After a reasonably long walk, Claire had finally arrived near the Lizardmen village with Rithargus by her side.
It was quite a different sight than what she had imagined.
The slime village was very tribal, like a Native American village with straw huts and wooden or stone tools, but also with an odd amount of technology related to potion production.
The lizardmen village on the other hand, was much more developed.
While it was nowhere on the level of human establishments on earth, it was certainly impressive for a tribe of monsters. There was a large wooden wall erected around the village, similar to how a military encampment would look like during the 1700s.
Not only this, but there were homes made from bricks and stones, as well as gravel paved walkways connecting the houses.
At the center of the village was a large circular stone building. This was likely the village headquarters.
Small wooden towers were located around the perimeter of the walls, and it was likely that they were used for archers to drive off intruders.
From where she was, Claire could only see into the village through the entrance gate, at which two lizardmen were standing guard with spears in hand. They wore armor that seemed to be made of animal skins and lined with bones. Their spears were also carved from bones.
Claire approached the two lizardmen who were standing guard.
"Stay behind me, Rithargus. I don't think we will be attacked, but if we are then I will protect you."
Rithargus was somewhat annoyed and frustrated with having to be protected, but he patiently listened and stood behind Claire as they approached the guards.
The guards stared at the two with glaring eyes. They were certainly suspicious.
"Who are you two? What business do you have with our village? We are currently preparing for war, and we don't have the luxury to be welcoming visitors inside our walls... especially not human visitors. If you intend to attack us then we will kill you here and now."
Claire looked flustered as the lizardmen said this.
"I don't want to attack you! I have come as a representative from the slime village! The new leaders of the slime village have an urgent message that needs to be delivered to your leader regarding the war you are about to begin. May I enter so that I may deliver this message?"
The two lizardmen looked at each other with confused faces, and then laughed.
They laughed.
And laughed.
They had almost fallen to the ground in laughter.
"Good one, lady! I see that you're a jokester!"
"As if the slimes would have anything worth offering to us! Try somewhere else!"
The two were wiping the tears from their faces, but Claire was somewhat angered at this reaction. She had puffed up her lips and seemed to be disappointed in the lizardmen.
"This is a serious matter! Would you stop laughing and just let me into your village!? It could be the difference between war and peace, you know!"
One of the lizardmen standing guard became serious as she said this.
"Listen, human... or whatever you are. You seem somewhat different from the average human, so I am not sure what to make of you... but listen up. I already told you, our leader doesn't have time for your games. If you want an audience then you'll have to defeat us in combat to prove that you're worthy of seeing our leader."
Rithargus looked determined to fight, but Claire was simply annoyed.
"Why can't they just understand that I'm trying to help them?", she thought.
Things were never so simple.
"Sigh. Let me ask you this. Do you pride yourselves on being warriors?"
"Of course! There are no warriors who take more pride than the lizardmen!"
"So you wouldn't pull any underhanded tricks like attacking my comrade while we are dueling?"
"There is no such thing as an underhanded lizardman! If we were to duel, it would be one on one and of course we would respect the proper terms."
Claire looked at the lizardmen with suspicion this time.
She was killed by an evil man who had no care for the innocent or weak. Not only that, but he had pulled off lie after lie, and deceived so many in order to save his own skin. Of course she wouldn't take the lizardman's words at face value.
She wished that Rithargus had not insisted on coming with her, but he was too persistent for her to reject the idea. If she was alone she wouldn't have any issues with performing another duel similar to the one she had with Arlo, but now she was with Rithargus, who was a liability.
Of course, Claire did not tell this to Rithargus, but his safety was the first priority right now, and she had to hold back herself because of him.
However, it didn't look like she had a choice.
"Do you have anywhere to fight, like an arena or something, or should we fight here?"
"An opponent such as yourself requesting to fight in the arena? It could be arranged, however it would likely be much of a disappointment for an arena fight to be held against someone as weak as yourself."
The lizardman had completely judged Claire by her appearances, and written her off as a weak opponent. Claire had mixed feelings about this, but it was true that she wasn't strong in the true sense of the word. She was only able to prevent herself from being attacked, nothing more.
Still, she knew from her experience with Arlo that the lizardmen respected the strong, and she knew that if she could play along and act as if she was toying with them that they would acknowledge her.
It was disappointing that they were not willing to see past strength, but she could handle this much.
"You seem to have judged me based on appearances. Are you sure that a proud warrior would do such a thing?"
This seemed to have struck the nerves of the lizardman.
He seemed irritated at this statement, yet the other held out his hand, keeping the man at bay.
"Calm down. That was just a taunt to throw you off. You should know that.", he stated.
Of course, provoking the man was not Claire's intention. She was simply disappointed that these lizardmen who prided themselves on being warriors would write her off so quickly.
"Well then... defeating you in the arena will likely not net me any fame as a warrior, but if you are prepared to die then I have no choice but to take you on. I won't show mercy, nor will I back down. This is a fight to the death. There is no such thing as losing and keeping your life. Do you still wish to challenge me?"
Claire thought for a minute.
She was unsure what to say to this. There were 3 things on her mind. The first was that she would not be able to kill this lizardmen, even if she wanted. Because the entities reset whenever she came into hostile contact with another entity, she was unable to attack and at the same time unable to be attacked. If she were to enter a fight to the death, well... it would be an endless fight, assuming she understood her abilities correctly.
Not only this, but she also knew that she must be cautious. What if there was some hidden way for monsters to defeat her that she didn't know about? She couldn't just go around picking fights if she didn't have to.
And the final thing was that even if she was no longer naive enough to think that there was always a happy ending to everything, she still did not want to bear the guilt of killing another person, even if that person was not a human.
She was in a predicament.
However, she decided.
She needed to help the antiheroes to become radiating beams of justice in a broken world.
If they planned on uniting races and leading others, she should be willing to sacrifice herself for that sake.
If by some strange technique she was killed off, she was certain that they would still be able to fight against 'that man' who was plotting somewhere across the world.
And so she decided.
"I will fight in your arena, but if I prove myself to be overwhelmingly strong, then you will not be able to force my hand to kill you. Is that acceptable?"
"Why you... you boast about things that are unlikely. I will show you your arrogance in the arena. Fine then. If you prove yourself to be overwhelmingly strong, you may do as you wish... but as I have said, I will not show you mercy in the arena."