Chapter 3 - Dinner Bell

Toms thoughts… Reincarnated as a tree stories are just dungeon core stories but with a living dungeon core (although in some dungeon core stories the dungeon master is a separate entity from the core and commands it therefore making it more similar to a tree story ), but above ground since so many of them also incorporate monster summoning and favourite people that don't die if they enter a big bad dungeon or woods. So, can tree stories be called reverse dungeon core stories? But that brings into question the validity of calling a reborn as a Golem or undead a dungeon core story but with no minions, or a story with a necromancer being called a moving dungeon core novel.

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From early Spring to early Summer the little grey lizard increased in size at a fast pace, being a little glutton and devouring anything of interest be they animal, bug, plant and rock.

A group of adventurers, 3 to be exact were passing through the dense undergrowth that grew at a visible rate behind them as a swordsman proceeded to chop his way through bushes in a straight line without a second thought, only side stepping trees as apparently they brought everything but the kitchen sink and an axe in their back packs. It was impressive to watch them for the entire time that Tom was following them.

Firstly the swordsman was wearing leather gloves, boots, greaves, cuisse and cuirass with a built in gorget to cover the neck, with a brown cotton shirt and brown trousers underneath the armour. This left the arms extremely exposed as well as the head, which even though it was full of hair flaxen hair on this rather strong human would do little in the way of protection from a fantasy worlds flying monster bird swooping down or dropping a tortoise on top of them. However being a cold blooded creature in Summer might have its benefits as all the humans were looking rather sweaty with water forming on their skin showing exertion in their expressions, as they ventured further into the forest from a direction that would lead back to the mountains.

The woman archer, or scout, or ranger, or bowwoman travelled behind everyone and was the least armoured of them all, wearing a cloth t-shirt and trousers with a leather helmet on her head that covered the top of her head with a gemstone embedded into the leather at the front, with the helmet also covering her nape but not going past her ears leaving the front of her face completely exposed, she also had black leather boots but that was standard for this group.

The third party member, but second in formation, was a wizard and dressed in a loose fitting dark green robe with a stave as it was made of a metal and reached up to the wizards chest along with being etched with unknown glyphs that glowed whenever he tapped it on the ground every now and then while they walked, capped with a sphere. His personal belongings were also the smallest as when everyone got things out of their bags the swordsman also got this guys tent out.

Tom found it easy to first find the group and follow them for 2 days as they stomped their way through the forest leaving behind a trail of destruction and carnage, with whatever getting in the way of the swordsman strikes being chopped cleanly through, resulting in a lot of unintentional killing of small snakes, insects and a fox that was standing behind the bush in a clearing, although it wasn't killed by the swordsman but the woman with a bow in the back of the party with an arrow nocked since the beginning of the day.

The showing of strength was scary as bow strings are not easily pulled back and held at the ready, so to hold it all day was just as impressive as the swordsman swinging his sword that was of a similar length to the wizards stave, the fox was cleaned up fully in thirty minutes as the archer showed a lot of skills with a small knife, separating the pelt from the meat and getting rid of the stomach, intestines as well as the head with the broken arrow head in it. Tom was quite happy at such a bounty since even if he was devouring everything left behind by the party he was still ever so hungry with his new size.

However, the party had their journey as Toms professional chefs cut short as they came across a magical snake. As the party was cutting through bushes Tom picked up the smell of a snake as they entered its territory, or the area that it has been sitting in for quite a while and trying to digest some prey, with that the 1 metre (3 Feet) long lizard that had been crawling around behind the laser focused group a distance away from them in order to avoid being spotted barely had any time to look at a tree above it to make sure it was safe.

*Thud *Awhaa *Leeeha *OOOHAAa

In the distance a loud thud followed by screaming from all 3 party members as the swordsman got landed on by what must have been a 13 metre (43 Feet) long snake right on top of him, and yet by the yelling he was clearly not down for the count even if he was effectively out of the fight for now.

The archer instantly fired at the snakes eyes piercing the left eye of the beast as it lashed out with its maw at the next closest target, headbutting the man away with such force that it shook the tree that was hit with the magical projectile. Bleeding profusely and partially blind the creature without any sense of dimension tried to lung at the archer that easily dodged left before shooting at the snakes right eye and making it blind.

The 2 arrows stuck out of the snake's eye sockets like horns but unfortunately for the archer the beast was clearly not blind as it still had its sense of smell and pit organ on the front of its mouth that allowed it to see its surroundings temperature. The beast lashed out against the human with a similar speed to before but this time relying on its extra sensory organs rather than the faulty eyes that it had none of now. The hit was successful and now there was another human being flung through the woods, landing in a bush that softened her landing.

The snake then proceeded to look down and started coiling around what must have been the swordsman, and as the coils came up there was a sword stabbed through the snakes scales as the coils rose and then constricted with not even a scream as all the air was pushed out of the lungs.

Suddenly the sword turned red hot and the snake writhed around on the ground trying to dislodge the stuck weapon, but it was not until the entire area around the sword was black that it finally fell out. As soon as the sword fell out an 3 arrows hit the snake in the lower jaw, just behind the jaw and lower abdomen as the archer nocked another arrow and continued to fire. The snake now had a loose jaw that hung wide open and swayed, while on the other side a wizard did some hand signs with his back to Tom so he couldn't see too well.

The snake slithered and lunged at the archer when it suddenly got assaulted by 5 ice shards that hit it along the lower part of its left side, although the size of a humans forearm they did little to immediately stop the slithering beast, it did however get to change the snakes momentum slightly as the open jaw missed the archer but still caught her with the back half of its body.

The snake was now bleeding profusely and Tom had a chance to win it all again by being a scavenger, if the snake wins then it will bleed out eventually and if the wizard survives then he most likely doesn't have the strength to pull the large lizard off of himself, the archer most likely wont be coming back to life any time soon. As Tom moves down from the tree trunk the battle continues and the smell of iron and cooked snake is strong.

The archer after getting knocked out by the snake is incapable of getting back up due to a lack of breath, giving the snake a moment of freedom after the wizards cast and archers lack of response which results in the snake coiling around the archer. Again there is no scream or cry for help as all the air gets pushed out in a breathless gasp, and soon the sound of bones creaking can be audibly heard from Toms position. What follows next is an angry wizard screaming and furiously moving his hands as he throws out 5 more icicles that lodge in the snakes coils, but only now is the ice slowing down the moving creature, not fast enough and not deep enough as the icicles can clearly be seen jutting out of the snake. There is no fanfare as the archer gets squeezed so much that blood flows out of the mouth and eyes before the grinding of bones gets even worse as audible sounds of shattering can be heard.

The wizard has had enough time to shoot out a fireball the burns everything in the surrounds, the snake, the archers corpse, and the trees are set ablaze. The flash fire cooks everything as the snake with a vengeful burst of energy proceeds to slither towards the mage, who fires off some magical light constructs in the shape of arrows but without the fletching that is most commonly seen at the back.

The snake goes still and the human wizard slumps on the ground staring at the beast, all his friends are dead and he has to think of a way out of these woods.

*AEEEEIII

Tom lunges at the wizards back as he is on his knees and sends him sprawling on the ground with a shriek as the front horn pierces through the robes and into the mages back, losing the staff from his grip the mage might look like easy prey but Tom doesn't want to see what tricks he has up his sleeves.

Tom bites down on the mages neck from behind and thrashes his head back and forth even after the shrieks die down, until his teeth pull out a chunk of human flesh. With blood pooling under the corpse, warm and fresh but Tom knows better than to indulge. He must pick what he will eat before any big players arrive.

The snake adorned by brown scales with most of them burned and a few broken lies there, but it is too big and Tom cannot eat it fast enough or drag it away.

The humans are what remains, the wizard is clearly the most juicy option but he doesn't catch the lizards eye for he had his eye on something shiny long ago. The archer is the perfect creature to digest, small enough to drag away and climb up a tree with while also possessing that shiny gem in the helmet that radiates power.

So the lizard does just that, moving the cooked meat far away from the carnage as screams of wild beasts can be heard behind him, there will most likely be nothing left but the lizard is happy with his choice. The lizard eats the head first for the gem embedded in the helmet that has been flash cooked into the archers head, the old leather is tough but the gem even more which is why the lizard swallows it along with some leather scraps that are attached to it.

Over the next few days the lizard will lose some weight as its scales lighten, but also toughen ever so slightly.