Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Dio - Ch. 121

"Don't let it look at you for long."

He warned me too late, and a red beam emerged from the strange creature's eye. It was most of the monster's body itself, and only missed me by a hair's breadth. Whatever these beholders were, they weren't friendly towards us. Hakim knew about them, but the name beholder for me, as the commander of the Twelve Champions, said nothing. And my men cleared a few dungeons.

"You are lucky I'm with you." The bard said strumming his lute, and disappeared. I didn't turn invisible this time, and the eye-monster's gaze remained on me. Before another beam appeared, its head burst, stabbed by the human's dagger. "They can't hurt what they can't see, and while they are pretty dangerous, they are as squishy as they look. I'm wondering where they came from though."

I wondered about that myself, but more appeared from the ground. All fixated on me, and none looked like a lizardman we expected to camp here. This is why I had trust issues.

"And you were so sure about detecting the domi-whatever stones. If I didn't land to check the area, and you told the Demon Lord you found the lizards, we both get executed." I complained while trying to hide behind a tree trunk. It didn't matter, those things burned right through it, and one of them even sent a lightning bolt my way.

Being adamant about scouting the forest didn't serve me best after all.

"I was trying to find the dungeon cores. I didn't expect to find an actual dungeon instead." Hakim whispered, his voice echoing, while he dispatched one monster after the other. "I never thought I'd see them outside of ancient bestiaries either, but here I am, killing beholders like a pro."

He wasn't exaggerating, littering the ground with burst eyeballs before any of them could land a hit on me. Once they stopped digging through the forest floor and the bard reappeared, I counted a dozen. He was out of breath but a huge grin occupied his face, his dagger dripping eye fluid and blood.

"And they say beholders are dangerous. Boy, I'm glad they weren't lizardmen shamans though, or we'd never make it out alive." He claimed, wiping his blade clean on the grass. I examined the corpses without exposing myself, and they were out of this world for sure.

"Considering how confident you were that we found them... You seem proud to be wrong," I noted, poking one of the tentacles with my dagger as well. Static electricity ran through the blade, pinching my hand a little, but not enough to cause harm. "So what were these again?"

"Beholders? Don't tell me you never heard about them." Hakim raised an eyebrow, but more creatures crawled out from the holes before he could talk. They appeared different this time. I saw feathers and a humanoid face, recognizing them from earlier reports.

"Come on, harpies too?" I asked, rushing back behind the cover. These half-bird half-woman creatures carried short swords, talons razor sharp, striking from above. "We must retreat before more comes."

I said that, but we were already surrounded. Their shrieks almost burst my eardrums before they could reach me with those swords. Hakim didn't throw himself at them this time or turn invisible either.

"This is bad news, their hearing and sense of smell is better than beholders, I can't sneak up on them like that." He held up his arms as if surrendering. He couldn't hope to reach them anyway, while they flew over our heads. "Hey guys, do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I doubt they came to negotiate," I noted, right before the first beast dove on me to attack. It missed, but the monster grasped my trusty buckler, lifting me after the failed strike.

I still had my other hand free, or rather, grabbing the dagger, and I sliced at its legs before it could take me too far. It wasn't enough to kill it, but it dropped me and fell back onto the soft ground.