Chapter: 629
A muffled cooing sound came from the sand as it died before it was even pulled out.
[6 Exp]
Lamp heroically pulled its prize from the sand as it flopped lifelessly on the spear, gazing at it for a moment before bringing it to Jay.
The creature was like a lizard, though it had no tail, and instead of having scales on its back, it had a leathery soft tortoise shell.
Its paws had long slender claws which were all parallel and close together, however the most odd part about it was its head.
The mouth of the creature opened sideways, and instead of having rows of sharp teeth, it simply had a beak. A weird sideways-opening beak.
Jay thought it even looked like two hooves of a horse had been used to replace its teeth, jammed into its flesh without remorse.
It’s head had no eyes, and on each side of its head were four small holes which appeared to be its noses.
Jay couldn't see any other notable features, and it seemed that the creature relied mostly on smell to find its food.
[6 Exp]
Despite Jay having what he came for, the skeletons were as diligent as always as they killed more of the sand lizards.
A few more cooing sounds resounded before he had mercy on them,
“…Ok, you can stop killing them now” Jay said, and the skeletons returned to his side. While it was easy exp, he didn’t want to stop the lizards from removing all the red fruits for him; each mushroom having hundreds of then hanging, ready to trap its next victim. The lizards made a noticeable dent in the red fruits, but it was nowhere near close enough to creating a way across.
However with a lizards guillotined head, there would be a way.
After another command, the skeletons retrieved their original weapons again and Jay had them perform another duty. A new one – one they may someday become familiar with.
Blue stood idly by as the other skeletons stretched the lizard carcass across a rock.
Blue didn’t do the dirty work itself, but had Dark do the dirty work in cutting off the creature’s head.
Such was Blue’s nature to delegate tasks to others, and perhaps it would be Dark’s nature to perform executions.
Contrary to Jay’s expectation, Dark’s daggers were quickly inserted, piercing its skin with ease. A small splash of blood splattered some of the mountain rocks, and with a circular twisting motion the head was separated.
A headless tailless lizard body sat on the rock, blood streaming down, making it seem like a cultic ritual.
With the head chopped off, Dark also carried out the next phase of the plan: Use the head to go and pick off some of the red mushroom fruits.
Jay stood up and walked closer to the sand, watching closely. He was counting on this working to cross the desert – otherwise he would have to backtrack or keep walking along the endless mountain range, living off lizard meat and sending skeletons up the cliffs for ice.
As the jaws of the dead lizard-like creature were clamped onto the red fruit, it coincidentally didn’t explode in an unnatural burst of growth – something in the lizards saliva made the fruit harmlessly pop off.
Jay nodded with a smile, seeing his plan come to fruition, and glad that he found a way across.
Dark easily pulled the fruit off, using the lizards jaws as a sort of clamp.