The Giant Lizard

On the body of one of the black and dead trees was a bulge that had the texture of the tree trunk but still looked out of place to anyone searching for it.

That was one of the giant lizards that Jax was searching for. The moment he noticed it, he got ready to fight.

The lizard was quite large, as seemed to be the attribute of all the monsters in the 10th Carriage.

The lizard had two methods of attack: its tongue and its tail. It lashed out its tongue at incredible speed at the person in front of it, and while its tail couldn't attack someone in the front, if someone did try to go behind it, they would be whipped by it too.

Jax knew never to go behind and always to stay in front of it.

The lizard wasn't capable of changing its color very quickly, so its camouflage wasn't much of an issue at all.

Jax walked slowly toward the tree, staying far enough that he didn't draw the attention of the lizard, but close enough that it was within his range.

Once he reached that range, Jax used his spell.

Divine Threads

Multiple white strings appeared not just around the lizard but around the entire tree, wrapping the lizard into the tree. From head to tail, there were maybe twelve loops that completely captured the beast.

Jax ran up to it quickly and pulled out his knife to kill it. He made sure not to target the head as he would need to take its eye and tongue back with him.

He stabbed it in the back, which was a little difficult with just a knife given how thick the lizard's hide was. The lizard's hide sold for a few coins too, but he sadly didn't have any space to carry so much hide for a few coins.

He needed those spaces for the eyes and tongue that sold for much more.

Two Opal stones appeared before Jax, which he took and placed into his inventory. Then he took back the threads and began dismantling the corpse. He practiced on it for about ten minutes before he was ready to leave.

"I hope I'm this lucky each time," Jax said as he made his way deeper into the forest. "If all lizards show up on the tree, it will be so easy."

Of course, not all lizards stayed on the tree. Some stayed next to the ground, like a pile of rocks, or up at the crown of the tree where it was harder to tell if the bulge belonged to the tree or not.

Jax kept an open eye for any such suspicious instances.

The Dead Woods was large enough, so he rarely encountered any people in there. Even when he did, they were far enough that he could simply walk the other way.

After about a few minutes of searching, he found another lizard. This one, however, wasn't on the tree.

He held the knife in one hand and the dagger in the other. This one was going to be a little more difficult.

It was hard to figure out the anatomy of the lizard while it was camouflaged, so Jax couldn't immediately use his spell. He needed to know where the head was since he wouldn't be able to see the tongue coming at him otherwise.

Jax reached for a stone on the ground and threw it at the lizard. With how strong his body was even without using Navi, the lizard was hurt and quickly became alert.

As it moved, Jax saw its silhouette and knew exactly where the head was and where the tail was.

He activated his spell.

Divine Threads.

He used the spell once but made it so the threads looped around at least ten times. Since the lizard didn't have the ability to tear at its jaw, it would remain shut with just one wrap.

The lizard tried to attack Jax, but it couldn't open its mouth, giving Jax the opportunity to get in closer.

When it saw Jax get closer, it turned around, its long tail lashing at him. Jax was thankfully outside of the range, so he wasn't hit.

With the lizard turning around, he couldn't approach it so easily. The lizard had eyes on either side of its face, allowing it a partial field of view even behind its back, so it would know where to hit.

Jax frowned.

He had known such a circumstance would come, and he had planned for it, but he didn't want to use it at all. It was an absolutely painful choice, after all.

Jax slowly poured his Navi out from his Sea of Navi and into his arm, strengthening them to become stronger. Then, with both arms on either side of his head, protecting his face, he ran forward.

The idea was to grab the lizard's tail and restrain it, but for that, he needed to be ready to get hit. He had heard that while the tail was strong, it never actually killed anyone in just a hit or two, so he was a little optimistic.

Considering how strong his body physically was, he hoped he could last a few more hits.

'I can deal with broken bones.'

The lizard slammed its tail on Jax's arms, which took on most of the force in the attack, but the lizard's tip still managed to pass through the side and barely grazed the side of his left shoulder.

No bones were broken, but his arm began bleeding almost immediately. He had been cut.

'Shit!' Jax thought, but he couldn't afford to give much thought to that wound. He quickly jumped on the tail and began restraining it. The lizard tried to swing it around, but with Jax grabbing it, it couldn't do anything at all.

Jax slowly inched forward along the lizard's body, holding tightly around it so that the lizard couldn't throw him off, and began stabbing into the lizard's body with the dagger in his other hand. It wasn't enough to kill the lizard in a few small stabs, but he had time to make enough of those stabs that it became lethal.

It took nearly two minutes of fidgeting before the lizard came to a slow stop, at which point, Jax delivered the final blow with his knife, stabbing into where the lizard's heart would be.

Once the lizard was dead, he finally got off it and took the two stones that flew out of its body.