Lyle stepped out of the wooden hut and stretched under the clear, humid sky. He took a long breath of the damp air, hoping it would clear the haze clouding his mind.
The magic and techniques passed down by the lizardfolk were largely of the faith-based variety. While some of their spells intrigued him, their level was abysmally low, with limited practical use. Still, the theoretical frameworks and magical concepts behind them were surprisingly beneficial.
After all, Lyle hadn't exactly enjoyed a formal magical education since arriving in this world. Most of what he knew was stitched together from scraps, experimentation, and a lot of trial-by-fire. These lizardfolk teachings, crude as they were, helped patch a few critical gaps.
"The Green Claw, Razor-Tail, and Red-Eye tribes... Looks like they're finally uniting," Lyle muttered, leaning lazily against the doorframe. The Dragon Tusk Tribe's village stretched out before him, still and silent.
Tap.
The lizardfolk priest staggered out of the hut behind him, a dazed expression on his scaly face. He handed Lyle a roughly drawn map, traced from his own memory. It marked the positions of the three remaining tribes relative to Dragon Tuck's location.
The Green Claw aws were closest.
Lyle studied the map with a faint smirk. "Unless their leaders are complete idiots, they should've joined forces by now after losing two tribes."
He wasn't being arrogant. Quite the opposite. He was preparing to take the situation seriously. If anything, it was only now that the real threat had begun.
He murmured three names to himself: Zaryusu Shasha, the wielder of Frost Pain; Kyuku Zuzu of the White Dragon Bone Armor; and Crusch Lulu, a lizardwoman capable of casting third-tier faith magic.
Any one of them was trouble. All three together? Even with his two flame archangels, he wouldn't bet on even a twenty percent chance of victory.
And that wasn't counting the three-hundred-strong elite lizardfolk soldiers or the shamanic casters accompanying them. These weren't just glorified reptiles. Their combined combat strength easily rivaled, if not exceeded, that of elite human battalions.
If Lyle were just your average third-tier magic caster, he would've turned around and run without hesitation.
But his eyes sparkled with excitement.
Aside from the two sacred relics carried by the tribes, there was one particular lizardwoman who piqued his curiosity. Crusch Lulu, the pale-scaled matriarch, wasn't just any lizardfolk. She belonged to an ancient awakened bloodline and held several rare classes.
Summoner. Spirit Shaman. And... something else.
The last one was unclear. Depending on which translation he relied on, it could be Dragon Adept, Speaker of the Draconic Tongue, or Runebound Dragon Scholar. Whatever the case, all signs pointed to a profession tied to dragons and possibly linked to her bloodline.
If that class turned out to be foundational or at least replicable, Lyle would absolutely try to learn it himself. He needed to know whether such racially exclusive classes could be stolen... or studied.
Whoosh!
A streak of white light slashed through the sky and landed before the hut in a blink.
"About time," Lyle muttered, straightening up as his summoned Flame Archangel arrived in a blaze of divine radiance. "Looks like the guests are here."
Half a kilometer from Dragon Tusk's outer wall, three lizardfolk stood in a loose triangle formation, facing the silent village. Behind them stood a dozen shamans and a battalion of three hundred warriors.
One carried a massive two-meter blade across his back. Another was encased in a bone-forged suit of armor that glinted faintly like metal. The last wore a full-body cloak of straw that completely obscured her features.
They were the three chieftains: Shasuryu Shasha of the Green Claw, Kyuku Zuzu of the Razor-Tail, and Crusch Lulu of the Red-Eyes.
Notably absent was Shasuryu's brother, the wielder of Frost Pain.
"Is that human still inside the Dragon Tusk camp?" Crusch Lulu's voice was soft and uncertain, muffled beneath her straw cloak.
"Our scouts have kept a watchful eye. He hasn't left," Shasuryu Shasha replied calmly, arms folded over his chest.
"In other words, we're still... not entirely sure?" Kyuku Zuzu asked, his voice distorted slightly by the thick white bone armor covering his face.
Shasuryu and Crusch both understood. The armor warped Kyuku's voice, making his speech sound clumsy, though it didn't seem to bother him.
"It's best we verify it ourselves," Crusch said gently.
Both male chieftains exchanged glances and nodded.
Raising her arms, Crusch chanted softly. Magic surged around her, and a glowing glyph appeared before her palms.
"First-tier Summon Beast - Skyborne Hawk."
Boom!
A puff of smoke burst from the circle, and a hawk nearly as tall as a grown man appeared. It flapped once, then shot into the sky.
Within seconds, it had reached Dragon Tusk's airspace. Its eyes glimmered with unnatural sharpness, sweeping across the entire settlement with practiced precision. After locating a few moving figures, the hawk wheeled in the air and sped back toward its summoner.
On one of Dragon Tusk's dusty roads, Lyle walked with measured steps, flanked by his ghosthound and the lizardfolk priest.
Overhead, the hawk flew briefly in a sweeping arc before retreating.
"A summoned beast?" Lyle murmured, lifting his gaze just as it disappeared into the clouds. "Natural beast summoning, huh?"
He remembered his first transformation via Wild Shape had turned him into a hawk. That gave him a decent grasp of their movement patterns and abilities.
His mind quickly connected the dots.
"Nature-based summon. Figures," he muttered, tone unimpressed.
In total, summoning magic fell into six main branches: Angelic, Undead, Demonic, Elemental, Natural Beast, and Follower summons.
Each had its own perks, but in terms of raw combat effectiveness, Natural Beast summons were by far the weakest.
They made up for it in utility and variety, sure, but Lyle wasn't exactly in need of a raccoon that could sort mail.
The only reason he still gave summoning magic so much attention was because he'd recently discovered a useful loophole: summoning spells could be upgraded without spending skill points.
He was determined to unlock a second summon path soon, especially since the lizardfolk tribes supposedly possessed a rare hybrid-element summoning spell.
Back at the enemy camp, Crusch described what her hawk had seen, and the trio of chieftains let out quiet sighs of relief.
The worst-case scenario would've been the human slipping away while they massed their forces. A hidden or fleeing target was far harder to deal with than one standing in plain view.
"He's got guts, I'll give him that," Shasuryu said, resting one hand on his enormous sword with a sneer.
"Let's... make him... regret it," Kyuku Zuzu rasped, running his armored fingers across his boneplate with a shrill, screeching sound.
"Advance!" Shasuryu barked, slicing a hand through the air.
At once, the three-hundred-strong force surged forward like a living tide.
Unbeknownst to Lyle, a second force had already flanked around Dragon Tusk's rear perimeter.
This one numbered just over a hundred, but it was led by none other than the missing wielder of Frost Pain, Shasuryu's younger brother.