"Don't let it look at you for long."

He warned me too late, and a red beam emerged from the strange creature's eye. It was most of the monster's body itself, and only missed me by a hair's breadth. Whatever these beholders were, they weren't friendly towards us. Hakim knew about them, but the name beholder for me, as the commander of the Twelve Champions, said nothing. And my men cleared a few dungeons.

"You are lucky I'm with you." The bard said strumming his lute, and disappeared. I didn't turn invisible this time, and the eye-monster's gaze remained on me. Before another beam appeared, its head burst, stabbed by the human's dagger. "They can't hurt what they can't see, and while they are pretty dangerous, they are as squishy as they look. I'm wondering where they came from though."

I wondered about that myself, but more appeared from the ground. All fixated on me, and none looked like a lizardman we expected to camp here. This is why I had trust issues.

"And you were so sure about detecting the domi-whatever stones. If I didn't land to check the area, and you told the Demon Lord you found the lizards, we both get executed." I complained while trying to hide behind a tree trunk. It didn't matter, those things burned right through it, and one of them even sent a lightning bolt my way.

Being adamant about scouting the forest didn't serve me best after all.

"I was trying to find the dungeon cores. I didn't expect to find an actual dungeon instead." Hakim whispered, his voice echoing, while he dispatched one monster after the other. "I never thought I'd see them outside of ancient bestiaries either, but here I am, killing beholders like a pro."

He wasn't exaggerating, littering the ground with burst eyeballs before any of them could land a hit on me. Once they stopped digging through the forest floor and the bard reappeared, I counted a dozen. He was out of breath but a huge grin occupied his face, his dagger dripping eye fluid and blood.

"And they say beholders are dangerous. Boy, I'm glad they weren't lizardmen shamans though, or we'd never make it out alive." He claimed, wiping his blade clean on the grass. I examined the corpses without exposing myself, and they were out of this world for sure.

"Considering how confident you were that we found them... You seem proud to be wrong," I noted, poking one of the tentacles with my dagger as well. Static electricity ran through the blade, pinching my hand a little, but not enough to cause harm. "So what were these again?"

"Beholders? Don't tell me you never heard about them." Hakim raised an eyebrow, but more creatures crawled out from the holes before he could talk. They appeared different this time. I saw feathers and a humanoid face, recognizing them from earlier reports.

"Come on, harpies too?" I asked, rushing back behind the cover. These half-bird half-woman creatures carried short swords, talons razor sharp, striking from above. "We must retreat before more comes."

I said that, but we were already surrounded. Their shrieks almost burst my eardrums before they could reach me with those swords. Hakim didn't throw himself at them this time or turn invisible either.

"This is bad news, their hearing and sense of smell is better than beholders, I can't sneak up on them like that." He held up his arms as if surrendering. He couldn't hope to reach them anyway, while they flew over our heads. "Hey guys, do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I doubt they came to negotiate," I noted, right before the first beast dove on me to attack. It missed, but the monster grasped my trusty buckler, lifting me after the failed strike.

I still had my other hand free, or rather, grabbing the dagger, and I sliced at its legs before it could take me too far. It wasn't enough to kill it, but it dropped me and fell back onto the soft ground.

The autumn leaves covering it saved me from getting hurt, but I was open to more attacks. The next harpy almost reached me, but an arrow poked through its chest, and it slammed into the ground by my side.

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I didn't recall Hakim carrying a bow though. I stabbed the beast to ensure it stayed down, rolling into cover in hopes of finding the archer with my only eye. I could only see more arrows coming though.

From all directions, they either took down or chased away most of the beasts so I couldn't complain. But the arrows were too fancy for our orcs, let alone the lizardmen. Hakim's hands remained in the air, and I wondered when he noticed the third party's appearance.

"Look what we got there. We came to look for lizardmen, and we found beasts and some wanderers instead." I heard a voice, a human appearing in front of me wearing gold-plated armor. I almost answered him before the bard waved me off, and dropped his hands.

"What a coincidence, we were also looking for stray lizards with my son here. But these creatures attacked us," Hakim claimed, and I couldn't believe my ears. Me? His son? Who did he think he could fool with such a blatant lie? Then I looked at my hands, which were green no more. "I'm very thankful for your actions, you saved us both."

"That's why the Nordhaben Royal Company exists. To protect humanity from the monsters." The stranger boasted, coming closer to us. He wore an open helmet, with purple hair peeking out, his short beard halfway between gray and black.

"Nordhaben? You came quite far then." Hakim noted. Their border was at least two hundred miles from here. If they went towards the old capital, then the Cyreneian Pass where all my misfortune started. The knight nodded and rolled his eyes.

"Special orders. These pests approached Sanctuary and the Church ordered us to trace them back." He said, or complained, it was hard to tell. "We put them under control."

The Princess had similar eyes and the same hair color, and his face reminded me of her. Only the Crantan royal bloodline had such a unique recognizance. He smiled at me, patting my head, confusing the hell out of me. Hakim was faster on the uptake than I gave him credit for. I must have looked like his human child to them, but I was oblivious to how they behaved.

"Thank you, good sirs, I was so scared." I didn't know how convincing my voice would sound, but the bard thought about this too. Soon a dozen armored knights surrounded us, looking for monsters that might appear. The ones we took care of didn't raise questions.

The first knight grinned, patting my head again. The Royal Company must have been quite optimistic if this was his entire force. But if the Elder controlled the lizards as we thought, this token force was enough to confuse the humans.

"So I take it you haven't found lizards nearby?" The man asked, paying no more attention to me. I wondered what the bard planned.

"No, I thought they would camp out here because our animals disappeared. I heard reports of them around. But once we entered the woods, these strange creatures appeared," Hakim explained. He reached for a handshake. "I'm Hakim, I live in a nearby village, and this is my son, Dio. Is there a way I could repay you for saving us?"

"Don't sweat it, man. I'm Stern, Captain of the Royal Company." The purple-haired man introduced himself, and the gears in my head started turning. "I didn't know humans still lived this far south."

"It's a mixed bag of a village, we share it with a few beastmen, and all kinds of refugees." The bard explained, but I no longer followed their discussion. The Royal Company, royal blood, if he came from Nordhaben, he must have known the Elder. The woman, who gave false intel to the Demon Lord, and decimated my Champions.

This was an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the enemy. But how do I convey this to the bard in the middle of the enemy formation? He hit it off with the captain immediately. Before I knew it, they escorted us across the forest, the opposite way we came from.

At least they didn't stumble upon our wyvern and led us to their camp. Complete with tents and a few dozen horses, only a few remained to examine the monsters in the forest. I hoped they wouldn't ask how the bard eliminated all those beholders before they came to our rescue.

"So what is the news up north? I haven't seen people from there for a while, and rumors had it, Nordhaben has already fallen." Hakim interrogated the enemy commander, his tone casual. "My wife wanted to seek refuge there too. But once the Lesser Races took over everything, we wouldn't dare to go with the mixed rumors we heard."

"Oh, Sanctuary is very much standing," Stern claimed. He removed his helmet and threw the scabbard inside his tent before sitting by the campfire. "There was some leadership change within the Church, but everything is in order. My men make sure that none of those pesky monsters can threaten the people over there. But why are you afraid of the Lesser Races if you already live in their village?"

"They're all different." The bard lied like it was second nature. "I am quite fond of the beastmen, especially the beast girls if you know what I mean. But I found the thought of orc hordes invading us on some kind of Demon Lord's orders quite scary."

"So they are on the move now?" The knight asked, and I imagined Fang complaining about us giving away vital info to the enemy. "Might be high time to pull back then."

"All we heard are rumors." I tried to save the situation, hoping it wouldn't be out of place for a child. Then I had a genius idea. "But it's better safe than sorry. My mother already passed in a lizardman raid but would you please take us back to that Sanctuary with you?"

"My thoughts are with you, young one. We suffered some losses too, but that means we can spare a few horses. So I say, why not?"