Re Lizard

The Lazy Dragon: I like your ideas so I am going to do something like that with a little twist to make it up as I go along.

"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Berserk, god, demon or massive being talking"

"speech in an unknown language by Ling-Rou"

(Day 20)

'Hmm…' I opened my eyes in the dim lighted cave. Looking around, I blinked awake hearing movement with my echolocation ability 'who's that..?' My eyes widened then narrowed taking in a deep breath and roared 'Echoed Screech'. The roar bellowed throughout the cave waking everyone up. "Intruders" I yelled unsheathing my sword. 'Goblins and hobgoblins… 33 total' I blinked in shock as one of the hobgoblin threw a fireball, frying the hatchling that got hit to a crisp.

I turned back to the entrance where the hobgoblins were standing, the mage continually firing spell after spell, the single male hobgoblin had his arms crossed presumable guarding the exit while the other hobgoblin was… charging at me. "Damn… so close but I'll get you next time" the hobgoblin smirked as she tried to stab my head, I parried it in time but she did manage to cut my cheek..

'So, she is a quick striker type like me' I pushed her sword wide away and spun around smacking my tail against her side. Her grin remained even as she was pushed back and she leaped at me. Holding my sword horizontally, I successfully blocked the strike. 'This hobgoblin is faster than me but seems to be very light hitting'. I feinted striking with my sword, catching the hobgoblin off guard I clawed at her cutting into her shoulder.

"Hey guys! I could use a little help over here" she yelled out.

I licked the goblin blood from my claws not knowing what she yelled but I did have a good guess. I glanced around quickly 'these goblins are well trained, with their numbers they have managed to kill a couple of hatchlings but Zia and Rei look to be dealing with a lot of them… no they should be fine'. I turned back around too late as the male hobgoblin tackled my side with enough force to knock me to the ground. Rolling as I fell, I managed to return to my feet quickly. Luckily I did as both hobgoblins swung their swords against mine, using both of their strengths to overpower me. 'Shit' I felt myself being pushed back by their combined strength. 'I was hoping to avoid using some of these abilities in front of the other hatchlings in case they thought I was a monster among monsters'. I gritted my teeth as I managed to stop being pushed back then jumped back 'Harden Scales, Impenetrable, Sharp claws, Contamination, Pain Numbness, Undead Embodiment'.

The two hobgoblins looked between each other then back at me. My claws turned into knife like appendages while a dark purple mist covered my body, showing only my shadow and my eyes which turned blood red. The male hobgoblin ignored my new look at struck with his sword, lightly cutting my shoulder. My vision gone blurry after I changed but I clawed in the hobgoblins general direction, slicing his cheek just under his eye.

"Protect the boss" several goblins leaped at me.

"Urh" I groaned in pain.

"Ling-Rou, you are okay" Rei chirped kneeling above me. "I thought you were a goner after what you just did".

'Wait how did I get here, I was just fighting a minute ago but now I am lying down' I pushed myself up to a sitting position. 'Damn… that's painful, it's like I did hard exercise for six hours and waking up the next day' I looked down at myself to see my armour ripped in some places and my hands coated in dried blood. "Hey Rei, how did this happen?"

"You don't remember, you turned into a shady figure and started ripping goblins apart with your bare hands" Rei shivered. "It was so awesome… a bit scary but really awesome, their weapons barely scratched you as you went along on your rampage, you even took four fireballs directly against your chest before you began to slow down".

"Alright, I think I get you" I sweat dropped. 'I don't want to do that again, it could be really dangerous if I can't control it but if I never combined those abilities, I may have gotten seriously hurt, also did I eat some and gain abilities I wonder?' A cough caught my attention as Ling-Zia stared at me silently "Ling-Zia..? why are you just standing… woah". She grabbed my arm and pulled me up to my feet "what is it?" Zia dragged me to a different part of the cave "come on say something".

Zia turned her head "everyone is waiting". She stopped in front of a group of hatchlings then pushed me forward.

"What do you guys want?" I stood on edge. 'Are these guys going to say something about my berserk state? Are they afraid of me or want to get rid of me?'

A male hatchling stepped forward with a face as tense as the current atmosphere "Ling-Rou, myself and the others want to know something". I looked around to see the hatchlings were all anxious "will you teach us how to be strong like you are, you led Ling-Rei and Ling-Zia and all became strong". He kneeled down as the other hatchlings followed "we would have died in our sleep had it not been for you, you saved us despite not having to, please show us the way forward".

I looked round seeing all the hatchlings had their heads on the ground to plead. 'Um… what, surely they could've considered Zia or Rei, okay I get that Rei wasn't picked since she is the weakest of our trio'. Turning my head back to see Zia giving a thumbs up, I rolled my eyes 'up to me then'. I crossed my arms "so you want me to be the leader, that's nice but why me over the other two or Siokiya".

Another hatchling spoke up next, one of the strongest female hatchlings "not disrespecting those three but…" She looked up to stare right into my eyes "Ling-Rei is the weakest second evolution species here, Ling-Zia does have the power matching yours but doesn't seem like she would know what she is doing while leading". The hatchings eyes wondered to Siokiya "the guardian is only the guardian, she is old so… we are not sure if she can lead for much longer".

"Well unless anyone has a problem, I will be your leader from now on" I looked around counting the hatchlings. '16 hatchlings, 3 lizardmen and 1 dragonewt, so 20 in total living in this cave'. "I have a question for you guys, who can hunt horned rabbit?" I waited to see 13 hands rise. "Who can hunt night vipers?" 8 hands remained risen. "Has anyone gone past that?" everyone lowered their hands. "Okay the three hatchlings that haven't hunted the rabbits yet, you will stay behind… those that can hunt night vipers, I want you to hunt as many vipers, rabbits and large rats as you can and bring them back here… the rest of you I want you to gather sturdy branches, rocks, anything useful… go". I blinked 'phew it's been a long time since I was in charge of something I hope I haven't lost my touch'.

"What do I do?" Zia gazed expectantly as did Rei who was behind her.

"Well Ling-Zia, how do feel about looking for more orcs" a grin came to her face. "As for you Ling-Rei, since you can fly can you get the direction the goblins fled to and generally if they are still close to our cave" Rei nodded serious. 'Now all that's left is the three that can't hunt, 2 boys 1 girl' I turned to their direction to see that they were shaking. "So you three can't hunt, tell me why haven't you?"

The first boy raised his hand "well it's just that, the viper's are scary and can kill you with one bite".

"Yeah" the girl continued. "Even the rabbits can stab you" the second boy remained silent.

"So" I sighed. "Since you are so scared, you guys just eat insects and berries" I chuckled lightly before roaring. "Are you all bloody idiots, all hatchlings are born with claws much sharper than a rabbit's horn that is what myself and everyone else has realised that but clearly you don't" I sighed. "Too become strong, you will have to take risks not only for yourself but the group so I am going to give you a chance but it will be risky".

"We'll do it" the second boy shouted while the other two nodded in agreement.

"You will be fighting me then" I bared my teeth. "If you can't manage my standard then you will die or you can leave now if you want" I watched their conflicted reactions before they looked to be about to attack me. "Are you sure you want to fight me, do none of you want to leave?" none of them budged. After a moment, I nodded "so tell me". I relaxed "how come you can stand up to me but not a little rabbit? No don't bother answering, just think about it". I sighed 'well if they can stand up to me surely they at least have the courage to hunt'.

"Hey Ling-Rou" Rei flew into the cave and landed in front of me. "I know where the goblins are".

"Already?" I blinked. 'Well that is unexpected, they must be reasonably close if Rei found them in approximately 10 minutes'.

Rei nodded "yup, it seemed that they ran into another monster group after retreating from us in a panic so… they never made it that far but they have set up camp".

"Where are they camped?" humming in wonder.

Rei nodded "north west of our cave, about 15 minute walking distance".

I narrowed my eyes at this 'they could easily attack us again from that distance'. "What monster group did they encounter by the way?"

Rei poked her fingers "g-giants".

'Giants, how strong are they in this world… you can sometimes get giants that are weak and just a big target, others can be terrifyingly dangerous' I held my chin in thought.

"Do you need my lovely input?" Siokiya waddled over. "You two haven't encountered giants before, have you?" she shrugged. "Now if it definitely was giants then luckily for us, they have not ranked up yet, unfortunately even though they are first evolution they are still as strong as all second and some third evolutions in this forest". Siokiya turned to Rei "tell me Ling-Rei, were the giants male or female since the two genders never travel together".

"I don't see why that matters" I muttered to myself.

Ling-Rei ignored my comment "female… why is there a difference?"

"Well…" Siokiya started. "Males have an average height of 3 and a half meters and kind of look like large dwarfs, females on average are 5 meters tall with an elf like look except no pointy ears". Siokiya shrugged "although, since it is females it is unlikely we will have a problem because females only attack groups like ours for strong males to mate with and since you, Ling-Rou are the only second evolution male here they are not going to attack for one male".

"So it would be too much effort to get me, that's a relief, what if it was male giants?" I asked curiously.

"Don't make any mistake, if you get spotted by one prepare to run" Siokiya warned. "But if it was males, they would attack us on the account we have 3 second evolution females and our group right now is not that strong". She waved the thought of male giants away "since the female giants are here, the males would have gone running scared from being crippled by the female's affections".

(Day 21)

It had been a long night after I had set a night lookout to avoid any ambushes, it was a wonder of how we survived without one for weeks and probably longer. But putting aside the annoyance of having to teach everyone what the job was, the night went smoothly. On a better note, I now had some materials to work with mainly the horns from rabbits, fangs and scales from night vipers, also the cruddy equipment from the orcs Zia brought in.

Today was quite a boring day, the sun was scorching down which was not ideal for lizardman. Originally I thought it would have been good because I thought like snakes we were cold blooded but no so everyone was staying inside the cave. I had the hatchlings run laps to get their stamina up, Rei was lifting rocks as she flew to increase her strength and Zia was recovering from the bruising that came from our spar in the morning. 'Speaking of which, Zia has been hunting much more than me and hasn't improved so maybe they aren't giving experience points from easy kills'.

As for me though, it was crafting time. Everybody was at least getting a horned spear and basic protection from modified orc armour and night viper scales. 9 out of the 16 hatchlings were getting iron daggers but considering the other orc weapons were too big or cumbersome for hatchlings, I made bows out of the branches and makeshift arrows using leftover horns and night viper fangs.

(Day 22)

I left the cave today, leaving Zia in charge so she could train the hatchlings while I did leave Rei and Siokiya to supervise not trusting Zia's teaching as much as her strength. "What I was doing however, was going after those goblins that attacked us at night" I stopped. 'Did I just talk my own narrative?' I shrugged. 'Anyways going after those goblins… I did not expect this'.

The goblins that had attacked my group had noticed me and surrounded me. Apart from two hobgoblins, all of them were on their knees… begging for my help. 'Not that I can blame them, I'm pretty scared shitless myself… kind of, I am also excited' a droplet of cold sweat ran down my back as I looked around. 4 giants in a diamond shape ensnaring me and the goblins while a fifth giant stood 10 meters away.

"L-look lizardman sir, we can give you whatever you want just help us get out of this, p-please" the female hobgoblin shook in fear.

The hobgoblin mage gulped "can't you go crazy again like how you slaughtered us". She also shook "fireballs don't work well against giants".

"Well to get myself out of here might be a bit difficult so I will take the offer of a temporary truce" I sighed. 'Why does life have to be so difficult?'

"Temporary truce?" the female hobgoblin blinked but shakily unsheathed her sword. The giants roared in laughter at the female hobgoblin.

Meanwhile I looked around at the giants 'Yep all female and around 5 meters tall except the fifth on, she is just over 6 meters by the looks of it'. I stared at them intensely 'their armour is mainly just animal or monster fur with a bit of metal here and there but their weapons look much better than mine and I don't think I can even lift those weapons'. Tilting my head subconsciously, I took in appearance 'tall elves Siokiya said, maybe but their muscles look to defined to be what I imagine an elf to be like'.

"Lizardman in the middle of the goblins" the fifth giant and possible the leader spoke in a low pitched feminine voice. "I want you to come forward to… talk" she locked eyes with me and I couldn't look away.

'So giants speak in a language similar enough to goblins so I can understand them' I grinned. "So assuming that you want to actually talk… let's talk"

Chapter end

Friend or foe, you never know.