[b][u][center]A Dragon’s Nature Chapter 2 For Engy By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] Eli didn’t know much about conquering towns, but he had grown quite knowledgeable about the pleasures of corruption recently, and that was good enough for him. The mouse stood outside of the dirt and wood wall that surrounded the town hall, cocking his head to the side as he crossed his arms over his chest. His rings glittered across his body as his own magical aura touched those that he’d enchanted. [i]Hmmm, no enchantments in the walls, nothing along the rooftop. If there are any clerics in there, they’re not spending their magic on runes or glyphs…[/i] Which was something, he supposed. They were probably hoping to purify and cure anyone that got affected with further corruption, using their holy powers to heal rather than halt. They probably knew that they were outmatched, magically, and were doing their best to just slow him down. It was rather flattering, in a way, or would have been if Ashe wasn’t pushing him to get this done quickly. “You know I prefer to take my time,” Eli said. “They’re not sending any communications out. I already saw to that.” The blue bubble around the keep was sufficient to keep any low to mid-range clerics from calling for help, and if there were any sorcerers or wizards in there, they’d be suffering under a similar restriction. Despite the fact that the village was completely cut off, though, their leader wasn’t too happy. And it annoyed Eli, if he was completely honest. The mouse had been looking forward to a long, leisurely bit of corruption, testing out his magic and seeing just what it could do now that it had been empowered by the glade in the forest. He knew that he was stronger, potentially much, much stronger, but there was no way to tell without running various experiments. The one in the tavern had been more than successful; his ability to summon other monsters to help him had grown by leaps and bounds, and the wizard was sure that he could put that to use with ease. That said… “We’re going to take it down. Now.” “Ashe –” “I’m not letting them dig in any further. It’s going to be enough of a problem dealing with a keep of desperate people. If they can set up barricades or more, they’re going to be even harder to dig out.” “If it matters that much, I could just burn them out.” After all, they already had a town full of people that they could experiment on. It was no skin off his nose, and it wasn’t like – Smack! The mouse stumbled backwards, rubbing the handprint on his cheek. “Did you just hit me?” Eli asked incredulously. “Yep,” Ashe responded, rubbing his hand. “Why?” “Because one way or another, you’re going to learn how to listen to me.” “And why should I?” The mouse planted his fists on his hips as he glared up at the dragon. For all that they had been friends, all that had changed after they had been corrupted. For the first time, he was seeing things clearly. “So what if you were the one that made us like this? We don’t owe you anything. We didn’t ask for this.” “And yet, you’re still going to do what I tell you.” “And why’s that, huh?” Eli held out his hand, fire blossoming over his palm. “What’s to stop me from just doing what [i]I[/i] want while they’re locked up, huh?” Seeing the green dragon actually widen his eyes a bit brought a grin to the mouse’s face. It was long overdue. Back when they had been a ‘good guy’ team, Eli had been the wizard of the group. Always in the back, always kept away from the action, always the person that they ran to when they needed something translated or something explained, but never actually kept around for much other than that. He had been a bookworm, nothing but a little book mouse that cast spells when called for and was ignored when they weren’t. Not anymore. “I’m the wizard here. Do you know much magic I’ve learned compared to the rest of you? Do you know how much I’ve put up with?” “Put that fireball down,” Ashe growled. “Or what? You’re going to root me to the ground?” The mouse gestured to the ring on his left thumb. “Fire resistance spells. I can burn through anything that you summon and not singe a hair on my head.” “Put. It. Down.” “No. I’m sick of following your orders, Ashe. If you think that –” The green dragon snapped his fingers. Suddenly, every house in the vicinity lifted itself from its roots. Stone undersides became legs, and the wooden parts of the houses became bodies, spreading upwards towards the sky. The mouse turned, whipping about to look at the giant minions that the druid dragon had summoned, staring up as one of them lifted a stone foot above his head, the underside thick and powerful enough to crush him into oblivion if it brought it down. Ashe grabbed him by the neck, pulling him right off the ground and giving him a good shake. “Look, Eli. I don’t care how pissed off you feel right now. I don’t care what sort of power trip you’re running on. And I don’t care that you just threatened me. Do you know why that is, hmm?” “…Because you’re having a good day?” “No. Because I’m having a very [i]bad[/i] day. Because I’ve been having a very, very bad day, I’ve been working very, very hard to keep myself from lashing out. I have a lot of little demon babies running around in my balls, and it’s taking me a [i]lot[/i] of self-control not to use them on you right now. I’m holding back…because you’re useful. But the more you shout at me, the more you start acting up, the less useful you look, and the more tempting you become for me to fuck with. “Do you understand me?” Eli looked down, trying not to see the rolling, spinning, twisting shapes in the dragon’s balls. They were big enough to make him wince at the thought of them being inside of him, but he knew that Ashe had every capability of shoving them inside if he pissed the druid off. Much as he enjoyed corrupting others, he wasn’t in the mood to see it happen to him. “Understood…” “Good.” The druid dropped him, and he grunted as he hit the ground hard. The various houses dropped back into their spots in the village, though he could see the windows looking at him like eyes. Much as he had been willing to threaten torching the town hall, he didn’t [i]really[/i] want to. He just wanted to go and play with the available captives in the town that much more rather than take the time out to drag the other ones out of their hidey-hole. Destroying them really would be a waste, he supposed. And besides, if Ashe was tasking him to do it, that meant that he could do it freely, trying as many different methods as he wanted rather than being tied to the most efficient, quick ways of doing it. It didn’t take long for him to turn his frown upside-down, and even less time for him to climb up to the top of the dirt wall. The town hall, as far as he could tell, was some sort of converted watchtower that was meant to keep an eye on everything around the village itself. It was more than that, of course, considering that it had living quarters for at least some people inside, and it probably had space for the whole of the village if they really crammed everyone inside. Particularly with the multiple levels. He guessed that there were probably five floors to the whole place. Snikt! Eli took a step to the left, avoiding the arrow shot at him from the rooftop. He would have to remember that was part of the threat here, too. [i]Right…Well, if I’m going to get in there, I might as well start from the top.[/i] The mouse dropped his hands down to the ground, sweeping his fingers through the dust. His magic was already running up from the rings to his mouth, the energy forming itself into the words that he had long-since embedded into his mind. With a spin, he leaped into the air and just kept rising, borne aloft on the wings of a flight spell. Two more arrows shot by him, embedding themselves in the dust and dirt below. He spun around, laughing as he finally spotted the archers that were responsible for trying to bring him down. There were two of them, both lizards, both green. He extended his hands. Mass Polymorph had always been a useful spell, but ever since the corruption touched him, the spell had seemed almost…pitiful, in a way. He pushed it, extending warping darker magics through it, empowering the spell before letting it loose. The archers fell backwards, dropping their bows and falling out of sight as the dark strings of his magic touched them. Eli kept rising, coming to a stop at the top of the roof, landing with a small thump as his bare feet touched the wooden roof. He smiled as he saw what was happening to the archers. They were twisting and writhing, gasping for breath as they fell to all fours, then dropped to lay flat on the ground. They kept trying to get back up, but their bodies were bubbling, their scales sloughing off. “And so it begins,” he said, walking over to them. Their clothes ripped as they grew, their muscles piling on quickly, spreading across their shoulders and then down their backs. He could make out a fair number of scales that were darker than the green they’d started with, closer to a deep blue, even a black starting to sprout along the backs of their necks. “Yes…change,” the mouse whispered, grinning as his dick started to rise between his legs. He gripped it tight, giving it a few hard pumps. “Change, be better…be stronger…be [i]mine![/i]” The lizards groaned, arching their backs as they went through a rapid growth spurt, ripping through their shirts and their leggings. Long tails burst free, becoming nearly twice as long as their bodies, and all down their backs, little ridges and spines started bursting free. They were thick and hard, not quite sharp, but if anyone were to try and attack the reptiles from behind, they’d find themselves in for a rude awakening. They pushed themselves to all fours as their muscles continued growing, continued spreading down their back and along their limbs. They were thick and heavy, strong and powerful. Eli pushed the spell further, forcing their scales and muscles to harden, becoming thick and strong as armor. As the reptiles were able to pull back up to a kneeling position, their cocks were thrust forward, growing bigger and fatter, nearly as thick as his fist as they swelled before him. Their balls grew, too, churning and bubbling so quickly and furiously that he could hear it as well as see it. Their thick thighs were pushed apart by the effect, leaving their balls dangling down. And as their cocks hardened, they looked like true monsters, beasts of lustful nightmares. They were a mix of alligator and snake, with the large, thick bodies of the former and the long, flexible tails of the latter. He walked up to them, the short rodent cupping their sacks in his hands and jiggling their balls back and forth. They groaned for him, growling and thrusting their hips along. “Come on, big boys. Time for you to help me break into the keep.” [i]I’ve always been good with the braindead minions…let’s see how long it takes for me to build an army…[/i] An army…yes, that sounded good. Every wizard deserved an army of minions… The mouse gestured at the trapdoor at the far side of the roof, and his two new slaves went for it. They only needed one arm each to rip it right off its hinges. “Alright, boys. Drop down. Seize anyone that looks threatening. I’ll be right behind you.” The scaly boys did just that, dropping inside. As the sound of a scuffle filled the air, the mouse walked to the edge of the roof and looked back towards the rest of the party. Kasan stood at the edge of the wall, looking like he was waiting for the order to rush the front door and take them down from the front. Jonathan and Ashe, however… The mouse grumbled as he watched the green dragon fucking the fox. The Blackguard hadn’t even bothered taking off his armor to be fucked; he just pulled down the back of it a bit to allow Ashe’s cock inside. [i]Well, either that’s a corruption in the making, or Ashe is just blowing off steam. Either way, it looks like they’re leaving me alone. Again.[/i] Shaking his head, the mouse turned back to the open trapdoor and dropped down into the keep. His new minions had subdued the villagers that were supposed to be holding the line. Eli spotted a number of bows and quivers waiting, probably just in case something happened to the archers’ weapons while they were fighting. The gator-snakes had managed to pin four different villagers, and another ten were knocked out on the ground. There were clubs and other weapons strewn about, and he imagined that the weaker men in here had been hoping to knock out anyone that broke through the top door or came from below. It hadn’t really worked. “Well, well, well,” Eli said, looking around at those that were still conscious. Rats, all of them. Rats. Up themselves rodents that thought they were better than mice just because they were a little bit bigger. “I have to say, I’m not too impressed by your defenses.” “Who…” One of the bigger rats, a black-furred one rather than brown, managed to gasp out. “Who are…you…” “Oh, you can call me Master. That’ll work for all of you, actually.” “Mmmph…never…we…we’ll get…we’ll get…” “Oh, let them breathe,” the mouse muttered. “Idiots…” His brainless minions finally released their grip a bit, and the rodents gasped all around them. A bit of a mistake, really. As his newest captives gasped for breath, Eli pulled at another new spell that he had been noodling about. One of the most basic spells of a wizard’s arsenal was a stinking cloud of mist, something that normally was made to gross out their enemies and leave them nauseated. But twisted with a different purpose in mind… The mouse lifted his hands, and what followed was a green-yellow fume, strands of it rising from his cock, his ass, his feet, every musky part of his body. It spread from him, and he groaned as his own dick started to get hard from the strange smell that started to flood the room. He huffed and puffed, sucking it in and getting harder by the second. [i]Mmmph…Corruption Musk Cloud…[/i] He grinned as the smell of dick and cum began to fill the room, underlaid by the other musky smells of the body. As Eli summoned the cloud of musk, he realized that he could direct it where he wanted, sending it through the room in little puff clouds that formed into the shape of head-sized orbs. The mouse grinned, flicking his fingers and surrounding the heads of the different rats with the bubbles. They immediately spasmed, their cocks throbbing up to full erection – if they had cocks – and their bodies starting to shrink down in the chest and hips if they were more feminine. They shrank, losing some of their muscle mass, becoming more and more hefty in the hindquarters, and he moaned as he saw little bits of drool sliding past their lips behind the gas clouds. He stroked himself as they started to change, the fumes coming off of him from the spell making him more and more excited as the seconds ticked on. Unlike the polymorph, which had turned the lizards into much stronger, more obedient, dumber versions of themselves, this Musk Cloud was turning the rats into more slutty, more fem-boy versions of themselves. They slid right out of their clothes at the end of it, falling on all fours with glassy eyes, their bodies shaking and trembling. Their huge balls remained just as big as before, but their cocks had shrunk down, giving them a drippy little tube for them to ooze their lust all over the place with. Their asses had grown, spreading out, pushing back, and he chuckled, walking up and spanking the black-furred one. The jiggle and the yelp that followed were equally pleasing. “Alright. What’s left in the tower, slutty ones?” Eli asked. “Mmph…” “Tell me…” He formed the remaining bit of musk clouds into gaseous collars around the necks of the rats, pulling them together into a line in front of him. The rest of the musk had already transformed the other, unconscious people, leaving them naked and slender, bottom-heavy and ready for fucking when they woke up. The mouse pulled on the gas leash again, dragging the black-furred rat’s head back. “Come on, tell me what’s waiting down there?” “Mmmph…another…another twenty…towns-folk…the mayor…the mayor’s a sorcerer…he can…mmph…” The rat went quiet, moaning as he bucked his hips back, obviously wanting to have something up his ass. Eli called one of his minions over, making one of the gator-snakes mount the rat. He sat down by the next trapdoor down, running a finger along the side of his cheek. Obviously, it was going to be dangerous to open the door without knowing for sure what was down there. Even though he was corrupted, the rat was obviously capable of lying. And though he hadn’t sensed any sorcerous magic, he knew that there were ways that magic could be fooled. The naked mouse didn’t want to hold back, though. He wanted to keep going, wanted to clear this keep so he could get back to his fun. [i]But if there is a sorcerer down there…[/i] He had been empowering his spells, pushing them past the limits of what the anti-magic spell on the keep could stifle, but he couldn’t keep doing that forever. He needed to be smarter about this… And he was pretty sure that he knew just the spell for that. He pulled one of the ripped tunics from the ground, then grabbed one of the unconscious bodies on the floor. If nothing else, blood would make for a good script. He jabbed his finger into the male’s arm, then started drawing with his claw. Soon, he had his message and his trap. Knock, knock, knock. Eli waited for a moment, then pulled the door up, looking down at the next – “Whoa!” The mouse jerked his head back just in time to avoid three more arrows aimed right at the opening. He slammed the door back down, cursing under his breath. [i]Okay, so they heard everything that happened up here. That’s fine. You’re ready for that. You prepared.[/i] “Whoever’s rooting around in the attic can just go right back where they came from! Everyone that’s still a free man in this village is safe here, so we know you’re one of the intruders. Get out, and we’ll let you live!” [i]All sorts of brave now, aren’t they?[/i] Eli thought, rolling his eyes. [i]Well, they’re not going to be brave for long.[/i] “My name is Eli,” he shouted back after opening the door a crack. “I have a list of demands for you. Take a read; you might find them quite reasonable.” “And why should we listen to you?” that booming voice asked again. “Considering the rest of the town is taken, and you’ve lost your archers and other defenders up here? I’m not sure that you have any options.” “…We can hold out. With honor, we can hold out.” [i]Are you a sorcerer or a paladin?[/i] he thought, grumbling. “Look, I’m offering you terms. I’ll even be nice and take down the anti-magic field while you read it. Don’t make me regret this, okay?” The mouse gestured, and he felt the field disappear, more of his magic returning to him. The lower level, less-powerful spells that he had been ignoring up to this point were his once more. He pushed the trapdoor open, pushed the shirt through, and slammed it shut again. Now, if they would just read what he wrote… The mouse waited for a few seconds, looking back at his gator-snakes. They were powerful, but not quite enough, despite the big dicks that were hanging from between their legs. Oh, they would be able to fuck things into the next week, probably turn them into big hulking corruption machines if they were allowed, but that was not what was needed here. No, what he needed here was – “AGH! Oh my god, it’s in my eyes! Oh fuck! AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Subtlety. Eli smiled to himself, listening to the screams of shock from down below, hmming to himself as he looked at an imaginary hourglass. Ticking off the time of about a minute, he reached for the trapdoor and looked down again. The few people that the spell hadn’t affected were off on the far side of the room. He imagined that there were at least fifteen people encased in the solid crystal prisons that the spell had created, considering that he only counted about five huddled against the walls. [i]Sepia Cocksnake Sigil,[/i] he thought, chuckling. [i]Works every time.[/i] Those that had been affected by the imprisoning spell would have been attacked by the cock snake that was summoned by reading what he’d written on the shirt. It would have emerged from the page, spitting corrupted pre-cum ‘venom’ wherever it went. Those that were hit by the goo would have been infected their bodies suddenly sweating out a rapidly-hardening resin that formed into an amber-crystal prison, essentially leaving everyone in bondage. Naked, too, considering that they would have sweated their clothes into oblivion in the flash-effect speed of the snakes. Yes, snakes. He’d put down more than one sigil, after all, and now… [i]Note to self, the snakes are able to swim through the prison,[/i] he thought, looking at the dick-shaped serpents that were moving through the amber-crystal like it was water. Some of them were swimming up the urethras of their captives, others into their asses, and some into open, screaming mouths. The spell should work a bit like the musk spell, gradually corrupting the prisoners over the course of hours and days to be more like the sluts that they really were inside, broken down and left mindless to the corruption. They would be good soldiers, good people to serve on the side of… He blinked, rubbing his head. [i]Okay, that’s weird…[/i] For a moment, the mouse had actually imagined the men and women that he’d been corrupting serving on the side of some demon. Venarl, or something like that. That was ridiculous, of course, as he had been making these servants for himself. A wizard deserved to have minions to keep their squishy butts safe, but… But… Eli shook his head again, growling under his breath. He was not going to be handing all these people over to someone else. Not Ashe, and not to this…Venarl… More desperate than he wanted to be for some sort of distraction from the weird feeling in the back of his brain, the mouse ordered his current minions to lower him down into the main chamber of the town hall. He could have climbed down the ladder, but why do that when he had people to carry him? The survivors of his attack stared at him like he was some terror from the pit, and he rather liked that. He smiled, leaning back against his minions. “As you can see, there’s little hope for any of you.” “You…how…” “I know the power of corruption, that’s all,” Eli said. “I could have burned you all out, but luckily for you, I saw that there was a use for you.” A lie, of course, but he didn’t mind lying. Particularly if it made him look good. “There’s a great many ways that magic can be adapted through the power of corruption. It’s almost like twisting chaos power through my spells, or law, not that either of them are nearly as powerful as this. You should see what I was able to do to those on the roof.” He looked back. “Well, you can, actually. Or the people upstairs…” The rats were looking through the trapdoor, he realized, their tails pumping their assholes. “Okay, you can see that, too. Point is, you know how powerful my magic is, and just what it can do to you if I get annoyed. And now the question is, do you want to annoy me by continuing to resist me?” “But…but…” A blue and green-scaled lizard looked around his little group, his cheeks on fire as he realized that he’d essentially offered himself to the mage’s attention. Eli arched an eyebrow at the hesitation, gesturing at him. “Yes? What?” “But…if we surrender…aren’t you just going to…” “Experiment on you? Warp you with corruption? Turn you into some mutated version of yourself that’s probably completely sexualized and ridiculous?” the mouse asked. The lizard slowly nodded. “Well, yes, obviously.” Eli shook his head. “There’s no way that you’re going to avoid [i]that[/i] fate.” “Then why should we surrender?” “Because if you make me work for it, I’m going to start thinking of ways to corrupt you into objects instead of monsters.” That was the next logical step for him, he had to admit. The more that he tried warping magic in order to warp people, the more he wondered if people could be turned into things. There were all sorts of stories of enchanted items, and while most of those were merely stories of magic that had gotten out of hand, he could imagine a great use for turning people into objects. A cook into a pot, for example, or a warrior into a sword. Those would be useful. And it was just as obviously terrifying to the people on the far end of the room. They immediately fell to all fours, whimpering and nodding. “We surrender,” the lizard said. “We…we don’t want to be objects.” “Shame,” the mouse muttered. “Ah, well. At least we’ve finished here. You lot, gator-snakes. Make sure that they can’t get away. I’ll go get the door.” # With the keep secured, there was no more need for his services. Ashe was clearly more level-headed after fucking most of her agitation out on Jonathan, and the fox – though mildly worse off, limping slightly from the hard use – seemed to be fine. He was dismissed almost instantly, told to go off and do what he wanted, and he was happy to do that. The mouse walked naked through the streets, feeling more free than he had in a long time. The chance to use his power almost without restriction was a dream come true, though he was vaguely aware that he hadn’t had that dream until recently. [i]Why does it matter?[/i] he thought. [i]So what if I was a goody-goody until recently? What does it matter if I didn’t go out and do these things? This is what I am now, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.[/i] Still, Eli made a note to file it away for later. Whatever had changed him – the corruption, yes, but directed by Ashe in such a different way than he had ever seen – was no less than a total warping of reality. It had transformed him, turned his mind, twisted him up into something that was completely different from the person that he used to be. If he could find a way to harness that on a grander scale, turn it against an entire city… Even he realized that he was only using it in a limited way. He was breaking people down into sex toys and soldiers, and that was about it. If he managed to twist that around, to make the power of corruption serve him more fully… [i]Think of what I could do…[/i] he thought as he walked down to the edge of town, back to one of the taverns. [i]I could warp an entire city…even a continent, if I found a proper wellspring of power. Tap into that, sprinkle in the right amount of corruption…what if I turned an entire race of people into something different…dragons to kobolds, maybe,[/i] he thought with a tiny smirk. [i]That’d teach Ashe a lesson.[/i] And it wasn’t just sexualizing them. The sheer power of corruption lay in its mutability, how it could change anything that it came in contact with. It could exaggerate a large feature further, or warp a smaller one into something different. It could be used to transform anything that existed into something completely different. And as far as he knew, he was the only mage with access to so much of it at once. The thought of that sort of power, of setting himself up as a mage-king of sorts, sent a shiver down his spine and a thrill through his dick. Thoughts of a palace, of a throne room that led all the way up to him, clever architecture that made all the tall species feel small and enhanced his own stature to look down on them, and more continued to run through his head. He allowed himself to drown in the fantasies, feeling them grow more and more real. And he kept thinking of them until he walked right out of town and into the arms of the demon. Venarl loomed over him, the demon little more than a shadow with tentacles on all sides, but it was enough to send a shiver down Eli’s spine, and not the good sort. The mouse came to an abrupt halt as he stood in front of the demon, unable to take a step back, unable to bring a word to his lips. The demon smiled. “You have been doing good work, haven’t you?” He slowly nodded. “Perhaps you should have a little reward…” “Reward?” “A piece of corruption all your own…” Crack. The ground split open between the mouse’s legs, and before he could move, a slithering tendril of darkness rammed itself right up his asshole. He gasped, lifted off his feet into the air, his soles pressed against either side of the wriggling thing. “The slugs were obviously not enough for your leader…let’s make sure that you have something [i]better[/i] to keep you on the crooked and wide path,” Venarl said. Eli had nothing to respond with. All he could do was gasp as he felt the immense length slithering further and further inside of him, filling his body with corruption and his mind with the demon’s desires… [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]