Was I being irrational by starting a fight with the larger enemy group? Could I start an international incident by killing foreign adventurers? Maybe, but I find it hard to focus on the consequences over the rage within my heart. I simply can not leave what is on top of the temple, I simply can not leave the bandit that got away, I simply can not let them let me leave.
Paladin: “You damn monster, do you truly believe that you can win, look around you and tell me if you should really be disobeying your demon masters commands.”
Colbert: “Well I guess that I am the most gaudy member of this group, so me having the horned lizard be a part of my slave retinue is not that far fetched. Although I am far from being weak to the point that I can not defend myself, I would suggest that you keep that in mind when your speaking down on me.”
Paladin: “Tch, you really think we will just give away someone that you tortured.”
Colbert: “I did no such thing.”
Paladin: “Stop playing with words you fiend, I will fry you in the holy light.”
Colbert: “Oh no, I am pretty sure that the statement you just made is rather empty, would you like to try again?”
The paladin looks back in blatant disregard of the opponents he is facing, exchanging looks with the druid, bandit and scholar. The perfect opportunity to kill him, before Sofia can even order me to stop I lunge at the paladin.
Sofia: “Sto…”
Before anyone can stop me I lunge past Allelu and onto the paladins back, a metallic clang happens when the paladin falls over with me on top of him. His armour protects him well from generic attacks but my clawed hands aim at his armpits, where there is some leather but that is it. The neck would have been a bad place to aim due to chain mail coming from his helmet and under the chest plate.
My right hand slices into the Paladins right armpit and the fall rattles his brain, however his disorientation does not shock the rest of the party who move in to capitalise on me being and on the ground.
A short sword stabs into my back while I weigh down the paladin, however this does little to my tough scales. However a mace to the right shoulder sends me tumbling off the paladin to the left, the hit was on my bicep and causes the entire arm to spasm while I flip onto my back and stand up to face what I have wrought. Allelu faces off against a male and female short sword user, while Sofia is under an assault from the enemy druid with thorns which she avoids by turning her staff into a wooden wall. Colbert has his slaves fighting the dwarf while he engages in melee with the enemy scholar.
Facing the threat before me I have little time to ponder the matchups and duck into a four legged stance as a mace cuts through the air where my head had just been, with an overextended foot the zealot has little time to react when my tail whips around and strikes her back foots knee. My tail makes a whip lashing sound as the tip hits hard against the loose clothing, breaking skin and possibly dislocating the joint entirely, unfortunately I soon get a snout full of steel when the buckler is shoved into my snout.
I move my eyes at the swordsman and have a sword shoved into my neck, the pain is unbearable and I fall backwards thrashing around, my claws scrape at the ground as my tail whips at thin air. The pain does not subside for a while as I spin and roll on the ground while being incapable of moving my arms against the pain, it hurts so much that I can not think of the battle that I am in, these actions manage to keep the swordsman without a weapon away for some time until he picks up a second mace from zealot who is incapable of standing up and moving to me.
Failing to see an opportunity to reach me without being tripped up the swordsman has to move around in a circle as he tries not to get clawed or whipped. Eventually he does find an opening at the head and proceeds to step forward and lean down, delivering a strong back to Zutals head between his front and back horns.
The pain in the neck gets momentarily dulled, as a blow between my horns forces me to get some semblance of control from the fact that the pain comes from both places I focus my eyes directly ahead of myself and see a black leather boot. At the moment I do not care to whom it may belong and simply flail with my hands and legs forward in a single motion while opening my maw, once the foot is in my maw I close it shut with enough force to crunch bone which prompts a scream so loud that the clashing of swords around me ceases.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
*Aeiaaaa!
Instead of standing up I follow the Alligator/Crocodile text book of what to do with food in your mouth and proceed to roll. Using my full body including my tail to roll anticlockwise creates a loud tearing sound with the scent of blood spraying directly in to my nose, the foot in my mouth comes off from the owner extremely easily before being eaten by me as I roll my head back and swallow what I managed to rip off into my gullet in a single attempt.
Falling over onto his back the soldier lacks survival instincts as his hand drops the mace and both hands go towards the stump of his ankle, my twist was able to remove his entire foot from the joint at the ankle and now the man was bleeding profusely from the joint. As blood thirsty as I was currently I decided to stand up and see what was happening around myself, since the delicious revenge and my lizard instincts got me used to the severe pain coming from my throat, right shoulder and my head.
Not seeing doubles just yet I saw how everyone else was faring against these enemies. The dwarf had cut the human slave down to size, the delimbed human was crawling away from the dwarf while the goblin stood but was missing his right arm in a shell shocked look. The dwarf had his axe partially embedded in the left side of the goblins chest, with an arm on the ground. Moving on the paladin had also stood up and was single handily wielding his sword while walking up to me, using a body length sword with a single hand must not be very efficient especially if his right hand was his dominant hand.
Colbert was holding the scholar by the neck, his eyes glowing red as the man in his grasp was held limply and was quickly losing colour in his skin, most likely having his soul sucked away. Sofia was not doing too well as she had a few thorns in her shoulder right and left shoulder, while moving around and trying to not let the enemy druid get around her wall or to get a shot at someone else in our party. Allelu seemed to have been attacked by the enemy druid with a few thorns in her back but still standing strong in front of the winded looking swordsmen, who had dents in the bucklers and their arms lay limply at their sides after most likely having to block a two handed swing from the knight.
Looking at my next opponent with blood pouring over his right hand armour I could quickly tell that the paladin was far from being alright, with my stab to the armpit having hit something more vital than simply a muscle causing the paladin to be on a time limit.
However when I approached him I was quickly greeted by his sword, with his single hand moving the sword at me like a fly swatter. This reckless strategy of flailing the sword about was very effective against me with my scales being softened around my legs and arms resulting in any slashing attack easily hurting me severely, I had to wait for an opening rather than recklessly attacking. The man was not letting up though and I was now just in front of the footless soldier, bumping into him with my feet gave me a plan.
Spinning quickly to face him I grabbed his shoulders and spun back around, using the momentum and my hold on his shoulders to throw him like a canon ball while he was in a foetal position and clutching his foot. The sword of the paladin hit the guy in his back, even if it did not cut in deep the blood loss from the foot and the new cut would most likely kill him.
However I cared little for such a thing as I quickly took note of my surroundings, seeing that the dwarf was now running after Colbert who was not able to shoot back at the surprising fast little guy was rather amusing. Zealot was back on her feet although limping towards Sofia who was looking even worse, a thorn in her throat made me feel a sense of imminent dread in my body, meanwhile Allelu had managed to cleave one of the swordsmen in half and the other had a strained look on his face.
Thinking quickly I grabbed at the sword in my neck, knowing that I should probably not remove stuck objects as it would only increase bleeding be damned I decided to save Sofia. I was only expecting for the sword to hit the human druid and distract her, however when I pulled my hand back behind my head, aimed at centre of mass, and threw with full force the sword was sent spinning. The sword did not get stuck in the druid, however it did hit her chest so hard that a loud crack could be heard from where I was standing 20 metres (66 foot) away. The druid fell back with the sword bouncing off from her leaving Sofia with a moment of respite before I had to turn at the now standing paladin.
He did not look all too pleased by my actions, although I was not really asking the snarky man since by this point I proved my point that numbers does not necessarily mean a guaranteed victory, especially if the enemy has a 2.5 metre (8 feet) tall wall of muscle and keratin. Dropping low I picked up the mace, however before I could think of throwing it at the paladin I saw in the corner of my vision Colbert lying on the ground, dwarf walking up with an axe over his head.
Deciding not to let our employer die I begun the throwing ritual, hand behind my head with the mace while aiming at centre of mass. The angry paladin could care less as I threw the mace, this time it hit the target head on, however a mace has no sharp points so it just hit the chainmail hard and sent the dwarf face first into the cold stone floor. Colberts fast reflexes were able to save his legs as they opened up to let the overhead axe dig into the stone between them.
However I now had to deal with the paladin with nothing to throw.
Paladin: “You just had to get in our way you insolent lizard, I will purge all of your kind in the name of Astraea along with the rest of your filth.”
Zutal: “A mere human dares to threaten me, I will eat your brains raw while I use your femur as a teething stick.”
*Aaahhh *Aaahhh