"Five ... Four ... Three ... Two ... One."
As the countdown began Jack and co. moved back into their initial position. Going into actual combat, and against the strongest creature they had ever faced there was no room for carelessness. Even a single misstep could end in grievous injury.
As the examiner's count reached zero the far gate opened and a new shadow loomed from the darkness. This shadow was easily twice or thrice the size of the previous foxes or wolves. As it crawled from the shadow tunnel behind the gate small tongues of flame danced across it briefly illuminating small patches of it's body. The light revealed dirty brownish red scales.
"Be careful! It's a wields flames!" Clay warned the group as he walked a pace forwards.
The current formation was tight, within arms reach of each other. Jack and Rust were at the very back, Amber and Iris in the middle and Clay stood at the front, forming a pentagon. The element of flame was the element with the most dangerous and numerous AOE abilities. As such they all moved further apart to avoid the possibility of them all being roasted together.
"Let's take this slow guys, no need to rush and endanger ourselves. Wear it down, cripple it, and then finish it off." Clay advised.
"I have a few concoctions that should do the trick." Iris approved while applying some liquids across her daggers.
"I'll do my best to distract it, but without any plants nearby I can't really do much." Amber answered.
The creature didn't wait for them to plan out their battle strategy. As they repositioned themselves it had already exited the gate which shut behind it with a dull but powerful thud. As it walked into the fading dusk light it's true appearance was revealed. It was a lizard of some variety, but scaled up beyond anything natural. Being a lizard it's legs weren't particularly long, however it's head was still more than a foot above Clay's.
It's behavior, for just a second, appeared identical to the preceding foxes and wolves. Perhaps it was an instinct of all wild animals, to scent the air first upon reaching a new place. The examiner's all held their breath from a sudden pang of anxiety seeing the wolves and this lizard overlap. It only lasted for a second though.
The instant it scented the air it seemed to pick up on something it greatly desired. It's gaze immediately locked onto the small group of humans before it. It bellowed once before charging intent on devouring the tasty prey in front of it.
"Huh? Isn't this one a bit more aggressive than the rest of the Magic Beasts?" One examiner asked seeing this scene
"Hmmm? Naah they're all pretty much the same. Ravenously charging in." Another dismissed his observation.
The lizard charged forward full force. The momentum it contained with its mass was truly immense, there was no way for the party to stop it. The only thing they could do was move out of its way. They quickly shifted to the left and then rotated their formation around as it careened past them and into the gate behind them. Unfortunately, different from what they hoped the gate did no damage at all to this big lizard.
The lizard -either having learned a lesson with its overshooting or simply not bothering since it was so close- waddled towards the party. With their target calmly approaching form the front Clay moved forward to meet it first. Clay put a good portion of his might into his first blow, along with a good dose of lightning with a two handed strike towards the lizard's skull.
The lizard sensing some threat from this attack blocked it with a flaming strike of it's right claw. As it was off-balance from the recoil and only three legs Iris moved in around its left and quickly jabbed it with her left dagger. Rather than the sound of flesh being rent a dull sound akin to a thunk rang out. Clay and Iris quickly moved back to assess their strikes effectiveness.
"I hit it, but it didn't go very deep." Clay commented
"Same here, it won't have soaked up much poison from the tip of my dagger. It definitely won't go down from a few scratches like this." Iris observed
Having suffered two small but somewhat humiliating injuries from the puny creatures in front of it the lizard became angry. It decided to kill them all at once and then eat them. To do so quickly and to make them extra tasty it opened its mouth and gathered the essence in its body into its throat.
"Fire breath? Everyone scatter at the last moment, try to run out of the arc of its head." Clay directed and then immediately moved forward.
Seeing this the lizard who was gathering mana focused and began to breath out large sparks and blobs of flame at Clay. The rest of the party quickly split and moved up the sides of the lizard. Luckily it didn't seem to be terribly smart, the lizard focused on the prey in front of itself that had harmed it, ignoring the others surrounding it.
As she moved past to the right again Iris once more jabbed at it in the same position. She was rewarded with a slightly deeper wound and a sudden jet of sparks as the lizard turned to snap at her.
"The real threats over here, stupid lizard!" Clay shouted to attract its attention as he put another full force electrified strike at the lizard.
The lizard dodged it with very little room to spare, closing its mouth and ending the fire breath while it did so. Taking the opportunity while they flanked the creature Jack and Rust circled around on opposite sides and moved towards the back of the lizard. They made sure to keep a wide berth of the tail.
With Clay keeping it's attention at the front Jack took the time to summon his battle cow to guard if needed. Rust took this opportunity to pull a scroll from satchel. She ignited it before slapping it on the ground. When she did so a slight tremble moved through the earth under the lizard. Suddenly a spike erupted from the earth beneath the lizards chest striking it.
The earth spike impacted and lifted the lizard off of its feet for a fraction of a second before it cracked into pieces and the lizard crashed back into the earth. The fierce earth spell that had dealt such a grievous blow to the embear merely bruised this full magick beast through its firm scales.
The lizard may not have been incredibly intelligent, however its instincts were nothing to scoff at. It had sensed the direction of the essence that had attacked it and could smell and sense the creature that had attacked it. Enraged at being struck from so many sides at once the lizard lashed out with its tail releasing a generous amount of flames as it did so.
Jack quickly had the cow block the tail and 'become injured' as it did so, and Rust blocked any flames continuing on towards her with her new shield. Ever the opportunist Iris once again drove her dagger into the lizards shoulder, this time with more force. The blade plunged half its length into the lizard, seeing it was firmly lodged Iris left it there so that the lizard could soak in the poison for a bit. To compensate she pulled out another one of the many daggers strapped to her.
This situation continued on for a few rounds in this situation. The lizard lashed out in all directions spewing fire all around it. The party attacking it would poke it from one direction and then from another. Clay mostly kept its attention on himself stabbing, slashing, and zapping freely. The rest of them kept their distance and occasionally prodded it, trying to make a few more outlets for its blood, if nothing else.
After a few minutes-
"Hm? It's slowing already? Is it weaker to poison than we thought?" Iris asked in confusion.
"Doesn't matter, it's good for us. Keep it up." Clay replied.
Like that they kept carefully prodding it, basically just waiting for it to keel over and die. They were well aware that Wild and Magic beasts would make a final struggle and sometimes detonate themselves when they were close to death. Since they weren't fully sure how injured it was they were waiting till it began its final struggle before attacking all at once to finish it.
In an intense battle like this waiting for their opportunity was a nerve-wracking experience. Even if they more or less has it under control and were able to dodge its attacks any hit from this creature would be a devastating blow.
The lizard continued to slow as it lost more blood and absorbed more poison. Finally around ten minutes into the fight it reached a tipping point. The lizard sensed that it didn't have a chance as things stood. If it didn't use everything it had here it wouldn't have the chance later. The lizard gathered all its essence and ignited it all at once.
Feeling a change in their opponents essence Clay charged forwards to end the fight. As he drew into range to reach the lizard, ... it burst into flames. The entire lizard was covered in a layer of harsh orange flame. Clay wasn't expecting such a large scale ability so quickly, as such he was not in a position to dodge it. Just as the flames began to lick at him and he prepared to receive grave injuries a shield enveloped him, deflecting the flames.
As Clay moved in from the front Jack also attacked from the back. He used something that was sure to get a lizards attention, an ice spell. He fired off a chunk of ice into the lizards flank to distract it and provide an opening. It was very effective. A lizard with the fire attribute, a creature that hated the cold and hadn't had to feel a chill in an untold amount of time. When it felt the biting cold of the ice impacting it became enraged. It roared in pain and began to turn around as it lashed its tail.
Before it could complete that maneuver however it received an early lunch- a sword in the mouth. Clay stabbed into the lizards open mouth, the weakest point of its body. At the same time Iris lodged a dagger into its eye, Amber slashed at its neck, and Rust provided shielding from the flames.
Finally after several seconds and a few more injuries the lizard collapsed.