The Innkeeper

The creature was humanoid, though it did not resemble a human at all. In the darkness it was not possible to distinguish its color, but its back seemed to be covered in a thick and jagged carpiece while its front consisted of a very thick hide, making the creature extremely durable.

It did not seem to have eyes, though it most certainly had a mouth filled with extremely sharp teeth. Lex could see a few other features on its face, some of which could possibly serve the same purpose as a nose and ears, though what the rest were for was a mystery.

The creature seemed intelligent, as it was wearing some kind of clothes that augmented its stealth abilities, and Lex could faintly detect surprise from the creature using his sixth sense. In its right hand was a blade that seemed like it was made from a very sharp tooth, yet its usual lethality seemed to have failed the creature today.

He had tried to slice Lex's neck off in one swift motion, but his attempts were not even enough to give him a shave. The creature, instead of getting the satisfying feedback of a successful kill, was greeted with the shock of hitting an incredibly solid object.

The pushback from the force in his hand nearly caused a few tendons in his fingers to rip, though they had ultimately managed to hold on.

Lex only raised an eyebrow as he looked at the creature, while abject horror gripped the creature's three hearts. It tried to retreat as quickly as possible, but Lex was too fast for it.

He reached out and grabbed the creature's hand, restricting its retreat. He squeezed slightly, making sure not to break the hand. Despite his care, the grip was tight enough that the creature lost its grip on the knife and dropped it - although, it simultaneously won Lex's admiration for it had been able to suppress its scream. The creature was well trained.

"I don't think we have any animosity," said Lex calmly. "Why did you suddenly attack me?"

While waiting for an answer, Lex simultaneously read the information he was getting from his Fancy contact lenses.

The creature was known as a Frigal, and was a local variant of a species closely related to dragons. They formed societies and communities around dragons, and worshiped them. Each and every dragon usually had its own country of such followers, who also happened to be descendants of the very dragon they served.

As a virile species, dragons often mated with any suitable creature in their habitat, often giving birth to half-breeds and different variants of Frigal, who then ultimately spent their entire existence worshiping their dragon ancestor due to the heavy influence of their bloodline.

But it was not as if the dragons ever actually managed their subordinates, so such creatures often formed their own societies with independent cultures and ideas, not to mention intrigue and politics.

This particular Frigal, upon realizing it could not escape Lex's grip, very resolutely chopped off its own hand and retreated. But the creature had managed to take only a single step back before Lex grabbed its other hand.

"Will you chop this one off too? But you'd need a hand to do that. Will you bite it off?" he asked with seemingly genuine curiosity. But the more nonchalant he appeared, the more the Frigal felt afraid.

Gathering up its courage, the creature leaped forward and kneed Lex in the face. He moved extremely quickly and summoned all its strength, making it so that Lex was not able to react. When his knee made contact it felt elated, but then the feeling faded when it saw that Lex remained completely unaffected!

"I see you are not really in a cooperative mood," he remarked as he pondered what to do. Should he try some form of torture? How was he supposed to extract the information?

After a couple of moments of thinking, during which the Frigal had been relentlessly assaulting Lex, he decided to take a different approach. He only gently twisted his hand, and the creature's arm was dislocated. He took a single step forward, managing to perfectly dodge one of the creatures' attacks, and gently chopped at the Frigals' neck.

Well, it was gentle by Lex's standards, but to the creature it was completely fatal. With its neck broken, the creature collapsed on the ground, bleeding out from its severed hand.

Lex could not help but sniff the air. The smell of this creature's blood was unusually pungent, like rotten eggs, and would probably last for a long time. Lex made a mental note not to get any blood on himself, lest he be easy to track down if someone was searching for him.

Lex searched the creature, and besides the dagger it had used to attack him, found several darts and needles, all coated with poison.

Wherever this fellow was going, his motives were not pure.

He once again looked around, and upon ensuring that no one had seen what happened, quickly moved away. He changed into his stealth suit, so that it was easier to hide, though he did not know how effective the suit would be here. After all, he did not know what senses these creatures used. If it was the normal hearing, touch or spirit sense, Lex had his bases covered. But if it was some other unusual sense, well then Lex would find out how good his suit really was.

It only took a short while before Lex encountered other Frigals, but that made sense since he was in what appeared to be a town. Oddly enough, the mood across the whole town seemed to be extremely depressing, and filled with anxiety.

Lex situated himself behind a peculiar bush that seemed unaffected by the cold and the dark, and carefully extended his spirit sense to see if he could spy on the conversations the crowd was having. He was once again trying his hand at being a spy.

Only a few moments later, Lex raised an eyebrow. He just heard something interesting.