I started thinking because that's what I was good at. My paltry strength wasn’t needed, but a good plan could easily change the impossible into possible. The well and the frog at the bottom of it proved me right.
We needed to find a weakness, something to bring the frog to the ground.
It had no exoskeleton, but a thick layer of skin; not six legs but two. It was no wonder it couldn’t walk. Leaping around was not a superior way of getting around. Its head couldn’t rotate like ours, but its sight was sharp.
Though, its eyes were too big a target to ignore, but how to get atop its head.
It sat straight with its head parallel to the ground: there is a blind spot right underneath its jaw. Moreover, its tongue could only attack in a straight line without much flexibility. It even needed to position its head in the direction it wanted to attack. It couldn’t fire in rapid successions and was immovable while swallowing food.
Only one had managed to reach its eyes, and she had done it by, mounting the frog’s back!
That’s it!
The frog had another blind spot at the back of its head, besides the one directly underneath its jaw! A way… I had found a way to take it down. Now, all we needed was a group of soldiers ready to take the chance and someone to lead them, someone who could see and would be followed irrespective of the charge and order; and another group to distract the frog while they did their job. That someone would be Star.
The second group would keep their distance, but the first group needed to be led by our troop leader, and he was nowhere to be found. There was no one else who could see… other than you. My inner voice corrected.
NO, I said.
Yes and yes, It laughed and I gave in. There was no other option.
I hurried toward Star. He was charging straight toward the frog leading his remaining soldiers to their death.
Stop! Hear me out. I scented, but he was too lost, too engrossed in his thoughts. He kept going, leading; his troops exhilarated to accompany him one last time.
What are you thinking? 55555th tried to stop me, but I had made up my mind.
I charged into Star and tackled him to the ground. I kept special care so my mandibles wouldn’t injure him. Together we skittered on the ground and came to a stop some distance away. The commotion forced the soldiers to stop, buzzing antennae raging to go without him.
Pain reignited hope in his eyes. What are you doing? He said skittering away from me and heaving up to his feet.
Hear me out. I have a plan, but I need to know where our troop leader is. He’s the only one who can do it.
What? He said, his antennae were clearly out of tune. I didn’t want to admit anything else.
I repeated my words, slowly, and he listened.
He’s dead. Your troop leader is dead. He told me.
How? I asked but shook my head. No. I said. Don’t tell me. We can still do this.
Alright, He said, not caring for an answer either. It wasn’t the time for answers, but actions. What do you want us to do? He asked, ready to get eaten by the frog if it meant killing it.
Harry it with poison —I told him— but stay out of the range of its tongue, and the most important thing—
I know. He interrupted; his energetic self pushing through the determined role he had taken. You want us to distract it, right? I still don’t understand what you are trying to do, but I agree. Your troop leader was right. I was wrong to fight it head-on. But if you think you can take it down, I’m all up for it.
5555th looked at me worried, but I told her there was no reason to.
We are only going to mount its back.
I was determined.
Captain Star grouped the remaining soldiers and spread them around the frog-like a triple-layered net. They kept their distance, however, rendering the frog’s tongue ineffective. And I led a group of twenty soldiers that included my party of five. They only followed me because 5555th insisted.
The hateful one made sure to let me know her thoughts. I hope you have a good plan because I don’t have any plans of dying yet!
I do. I told her, but she wasn’t content by my response.
I had gotten another skill out of it called leadership that increased my faith and charm, but it wasn’t more important than thinking about my next steps. The frog took precedence and it was a temporary position, given out of necessity, not skill. Well, the system had acknowledged me as a leader, but its acknowledgment was as weightless as a leaf.
We went to the right, away from the fight. We needed to get out of the frog’s line of its sight if we wanted to surprise it. Star pulled the soldiers back and made the marksmen harry the frog from a distance, but the frog didn’t stay quiet either. It leaped into them. But that didn’t work this time as the soldiers were distant and experienced enough to dodge. It could have been a disaster if the soldiers were still grouped together. Only one soldier lost her life, which when compared to the last time was way a better performance. Still, a loss was a loss.
Don’t worry about them. 2K scented. A beast like that will cause death whatever you do. Kill it and the pain will stop.
Everything is happening thanks to him. The hateful one scolded. We would still be resting in the post tower if it wasn’t for him.
That’s not true. One of the soldiers raised a scent flag in my favor. It was his city, his home, and had tagged along upon hearing my plan. You say that because you haven’t lived in the terror of watching your friends leave to go for a hunt, nothing knowing whether they will return or not. Our city is worth dying for. I only regret that no one stopped to think of another method to hunt the frogs, an easier way. For generations, we have hunted them and always at a great expense.
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The pits have been there all our lives and we never stopped to think they could be used to trap our enemies. The workers always cried about needing to repair them every time it rained and how much time that wasted. Another said. Thanks to you things will change.
The hateful one-clicked her mandibles in annoyance and disappeared to the back of the group. Oh, how I enjoyed her embarrassment.
I was planning to use the drainage lanes to get behind the frog, but its leap made short of our work. 5555th asked me if we should attack it since we were already behind it; I digressed. I told them my findings regarding its blind spot, and they agreed that the risk of being found out wasn’t worth it.
Still, my findings were simply a theory I had cooked up. For all I knew, it could be complete garbage. The frog could have all-around sight with no blind or dead spots.
Slowly, I led my group toward the frog, releasing a trail straight as a line etched in the sand.
Heart pounced inside my chest. I could feel my follower’s anxiety and anxiousness. But they had no hesitation. They were as determined as me; maybe more. I didn’t know for how long captain Star would be able to hold the frog. This was our only chance. We laid flat on the ground every time the frog moved its head enough to see us.
We had to be accurate and sharp. There would be no second chances. I climbed up the frog’s slippery back reminding myself that. There would be no second chances.
Attack! I released and climbed atop of its gaining another skill. This one was called Climb.
Go for its eyes. I told them and they listened. It seemed that danger and skills went hand in hand. I had acquired more skills in the last ten minutes than I had learned in a few days. I pushed the prompt aside and pushed toward its big, black eye. I saw myself growing larger in the inky blackness of its oddly shaped eyeball and charged with my mandible pointed straight. Fluids leaked from its eyeball and the beast croaked in pain.
I felt its momentum shifting. Hold on! Someone released at the same time as the frog leaped. It was running away.
I wouldn’t let him. Not now, after reaching so far. It had to die! I would have dug into the slimy insides of its eye if my mandibles worked. Anything, I would have done anything.
But as my condition stood I could only hold onto the soft gelatinous surface of the black marble, pull my head out and stab it again. I repeated the process so many times that the mysterious system decided I needed a skill for the action. Well, it gave me two.
Stab one time in the heart to kill, two times to make sure they die, three times is a slip of hand; but who the fuck stab someone more the twenty times in the same place? You are losing it, dude!
You have acquired skill: Sharp weapon mastery.
[Sharp weapon][Tier-1][Lv-1/10][Mastery]
[Sometimes the only difference between life and death is determined by the sharpness of the cut.]
[Effect: You deal 1% more damage to your opponents with a sharp weapon.]
[Reward: Lv-1: You have acquired skill: Stab.]
***
[Stab][Lv-1/10][Tier-1][ [Passive]
[You deal 10% more damage with a stabbing action.]
[Cost: Uses 10% of your endurance.]
The frog descended, more like crashed to the ground, headfirst. A few soldiers fell away during the descent, and the shock from the fall jerked me out of its blasted left eye and to the ground.
I lost a few seconds to the trauma and when light my eyes, the frog as having a trauma, too. It was crushing soldiers during its jittering and convulsions. I had hurt it more than I expected.
I saw Star troubling to keep the soldiers safe, but he was doing a great job. They were brimming with heat, wanting to rush at the beast since it was already down. We had hurt the frog. It was proof that it could be killed. What can be hurt can be killed.
However, we needed to keep away for the frog and let it exhaust itself. Star was a veteran, and he understood this simple thing. I didn’t, which proved to be a good thing in our case because the beast was recovering. It was getting used to the undulating pain that arose from its eye. Captain Star being an ordinary soldier couldn’t see it, but I could.
Suddenly, the frog stood up, letting me sight a wound on its chest. Out of utter luck, it had managed to open the wound it had received during it tower raid. Pungent stark red blood was starting to leak from it, creating a phantom red incision down its chalk-white chest.
That’ll work. I decided. I will make it work.
I set the wound my target and charged toward it.
The skill picked me from the ground and pulled me along. The frog was so angry it didn’t notice me approaching at breakneck speed. Lone mandible pointed forward, I stabbed into the wound like an arrow and broke through. It cried in pain and the shivers almost pushed me out, but I dug in.
A wall of muscles stopped me. Since I couldn’t go in, I decided to up between the layer of its skin and the muscles wall. I felt it clawing at the chest. One time a finger even brushed me, but I was motivated and feverish. There was no way it was going to stop me any longer. Its heart pulsed beat after beat in the chest. That was my destination. I was going to blast its heart into three pieces, one for each chamber.
I could feel it’s every movement while crawling inside. Its muscles went taught before it leaped. It was taking me to the pond. There was nothing anyone could do once it had taken to the air. I hoped some of the soldiers had managed to get hold because if it survived this time, there would be no next time. It lost momentum and fell toward the ground. The power transmitted from its legs up the body, and it leaped again, using the momentum to keep moving. Its chest rattled like a hollow reed when it croaked for help.
I found a small gap between its muscles and collar bones and pushed through it. I had to shear them with my mandible, cutting the fibrous thin threads keeping the two together.
The frog shuddered every time I cut one of the threads. I enjoyed its pain very much; a little too much maybe. Its chest muscles involuntarily twitched and the bones they were joined to crackled in freedom. I wormed my way through its chest cavity when the ole was big enough for me to pass through, stabbing every inch of its soft flesh and veins. Its insides exploded in blood around me. I followed its wildly thumping heartbeat and found the organ, a monstrosity of its own.
I was about to stab the shit out of its shading heart when the beast gave a loud croak of the kind I had never heard before. It was full of pain. I had leaped high right before, but it didn’t fall back to the ground no matter how long I waited. Then its heart seized completely.
The frog died.
Confused and delirious, I climbed my way out of its throat hoping to find the survivors cheering and enjoying the victory, but I found the ground quickly blurring past instead. The frog was moving at an unprecedented speed. It was being carried past the green pastures and into territory unknown.
Yes. The beast was dead. It was not killed by me or my companions, but a shading SKY PREDATOR!
It must have swooped down from the sky when the frog was mid-leap, attracted by its atrociously loud croak!
I had promised Princess to complete our quest, but I wasn't expecting this situation...
What was I supposed to do now?