Chapter 55: Fire-Cracking Lizards (2)

Chapter 55: Fire-Cracking Lizards (2)"Kaya, trap them. Hold them down," Caius called out. Kaya barely gave a nod of acknowledgment but she had heard him. She was in a spell-casting pose and, thrusting her arms forward, she summoned a green spell circle teeming with the life and energy of nature before it conjured vines that created a netted wall to stop the ten or so Lizards that were about to get too close for comfort. The Lizards hissed and the sounds only hit louder pitches when Kaya changed her netted wall of vines from a vertical position to a horizontal one, holding all the Lizards against the ground and restricting their movement. "Well done," Caius said. But just then, the Lizards began to glow as they primed for an explosion. *BOOMMM!!!* In a flash of light followed by smoke and the smell of burning vines, most of the Lizards were free and skittered all about. "Sorry," Kaya said sounding frustrated. "It’s fine," Caius said, "You got one. That’s enough." Indeed, although most of the Lizards had escaped, one remained tangled in vines and was already getting primed for another blast that would surely free it. "Water!" Caius called out. Although he had a high affinity with all the basic elements, the truth was he had only been taught Wind, Lightning, and Fire spells and this was because they were his Parents’ (most especially his Father’s) Affinities. Plus, all the spells he knew in those three elements were mobility, attacking, and burst damage spells. Just the exact types a Mage-Knight known for charging head-on into battle would bother to be proficient in. Fortunately, although Caius didn’t know any Water Magic spells yet, that was not the case for the two ladies he was with. Kaya was busy with Nature Magic so Eloise stepped in, showing she wasn’t only about Sound Magic. With a specific hand movement, she made a blue spell circle appear and it congealed into a bubble of water that fell down and onto the Lizard right as it was about to explode, dousing its flames. "Huh," Eloise said and she looked surprised that it worked. She had just acted because Caius called for Water but now she found herself mumbling, "Why didn’t I think of that?" The truth was that it was probably a subconscious reaction to the fact that the Water shields that Kaya and so many others had erected when this all started had all been destroyed by the exploding Lizards. Of course, the situation had been different then; That had been a collection of multiple explosions at once and this was dousing a single explosion before it could actually detonate. Just a matter of scale. Caius reached through the gaps in the net of vines to pin the lizard down and even harder against the ground as he felt around at the nape of its neck, right before the first spine of many that went down across its back and down to its tail. "What are you doing?" Kaya asked as she was still conjuring vines to smack the Lizards coming at them aside. "Give me a second," Caius said with his face steeled up in concentration. The lizard had shaken off its wetness and was getting primed to explode again when... "Found it!" Caius said like he was yelling out ’Eureka’. There was a gap in the Lizard’s neck and within those gaps were ball-like things that felt like buttons. They even clicked when Caius pressed down on them. *Hisssss...* The Lizard let out a loud snarling sound and then flopped against the ground, completely unresponsive. "Is it dead?" Kaya asked, nervous and glancing over at Professor Gilligan who was smiling but hadn’t tried to pull out her cage of lizards to release replacements. "No," Caius said, shaking his head, "Just pacified. It won’t move again for at least an hour." Upon closer inspection, Kaya saw the Lizard was indeed still breathing. Its chest heaved like it was having a peaceful sleep and dreaming a good dream. It was almost cute. "How did you know to do that?" Eloise asked, sounding impressed. "She taught us," Caius said with a head gesture at Professor Gilligan who was looking proud. "She did?" Eloise asked when her mouth was suddenly open in an ’O’ shape of realization. With a flick of her wrist, she took her notebook out of her storage bracelet and flipped through page after page of details about the Fire-Cracking Lizards that she had taken down. Then she let out a gasp, "By the gods, you’re right!" She said and pointed at a single three-lined paragraph in over ten pages of notes that said; ’Fire-Cracking Lizards possess pacifying nodes at the napes of their neck. By pressing down on these nodes, you can render them passive. Skilled handlers have long used this to gather them with minimal force and damage.’ "She expected us to remember that in all these notes?!" Eloise yelled out in annoyance and swung her notebook just in time to smack two Lizards aside. Caius leaped at the Lizards but saw their little legs start up in a run, knowing he would not catch up. Speed and Elemental Affinity were all the Fire-cracking Lizards had going for them but it was more than enough to outclass a Third Circle Mage like he and the rest of his classmates. Fortunately, he was catching the Lizards at a time when they were still a bit disoriented from getting slammed in the face so with a cast of ~Wispy Feet~ to give him a boost, he was upon them before they could get away. He pinned the two down and had an easier time finding their nodes, pressing down on them to turn them passive so they uselessly flopped on the ground. "I mean, Caius remembered," Kaya said looking impressed as Caius put down another two. Of course, it wasn’t because Caius had paid better attention or because he had taken better notes. He just knew what the Lizards’ weaknesses were from reading about the class going through this very exercise in [To Kill A Demon Lord...]. "Screw that!" Baler Khione said suddenly with he, Aurelius, and Doran surrounded by tens of Lizards, "Let’s just kill them all. Doran!" Baler’s words informed Caius that quite a bit of the class had been paying attention to him pacifying the three lizards but even more important was how, like the idiot Baler was, he opted to kill the Lizards still. Even worse, Doran actually listened to him. Doran had a seal prepared and thrust it up to create a spell circle that became an Earthen fist and slammed down to destroy more than half of the Lizards around them. "You moron!" Aylin yelled and was already tossing a ball of ice at her brother’s face. It struck him in the cheek and exploded with enough force to send him flying and slamming into the inner surface of the net dome. Even then, Professor Gilligan was already releasing more Lizards to replace the dead ones with a good bit of extra to boot. "Look what you did!" Aylin yelled and her light blue eyes looked so annoyed, she looked ready to turn her brother into a solid block of ice. "What?!" Baler yelled back at her and stared at the Lizards that were coming at him, "She’ll run out of these disgusting things eventually. Just keep killing them till then!" As if to prove his point, he cast a spell circle that congealed into ice spikes and stabbed down. The intent was clearly to skewer a bunch of Lizards into the ground. Alas, most of his spikes were wide off target and the ones that would have hit were dodged by the Lizards’ incredibly quick footwork. They leaped at him as one and glowed to explode. To defend himself, Baler erected an ice wall that was frankly pathetic when compared to what his sister had conjured earlier. And just like that of his sister, the wall shattered and the force of the blast sent him slamming back-first into the inner surface of the net dome again. And that was when Caius raised his voice in a yell so that every one of his classmates would hear him, "Everyone, go for their necks!" He said and picked up one of the Pacified Lizards to point at where they had to press down on, "Press this down and they’ll stop moving!"