We had reached our destination without any delays. In the end, the attack squad “worked” like a well oiled dwarfish mechanism, every action was measured and executed with the most efficiency. There was no room for “unnecessary movements”, if the plan assumed that the camp was meant to be cleaned up and all materials packed on a cart in less than thirty minutes, then the squad was done in twenty-nine, and for the remaining minute the experienced adventurers awaited for a command from the raid leader in perfect formation, ready to depart, fight, or retreat - whatever they were told to do.

We entered a small, but very dense forest, and moved towards a certain clearing - in front of the cave's entrance leading down under the ground. The “Dungeon’s Gate” looked like a naturally formed maw with stalactites and stalagmites looking like fangs of an angry beast.

“All right, maggots!” one of Godrick’s lieutenants yelled at the rest of us “... you know the drill! Set up the camp! Fortifications towards the entrance! According to our intel, the Dungeon was awakened not so long ago, and so we should have a few weeks before ‘infestation’, but, you can never be too prepared for…”

In that moment, something roared from the inside of the cave. The ground started trembling under heavy stomps of some charging creature from within the darkened depths.

“Into formation! Shield bearers!” Godric yelled with a powerful, commanding tone.

Heavy armored men moved forward, standing close to each other, with their tower shields raised.

“Archers!” The captain followed, and without delay rangers of the Lions took their position behind the tanks, letting tips of their arrows stick out between the line of shields, all aiming towards the dungeon entrance.

A beast pounced out from the endless darkness below - a huge one. Good two meters tall and five meters long, running on all four limbs like a horse in a gallop, ready to override the line of defenders.

“Type four-monster incoming! Archers - fire at will! Pikeman, get ready for a maneuver!”

Monster was rained with two volleys of arrows, and surprisingly, most of the projectiles landed, those which hit the monster around its head dug deeply, while arrows hitting it back bounced off its hard scales. The damage done was not nearly enough to kill the twisted creature, which kept running towards the knight with bloodshot eyes.

“Hold it, lads! Not yet!” Captain yelled between volleys “...Hooooold!”

The beast was just about to wreck against the lines of noble knights, even I - watching from afar felt a shiver of excitement run down my spine. I wanted to yell, to jump in, to do whatever was possible. How foolish I was to worry about those much more skilled and experienced than I was.

“Now!” Godrick yelled. And almost as if the knights were merely an object animated by his command, they moved not missing a single step.

Central knights moved a step back and to the sides, with their comrades on further edges mirroring their moves, creating a passage through which the monster freely ran past, plowing through the soft dirt with its claws, trying to slow down, turn around and continue its onslaught.

“Pikemen!” only one word, and yet, the entire command with a pre-prepared plan, knights, now all around the monster rushed in, digging their weapons in monster’s flesh, twisting their tips, enlarging the wounds.

To me, it looked as if knights were in a perfect situation, ready to stab and pierce and kill the monster there on spot - well, I have only my lack of experience to justify my foolishness, for the captain's commands were completely different.

“Back!” Godrick yelled “...No rushing! We have it! I don’t want even a single casualty on our side! Take it slowly, boys!”

Warriors jumped back, some even not retrieving their weapons off the creature's side, drawing their short swords instead. They managed to retreat at the very last moment, for the beast started thrashing in place, sweeping with its long, thick, muscular and armored in scale tail, kicking up clouds of dust, partly obscuring everyone’s vision.

As warriors gathered at a distance the sudden shift of battle pace was once again used by the archers, sending another series of arrows. By now, with all the projectiles and spear protruding from its body, the lizardish creature started resembling a hedgehog, still, it was not giving up. It shook its head, trying to get rid of some arrows which dug deep around its neck, then it quickly looked around the battlefield with a gaze filled with pure aggression… but also undeniable intellect. Its eyes were locked on Godric, standing far away and gazing on the battlefield with a cold expression. It let out another savage mixture of hiss and roar before it started charging in his direction. Knights once again jumped on its limbs, trying to cripple it, with - unfortunately - little effect, as the monster simply ignored all the bloody wounds which bloomed like red flowers all over its body, knocking them to the side with zig-zagging moves of its body.

Godrick lifted his spear, took aim, and threw it towards the monster - but a bit too high, and his weapon dug into the monster's back. He stretched his arm to his second in command, demanding him to hand over his weapon. One of two lieutenants quickly handed him his spear. And again, Godrick raised his arm, aimed, and threw. Closer, much closer, the spear barely missed the horned lizard’s head, digging above its front limb, greatly reducing its mobility.

The beast was already dangerously close to the commanders, archers - that until now kept on firing at the beast's back trying to slow it down now stopped, afraid of hitting them.

And Godrick? Only sighed in dissatisfaction, picked his shield and sword, and proudly started walking towards the monster, signaling his subordinates to not get involved. Beast didn’t stop though, now, running with its maw opened wide, dedicated to shredding his annoying enemy into pieces. And Lion’s commander? He faked a step to the left before quickly changing his footwork and dodging to the right, blocking one of the monster's teeth with his shield, making a half pirouette, and forcing his blade in the lizard's eye, stabbing its brain, bypassing its thick skull.

Finishing his pirouette, without even stopping his march onward as the huge beast collapsed behind him, he said:

“The ‘problem’ with most huge monsters is that they are so overconfident in the size advantage they have, that they fight recklessly, underestimating their enemies and nearly never protecting their vitals.” he exhaled air, grabbing a piece of clothing and wiping his blade of the mixture of blood and various tissues. “...What was that?” one of his second in command asked, as everyone managed to calm down “... was information we received incorrect?! This dungeon was meant to have only been awakened around a week ago! We should have almost an entire month to clear it before an infestation could have set in!” “Either villagers didn’t notice dungeon activity, and we are indeed at least three to four weeks late, or… dungeons have been known to re-shuffle before. I hope it’s the first case.” “Dungeon re-shuffling?” I allowed myself to ask about hearing their conversation. “Nothing you need to know, scavenger! Just focus on your tasks - shouldn’t you be stripping the monster body?” one of the lieutenants clearly disliked the idea of us asking such a casual question, to him, I was at the bottom of the Lion’s structure - a cadet, not yet considered even a fellow ‘brother in arms’. “It’s fine, Louis, we don’t even have a camp set yet, Alabaster will have plenty of time to do his job, for now, security comes first. Also, answering your question - dungeons are usually… stable. They follow certain rules, like for example starting infestation around a month after its awakening. Or spawning only one type of monster, or have one unchanged set of tunnels. But, sometimes, these can, well, reshuffle - or, in other words, change its laws. Change tunnel and room layouts, greatly modify monsters and have different time limits. That usually happens when the dungeon becomes stronger and bigger. If that’s the case, our maps and information regarding this dungeon might be - at least partly - useless.” “So, that’s the man that Luka nearly killed?” the man who previously rebuked me changed his attitude “... the one that stayed to protect civilians and his comrades, then alone cleared the entire nest?...” his facial expression changed, at first he turned his gaze around, avoiding looking at me, then, swallowing his pride he forced himself to once again face me “... I am sorry for my recent outburst. We have to act harshly and constantly remind people to respect hierarchy, especially on the battlefield, but, I believe you don’t need to be reminded of that. You… did prove already that you have the heart of a Lion. My apologies.” “By any means, do not apologize if the right is on your side, it was I who have forgotten my manner and difference in ranks, lieutenant-commander, in the end, we are still in front of other house-members. I cannot be an exception, that could have a bad influence on the rest of the house, not to mention that I believe that every other knight of the order that participates in this raid is known for more than just a one-time nest annihilation… And, please forgive me for my lack of knowledge regarding the most basic terminology, that’s a mistake in preparations on my side, and for that, I have nothing in my defense. Once again - my apologies, and if leading-commanders have no need for me, I will be off to help with setting a camp…” I tried staying humble and on the good side of those who are several ranks above me.

After saying that, bowing my head and waiting for their possible further comment, but, as I didn’t hear anything after a few short moments, still bowing my head I took a few steps back before turning around and heading towards the rest of already working adventurers.

Without any further delay, I started working, setting up a tent, then helping other warriors to cut down a few trees and later hewing it, creating simple, savage barricades and elevated platforms for archers. This time, work lasted much longer than during our previous stop - in the end, last time we didn’t have to worry about monsters four times bigger than you randomly attacking you in your sleep.

We finished just before dawn. Some of the other adventurers already started their night-shift duties, some started eating at the field-kitchen… while I and a few of the other younger knights without experience and cadets finally were able to take a closer look at the monster.

It was some sort of chimera - or mutant as few would name it. The main body was that of a lizard, long and slender, yet at the same time with muscles visible under thin scales on its belly. It’s “horns” were rather short - compared to the rest of its skull and perfectly straight, aligned with its skull, making them surely pierce everything that it could charge at. Scales on the back were thick, harvestable, and surely would have great use in some sort of mixed armor for scouts and other agile-type warriors. Its fangs were deprived of venom canals - well, that was rather obvious, very few monsters of these sizes had to rely on venom…

… Yet, there was one more “irregularity”, something that one could notice only after closer inspection and harvesting some of the thicker upper scales - plants grew on the beast, directly under the thick scales, strangely similar to a mixture of moss and vines, yet at the very same time different - the later seemed to dig into the body of the monster. Was it a parasite? Or symbiont? After cutting some of them off, we could see a thick, greenish substance spilling from it.

Well, we might have found the reason for its brutal, violent behaviors, the creature seemed to be drugged. After some more work, we managed to collect the samples for the mages to appraise later.

Rest of the work was easy. We opened the stomach, removed organs for alchemists, removed flesh from the bones and at the very end gathered the very bones.

With help of four more men we quickly managed to finish our task, soon, nearly nothing remained on the place where the body of the monster used to be, but a puddle of blood and “wasteful” body parts that we either failed to harvest or were deemed as unusable and thus unwanted.

All this time, I feasted on it, absorbing huge vital power which was hovering over the body like a semi-transparent, rich in essence, cloud.

You have gathered [Letivh] essence [186] [189/1250] → [375/1250] Letivh - is a "failure". A monster created while trying to recreate the body structure of one of the most powerful reptiles - the basilisk. "Unfortunately" due to mistakes in process of creation, they ended in becoming an artificial link between 'colossal lizards' and 'savage terradragons'. Despite being weaker than their 'far cousins' of [Draconis Vulgaris] family, they still possess a part of their formidable strength and are not meant to be treated lightly.

I straightened my backs, inhaling the intoxicating smell of the night. With anticipation, I awaited the dawn, when the camp would wake up well-rested and ready for exploration. Just the very idea that more creatures such as this one crept below the ground managed to set my mind into overdrive.

I have just feasted on their kin. The essence was rich and filling, and yet, somehow, I yearned for more. I moved toward the barricades and rested my backs over the desk of a freshly erected watchtower and looked at one of the archers now serving their night-shift duty.

“If you want to, you can go back to camp and take a rest, I will take your spot.”

He looked at me, a bit confused.

“Are you sure about that?” “Yeah, I am a scavenger, I don’t need as much rest as you do - in the end, you will be the one fighting tomorrow, won’t you? And, this is my first raid, I doubt I would be able to fall asleep, even if I wanted to… Just inform the commanders about a change in shifts.” “Got you, thanks pal… And don’t think much about it, it’s normal to get nervous before your first dive.” he patted me on the shoulder as if wanting to cheer me up.

He was mistaken only in one thing though - I was not nervous, but excited and agitated.