Ethan’s scaly feet crunched on the charred flesh as he stepped out of the small crater carved by one of his many fireballs.

  The terrain was becoming too uneven to fight comfortably, but that was alright. The water monitors were finally slowing down, but that didn’t mean his work here was done. Not even close.

  There’s less of them coming out, but they’re still coming.

  Ethan raised the little bead he’d gone down in the crater to collect and examined it. The interface told him it was a tier-1 scale spell, which he didn’t need. In fact. It was the second [Scales] spell he’d gotten. The third was another [Breath Gland], and one water primagem, which he already assimilated.

  A level 42 water monitor noticed him and hissed. A blue glow collected in the back of its throat, but Ethan just lobbed a fireball in its face while he made his way to the little spot right under the tunnel.

  The creature was thrown away, having summoned its scales in time, but it was disoriented and shaken enough for his teammates to finish it up.

  Ethan eyed them for a moment as he walked. Only Audrey hasn’t hit thirty yet. But she’s almost there.

  Once she had level thirty, they’d retreat in the tunnel for a bit. Enough to rest up a bit and to get through the leveling process. Hopefully the path stuff won’t take them too long.

  Ethan stood over a tiny little groove in the wall, behind a boulder, where he hid the spellcores. He couldn’t hold them in his hands. Not while he had the dagger in his hands.

  Hopefully I can trade these eventually.

  He put down the new one next to the other two, then covered the little hole up with loose soil before he made his way back closer to the tree-line and waited for newcomers and thankfully, he didn’t have to wait for long.

  Ethan grinned and tightened his grip on the dagger as two fire drakes ambled out of the clearing. Two high-level lizardlings rode on them, each above level 35, and their slitted eyes took in the ruined space before they found Ethan.

  He was pretty sure one of them gulped. At least he’d like to imagine they did. After all, he’d just hit level 44.

  Four levels for a swarm of water monitor might not seem like a lot, but he’d been at this for the last hour or so and if it hadn’t been for [Mana Heart], he’d already be needing to rest from all the mana he’d burned through.

  He was fine though. He could still go. But a little break after dealing with the lizardlings would be very welcome and most importantly, it would allow him to really sit down and look through his new available upgrades. He’d stolen a glance here or there, but he couldn’t afford the distractions often and once more, he had to focus on yet another threat.

  The drakes rumbled as they were directed toward him, and more lizardlings on foot began spreading, trying to surround him while a couple eyed his teammates.

  Ethan glanced down at his scaly hands and sighed as he summoned the scales on his face and head. If only there was a way to hide his identification. It would have been funny to trick the lizardlings. Tell them he was one of them before he marked them with the Harvester’s Dagger.

  Unless…

  Ethan stepped toward the war party and saw a few of them shuffle uncomfortably, eyes narrowed. “Brothers!” he called out, arms raised. But he didn’t get further. The highest level lizardling, a level 41 warrior, spurred his mount. The drake roared and spat a ball of swirling flames at him in response.

  Well. I tried.

  In response, Ethan sent his own fireball at the clumped up lizardlings and began to circle to the left. It was the area that was still the most intact, which would allow him to run in a somewhat straight line as the horns’ special ability didn’t work if he needed to dodge craters and make detours.

  A thick panel of blue light materialized in the fireball’s trajectory, and the impact sent spider-webs crawling all through the barrier for an instant before it was vaporized as the spell exploded. As Ethan began picking up speed, he ignored a couple of death notifications and focused on the drake. He needed to down one of those creatures fast. Two were too much, especially when combined with their riders and the remaining war party.

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  The warrior hopped off its mount, but the other just pointed a bone-wand at Ethan and shot him with its own fireball. The small ball of concentrated fire zipped at him, and Ethan grit his teeth and raised his arms defensively as his momentum picked up.

  He could probably take it. But the explosion will definitely be uncomfortable. Hopefully it won’t be enough to throw his momentum off and fortunately—or unfortunately, he wasn’t sure—the fireball homed in on him and impacted against his fire-covered forearms before detonating.

  It was painful. It felt like a sledgehammer had been slammed against his scaled forearms, but even if his arms were as durable as steel, it still sent a pulse of pain and shudder through his entire body.

  But it didn’t slow him down.

  Ethan burst out of the fire, slightly burnt and pissed off, running full speed and sending clumps of disturbed soil in his wake. The lizardling warrior hissed, holding a dangerous-looking gem-tipped spear while the mage behind him cast another barrier to try and slow him down.

  Prime wand, probably.

  The warrior readied its spear, and the two drakes' throats glowed. Ethan would impact in less than two seconds. He readied himself to leap over the spear or try to dodge it, but before he could decide, a green-hued dagger flew out of the brush and embedded itself into the throat of the right-drake. The one being ridden.

  The creature roared just as Ethan crashed through the barrier, popping it like a soap bubble. But the spear was still pointed at him, so he jumped into a fully horizontal flying kick that made the spearhead pass just above his face, almost grazing his nose for a second before it was wrenched away his scaled feet made contact with the warrior's raised arms.

  The lizardling was thrown back like a ragdoll, rolling head over heels a couple of times against the soft ground as Ethan continued past him. His feet hit the ground and slid, digging another groove into the soil while the drake swiped its giant claws down. In response Ethan stabbed upward with the dagger. The knife punched through the scales and the creature shrieked, but it still sent Ethan skidding backward just by the sheer weight difference. A couple of feet away, the lizardling, rolled over and tried to push itself up, and even though Ethan was surprised it survived the impact of his kick, he had no time to waste on it, so he sent a fireball that sent the creature’s limb flying in different directions while he took a quick glance around to understand what was going on.

  The drake he’d stabbed was still focused on him, but the second had turned away along with its rider. From the other direction, someone was lobbing some powerful spells that were making the giant creature roar with pain and back away, but Ethan couldn’t make them out from this angle. To his right, his team was dealing with a water monitor and a couple of lizardlings, but they were fine, and Ember was helping, but all five of them were accounted for.

  This is someone new. Or something.

  He had to finish off his side of the battle fast. Just in case.

  His own drake leaped at him, completely unaffected by the stab wound. Ethan jumped back, and glancing down at his hand, he threw the dagger behind him and rushed forward, summoning [Claws] on the second hand while the creature growled and pounced once more to meet him, only for Ethan to skid under it and stab up with both hands.

  With his high Toughness and his own protective scales, he wasn’t as worried from the creatures’s physical attacks.

  Even though the scutes covering the creature's underbelly were thinner than those on top, they were still difficult to cut through, but Ethan managed to dig his two talons pretty deep before the creature roared with pain and jumped back, though Ethan wasn’t done. He dug his claws deeper and grabbed on, while the creature tried to swipe at him and throw him off. Next, Ethan began pumping fire straight into its flesh and its screech grew sharper.

  This is a bit slow. I need to get to the neck. Or a bit lower.

  The rib-cage was proving difficult to punch through, but as Ethan worked his way a bit lower, wincing and groaning as a few kicks and soil-slams threatened to tear him off the monster, he found an angle where he could really get his arm in the creature’s stomach, where he really began to do some damage.

  It took a couple of minutes to finally bring the drake to its knees, and even though it was a bit of a challenge, Ethan managed to push the drake off of him, just enough to roll it away and drag himself out.

  …

  You have defeated [Lizardling (I) - Level 37]

  You have defeated [Fire Drake (I) - Level 47]

  You have reached Level 45. 1 stat point awarded.

  Ethan painfully got up to his feet and dismissed the two notifications. Panting, he took in the scene quickly. The team were doing well, but they were inching toward the tunnel. Below him, the dagger-mark on the drake was pulsing, but he couldn’t focus on it just yet, because right in front of him was a frowning, haggard woman with a green glowing crystal embedded in her chest. She had a wand pointed at him and a dagger hovered next to her.

  “Why…does it say you’re human,” she asked, in a reedy quiet voice that sent chills down his spine.

  [Human (I) - Level 47]

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