Variant

I got into the groove of things after that as I found three lizardmen, two firebirds, a bloody hive, two battle boar and a treasure tree being guarded by a green dragon in the next three hours of hunting.

'A good enough haul for today, time to head back.' I thought after killing the dragon and getting a whole hide full of scales as well as the fangs and claws of the beast.

I of course didn't just leave the treasure tree alone either but used my cursed technique to cause the tree to spit out those gems it kept under it's bark.

Thanks to my technique the tree itself was otherwise unharmed afterwards so unless someone else found it and broke it down it may even be able to produce more gems in time. That had nothing to do with me though as I headed back towards the stairs going up. On the way I heard screams and shouts in the distance and went to investigate.

"Hroldar we need to get Ein back to Rivira for healing!" A male voice yells urgently.

"Aye! I know that but this blasted thing keeps tryin to go at you all when you turn your back to it and ignores me!" The familiar voice of Hroldar yells back before I heard a clash of metal on metal.

That was all I needed to hear as I leaned forward and released a blast of hell fire from my back at a slight downward angle to propel me forward faster than I could normally move. My surroundings blurred slightly as I shot into the scene and closed the distance between me and the thing Hroldar and his familia were fighting to slam my fist into it's center mass.

"BOOM! CRACKLE!"

The impact was heard first quickly followed by the sound of my arm snapping in several places and deforming into a VERY unnatural shape.

"Fucking OW! How bloody hard is this thing!?" I cursed and held up my horrific looking arm and under Hroldar and his peoples astonished eyes visibly and rapidly reset all the bones back into place while healing the damages in about a breaths time.

"Alex why are you here lad?" Hroldar questioned sternly.

"Oh you know I was in the neighborhood picking up some produce and couldn't help but notice you were having fun over here and decided to throw my hat in the ring. Now what are YOU doing here?" I asked with a grin.

The dwarf had to stop himself from laughing at my explanation "The busted up mage over there just hit level two and I wanted to give him some practical experience against stronger monsters. It was going pretty well till that blasted thing ambushed him and won't let him leave for some reason." Hroldar said pointing at the monster that my surprise attack had sent flying.

I finally got a good look at it since everything was sorta blurry when I first hit it and was surprised by what I saw. It stood almost twelve and a half feet tall and had thick jagged black scales along it's two muscled arms, it's back, head, legs and tail. On it's back was two large leathery wings and it had a battle axe in it's right clawed hand and cruel angry intelligent red eyes on it's reptilian face. I recognized it as the variant lizardman that Bors told me about over a month ago which was surprising as variants are usually killed before now.-

"How the fuck has nobody killed this thing yet!? It's been a month already AND it looks like it's mutated again as it used to have red scales?" I asked finding the situation ridiculous.

"Notice how it's not charging us mindlessly lad? That's why. It's one of them rare clever types of variant and knows to retreat when it can't win. It's not quite at level five yet so I can still handle it but it's got me beat in speed since that's not how my stats are set." Hroldar explained seriously.

"Want me to hold it off while you get your people out of here?" I asked seriously while making eye contact with the monster the whole time.

"Aren't you only level three lad? That's suicide and I can't in good mind ask that of you!" Hroldar said angrily like I had just spat on his pride.

I shook my head "Sit back and watch, I'm no simple level three." I said confidently.

I started pumping RCT at full blast and a wave of frost began to rapidly creep across the dungeon floor towards the monster from under my feet. It watched warily and I could see it's muscles bulging as it got ready to move at the slightest sign of danger.-

It looked surprised however when the frost went around it and continued for a few feet before the now several meter across frozen ground began to have ice crystals grow up along it's edge at an arc. It only watched cautiously and with some confusion until it's mind realized what I was doing all too late, making a cage. It leaped up with a flap of it large wings towards the shrinking hole at the top but uselessly crashed into it and was repelled. I just smirked at that and took out an undiluted mana potion that I downed to restore my energy.-

My ice wasn't like the normal stuff but was the antithesis to energy including kinetic so unless I was VASTLY overpowered in strength busting through it with force wasn't likely. There was only five ways out of this cage for the beast now. The first was if I let it out, the second was the hole I left behind me for Hroldar and his people to leave. The third was if I died and stopped fueling the cage and the fourth was if it died and I took it's stone and parts out.-

The final way out was if something overpowered me and busted a hole inwards from the outside. 

"Alright lad I know when I'm wrong but I gotta be clear. Can you handle this?" Hroldar asked sternly.

"Yeah I'd say our lizard friend here will be a nice challenge for me, nothing I can't handle though." I say confidently.

"Alright then lad, you handle this for as long as you can while I get my man to Rivira and I'll rush back soon as I can." Hroldar said seriously and went to leave in a hurry with his familia members.