With a wheezing groan, the immense lizard lifted its head from the ground, swinging it around to the side. Crimson eyes gred balefully as it spotted the humans, yellow mist p down its sides.

  Diara and Amilya g each other before splitting up, as Harold moved forward, nervously gripping his quarterstaff.

  Anroahe clearing as the beast heaved itself onto its feet, slowly turning to face them. The ter two legs on its right side ended in bloody stumps, still oozing blood where they had been sliced off.

  “Harold, we may have a ce 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 eaded up h 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 e, until he was lined up with the hio 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 crag through the air as the bullet smmed 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.

  Reag 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 smmed home, only to rebound with no apparent damage. Taking advantage of the rebound, Harold quickly spuher dire, smming the staff against the joint from the other side, then bag 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 seds 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 frohis 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, g towards its front leg, catg Harold’s furs and ly slig through the top yer before sliding off the bottom yer, throwing him forward and away from the leg he had been targeting.

  Capitalizing ouation, 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 dey for Harold to roll away from the head of the monster, letting it snap its jaws shut on a braced staff, crag 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 theed this with several more quills.

  Seeing her shots were mostly iive, Diara waited on firing any more, serving her ammo while waiting for moments they might make a differenbsp; She had tried to hit the beast as it attempted to bite Harold, only to be shocked into ina when the fox reappeared.

  Amilya meanwhile let loose with another beam of light, targeting the same location on its neck agaiing in some small blisters f a another hiss of pain.

  Ialiation, the beast swung its tail towards the dire the attacks were ing from, f Amilya to scramble backward, losing trol 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 turs bailya and Diara. The fox maintais mouthful of quills, rag towards the monster with its head at an awkward ao keep them fring the ground.

  Diara observed the situatioed to fire on the fox, but curious enough to hold back, as this was clearly abnormal behavior from it, makihink Amilya was right about it. As she watched, it got he neck of the creature, brag the quills against the ground and yelped through its full mouth.

  Harold approached the rear leg again, quickly smming his staff into it and rolling towards the front of the creature as it smmed its tail down where he had been standing an instant before, as it turo face the 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 distao its armored neck, breaking several mainst the scales. Letting out a shrill screech, it luo the other side, nearly colliding with Harold as he frantically dodged.

  Thrashing its tail, it mao 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 smmed into the rock, uprooting it and tossing it to the side before pulling bad swinging the other dire towards Amilya, though she had more lu 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 smmed his staff into the ground, brag 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 ss 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 dire again.

  With another full-body strike, Harold succeeded, a loud snap heard alongside the crapact, 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, brag them before Harold, just in time for the lizard’s tail to sm into the points full forbsp; 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 detag its own tail from the pain.

  Seeing this, Amilya y Diara back down on the ground a another beam of light into the beast’s neck as Harold moved to the front leg, impag it with another full-body strike, rebounding into a sed 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 uo pose a threat. Harold moved up behind its head and begaedly smming two-harikes into its netil it shattered uhe assault.