"Suicide? Yeah, I get that. But don't worry," Ashton stepped through the barricade, and looked at the older man as the passageway was blocked again, "I'm not alone."
Ashton turned around without hesitation, as the Backpacker gave him his staff. He also grabbed the lantern that he chose as the tutorial's quest reward, placing a small coal briquette inside as preparation, and then attached it to his belt.
Once he walked a bit down the road, Ashton was able to see his first group of enemies. They were Lizardmen.
Technically, 'Lizardman' was just an overall family of species, rather than a singular one. All of them had a few things in common, though. They were human-sized, bipedal lizards that tended to live in a tribal society. Then again, there were plenty of 'lizardmen' that weren't lizards, like the ones that had traits of crocodiles. Those weren't lizards, but they still belonged to the family of lizardmen somehow. Though it wasn't like Ashton came up with these categories, nor did it really matter at the end of the day.
Amongst these ones, there were two 'common' lizardmen, having similar features to the viviparous lizard that was commonly found around the UK. These seemed to take up a large portion of all lizardmen, the 'jack of all trades', filling common combat roles or even non-combat roles within each tribe. They were also the only ones that were called 'Lizardmen' by the system, and because they were the most common were probably the reason their name became the general moniker of all similar species.
There were two blue-tongued skinks, one of them carrying a sword and shield, while the other carried a spear. There was also a gecko running ahead of them, carrying a slingshot in its hand while climbing up the side of one of the buildings to start looking out for potential enemies, or rather, victims.
It didn't take long until Ashton was spotted, either. Except for all the trash, broken glass, and the few cars or bikes scattered around the area, this place was almost completely empty. Not that he was trying to hide anyway.
"Perfect," Ashton smiled. He was excited. As though he was trying to catch something small buzzing in front of him, he pinched the air, and then dragged the small spark that appeared between his fingers over to the lantern on his hip.
The briquette inside of it immediately caught the spark, and was soon perfectly ablaze in a soft, dark red flame.
And from that flame, a tiny being was formed, condensing itself from the smoke - a small axolotl. Its skin looked like it was made from charcoal, with just a bit of fire peeking out through the cracks covering it.
Ashton smiled and glanced down at the lantern. The flame elemental inside, the salamander, seemed to smile back up at him as well.
He held his hand toward the lantern, and flames appeared around it. It was like a piece of thin silk sticking to his fingers, almost escaping with just a single gust of wind. As Ashton stretched out his hand, the flames detached from him and started flowing around, like a small fireball leaving behind a blazing tail.
It was possible to control it almost the exact same way as the Lesser Wisp. The Channel ability for most elementals seemed to present in such a way, giving the summoner the opportunity to control the element within their effective channel range almost as they wished.
If he wanted to, he could even make the salamander move around like the wisp as well, but its body wasn't even close to as sturdy as the magic elemental's, so that would just lead to injury or even death. Ashton wanted to avoid death for any of his summons as much as he was able. He knew the pain of dying over and over again, and he wouldn't wish that upon anyone.
Though... the singular death that these lizards were about to experience was a different matter altogether. With the gecko announcing Ashton's presence to them, the rest of the group ran toward him. The skinks seemed to take the lead, being the strongest individuals in the group.
The shield-bearer acted protectively while the one with the spear stood beside it, using the protection from its companion to try and safely attack Ashton. While he was focused on those two, one of the common lizards ran at him with a wooden club in its hand, using one of the nearby cars as cover to try and sneak up on him.
At the same time, from its high-up vantage point, the Gecko tried to pull its sling with a stone loaded inside. The other common lizardman, carrying two small knives, also positioned itself to attack at a moment's notice.
First, the monster with the club jumped up at Ashton, and he quickly flicked his arm back and practically 'threw' the flames at it. The moment they came into contact with the lizardman's scales, the small ball of flames exploded and tore into the monster's chest. Of course, Ashton immediately pulled back his staff and doubled up that wound. Its tough scales gone, he was able to clearly crack its ribcage and seemed to impact the heart directly.
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The lizardman fell to the ground, not quite dead, but still incapacitated for now. Though the explosion scattered the flames, Ashton was able to 'catch' them again, gathering them together by forming a tight fist.
At the same time, the gecko's stone was shot at him, though it was easy to just dodge. When he did, the spear-wielding skink stabbed its weapon forward. Ashton twisted his staff around, locking it into his elbow to stabilise it with just one hand, and then pushed it forward to meet the spear at its tip.
The improvised stone weapon was broken instantly, and even the rough wood behind it splintered apart. With his other hand, Ashton pushed the salamander's flames at the other skink, hitting right into the middle of the shield. The explosion not only threw that skink backward, but even burned the close-by spear skink that had just been disarmed.
With a flat palm, Ashton made the flames move loosely, focusing them toward the spear skink before quickly forming a fist again. The flames gathered together around the monster's head. The air it was trying to breathe was burnt away, and instead, its lungs were filled with the smoke created by its own skin being charred.
Its skin melted off its face while it rolled on the ground, trying to rip the flames away from itself. Obviously, that didn't work.
By then, a second stone was shot at Ashton, but he just swung his staff around and hit it back. Though he didn't hit the gecko, the glass that it was holding onto 'was' hit and quickly cracked. It didn't shatter immediately, but the gecko was still shocked and startled, and the parts that it was sticking to were beginning to lift off and crack even more. With it trying to get back to safe spot, Ashton didn't have to worry about those attacks anymore.
While taking a few steps forward, Ashton approached the lizardman with the daggers. Once he got close, it lunged at him, trying to stab at him with both of its weapons, but Ashton let go of his control of the salamander's flames for a moment to grab his staff with both hands. He spun it around to build up momentum, and then slammed it into the side of the lizardman's head.
While it fell to the ground, Ashton quickly followed up and struck down at the monster's head again, cracking open its skull.
[You have killed a [Lizardman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 15 Coins]
Ashton dismissed the message without even looking at it. He wouldn't make the mistake of getting distracted by these messages again, like he had done with the fight against the orc.
By now, there were only two enemies that were really a threat. The skink with the sword and shield and the gecko. The other skink was barely hanging onto life, and the other common lizardman was quickly finished off while it was laying on the ground, still reeling from the attack straight to the burn wound.
[You have killed a [Lizardman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 15 Coins]
While he pulled his staff back up, the skink came running again. While keeping its shield in front of its body, it swung the short sword vertically down at Ashton, but it was easy to dodge.
With any staff weapon, it was easy to force opponents to keep their distance. So while the skink moved forward and tried to stab at Ashton, he just kept moving back, striking either at the shield or sword to try and disarm the lizardman.
Though, there was something that it had clearly forgotten. Right when it was trying to slam its shield forward to push away the staff, Ashton let go of his weapon with his left hand and directed the salamander's flames behind the shield, so between it and the lizardman's body.
The ball of fire exploded, and while the skink's shield was shot forward, easily dodged by Ashton, the monster itself was once more thrown back, and this time against a nearby car.
Before it could recover, Ashton slammed down onto the new wound on the skink's chest, cracking through its ribs and hitting its heart just right. With this one killed, he could also go over and finish off the second skink, which was still reeling in pain until now.
[You have killed a [Scincidian]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 19 Coins]
[You have killed a [Scincidian]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 19 Coins]
Ashton smiled, seeing the notifications, "Four out of five done, huh?"
He turned his head, toward the gecko that was hiding out. Since the cracks on the glass were just spreading more and more now, it had climbed off from the side of the building, and was now just sitting on top of one of the nearby cars. It stared at Ashton, who had just killed four other lizardmen with ease. It was just meant to act as support - it knew that there was no way it could kill him.
The gecko tried to turn around and run away, but by then, the Salamander's flames had already closed in and blew up right on its back.
The stunned and paralysed monster was just laying on the roof of the car, before being dragged down and finished off by Ashton.
[You have killed a [Geckarian]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]
And just as that message appeared before his eyes, a few more followed behind.
[Contract | Lesser Salamander - Level 1 -> Lesser Salamander - Level 3]
[You have completed [Main Quest 1- A Show of Dedication]! Please pick your reward]
The salamander's body slightly changed, as part of its charcoal skin seemed to crumble off. Its flames became a little more intense, and visibly brighter and hotter. The amount of fire that Ashton could control at a time also seemed to have gone up.
And then, there were the quest rewards. The 100 coins were deposited right away, but he had to take a look through the 'combat items' that were listed as a reward later.
Because for now, he had to harvest some magic stones. But right as Ashton squatted down and asked the Backpacker for a knife, another message appeared before his eyes.
[[Observer in the Veil] is showing interest in your magical capabilities]
[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 100 Coins]
[A New Milestone has been reached]
[25 Favourites]
[A [Bonus Chapter] will be added to the queue]
[Currently Available Milestones]
[+1 Chapter | 10 Reviews | 5/10]
[+1 Chapter | 25 Ratings | 19/25]
[+1 Chapter | 100 Favourites | 29/100] (New!)
[+1 Chapter | 250 Followers | 152/250]
[Current [Bonus Chapters] in queue... [1 Chapters]]
! There, you will find 15 Chapters ahead of Schedule!