The being stood around two meters tall, its head brushing the top of the entrance, but it was clearly larger considering it was walking in a constant slump.
Its head was that of a Komodo Dragon, long and lizardlike, but its build was massive, bulky, reminding him of a massive saltwater crocodile, the kind of beast that acted as the big bad of a horror movie.
Long arms hung down to its knees, overly muscled to the point where it was practically obscene, tipped with long claws that came out favorably in comparison to steak knives.
As the beast looked around, a forked yellow tongue flicked in and out of its mouth. Yeesh, that thing looked terrifying.
Thomas felt a soft “clink” as Elias landed on his core, and began to “whisper” to him.
No, not whisper, that involved talking, he was speaking straight into his mind, why hadn’t he done that before? Then again, maybe he’d been doing that the whole time, which explained how Thomas had always been able to hear him.
Urgh, it was situations like this that Thomas wished he’d still had arms so he could slap himself to snap himself out of it. The situation was freaky as fuck, but also so, so interesting, but if he kept focussing on the magical aspect of this situation, he’d get himself killed in incredibly short order.
“Basically, you can’t summon new stuff in rooms with enemies inside. Kill the invader, and you’ll be able to summon a lot more monsters and create defenses. But you need to hurry once you’ve killed the invader.
“That’s a Dire Lizardman, high F-Rank, nasty infectious bite, venom on the claws … you’d better hope ‘lard bucket’ over there is as good as you think.”
Thomas filed away the actually useful information for use in combat, ignored the jab, and focussed on giving the hippo orders.
An infectious bite, envenomated claws … all very, very nasty, but in the end, neither of those worked rapidly. If the hippo could kill the lizard, it wouldn’t really matter what happened to it afterward. Not really.
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Upon seeing the hippo advance, the lizard raised its hands defensively for a moment and took a few steps back, only for a shiver to move through the beast as it seemed to steel itself for combat.
It crouched down into a strange martial arts pose, arms spreading low and wide, ready for claws to be thrust into the hippo’s throat. It might have made sense as a mid-combat move, crouching down and erupting forward into a strike, but not as an initial pose to strike and shuffle forward in.
It looked weird, and prententuous, and Elias scoffed at the whole affair, but it might work. Might.
The hippo charged, picking up speed at a rate that would be alarming for anyone standing before it, which apparently included the lizard person, which went greener than it already was and threw itself to the side.
So the three-ton Dungeon monster missed and careened into the wall behind the lizard, leaving a sizeable crater. Claws flashed and slashed, carving deep groves into the hippo’s back, the wounds glistening an uncomfortable shade of green.
Well, crap. Elias had said these things were venomous, but seeing it in action wasn’t sobering.
However, the hippopotamus wasn’t out of the fight just yet. Badly, potentially fatally, poisoned it might be, most of the cuts had been on its hindquarters and not gotten far through the immensely thick skin.
It whirled, headbutting the lizardman in the chest with enough force to knock it on its ass, then closed the distance and closed its jaws around the invader’s chest with inexorable force. With a nauseating “crunch”, tusks tore through the outer layer of scales and penetrated ever deeper even as the lizard continued its attacks. Eyes, throat, the approximate position of tendons and vital blood vessels … even without venom, that hippo was not long for this world.
Even so, it was the lizard who died first, chest crushed into paste, sending a strange kind of energy towards Thomas. He absorbed it without really thinking about it, feeling himself grow to an infinitesimal degree.
“So, up next we’re going to have to …” Elias began, but Thomas cut him off.
“Here’s what we’re going to do: I’m going to build up some proper defenses for this place, and you’re going to keep your trap shut unless I do something really stupid, and even if you interrupt, you’re just going to explain exactly what the issue is.
“And then, you’re going to explain how powers work in this crazy world. What the Ranks actually mean, if and how people can grow in power, what I need to prepare for, and everything else I need to know. Only then.”
Elias looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but then paused and smashed his left fist against his chest over where Thomas assumed his heart was. Probably a salute of some kind.