Spirit Taming

Chapter 269: Moles Against Lizards!

Crim was slightly stunned. Clark had told him that he would be on his own. Did that mean that Clark thought Crim was too weak to protect him? Or was it that Crim was holding Clark back? Both thoughts came to the slime dragon's mind. They echoed around tempting him to lose his sanity.

The thing that snapped him out of this was a small laughter beside him. This let Crim breathe easy because he realized that he had left Devi with him. The two brothers were on a journey alone to fight together while Clark strengthened himself.

The slight skittering that came from beside them reminded them that they weren't just the two of them. Shy was there as well watching her two older siblings mess with each other in their own ways. The understanding that bloomed was that Clark had meant that Crim should train without him to get stronger. However, he still had his siblings with him no matter what.

This was also why Clark was not at all worried about the three. He was sure that the hammer tail lizards were too weak to threaten him. They were too slow and even if they had a lot of power and high defense, Clark could beat them. Precise spear strikes between scales and toward joints were all that were necessary to win the battles.

"You really left them behind?" Ella was curious why she saw that Clark left his partners behind. A tamer without a beast was considered an easy target.

"If I rely on them and them on my forever…well, we will be weaker parts that come together to be strong. But if we are strong parts that come together, then we might be truly powerful." The phrase was something cliche that Clark had heard from a television show in his previous life. But it had stuck with him long enough to remember it now. And it did ring true for what he wanted to accomplish.

Ella wanted to comment on what Clark had said, but she was alerted by the danger up ahead by her living mist and spirit infant. They had begun to work together to cause illusions to confuse a few of the hammer tail lizards. However, from what the group saw as they came in to a massive cavernous space, they didn't think that this would be a simple battlefield where illusions would work.

The space that this cave took up was massive. It was easily the entirety of the mine that had been mined out and put all in one large room. Some large stalactites and stalagmites fell from the ceiling and rose from the ground to form pillars. But otherwise, the space was very open.

The thing that also caught their attention were the many steel clawed moles that were being exterminated slowly but surely by many hammer tail lizards. They were at war with the beasts that had come to steal away their food. But even more importantly, they were defending the nest of their eggs in the center of the cavern.

The piles of rocks, ores, and even a few crystals were surrounding over twenty eggs. They were gray stone but could easily be seen as eggs. However, this did not shock Clark. What did was the pile of stones that appeared around the eggs. It wasn't stones at all. It was a mother hammer tail lizard, and it was large, very large.

'Dual tailed lizard- rare

The dual tailed lizard is a rare female only growth of the hammer tailed lizard. The two hammer tails it has can move independently from one another making it much more dangerous. It has the same slow speed of movement due to the weight of its body but has much more devastating force.

This is often the only beast of the hammer tail lizard species that can keep the males from fighting over territory. She is able to force them to stop battling and keeps them all as the only ones to gather food for the eggs when they hatch.

Due to the egg laying process, the dual tailed lizard is often many times weaker than it would be in any other case. The weakest point will be its stomach where the scale layers were thinned due to carrying the eggs for months. But if it is harmed, the males under its watch will rampage to protect it and the eggs.'

"That is the mother right there. It looks like a lot of stalagmites but it is definitely a dual tailed lizard. The rare growth stage of female hammer tailed lizards. All these are males under her rule. They will go in to a rage when we defeat her. But I will handle her because I know the weak points.

And No, I am not facing an opponent that is stronger than I think. That dual tailed lizard laid those eggs recently. It's why the males are fighting the moles furiously and why it is sleeping now."

Hearing that Clark had thought this through and had facts to back himself up, Maria gave a slight nod. She was going to let him do what he needed to do. It was already seen that Crim had rushed forward with Shy somehow attached to his back. She also knew that Devi had to be somewhere hiding and waiting to take down a target as well.

"Brad, you have a chance here to fight until your blood boils over. Do it and claim your taming space and beast growth materials.m Jerold. Stop fawning over a powerful woman like Maria. I and everyone else have seen you staring at her. That won't make you stronger and it will just get in the way." Clark was blunt and stern with his words.

He was not planning to add the part about Maria, however, his words betrayed him and the sudden bright bloom of red on Maria's face was all that came of it. But Jerold seemed a little taken aback. He wanted to rebuttal but Ella had caught his gaze and shaken her head to deter him.

As Jerold looked at Clark and then Maria he came to an understanding before he watched everyone rush off from where they had stood moments ago.

The additional burst of adrenaline that coursed through Maria's veins after the harsh words from Clark helped her get close to a battle she had been watching. The hammer tail lizard was not one of the larger ones but it was easily taking on two steel clawed moles. Every swing of its tail would crack the ground keeping the moles from digging away.

The moles, on the other hand, were trying to escape. One had lost a leg completely while the other seemed to have already taken a grazing hit. The apparent lack of attacking skills that the moles had were what caused them to fear their current battle. They had struck at the tough scales of the hammer tail lizards to attempt to steal away their ores.

Unfortunately, the lizards were tougher and the moles had weak bodies in comparison.

Just as the hammer tail lizard struck down one of the moles, Maria leaped on to its back with light feet. Poison from Lit dripped on her daggers as she slid them in to the hammer tail lizard's eyes. For only a second did the hammer tail lizard screech before it froze. It had never been blind like this and it had no idea what to do.

But as the darkness did not turn to the dim light of the cave, it began to panic. The blood dripping down its face did not help at all.

This gave Maria a perfect beast to bait and guide to run in to another hammer tail lizard nearby. The mole left behind would have escaped if Brad had not channeled his energy and desire for strength in to a shout that froze the mole on the spot in fear.

Another skill that came with the possessed helm was the fact that its energy possessed the tamer. This gave the tamer access to skills that the possessed helm had but couldn't use without a body. The warrior's battle cry was one such skill that caused energy to unsettle anyone or anything that heard it to a certain degree.

Naturally, it could be resisted but Brad knew that with his current situation, that his instincts would make even the strongest of the steel clawed moles freeze in fear.

The opportunity that Brad had made himself was one that had come naturally with his hyper focus. He had fought others and beasts in the arena before. But this was life and death. He had made a choice to be stronger, so he had to take it. Clark had given him an opportunity to show what he was capable of. Why would he remain weak and thought of as useless to many of those around him?

Why not become the next great tamer to carry a sword and shield in to battle? Why not let the battle instincts reading within him and his partner take control to walk his own path?