20: Tribal Confrontation

The scarred one spoke with a deep growling voice, "Why are you here outsider?!"

James took a few seconds to respond as he tried talking to the system in his head too understand how he understood the scarred lizardman speaking when he highly doubted it talked to a member of it's own species in the middle of who knows where in common human language.

"System how come I can understand him and just as important if I speak will it auto translate so he can understand me too?"

[As you are a Lizardman you can understand, speak, read, and write in their native language as well as common since it is the universal language of the humanoid races and easy to learn compared to others. As to your inquiry yes the system will recognize when someone is speaking a language you understand and when you respond automatically use the language needed to be understood unless you wish to do otherwise master]

James got the gist of it but found it weird the languages he knew weren't put anywhere on his status but decided to worry about it later as he finally responded to the scarred one, "I seek an audience with your leader, if you escort me to your tribe and I receive an audience with them I will reveal my purpose here. I have no hostile intent is all you need to know."

The scarred one stared at James with distrust in his eyes but the others 3 hearing his words started to calm down and regain their composure standing tall behind the scarred one being a start contrast to the sniveling cowards they were a few seconds ago.

The scarred one spoke for them all, "Fine but you watch yourself outsider, if you come to be a threat I'll crush your skull and feast on your flesh!"

James made a mix of a deep chuckle and a gutteral growl that made them all feel uneasy before he made his axe return to the storage ring seemingly vanishing before their eyes startling them all but making them feel slightly better that he doesn't have a weapon in hand now as they started to escort him to their village.

After 2 hours of walking and swimming through the swamp in a very awkward path probably meant to confuse James so he doesn't remember the way back keeping up with them quite well as even to his surprise he's quite the adapt swimmer even though it's his first time doing so as a Lizardman they finally arrived at the village of the blue scaled Lizardfolk which was surrounded and in water that had tall walls made of logs with a spiked wooden gate adorned in animal bones and strange sigils carved into the wood and smaller spiked walls next to it where they had guards with bone spears and slingshots waiting which stopped them at the gate questioning the scarred one as to why they brought an outsider here never taking their eyes off of James wary of him and his purpose.

After a few minutes of the guards and the scarred one talking the gates opened and they escort James inside and after walking a few feet and going up a few steps onto a long bridge which from there he could see several wide wooden catwalks and small bridges spread out like a spider web over the water below with several small hubs with huts and bungalows where some of the Lizardfolk lived and in the middle of the village is a large central hub where several guys and bungalows surround a much bigger one that is probably where the leader or chief lives and receives people.

As James was being escorted and they get closer to the center of the village he notices that there's a lot fewer Lizardmen than you'd think would be in a village this large, most of those seen are women and children with few males who seem to be warriors yet every lizardman is currently staring at James in suspicion and slight fear as the children hide behind their mothers while the moms all glared at him and the warriors all on duty to defend the village take glances at James wanting to keep an eye on him even when already occupied with their jobs.

After a couple minutes of walking and the stares and glares being bored into him they finally arrived at the large hut and after going inside at the back of the large room sat 4 obviously older Lizardmen presumably elders and one slightly larger Lizardman presumably the chief standing at 6ft 4in barely taller than the scarred one and still smaller than James by a decent bit especially as everyone but James and his guard escort were sitting down cross legged on what seem to be thick mats made from leaves and reeds so James towers over them all seeming intimidating when he wasn't trying to be.

James quietly walked forward and sat down cross legged on the floor hoping to ease the tension as one of the elders asked almost interrogatingly, "What is your purpose here and who are you?"

James didn't like his tone but just gave his reply without any sass, "I am James Stormblood and I am here because I wish to join your tribe, I admit I know nothing of your customs or your struggles but I am a warrior and I have been blessed with great strength and power over lightning."

The elders were flabbergasted and thought him a liar and a fool but did consider him joining as he is obviously large and strong and as he is covered in armor will not be easy to kill.

The chief then spoke ignoring the elders and their ramblings between one another, "If what you say is true prove it and show us the evidence of your claims and if what you say is true we can talk about you becoming one of us."

James nodded as he sent his and armor into his storage ring showing off his pitch black scales and the blue lightning arced pattern across his scales throughout his body and flipped over his palm facing the ceiling and attempted generating a small handful of lightning that stays in his hand without casting the spell with the knowledge he has from the spell being implanted in his mind which he succeeded on the second try taking but a few moments which left the Lizardmen in awe as the only ones they knew that could wield the elements were shamans and that pattern on his scales was one none had ever seen before as most Lizardmen scakes were singularly colored with few having small patterns meant for camouflage but none like James' that embodied an element of nature.

The elders all started to shake and bow to James while the guards even the scarred one knelt down behind him lowering their heads and the chief even did a small bow which confused James till they all said in unison, "All Hail The Chosen, All Hail The Stormborn!!"

James was even more confused as he didn't understand why this was happening since his goal was simply to join the tribe, learn their culture and about the surrounding area, then climb the ranks and fight other rival tribes and monsters to slowly build his strength and foundation and maybe even become chief and start building a faction to serve him not whatever this is!!

As they all sat back up and the guards stood up a commotion started outside that everyone noticed and the guards, chief, and James walked outside the hut and made their way to the entrance gate where the commotion was coming from, once they arrived at the gate they could hear countless yelling as they issued a challenge to the chief for leader of the tribe.

Outside are several warriors of green scales Lizardmen with spiked bone clubs and shields made of wood and bone with one bigger red scaled Lizardman around the size of the chief standing in front of the others carrying an iron mace and a bone shield with a small horn grown from just above his snout.

James looked at the chief as he donned his armor and holding the Devourer axe and said, "Let me handle this as the initiation for joining and to show my sincerity to the tribe."

The chief nodded and kneeled bowing to James, "Thank you Great one, we welcome you and we are grateful for your guardianship."

James did his best to ignore that but the tribe members who saw and warriors that saw other than the ones that came with them were super confused but understood this was the chief's decision.

The gates opened and James walked out standing tall with his axe in both hands armored head to toe immediately quieting the challenging group of warriors, James walked up to the red scaled challenger with a couple feet between them as James looked him up and down then let out a deep growl and said in a deep voice sending shivers down everyone present's spines, "More fresh meat sent to die!!"