After taking care of the wounded, Inpar, Feidi, and Stella gathered to discuss their next moves.

Feidi started the conversation while examining her spear.

"I followed the trail of the lizards that escaped, and they led to one of the caves at the bottom of the cliff, and as luck would have it, it's exactly the one we haven't checked yet."

Satisfied, that her spear wouldn't snap during the next engagement, she turned her gaze towards Stella and Inpar.

"I suggest we and a few hunters go to that cave, smoke them out, and put an end to them once and for all."

Inpar and Stella exchanged glances before nodding their heads.

"Alright let's gather twenty hunters and leave the rest here to take care of the camp. We can make an encirclement around the cave entrance."

Half an hour later, the three siblings and twenty hunters were surrounding a cave entrance.

From outside, peering into the darkness one couldn't see whether or not it was inhabited, but as Feidi had previously noticed, there were fresh trail marks and drops of blood leading to the cave entrance.

They dug out a shallow pit and gathered timber to feed a fire.

Once the fire was once more burning in full force, Stella began blowing smoke into the cave.

The hunters formed a tight semi-circle around the entrance. Behind them stood the three siblings, with an assortment of fist- to head-sized rocks in a pile behind them.

The plan was for the hunters to stall the lizards, while the three siblings used their powers to hurl stones at them.

Soon after Stella started to direct the smoke into the cave, shrieks started to emanate from within.

The sound of scraping and claws scratching against rock followed afterward.

The source of the sound was quickly approaching the mouth of the cave.

"Brace yourselves!"

Shouting so, Inpar levitated half a dozen rocks, ready to strike.

Not a moment later, the first lizard emerged out of the cave at breakneck speeds.

It didn't make it far, as immediately after becoming visible, a stone twice the size of a fist slammed into its head, making a crunching thump reverberate.

The lizard died on the spot and the body collapsed, sliding forward, being carried by its momentum.

This lizard wasn't alone, as a second and third lizard emerged just as quickly after the first.

Stella, Inpar, and Feidi rained strikes upon them, but not all were as accurate and fatal as the first.

The fourth lizard that emerged was able to reach the spear line before being knocked to the ground by a head-sized rock.

A hunter was quick to plunge his spear into its head, ending its life on the spot.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh lizards shared similar fates, but the eighth crashed into the spear line, breaking the orderly ranks.

It thrashed around violently, tackling one hunter and swiping at another with its tail.

Soon, more lizards emerged and crashed into the line.

The hunters, having lost their coordination devolved into smaller groups, each tackling one of the lizards that emerged.

Feidi screamed at them to remain in line, but it was no use.

"Inpar, you help the hunter. Stella, come with me to block off the entrance."

Saying so, she launched another rock at a lizard about to gouge out a hunter's stomach with its claws, hitting it in the leg, making it stumble and miss.

She gripped her spear and floated above the battlefield toward the cave entrance.

Stella was hot on her heels.

Feidi slammed down on a lizard about to exit the cave mouth and drove her spear deep into the skull of the lizard.

She peered into the cave and saw half a dozen lizards still coming.

Thankfully, it seemed like two of these six were children, as their size didn't match up to that of the adults.

With a feral grin, she used her powers to lift one of the smaller lizards and hurled it at an adult lizard.

The lizard that got hit stumbled but soon carried on charging.

One of the closer adult lizards snapped at her with its sharp fangs.

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Feidi used some loose rocks and debris to form a proactive shield in front of her.

The lizard slammed into this shield losing all momentum, but shattered the shield in the process.

Feidi then used her power to launch it backward, giving her some breathing room.

One of the small lizards had climbed onto the cave roof and propelled itself towards Feidi, using gravity to aid its descent.

Stella, who was behind Feidi, launched a fist-sized rock at the lizard, striking it squarely in the abdomen.

The lizard crashed into the ground in a daze.

Two other adult lizards surged simultaneously, one from one side and the other from the other.

Feidi used her power to quickly move herself backward, while Stella took the short time needed, to grasp both lizards with her powers.

She then swung them around, by holding them by their tails and flailing them from side to side.

She managed to hit one of the small ones and an adult lizard, but the other small lizard which had been struck by the fist-sized rock managed to crawl between the improvised maces and lunged toward Feidi's legs.

She stabbed towards the lizard using her spear, but the lizard abruptly moved its body, dodging the strike.

It then whipped its tail, catching Feidi below her knee, and pulling the legs out from under her.

Feidi fell hard onto her back and grunted, as the air was driven out of her chest.

The lizard was about to rip out her throat when Stella released the poor, and dazed lizards, and instead gripped the small lizard with her powers.

She then launched it into the ceiling, making it emit a high-pitched yelp as the sound of crunching bones reverberated within the cave.

Feidi quickly propped herself back up, as a few lizards were still remaining.

Two of the adults and the remaining small lizards were still able to fight.

All at once, the three lizards surged forward in one coordinated desperate move.

Feidi jumped and with the aid of her powers, flew just out of reach of the lizards over and behind them.

She completed her somersault and landed on her feet.

Stella had used this opportunity, while the lizards were distracted, to throw her spear and with her power, strike forcefully and deep into the shoulder of one of the large lizards.

This lizard stumbled and collapsed as its leg was unable to support it.

It shrieked in pain and anger.

The remaining two lizards whipped around, the older one facing Feidi, while the younger one faced Stella, with the wounded one in the middle.

The small lizard launched itself at Stella, but Feidi couldn't see what was happening, as she was busy with her lizard.

It swiped its claws at her, making Feidi move to the side to narrowly escape its claws.

The lizard, as if expecting this, pulled through with its strike, using its momentum to whip around and strike at Feidi with its tail.

Feidi quickly raised her spear vertically to block the blow.

With a crack, the shaft snapped in half, only hindering the massive tail somewhat.

The strike connected, and Feidi was once more launched backward and winded.

She stumbled but remained standing.

She dropped the spear and raised both hands, lifting the lizard that was about to lunge at her.

The lizard pushed itself off the ground, but found no purchase, as it now found itself at Feidi's mercy floating in the air, and it appeared that on this day, Feidi had no mercy left.

She lifted the top half of her broken spear and with the help of her powers, launched it into the eyesocket of the lizard, ending its screeching and flailing abruptly.

Feidi collapsed exhausted in the cave and leaned against the cool wall. She looked outside and saw that the fighting outside had since finished.

Stella and Inpar seemed equally exhausted and were currently resting on the ground.

A few of the hunters were now walking between the collapsed lizards and finishing off all those that were immobile but not dead.

Seeing that nothing required her immediate attention, Feidi closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

Inpar had made the discovery, that contained within the air was a certain type of energy.

He had also discovered, that by breathing and focusing on this energy, one could extract it to recover their powers faster.

Unbeknownst to them, this energy was the power of creation that God siphoned out of Minsol during the creation thereof.

This power of creation bonded with the surrounding air molecules and led to the creation of semi-real air particles.

These would similar to divine cells passively create energy from nothing, some being stored in the surrounding atmosphere and some being directed to and absorbed by God.

God had experimented with using this method, to create more energy generation, but had discovered, that divine cells housed within living beings to be more efficient.

So now, there was a certain special molecule found within the atmosphere that ability users could harvest, to hasten their recovery.

Feidi was now cycling the air in her lungs and focusing her attention inward to detect these energy-abundant particles and to siphon out the energy hidden within.

The outside world faded from her consciousness, as she slowly regained her strength.

Suddenly her tranquility was broken by some excited shouting.

"Hey come check this out! There seem to be some eggs leftover."

Curiosity took hold of Feidi as she opened her eyes and rose from her seat.

She looked in the direction from where the noise came and saw a group of hunters crowded around a clutch of large eggs.

These eggs had a similar color and texture as the surrounding stone but were clearly out of place due to their unusual roundness.

She approached the head-sized eggs and crouched before them.

"Do you think we could boil them?"

She poked one of the eggs and felt the weight of it.

"What do you mean boil? We should try to raise them."

Inpar crouched next to her while giving his opinion.

An intrigued and curious grin was plastered across his face.

"Raise them? I don't get what you mean. Only human children can be raised. Everything else is either food or wants us to be food."

The last of the siblings joined the conversation, as Stella crouched next to the other two siblings.

Inpar shook his head while snorting loudly.

"Think about it. We can plant plants and raise them for our purposes. Why not do the same with animals? Here we have a few eggs to experiment on. We wait till they hatch and then we raise them."

Feidi tilted her head while imagining lizards being harvested from plants.

"I suppose we can give it a try?" was all Feidi had to say to that image.

Stella contemplated Inpars words for a bit longer before shrugging as well.

"Well I don't see how a wild beast could stop being wild, but I also don't see how it could go wrong."

Inpar was quick to silence any doubt.

"A wild beast will behave because it will think we are its parents. Think of it this way. To a wild beast, what is a parent? Well of course it's the other beast that feeds it while it's young. So if we feed it while it's young, it'll think we are its parents. Simple as."

The two women didn't seem to share Inpar's enthusiasm but nonetheless said some supportive words.

"Well if anyone will figure it out, I'm sure it will be you."

Saying so, Feidi stood up and once more examined the state of her surroundings.

None of the hunters were killed, but there were a few light injuries, fortunately, nothing major.

The hunters were currently busy moving all the carcasses, which would then be processed as smoked meat, to be saved for winter.

She looked around the cave and found nothing noteworthy.

However, there was still something that bothered her.

Why would a group of lizards attack a human party as big as theirs?

Were they desperately hungry, or were they merely territorial?