*SCRYYYYYYYYYY* Suddenly all of the lizard-men stood and faced us.
The lizards began charging us almost immediately.
Not charging us, however, they're swimming towards us quickly.
This is bad, our movements are restricted and if I cast any spells they'll just submerge themselves.
This is a bad match for me unless we draw them out.
As I nearly lost myself in thought, something wrapped around my waist, it was a branch. I could sense Kayden's mana flowing through it as it pulled me to one of the trees.
I didn't realize it but Kayden had already activated one of his spells. Lucky his encatation was fast enough as I saw the Lizard-men rise up from where I was once standing.
Kayden was standing on the other branch beside me.
"Shit, that was clos-" Before I could finish my sentence, something hit the branch just a few inches away from my feet.
It started melting instantly, as if it was some sort of acid.
"What the fuck was that?!" Kayden said before we both looked at the yellow Lizard-man with saliva dripping from its mouth.
"Wait, the quest only talked about greenish-red lizards. Why is there a yellow lizard? That must've been the one who shot acid." I said as I saw the acid emit smoke as it fell onto the water's surface.
"It's our damn luck, I shouldn't have picked a swamp quest-" Kayden said as he dodged a ball of acid.
I won't blame him, after all I agreed to this one as well.
"I'll fire some spells at them to roll them up enough to follow us but we're gonna need to travel from tree to tree. Can you handle that?" I asked as my grimoire started to flow in front of me.
"I can warp the tree branches to bend in a certain direction but it'll take some time for me to get each branch." Kayden explained.
"Just get the ones in your path, I'll follow behind you." I said as three balls of fire, the size of my hand floated above my head.
It was just as I expected, once I tried to attack the Lizard-men with the fireballs, they submerged themselves under the water. However, the fireballs didn't extinguish once they hit the water, instead I felt the mana disperse quickly.
Just as Kayden completed his spell, the branch bent towards another tree which formed a bridge-like path. I leapt towards the branch he was once standing on and started following him.
While doing so, I created more fireballs to lure the Lizard-men. At the same time they tried obstructing our movement by spitting round balls of either a slimy substance or acid.
I've been watching them each as Kayden and I have been getting away, it seems that the yellow Lizard can spit acid from its mouth. I'm not sure if the greenish red Lizard-men have the same ability but they're only spitting out that slimy substance.
They've been keeping up with us exceptionally well too even though we're in the tree lines.
Additionally, they can easily swim in shallow water despite having longer arms and legs than us. As we move further inland it seems that they are slowly transitioning to running on feet though barely.
As monsters these might be one of the creepiest ones I've faced. They keep their eyes on us no matter what, it's like they could see through the trees. Well granted, we are going in one direction-
Just as I lost focus, the yellow Lizard-man seemed to have calculated where I was going to step and shot his acid just in front.
In other words, I missed my step because of a perfectly timed shot.
"Airon!" Kayden yelled as he tried to catch me.
He was too late, luckily the water didn't seem too deep now. Unfortunately this means I have to brace myself ever more for the fall.
I pull out the sword from my hip and immediately stab it into the tree, slowing down my descent slightly. However the Lizard-men didn't wait for me to reach them and quickly started shooting out acid and that slimy substance.
I, myself, was able to barely dodge their attacks by putting my feet on the tree and pushing forcibly to remove my sword while sending my body across the water.
Unfavorably my legs was touched by the slime while a large hole was melted into the tree where I once was.
I flew into the tree, aggressively knocking the air out of my lungs by slamming my back into the trunk. The lizard-men quickly rushed me, at the moment I didn't have any stamina to even move as I tried to catch my breath.
Luckily just as they were swinging their claws down at me, Kayden's spell activated and a branch wrapped around my waist to pull me away from the crowd.
*Gassp* I was able to catch my breath at the last minute. I surely would've died if it wasn't for Kayden.
As I thought of how lucky I must've been, the yellow lizard-man shot a ball of acid at the branch. Melting through it completely, causing me to drop and roll as I roughly crashed into the ground.
"Shit…" I let out as I stood up, the Lizard-men still charged after me like a horde of zombies, they couldn't mask their intent to devour me even if they tried.
Luckily I didn't lose grip of my sword during that ordeal, on top of that it seems that I was completely out of the water. Still the soil was mushy, any heavy movement then my foot will undoubtedly cave in.
I can't help it, I'll just need to draw them in.
I'm able to enhance the blade with flame magic a few times before it completely melts on me.
So as the first Lizard-man approached me to attack, I took the first initiative and applied mana to my blade. Taking the idea from Drole's daggers, it should release a strong pressure upon impact and explode.
I aimed for the Lizard's neck and successfully upon impact, it exploded. Leaving the first lizard-man with its head mangled and up to its shoulders burnt.
However I don't think my blade could survive another attack like that, cracks are appearing all over the blade although it doesn't seem deep. It'll definitely shatter the next time.
I quickly dodge the Lizard-men barrage of attacks, their claws graze me ever so slightly. Leaving scratches that easily heal but I can't continue like this, I enchant the flame tornado and quickly back away from them. Shockingly, as the flames dispersed, there were no damages done to the Lizard-men.
They withstood it unscathed. Only a few singe patches were visible. I won't have enough time to activate the speed enhancement spell, among all of my spells, that remains the longest to enchant.
Suddenly as I looked at the group of Lizard-men, I realized yellow isn't among them. How long has it been since the yellow one disappeared?
As I thought of that a wall of entwined twigs rose from the soil.
"Keep running, This won't hold them for long!" Kayden shouted from the tree.
Yes! This gives me enough time to activate the enhancement spell- there it is.
The yellow lizard-man climbed the trees and was rushing, Kayden. Kayden hasn't realized this yet but he's still running forward, this is bad. Kayden isn't fast enough and the yellow lizard is catching up quickly.
I start running to catch up with Kayden instead of activating the spell.
As I did, the lizard also wasn't too far behind. Just a few branches away.
"Watch out! Behind you!" I yelled at him.
Luckily enough, he heard me and turned. Kayden noticed the Lizard-man charging from behind. He swiftly chanted his spells which made branches grow from the side of the tree in front of the Yellow Lizard-man.
However he jumped into the head of a tree and disappeared into the leaves.
"Benedic me flammis ustis per tempus, Mater Flamma" I stopped for a minute to chant the spell. Miniature wings made of compact flames formed at my ankles.
This monster in particular is smarter than its group. It's also acting separately from the main group, purposefully targeting Kayden instead of me who is on the ground.
He must recognize Kayden as the one who can do this terrain. Meaning, he's more of a priority than I am.
Unfortunately he's above the tree lines so I can't see him, which also means he could drop a surprise attack on Kayden any minute now.
The group of lizard-men are dangerous but that single Yellow one is cunning, although Kayden is watching his back. Anything could happen.
Can I deal with these Lizard-men fast enough to catch up with him? I've made quite a distance from the main group, I can try to intercept the Yellow one from here-
*Greunch!* The wood wall which held the lizard-men back finally broke and my head quickly turned to them.
Just as I did, the rustling of the leaves started to sound from the head of the tree above Kayden.
That's all it took for the Yellow Lizard-man to reveal himself as he dropped down in front of Kayden.
As it dropped, the lizard-man swung its claws down but it quickly changed its stance to protect its side as Kayden unexpectedly casted a spell to grow a spike from the side of the tree in front of him.
Shooting straight into the Yellow Lizard-man but it broke as it landed on its scales, only piercing through its hand before breaking the branch itself and jumped from the tree.
It landed in front of me, pulling the broken piece of branch from its hand. "Those fucking idiots are useless."
It spoke. The Yellow Lizard-man spoke.