The end of the month was drawing ever closer, and Basil was trying to distract himself from his meeting with Anaya the Black. He was confident that he had more than enough to satiate her newly acquired sweet tooth, but as the date grew closer, so did his anxiety. Still, he tried his best to keep himself calm and distracted until then. Today was his day off, and he casually sat behind his counter and wrote inside a notepad in his empty bakery. As he sat there, head in the clouds as he mindlessly wrote, he didn't notice when his door opened and someone walked in. His attention was grabbed when the person, annoyed by not getting recognized, threw a wooden spoon at his head.
Even though it didn't hurt, he still said ouch and rubbed his head. Looking down, he saw Teto's irritated face, where he said, "Oh, there you are, Teto. Where have you been?"
The Kenku retorted by giving him a different irritated look, and Basil said, "I know I know. You don't have to be attached to my leg all the time. You have your own interests. I'm just curious."
The little bird then ran behind the counter, on top of it, and motioned to the notepad Basil was writing on, to which he explained, "What am I doing? I'm just making future plans. I want to be self-sufficient one day and to do that I'll need a bunch of stuff.", Teto tilted his head. Basil explained in more detail, "Actual fields of crops, barns, coops, stables, orchards. All kinds of things."
Basil got excited with everything he said as he listed off each one, a smile growing bigger and bigger on his face until it dropped with a heavy sigh as he lamented, "My only problem is building this stuff and getting the materials."
Teto gave a thinking expression and got the man's attention while motioning outside to one of the crop plots. Looking out, he saw one of the Small Torahs working hard at removing weeds. Basil understood what he was suggesting, gasped, and gave him a flick on the beak while scolding, "Teto, that's a horrible idea! I will not make the Small Torah do that kind of work! They have enough trouble carrying their favorite food, forget tools and wooden logs."
After rubbing his beak, he motions a few hand gestures, which Basil immediately understands. With a sigh, he agrees, "Yeah yeah, I know I gotta figure something out with the dragon. But it'll get taken care of…someday. It's just future plans.", he moves to the kitchen and walks out the back door where he looks over his seemingly endless stretch of land and lamented once again, "I'll just need an absolutely massive workforce to do it. Which I'm sure I can pull outta my ass.", Basil joked to the bird who blows a playful raspberry at his bad joke while giving him a thumbs down.
Suddenly, Teto's sense of danger flared up, and he turned his head towards the town, his feathers raised with his growing anxiety. Noticing this, Basil also turned his attention to where the town was and saw smoke gently floating in the distance with the warning bell again being rung!
"Ash End? Somethings happening!", Basil exclaimed while calling for Broomy. Teto made some gestures, and without looking at the bird, Basil knew what he was saying and replied, "If it is the dragon, we're all screwed! I just hope it isn't."
Jumping onto Broomy with Teto, he shouted Abra and took off to town as fast as the wind! Once they were over the town, they saw how a few houses were up in flames while people ran around in fear! Carts and stalls had been destroyed or wholly knocked over as many fast-moving green objects bolted back and forth and all around the town! Basil couldn't keep track of them but remembered something: he could! When training his magic, he unlocked a skill that would allow him to mix and match specific skills together to make new ones. He would play around with this skill in his free time and create a few new and valuable skills.
By mixing Clairvoyance and Appraisal, he got HindSight, which allowed him to anticipate an enemy's new action. When he mixed Eagle Eye and Clairvoyance, he got Far Sight, which granted him telescopic vision and the ability to see through things. By mixing Appraisal and Eagle Eye, he got something called Tracker, which apparently allowed him to put an invisible mark on an opponent and always know where they were. Finally, by mixing all three, he got a skill called Thought Acceleration, allowing his brain to process information at top speed while also perceiving the world much slower.
So he activated Thought Acceleration and saw the chaos slow down from the air. Looking around, he spotted one of the green things and observed how it looked like a lizard. A massive one! A lizard the size of a man! He didn't know much about animals or reptiles, so he couldn't even begin to guess what kind of lizard it was.
It was like it was made of several different kinds but with a human posture. They had sharp teeth and claws, long tails, and scales that ranged in various shades of green, with a pale underbelly and head crests. This was his only indicator between the males and females since they all looked the same. Females had shorter crests that were dull orange or yellow, while males had much larger bright red crests. They wore simple leather cloth or scraps of clothing crudely sewn together as armor, even though they likely didn't need clothing. For weapons, they held spears, shields, or something resembling a crude sword.
Cocking his eyebrow, he asked while activating Appraisal, "What are those things?"
The window popped up, and it read:
Lizard Men- large bipedal intelligent reptiles who live in marshlands, swamps, and bogs. Said to be distantly related to dragons, they usually stay away from other intelligent settlements unless provoked, forcefully moved, or desperate. They live a life and mindset entirely devoted to survival and nothing else.
Blinking at the window and the large lizards scampering about, Basil stated, "Lizard Men!? That's new. They must have come from the nearby swamp, but why?"
Basil felt something pull his hair and turned back to see Teto making motions at the town. Understanding, Basil told him, "Right right, I'll figure that out later. For now, I gotta stop them."
Looking at a Lizard Man who stopped its pillaging to stand atop a pile of crates while making a whooping sound, he used his appraisal to see what it was made of. The window read;
Lizard Men's Soldier- 20 Strength, 56 Stamina, 33 Health, 1 Charisma, 32 Fortitude, 0 Knowledge, 0 Magic, and 49 Speed.
Thinking this over, he thought aloud, "So they're fast and bulky but not very smart. Maybe I can scare them off with a display of raw power.", he asked this while turning to the bird, who nodded in agreement.
So, with that in mind, he raced down on Broomy to a covered wagon and stood on top of it, Broomy and Teto beside him, as he yelled with his newly mixed skill, Force of Influence, "Hey! Reptiles!"
The skill did its job, grabbing the attention of every last lizard man in the town, all their eyes on him as they came out of hiding spots around buildings, where Basil threatened, "Leave Ash End alone or face the full concentrated power of the sun!"
With those words spoken, Basil thrust his hand into the air and cast a spell known as Light of Destruction! Seeing the enormous spirit-looking orb hovering above the young man's hand, the lizard men froze up, took a collective gasp, and dropped their weapons. Thinking he had put the fear of God into them, Basil smiled at seeing his plan work until they did something he hadn't expected.
A lizard man covered in greasy colored clothes that covered him like a bed sheet pointed towards the young man and proclaimed in a voice of broken English, or whatever the native universal language of this world was called, "It's him! The Dark Spot of the Sun!"
Hearing this decree, the lizard men came out from all corners of the town, flooding the area where Basil was standing, where they all proceeded to drop to their knees and began to chant something while repeatedly bowing.
Basil looked at this sight, completely dumbfounded, and could only muster to say, "Uhhhhhh…what?"
As this happened, the townsfolk began to come out of their hiding spots or noticed that the town wasn't flooded with Lizard Men ransacking everything in sight. So, out of curiosity, they began investigating what was happening, hoping the monsters had been scared away. When they saw the lizard men bowing and worshiping Basil at the town center, they were understandably surprised and uncertain by the sight.
Once again, Basil was approached by the mayor, who asked him, "Basil? How…what did you do?"
"I…think I accidentally made a cult?", Basil answered with equal uncertainty.
But before their conversation could progress any further, a fast-moving object raced through town and jumped atop the covered wagon Basil was standing on and being worshiped, where none other than Marigold stood defiantly before the monsters and proclaimed while brandishing her rapier, "Foul creatures from the pits! Your days of pillaging are numbered! For I, Marigold Pomfret, have come to-."
But Basil cut off her heroic rant when he softly said, "Uh, Marigold?"
Stopping her proclamation to turn to the man, her face shifted from severe to happy as she casually said, "Oh, hi Basil."
"Look, it's her!", the Lizard Man covered in the cloth proclaimed, causing all the others to look up and gasp at the sight of her.
Marigold turned back to the lizards and asked, "You know me?"
"It's the Golden Spot within the Moon!", one of the lizard men proclaimed.
"The prophecy is nigh!", another shouted.
Struck by confusion before the monsters, Marigold turned to Basil and asked, gesturing with her sword, "Basil, what are these yahoos blabbering about?"
Basil placed his hands together before placing his chin between the crook of his thumbs and index fingers and said carefully, "This is just a guess, but I think they see us as some sort of gods."
"Gods?", was all Marigold could mouth before her mind went blank, and she stared off into space.
"Oh great Spot of the Sun, show us your power once more!", the lizard man covered in the clothes pleaded with him.
So, seeing no reason to disagree, he activated his Light of Destruction spell again, holding it above his head as all the Lizardmen revealed in its light and warmth.
"Praise be to the Dark Spot in the Sun!", the lizard man in cloth proclaimed.
"Praise be!", all the others proclaimed altogether before continuing their worship.
So, deciding that enough was enough, Basil points to the Lizard Man covered in cloth, using his appraisal to see he was called a shaman, and asking, "You there, the one covered in cloth, um, the Shamen. What are you talking about? Dark Spot of the Sun, Golden Spot of the Moon, what does that mean?"
The Shaman stopped his worship, looked up at Basil with what looked like confusion on its emotionless face, and prompted, "Are you testing me, my lord?"
Biting down on his tongue, Basil eventually answered in a not-so-convincing tone, "...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?"
Luckily, it must've worked, or the lizards were just dumb cause he answered, "You are what was foretold in our prophecy. That the Dark Spot of the Sun would one day come down from the heavens and guide all of the Araknital."
"Araknital?", Basil questions.
"I think that's what Lizard Men call themselves.", Marigold tells him.
"But I'm not a Lizard Man.", he suddenly blurts out, internally kicking himself for saying it, as he knew it could cause them to riot.
Fortunately, the shaman assured him when he informed the man, "The prophecy never said what form you'll take. Only that you would come and we would know you when we saw you. And now that your bride, the Golden Spot of the Moon, has also revealed herself, the prophecy is nearly complete!", he exclaimed while pointing to Marigold.
"Bride!?", Basil exclaimed in shock, a bright red blush filling his face.
"Who? Me?!", the woman questioned while pointing to herself, making the lizard nod. Only for her to shake her head and try to dissuade, "I think you got it all wrong. You see, me and Basil here-."
"Hold it, Marigold! Let's not rain on their parade.", Basil suddenly shouted before pulling her away and whispering.
"What? Why? Are we just supposed to lie and say we are their gods? I already have enough unwanted attention as the daughter of a wealthy merchant. I don't need fake deification.", Marigold whispered back in an aggravated tone.
Motioning to the sea of monster lizards, Basil told her, "Look how many there are. If we tell them we aren't their gods and fight them now, we may end up making them go into a rage."
"We can take them!", Marigold tried to hype themselves up.
Basil gave her a look of disbelief as he asked again in a firm tone, "Are you sure?"
Looking back at the vast swarm and knowing that she was adequately the only one with any sort of fighting experience, she sighs and begrudgingly agrees, "Okay, fine. We'll do it your way. Unless you really want me to be your bride?", she pokes fun at him, causing Basil to blush and ignore her as he addresses the lizards.
"Okay, listen up, Lizard Men! Your God has words for you.", All the lizard men stopped their admiration as they clung to every word he spoke. Seeing this, Basil had to repress his laughter since they all looked like children looking up at an adult. "I am very displeased with you!", he stared with as much enthusiasm as he could to make himself sound as angry as possible in a wholly forced way.
This caused a unison of gasps from the monsters as the shaman begged, "But why!? Whatever we did, we shall make it up to you! Show mercy to your servants!"
All the other Lizard men began to grovel with him, so Basil silenced them before saying, "I have come to like this human settlement and do not want you attacking it any further."
"We will not raid this monkey home anymore, oh Spot of the Sun.", the Shaman promised.
Basil nods at this and inquires while trying to keep his sham of Godhood going, "Good. This pleases me. Now tell me why you are here."
"We were driven out of our home.", the Shaman tells Basil, cautiously approaching.
Basil raised an eyebrow at the army of Lizard men that numbered well over a hundred and asked, "By what? What force possibly caused such a large and strong group to flee from your swamp?"
"The slimy scaleless ones and their mountain of green longness!", one of the Lizard Man Warriors exclaimed in terror as the others covered their faces in fear or dropped to the ground as if to hide.
Seeing that panic would soon break out, Basil loudly professed, "I, the Dark Spot of the Sun, shall aid you in reclaiming your homes from these…invaders."
Hearing this proclamation, the lizard men all began to cheer and hoot with glee! After saying this, Marigold grabbed his shoulder and asked him in a low tone, "Basil, do you have any idea what you're getting into?"
"Not even a little.", he admitted.
Marigold sighs at his answer before stating firmly, "Then I'm going with you!"
Basil also sighs at her reaction and asks, "And I guess I can't talk you out of it?", the woman shakes her head, and Basil affirms, "Thought so."
So, with that agreement between them, Basil and Marigold set off to recruit more people to help their cause. Not knowing what they were going up against, thanks to the Lizard Men's lack of description, they only knew that they needed more help. So Marigold announced to the people, prompting anyone willing to help fight this unknown foe so the Lizard Men could return home. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, no one wanted to assist, and everyone ran away or hid.
Basil offered to try it his way, placing a sympathetic hand on the woman's shoulder. So Marigold, Teto, Broomy, the Lizard Men, and Basil returned to his home where he recruited Meyon, Teto and Broomy, any Bugbears willing to fight, and Bow. Who has taken residency on his land? He even summoned Gossamer and the fairy triplets to help.
Last of all, Hagson arrived to see the horde of different creatures all grouped together. With no amount of convincing, Hagson also agreed to join in the upcoming battle. Then the Small Torah offered to fight, seeing and hearing what was going on, all brandishing different gardening tools, but Basil firmly disagreed with their request since they would be little more than cannon fodder.
With their army at the ready, Basil took the lead with the Lizard Man Shaman, who guided them back to the swamp where their unknown enemies lay in wait. Hopefully, things will go well for them. Basil hoped for that, but little did he know what would come.