It spoke… I've met other monsters who can speak before but after these past quest it was rare that they spoke the human language.
Kayden is too far to hear it but it can speak. Which means it can also think logically, so it was purposefully targeting Kayden.
"That sword." It pointed to me. "It's going to break with the next attack." I noticed?!
Nevertheless, even if it is true, it isn't my only weapon.
"You better hit the right target." Suddenly the sounds of multiple footsteps as if there was a marching band behind me could be heard.
The main group of Lizard-men were just at the distance of two trees, hopefully I can deal with the yellow before they arrive.
So I charge him, he shouldn't even be able to dodge with my enhanced speed. To make the damage sticks, I will enhance my blade one more time.
He dodged.
He dodged my attack?!
I quickly disabled the enhancement on my blade as it tipped the ground, just as I did, a sharp pain suddenly appeared as something caved into the right side of my body.
It was a punch, strong, unbelievably so. I could hear my ribs cracking and without even thinking, I subconsciously chanted the healing spell.
The side of my body was quickly engulfed in green flames, healing my broken ribs quickly.
The Yellow Lizard tried to follow up on its attack with an axe kick, aimed right for my head. However I was pulled away at the last second by a branch.
I balanced my feet before ripping away from the branch. I've gotten used to my enhanced speed but that's probably why I've gotten slower. I rushed the Yellow Lizard, filling my sword with even more mana than before, I'm compacting the mana in the blade to deal much more explosive damage.
Yellow Lizard is tracking me, I could see its pupils following my movement even the slightest ones I make.
Certainly I should be able to go faster. Is it more mana I need to pour into it? Hotter flames?
It's telegraphing my movements, can I add the speed enhancements to my arms as well?
That seems to be better, if I'm understanding it than maybe I could do that for now.
Just before I could do that though, I've already caught up to it so I swing my blade downwards on its head.
It dodged my attack just by a few inches only allowing my blade to hit the floor letting out an explosion larger than before. My blade crumbled and sent shrapnels of the broken blade flying haphazardly.
I didn't have time to react to the sharp pieces of the broken blade as it flew and cut parts of my face, barely missing my left eye by an inch, cutting my lower eyelid.
As the smoke from the explosion dissipated, the Yellow Lizard has disappeared into the now caught up group of Greenish-red Lizard-men.
Ignoring the cuts near my eyes and on my body, I quickly pulled out the flame enchanted daggers and backed away from the main group.
Suddenly spears of wood shot from the trees and pierced through multiple lizard-men, giving me enough time to concentrate on adding the speed enhancement to my arms.
Seemingly as I collected and compacted the mana into my arms (from the tip of my fingers to my shoulder) I felt something similar to a lock in the enhancement spell in my grimoire open.
Small wings started forming at my elbows, the same appearance as the ones on my ankles. The wings are partially formed, concentrating on keeping these up all at once is like cooking two different meals and writing an essay the same.
Luckily, it seems that the speed enhancement spell now permanently applies to both my arms and legs so maybe if I cancel, than I can reactivate the spell and the wings appear on both my arms and -
In the middle of my thought a loud sound, as if a hammer was slammed onto iron was heard. A large shadow overcasted my body and the main group of Lizard-men.
Then someone landed beside me. It was the Yellow Lizard-man, its arms were crossed as if it was recently blocking an attack.
Reactively I looked to the sky and saw a large stone pillar which was instantly formed into hundreds or thousands of arrows aiming down at the main group and Yellow Lizard, unfortunately I was caught in the fire.
The amount of area the arrows covered seemed to span on for another mile and covered the entire road. Before I noticed the arrows were shot down and I had nowhere to run.
Just before I could realize a large dome of entwined branches was formed around me, Kayden erected a shield to protect me.
Like hail raining down on a window, I could hear the arrows shooting down and breaking the branches repeatedly but the dome quickly regenerated.
There were small gaps in the dome, I could see the Yellow Lizard, deflecting and breaking the arrows to protect himself but the main group of Lizard-men stood no chance as they fell to the endless onslaught of arrows.
Once the barrage ended, Kayden's spell deactivated and Yellow Lizard-man quickly pushed away.
I kept my eye on the Yellow Lizard-man but I heard footsteps approaching from my right quickly. As I looked at them, it was a group of 3 adventurers, the arrows immediately disintegrated.
"I told you there were other adventurers, you shouldn't have used such a broad attack." Adventurer1 said as he carried a large hammer, similar to Drole, although he had a much smaller figure.
"It's fine, he seems to be good. Nonetheless it seems there's only one adventurer." Adventurer2 said, I could tell that she was the one who activated the spell. The mana emitted from the arrows are coming from her as well. She carried a staff like Pultra, perhaps she is a magic combatant only.
"No, I sense another adventurer in this area. It seems we stole their quest." Adventurer3 said with a piece of cloth covering his eyes. He carried a
Bo staff, earth magic seems to be his specialty from his mana, there's something else as well.
As I tried to analyze the group of adventurers, the mark on my hand started glowing, I can't figure out why.
It didn't do this when I met Kayden… no, I probably didn't notice it at that time. His mark was bright, similar to how mine is now.
If that's the case then one of them are contestants, is it a teammate or an opponent.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Adventurer1 suddenly shouted.
"Shut up, their both enemies." Adventurer2 said as large thorns of wood formed above her head. I could see a purple mark glowing beneath her shirt.
Simultaneously as she fired the thorns towards me, the Yellow Lizard-man charged from my right.
I can't speak with Kayden from this distance, hopefully his mark is also glowing. Weighing my priorities, it seems that I would rather deal with the contestant.
With that thought, I rush the Adventurers. Specifically I head straight for the girl with the staff while dodging the wood thorns.
Even with their disagreement, it seems the man with the blindfold will still fight against me as well, he picked his bo staff up and slammed the bottom of it on the floor.
He seems to be following my movements- no, my footsteps but his incantations are too slow to attack me.
Suddenly branches shoot out from the trees and wrap around the arms of the adventurers. The girl destroyed the branches aiming for her with spinning blades.
However, just as she destroyed them, I swung the daggers down at her. Thinking I would be able to finish her with these attacks was a mistake.
Just a millisecond before my blades touched her skin, she created an iron armor which wrapped the entirety of her skin. The impact of the blades which released a surge of flames only pushed her back while my hands recoiled from the attack.
Just as she was pushed away the man with the warhammer already broke free from Kayden's restraint and attacked with a powerful attack covered in a hardened soil, making the hammer's head a large spike.
Before it could hit a small tree grew from the ground and swallowed the man's hammer as well as his hand. Simultaneously a large stump was heard behind so I immediately turned to it and was met with the Yellow Lizard-man.
Its claws were flying at me quickly, however in the blink of an eye, a spear shot from one of the trees and pierced right through the Yellow Lizard-man's head, dragging its body to the tree on the other side of the road.
"LOOKOUT!" Kayden's voice ringed out from the tree above me to right, I immediately looked right to where the girl was pushed to.
Once I looked at her, there was a large iron gauntlet flying towards me. I crossed my arms on my chest to block but it didn't do as much as I would have thought, since the Radial and Ulna bones in both my arms broke upon impact with the iron gauntlet.
I chanted the healing spell quickly so I wouldn't feel the pain. The gauntlet disintegrated as I flew into the body of the large wooden spear.
I would've lost consciousness if not for the healing spell.
Kayden's spell casting definitely got faster in this exchange which is good but this woman, I can't figure out what type of magic she used… well, granted I don't know many affinities, but I do know Earth, Nature, wind, as well as the others Pultra have.
Despite using two different elements, I only sense one type of affinity in her mana.
Still this doesn't feel as dangerous as facing the monster on the back of the Colossal Earth Guardian… I feel my heart beating faster, but this is far from fear.
Would it be crazy to say that I'm starting to enjoy it?
This battle I mean.
I'm definitely losing my mind.