With a wheezing groan, the immense lizard lifted its head from the ground, swinging it around to the side. Crimson eyes glared balefully as it spotted the humans, yellow mist pouring down its sides.
Diara and Amilya glanced at each other before splitting up, as Harold moved forward, nervously gripping his quarterstaff.
Another groan swept the clearing as the beast heaved itself onto its feet, slowly turning to face them. The center two legs on its right side ended in bloody stumps, still oozing blood where they had been sliced off.
“Harold, we may have a chance after all!” Diara shouted. “Try to take out the two legs on its crippled side!”
Before she finished, Amilya had already begun weaving her magic, hurling two bolts of light that each ended up hovering right before one of the beast’s eyes to blind it. Once she finished, she moved away from her earlier position, shouting out as she moved, “Diara, it should be blind now, reposition!”
Harold carefully moved around the beast, well out of range, until he was lined up with the hind leg to its right side, slowly moving forward, staff held before him.
Diara slipped a bullet into her sling, whipping it forward with full force, the cord cracking through the air as the bullet slammed into the beast’s head, only to bounce off of its scales. Cursing to herself, she grabbed another bullet hoping she could at least stun it a bit.
Reaching the leg, Harold gripped his staff firmly, then spun around, shifting his full weight into the swing against the beast’s knee. With a resounding crack the staff slammed home, only to rebound with no apparent damage. Taking advantage of the rebound, Harold quickly spun the other direction, slamming the staff against the joint from the other side, then backing off as the beast hissed in pain.
As Harold backed off again, Amilya let loose a beam of searing light into the beast’s neck, the scales darkening slightly from the heat, though she couldn’t keep the beam up for long, letting it falter a few seconds after it began.
During the time the beam was burning, Diara hurled another shot into the monster’s face, this time hitting it in the eye, resulting in another hiss of pain, but no actual damage, as it had closed its eyes to the blinding light before them.
Again Harold moved towards the beast, aiming for the front leg this time. With a mighty two-handed blow, he shattered some of the scales, though he was too slow moving back.
The mutant lizard swung its hind leg up, clawing towards its front leg, catching Harold’s furs and cleanly slicing through the top layer before sliding off the bottom layer, throwing him forward and away from the leg he had been targeting.
Capitalizing on the situation, the beast moved its head to attempt to bite Harold, only to flinch as the fox hurled itself past its ear shrieking like a banshee. This provided enough of a delay for Harold to roll away from the head of the monster, letting it snap its jaws shut on a braced staff, cracking some of its teeth.
Following its charge, the fox spun around and jumped atop the lizard’s head, running to the back full of quills, grabbing one in its mouth and pulling, yanking it free. It then repeated this with several more quills.
Seeing her shots were mostly ineffective, Diara waited on firing any more, conserving her ammo while waiting for moments they might make a difference. She had tried to hit the beast as it attempted to bite Harold, only to be shocked into inaction when the fox reappeared.
Amilya meanwhile let loose with another beam of light, targeting the same location on its neck again, resulting in some small blisters forming and yet another hiss of pain.
In retaliation, the beast swung its tail towards the direction the attacks were coming from, forcing Amilya to scramble backward, losing control of her spell as she avoided the strike.
Hearing Harold moving towards its right side again, the lizard spun towards him, dislodging the fox as it turned its back to Amilya and Diara. The fox maintained its mouthful of quills, racing towards the monster with its head at an awkward angle to keep them from dragging the ground.
Diara observed the situation, tempted to fire on the fox, but curious enough to hold back, as this was clearly abnormal behavior from it, making her think Amilya was right about it. As she watched, it got near the neck of the creature, bracing the quills against the ground and yelped through its full mouth.
Harold approached the rear leg again, quickly slamming his staff into it and rolling towards the front of the creature as it slammed its tail down where he had been standing an instant before, as it turned to face the noise it heard.
Trying to bite the noise beside its head was a mistake, the beast found, as turning its head stabbed a number of quills a short distance into its armored neck, breaking several more against the scales. Letting out a shrill screech, it lunged to the other side, nearly colliding with Harold as he frantically dodged.
Thrashing its tail, it managed to clip Diara’s leg, her attempt to dodge foiled by the rock she had been standing beside. With a snapping noise, she dropped to the ground shrieking in pain. The tail meanwhile slammed into the rock, uprooting it and tossing it to the side before pulling back and swinging the other direction towards Amilya, though she had more luck in dodging it.
At this point, the fox again attempted to jump atop the creature, though it missed as the head swung around, nearly squashing it before Harold slammed his staff into the ground, bracing it below the head, letting the fox slip free. Immediately after, the fox jumped at Harold, to his surprise, then on impact pounced off towards the back of the beast, sending him stumbling backwards even as the monster snapped its jaws where he had been.
As Harold moved towards the rear leg again, the fox resumed its quill-pulling activities, and Amilya raced to Diara to help her get out of harm’s way in case the lizard decided to attack her direction again.
With another full-body strike, Harold succeeded, a loud snap heard alongside the crack of impact, the beast’s leg crumpling as its body shifted, falling at the rear, as it shrieked in pain.
With only a handful of quills, the fox jumped back down, bracing them before Harold, just in time for the lizard’s tail to slam into the points full force. This resulted in the beast pulling its blow upward and away. As the tail thrashed, it caught itself on a fallen log, driving the quills even deeper, resulting in another shriek and the lizard detaching its own tail from the pain.
Seeing this, Amilya lay Diara back down on the ground and sent another beam of light into the beast’s neck as Harold moved to the front leg, impacting it with another full-body strike, rebounding into a second strike that crippled it as well.
Without any usable legs on its right side, and no tail to attack with, the monster was crippled, almost unable to pose a threat. Harold moved up behind its head and began repeatedly slamming two-handed strikes into its neck until it shattered under the assault.