During my stay in the Lizardfolk village, I lived in the empty hut, the room rather sparse when compared to the things I had gotten used to.

My sleep during the first night was blissful though, if we ignore the fact the image of my parents being slowly disintegrated that somehow resurfaced in my dreams, and when I awoke from them bathed in cold sweat at point four am, I was ready to start my day.

Is getting used to horrible nightmares a smart move? Probably not, but I am not known for the intelligence of my actions, and when there was one thing I had gotten good at in this life, it was adapting to horrible things and not question why they happen. I wasn’t jaded, but I had to hide so many things from the world, adding my pain to it was just natural.

After reviewing my dreams and trying to find some type of hidden messages, I simply concluded that the dead wanted me to get revenge, something I would have done anyway.

Like every morning, I left my hut after half an hour of contemplation and dressing myself, when I usually headed towards my teacher, I now approached the hut I knew to be Pale’s, cold steel pressing against my neck as I was about to knock.

As a counter, speed steal and flare were used on my aggressor, which created an opportunity to get away from my attacker and face her directly.

“I wondered how long it would take for you to return, and I have to say, I am kind of disappointed it took half a year, sorry for your dead family, friends and everything though, loosing everyone sounds bad.”

I couldn’t suppress a wry grin at her nonchalant attitude, her body having changed a little since our last encounter. Her eyes had grown a darker shade, while her scales seemed almost ethereal in the ascending sunlight.

“Yeah, what kind of power did you get, during that last mutation? Mine made it, so I only need to suck out blood and brains.”

Her smile grew toothy as I explained this to her, before her shadow separated from her and jumped at me.

“This one, and it's much more powerful than I initially suspected. Every time a fight is somewhat of a draw, this one turns the tides, which is even better if they don’t suspect me.”

“I kind of joined the spear troop, which probably means training starts early, so I got to go.”

It was my goodbye to her, which she nodded at and went in another direction.

“One last thing, body exercise is hard for me and probably impossible for you, just try to grasp that wisp of power you feel whenever you are moving.”

Of course, I nodded at that, but it would inevitably take some time until I understood what she meant.

At 5 am, I reached the training place, with everyone else approaching around the same time.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

I copied their movement, quickly noting I had to account for other things as well. They had tails, thus their stances were much different to my own. It was no problem for me to lift a spear four times my length, though moving it properly was a difficulty because of said size difference.

Over the next week, I was brought from weapon training to weapon training, until I finally found a weapon I could wield.

My weapon of choice ended up being the battle pick.

Battle picks are the weirdly disabled brother of the ax, a stick topped with the sharpened teeth of some monstrosity, with the inner part of the pick sharpened, so I could do back cuts with it.

Pick training was different from the formation based spear training or the precision focused sword training, relying on driving the tip into my opponent until the shaft was mostly horizontal, and then pulling.

Training dummies were shredded as the heavy weapon cleaved through them, the other two people learning this technique were hulking at three meters.

I worked with the same weapon, just a lot smaller, and yet it was as devastating to the pieces of wood and straw as theirs.

It was a wonderful time, the next year entirely focused on this raw physical training from five am, where I talked with Pale, to ten in the evenings, where we met with the rest of the tribe to eat.

New years here was wonderful, everyone wearing bright colors and flashing lights, with the next week being one of celebration, which meant we were not supposed to train.

Pale and I had discussed our quest many times before agreeing on this week, meeting at four am on the new years first day, our absence approved by the elders as Pale led me towards the sky kings roost.

She had spent the last year mapping its behavior patterns, and thus we knew when to arrive. It took a single day of mindless walking to reach the large hill it had nested on. The climb was simple, and we quickly coated its entire roost in a sticky substance she had brewed, her talent for alchemy awakening when she had earned the assassin class.

As it returned that day, I quickly cast speed steal, force projectile and the gather rune at once, while my companion managed to land a cut with her poisoned blade, not quite passing through the hide, but enough to make it uncomfortable. Its retaliation was a wave of noxious gas that didn’t show an effect on my undying form, with pale sitting atop its back and trying to land hit after hit on it, which ended only as the beast used its long neck to bite her did she use her ability to turn ghostly, safely landing on the ground when I cast fester on it, before both of us ran off.

This had been the most crucial day of our hunt, and as we ran into a small cavern using our escape abilities, spending the evening laughing before both of us went to sleep.

The second day would be one of observation, and thus we observed as the majestic creature landed in its roost once more, the poisoned area now mostly free of hair, with my fester spell creating a single pimple that finally burst that evening, barely creating enough puss to spread it.

It did not suspect a thing, and thus we proceeded with our plans.

Day three was the final fight against it, and thus we climbed it in its sleep that night and brought our weapons down on its neck, my battle pick splintering once it got even a bit inside as Pale attacked the place her venom had taken effect.

Our enemy awoke startled and took off as it realized what was happening, the broken bone now stuck in its neck probably quite uncomfortable, especially as I put every bit of incestuous spells I had on it. We wounded it heavily before Pale dismounted, and that was when it finally decided to actually eat me, and not just bite at me.

The jaws closed in around my upper body faster than I could react, and as they clamped shut and separated my legs.

It was suffering that my trait could not repair because I didn’t have enough body mass to simply restore legs, and thus the second part of our plan started mostly on instinct.

I felt my tongue lash out as it swallowed, my arms holding on to its mouth as I searched for the small gap I was looking for.

My tongue traveled up in its mouth, going past its nose and barely reaching my target when both of us started digesting.

I lost a lot of mass every second, but restored it almost as quickly.

The remaining half hour was a struggle to devour the other, until I actually felt my tongue hitting its brain, from where the fight quickly ended.

When I woke up again, Pale stood beside me, holding the jaw open as I crawled out on the fourth day, my own body quickly regenerating.

Then, I felt it flow within me, something acting similar to the energy that traveled when I moved my body to attack, and as we made our path home, it became more and more obvious that it was absolutely everywhere in my body.

During our hunt, I finally noticed what many called stamina, the life force that allowed for the supernatural speed at which many fighters swung weapons.

Our return was valiant once more, and this time, both of us felt the call of death when we finally fell asleep after three days of constant walking.