The next day, the group moved into the depths of the jungle that hid the lizards. Arthur had to admit, this one felt different. Not just because of the various different monsters, even plant monsters, but also because the vegetation itself was just unusual. To his eyes, if nothing else. He assumed that was because he was more used to Southeast Asian rainforests, rather than these more... well, different ones. If he was pushed, he'd call it a South American one, but the only reason he'd say that was because of commentary on the wiki. And even then...
Well, not as though many of the commentators on the wiki and the forums had actually gone to South America, wended their way through the Amazon, and then come back to make clear pronouncements. Not more than a few, anyway, and even those had mixed results since they were relying on old memories to fit one or the other.
Or to deal with what was, Arthur believed, entirely alien plant matter. Like the creeping vines that were purple and draped all across tall softwood trees, climbing and twining their way upwards. Incredibly strong and quite useful as rope once dried out. In fact, that was one of their quests at the moment, though they'd take only the needed portions when they were ready to leave rather than haul it around.
But the vines also had the advantage of letting the four-foot lizards to sneak up on them, by clambering down or rappelling off the ground or just swinging in, using their claws extended to strike someone's face or neck or arm and then keep going until they were out of range.
Annoying, and you could kill one or two, but if there were a half-dozen of them swinging down one after the other, things got interesting. Which was something Arthur was finding out, about an hour and a half in.
"Form up, get close to a tree. Let their vines get tangled!" Karen was screaming out orders and instructions. The team froze at first, then some were shuffling over to stand next to one another, others darting to the nearest tree.
Arthur grimaced, realising she had messed up on her orders, even as he hunkered low and stabbed upwards. He chose not to listen to the conflicting orders, even as he sensed his bodyguards take flanking positions near him and copying his motion to lower their bodies. It caused the lizards some trouble as he had guessed.
Some swung over, too high up to do damage to Arthur’s group but were still getting struck by his stabbing spear. Some tried to slide down, one sliding too far and landing on its ass and bouncing right into Yao Jing’s fist. Others bounced into the group or missed their catch entirely, falling hard and smashing themselves into the ground.
The trio struck, again and again, until Yao Jing's spear got caught in the vines. It was yanked sideways, but the man's grip was strong enough that all it did was cause the vine to wrap around it, along with a couple of other vines in short order. That, with the swinging weight, forced him to drop the spear eventually, only for the entire thing to spring upwards on the backend and swing around dangerously.
Rather than stick around and get stuck, Arthur rolled out of the way, keeping hold of his own weapon and coming up near Uswah. The woman was using a novel method of dealing with the vines, utilising her shadows that jutted out of tree branches above her to grab and tangle the vines themselves, so that a group of lizards were struggling.
At the same time, the bark of a gun went off. Rick had risen and was firing with a single pistol. He kept the second one holstered, firing with a two-handed grip as he tried for accuracy against the moving objects. Next to him Casey and Lam dealt with those that were coming near him from other directions, striking with spear and sword.
As quickly as the attack began, it was over. The lizards on the ground tried to scamper away, only for the team to jab and cut at them till they fell over. Then, it was just a process of looting. Easy peasy.
Not like dealing with the trio of komodo dragons that they ran into a half-hour later. Sniffing the ground and then detecting his group, the creatures raised thin, triangular heads and charged forwards without care for their lives. Their mouths were open with forked tongues hissing; clawed hands tore up mossy soil as they approached.
Arthur wasn’t the only one who looked worried at their appearance. Rick and Arthur loosed their ranged attacks at the same creature in the front. Both the shotgun shell and Refined Exploding Energy Dart tore holes into the stone-aspected komodo dragon, but didn't kill it—just left it bleeding.
Immediately, the pair got ready to launch their second attack, Rick beating Arthur's slower charge-up time with his shotgun. The second blast didn't dissuade the stone dragon though, the monster continuing its charge and splintering Mel's spear as it flexed and then cracked on the body, the woman barely dodging the snapping mouth.
Only a moment of valor by Yao Jing, throwing his body into the side of the creature and tackling it away, risking tearing claws as he charged it into a nearby tree, saved the group from being broken up.
Didn't stop the other two komodo, hiding behind their larger brethren, from closing the range. The first was a plain dragon, smaller, no bigger than maybe a large deer. It hissed and snapped as a shadow tendril reached out to grip it, and as Jan stabbed at it with her spear and Mel circled to the side to gut it. The other was the more dangerous of the two, a creature that lit up the surroundings with a radiance that caused everyone to squint and fouled their attacks. A light-based komodo dragon—not fire, for there was no heat. But it was so bright it was nearly impossible to tell where its body actually was.
Arthur had no time to worry about the creature, nor the others who were dealing with it. Karen and the rest of the team were fighting it, lunging into the brilliance, thrusting spears where they thought it might be, even as long tail and biting mouth chased them about.
For Arthur, all he could do was chase after Yao Jing and Rick. He brought his hands up, slammed into the first smaller dragon with his arm and spear held against his side to push its biting face away from the muscular idiot that was his bodyguard. He couldn't do much about the claws that tore at both of them, glancing off armour or the needle-like teeth that tore at his arm between gaps in his armour as he held the head away.
"Kill it!" Arthur roared, focused on holding the creature still. Focused on letting Rick get his shotgun right up against the body and then pull the trigger, angling it so that the shot didn't hit his teammates. Not so close that he pressed it against the scaled hide, no reason to risk blowback. But close enough, and painful enough, what with the heat and flame and hot air that erupted next to Arthur and Yao Jing.
Painful, loud. But the attack was effective. Tore into the creature, caused it to jerk and twist a few times, but then it weakened enough for him to grab his kris and slide it up along scales and into the monster's brain. He twisted the kris and sliced it out of the dragon head, ending the creature.
He got up and gripped his spear, heading to search for the other monsters. No surprise, Jan and the team had the basic komodo sorted, stabbing it again and again to end it. On the other hand, the last one...
Harder to kill. They couldn't tell if they were injuring it, and what would surprise people who have never gotten into a fight is how hard it could be to kill something fast. A slash was a slash; it could open up skin and muscle and maybe even cut through bone, which, by the way, is a lot softer than you'd imagine. But you had to hit the right parts to actually kill. You had to cut things that mattered, because otherwise, a creature could keep thrashing, keep fighting, keep tearing.
Until the damage, the shock, took over and it died. Didn't matter, of course, by then if it was five or fifteen minutes later, in a fight that could be a long time. And that was without consideration for things like adrenaline and other chemicals pouring through the body. Though, of course, that also meant that most battles ended fast.
Longer, with Tower bodies, but faster than most TV or movies would make you expect.
Which meant: not being able to actually target the komodo dragon was going to be a problem.
And problems often meant someone was going to get hurt. Or die.