Reincarnated As A Chameleon And Eating Everything To Evolve

Even with a huge creature made of fire running directly towards their faces, the humans didn't look scared in the slightest as the man from the back brought up his staff and started saying something that Matthew couldn't pick up due to their distance from each other.

The moment the man in the back started wielding his metal staff, the group stopped moving and stayed still in their place as the other men also brought their wooden staff onto the front of their bodies and started chanting at the same time.

This time, their voices were louder since they said the same thing together and Matthew could hear that they were actually saying the same chant that the general said before activating the flashbang,

"By the power of the ancient words, I invoke the elements to heed my call and realize my words."

But instead of generating an immediate effect like the flash bang that the general used, all the humans in the group started writing in the air with their staffs, and by the time the fire wolf-headed snake was only about ten meters away from them, all the humans stopped writing their symbols and a wide circle suddenly appeared in front of them. The circle was even wider than the fire creature's body and instead of a fiery red circle, it was a blue, water-like circle.

When the blue circle was first formed, it started gathering visible blue particles that suddenly appeared from its surroundings. And as more and more blue particles were absorbed, the blue circle got thicker and the clear blue color slowly changed into a darker shade of blue.

And just like how the fiery wolf-headed snake came out of the red circle, this time, a massive creature made of water came out of the blue circle.

Similar to the fiery creature, the first thing that came out of the blue circle was a giant head. But instead of a wolf head, a lion's head fully made of water along with its mane had come out of the blue circle. The lion's size was much or less the same as the fiery wolf-headed snake even though the blue circle was wider compared to the red circle and now the two were now only separated by a few inches away from each other.

Matthew didn't know whether the lion had a body or not, but even if it had a body, the fiery wolf-headed snake had rammed its body to the water lion head-on even before the water lion had fully come out of the blue circle.

The moment the two massive creatures collided, a huge pressure, even heavier than when the fiery wolf-headed snake did its 'roar' was felt. The pressure was so overwhelming that it made Matthew, who was quite far away from the collision of the two creatures, frozen in place as he couldn't even turn his head from what was about to happen next.

The next second after the pressure gushed all over the place, the two massive creature's bodies were covered by thick white steam that exploded after the two bodies made of water and fire collided against each other.

The steam explosion rapidly expanded outward, the steam went over the trees and covered the village whole, and obstructed Matthew's eyes, making him only able to see about 15 meters forward. Matthew could guess that the steam was deadly hot if he had stood near the two creatures when they collided because even from his current spot, the steam that reached him was still warm to his scales.

Matthew stood still on his current spot and waited until the steam dispersed on its own without doing anything since he couldn't see anything with the thick steam all around him.

'That one man wearing the crown, is he the king of the human kingdom? What was it called again… Felidae Kingdom?'

The man who was at the back of the other human mages that had more refined and majestic looking equipment from his head to his toe and complete with a small crown decorating its head, Matthew knew that the man couldn't be just some other slightly more important human.

Matthew vaguely remembered the human commander's speech the last time they brought an army to the kobold village, 

'Men of Felidae Kingdom! Today we will conquer this village and give it to the second prince as he started his grand conquest to conquer this forest!'

'I guess it went somewhat like that, so that means that the man is probably the second prince who was responsible for all the human's doings in the forest.' Matthew thought

'But that steam explosion just now should be strong enough to boil me alive in that split second that it exploded, that prince should already be either dead or fatally wounded now.'

'Should I try to sneak in and finish him off? If the leader is gone then it will be easier for me to clean up the rest of the human cannon fodders.'

Matthew was tempted to run over to where the prince was after the steam had subsided even more to make sure the prince was dead or to deal the final blow if he wasn't, but learning from his past mistakes, Matthew tried to calm himself down first before thinking things through.

'That prince was called the second prince, then it means that at least one other prince in the kingdom and there's also the king. If I kill their second prince here, then will they seek revenge for him? If that's a yes which is probably what will happen then I've got two options.'

'One is that I need to take the kids and run away from the forest to the outside world. But the outside world is an unknown land where I didn't know how strong the people are out there and will we be able to survive when we go out. That human general said that there are also elves and dwarves in the outside world, and from his way of speaking, there are also demihumans such as the kobolds, but it seems they were looked down upon by the humans. Even if I was able to survive alone, will the kids be able to survive and grow properly out there?'

'The forest will provide them with good experience both for their levels and their literal practical experience. And since they could also evolve after reaching certain levels then getting enough experience to level up is crucial which should be easier here since I know exactly how to do it in this forest, but out there, we would be totally blind without anyone of us having any sort of knowledge about the world outside the forest.'

'Then for the second option, is to stay in the forest while constantly running away or fighting against the human army that will never stop coming until they got their revenge and since they said that their goal is to explore the forest and probably take over it, then the humans will be having two birds with one stone situation where they would continuously conquer the forest while slowly searching for my whereabouts.'

'Should I let the prince go and take his life after I am confident enough to go against a whole kingdom on my own? Wait a minute, is that even possible?'

'Well, we're only a team of three, and doing guerilla warfare in this vast forest will surely be advantageous for our side… What should I do…'

Matthew spent about another 5 minutes thinking about the advantage and disadvantages of the actions that he was about to do. And in the end, he reached a conclusion.

'I will stay in the forest after killing that prince.'

'I don't know if we will ever get another chance like this since the prince should be tightly guarded at all times and right now is probably the best chance if I want to get my revenge. Even if my current condition is not good either, that prince won't be any better than me after being hit by that steam explosion from such a close distance.'

'If the kingdom decided to seek revenge and send their full force here then so be it. I will use their soldiers to level up and gain more experience while also collecting more monster data to evolve my body towards its strongest form, strong enough that I could solo a kingdom! Just wait and see from up there Mutt, I hope the bearded god gives you a nice and comfortable front seat to watch me and the kids make the humans pay for what they did to you and the village.'

After firming his resolve, Matthew started walking towards the last place where he had seen the second prince and the human mages before the steam explosion.

But quite some time had passed and a lot of the steam had dispersed and Matthew's eyes were able to see past quite a distance from the steam. And as he got closer and closer towards his destination, his eyes saw a nearly transparent film in a dome shape in the midst of the steam.

And inside that dome, all the humans were still standing, without any single burn marks or wounds on their bodies. And in the middle of the humans, Matthew could see the man who's supposed to be the second prince holding his steel staff up in the air while the clear white crystal on his staff was shining while emitting a faint white transparent glow, the same color as the dome that surrounded the humans.

But from all the information that had just been registered into his brain, Matthew knew for a fact that all the humans were safe and sound from the steam explosion.

Including the second prince who looked like the one who's responsible for deploying the barrier that protected all the humans there.