“Do we go after him or do we wait here?” Thunkar looked to the salamander for answers.
“I guess we go after him but how do we track them?”
The beastman tapped his nose and the trio were off, hot on their trail.
The wild escape the creature performed left a wide and destructive path for all to follow leaving his sense of smell redundant. A random beast that had come to investigate the commotion would flee at the approaching group, leaving them alone to run after their kidnapped friend.
“Was that the blipper we were looking for? Cinera struck up a conversation as they traveled.
“No. Haven’t seen something like that before. Really well-hidden and not much smell. Way better at camouflaging than the blipper even. We were hunting a big rat not whatever that thing was.”
“Coyotl was able to tell it was there but we weren’t. It felt like we were repelled from the area. Like we were being told not to even bother looking.” Cinera seemed concerned by the possibility of hidden dangers
The boy hummed slightly as he thought.
“Yeah, I guess so. I wonder why he was able to see it.” He looked back at the silent frog that followed along. “What do you think about him?”
“Hmm? Uh. I am not too sure. He isn't a normal frog. I am certain of that but I don't know what his deal really is. He might just be mana touched or on the verge of sentience. I can't tell either way but he is very loud.” She nodded her head as she thought of his ear-piercing call.
“Heh. That’s true. Supernaturally loud. I heard some of the girls talking about their ears still ringing from the first time he did it.” They talked back and forth as they made their way along the path.
The group passed through a treeline that surrounded a strange clearing. A massive cliffside that stood twenty paces high.dominated the area. The blue trees and teel grass contrasted heavily with the dark gray rock that made up the cliff’s face. The bright moonlight that was ever present illuminated everything in sight.
“I can smell Egosum in that direction but it just kind of disappears.” Thukar looked at the rock with mild interest before looking to either side of the cliff.
“Where could he have gone? Around the side?” The beastman shrugged as the pair began to walk around the area to get a better look.
The silent frog looked between them with an incredulous expression plastered to his face. He hopped forward to the cliffside and stared at his with an intensity only Egosum would accuse him of.
The cliffside flashed under his glare in waves of obscurity. The hidden darkness behind the facade became plainly visible to him as he crept closer and closer.
His nose bumped into something that wasn’t actually there, surprising him slightly as he saw reality.
“Meep!” The others looked back at him as he sounded out his loud call.
“What does he want? Did he find something?” Thunkar looked to Cinera who shrugged at the question.
Frustration built up inside of him as they failed to realize what he wanted to convey.
“MEEP!” The call came out much louder than normal, causing them to whip their heads back in his direction, unsure of what to do.
Coyotl looked at the flashing wall and timed it so that he would lunge at it as the wall waned clear.
His streamlined body flew through the air and pierced whatever veil kept it hidden.
“Great, now we have two missing frogs and a headache.” Thunkar threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
-
Egosum looked around as a loud echo rocked the cavern. He had been walking when the familiar sound of Coyotl’s scream bounced off the walls around him.
The distance made it impossible to tell where it came from, leading him to continue his journey around the cavern.
The entirety of the distance he walked was barren and devoid of anything of interest.
If he wasn’t making sure to follow the wall, he felt confident that he was traveling in circles.
A large step in the cave’s floor made him leap to continue ahead but the sight that welcomed him was far different than what he was expecting.
The wet plop of his body smacking into the clay made him cringe in silence as he stared at the point of concern.
A dim light from struggling glow moss covered the sides of the cave for the first time since he started. A good indication that he was going the wrong way.
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A massive stalagmite stood before him, only a few dozen hops ahead. Large swarms of the strange creature he killed earlier moved around it in waves, surging up the sides before falling back down.
They used their kin as steps to reach higher and higher, yet failed to reach even half of the way up. There were nearly a hundred of them fighting to reach higher and higher. Their nails scrapped at the stone that made it up, causing a constant skittering noise to drift off in the distance.
His Qi sight leaned heavily on the light to understand the strange mass of nothing fumbling for control before him.
‘What the hell is going on.’
He looked up to the top where the creatures seemed to want to reach but his vision failed to reach the necessary height.
He stood still while contemplating his possibilities.
The clay beneath his feet would be perfect for turning into a dense muck to trap the horde in their own home. They appeared selfish enough to try and stampede their way to any food and kill their kin in the process.
He scanned around the area and could see it was clear from one wall to the other. He drew a line in the clay to remind him of his place and went to work setting up the largest trap to date.
He poured extra Qi into the earth to add longevity to the muck and made a massive trench filled with the tar-like goo that the beasts would have to trample over if they wanted a shot at his supple flesh.
With his plan ready, he positioned himself near the center and made himself known.
“Meep!” The call echoed for untold distances and caused the horde to halt their movements.
The telescopic eyes all slowly turned to his position in the dimly lit cave, almost like anti-shadows as the mana refused to acknowledge them. Their sight was a mystery but they very obviously could tell where exactly he was despite hiding from the light.
A few seconds of awkward silence fell over the cave before one creature took a singular step forward followed by another one.
Each one taking a step spurred a few others to do so as well until the whole crowd was moving in jerky singular steps.
‘They might catch on if they take their time to approach me.’
He turned around and called out again before taking a few quick hops backward.
The sudden movement from their prey egged their predatory senses on, causing them to sprint in a mad dash to him, disregarding their fellow creatures and the bodies they stepped over to reach him quicker.
Egosum turned to watch his handiwork and was surprised to see many of them had already been trapped completely in the mud with only a dozen of them hanging back from the spectacle.
They watched their brethren struggle fruitlessly in the trap he set, unsure of what to do. They stood taller than the average creature and looked more ornate than their camouflaged kin. The dim moss flared off of their backs with new colors.
They tested each step they took, careful not to fall into the same trap. The first of them to find where the muck started violently yanked its foot back before scanning the area in front of it.
The lesser beasts were still flopping around in the mud, struggling to keep their mouths up and out of the suffocating substance. Half of them were visibly struggling against the trap to no avail while the others had either perished or fatigued beyond the point of movement.
Egosum called out one more time to elicit some sort of response from the survivors, earning him what he interpreted as a death glare from the colorful creatures.
‘Great, intelligent freaks of nature. How wonderful.’
The stalemate only lasted for a short moment when the beast took the first move.
One of the more confident beasts stepped on the camouflage back of one of the lesser kin like a stepping stone. It balanced precariously as it forced the creature's head below the muck and suffocated it to stabilize its path.
The rest took a page from its book and hopped on their kin's backs, hopping from one to the other.
They quickly became comfortable with the process and advanced on the toad.
In the rush of competition, a few of them fell into the muck and thrashed against the suction of his trap to no avail.
It cause the rest to sober up as they slowed their pace and made much more careful hops.
‘They learn better than Coyotl does! What the shit?’
The beasts froze as they got to the end of their kin bridge, unsure of where the trap ended and the solid ground began.
Egosum went to work adding more muck to the area around him. They watched him with interest before the first creature took a leap of faith. It sailed forwards with its gaping mouth wide open.
‘Stupid thing is going to fall straight into the muck. It’s not even close to making it.’
He tracked it through the air and balked as the beast unfurled something from its back halfway through the jump.
Large flaps spilled out, catching the air as it glided forward, landing only a single hop from the toad's position. Its feet sunk slightly into the ground before it lunged at him with its mouth shooting forward like it had a mind of its own.
Egosum moved his head back from the first attack and brought his hook down as hard as he could on the beast's face, catching it right in the center of its face. The body slammed down into the floor with a loud thud as the stalk eyes smacked on either side of him, popping immediately.
The other creatures did not waste any time trying to reach him. A pair of them hopped for the dead beast's back, squabbling for the position amongst themselves as the prey watched them with his weapons at the ready.
One overtook the other and threw itself at Egosum only to be killed just as quickly as the first.
A clawed foot came reaching forward with its talons poised to grab hold of him. The toad reacted with his free hand to grapple with it.
The claws were nothing compared to the sloth’s and were quickly overpowered.
He yanked the foot to the side and sent it tumbling into the muck that it fought so hard to avoid.
The bodies the creatures could stand on doubled with the last fight, leading to a pair of them rushing ahead to confront him. He decided to hold his ground where he had the biggest advantage.
The muck was only dangerous to them and he was going to use that to his utmost ability.
They lunged at his face with their talons raised and yank them back as he swiped his weapon. The loud smack of another set of feet hitting solid clay sounded off to the side, alerting him of another attacker incoming.
He decided to go all or nothing with his next attack rather than let the enemies make their way to him. The hook found a new home in his left hand while the spear was grasped firmly in his right.
He jumped at them.