"Hey, get a hold of yourself! What's wrong?" Gerald grabbed Sera and shook her hard to get her to react.
"There!" She pointed at the ground with a shaking hand, "It's an Earth Dragon's footprint… And there! Claw marks!"
"Earth Dragon? Do you mean that big lizard? I read about it yesterday in the library and I don't think it warrants this much panic." Gerald didn't seem too concerned about the possibility of the beast being here.
According to the Bestiary, Earth Dragons were just one of the morphed forms normal lizards could take. They were quite weak for their size, with a starting rank of Iron 5. Their sight was also not the best, although their amazing sense of smell greatly diminished that weakness.
"No, you don't understand! Earth Dragons are not supposed to be here. They should be much further southwest, where it's warmer. If it detects us, we are screwed! We need to get away from this place before it's too la-"
Hisssss!
However, Sera's words were cut short as a loud hissing sound broke the otherwise silent day. A two-meter tall lizard came slowly waddling towards them.
The beast had short legs in proportion to its body and it was swaying from side to side while walking. It was flicking its forked tongue around in the air, similar to how snakes use it to smell.
The lizard's body was about four meters long, not including the tail, and the claws on its feet produced scraping sounds when it went across the stone surface. It lazily continued on its way, and it did not seem to be in any hurry whatsoever.
"Let's slowly back away first, don't alert it to our presence." Gerald pulled the frozen-in-fear Sera by the sleeve.
But she reacted very differently from what he expected. She screamed at the top of her lungs and threw five of her throwing knives at the lizard.
Clank, clank, clank...
Maybe it was because of the distance, or maybe the lizard's scales were just too hard, but the knives just harmlessly deflected off of the beast with a light sound.
The Earth Dragon lifted its head high and turned it to the side, its big eye looking right at them. It flicked its tongue lazily a few times and then slowly continued on its way.
Gerald even though he saw it smile for a second.
It was clearly aware of their presence, but it seemed like it was playing with them, purposefully going slower than necessary, just to scare them more.
Paf!
"Snap out of it!" Gerald slapped Sera to get her to stop panicking. Screaming like a madman was of no help in this situation.
"Hey, mister lizard! How about we go our separate ways instead of doing something we might regret later?" Pushing her away and forcing a bitter smile, Gerald tried to engage in conversation with the Earth Dragon.
The giant lizard lifted its head sideways as if trying to figure out if the human just spoke to it.
"Did you just speak to me, human?" the lizard asked. He was hissing like a snake when talking and his tongue was flicking out of his mouth after almost every word.
Gerald heard the unpleasant voice, but he could understand the meaning without any problems.
"That's right. Since we can talk to each other there is no need for a fight, right? We could even become friends." He was slowly moving back while also dragging Sera with him. He covered her mouth with his hand just in case.
"Haha, interesting! I would love to have a chat with a human, but there are rules. Even I can't play with the prey for too long or my master will get angry." The lizard lazily encroached upon them.
Slowly walking closer in a half-circle around the two, the lizard seemed to be savoring the time it spent terrorizing the humans. Although, it preferred the female since she showed fear with no restraints.
Unbeknown to Gerald, the entire thing was happening under the gaze of an outside observer.
On a nearby hill, not far from the rocky plane, a female, clad in leather armor was riding on a black beast.
With a body like a giant tiger and a short thick neck that carried a scary head with white fangs, the Warg was a bloodthirsty animal known for its aggression.
Weirdly though, it did not show any of its characteristics right now, except for the crimson eyes that were always looking for blood, as it let the woman ride it without complaints.
"What's he doing? Just kill them and get it over with!" the woman silently complained and then placed two fingers in her mouth.
Fiiiiii!
A loud whistle reverberated across the sky and the Earth Dragon lifted its head to listen.
Gerald also looked in the direction of the whistle and his eyes landed on the woman and the beast. For a moment he felt like their eyes met.
"Is that your master?" he questioned.
The lizard appeared to be somewhat dissatisfied because of the whistle and so it grumbled, "Yes, she raised me and she could be considered my master. Looks like the playtime is over. Ah…" The lizard made an almost human sigh.
"Can you do me a favor, human?"
Gerald squinted his eyes, "What do you want?"
"Run! Run and scream, make your death interesting!" Then the lizard laughed loudly, but to anyone except Gerald, it would sound like raspy hissing from hell.
"Repeating Fireball!"
Gerald was already prepared for a fight and he immediately blasted the lizard with Fireballs while it was still laughing.
One after the other, the Fireballs flew forward and they covered the distance between him and the lizard in the blink of an eye.
Following the sounds of explosions, fire and smoke rose to the skies. The ground was completely charred and a blazing fire in the middle was quickly going out when it exhausted the Mana fueling it.
Gerald just wanted to break into a smile, when his blood almost froze in fright.
"Tsk, tsk, you are no fun at all, human…" a mocking voice came from inside the flames. "Don't you know why your kind calls me a Dragon? It's because I'm resistant to fire! Gahaha…" The lizard laughed and slowly emerged from the flames.
"Shit!" Gerald's brows furrowed. He thought he ended the fight early, but surprisingly the lizard didn't sustain even a single scratch. He cursed the books for not mentioning this important detail of fire resistance.
Now he realized that the fight would be much more difficult than he imagined and that he had to do his best to stay alive. He took out the Earth Crystals while keeping his eyes on the lizard. In his mind, he was quickly going over the possible strategies he could implement.
He considered just simply running away since the lizard appeared to be quite slow, but he was concerned that Sera might break down from fear and freeze up.
However, that plan quickly crumbled when the Earth Dragon finally started taking them seriously as it sprinted forward, showing its sharp white teeth.
Because of its stubby legs, the lizard appeared quite comical when running, waving its body from side to side. However, the speed was much greater than what Gerald was capable of and he only had time to cast a single spell before the lizard would chomp on him.
"Wind Blast!"
He utilized his powerful Wind spell, but it was not aimed at the lizard, instead, it hit Sera in the chest who was trembling there, completely unprepared. She was blown away like a leaf in a storm, while Gerald jumped back to avoid the sharp teeth and claws of the Earth Dragon.