"Holy crap! How big is that thing?" Blue asked, staring at the gigantic lizard.

"Can we use the pearls now, oh, great leader?" Bonnie stared at Leo with an angry expression.

"Scold me later, toss the things. Clear that pool," Leo yelled, grabbing one of the pearls with him.

The group threw a couple of pearls, cleansing about a third of the pool. The glows were unable to cover the creature completely, much less the pond. They would need to go around it to reach the areas that still had poison. The lizard still had its eyes locked with Hera's. Even as she moved around, the glowing purple eyes kept following her even as the other got closer. She took a step back, staying within the monster's sight.

The clean water was starting to become contaminated once more. Not only the poison from the areas where the glow didn't reach was coming towards the clean areas, but the giant lizard appeared to make poison out of its body.

Without breaking eye contact, Tanika, the giant lizard, opened its mouth and regurgitated a set of two poison frogs and a poison snake. Hera wasn't sure what was the most upsetting part. Seeing three creatures leaving the giant's mouth and start moving around, or the fact that the giant lizard didn't even blink while vomiting the creatures. Even though her [Observe] identified the monsters' name, they were smaller than those she fought before. They were almost a middle point between the lesser and the regular versions.

"Blue! I'm going to need some help here," Hera yelled, seeing the three smaller creatures heading towards her.

The controller, seeing what was going on, dashed towards the explorer. Mark, who was still behind Hera, started to send arrow after arrow towards the poison frogs. Just the three creatures wouldn't be much of a problem. The issue was the looming threat of the behemoth behind them.

After throwing up the creatures, Tanika was back to just staring at Hera. The trio quickly finished off the frogs and moved towards the bloated snake. At that moment, another glow appeared behind the frog. Someone had managed to activate another pearl. Blue wasn't able to notice it since she had just placed the bloated snake into a headlock.

With Blue holding down the snake, Hera was able to chop its head off. Mark held its bow aimed towards the giant lizard.

"Should I shoot it?" he asked.

"It's not actually attacking. Just standing there," Hera said.

Tanika started convulsing, and the poison in the water crawled up its skin being absorbed by the lizard. The liquid was seeping into the cracks between its scales. Its spikes glowed with a vivid purple, and the behemoth threw up three poison frogs and a poison lizard.

"Aw, c'mon," Blue groaned, seeing the smaller creatures moving towards her.

"We need to clear all the poison!" Bonnie yelled from the side of the large pool.

In response, another glow appeared on the opposite side of the first one. By Hera's guess, there was only the area in the back missing now.

Mark was already flinging arrow after arrow towards the incoming frogs. They were the ones he had to make on the spot. The lack of a proper finish made the projectiles fly in the odd trajectories, making it harder for Mark to hit the creatures.

Hera and Blue had less trouble. The frogs that were coming could be stronger than the lesser version, but they were just as hardy. It only took the two a few moves to kill each one of them. The lizard was a bit more complicated, not because of its strength but for its speed. It kept dashing and dodging. It was like trying to swat a fly.

Another glow appeared behind the creature, cleansing most of the pool, followed by Bonnie's voice, "There is still poison around. I'm going to use a big pearl!"

The researcher was moving back towards Blue and Hera. She grabbed the largest pearl they found and aimed at the giant's mouth.

When the poison lizard died, Tanika opened its mouth while the spikes on its back flared up once more. At that moment, Bonnie tossed the pearl, hoping to cleanse the creature's poison from the inside.

The glow this time was barely enough to cover the entire creature. Bonnie yelled to everyone to throw a couple of pearls, cleaning the remaining poison from the pool. When the light vanished, Tanika was still in the same position. It started to shiver, and the water raised once more towards it, seeping between its scales.

It kept pulling more and more water while the spikes grew brighter until the last spike on its back exploded, causing a large scorch mark on the creature's body. Tanika appeared to lose its front legs' strength and made an odd high-pitched sound that seemed almost like a wail. In response to that, several lesser poison creatures emerged from the smaller poison pools in the area. They started marching towards Tanika, ignoring the humans altogether.

"What the hell is this?" Blue asked, looking around.

"I have no idea. Should we just kill them?" Mark asked.

"No clue. Bonnie, what do you think?" Hera called the researcher, who was still a bit far from them.

"Part of me says to see what is going to happen. But the other part says it's a bad idea to let whatever they are doing to happen," she replied, looking at the creatures.

"Soo... let's wait for Alex and Leo, at least we can regroup," Blue suggested.

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No one was confident that waiting was a good idea, but Hera had to admit that she was curious about what the creatures were doing.

They watched as the lesser snakes, frogs, and lizards walked towards Tanika and climbed into its mouth. The beast didn't stop its wail, even while the smaller ones were deep into its throat.

Alex and Leo arrived just as the last few poison critters were arriving at Tanika's maw.

"What the hell is that?" Leo asked.

Hera quickly explained what was going on.

"I get why you are waiting, but that is a bad idea. What if that thing uses a big skill now?" Alex said.

Before any of them could reply, Tanika retched, and two poison snakes came out among its bile, together with three poison lizards.

"I guess with the lack of poison around it. It uses the creatures as fuel to make more," Bonnie said.

"Think about it later. We need to kill that thing. Blue lets focus on the ones coming from its mouth. Alex, try to attack the big thing," Leo commanded.

Hera joined in the group against the smaller creatures. Something about the idea of approaching the reptile didn't sit well with her, especially since the beast had yet to move her eyes away from her.

The snakes and lizards were quickly dispatched. Hera taking care of two while Leo and Blue took one each. Just as the explorer dealt the final blow on the last snake, Alex yelled.

"Shit!" the assassin rushed back to the group while covered in a thick glowing purple sludge, "gimme a pearl, gimme a pearl," she begged.

Bonnie tossed a pearl to her, and the glow covered the group. Alex's face was burnt in a few places where the liquid splashed her.

"That thing freaking hurts!" she gasped.

"Ok, then. Going close range is a no go. What the hell do we do?" Leo asked.

Tanika started shivering once again, the water crawling up its body. After a moment, the loud wail began, followed by the army of lesser poison creatures rising from the pools.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Hera turned towards the lesser monsters and started to kill them before reaching its master, "I have no idea what is going on, but that last batch seemed bigger. We can't let them go in again."

Bonnie nodded and started to attack the monsters. She didn't see the firsts groups, but Hera could be right. It would make sense for the difficulty to keep increasing. The group quickly spread and started to kill all the monsters who were marching to be devoured.

The critters weren't fighting back. This was not a fight but just a slaughter, one way or another, they would die. They were also only walking, which made it even easier to deal a killing blow. Hera kept slashing away, but she couldn't help but to feel her stomach-turning. The situation felt wrong. She was just killing a bunch of harmless creatures, and for what? So that she wouldn't have to fight stronger creatures? She was just a coward, no better than the emperor.

Hera shook her head. She couldn't let herself go there. This was a fight for her life, just like any other inside the maze. She needed to be strong and survive, even if she had to do something like this. Hera cut another frog's head and stopped. Could this be what the emperor felt? How can she say she's better than him if she is willing to kill innocent creatures just to survive?

An explosion broke Hera's train of thought. Looking back, she saw one of the large spikes on Tanika's back had exploded, making another large scorch mark around its body. Hera looked around and saw that the area was clear of any small poison creatures.

"This is the gimmick!" Bonnie yelled, "We need to make the rest of the spikes blow up. Don't let anything get into its mouth."

Hera looked around, trying to see if any other creatures were coming. Everything seemed quiet, and without the lizard's noise, it could almost be seen as peaceful. A moment passed, and Tanika started its wail once more, this time in a higher pitch. The change in tone made the noise a bit annoying, but nothing that would disturb the group.

The lesser poison creatures raised up once more and marched towards the giant. However, they were moving faster, but it still wasn't an issue. It took a bit longer to kill them all. The previous wave took less than a minute. This one almost went past two.

When no more creatures remained, one of the spikes on Tanika's back started glowing and then exploded, showing not only a larger gash on its back but a few cuts on the sides. There were still five more spikes on its back.

The wail began, and the group fought off the creatures once more. Each wave would move faster and be more numerous than the last. It would also last longer than the previous one. What started as something close to a minute of fighting turned into almost ten minutes of fighting nonstop. Even if the creatures weren't fighting back, just running around catching them was very troublesome.

As the spikes blew up, more wound appeared on the creature's back. One of them was large enough to show what looked like a purple stone embedded deep into Tanika's flesh.

When only a single spike remained, the monsters that came out of the pools were a bit bigger but less numerous. The issue was that they were smarter. The creatures now were fighting back. They would try to avoid being caught and even sacrifice themselves so that the others could reach Tanika.

The group struggled to kill the creatures. They all fought as one. Hera used her pulse and confirmed that all the small monsters had a thin mana link connecting them all. Even with all their efforts, a couple of the poison creatures managed to jump inside Tanika's mouth.

Hera and the others rushed together, trying to get in some semblance of a combat formation.

"Careful guys, this could be a big one," Bonnie said as she started charging a spell.

The last spike on Tanika's back started to glow, becoming even brighter than before. The lizard closed its mouth and lowered its head, showing an odd formation of horns on its forehead. They were glowing in the same light. Suddenly, a purple glow came out of all its wounds, while sparks of energy started coming out of the horns.

"That's not good," Mark said as he notched another arrow and sent towards the spikes.

Bonnie joined in, sending a couple of cold bombs to the formation on Tanika's forehead. The arrows were vaporized by the condensed energy, and the spells seemed to have little to no effect. The glow grew brighter as the power charged up.

"We need to move!" Leo yelled.

Hera noticed that the energy on Tanika’s forehead was enveloped by a mist that seemed to degrade the area around it. It was a sight very similar to when she used one of her poison spells.

"No, we don't!" Hera said as she grabbed the cane, that she had recovered from the Greater Poison Snake's body. She placed a pearl in its damaged tip and held it pointing towards the giant lizard.

"Hera, are you sure?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes, I am." the explorer replied.

Tanika finished charging up the spell and fired a concentrated beam of poison mana towards the group. The moment the purple laser hit the cane, a pearlescent glow covered the area.

"Are we dead? Are we dead? Are we dead?" Mark kept asking the same question while the glow covered their eyes.

After a few moments, the light vanished and showed Tanika charging up for another attack. However, this time, before the group could even react, the monster's core exploded, killing the creature.

"Holy crap, Hera. How did you know that would work?" Blue gasped.

Before Hera was able to reply, a notification appeared in front of each member of the group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have completed the Dungeon Quest inside The Frog Valley.

By destroying the creature responsible for generating the poison, the Valley returned to a peaceful state.

Rewards:

5 000 gold

Minor Mana Stone Select

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The mana had a poison feel to it. But to be honest, I was only like 80% sure," Hera laughed.

"Are you serious?" Leo gasped.

Tanika's body started to glow. Simultaneously, a small lizard, about the size of a husky, appeared on top of its head.