger had been utterly extinguished, as if it was completely manufactured from the very beginning.

Seth rubbed his neck, which was red raw and already starting to bruise from the viscous, killer grip that she had on him.

Some might have seen what he did as a needlessly risky gamble, and suggest that he should have simply complied instead of risking his life like that. But Seth would have disagreed, for one simple fact. He didn't see it as a gamble at all, because he knew that his life was never at risk.

This creature, this dragon, held unfathomable power. She was right to call him a worm, as compared to her that really was all he was. So why, if he was naught but a lowly worm, would she ask him to save someone?

At least, that is what Seth assumed was the so-called 'instructions' that he had been given, not that such a thing was all too clear. That was her fault for being so vague and mysterious. Tremendously unhelpful.

But truly, would you ask a worm for help with anything? If you needed to dig, you wouldn't ask the worm, You would get a shovel and dig yourself. The most a worm could do was help you catch a fish by dangling on the end of your hook.

If that was the case, however, you wouldn't ask the worm. Nor would you come looking specifically for a particular worm or threaten it into obeying you.

The only reason you would do that, is if you needed the worm to do it because you couldn't do it yourself. That was Seth's conclusion. That, for whatever reason he had yet to grasp, despite this dragons unfathomable and earth shattering power, it needed his help.

There was something that he was able to do, that it couldn't. The real question, however, was what was that something? Why was it specifically him and not one of the millions of other humans, or however many that were left? Who was the 'Him' that he was supposed to save, and why couldn't this dragon do it herself?

Well... Those were actually a few main questions. But why bother pondering over them when the answer to all of them, and more, was standing right in front of Seth in the form of his ultimate weakness.

Puffing out his chest, in an attempt to look powerful and confident, Seth looked the dragon straight in her emerald eyes as he spoke.

"Alright now, You can't kill me and I won't just blindly follow orders. So this is how it's going to work. We are going to-"

"Don't you think you should clothe yourself first? Or do humans enjoy displaying themselves like such to others?"

"That's your fault for waiting until I was stripping to announce yourself! But... Good point, give me a moment."

Turning around, Seth could feel the heat building in his face as his cheeks turned scarlet. He quickly began to pick up his clothes and pull them back onto his body. He couldn't believe he was about to negotiate with a dragon while just in his underwear.

It had to be the day that he was wearing the stripey ones too. How embarrassing.