Chapter 43 Light-tailed Lizard Hoard
Seeing Jack retrieve his bow, Maynard understood what he needed to do. He drew a single sword and brandished a menacing grin. 'Where's the main body? Ya know?'
'I'm not 100% sure just yet, but there's probably a few of them,' answered Rydel, trying not to speak verbally and incite the lizards to action. He understood that light-tailed lizards sensed heat and were extremely sensitive to sound vibrations. 'If we could light this place up, that would be best.'
Jack understood Rydel's hint and looked to Bowser. 'We can get lights up, but you'll have to protect me and Bowser in the meantime.' When Rydel and Maynard agreed, Jack began to act.
He let Bowser bite down on a bundle of three arrows, lighting them all. The moment the lit arrows left Bowser's mouth, an unearthly screech sounded out, piercing the ears of the party. Jack called out verbally, "Don't move! Here they come."
On cue, a long and slender body covered in dull black scales appeared from out of the darkness, diving towards Jack. Unfazed, Jack nocked an arrow and fired it. He didn't aim for the monster because if he had, it would only be a waste of an arrow due to his low level. His aim was elsewhere, about ten meters in front of Rydel.
While Jack was busy firing an arrow, the beast that targeted him was swiftly beheaded by a katana. Maynard's smile remained as he saw Jack shooting the second arrow without hesitation, this time ten meters past the rear of the party.
With the additional light, Rydel aimed as well. As Jack launched the third arrow to make a perimeter, Rydel shot an arrow into the darkness. His eagle eye became sharper with increased visibility and gave him a couple of new targets. More screeches sounded out as everyone heard the 'THUD' of an arrow piercing flesh. Jack spoke up for the whole party to hear, "Everyone against the wall; let Rydel and Maynard focus on what's in front of us."
At the same time, he pulled out another three arrows and let Bowser do his thing. They had already been discovered and were probably surrounded the moment Brunar announced their presence with his popping back. With that in mind, Jack worked on increasing their field of view.
"I'll help too!" Brunar stepped up, confident in his strength. No-one stopped him because he really would be a big help to the two pillars the party depended on.
Jack nodded and aimed in between the front and middle arrows making the perimeter, shooting the arrow out an additional ten meters. What everyone saw was startling.
There were two more of those slender black lizards revealed by the light of the fire. The next arrow Jack shot in between the middle and the rear had the same result, exposing another two lizards. It was the final arrow, which was fired up the middle another ten meters, that caused the party's hearts to skip a beat.
Thanks to the last three arrows, they noticed a total of six black lizards intertwined in the darkness. Maynard yelled a question, "Aren't they supposed to be in packs of two or four?"
"They always hunt in packs of two to four but considering the recent changes in the local ecosystem and all the goblins claiming the third level, it's hard to predict how some species have adapted. These Light-tailed Lizards aren't supposed to be up here, they've only been spotted in the third level until now." Rydel quickly deduced some sort of explanation. "What I fear is if the entire pack migrated together and we happened to wander into their new territory."
'Lots of lizards, hard fight.' Bowser confirmed Rydel's suspicion immediately, bringing a sorrowful smile to Jack's lips.
"Bowser senses a lot more of these things. I'd guess you hit the nail on the head captain," stated Jack, causing everyone to swallow some saliva. "Let's treat this as a warmup for the goblin city raid. If we can't beat this, how could we ever raze a city?"
Jack tried his best to lift everyone's morale, with a statement that was both true and untrue. The lizards weren't as formidable as the goblin hordes in goblin city. If not, then why were they driven out and the goblins remained. The major difference between them was that they could premeditate the goblin city raid while they had to think and act on the fly amidst the lizard nest.
Lighting another three arrows, Jack continued to expand their perimeter, now filling in the gaps of his scattered arrows and revealing almost a dozen lizards. Troni stood beside Brunar, ready to attack when needed. Slivia did her best to steady her shaking hands and retrieved her wooden staff.
Somewhat excited, Maynard's grin expanded. With a thought, he asked Rydel, 'Hey, ya want to test the new skills? Bet I can kill more than ya."
Rydel showed a small smile. 'Right now, we're one and one. Don't get too far behind.'
'If they're in the perimeter, leave them to me. Anything outside the perimeter I'll leave to ya, okay?'
receiving a nod from Rydel, Maynard gave a command to his disciples. "You two, stay here and protect Jack while he expands the perimeter, and don't let anything get Slivia either."
Not waiting for a reply, Maynard sprang into action. Happy to finally test his new strength, the ronin made full use of the lizards as test dummies. Very satisfied with how easily he could slice through the sturdy lizard scales, Maynard estimated that his attacks could be judged as twice as sharp. His physical strength hadn't changed, but his veteran reflexes were heightened and his sword felt sharper for some reason.
Rydel wasn't doing any worse, firing arrows at anything that swayed its tail or twitched within the darkness near the perimeter. As a hunter, Rydel was the second strongest in the branch, barely losing out to a lv. 31. At that moment, Rydel felt like he wouldn't lose to anyone in a competition of archery, including that man. His arrows would whiz through the air with impeccable accuracy as if the bow itself was helping Rydel aim.
While those two began to slaughter the dozens of swarming the party, Jack was racking up EXP like crazy! His level climbed drastically as the first dozen lizards were easily finished off, reaching lv. 7 in a few minutes.
Typically, when a monster was killed, at least half the EXP would go to the killer and the rest was divvied up according to damage dealt among the party. With both Rydel and Maynard going on killing sprees to test their new strengths, Jack was pooling half of their EXP and receiving a potion for the leftover EXP as well, not to mention the weathered jade's active ability.
No one else in the party could sense Jack's sudden rise in power; if they had, they would've been blown away. Of course, Jack knew this would happen eventually with the city raid, but to happen earlier was a blessing in disguise.
Jack switched to the lv. 5 bow that Rydel had gifted him, preparing to expand the perimeter even further. Slivia was the first to notice the new bow in Jack's hands, unsure of what was occurring. She couldn't tell the bow's level thanks to "Privacy Screen"; however, she knew it was higher-leveled than the previous one Jack used. But she also knew that would be impossible if Jack hadn't leveled up to at least lv. 5.
As Jack's shots were able to reach further into the darkness, Brunar and Troni noticed the new bow as well. They were just as confused as Slivia, but they didn't question anything, just standing by in case anything snuck past their master and Rydel.
Suddenly, a loud screech reverberated off the walls. Only Rydel could see a dark blur rushing towards them in the darkness. He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Maynard, this one's yours!"
Before anyone could guess the meaning of Rydel's words, a massive blackhead entered the light of the perimeter. It was twice the size and length as the other lizards, easily discernable as the pack leader.
Excitement shone on Maynard's face as he finished off a lizard and dashed towards the incoming pack leader. Sensing the pack leader as a lv. 30, he drew his second sword and shouted, "Finally, something to really test my mettle."
Rydel changed tactics, focusing on the lizards that bolted into the perimeter as Maynard became occupied. With that, he focused less on intsa-kills and more on grave injuries. There was still a chance to kill them in one shot, but that way he could increase his firing rate and any that got past his volley of arrows would be easier for the two young samurai to finish off.
Filled with both excitement and nerves, Brunar and Troni finally had something to do. They split up and began to dispatch the injured lizards that made it within fifteen meters of the party, minus Maynard.
Jack shouted, "Don't let them bite or cut you! Their neurotoxin will paralyze you!" Grateful for the advice, the samurai made sure to finish off each lizard as quickly as possible.
At the current pace, they would be able to last for a while but not too long. Jack's leveling had started to settle after lv. 8 due to Rydel's change in tactic and Maynard being occupied. He knew Maynard would best the pack leader, but he wasn't sure how long it would take.