Arcade Games (Lizard TF)

Max opened his eyes and found himself on the craggy mountain from the screen he had glanced at moments ago. Instantly he nearly fell over as his armor almost pulled him to the ground, but he remained standing. Most newbs would have done just that, but Max was a veteran of this game, he expected this most literal burden. He also expected the yawning, square hole in the mountainside in front of him.

The entrance to the dungeon was square, with intricately carved pillars to either side. The path leading up to the dungeon was rugged, but not so much so that it was impassable.

Max quickly made his way up and through the stone gateway, onto the fancy tiles, and into the first room. A trap room, Max knew from experience that the layout of every dungeon was a trap, then a monster. If you fell to the trap you were out, if you fell to the monster you were out. The only way to succeed was to get past both. Getting to the end was incredibly difficult, which added to the fun.

Max quickly scanned the first room. I was full of gold, with a small, narrow path leading around the side of the huge stacks of coins, bars, and other trinkets. Scattered about were were golden statues, a dragon here, a fish there, strangely enough, none were human.

The best course of action would probably be to walk around the pile, looking for tripwires. Max suppressed the urge to grab some of the coins as any matter that hadn't entered the arena, couldn't leave.

Max made his way to the opposite side of the room with no difficulty. What had been the trap? Perhaps the other player had figured he'd pick up some of the coins. In any case the next room yawned before him. There had been no tunnel between the massive pile of gold and this next room.

This room was also full of gold, it blanketed the floor in an even layer, scattered among these larger coins were many gems of every color, bathing the room’s walls in a dim multi colored shimmer. The occupant of this room was hard to miss. A large red dragon was slumbering in the far side of the room, it’s chest rising rhythmically up and down as if sleeping.

Max had had enough experience with dragons to know it was not sleeping. He didn't bother sneaking, he didn't bother with a long ranged attack, Max drew his sword and charged.

The dragon snapped it’s eyes open, opened its maw, and inhaled, displaying its large white teeth.

Max sprinted as fast as he could towards the gaping maw of the dragon, if he could get inside the breath weapon's range he could avoid the attack all together.

The dragon’s mouth exploded into scarlet flame as it blasted the most powerful weapon in its arsenal at Max.

He wasn't fast enough, plan B, raise shield, and get to the ground. The fire washed over the shield, it wasn't a tower shield, so it didn't protect him fully, that being said, it did its job, deflecting most of the damage. But judging by the mild burning sensation, and the mild pain that followed, he had lost some health.

The dragon didn't stop to see if its attack had hit, barely an instant had passed before the dragon was bearing down upon him, it probably couldn’t do much to harm the knight through his armor, but he sure as hell could knock him over.

Max panicked and rolled right, barely missing the attack from the dragon. But he had made a critical mistake, it’s hard to dive out of the way in heavy armor, and if you do, then you're on the ground, prone, vulnerable to attack.

The dragon took immediate advantage of this and slammed it’s paw down onto the knight’s chest further restraining him.

“Nice try, but that’s the reason I got here early. No one beats the final boss. Have fun being the miniboss, look on the bright side, you're not going to be a normal mob.” With that comment the dragon lifted its claw just long enough to stab the other one through Max’s chest.

Dying was always odd in the dungeon. You didn’t feel pain, but Max definitely felt the claw slide in and out of his torso. Very disconcerting, the feeling of a foreign object in your skin, but what happened next was even more so.

The hole in his chest sealed itself shut instantly.

Max felt his hips twist, splaying his legs out to either side. His legs and arms shortened, his hands growing webs in between his fingers. His nails extended into claws. His torso grew longer in comparison to his legs, giving him a long lizard-like body. Pale blue scales sprouted from his midsection and spread outwards, leaving his belly off-white. A row of short spines sprouted from his back. As the scales reached his legs Max felt a tugging sensation at the base of his spine, a long pale blue tail extending from his body, the spikes on his back traveling about half way down before stopping.

Simultaneously the scales reached his neck, and he felt it extend a little. Soon the scales had reached his head, and he felt a picking sensation as his heir retracted back into his head, leaving it smooth and bald. His mouth was next, pushing out in front of his vision bringing his nose with it. Little sharp teeth replaced his human ones and his tongue split becoming longer and forked. As the change spread up his face his ears receded into his head leaving a small hole in their wake. Finally his eyes migrated to the side of his head, becoming yellow and slitted.

Max stumbled around a bit, getting used to his new body. Then realized his surroundings had changed. He was now in a wide cavern, about four feet tall, and thirty wide, ending in a tunnel leading into the gold room. Pillars of stone connected the room here and there but for the most part it was open, aside from the sealing, which he had no problems with, as he was only a foot tall now, however most of the adventurers fighting him would have problems.

Now only two questions remained, what kind of powers did he have, and when would dinner come to him. All he had to do now was survive for four days as an immortal lizard, and stop anyone who tried to get past him.