Chapter 51: CH. 51 | Flame for Lizzard

"Jack!" Theo shouted.

Jack heard him and hurried over. "What is it?"

"Bring me a bucket of oil," Theo said, "I’m going to hit them where it counts."

"But what for?"

"Just do what I’m asking!"

Jack turned and sent one of the other young men off to fetch it. On top of that, Theo grabbed another young man and told him to run into the village.

He told him to have every lamp put out, every door and window shut, every fireplace extinguished.

The young man went off immediately to carry out Theo’s instructions. Theo spun around and shouted toward Thalia.

"Thalia?!" Theo shouted, "Aim your fireball at that forest."

"But there’s nothing over there!" Thalia said firmly.

"Just do it, burn the forest!"

"A-All right."

Theo watched a magic rune appear in front of Thalia, and a fireball shot straight toward the Black Tree Forest, the lizards’ nesting ground.

An explosion followed immediately, and the blaze from the burning trees became the only light source in the whole area.

Jack finally arrived with the bucket. Theo dipped his sword into the oil and lit it against a torch, setting his blade ablaze in an instant.

"W-What are you planning to do?!" Jack asked.

"They’re drawn to warmth. They expose their bellies whenever they sense heat or a heat source. Fire could be one way to trigger that."

"This is dangerous. You all should head back," Theo said firmly. "I’ll handle the attack myself."

One of the young men came running to tell Theo his orders had been carried out.

Every oil lamp in the village had gone dark, every villager had retreated indoors, leaving nothing but silence along the village road.

"Please, keep my friends safe!" Theo asked.

"Of course," Jack said. "We’ll stay right here."

Theo nodded, turned, and moved forward quickly, Swift Pace still active. His guess had been right, lizards were cold blooded creatures, and instinct would drive them to seek out warmth to heat their bodies.

Since the skin on their backs was slick and oily, there was a good chance the heat wouldn’t fully soak in through it. That gave Theo his opening to kill them.

Right as he closed in, the lizards noticed him and charged. Theo seized the moment and activated another one of his skills.

[Authority of Mystic Eyes Triggered!]

[Foresight Skill Activated]

[Buff of Eye of Eternity Ring Activated]

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:30]

He activated Foresight along with the Eternity Ring’s buff, turning the world around him gray as future shadow images of the lizards charged toward him.

Theo moved fast, borrowing time from the future to strike them down. He drove his blazing sword into them, slashing through their bodies again and again, landing serious, fatal wounds.

One lizard went down. The rest remained.

He counted fifteen Black Ink Lizards ahead of him. One died so far, but that wasn’t nearly enough.

Making full use of his thirty second observation window, Theo moved fast, striking down each shadow image of the lizards with clean, decisive hits, aiming to kill them outright.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:09]

Nine seconds left, and I’ve only killed seven of them so far.

Ahead of him, two more lizards showed their future shadow images. Theo closed in on them, driving his blade into their bellies and tearing through with full force.

Now he’d taken down nine lizards, right as his observation window ran out.

Theo’s projection snapped back into his real body, and the world around him returned to normal.

The lizards’ movements returned to normal too, but true to Theo’s future strikes, they collapsed wounded at the exact moment he’d already marked them for their deaths.

Theo dropped to his knees, breathing hard, exhausted. His eyes stayed fixed ahead even as his hands shook violently.

One by one, the lizard monsters dropped dead from their wounds, stunning the rest of the villagers. Jack rushed over to Theo and helped him back up.

"W-What just happened? Why did they suddenly drop dead?"

Theo got back to his feet, leaning on Jack for support. Using that ability had drained a huge amount of his strength, it was the longest observation window he’d ever used.

He realized there was a real limit to how long he could keep using that ability. He needed to level up soon so his stats could actually support it.

The ninth lizard lay dead on the ground, run through. Theo turned and ordered Thalia and Aya to unleash their skills on the remaining lizards.

Arrows and fireballs shot out fast and hard, straight into the remaining cluster of lizards still holding their ground.

BLAST!

A massive explosion sent lizard bodies flying in every direction, some burning in the flames, others crushed under falling trees.

A few of the lizards fled back into the forest, leaving a total of twelve Black Ink Lizards lying dead on the ground. Jack stared at the scene, completely stunned.

"We actually did it?!"

"YEAAAHH!"

"We beat them," one of the other young men said, grinning with relief.

Theo smiled and drove his sword into the ground. Lily rushed over to help heal him, with Thalia and Aya close behind.

"We did it, Theo," Thalia said.

"Yeah," Theo said.

He glanced over at Jack and asked for his help gathering up the twelve lizard carcasses. Jack agreed to help, and he and the others got to work stripping the skin off the lizards’ backs and collecting it.

Lily’s healing worked well. Theo started to feel his strength coming back, his breathing evened out, and the shaking in his hands began to fade.

He didn’t need Jack’s help to stand anymore. Jack looked relieved to see Theo recovering, then reached out and offered him a handshake.

"Thank you for your help, Sir Theo."

Theo smiled and shook his hand, "I couldn’t have done it without my friends. They’re the ones who really pulled through for me."

He glanced to the side and asked Jack to thank them too. Thalia and the others looked pleased, feeling a real sense of pride for having helped save a village from danger.

"To celebrate what we pulled off, let’s throw a big dinner tomorrow," Jack said, and the other young men echoed the idea.

"I’m hoping you and your friends won’t head back just yet. This means a lot to us as a way of showing our thanks."

Theo glanced over at Thalia again, and the three girls smiled and gave a quick nod. In the end, Theo agreed.

"All right. We’ll take you up on that."