The trio of amphibians traveled down the hill with increased vigor.

Their next goal was in sight and they had no stronger desire than to leave the anxiety-inducing fields at their backs.

They picked up speed as they ran across the hillside.

Egosum hopped with joy as he caught fleeting glimpses of the tree in the distance each time he cleared the grass with a jump. He turned to his side and saw Cinera scuttling with fervor to keep up with his pace. He turned to the other and searched for his froggy friend.

His heart sank when no beady-eyed amphibian was there to stare back at him.

“Hold it! I don’t see Coyotl.” They slid to a stop and turned around to search.

“Buddy, hit us with a real good call! Let us know where you are!” Cinera screamed out, echoing across the plains.

The wind and her fading voice was the only noise that played in the air.

Moments passed by as they waited for a response.

Egosum felt his heart pump harder and harder as a burst of adrenaline hit his body.

“He isn’t answering! What do we do?!” She devolved into a panic and began to move back the way they came.

“Stop moving. Give me a second of silence so I can focus my senses.” He closed his eyes and isolated any of the senses that could offer him some advantage to locate his friend. He struggled with the natural world around him to block out everything that was unrelated.

The whistling wind slowly fell from his hearing, the touch of the grass on his skin disappeared, and the sound of his own heartbeat stilled.

Nothing.

It was complete silence.

Not a rumble from the bulls or the sounds of a bird.

Another short moment passed with his fear increasing even more.

‘No. I can’t lose my first friend in a random field. There was no disastrous fight, no apocalyptic demon, no long struggle against the inevitable. He is just gone.’

His thoughts lapsed into silence as he listened and waited.

Still, nothing came to him.

‘Come on. I swore that I would hear him talk. You can’t just disappear now. I don’t want to break my vow. Just one little noise and I will move the world to save you.’

He heard the loud thump of his heartbeat beating in his chest. The force was just loud enough to break through his concentration.

He felt the faintest of tickles on his hand where the grass blew in the wind.

His adrenaline was quickly fading away as he struggled to focus.

‘Just a little more silence. A little more time. That is all I need.’

He fought with himself to knock the distractions away when a new noise peaked through the static.

A thump far too different from his heartbeat and too soft to be the beasts in the distance.

His eyes flew open, and he looked in the direction. The packed soil of the fields sat before him.

“He is underground. He has to be.” He willed his Qi into motion.

“How? Did he fall into a hole or something? Hey-” Cineras questions ended as she watched Egosum dive into the soil like it was water, sending ripples of mud splashing around.

His powerful legs kicked him forward with everything he had. Parts of the soil hardened as he gripped it tight to fling himself forward.

The cool earth was a welcomed change in pace as he flexed his Qi core to its extremes. The soil in front of him liquified jump before he ran into it.

The faint thump that sent him diving into the ground grew in strength and it became increasingly obvious something was struggling for its life.

It was just a few more kicks ahead and he would make it.

“Meepemepmeep!” The familiar call of his oldest friend broke through the dense earth as he went shooting into a tunnel, as the muck fell in behind him.

“Owaaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaa!” The familiar call was soothing to his mind but enflaming to his heart. The distress was plainly audible above all other emotions.

Egosum wiped the mud away from his face and opened his eyes in the cavern. His enhanced vision immediately filled with Qi as he took in the figures before him.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The normally dull figure of his froggy friend was replaced with a flashing white and black blotch that was doing everything in its power to claw its way out of the maw of the creature behind it.

A large, pulsing mass of teeth and tongues grasped Coyotl’s foot and attempted to drag it deeper into the hole they found themselves in.

“You filthy bastard!” He lunged at the monster with his weapons at the ready. A singular tongue lashed out to meet him, only to get pierced by the hook and yanked out of the beasts mouth with as much force as he could muster.

A splash of warm liquid hit his face as he pushed ahead to his target.

The monster barely had time to react as Egosum lunged the spear forward and into the center of its mouth.

The many tongues that had latched onto Coyotl’s leg released their grip and flailed at the burst of pain.

The ground rumbled slightly as the creature started to retreat down the tunnel.

With his friend saved from the beast's clutches, Egosum launched after the monster's retreating form.

It seemed to sense his approach in the darkness and sped up beyond what he could keep up with.

The low height of the ceiling forced with into short hops that slowed him down more than he was happy with.

He watched as the mouth retreated into the distance without any way to catch up when an epiphany struck him.

His Qi pulsed from him and he pushed his appendages into the ground around him. The force launched him ahead as the ground below turned into a slick slide for him to glide on.

The teeth of the beast glinted with mana as he caught sight of them.

He finally had the advantage in speed. He was catching up with each moment that passed.

It was right in front of him when he solidified the earth below him and lunged with all of his might. The kick sent him barreling into the monster's mouth with his weapons poised to cause damage.

He slammed the hook into its upper lip and jammed the spear into any exposed area he could reach.

It thrashed around in anger as he went to work. The mouth opened and closed, unable to reach to toad.

“You thought you could kill my friend, huh? Eat him? Well, I am glad you tried because I am going to fucking tear you apart while you struggle to throw me off.”

He flexed his Qi into action again and caused the walls of the tunnel to constrict around the monster’s body.

It jerked to a stop as the force kept it from moving back anymore.

“The earth listens to me when I call. Guess you can't say the same."

The wide maw began to peel back further than he expected, exposing every tooth and tongue it had to bare.

‘Maybe I’ll just-’

He looked at the very center of its mouth and watched its throat pulse open and close.

‘Fuck it.’

He jumped straight into the dark fleshy hole with his hook close by his side.

The walls undulated and squirmed with vigor as it tried to push him deeper inside its gut.

‘Last time I got eaten, the thing ended up as food. This time I think I’ll just let it rot.’

He called on his Qi core to tighten up more and more on the monster he found himself inside.

The tunnel shrunk around it as he was swallowed deeper and deeper by the second.

He finally pushed his hook into the slimy walls that surrounded him, halting his swallowing.

The same warm splash of blood hit his face as earlier causing him to close his eyes. It was going to be all touch from here on out.

It thrashed around at the multiple sources of discomfort and tried its best to regurgitate the meal to no avail.

Egosum began raking his weapon along the esophagus with glee, feeling it tense in pain.

His Qi packed itself into the wound and offered immediate results. The common scent of rot filled his nostril as decay set in.

He could feel it heighten its struggle even more, pulling its flesh around the constricting earth that it called home when an idea came to him.

‘I swear, fighting is when I get my best ideas.’

He grabbed control of his Qi that suffused the area and forced small points of it to grow from the tunnel walls.

He could feel them begin to pierce the monster's flesh and infect it with the rot that his Qi was so proficient at.

It finally gave up on moving as it saw death creeping up on it.

Not much longer and the deed would be done.

Egosum used his hook to pull himself out of the fleshy hole with slight difficulty and stopped right before the tongues.

‘This is probably its head..... probably.’

He willed earth spikes to quickly spear the creature all around him, ending its struggle with one final lurch as it went limp.

Right before forcing his way out, he felt one of his attacks bump into a hard sphere nearby. With the use of his hook, he scraped the flesh away and dug out the second monster core of his life.

The pure energy contained inside was intoxicating in a way the last one had not been. It felt earthen and moist, not dissimilar to the swamp Qi he frequently used.

‘I'll ask Pangu about it later.’ He felt for the monster's lips and pulled himself free.

Egosum wiped his eyes clear of the bodily fluids and looked down the way he came.

‘Sliding time I guess.’

He kicked forward, gliding on his stomach as he searched for Coyotl.

“Owaaaa, Owaaaa, Owaaa” The repeated call hit his ears long before his enhanced vision allowed him to see what was there.

“I’m coming buddy!” The shout sent the frog into another frenzy of calls as he grew closer and closer.

When he finally stopped before his friend, Coyotl lept at him with his arms wide open. They collided and the frog grasped him for dear life, too scared to do anything else.

“Meep,meep,meep,meep.” The frantic calls filled the space.

“I appreciate the hug but those aren’t words dude. Let’s get out of here before more of those things arrive.” He felt for his Qi decaying in the walls and followed it back up to the surface where Cinera was scrambling around in worry that her companion had died to some unknown fate.

“Oh my goddesses, you’re safe. I was really getting scared there.” She looked the toad in the eye before continuing. “And you, you couldn’t have told me at least a little bit about what was happening? No ‘I’ll be back’ or anything?”

All he could do was shrug his shoulders before prying the frog off his back.

“Didn't want to lose the point. It was so faint, I felt like talking was going to ruin it. In other news, I know what that worm thing on the map is. Some kind of tunneling nightmare that takes their prey into really deep burrows to eat them alive.”

“Oh, fantastic...... Let’s just get out of here already. I am tired of this scenery and these damn monsters.” She huffed and puffed with annoyance.

“Can’t argue with that. We will definitely run into other crazy shit before we make it to the swamp though.” He began hopping away when her frustrated moan filled the air.