Isekai Lizardman Survival Log

Crack― Crunch―!

The dark red cocoon that had enveloped it like an egg shattered, revealing the beast.

Its gray fur had turned dark red as if soaked in blood, and the pierced eye had regenerated, looking intact.

As if the damaged spirit and flesh had found harmony in the process of rebirth, a slight sense of intelligence could be felt.

The end of fools who dreamed of immortality. A beast that met destruction at that end and lost its self.

The ghoul, which had dreamed of becoming a vampire but hadn’t even reached its feet, bared its yellow teeth and scratched its neck.

“Grrrr….”

It glared at me with blood-red eyes, emanating killing intent as if remembering its enemy.

“Hey, do you recognize me?”
“Graaah―!”

When I lightly provoked it with the spear on my shoulder, it leaped at me with a speed incomparable to before.

I narrowed my eyes, watching it closely so as not to miss its hard-to-follow speed, and raised my foot.

Boom

Like other fools, it couldn’t adapt to its changed speed and charged in, only to be kicked and sent flying.

It spun once in the air and landed steadily on two legs as if unharmed.

“You’ve gotten much tougher.”

The sensation on my toes felt closer to rock than flesh. Given how it did an aerial somersault and seemed unharmed, it looks like.

It seemed that unless I aimed for the eyes, it would be difficult to inflict proper damage this time too.

The beast seemed to realize this too, as it grinned vilely with its mouth corners tearing.

It leaped again, swinging its claws that had grown long like daggers.

The beast, coming in at a markedly faster speed, swung its claws with that momentum.

I thrust the spear held tightly in both hands, rotating the tip to the right.

Applying force to my wrist to keep the spear tip from wobbling, I aimed carefully to avoid getting caught between its claws, deflecting the beast’s claws.

The beast, with a surprised face, had its right arm deflected, exposing its chest.

No matter how much momentum it had, unless it was a thrust, there would inevitably be some loss of power.

As long as the speed wasn’t impossible to follow, there was no reason it couldn’t be deflected.

When I pushed away its left arm, which it swung in an awkward posture trying to recover, with the spear shaft, the beast exposed its upper body completely.

I lightly pushed the beast’s nape with the spear shaft to push its upper body back, then stomped the ground hard and used that recoil to kick up at its vital point.

“Yelp?!”

Crunch―

This part hadn’t been strengthened, it seems, as I felt something being crushed and lukewarm blood soaked my instep.

The beast, its complexion turning blue, desperately leaped back on unsteady legs.

Though foaming at the mouth from pain, its eyes showed shock and despair.

“Why resent so much when you’ll just regenerate anyway?”

It’s not even a real vampire, so it won’t function anyway, why care so much?

I took a step towards the beast struggling with pain and loss, taking my left hand off the spear.

Using the stepped foot as a pivot, I spun my body once, moving my right hand to the end of the spear and swung it.

The beast, distracted by pain, couldn’t respond to the suddenly increased range of the spear and was hit in the leg.

Normally it would have withstood, but its legs, wobbling like reeds, couldn’t fulfill their role.

It fell backward but quickly got up, yet the spear tip was already right in front of its nose.

“Eep―!”

Because it quickly turned its head, the spear tip aimed at its eye only managed to tear its ear.

“…It looks somewhat pitiful meow…”
“It can’t be helped. Ghouls don’t die easily.”

Ignoring the commentary from Chik-chik and Nabi, who were watching from the tree like they were eating popcorn, I readjusted my grip on the spear.

Soon, as if it had recovered from the shock, it glared at me with eyes even redder from bloodshot.

It looked at me as if facing its lifelong enemy, so I raised my left middle finger in response, which it seemed to love.

“Graaah―!”

As it charged with its foam-covered muzzle open, I twisted my body as if riding a rodeo and kicked its legs.

It rolled on the ground as if falling, then showed eyes gleaming even more with hatred and leaped on all fours.

This time, I quickly jumped sideways and struck its hind legs with the spear shaft, making it roll on the ground again.

“Does it have to be like that meow?”
“Ghouls are tough. It would be troublesome if it ran away.”

-Graaah―!

When even the last trace of reason disappeared from the beast’s eyes, it charged with its jaw split as if it were an alligator.

I pushed my left arm right into the maw of the beast that had completely lost its reason.

“Gah―?!”

Although its muzzle could easily crush a human head, with my arm as thick as a log pushed down its throat, it floundered, unable to do anything.

“That’s right, stay still.”

I grabbed its throat with my bent left hand, easily lifted it, then slammed it to the ground.

Thud―

With its throat completely blocked, the beast couldn’t even scream. Its complexion turned pale as if suffocating.

Even though it’s already dead and doesn’t need to breathe, it couldn’t shake off the habits from when it was alive, having only recently become a ghoul.

The beast tried to escape by swinging its long claws, but no matter how much it swung, it only scratched my scales.

Unless it swung properly, such sloppily swung claws couldn’t even touch the skin under my scales.

The beast’s blood-red eyes, now devoid of intelligence and colored with fear, darted around and suddenly lit up slightly as if it had thought of something.

Thud―!

Suddenly, it lifted its leg as if to return what it had suffered, kicking at my groin.

But the beast’s ploy didn’t have the desired effect.

“Is that all you could think of?”
“…?!”

It probably thought it was a good strategy, but what it hoped for didn’t happen.

Given the basic difference in height, it barely reaches my groin even with its leg fully extended.

Reptiles, unlike mammals that expose themselves, have internal genitalia. Moreover, in the process of my body growing, muscles had come to protect the vital points.

Unless the beast’s attack can penetrate my muscles, it can’t even transmit the shock, let alone crush anything.

If it had been Kart, who was leaning against the tree with Lulu with his legs awkwardly crossed, it might have been dangerous.

But it doesn’t matter to me.

Realizing this fact, the beast showed a look of resentment, but there’s no reason to treat someone who really sucked other people’s blood like that.

While pinning down the beast that was thrashing as if wronged with my leg, I gripped the spear short and struck down at its eye like a stake.

The beast covered its eye with its eyelid, but perhaps because it had become a ghoul, the skin itself had become tougher and couldn’t be easily pierced.

I could probably pierce it if I applied more force, but I couldn’t break it since I promised to return it intact.

I threw away the stake I had been using hard until now and clenched my fist to strike its eye socket.

I felt a squishy sensation beyond the tough eyelid, but it didn’t burst, and I felt some rebound.

As I kept striking the desperately resisting beast, its claws clawed at my entire body as if in a final struggle.

The beast’s struggle seemed to have an effect, piercing through my scales and tearing the skin, inflicting wounds on my body.

Seeing that I was wounded, the beast seemed to think it was an opportunity and exerted all its strength on its forcibly opened lower jaw.

Even though its own teeth were breaking and its jawbone was being crushed, the beast tried to bite my arm.

As if pouring all of its regenerative power into its jaw, broken teeth regrew and the crushed jawbone reattached as it bit my arm.

It finally succeeded in biting the skin inside the torn scales, which had been ripped by its repeatedly broken teeth.

“…!”

A drop of blood fell between the torn skin. The beast’s eyes were filled with joy as it drew an arc.

“…?!”

Its variously damaged body began to recover rapidly, then it started writhing in pain.

“You think I haven’t dealt with your kind before?”

Ghoul bastards, being fake vampire-like creatures, could perform blood-sucking.

These already tough and regenerative bastards could quickly heal wounds and even become temporarily stronger by sucking blood.

Usually, one fights them carefully to avoid getting wounded, not sticking a hand down their throat and fighting recklessly like this.

Moreover, the amount of recovery and enhancement varied depending on the type of blood sucked, and my blood seemed to be among the highest grade, as it would have recovered instantly even if all limbs had been blown off.

Proving that it wasn’t for nothing that I gave it the tentative name [Hot Blood], all the bastards who sucked my blood writhed in burning pain.

My blood, which once even cooked my own body from the inside, is no problem now, but this is thanks to my body changing, not because the blood has cooled.

Those who sucked my blood self-destructed regardless of recovery or enhancement.

The beast, seemingly overwhelmed by pain, tried to push me away with its strengthened muscles, but I endured by pressing down with my weight.

Instead, I pushed my left arm further into its throat, letting more of my blood flow into its stomach.

The beast, writhing in pain, began to cook entirely from the inside out, contrary to its gradually strengthening physical abilities.

Hiss―

At some point, steam gushing from the beast’s throat forcibly pushed out my left arm.

As if the throat was just the beginning, the beast spewed steam from every orifice of its body – eyes, nose, ears, and so on.

“Keeek―!”

It shrieked a distorted scream while covered in steam and dried up from the inside.

At this strange sight, I looked down at my left arm. My left arm, which had dug into the beast’s throat, had scratches here and there from its teeth.

Blood drops were slowly flowing from the scratches, but the fallen blood drops didn’t emit steam.

“Boss?”

Even Chik-chik, who had been with me all this time, seemed confused by this bizarre phenomenon never seen before and climbed onto my head.

I’ve caught many ghouls until now, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a phenomenon.

My blood did cook ghoul bastards from the inside, but not to the extent of emitting steam and burning like this…

There have only been two changes since then, so one of them must be the cause, but.

‘…I don’t know.’

If it had happened once, I might understand, but the two suspected changes occurred almost simultaneously.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. The cause was roughly understood, and there was no adverse effect on my body.

Rather, I no longer needed to struggle back and forth until the ghoul cooked from the inside.

“Keeek….”

Soon, the beast became twisted like dried squid, with all moisture evaporated.

I approached and kicked it lightly, and it immediately turned to ashes.

Originally, I would have had to cut off its head, evaporate all the blood, and then stab its heart, but it turned to ashes as if holy water had been sprinkled on it.

“It’s over∼.”
“Hmm―.”

Cheerful Lulu and Kart with his legs awkwardly crossed approached and examined the ashes.

Nabi, cradled in Lulu’s arms, looked at the ashes sadly, so I reached out and stroked its head.

“Let’s go back.”

I removed my hand from the tiny head and picked up the spear I had thrown.

With the spear leaning on my shoulder, showing no damage other than teeth marks, I started walking.