His skin becomes a fiery red and it begins breathing fire to us. Furious torrents of flames are spouted from its mouth, making it hard to believe that it really came from its body.
Zenith blocks the incoming attacks of Cha Cha utilizing his skills, and I use the slight opening he made at his big move, slashing his chest with both swords. If the battle continues, Cha Cha will become more and more dangerous as it seems to be transforming little by little. Though, for some reason, I feel a strange resonance with it.
Infuriated at my attacks Cha Cha uses his claws to attack me but suddenly it notices a huge ball of energy coming its way at extreme speed
Cha Cha springs to the side to evade the attack but it touched his flank and exploded, looking at itself in pain he uses a special skill: Cloaking.
Almost disappearing from our sight, blinded by the pain and anger, Cha Cha didn't realize the other incoming attack.
A spear imbued with darkness flew at an incredible speed towards his right leg, piercing it. Cha Cha lets out another howl of pain at the sudden attack, having a spear through his right thigh. It grits its teeth tightly as it manages to balance itself quickly.
Everything according to plan, Arksen makes his appearance by trying to attack Cha Cha again with his Dark Spear, his hand shrouding in darkness.
Zenith and I move fast to corner Cha Cha, and even when it tried using cloaking, because of his right leg almost disabled he couldn't move or retreat much, making his position easier to detect.
Vladi focuses on aiding the others that are fighting against the other Lizards.
Taking notice of his dire situation, Cha Cha momentarily stopped moving, desperation and unwillingness showing in his eyes, and, as if sucking the air, he begins breathing in strongly.
At that action we instinctively fall back.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
-Then a sudden pillar of fire appeared, exploding with him at the center.
"Ugh" At that explosion we all got pushed back a few meters, and the sudden heat starts spreading everywhere with a heat more powerful than our fire fields combined.
'It seems we couldn't defeat it before the transformation… oh well, not that we can't defeat it like that too'
Organizing my thoughts, I get ready while looking forward, taking a glance at everyone to make sure if everyone is okay, but it seems my worries were unfounded, the three of us who were closes to the explosion radius were already on our feet.
The others didn't seem affected at all by the explosion but the Lizards who were under the command of Cha Cha had turned slightly redder, fire element surrounding them.
That's one of the troublesome things about commander type monsters, if they end up transforming, their bonuses transfer to their underlings in a small portion.
But the one most concerning is the monster itself, I did expect something like this, but it is a pain anyways as the monster standing right now in front of me is really menacing now.
Taking the spear out of his right thigh, Cha Cha who is now covered in fire seems like a fire demon with quite an angry look in his eyes. His body almost twice as big because of the flames surrounding him and the wounds previously inflicted were closing at lightning speed, of course, that must have hurt like hell, but now it seems to have most of his mobility back.
No monster transforms without paying a price
Looking at the HP bar on Cha Cha we know that only 32% of it is left.
Being more careful against our new transformed enemy, we end up circling him with him not moving an inch. Gust of cold start gushing out of me to even the terrain, but it just helps a bit to our current situation.
Looking at us with his predatory gaze, a sudden movement from his right arm flashes.
Without wasting a second, Zenith reacts at the sudden ball of fire coming his way and evades magnificently, taking this as an opportunity, Arksen and I close in an instant.
Without letting his guard down, Cha Cha uses his tail to try and hit us.
Sadly, for him, I am the first one to stand in the tail's trajectory.
'Elemental Blending, Elemental Enhancing: Fire-Wind, Annulment' I activate my skills and grab the tail with all my strength taking a bit of damage and a slight burn status, using the fire element to make the consumption of the Annulment lesser as it enhances my physical defense too.
Surprised that his tail engulfed in flames was stopped by me, Cha Cha couldn't react at the speed of Arksen who is now coated in magic with his right hand covered in darkness making it seems like a spear
"Dark Spear!!" shouting his skill just because it makes him look cooler, Arksen thrusts his right arms on Cha Cha's abs, almost piercing all the way if it wasn't because of the fast reaction of the Chameleon using his left arm to attack Arksen.
Because of the momentum of the body turn I let go of the tail and Arksen back away, but Zenith arrives before the Chameleon in the next instant, prepared for that and slash horizontally at Cha Cha's left flank.
Giving out another howl of pain, Cha Cha retaliates expanding his flames like an explosion to send Zenith away.
I think it is lucky for us that Cha Cha's element for transformation is Fire. Fire elemental monsters' defense drops while their destructive power increases a 100%, making up for their low defenses they are engulfed in flames which deals damage to nearby players.
But because of Arksen unique magical coat, most of the damage done by the fire is fended off, while I have Dark Coat, Annulment, Absorption and a variety of skills to minimize damage and Zenith whose Deathly aura almost nullifies those kinds of attacks if they are not condensed, making him almost immune to detrimental statuses.
Thus, driving Cha Cha to his current situation with a desperate look being surrounded by us who are almost intact from the fight.
Growling because of the pain, Cha Cha seems to be in his last's moments, looking at his surrounding and noticing that almost all of his minions are dead.
Zenith advances recklessly towards Cha Cha who got distracted by a second. Because of the surprise, the Chameleon starts spouting fire at Zenith who stops his movement as if he predetermined the attack of his enemy, waving his sword doing a power wave and neutralizing the flame which destructive power is no joke.
Without waiting for Zenith to give us a signal to attack, Arksen and I charge towards the confused and panicked Cha Cha whose attack got temporarily neutralized.
But a being in a desperate situation is when it is most dangerous. I notice it sucking the fire on its surroundings, heat increasing noticeably. Madness and savagery flashes through its expression, viciousness shown in its eyes.
As if saying with his eyes that he won't go down alone, I glance at him.
By my gaze it freezes on the spot.
A look of total despair befalls his face as my sword imbued in Annulment with all its power stabs at his abdomen.
I nullified his self-destruction just in time.
Arksen, a moment later, appears on the back of Cha Cha with a jump with his Dark Spear and stabs the place where the heart should be.
"It was a nice fight" I say to the defeated enemy who couldn't talk anymore because of sucking up the fire and drops to his knees powerlessly, looking straight to my eyes before losing all colors.
His body slowly turning to ashes as his eyes watched me coldly, as if wanting to open its mouth, his jaw moves slightly before disappearing completely, dropping the loot.
Before looking at them, I watch how the others are doing.
Suddenly, the body of an Alligator flies towards my direction, but lands before touching me, stopping just a meter in front of me, then, as it vanishes, the others comes to our direction.
"Rough fight, but really, you guys are amazing" says Aren with a broad grin while he walks to us with his sword resting on his shoulder.
"Bwahahahha! No one can stand against my Dark Spear!" shouts Arksen happily while giving a victory sign.
"Pff, what's with that 'Dark Spear!!' shout you did a while ago, so lame" and Isa without mercy crushes him.
"Ugh…"
At that, Kagito averts his gaze.
"Hmmm, I do remember someone shouting something like 'Life Overdrive!!'" I remark teasingly and Kagito seems to make an Urgh sound while everyone starts laughing.
"Bahahaha! We are warriors after all!" laughs and remarks Aren while hitting Kagito's back with his palm repeatedly.
…If Kagito was a normal human, then he would have been sent flying by that kind of strength.
"Good job, lad" says Dei, who kept quiet during the entire fight, to congratulate us.
"Thanks, partner" after I answer that, Dei becomes quiet again.
I just smile at that, he really helped me out to control Annulment at that last moment, if not, Cha Cha would have exploded with me, I might have not died but still severely injured.
"Oh well, let's check the drops~" says Arksen as if nothing happened.
Looking at our spoils, Vladi's eyes shine and we let out an amused sigh.
"Hoooh"
- Heart of the Fire Chameleon.
Material to enhance equipment – Grade B
Surround the user's body in flames when in combat creating a defensive barrier. The bonuses might vary depending on who enchants the gear.
- Chameleon's Skin
Material to make equipment – Grade B
If used to make armor, the skin will grant the special ability [Cloaking]. Depending on the user's class or action, the ability might get enhanced.
Mostly those 2 items were really good, the others were regular items. Chameleon's Skin would be extremely good for Vladi who specializes in covering us
And Heart of the Fire Chameleon seems like a good item for a tanker as it might give a bonus of splash damage while defending.
Thus, I give the Chameleon's skin to Vladi and the Heart of the Fire Chameleon to Isa.
No one objects to that as they read my intentions, the rest of items is distributed properly for each one to handle.
Then Arksen comes to me to repair his spear which received some damage because of Cha Cha.
As I repair the spear, I feel a strange presence for a split second before I notice a projectile coming to my direction at an extreme speed.
Unconsciously I activate Elemental Blending and Elemental Enhancing while grabbing Dei to face of the projectile
As I face the direction of the projectile, I clearly see those eyes
Shining in the darkness with a yellow glow, our gazes meet as I hear the metallic sound of the clash.
My consciousness drifts away as I see that gaze coming forward to our direction.
That day I met Grudell Scardi.