The lizards rushed out of the cave, their bodies almost invisible to others thanks to camouflage. Their movements were quick, but silent as they tried to investigate what or who was responsible for the explosion.
Behind the grass foliage, Alexia informed others her findings.
"Ten lizards," Amir thought for a second before saying. "They should be adults."
"Yeap," Alexia nodded. She felt the movements were unlike small lizards so them being adult made sense.
"Kiba, Ruby," Amir turned towards them. "You will be going inside to collect the herbs. Alexia, Mina, and Monroe would accompany you."
"Sure," Kiba agreed on the proposal.
Collecting herbs were fine rather than collecting the organs of lizards. The latter required more hard work as it meant dissecting a corpse and taking out important organs and storing them in a container.
"Ashyln, you will be helping Nellie, Gill, and me to stop the coming lizards," Amir looked at Ashlyn and said.
Ashlyn didn’t say anything but just nodded her head in agreement.
"We will handle them," Amir said as they leaped out from the foliage. "Use the chance to acquire as many herbs as you can."
Kiba and others similarly rushed out.
The lizards were camouflaged and not invisible. But as long as one can discover them once and know their pattern, it wasn’t impossible to adapt to their tricks.
Amir transformed into a rubber hammer and struck on the ground as per Alexia’s instructions.
BANG
The ground shattered but a rock-like figure pounced through the air, slowly its body becoming clear. A rock-scaled lizard came out in the picture, its tail waving towards Amir.
"Let’s stop you all from camouflaging!" Joel shouted.
He took out a gun and the barrel flashed, releasing out a column of liquid color that spread on the ground in no time. He was a weapon expert, carrying guns of various types, serving both destructive and miscellaneous needs.
The lizards groaned in anger, their bodies stained with color. Their chances of using camouflage successfully reducing.
"Ashlyn!" Amir called out as he fought against a lizard when another attacked him from behind.
Ashlyn raised her arms. The blue discs clad on her wrist flew out and floated in front of her.
She took the discs in her hands and then threw them out one after another. The discs started rotating in a chopping manner, its sharp edges glinting, as they rushed ahead.
A lizard viciously whipped out its tail at Amir. Just as the tail was about to strike, a disc passed through it, slicing it apart.
Blood gushed out from the tail and the lizard roared furiously. Before it could target Ashyln, another disc pierced through its neck.
Its powerful and deadly scales offered no resistance to the disc as its head fell off.
THUD
The lizard’s body fell on the ground with a loud thud sound. The other lizards were stunned by the development.
Three lizards opened their mouths and moved towards Ashyln now that the deadly discs were no longer in her hands.
Ashyln’s expression remained the same as ever.
As a lizard pounced on her with its mouth wide open, a loud screeching sound came from behind.
Shocked, the lizard turned around and in its eyes there was disbelief. The two discs which have gone ahead made a circle around.
They returned back with more speed than before and cut through the lizard even before it could blink.
The others were equally startled as they saw the discs making strange trajectories without any action from Ashyln. She was just standing there while the discs curved through the air to kill lizards around her like they were staw bags instead of terrifying reptiles.
"Ashyln, don’t destroy them fully," Amir reasoned. "We could sell their scales and internal organs during the auction."
Ashlyn just shrugged her shoulders as she continued to face more lizards.
"Impressive for sure," Kiba thought as he entered the cave now that lizards were distracted.
Alexia was behind Kiba while he was running along with Ruby, Mina, and Monroe.
"Watch out!" Alexia warned.
Kiba darted to the side, and the next second, a giant hole was smashed in the place he was just a moment ago.
Maybe others didn’t see but his eyes could make out a tail retracing back.
He just didn’t want to expose his powers so he blindly rushed ahead, waiting for Alexia to sense the lizard’s presence. And she didn’t disappoint him even if it was at last second.
"There should be a lizard ahead," Mina muttered. She positioned her hands and shoot out two columns of sandy liquid.
Growl.
A lizard growled as its body was stuck in the sandy liquid and it solidified.
"So far so good," Monroe said as they continued ahead.
"Let’s see if you can say it again," Kiba thought as his lips slightly curved up.
RIPPP
The next moment, the sound of flesh being ripped apart sounded in the cave.
"AHHH!" Monroe cried out. He looked at his right leg with absolute horror on his face.
A lizard was clamping down its jaw on his leg, flesh and blood sputtered out. He didn’t even realize how the lizard came next to him, undetected by everyone till the final moment.
Alexia was petrified. She didn’t detect any movement in the air or ground to feel its presence.
"Shit!" Monroe cursed as his mouth spat out black mist. The mist mingled with the air and moved towards the lizard’s head.
But the lizard wasn’t least bit worried. It swept its tail towards the coming mist.
Sss
The mist corroded the tail like a powerful acid.
Before Monroe could be pleased, he saw the corroded flesh being closed up with new flesh. The tail was recovered in almost no time.
Even ordinary lizards have regenerative abilities much less mutated ones. When Ashlyn killed the lizard’s tail outside, the reason it wasn’t able to regenerate was that its head was severed the next moment, thus killing it.
As long as head and heart weren’t damaged or connection to them wasn’t severed, the lizard could simply recover from its wounds and fight without any worries.
"Help me!" Monroe fell on the ground, his hands on his injured leg. The lizard chewed the flesh and devoured it in one go.
As the lizard stepped forward, its eyes flickered with anger. It raised its head and opened its mouth wide to eat a sneaky assaulter.
"I’m not really tasty," Kiba was somersaulting through the air with his fist aimed at the neck of lizard. "So please shut your mouth."
The lizard roared as the fist came close to its neck. It felt a strong force from the attack and didn’t wish to take it directly on its neck.
The neck was covered with scales, but it sensed an invisible gauntlet-like covering on the hand of the attacker. The lizard reasoned that the human has suppressed the surrounding air to form a defense around his hand.
Its tail whipped out, to prevent the attack. Kiba just twisted his body in mid-air to dodge the tail while landing his fist on the neck.
Snap.
The sound of bone being snapped into two came out of the neck. The lizard’s eyes were filled with unwillingness and fury as it closed its eyes for the final time.
"Take this," Mina took out a regenerative pill from her pocket and stuffed it in Monroe’s mouth.
Monroe gulped down the pill while wiping the sweat from his face. He felt his luck was terrible. In just a single day, he was attacked twice. First by the giant beast and now by this lizard.
They didn’t stand for long and continued their journey with more caution.
"Let’s see if there are herbs which I need," Kiba thought. "If not, I will need to discover them on my own."
"Thanks," Monroe said to Kiba after some time. If not for him, he felt he was gone.
He felt gratitude towards Kiba while hatred for his other companions who were rooted on spot during the attack.
"Please don’t mention it," Kiba said with a kind smile. "We exist to help each other during the journey."
"You are a nice fellow," Monroe added.
"You are overpraising me," Kiba scratched the back of his head.
Of course, he didn’t mention how he knew the lizard was coming for Monroe from start, and yet didn’t take any action till it was too late... he was truly a nice fellow.