Bab 38: Weakness
But how?
His Spells did nothing, his mace barely left a scratch, and he couldn't hold the beast down as he did with Bobby the Butcher. The size difference was too large.
Wait, that wasn't right. His mace DID do something. It wasn't much, but it had left a cut on the beast's scaley hide. The blunt force of the weapon had done nothing, but the flanges had managed to cut through.
Was that the beast's weakness? Sharp objects? If that was the case…
The Saxunt Lizard dragged itself toward Morne with a malevolent look in its eye, licking its chops and spilling blueish saliva everywhere.
Its stone covering had glued itself back onto the lizard shortly after its leap, so its claws and tail left their trademark gouges in the dirt wherever they went.
As it was moving toward him, Morne fished around in his pockets.
He pulled out a handful of small bones, the same bones he had pilfered from Bobby the Butcher. Only now they were filed to a point, something Morne had done using the metal of the shackles in his cell and the time he had been given.
He held them in his upturned palm, placing his hand between him and the Saxunt Lizard, and acquired his target.
"Bite the bullet."
One of the bones surged into motion, shooting through the air toward the Saxunt Lizard.
The Saxunt Lizard's reptilian blue eyes flashed, and it tilted its head just barely.
The Bone Bullet glanced off the Saxunt Lizard's scales, leaving a small cut but nothing else.
But Morne wasn't done.
"Bite the bullet. Bite the bullet."
The second the first left his hand, he repeated the incantation, then did so again.
The Saxunt Lizard hissed in frustration as it saw the next projectile incoming, this one adjusted for the current position of its head, and tilted its head for a second time.
The second Bone Bullet glanced off just like the first, but in the Saxunt Lizard's haste to defend against the second, it didn't see the third.
A sharpened bone embedded itself into its left eye, burrowing in halfway and causing the beast to snarl in pain.
'Good,' Morne thought. Bone Bullet worked.
Saxunt Lizards weren't immune to all magic. If such an overwhelming ability existed, it wouldn't be in a lowly Apprentice-Grade bloodline.
In reality, the Saxunt Lizard's so-called "immunity" to magic encompassed a very specific type: direct damage.
Magical flames, conjured earth, the sapping abilities of Morne's Splinter and Withering Touch Spells, all relied on magic directly to inflict harm.
Morne's Bone Bullet Spell, on the other hand, merely accelerated a nonmagical bone. The magic used to propel it was gone the instant it left Morne's hand.
After all, there was no need to propel something already in motion, especially when it reached its top speed in that same instant.
This also proved that sharp objects would work against the Saxunt Lizard if he could put enough force behind them or hit the right spot.
This was all something Morne was learning firsthand, and though he was relieved that it had worked, he wasn't out of the woods just yet.
He broke into a run, clasping his hand with the bones in it shut, and skirted around to the Saxunt Lizard's new blindside as it leaped forward with a furious hiss.
The stone on its back half burst into a cloud of rock as it launched itself forward, claws extended and teeth bared. It soared past Morne, so close that its hind leg nearly touched his shoulder, ready to tear into the human that had harmed it.
But Morne wasn't in the same spot anymore, and the Saxunt Lizard's nose smacked into the wall with the full weight of its body behind it.
But as established previously, the Saxunt Lizard shrugged off all such damage, and it was actually the wall that gave in first.
Its head was buried up to its neck in the dirt wall, leaving the Saxunt Lizard to thrash its front claws at the wall and try to squirm out.
A muffled growl shook the wall, and it scratched so furiously at its dirt prison that it sliced through several of its scales before it freed itself.
It tore its head out of the wall with a screech of triumph, its one good eye darting around in search of its prey.
Morne would've stayed in the creature's blind spot if he could, but since the beast was shorter than him, it needed only to turn its head to the right and it would see Morne out of the corner of its eye, which is exactly what happened.
The Saxunt Lizard bared its teeth in a smile when it spotted Morne.
Faster than Morne could process, the stone on the creature's tail dispersed for the briefest of moments, allowing it to sweep its tail in a wide arc. The tail connected with Morne's stomach and sent him flying.
His mace and bones flew from his grip as his back connected with the arena's dirt wall, followed a moment later by the back of his head.
He slumped to the ground, stars dancing in his vision. He grimaced as he tried to push them out and clear his mind, succeeding just in time to find a twenty-five-foot-long lizard charging toward him.
He threw his hands up and caught the beast by its nose, trying to hold it back as its jaws snapped closed inches away from his face.
The Saxunt Lizard bit at the air in front of him again and again like a rabid dog, neglecting to use its claws as it wanted nothing more than to break his hold and taste his blood.
Morne felt his strength waning by the second and his right arm's stiffness worsening, and his mind raced as he tried to think a way out of this.
As the Saxunt Lizard made another attempt to separate Morne's face from his body, he spied the bones that had been knocked out of his grip during the impact sitting not that far away.
With a surge of strength scrounged up from what reserves of energy he had left, he shoved the Saxunt Lizard's head aside and reached for the bones.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Lolbroman25
Lolbroman25 Been playing around with Midjourney. I made Morne, and as got as close as I could get the bot to making Brej-N'Ha-Frikt. If you want to check them out, I put them up on Instagram. The username is lolbroman25requiem.
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