Chapter 18

Rob narrowed his eyes, staring at the shadowy blackness that was the entrance to the Jungle Lizard Queen’s lair.

No freaking way was he fighting that beast on its home turf.

So the first part of his hunt was to bait it away.

He slipped an arm from his backpack and swung it to his front. Opening up the flap, he pulled out some brown sludgy meat.

I’ve been waiting to use this for a long time, he grinned.

*

The Jungle Lizard Queen was resting in the darkness of its cave.

Its loud breaths in and out caused the dirt across the cave to stir and the ground itself to tremble.

Nothing dared enter the Jungle Lizard Queen’s lair. Certainly, nothing had in a long time.

The queen’s eyes cracked open suddenly. The sharp yellow glare casting a faint glow across the shadowy chamber of the cave.

An entity was near the entrance. Over time some creatures had come close to the entrance only to turn around.

The queen didn’t sense that this entity was a true threat to it. It was too puny. No way would it dare enter its lair.

She sensed the entity fading away.

As she had expected. Cowardly flies didn’t enter her domain.

She closed her eyes, returning to her rest.

But her nostrils pricked with the smell of meat.

It wasn’t the tastiest of smells, but it was strong enough to gather her attention.

The Jungle Lizard Queen rose from its slumber. It moved its feet and dragged itself to the entrance of the cave. The sunlight cracked through the trees and was a bright contrast from the darkness of her cave. Glowing right in front of the entrance was a sparkling brown piece of meat.

The queen dipped her nose to the meat and took a sniff.

Smelled like meat.

She brought her snout to the ground and chewed the meat up.

It was tasty.

She sniffed the air and could smell more of the same type of meat.

The Jungle Lizard Queen moved forward, the scent being her guide.

She found another piece of meat and gobbled it up.

The scent didn’t disappear. There was more.

The queen continued deeper into the jungle. She found another piece of meat and then one more.

As she approached the final piece of meat, her sense of smell told her this was the last of the free meat. The scent was getting weaker as she had gone along.

Her stomach also was beginning to gurgle and feel strange. She paid no heed to this, eager to eat the final remaining meat.

As the queen dipped her head down, she suddenly heard the sound of something flying through the air.

She swerved her neck only to find multiple bone shards flying towards her, all drenched in green toxins.

The bone shards stabbed into the Jungle Lizard Queen. They hit the monster’s weaker points in the lower neck and underside, penetrating the monster’s flesh.

The Jungle Lizard Queen cried out in agony and rage.

She’d kill and devour whoever foolishly thought they could hunt her.

Rob grinned as everything was going exactly according to plan.

The Jungle Lizard Queen had gobbled up all of his Drift Slug meat, following the bait to this clearing where he had a trap of sharpened bone shards dipped in toxic sac from all the Jungle Lizard’s he’d killed.

During his training to get to level 10, he had tested his spear tip with the toxic sac and it seemed to do extra damage even to the Jungle Lizard’s who loot dropped the venom in the first place.

The Jungle Lizard Queen spun around in shock, manically swerving its head, expecting attacks from all directions.

The creature’s neck and underside sparkled from his Battle Instinct. Weak points. Vulnerabilities.

The left side of its lower neck where a poisoned bone shard had hit, sparkled particularly brightly.

That was the weakest point.

Taking advantage of the shocked Jungle Lizard Queen, Rob gripped his spear and drew upon his Stamina, snapping forward with a powerful Energy Thrust.

Bright motes of energy shot forth from his spear tip in a blazing glory as his thrust landed right in the neck of the Jungle Lizard Queen. The blade broke through the creature’s skin, knocking against hardened bone.

Rob wrenched the spear free, taking a good amount of lizard blood and flesh with him. He leapt back, making sure to keep a strong amount of distance between him and the Jungle Lizard Queen.

He was a dead man if he got too close.

The Jungle Lizard Queen’s big yellow eyes narrowed into sharpened slits. She could finally see her attacker.

Now the real fight would begin.

Blood dripped down the Jungle Lizard Queen’s thick neck. It was far from a killing blow, but if left untreated for too long, such a wound would kill the Jungle Lizard Queen eventually. As it stood though, the monster just needed to defeat its attacker quickly enough, and its Health would soon recover.