Crimson Overlord

Lily launched a preemptive attack, it was a fireball that exploded at the entrance of the cave.

The lizards rushed out of the cave, their bodies almost invisible to others thanks to camouflage. Their movements were quick, but silent as they tried to investigate what or who was responsible for the explosion.

Behind the grass foliage, Lily informed others of her findings.

"Twelve lizards," Lily thought for a second before saying. "They should be adults."

"Yeap," Ilya nodded. She felt the movements were unlike small lizards so them being adults made sense.

\'\'You will go collect the herb while we will take care of the origin beasts,\'\' Lily ordered.

"Sure," Orpheus agreed on the proposal.

"Illya, you will be helping your brother, and me to stop the coming lizards," Lily looked at Ilya and said.

Ilya didn\'t say anything but just nodded her head in agreement.

"We will handle them," Ilya\'s brother Hellion said as they leaped out from the foliage. "Use the chance to acquire as many herbs as you can."

Orpheus similarly rushed out.

The lizards were camouflaged and not invisible. But as long as one can discover them once and know their pattern, it wasn\'t impossible to adapt to their tricks.

Hellion stuck the ground with his arms strengthened.

BANG

The ground shattered but a rock-like figure pounced through the air, slowly its body becoming clear. A rock-scaled lizard came out in the picture, its tail waving towards him but he dodged as he counterattacked.

"Ilya!" Lily called out as she fought against a lizard when another attacked her from behind.

Ilya raised her arms. The black discs clad on her wrist flew out and floated in front of her.

She took the discs in her hands and then threw them out one after another. The discs started rotating in a chopping manner, its sharp edges glinting, as they rushed ahead.

A lizard viciously whipped out its tail at Lily. Just as the tail was about to strike, a disc passed through it, slicing it apart.

Blood gushed out from the tail and the lizard roared furiously. Before it could target Ilya, another disc pierced through its neck.

Its powerful and deadly scales offered no resistance to the disc as its head fell off.

THUD

The lizard\'s body fell to the ground with a loud thud sound. The other lizards were stunned by the development.

Three lizards opened their mouths and moved towards Ilya now that the deadly discs were no longer in her hands.

However, Ilya\'s expression remained the same as ever.

As a lizard pounced on her with its mouth wide open, a loud screeching sound came from behind.

Shocked, the lizard turned around and in its eyes there was disbelief. The two discs which have gone ahead made a circle around.

They returned with more speed than before and cut through the lizard even before it could blink.

Lily who was seeing was equally startled as this was the first time she was seeing Ilya fighting seriously. She was shocked as well when she saw the discs making strange trajectories without any action from Ilya. She was just standing there while the discs curved through the air to kill lizards around her like they were weak monsters.

"Ilya, don\'t destroy them fully," Lily reasoned. "We could sell their scales and internal organs back to the academy to earn points."

Ilya just shrugged her shoulders as she continued to face more lizards.

"Impressive for sure," Orpheus thought as he entered the cave now that the lizards were distracted.

When he felt the presence of a lizard about to attack him, Orpheus darted to the side, and the next second, a giant hole was smashed in the place he was just a moment ago.

Orpheus took care of the beast as he proceeded deeper into the cave.

Hellion followed him leaving the others behind to join them later.

"There should be a lizard ahead," He said as soon as he walked in.

Growl.

A lizard growled as its body was blasted away by a Hellion greatsword.

Orpheus who had just taken care of another monster stood there waiting for Hellion.

"So far so good," He proudly said as they continued ahead.

"Let\'s see if you can say it again," Orpheus thought as his lips slightly curved up.

RIPPP

The next moment, the sound of flesh being ripped apart sounded in the cave.

"AHHH!" Hellion cried out. He looked at his right leg with absolute horror on his face.

A lizard was clamping down its jaw on his leg, and flesh and blood sputtered out. He didn\'t even realize how the lizard came next to him, undetected by him till the final moment.

Lily who arrived was petrified. She didn\'t detect any movement in the air or ground to feel its presence.

"Shit!" Hellion cursed as he launched a wind bullet at the beast\'s head.

But the lizard wasn\'t a least bit worried. It swept its tail towards the coming wind bullet.

Bang!

The Wind bullet pierced through the monster\'s tail.

Before he could be pleased, he saw the pierced flesh being closed up with new flesh. The tail was recovered in almost no time.

Even ordinary lizards have regenerative abilities much less mutated ones. When her sister killed the lizard\'s tail outside, the reason it wasn\'t able to regenerate was that its head was severed the next moment, thus killing it.

As long as the head and heart weren\'t damaged or the connection to them wasn\'t severed, the lizard could simply recover from its wounds and fight without any worries.

"Help me!" Hellion fell to the ground, his hands on his injured leg. The lizard chewed the flesh and devoured it in one go.

As the lizard stepped forward, its eyes flickered with anger. It raised its head and opened its mouth wide to eat a sneaky assaulter.

Orpheus was somersaulting through the air with his fist aimed at the neck of the lizard.

The lizard roared as the fist came close to its neck. It felt a strong force from the attack and didn\'t wish to take it directly on its neck.

The neck was covered with scales, but it sensed an invisible gauntlet-like covering on the hand of the attacker. The lizard reasoned that the human has suppressed the surrounding air to form a defense around his hand.

Its tail whipped out, to prevent the attack.

Orpheus just twisted his body in mid-air to dodge the tail while landing his fist on the neck.

Snap!

The sound of bone being snapped into two came out of the neck. The lizard\'s eyes were filled with unwillingness and fury as it closed its eyes for the final time.

"Take this," Lily took out a regenerative pill from her pocket and stuffed it in Hellion\'s mouth.

Hellion gulped down the pill while wiping the sweat from his face. He felt his luck was terrible. He was acting arrogant, trying to compete with Orpheus for Lily\'s attention but almost lost a leg in the process.

They didn\'t stand for long and continued their journey with more caution.

"Thanks," Hellion said to Orpheus after some time. If not for him, he felt he was gone.

He felt gratitude towards Orpheus.

"Please don\'t mention it," Orpheus said with a kind smile. "We exist to help each other during the journey."

"You are a nice fellow," Hellion added thinking maybe he might have misjudged Orpheus.

"You are overpraising me," Orpheus scratched the back of his head while inwardly smirking.

Lily almost broke into a peal of laughter, she felt like this man was too wicked.