Their attacks struck the lizard simultaneously releasing a powerful explosion that clouded parts of the beast.
Loud shrills emanated from the cloud of smoke and as it cleared, the Basilisk beat down its tail on the mountain, large boulders pulled out of the black rocky surface and hovered around it. It sent the boulders forward at Tiagon and the Crimson feathers.
The massive boulders cast their large shadows on the C-rank adventurers about to hit them when Tiagon swooped in with teleportation, he had already avoided the attacks against him.
He grabbed all three of them and they all disappeared from the spot.
The monster grunted slowly looking back and forth for its assailers.
They suddenly appeared above it, all of them unaffected.
It roared again, frustration and rage present in its face. A barrage of rocks flew once again, this time they were much smaller and with just a shield in front of them, the attack was abated.
Tiagon zoomed past the group and down forward, it was time to end this.
The Basilisk itself was no stupid creature, it understood what Tiagon intended and scurried back crouching in defense.
Tiagon zoomed at a speed the team couldn't pick, they had only managed to see a blur and they felt a powerful force pass through them.
He closed in on the monster, just a few inches away. His fist clenched tightly,not only that, there was black-purple flame burning on it, Tiagon's hand, just his hand had reverted into that of his first form momentarily.
The Basilisk saw his approach and lashed at him with its mouth open wanting to devour him. His hand dug into its mouth and struck its upper cleft, its mouth busted and broke. The force of the punch pushed it back violently against the surface creating a dent and a black-purple flame erupted from it.
It wailed, beating its tail down as the dark flames consumed it.
"What happened?" Said Elda.
She looked below at Tiagon hovering over the beast who now was in flames but she didn't know how.
"Dark flames, what magic is that?" Rink commented.
The Basilisk cried and cried until it could no more, its body crumbled into ashes and was swept away by the wind.
"Woohooo!" Elda yelled and flew at Tiagon.
"You're awesome! Just how did you kill it and the way you moved so fast, you didn't say that you could. Were you holding back in the beginning or was time needed to execute the spell!" Elda said excitedly with a pitched voice.
Tom and Rink zoomed at him too, admiration present in their eyes.
"You're so awesome Clyde."
"One day I'll be an A-rank adventurer like you, I'll definitely try my best."
Tiagon couldn't reply to them, he just scratched his head and smiled in response.
"Oh!" Elda screamed.
"Its body! We could have sold its parts for good money, but we can't do that now. Why did you have to destroy all of its body? And what spell was that?" She continued.
The realization dawned on Tiagon, he hadn't thought of it. He just wanted to test his strength on challenges that might shake him. The Basilisk's blood and meat would have fetched quite the price and he suddenly felt like an idiot for not factoring all that in.
****
About two hours later at the adventurer's guild in Minastoma.
Tiagon was on a seat with the Crimson Feathers sitting next to him, he had come in earlier and claimed that the Basilisk had been defeated, the guild's receptionist hadn't expected that it would happen so soon, his eyes almost bulged out and he broke out of his stoic persona.
A couple of magic knights were sent to scout if it was true, normally they would look for its corpse but Tiagon had informed that it burned to nothing so they would have to look around the spot to see if they wouldn't be attacked and it would certainly take a while.
The Crimson Feathers too were waiting for the guild's verdict, Tiagon had said that he was going to give them a gold for participating and not dying.
Rink simply took up a grimoire and studied, Tom was dozing and Elda who sat beside Tiagon was red and hadn't moved from her spot since neither had she said anything. Tiagon simply stared blankly forward.
With his mind idle, he began to reminisce.
'Redifex… the little one. Their lifespan isn't as high as mine.'
When the thought surfaced, his blank countenance changed, he looked sad albeit mildly but Elda who had nothing to do took notice of this.
"Clyde."
Tiagon didn't answer, he heard but he had forgotten that his name was also Clyde, at least his new body's.
"Clyde." She called again.
"Huh?"
"Is everything okay?"
"Ah yes, just need to have the magic knights come back and you all will receive a gold coin from me."
"Not that, you look…" she paused and forced herself to look into his blue eyes.
"You look sad."
"I do? That's interesting, I thought I had broken the shackles of emotions long ago."
Elda simply continued to look at his face.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No, there isn't!" She quickly rebutted and turned away.
About an hour later, the magic knights that had gone came back and went to the receptionist.
They informed him of the absence of the Basilisk and Tiagon was called forward.
The receptionist passed forward gold coins that had a plain drawing of what looked to be a royal family, although Tiagon was certain they weren't. They just were...
'Too plain, too normal looking. There's no way this is the family that rules the empire, they have to be more eccentric-looking.'
He placed two coins in his pocket and walked down to the team, he stretched forward a gold coin to Elda, her face brimmed and she took it.
"Thank you Clyde."
"You deserve it, I probably would have died if it wasn't for you guys."
They all smiled, an A-rank adventurer just praised them.
"There should be a tavern around, why don't we treat ourselves to drinks?"