Chapter 262 Dissecting The Bone Lizard

Halys pulled the vines away on the bone lizard. The purple blood had stopped pouring out of the lizard and the vines seemed to be full of its blood.

"Purple lizard blood. Strange, huh?" Halys looked over at Lee Seng.

"Don't see this too often, but does it have something to do with the lizard naturally creating miasma?" Lee Seng guessed.

"Kinda. The blood is sorta toxic when it's ingested, but any sane person wouldn't ingest blood that's not their own. The miasma makes the toxicity level of the bone lizard's blood go up. That's why it kinda gies a purple color, but purple blood is normal with lizards in Daros." Halys moved over, manifesting a cleaver.

"Is that going to be able to cut through that?" Lee seng asked, skeptically. Halys didn't answer and moved over to the half-cut head. He raised it and swung. He beheaded it in one swing. Lee Seng gasped in surprise as Halys kicked the head off to the side. "How did you do that?!? I could barely dent the bone!" He moved over, excitedly.

"Daros Mythium Steel." Halys showed Lee Seng the cleaver. It had a purple-silver color to it. "This steel is pretty rare but the Mythia Caverns in the North gives us such strong steel to work with. It can cut through these guys like butter."

"Woah!" Lee Seng gushed over the blade. Halys chuckled and moved over to the stomach area.

"You guys did a number on this one. I'm surprised you didn't hit the miasma glands." Vines latched onto the large wound opening and pulled it open. "About here." He pointed in the middle. He flicked his wrist and the earth shifted the bone lizard wound towards him. The earth gripped the lizard and he ducked down to take a closer look.

"C'mere." He waved Lee Seng over. Lee Seng moved over and peeked into the lizard. "The miasma glands are about fist size orbs." Halys turned his hand into a fist. "They're located very close to the four stomachs of the lizard." He began to point the stomachs out. "If you spot the four stomachs, it's diagonally south and right of it. Here." He moved his finger to point out the glands and then cut the glands off.

"Make sure to not cut the orb part. There's a smaaall opening right here that you have to cut." He showed the tube and Lee Seng nodded. The miasma glands smelled pungent as he pinched his nose. "Make sure to not toss these as they're very explosive."

"What do you do with that?" Lee Seng asked with his nose pinched.

"We can use the miasma and imbue it into arrow tips, swords, etc. Can also be used medicinally if it comes down to that."

"Medicine? Do you really use this in medicine?" Lee Seng asked. Halys nodded, turning to set it in a growing earthen large bowl.

"Just a small drop of these with Jurya Star roots gives the star roots enough juice to activate their medicinal properties. It can also be used in small doses to give food a sour taste."

"You use this in food, too?!?" Lee Seng spoke in disbelief. Halys nodded and then began to pull the insides out, using Lee Seng as an extra set of hands. Lee Seng sat the parts in different large earthen bowls. Halys slowly went over the different parts and if they were usable.

Lee Seng didn't retain much information on the different parts. Halys finally got around to cutting the lizard into parts. He made quick work.

'He's really skilled.' Lee Seng's mouth was agape with a 'wow' expression. He couldn't believe he was watching someone easily cut through the bone plating that he and the others had a hard time on.

"The bone plating should be cut into rectangles like this, okay?" Halys demonstrated. He easily separated that meat from the bone and let the meat drop into the large earth bowl. "We want them as rectangles because the armorer's can either smelt it and mix it with metals or place it around the armor." He set the plate off to the side and handed Lee Seng the Mythium Steel cleaver. "You cut the next one."

Lee Seng grabbed one of the already cut pieces with the bone plating attached and wondered where he should start.

"Hold the plating." Halys instructed. Lee Seng followed his instructions. "You see that gap there?"

"Yup." Lee Seng nodded.

"Put the cleaver there and you wanna follow the bone plating. If you manage to nick the bone plating, it's still usable but don't try to nick it or cut it off." Lee Seng followed, making rough hits on the bone plating but eventually got the meat off. Halys shifted the large bowl with lizard meat and caught it in time.

"Good." Halys nodded. "It's a bit rough but I would expect that from a newbie. Set it off to the side there and continue." Lee Seng grabbed the next chunk of meat and hovered it over the large bowl. He held it by the rough bone plating and found the opening. He set the cleaver on it and started to release the meat from the bone. It was rough and hard work, but he enjoyed it. The meat fell into the bowl and he raised the plate with ease.

"Not bad." Ritsuka clapped. Lee Seng turned to look at his friend. He and Keng had wandered over to them. "What do you do with the bone plating?"

"The armorers use it." Lee Seng set the bone plating with the rest and grabbed the next chunk.

"Isn't that heavy?"

"I'm using more strength than I usually do." Lee Seng answered. Ritsuka and Keng watched Lee Seng cut the meat. He roughly carved it off, nicking and cutting into the bone. "Oops." He casually commented as he cut the meat off. A small piece of bone plating was stuck on the meat. He set the bone plating off to the side and slowly cut the meat off. He held it up and looked at the others.

"Small fragment got left on it?" Halys asked.

"Yeah." Lee seng nodded. He turned and a small group of men and women were standing behind him.

"Just set it with the bones.They'll take it from here." Halys told him. "They heard a bone lizard was on the menu and rushed over to help." Lee Seng nodded and handed Halys the cleaver. He moved out of Halys' way and set the bone fragment on the plating.

Halys made quick work with the help of the group. They seemed very skilled and used to doing this. Halys made raised stone cutting boards. A Fox Spirit with blue tails cleaned the stone with water. The group began to grab chunks of meat and start cutting them.

"Whoa, it looks like they're used to doing this sort of thing." Ritsuka commented. Lee Seng thanked the blue-tailed Fox spirit as he cleaned his hands. He moved over to Ritsuka and Lee Seng as Halys continued to work.

"Boss, what do we do then?" The three leftover Fox Spirits asked. "Train the kids!"

"W-what?!? I thought we would get to work!" The second Fox Spirit complained.

"You are working! You three need to be able to teach these kids and mold them correctly if you wanna be like me and the Commander."

"You said we weren't ready for that yet and you were gonna just make us cut lizard meat." The third one muttered. Vines shot out of the ground and narrowly snatched the third Fox Spirits hand.

"I can hear you, well, Cori." Halys spoke. "Your job is to teach them. You'll find them all interesting."

"But one of them's a human!" The first one pointed out.

"Technically, all of them are human." The second one was corrected.

"And why does that matter?" Halys turned and looked at the three. "Cori, Valen, Ysa! You three complained about not having enough work on Earth, so here's your task." He casually pointed the blade at the three boys. His eyes glossed over to the boys. "We'll handle dinner with the group. You guys train with those three. Cori, Valen and Ysa are all six-tailed Fox Spirits. They got enough training under their belt and should easily be able to teach you a thing or two. Valen, you're with Ritsuka, the human in the middle."

"Yes, sir." Valen saluted. He had red tails with white streaks in them. He had blue eyes and brown hair. His eyes seemed to resemble a cat's. His fingernails had claws as he saluted and turned to look at Ritsuka, giving him a nod.

"Cori, you're with Keng. The one to Ritsuka's left." Halys told her. Cori grumbled. Halys turned to look at her.

"Y-yes, sir!" She saluted. She had dark brown skin and curly hair. She looked pretty close to a human. She licked her lips and turned her attention to Keng.

"Ysa, you know Lee Seng already. You can train him." Halys instructed.

"B-but sir. My skill set doesn't really match his. He's a warrior. I'm a strategist with little combat experience." Ysa told him.

"I know he doesn't but that's not really the problem." Halys sighed. "Lee Seng's power output isn't the same as it used to be. It's been bugging him during the trail run this morning. I just want you to work with him to establish a stronger sense of his new output and test him on that." Ysa looked over at Lee Seng and then back at Captain Halys. "Got it? Your expertise will be useful here."

"Y-yes, sir!" Ysa saluted.

"Good, now that you know who you're training, get with it."