The body of the duelist hit the ground and clumsily rolled a few times, leaving a splotchy trail of blood behind. Soon, his body finished rolling and slid to a stop. He lied there, face-down and motionless.
The fat cleric immediately ran to his fallen ally as fast as his heavy, trunk-like legs could carry him. His recitations were endowed with even more fervor as he dragged his friend's body further away from the conflict. In the span of only a few short seconds, the tables had turned. Without their best fighter, the party of explorers were left in a dire situation.
The guardsman and blade caster dived at the enemy despite the greater danger to themselves. The burly guardsman slammed the great shield's lower edge against the ground and let out a grisly war cry. There was a strange allure to its sound which caused the three lizardmen to feel an inexplicable urge to rip the man apart. The two beasts with green scales immediately threw themselves at him, but were mindless enough to not coordinate their attacks. However, the one with red scales resisted his aggro skill.
For a moment, it simply stood there as if it could sense its feelings being manipulated. Normally, the party would make use of this hesitation and deliver a killing blow, but it took all of them just to resist the combined efforts of the two with green scales.
"Why the hell are there three of them together!? I thought these things were complete loners!"
The blade caster shouted out his complaint as he threw out another knife, trying to find a weak spot in the creatures' natural armor.
He was right though. The team had never seen even two lizardmen work together. They were incredibly territorial creatures who would only gather underwater during mating season. Why would there be three of them together? Not to mention, there was an abnormal one here covered in red scales.
"Reloading!"
The marksman shouted to signal that he would be useless for a moment. He pressed open a hatch from the top of his rifle and the grey, lifeless husk of a crystal was ejected from the chamber where it had previously been floating. Smoke followed the crystal's remains as it fell to the ground where it shattered and burst into glistening pale blue dust.
In that moment, the red-scaled beast finally freed itself from its moment of stupor. It looked up with cold and intelligent eyes, seeing the other two of its kind brawling against the guardsman and the blade caster. Then its serpentine neck slowly turned until it fixed its gaze on the little mage. The guardsman and blade caster had to give it their all against the two green-scaled reptiles and weren't given even a moment to try to handle the one with red scales.
"Elaine, get back!"
The guardsman shouted to the mage before the claws of his opponent crashed against his great shield, pushing him further back. His shout carried an unnerving tone. One which she had never heard from the burly guardsman. This one wasn't a skill, but an expression of emotion.
An expression of fear.
The little mage didn't hesitate to whip around and sprint back towards the cart at full speed. In that same moment, the redscale broke into a sprint and began to chase after her. The difference in physical capabilities between the two were stark. The little mage woman was fit, but certainly wasn't the fastest among the adventurers. In fact, she was notably short and simply couldn't run as fast as most people due to her little legs. The reptilian creature, however, was substantially faster than any human the machine had ever seen. It was gaining on her at an alarming speed.
She wasn't going to make it to the magic barrier at the cart.
In that moment, the marksman finished reloading his rifle. He firmly grasped a dark red crystal from the pouch at his side and used his thumb to slam it into the rifle's chamber.
The dark crystal emitted a dangerous aura as it began to spin within the rifle. It hummed with a deeper tone than the ice crystal from before. The marksman displayed an inhuman level of dexterity as he shifted what was likely something similar to the action of the gun. The machine didn't know the underlying principles of this world's guns and thus didn't understand the function of the marksman's actions, but he could tell how efficient the man's motions were. The marksman was undoubtedly top-tier and had probably just accomplished the fastest reload in this world's history.
The marksman snapped the rifle up to his shoulder and rested the barrel on the edge of the cart, making use of it for increased accuracy and stability. He quickly lined up the sights and pulled the trigger.
This time, the rifle didn't summon shards of ice. Instead, it fired what looked like a solid bolt of crimson electricity.
The bolt flew through the air with a droning buzz and slammed heavily into the shoulder of the redscale. The bolt from this crystal dealt far more damage than the ice shards. The reptile was thrown back from the impact enough to throw it off its feet and leave a scalding burn on its shoulder. Finally, they had something to fight back with.
The redscale quickly got up and bellowed out a furious roar. It threw its bastard sword aside and lowered itself to all fours before chasing again after the little mage with an even more unbelievable speed, all four of its powerful limbs thrashing against the stone. It had returned to an even more primal version of itself.
As soon as his rifle allowed him to, the marksman pulled the trigger again. The cost of using this particular crystal was the lowered firing speed. Each shot could deal substantial damage, but he could only fire one bolt every five seconds where as the ice crystal allowed him to fire about one projectile per second. As soon as the rifle's trigger snapped, another bolt of crimson lightning was surging through the air.
However, the furious redscale was not only faster than before, it was also aware of the new ammunition. It used an unearthly reaction time and agility to pull back and dodge the projectile. The bolt of crimson lightning hit the stone ground just in front of the beast before reflecting harmlessly off the stone and bounding further into the dark cave while missing the beast entirely. As soon as the projectile had passed, the beast continued the chase.
Even though the last shot missed, it stalled the creature long enough for both the mage and the marksman to slide under the protected cart with the three hired carriers. It was now very cramped, but there was enough space for the marksman to lie prone and reload again. The dark red crystal had only lasted two shots before becoming faded and withered. With smooth movements, the marksman popped the rifle's hatch open again and ejected the drained crystal.
The redscale arrived before the spent crystal even hit the ground. It attempted to crush the wooden cart with its body, but was surprised to find a barely-visible barrier in place around the cart. Quickly discovering the existence of the barrier, the beast gathered all its strength and thrashed against the barrier with its tail.
The barrier held, but the sound of impact was much worse than before. The barrier wouldn't hold for long.
The guardsman and blade caster were doing their best against the pair of greenscales, but they were just barely hanging on. They had no opportunity to help the others.
The redscale thrashed against the barrier again, a massive crack forming across its nearly invisible surface.
The marksman grabbed a second dark red crystal from his pouch. But before he could load it, the beast crashed through the barrier.
The barrier shattered like glass, but the pieces didn't fall to the ground. Instead, they were unaffected by gravity and flew off while disintegrating into particles of light.
The marksman used his thumb to slam another dark red crystal into his rifle's chamber and performed the necessary actions to fully load the weapon. The whole time, he was expecting the beast to crush the cart along with everyone beneath it. But by some miracle, the creature did no such thing, it simply stood there frozen in place beside the cart.
He didn't question it and chose to use that advantage before he lost the chance to save himself and the others. Once the rifle was ready, he rolled out from under the cart and aimed the rifle while lying on his back. It was an incredibly awkward position to shoot from, but it was a last-ditch act of desperation.
Even in that position, he was still proficient with his weapon. He instantly aimed and fired, not giving the creature any more of a chance than he had already given it. Another crimson bolt surged from the rifle and pierced through the soft flesh on the underside of the redscale's jaw. The few scales there were torn apart by the red electricity and a smoking, charred hole appeared before the beast's head jerked upward.
It remained standing for a moment, but soon fell to the ground, dead.
A question would have formed in the marksman's mind then, but the guardsman and blade caster were still fighting the two greenscales. He didn't allow himself any time to think. After all, two of his allies were still fighting. Rolling to his feet, the marksman ran off to help eliminate the two remaining threats.
The marksman was an observant man, but in the danger and chaos, he had failed to notice something important.
As the redscale's body collapsed, its claws slid off the chest of the demon. Where claw met metal, there was a small cloud of black, smoky fog which only lingered for a moment. Once the contact between the two was broken, the black mist dissipated.
[Unique lizardman variant defeated!]
[Contribution: 23%]
[XP +326]