The roar struck fear into the frog monster, just like his roar had shaken Will, Lura, and Cosmo. His advance towards the group stopped as he watched Cosmo.

Cosmo leaned forward, playing his hands on the ground. Now standing on all fours, Cosmo once again let out a pain filled scream. His skin began bubbling like the frog's had before, as he began growing in size. Dark black hair began growing on his floppy ears, and around his neck. His mouth opened to show large sharp teeth, his tongue flopping out the side of his mouth, causing drool to begin falling to the ground. His paws grew to be the size of a car's tires, and his claws stuck out to four inches long. His crimson red scales had significantly darkened to a point they were nearly black. His eyes that had once been loving and kind were now almost entirely white, with a tiny black speck for his pupils.

Without giving the frog a chance to start moving again, Cosmo pounced. Making a large leap Cosmo was in front of the frog in an instant. Lifting his large front paw, Cosmo swiped the frog's head horizontally. The frog let out a loud cry as its head snapped to the side and blood began to flow from the claw marks left across its face.

As if the scratch was a wake up call to the frog, he snapped into action. He leaped into the air, did a front flip, and slammed his tail towards Cosmo. Cosmo attempted to side step the attack, but was too slow to avoid it completely. The frog monster's mace-like tail dug into Cosmo's shoulder, leaving a massive gash.

After landing on his feet, the frog went in for its next attack. He stood on his hind legs and attempted to grab on to Cosmo, like a cat would. Cosmo was able to successfully avoid the attack this time, and used his large fangs to bite the frog. Cosmo bit the side of the frog, with the top jaw gouging the frog's back and the bottom jaw sticking into his stomach. The large spines on the frog's back got in the way of the bite however, and the roof of Cosmo's mouth got sliced up.

Cosmo released his grip on the frog and let out a pain filled roar. He took a few steps backwards, as did the frog, and they were back to staring each other down.

Respyn, Lura, and Will were left stunned by what they were seeing. Separated by the battle before them, neither Respyn or Lura attempted to approach each other. Instead they watched on as the two large monsters fought in front of them. As the battle unfolded the three's minds began to wander, about what would come next after this battle.

Respyn's mind was filled with the possibilities for his career. How having a monster like this at his beck and call would make many people who would attempt to stop him tremble in fear. His goal of finding a way off the planet had changed to finding a way off the planet with this creature in toe. The money he could make filled his thoughts.

For Lura, all she could think about was how she could finally capture Respyn. With Cosmo like this she thought overpowering Respyn would be a simple matter. Have Comso kill the frog, reverting it back into an egg, then go and capture Respyn. Once that was done Lura would focus on fixing her comms device, then radio back to Kitania to pick her up. Then a commendation, and possibly even a promotion were in her future.

Unlike Respyn and Lura, Will wasn't thinking about how he could use these monsters to his benefit. He stood there watching as his new friend Cosmo had become a violent beast. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes as he saw Cosmo get attacked, shed blood, and cry out in pain. This was no longer his inseparable friend, it was a mindless weapon.

“Cosmo, stop!” Will screamed, but his words didn't reach the crimson lizard.

Hearing Will's scream, Lura looked back at him. Seeing him shaking in fear with tears in his eyes cleared all her thoughts from before.

Cosmo was the first to make a move again this time, breaking the staredown. He leapt forward to bite at the frog's neck. The frog waited for Cosmo to get close, then his tongue that had been dragging on the ground began moving. It moved like a snake, slithering around Cosmo's midsection, and stopping him midair before he could reach the frog.

With Cosmo suspended in the air, there was little he could do to avoid the next attack. The frog lifted Cosmo as high into the air as his tongue would allow, then slammed Cosmo into the ground as hard as he could. The sound of the air being forced out of Cosmo's lungs from the impact rang out..

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The frog took advantage of the moment that Cosmo laid on the ground gasping for breath. He leapt atop the lizard, dug the claws of his front legs into his scaly back, and began kicking his stomach with the claws of his hind legs.

The two monsters rolled around on the ground, as Cosmo tried to free himself. Despite Cosmo's struggles the frog didn't let up, and continued tearing up Cosmo's stomach with his claws. Eventually Cosmo managed to thrash about hard enough to get the frog's back on the ground. The large spines sticking out of the frog's back dug into the ground, causing the frog to stop rolling. Being unable to right himself, the frog let go of Cosmo to dig its spines out of the ground and get back on its feet.

Cosmo staggered away after being let free, but didn't take any time to recover. After getting steady footing, Cosmo turned his attention toward the frog, who had easily freed himself after Cosmo's weight was no longer pushing the frog's spines into the ground. Cosmo charged forward towards the frog, the frog again tried using its tongue to grab Cosmo, but Cosmo had expected it. Cosmo managed to catch the frog's tongue midair in its teeth.

With the frog's tongue caught, Cosmo cautiously began approaching the frog. Not letting the tongue out of his grasp, Cosmo used a foot to push the tongue against the ground. Making sure not to give the frog room to escape, Cosmo approached by walking on his tongue. Always keeping one floor on the tongue, taking a step, and then once a different foot was pinning the tongue to the ground Cosmo would step again. The frog was unable to escape Cosmo's grasp.

When Cosmo got within three yards of the frog, he pounced. He slashed his claws across the face of the frog again, making large scratches across the frog's forehead. His blood began to flow down his face, getting in his eyes.

This ended up being the deciding factor in this fight. With the blood obstructing the frog's vision, he was left helpless as Cosmo laid into it with a flurry of attacks. He scratched the frog with his claws, bit it's neck, and whipped it around with his powerful jaw.

After a few moments the frog was left in a motionless pile in the ground. As everyone looked on they witnessed the frog slowly shrink. Now back to its form from a short while ago. Cosmo stood over the small monster staring at it, but not making any moves. The area had gone completely silent after the battle had ended.

“Cosmo!” Will's voice rang out, finally reaching Cosmo's ears.

The lizard turned its attention toward the boy, looked at him with his glazed over eyes, and began approaching. Seeing this as his moment to flee, Respyn ran up to the collapsed frog, and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck. With Cosmo, Will, and Lura all focused on each other, Respyn successfully made his escape again.

Cosmo kept approaching Will, but as Will began to walk towards Cosmo he was stopped. Lura had finally gotten up after watching the fight, and put her arm in front of Will to stop him. Will, confused, looked towards Lura. Lura knew he wanted to know why she stopped him, so she answered his unspoken question.

“It's too dangerous to get close. That isn't him anymore.” Lura said, leaving Will behind as she went to face the monster.

Lura was filled with regret. She had let her job, her ego, and her assumptions hurt people. Her job was her life, and she wanted to advance up the ranks, but she did her job to help people at the end of the day. Was it because she was on a different planet that she had disregarded the wellbeing of the people around? Was it because she had been told the eggs contained nothing more than weapons that she ignored Cosmo being more than that? All these thoughts raced through her mind making the few seconds walk feel like an eternity.

The only thing Lura could think of to make things right, was to end Cosmo's life and end his existence as this violent monsters. The creatures from the eggs weren't like most lifeforms Lura knew about. They didn't have a finite life. Upon death, they would return to an egg state, waiting to be hatched again. His memories would be gone, but he would be able to be reborn again. This was all Lura could do to make up for what she had pushed Cosmo to become.

Lura pulled out her baton as she stood face to face with Cosmo. Cosmo had his head hung down low to get closer to her eye level, while letting out a slow rumbling growl. They waited, seeing if the other would make the first move.

Before either had a chance though, Will went running past Lura. He made a b-line straight for Cosmo. With Cosmo's head close to the ground it was in reach of Will.

Will hugged the lizard's large snout and spoke to him. “Cosmo, are you okay? You got hurt really bad. Let's go home and get you bandaged up, okay?”

As Will spoke to Cosmo, the glaze over the monster's eyes disappeared, and his pupils became visible again. Just like the frog, Cosmo also began to shrink down. Now back in his bipedal form, trapped in Will's embrace, Cosmo spoke a single word. “Home.”

Lura lowered her baton as she watched the scene in front of her. She let out a huge sigh at the sight in front of her, and once again fell to her knees as the weight of her prior resolve was lifted. She had made another rash decision that would have brought unneeded pain.

As the group of three made their way back to the Gray home, they were silent and exhausted. Will and Lura took turns providing support for Cosmo who was hurt and having trouble walking on his own. Lura used this walk to reflect on the day's events, and all the mistakes she had made.