There Is A Monster In Town

The nameless wretch looked intently at a piece of paper, this one had made its apparition all over town after his first kill.

"Dead or... Alive, small, goblin-like monster, little intellect but great stealth" read the wretch with some difficulty, not quite used to reading quite yet, he hadn't learned it himself after all, it had just come along with his evolution due to his repeated consumption of humans.

His voice was all wrong, nasal and rough.

He was scratching his neck with a hook-shaped claw coming out of his index finger.

It was the middle of the night as of now, few people were wandering outside at this time, the wretch snarled and clawed at the nonsense layed out in front of his eyes.

'Those bastards must be trying to insult me, how could they get it everything so wrong? Do I look like one of those bald, filthy bastards? Little intellect? They must be projecting but that is good, only the guardian or 'guard' as they seem to be called, will truly be aware of my greatness' thought the wretch as his claws kept on retracting and coming out, different each time.

He now had access to a variety of claws depending on his needs, hook claws, perfect to latch onto something.

Some meant for digging, those had been fundamental in him making his way inside the city.

Other claws meant to accomodate for running at greater speeds, he had had the occasion of testing them during his little encounter with the guard, although his speed was great, it wasn't easy to control well.

He could handle sharp turns well enough but if he tried going into a straight line, the gain in speed would make him see everything blurry, he would have no clue where he was.

On top of those, there were also climbing claws and more simple ones, simply meant to slash.

There were still the original needle claws of course and he also had access to some a different set of teeth, which was also meant to hook but that was it for his dentation.

Going past his great flexibility and newfound ability to grow some fur, he had gained something that truly felt a power.

Forming in the palm of his grey hand, a small, spherical object appeared, it looked like a cage, in which flames were trapped, at the center of the fire, a miniscule being was spinning around, dangling its many legs in the air.

It could make centipedes appear out of thin air, seemingly indefinitely, although they couldn't go too far from their spawner.

They wouldn't attack him but they didn't listen to orders in the least.

It wasn't limited to centipedes of course, he had access to other bugs but it seemed like he was limited to things he had devoured and that were also present in the general surroundings.

The spawners were feeble but their small sizes allowed him to hide them well, such as when he filled that guys stomach with them.

The only control he had over the spawners was to make them disappear or to make them 'dormant', meaning that they wouldn't create anything until he allowed it, if let dormant for too long, they would just break as it tried to create anyways, meaning that keeping them from spawning for some time and then allowing it resulted in many of the critters appearing at once.

It wasn't exactly deadly but the wretch liked it, especially the fact that they were so agressive against everything, which wasn't the case with their natural brethrens.

"Hey you, what are you doing outside at this hour?" interrupting the wretch's pleasant thoughts, some rickety-looking humans were speaking with their horrible voices.

They were carrying torches and according to what the wretch had been hearing and seeing, those beggars were actually called 'adventurers' and they were pretty much unemployed around here, for there was no adventures to be had.

He turned to face them, looking at them as if he was looking at repelling bugs when he had been lovingly staring at centipedes a moment ago.

They recoiled seeing the stitches going all along his upper and lower jaw, making it seem as if he was grinning constantly.

He had since long removed the threads as the flesh had consolidated together but this scar was still present and immediately visible.

Seeing them back off in fear before his regal gaze, the monster smiled.

"That's right peasants! Back off! Be afraid of me, lest I reduce your carcasses to send a two-word message to another peasant!" the wretch laughed like a cocky bastard with his messed up voice as the five adventurers frowned at his maniacal antics.

All five of them were certain that this monster was most likely the one talked about in the posters all around town despite the fact that it was capable of holding a conversation, as much as the ability to speak didn't always made one intelligent, it was generally considered a sign of it in monsters.

Seeing the adventurers group up and shifting into positions that made their intentions crystal clear, the monster dropped his smile and demonstrated all of the contempt it could have with a simple facial expression.

The wretch casually stepped back, outside of the illumination of the torches before starting to move at high speeds.

The five adventurers carried two torches, it was well enough to illuminated the dense darkness of the night for those with poor nocturnal vision.

Moving on all fours all around them, knocking things over and throwing things all around, the adventurers had no clue where he could be until he suddenly rushed in, knocking into one of the torches and grabbing it out of the adventurers hands and snuffing it out with a piece of wet clothing as he rolled to the ground with it.

Knowing not to do the same thing again, even if these particular lowbreds would definitely fall for the same tricks thrice, he just went, running over to a nearby well, he came back with a bucket of water and extinguished the remaining torch with a simple splash.

The fools had thought that they would be able to turn the tables simply because he had seemed to them at first glance, when they finally decided to cry out like littles babies, realising that in the ambient darkness, they would be easy pickings.

No one bothered to even look outside or check, thinking that someone else would definitely do it, when the guard was called on the scene, the feast was already over.

The wretch had collected all of their teeth and given them a single of his own as a sign of his eternal magnanimity.