Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 28: Lizardmen in the Swamp
"Damn it, lizard man!" Karad roared and kicked the spear on the ground. The sharp tip of the spear immediately pierced the belly of a giant lizard.

"I was wondering why these giant lizards attacked us time and time again, but the goblins never raised the alarm. It turns out that you are the ones causing trouble!"

Lizardfolk, humanoids nearly as loathsome as goblins, are in a state of near-constant war with their neighbors and other creatures. They mark their borders with cracked skulls and remains, or with hieroglyphs painted in blood or feces. Lizardfolk live in filth. The walls of their caves are smeared with dirt, greasy secretions, and the debris of their foul feasts.

In terms of intelligence, these creatures were only slightly more intelligent than wild beasts, and could not be compared with goblins at all. A person with sufficient eloquence and talent could still escape from the mouth of a goblin, but facing lizardmen and their captive giant lizards, there was only one way out, except to fight to the death.

"These guys' territory is here?!" Ivy raised a tower shield in front of Ron and blocked a lizardman's sharp claw attack, and Driver immediately shot an arrow and injured his shoulder blade.

“It shouldn’t be like this!” Victoria swung her hammer and knocked over a monitor lizard, responding loudly, “These guys’ territory should be deeper in the swamp!”

The intelligence of the Lizardmen was not enough for them to understand or speak the common language. In response to Victoria's questioning, they simply uttered a series of incomprehensible Lizardmen words and then retreated, leaving the giant lizards to block their way.

They had not expected that they would be ambushed, and now that the situation was not good, they obviously wanted to escape.

"Want to escape?" Karad grinned, waved his arm, and the spear flew out of his hand, and a lizard man fell to the ground.

The heavy spear pierced directly through his lower abdomen and nailed him to the ground.

"Chase them!" Seeing that the surrounding giant lizards had been dealt with by Ron and his men, Karad immediately wanted to catch up and kill the lizard man who was shot by Driver.

"Wait!" Ron stopped him quickly, "Let him go back!"

"What?! Was your head bitten by a giant lizard?"

"Let him go, the blood will expose his whereabouts!" Ron pointed at the lizard man who was quickly disappearing in the woods. "We must root out the lizard man at his roots. Bring the best hunters with us, and let's track him down to his lair and catch them all in one fell swoop!"

If Ron had invaded their territory, it would be fine. He would have nothing to say about these lizardmen doing such things. But this was clearly not the lizardmen's hunting ground, and they still attacked them. It was obviously not okay not to kill them all.

We are going to build a stronghold here. Most of the refugees and merchants are ordinary people. Who can stand the lizard people coming here every day?

"Good idea!" Karad nodded approvingly, walked over and pulled out his spear, "Go gather the hunters!"

Without Ron and the others having to take action, the wolf had already rushed out and headed straight to the camp to report the news. Not long after, accompanied by a burst of noisy noises, a dozen hunters rushed over.

The terrain in the woods is complex, and the lizardmen are born with color-changing skin, which makes them unsuitable for fighting in wolf packs, so these hunters all walk.

It is enough to leave the task of blood hunting and tracking to the wolf.

"He went south." The wolf guided them all the way. When the sky was getting light, a dirty and muddy swamp appeared in front of them. "The lizardman went in. The smell here is too strong. I can't smell it anymore."

"It doesn't matter, they can't escape!" Ron didn't care about the mud at this moment. He and his companions followed a group of goblins to start a carpet search, vowing to find the hiding place of the lizardmen.

"Boss! Something's going on here!"

Soon, a goblin hunter shouted loudly. He found a stone more than one meter high with an unknown pattern painted on it with blood. However, the hunter did not notice that the space behind him was obviously distorted and was rapidly approaching him.

"Watch your back!"

Victoria didn't think much about it. She took out the crossbow from behind and shot an arrow.

A blood flower suddenly bloomed in the air.

But unfortunately, because of the protection of the lizardman's natural scales, Victoria's crossbow did not cause it fatal injuries. The lizardman still swung its claws and scratched the hunter's skin.

There were bursts of strange calls from all directions, and a large number of lizardmen and their raised giant lizards rushed out from behind the trees and from the mud, surrounding them. The two groups of people engaged in close combat and immediately started a fight.

These lizardmen were almost the same as wild beasts, with their bodies protected by natural scales, and their means of attack were nothing more than claws and bites. Although these creatures were extremely brave, they were quickly defeated by the relatively "well-equipped" goblins.

Ron hid in the shadow of the Evita shield, occasionally firing a few flaming arrows at the lizardmen while also observing carefully.

The Lizardmen have a simple tribal structure, and if you can defeat their leader first, you should be able to end the battle quickly.

A distinctive lizardman caught his attention.

This lizardman was not unarmed, but holding a worn and rusty longsword. It was tall, mighty and strong. Five goblin hunters attacked it but made no progress.

Saurians understand the value of metal weapons and armor, and will fight among themselves for the right to possess these items. Undoubtedly, the largest and toughest Saurians will emerge as the leaders of the tribe while possessing these items.

"Karad, don't worry about those ordinary lizardmen!" Ron shouted, "The one holding the long sword is the leader!"

"I see!" Karad turned the spear handle upside down, knocked a lizard man to the ground, and strode towards the lizard man leader.

"Go to hell, stupid thing!"

Even though the lizard man was very brave, he was still no match for the earth goblin. In just half a minute, Karad found a flaw and took advantage of the opportunity when the lizard man leader was about to chop the air with his sword, then he turned around and thrust his spear. The tip of the spear rose from the bottom up and pierced the lizard man leader's upper and lower jaws together with a "puff".

"That was a close call!" The hobgoblin pulled out his dagger again and poked several bloody holes in the lizardman leader's body. He only stopped after making sure that the opponent was completely dead.

At this time, Ron had already escaped from the battle and was standing beside the blood-smeared boulder, staring at a hole in the ground in a daze.

"What are you looking at? Aren't you going in?" Ivy walked over curiously and looked at the cave entrance with Ron.

"Look here," Ron pointed at the messy footprints in the mud in front of him, "These three-fingered ones are the footprints of lizardmen, right?"

"Who stepped on these?"

(End of this chapter)