I grabbed the lizard by his neck, pulling him into my fist twice then pushing the beast back. Adrenaline dulled the sting of impact, the blood dripping down my knuckles was more my own than the lizards.

Lumia pulled herself free then lunged at the lizards who tried to take her. Deftly, she plunged her claws through both the side of each lizardman’s head, killing the beasts instantly.

The creature I was battling turned to flee, but I lifted it with telekinesis. Holding the lizard was significantly more difficult than holding the bandits had been. I wasn’t able to exert full control and the beast thrashed around, kicking at the air. Unable to maintain the magic any longer, I slammed the beast down on the ground. The beast broke free of my grip and scurried back towards the water.

Just as the creature reached the waters edge, a ragged elf, covered in muck, pounced on the creature’s back. With a dagger in hand, he twisted his arm around its neck then pulled. The lizard hissed a painful shriek as purple blood spilled from its neck.

The creature collapsed on the ground and the boy rolled over, flopping on his back. “This is fucking hell.” He gasped between heavy breaths.

“You barely did anything, Ray!” A girl said from behind a destroyed cart.

The boy sprang up, shouting, “I killed it, didn’t you see?”

The girl, also covered in muck, stepped out and extended a hand to help Ray back to his feet. “I saw.”

Ray knocked her hand away then stood on his own. The two seemed in good spirits, all things considered. At least, they hadn’t lost hope yet.

“Let’s go Silv, there are still more who need our help.” Lumia said placing a hand on my back. She was determined, but tired; using so much magic drained her greatly.

leaping over the wrecked cart, we followed the road scanning for survivors and beasts. There were bodies scattered everywhere. Some died fighting, others drowned trying desperately to escape, but most lay dead either with a slit throat or a clean strike to their vitals. The lizards weren’t feeding and not a single corpse had been bitten, these lizardmen were killing us just for sport of it.

We found another survivor lying near the shoreline, half submerged in mud and weeds. "Are you alright?" Lumia asked bending low next to him.

The man was taking short shallow breaths and didn’t seem to be aware of us. No doubt exhausted from battle or fear, perhaps even shock. Whatever the case, he seemed to be in rough shape.

“Let’s get him out of the water.” I said to Lumia.

She nodded, grabbing one of his arms. I grabbed the other. We gave a gentle tug eliciting a scream from him.

The pain seemed to bring him back to reality, because darted, with panic, between Lumia and I.

“Hey, calm down,” I said.

At the same time, Lumia asked, “Are you okay?”

The man’s breathing slowed slightly, but he was clearly still distressed. Gasping between words he struggled to say, “My… my back…in…my back.”

“Okay, okay; stop talking,” I said, “save your energy.”

He nodded, squeezed his eyes shut for a long blink. Lumia and I exchanged a glance, both aware that we probably couldn’t help him. Her healing abilities were innate and only worked on herself. The healing magic I could use was only really useful for surface wounds.

“What should we do?” I asked, feeling somewhat helpless and desperate.

Lumia frowned, knitting her eyes and looking down at the man between us. He was already starting to slip away again. I didn’t know what specifically was wrong, but it seemed to me that our only options were wait for him to die or put him out of his misery.

I frowned deeply as I rolled him gently and found a twisted root hooked in his back. The root stuck out from under his ribs and was likely puncturing a lung. I knew immediately that the root came from one of the wagons; he likely got this injury when Lumia cleared the fog.

Quietly, almost silently, she whispered, “We knew there would be a few…” her words faded into silence as tears began to drip down her face.

Three reptilian heads rose above the water's surface. They continued to rise out of the water as they drew closer; behind them five more lizardmen rose up, then a larger reptilian head, adorned with horns, broke the surface behind them. The beast's head resembled that of an elder dragon and was roughly the size of a small house, which left me wondering how much more of him was beneath water. I also wondered how something so large could have been submerged in the swamp to begin with.

The giant beast cried out with a throaty warble, making direct eye contact with Lumia. I thought at first the creature aimed to threaten us off, but a muddled understanding of it's intent soon echoed in my mind. Whatever the beast said was still beyond my grasp; it spoke in draconic and even then, the words seemed unfamiliar to what I knew of the language.

Lumia stepped forward. "We are not trespassers, or an army. We did not know this territory was claimed and merely aim to pass through. We make for the north wood."

As Lumia explained our intentions, I felt a growing urge to strike the water with the strongest lightning magic I knew. These lizards didn't deserve the respect she showed them.

The monster responded with another guttural cry. Its tone changed suddenly from threatening to dismissive. His soldiers tensed, dropping into a combat stance. Like Lumia, they wore no armor and used only natural weapons. Murky water, tinged red with blood, dripped from their greenish-black scales and their attention gathered on Lumia.

"It's true," she insisted. "Many things have changed in the world since you came here. An army of—"

"Now this, is going to be interesting!"

My chest tightened and a tremor ran through my body. Sizal dropped out of the sky, landing between us and the lizards.

"I knew letting you go was the right move...but why did you abandon Illudrasile in Sunder? Surely you knew we'd go back there first."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I bit my cheek, trying hard to keep myself calm despite my anger. Our enemies seemed to be multiplying, our wagons were ruined, and Lumia was already exhausted.

Sizal looked across at Lumia. "You should've just left her. Liriel might've been kinder to her had he not needed to capture her twice."

He turned toward me next, smiling broadly. “You look different, more determined and sure.” His eyes narrowed slightly and he cocked his head slightly before adding, “I hope you’re taking good care of my cousin.”

My face twisted awkwardly as I reeled back in confusion. “Cousin? You don’t mean Melinda?”

His smile stretched wider, which I didn’t think was possible until I saw his ear to ear grin. “Obviously,” he affirmed.

The giant lizardman seemed annoyed throughout our exchange. Finally he snorted out a plume of white mist, then snapped Sizal right off the water.

“Run,” I said, grabbing Lumia. “We need to get away from here quickly.”

Lumia pulled herself free of me. “What about your people? Would you abandon those who still live?”

“What people Lu? Look at this wreck…” I gestured at the long trail of destroyed carts. “Even if there are survivors, how would we get them to safety?”

Lumia’s gaze dropped to her feet. She must have known that the outlook was bleak, but she didn’t want to give up. I felt her determination through our bond, she would fight to her last if necessary. I wasn’t so idealistic.

The big lizard head moaned, then jerked violently, storing the waters and slamming into the soldiers in front of him. His jaw split open as he seemed to gag several times, then a dark mass, covered in slime, shot from his throat.

The object passed between Lumia and I, crashing through a broken down wagon. It coughed twice then groaned, “Seriously, do all you reptiles go around chewing on people and spitting them out?” Sitting up, Sizal shook goop from his hands then wiped more of the fluid from his face.

Looking at my bond, I said, “This is hopeless. He’s basically invincible.”

Meeting my gaze, she replied, “I want to believe there’s still a way.”

At once, the lizardmen advanced. The massive lizardman pulled himself fully above the water’s surface. He was even larger than I imagined with a body like a mountain. Just one of his feet was already larger than me. Still, Lumia didn’t waiver.

Sizal stood, still strugling to rid himself of the thick fluids. “These were my favorite shoes, you fucking lizard,” he shouted as he stomped and shook. “Guess I’ll have to make some new ones from your hide.”

All at once, water formed into orbs around the lizardmen. Even those far from the conflict, every lizardman I saw was completely enveloped in an orb of water. Each orb raised into the sky, freezing solid and forming two long lines.

One after the other the frozen orbs shot forth, as if fired from a gun. Slamming into both of the gigantic lizard’s eyes, the orbs of ice shattered. Shards of ice rained down into the water and blood poured from the holes left behind. One eye fell away entirely leaving a gaping hole; the other had been crushed inward. With a roar, the reptilian monster fell to a knee.

His collapse shook the ground with a mighty rumble. Roaring again, the beast reached towards us.

I grabbed Lumia by the arm, trying desperately to pull her clear of danger. At the same time, I shot a bolt of lightning at the lizard's palm. The bolt flashed with blinding light, piercing through the creature’s thick scales. It yanked its hand back with another fierce roar.

"Oh, that's nice!" Sizal asserted. He was standing just beside me, though he was wearing only a pair of damp trousers. Shaking slime from his hair, he asked, "You're getting chummy with the deroni now aren't ya?"

I ignored him, instead focusing on Lumia. She pulled away from me again, this time rushing toward the gigantic lizardman. I grunted in frustration as I chased after her. With a series of deft leaps, she quickly scaled the creature. Standing on his shoulder, she shouted something in draconic. The massive creature seemed to take pause at her words. He stopped moving and closed his injured eyes for several moments as his head swayed slightly; it looked like he may have been thinking.

Sizal appeared at my side again, his hand raised towards the big lizard. “Don’t go to sleep now, you big bastard. This isn’t settled yet.” A black bean fired from the mage’s palm. It pierced all the way through the lizardman and continued on, seemingly infinitely. The beast touched the hole in his chest, then his arm dropped and his body swayed this way, then that.

“Accelerate!” Feeling mana spread through my body as the magic activated, I raced to get clear of the falling creature.

Lumia was still atop the beast’s shoulder, but her position was significantly safer than my own. My movement was slowed by the mucky swamp waters, even with accelerate I wasn’t sure I could get clear fast enough. My heart pounded as the creature’s shadow swallowed me. The end of his nose descended rapidly toward the shore and I still under his belly.

‘I should’ve gone left,’ I thought to myself. ‘If only I knew that lightning spell Amara used.’

As the Lizard’s body drew closer it was all but certain that I’d be crushed; my mind raced through every spell I knew, but I couldn’t think of one that would help me now.

"Silv!" Lumia shrieked.

Then the beast's shadow vanished. Instead of being crushed by an enormous lizard, an old man fell on my back. I fell into the mud not far from the shore. The man was undoubtedly related to the lizardmen, but he appeared more human than I was expecting. For his lizard features, there were only some patches of green scales, a tail, and his face was longer and flatter than that of a human.

Groaning, the man muttered draconian words I wouldn’t have understood if I heard them clearly. Then Lumia landed gracefully beside us in the water. “Are you okay, Silv?” she asked.

I nodded as I stood up unsteadily. "Yeah," I replied.

Sizal appeared beside me again. His sudden appearance startled me, but I didn’t let it show. “I'm done here for the day. Fighting you now seems like it would be boring, but next time I won’t have a choice. Hurry up and get stronger, boy. Tame that deroni and master it’s power."

“The what?”

“The being you draw power from. They’re called deroni, although the term demon is probably more familiar to you.” He handed me the cubic device he'd been playing with when I went to rescue Lila. "Take this, and next time, you better be strong enough to entertain me."

Before I could reply, the mage vanished completely. I couldn't even feel a trace of his mana. The lizardman disappeared with him. I breathed a sigh of relief with them gone. The fog was dissipating and any remaining lizardmen scurried off into the depths of the swap.

“The elves are saved,” Lumia said triumphantly.

“Yeah,” I grunted, “through no effort of our own.”

“Speak for yourself, I had a hand in dealing with the lizard king.” Lumia rolled her eyes then looked away from me.

Elves were gathering on the shoreline, all looking at us. Some were obviously injured, but none too seriously. As I looked between their faces, I noticed they all seemed hopeful. It was likely that few of them saw the fight. They wouldn’t know how useless I had been only that the enemies were gone and Lumia and I remained.

“They’ll probably laud us as heroes,” Lumia said quietly.

“Is that what you want?” I asked. “To be a hero?”

Lumia shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe a little.”

We walked toward them together until we reached the center of the small crowd. Speaking loudly I said, “Search through the carts. Find anything we can salvage, but more importantly search for more survivors.”

Like dutiful soldiers those with no or light injuries broke away immediately. Most began searching through the wrecked wagons, while several moved to help people recover weapons or armor. A couple of elves approached me asking questions, so I answered them quickly before returning to Lumia.

Seeing how the people trusted me, realizing they were depending on me as a sort of leader already, I felt guilt for my selfish behavior. Thinking back over there battle with a clear mind, I could have done more. I had been ready to abandon the elves at the first sign of trouble; had it not been for Lumia’s stubbornness, I would have.

Lumia must have been aware of my feelings, because she gave me a hug, kissed my cheek and whispered, “I’m glad you understand.”