Matheus was relieved that his master had woken up, had progressively began to recover, actually much more quickly than he could have anticipated, the two going back into their roles before the dragon had overdosed the kryptynion at all, and with that the dragon returning to how he usually behaved, the sliver of vulnerability he had shown at the beginning of his recovery slipping away quickly, his serious and cruel personality returning, much to Matheus's disappointment.
He had quickly resumed his work on those awful dead Anthros which he toyed with as if they were puppets; a toy rather than Anthros who had been alive at one point, now having an awful scent from their decaying bodies that were almost falling apart, appearing gruesome with the dried blood and gore that covered them from when Matheus had been ordered to go and kill them, the activity he usually despised but did anyway just to please his master.
Matheus just felt unsure about it all. He was worried for the dragon, how his obsession for making an army of dead furs had seemed to completely take over, it now being one of the only damn things he seemed to give a care about.
"Matheus!" The dragon snapped, his magic dissipating as the dead bodies of the furs dropped to the ground, no longer propelled by the magic. "I'm going to need you to go in search of more victims for me, I feel comfortable enough with my magic, I need more of them." The dragon growled in a low voice.
Matheus looked into his masters eyes. He faltered as he was about to respond as he met the eyes of the dragon. His eyes used to be a light blue, a color that reminded Matheus of the hydrangeas that used to bloom in the swamplands before the economy plummeted. But now they appeared to be a sickly shade of green, like the kryptynion had settled into the dragons body long enough that it had now began to go from hurting him from within, to taking over the rest of him.
"I-I don't mean to be disobedient... but I don't think that it's a very good idea for you to be using your magic so much, especially so soon after the... overdose." Matheus managed to say.
The dragon's eyes seemed to glow as his lips pulled back in a snarl, quickly grabbing the collar of Matheus's tunic and shoving him against the wall.
"I know you may have helped me quite a bit after that little episode with the magic, but that does not mean that you think you can disobey me." The dragon seemed to be so close that Matheus could see each individual scale on his face as he snapped the words. "Remember your fucking place! You do what I say."
He finally let go of the Alligator Anthro, fought pushing away from him and beginning to stride off, almost like he believed that Matheus would submit like he had always done throughout the several years that they had both lived in this cave.
"No." Matheus said to himself, quiet enough he almost thought that his master wouldn't hear him.
He could see that dragons head snap back suddenly, at a speed that surely would have brought Matheus a great deal of pain, the dragons eyes almost glowing that awful green in his rage.
"What did you just say to me?" The dragon asked, voice so void of the earlier rage that it was like he was speaking to Matheus in just a normal conversation, which threw the Alligator off for a moment.
"I-it's not healthy for you to do this to yourself, all the time, all of this... this shit with the kryprynion!" Matheus blurted out. "It's going to kill you!!!"
The dragon seemed to be taken aback from Matheus's outburst, something that felt so unusual from how he usually behaved that the dragon almost couldn't believe that he'd dare say those words. But he also realized the truth laced in that as well.
Ever since he had recovered from the overdose of kryptynion, his body had began to ache. Not something dull like he was used to on certain occasions, but bright and painful, as if a sword had been stabbed into his skin every time he moved. But he'd powered through it. If he wanted to save his kind, to save them before the canines overpowered them all, there were some risks that he would take.
He didn't feel like arguing with Matheus. He didn't need him anyway, or so he thought. He had always went through life alone, fought through school, from the reptilians that seemed set to kill him, a place where unlike the canines had was hostile and dangerous, gone through his entire childhood himself, fighting to even survive in a land that almost seemed like was getting smaller and smaller every day, the Canine Anthros dead-set on taking everything away from him.
He just left Matheus in the cave, walking to the nearby table and grabbing one of his swords.
It would just be him again. Matheus was never a good fit for helping him in his efforts anyway, just someone else who told him that he would fail just as almost everyone who had used kryptynion had. But he was determined that he would survive it, would be able to have the pleasure of stabbing a blade through the eye of the king personally, the man who pretended to be kind, but was really just someone who also walked to get rid of the Reptilians.
He didn't even look at Matheus as he strode out of the Castle, ignoring the Alligators futile pleas for the dragon to stop, to take care of himself and all of that other nonsense.
But his ears felt almost closed off as he left, the rage that he felt flowing though his body what would motivate him to be a murderer today, that even the one closest to him believed his body to weak to handle the kryptynion, but he knew that he would prove him wrong, all in time.
~
The dragon crossed through the forest that separated the Canine and Reptilian Anthros quickly, the urge to take out his anger on someone else motivating him to walk quicker, to find another body for his final plan.
His eyes could easily see every being who moved, his enhanced vision making it quite simple for him to make out every one of the Canine Anthros that he hated so much.
He felt he could kill any of them, all of them, though relatively poor for their own standards, all seemed wealthy beyond belief to the dragon. They all lived in homes with a fire to keep them warm at night, had a comfortable supply of food, roads that weren't so broken and run down that they were practically useless.
He could see one of them, a farmer from the look of the foxes clothing hauling a wagon filled with vegetables, more than the entirety of the Reptilian population could afford all together.
The dragon would chose this fox as his victim, as good enough as any other one of the Canines he saw in this kingdom, anyone that was fit enough to be turned into a member of his army, he would take them.
The dragon stalked up to the fox quietly, a neutral, almost sleepy expression on his face, showing that he would likely never notice of the dragon as right behind him.
The dragon made slow and calculated movements as he neared the fox, even from his size, having the stealth of a much smaller dragon as he finally approached the fox who had still foolishly not noticed the looming presence behind him.
The dragon couldn't see a single soul in this moment, especially with how late at night it was. A time so late that even a city as populated as this one was almost silent other than the wind rustling the trees.
The dragon wasted no time plunging his claws into the foxes throat, the great strength he wielded not allowing the fox even a moment to scream as his talons squeezed the foxes throat with such force that he could hear the bones already snapping, blood dripping out of the foxes maw not too long later, eyes bulging as he silently thrashed, though efforts futile as the dragons claws dug into the foxes throat, ripping it open.
The fox gave one final effort of escape, lashing out his arms at the dragons torso, the strength of this fox seeming impossibly weak in comparison.
It was an event that only took minutes, the fox dying as his body went limp in the dragons arms, the dragon pulling his claws out of ruined throat of the fox with an awful squelch.
He could feel the rage he had felt so prominently early begin to fade, beginning to be replaced with guilt that he had killed the defenseless fox who had only likely been delivering the vegetables that were now scattered across the ground.
But the dragon forced those feelings back. Throughout his life, he had found it useless to succumb to the guilt. It had always felt like it always struck him at the worst times, the dragon furious that he even had to face those emotions at all.
But he told himself he was doing the right thing, that this foxes life would be used for the better... right?
No matter what though, the dragonfly he was too deep into it now, had forced the Alligator to kill to many to give up and make those Anthros lives be in vain. He would finish this. He would make an army, make it to end how the Reptilians had always been treated by the Canines, end this for eternity.