The lizardman turned around and smacked Kurz aside with its shield but got intercepted by Kain before it could continue its attacks on the orc.

Sam used his Roman shield to defend against multiple stabs while testing his opponents reactions by stabbing as well.

After blocking a large swing from his opponent Sam successfully hit the lizardmans chest.

He frowned after realizing he had only pierced one or two centimeters deep into the monsters chest.

' Their defense is too strong. I used more than half of my available strength and hardly even wounded the lizardman. I have to find a weak spot or we all might die today.'

Sam looked around. Jack and Nissa had stopped firing after the lizardmen engaged in close combat, in fear of accidently hitting their group members. Jack was moving left and right, trying to get an angle where he could shoot without his comrades being in the way.

Kain and Kurz fought one ligardman together. They hacked and slashed without pause but couldn't critically injure it.

After that, Sam looked at his opponent. The lizardman opened its mouth showing two rows of sharp teeth. It seemed to smile after it realized Sam and his group were too weak to harm them.

The other lizardman seemed to realize the same thing and began to attack more vicious. It stabbed with the spear and swinging its shield, completely disregarding the defense.

Sam had a bad feeling and wanted to warn the others but got pushed back by the enemy he was facing. His Roman shield got pushed aside and a spear appeared, directly piecing Sams right shoulder.

The shield fell down, Sam couldn't muster enough power to hold the heavy shield. His shoulder hurt and blood kept pouring out endlessly, but the lizardman still held the spear and slowly exerted more strength to pierce deeper into his shoulder.

Sam roared because of the pain, gritted his teeth and took a few steps backwards to pull the weapon out of his body.

The lizardman didn't continue his attacks, it instead retracted the spear and used its long tongue to lick off the blood from the spear tip.

Sam used the small break to take another few steps backwards and turned towards Kain and Kurz.

He saw Kain who was limping, with a bloody wound on his left leg and Kurz who still tried to defend against the incoming spear attacks.

Kurz jumped forward and smashed the halberd against the shield with a loud roar.

*Clang*

The weapon shattered from the impact and while Kurz tried to regain its balance, the lizardman had already stabbed forward.

With a cracking noise the orcs skull shattered and Kurz fell to the ground.

( Your tamed creature 'Kurz' died! )

Sam had no really interaction with the orc, making the death of Kurz not really painful to him. It was only troubling for him to lose a warrior in the middle of the fight.

Sam and Kain were both wounded, while Jack and Nissa couldn't really deal damage, what made the situation really dangerous.

Sam shouted " Nissa, if your ( Penetrating Arrow ) is ready you have to kill one of them. I am pretty sure this skill is enough to seriously wound these lizardmen!"

Nissa nodded and concentrated on the lizardman standing in front of Sam. This one still seemed to smile while licking the blood off the spear.

After a few moments, the lizarman suddenly knelt down before looking at its chest. Nissas arrow had actually penetrated the scales and embedded itself right where the human heart would be.

Fortunately the lizarmen had their hearts at the same place.

The other lizardman witnessed its comrade dying and started to roar in anger. It glared at Nissa who had killed its comrade before gripping the spear in another stance.

The lizardman got ready to throw the spear at Nissa! Sam reacted immediately and threw his shield to intercept the spear. Sams throw was only enough to slightly change the direction the spear headed but couldn't stop it from brushing past Nissas face, leaving a deep cut on her cheek.

Jack quickly shot his last three arrows but still without any visible effect. Meanwhile, Sam had picked up the dead lizardmans spear and walked towards the remaining monster. Kain approached it as well.

Sam spoke " I think I know how we can kill it ! It would be best if we can bring it on the ground and stab its mouth and eyes afterwards. These are the only weak points I can think of right now. Kain, you will swing your sword at the back of its knees while I tackle it from the front. Hopefully it will fall with that!"

Sam and Kain got ready. Sam yelled to get the monsters attention and lead it a bit away from Kain. After it had totally focused on Sam, Kain slowly sneaked behind its back. He wasn't very fast because of his injury to begin with.

When Kain reached a distance to strike, Sam began to charge. He let go off his spear and used his left shoulder to tackle against the raised shield of the lizardman.

Sams and Kains timing were pretty good, they actually hit at the same time.

The lizardman got pushed backwards against the sword, making it lose its balance. It landed on its back with Sam still on top of it.

Sam quickly knelt on its two massive arms and shouted at Kain " What are you waiting for? Pierce its head!"

Kain raised his sword and stabbed at one of the lizardmans eyes. His sword destroyed the eyeball and unexpectedly easy entered the monsters skull.

After a few twitches the lizardman stopped moving forever.

Sam and his group all sat down on the ground while breathing heavily.

" They were really strong! The rewards should be good right?" Jack asked.

Sam stood up after a few minutes and started to check the corpses. Apart from the spears and shield he didn't find anything.

He looked through the rest of the cave, but it hat no exiting tunnels and excluding the pile of 'light stones' nothing else could be found.

Sam returned to his comrades and informed them of the non- existing loot.

" How can this be possible? We nearly died in this fight and our escape path also got blocked when we entered this cave, our rewards should be awesome!" Nissa complained while holding a piece of cloth against her cheek.

Sam thought the same.

' I must have overlooked something! '