Exit the Dragon, by James Holding (epub/Kindle/pdf)

One fact roared through his head again and again: he’d just listened to the death knell of his job, his glorious job that allowed him to read and to dream almost as he wished, and he’d done absolutely nothing. He’d just sat there and taken the news with a rather stupid look on his face.

A dragon would have reacted at once, rending the smarmy little lickspittle with fang and claw, slavering acid into the gory wounds as he inflicted them. A wizard would have blasted Hoskins into an eternity of agony with a lambent blast from an ebony wand. A barbarian would have drawn his broadsword and cloven the little twerp from neck joint to ribs and then spat on the pieces as they fell.

But Alex had done nothing.