The first task at hand was to make the frog stop its sleepy-spore attack.

I could run up behind it, get on top of it, and kick the crap out of its mushroom. But as soon as I had the idea, I discarded it. Touching the mushroom with my bare foot sounded like an amazing way of going back into a trance.

But I needed to get rid of its attack anyway.

Would kicking hard enough and falling into its trance would be enough to make it stop putting the sleepy spores on the bear? I had to test this before actually committing to that action plan.

I went on all fours and started looking for a throwable rock in the marshy water. I needed to be fast, as the acid-like blood of the frog kept eating the bear's flesh. The bear was in worse shape than just a few minutes ago, more patches of visible flesh presenting themselves since the frog was moving its wounded tongue around the bear, constricting and bathing it in its insidious blood.

My time was running out, the bear’s efforts to stay awake were becoming more and more isolated, greater amounts of time passing between each swing or bite, its power now detrimental to itself, since every powerful bite would just open a new wound on the frog’s tongue, leading to more blood covering the poor bear.

I kept desperately searching for rocks until I got four of them, not tiny little rocks, but palm-sized sturdy looking, dense, and heavy rocks. Just a couple of days ago, I wouldn’t have been able to throw these rocks with any meaningful strength behind them, or for any distance worth a damn. But right now, after the stat increases, meager as they were, I had a feeling I could at least put a dent in the frog’s mushroom. I was confident about at least that.

Deciding to go for the glowy, sleepy mushroom first I aimed.

I was probably twenty or so feet away from the frog, extending my arms, lifting my left leg in a motion meant to increase the force of the throw, like a pitcher throwing a fastball, I let go of the rock putting mind, body, and soul behind it. It traveled so fast that I was not able to see it hit the mushroom.

I just saw that the frog moved by hoping a bit away from me, the mushroom’s light now deemed, and the spores in the air disappearing altogether.

It was a success on many levels, I had stopped the spores and I had confirmed that the mushroom was able to withstand some damage, had I kicked it, I would have certainly fallen back into a trance or stupor.

I grabbed a second rock and repeated my actions, hitting the mushroom a second time, this time the frog hopped around a couple of times, trying to get away, but was unable to do so since its tongue was still coiled around the bear, who was now stepping on it with its entire body, having fall prey to the sleepy spores.

The mushroom on its head looked somehow dark now, it wasn’t a matter of it not emitting light, but more of a becoming greyish-tinged. Like whatever magical force was behind its hypnotic properties was now dormant.

The frog was looking back at me now.

It started unwrapping its tongue from the bear, which was now sleeping, slowly, since it had to wrestle the weight of the huge animal to get its tongue free.

I took a chance and threw my third rock at it, putting everything I had behind it.

A muted, small thump noise was the only indication the rock had made contact with the frog. I panicked, receiving a lot of emotional damage. I should have thought this through a bit more, what was I supposed to do if my plan to throw a rock to the mushroom worked?

The bear was still asleep, the frog’s tongue was almost completely unraveled, and its owner was ready to hop onto me, flattening me into a paste. Somehow I knew it could hop over long distances and that my death by toad was approaching.

So I did what any logical and sane person would do at that point. I threw my fourth rock right at the bear’s skull with all my might.

The tongue was free and rapidly getting back into the bullfrog’s mouth, it appeared as if the thing had decided to eat me instead of flattening me, so it would use its mighty tongue to reel me in when the loudest growl I had ever heard shook the air around us.

The bear was up, it was time to go into my corner and tag out.

The bear rammed the side of the frog, making it roll to its side, while I just threw my arms into the air, feeling relieved and invigorated.

“YES! Take THAT stupid hypno-frog” I yelled, “Go bear go!” I started cheering the bear, which looked at me and huffed, growling again just before swinging its paws at the side of the frog, opening a massive gash on its side.

The frog tried to counter with its tongue, using it like a whip now, I guess that without the hypnotic effects of the mushroom, it had to revert to less effective physical attacks.

Less effective against the mighty black bear, since I was sure it would be an instant kill if I was the one receiving the lashes.

The bear caught the tongue in its jaws, snapping it in two, it had gone completely feral at this point, driven by rage and revenge, acid blood spilling all over its fur, burning it down and damaging it.

It was then that the frog tried to use its mushroom attack one more time. At first, I could only see the tiniest flicker, almost imperceptible, but the intensity of the light was growing with each passing second. If the frog was able to use its psychic attack, we were done.

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I had to do something, without any thoughts or plan, I dashed forward, assuming my trusty peek-a-boo stance, I lowered my hips and my legs went into a wider, lower stance than usual. I got ready to put every ounce of strength behind every single punch. The freaking frog had made a mistake when it healed my right fist and was going to get acquainted with it, real fast.

The first few spores started falling through the air by the time I was in position to start throwing punches, the bear having understood as well that we were in a race against time, bit the frog to hold it in place, while swinging at it, but I could tell each swing was weaker than the last, too much blood loss, my bear partner was on its last legs.

I started throwing hooks like a madman, right hook to left hook, swaying my hips and turning my legs in place, trying to create centrifugal force with my body, to empower each swing, I was also stepping into each punch, using my full weight to increase the pain giving, while making sure that I was extending my shoulders like a rubber band going into every swing, every punch.

I caught a rhythm, and building upon it, I started increasing the speed of my punches and started swaying my torso, left and right, swaying left for a right hook, swaying right for a left.

My flurry of punches became a blur, I was sure I was now moving at an inhuman speed, the side of the frog was not even able to regain its shape, becoming an increasingly large circular depression on its side; until the frog recoiled, trying to make space in between us, but unable to go far due to the bear’s might grip.

I didn’t let up and dashed forward, using my new momentum, I allowed myself to fall into my fist, which in turn fell into the frog.

I continued my flurry of attacks, I heard a faint *DING* inside my head but paid it no mind. I was in the zone, the formerly green skin of the toad now a blackish purple, dotted with red. I could feel an alien influx of strength behind every one of my hooks, as if my punches were being magically enhanced, I could feel my chest burning, and my stamina dropping fast, my legs about to stop, and when that happened, my flurry would stop dead.

I continued, I was dead anyway if the frog could concentrate on its hypnosis.

I would go swinging.

The bell had not rung yet.

My legs stopped, my momentum ended, and my hooks returned to regular human-level speed. But I kept at it, each swing coming slower than before, until I fell on my knees, still swinging, I was now under the forg’s hypnotic sleep attack. The bear right next to me, huffing and opening its jaw with missing teeth and no lips around its muzzle. Patiently waiting for sleep as well...

Wait… what?

With a final, kiddy punch to the toad’s side, which looked swollen and black, snapping out my tunnel vision, I noticed that the frog’s body was limp now, the mushroom had never activated, and the bear was sitting on its haunches, looking at me inquisitively, like a dog.

I was completely out of breath, huffing and puffing, my strength depleted, my stamina long gone. My fists hurt, I could even see some bone on my peeled-off knuckles, but nothing broken, thankfully.

We had won. I was alive. Tired like never before, but alive.

I heard a little *pop* sound, just before the freaking mushroom fell in between the bear and me.

I looked at it, and grabbed it, “fucking mushroom” I said, to which the bear added a huff in agreement.

It stood back up, huffed again, and started walking away, slowly, wobbling and limping its way, but after a few feet, it also fell to the ground, close enough that I could feel its heavy irregular breathing. It was dying.

I could not stop myself from feeling terrible for it. If not for him, I would be dead, worse than dead actually, I would be in the middle of being digested by a freaking giant frog, probably blissfully thinking I was in heaven.

It was a shame about the bear, especially now that not only did I feel indebted to it, but it had also decided not to kill me or eat me. God knows why.

I looked at the mushroom, trying not to think about the poor bear. When it came to me, the knowledge about the mushroom, just like it had happened with the Odenwald berry bushes. It was an item.

No! It was loot!

My first bounty. The first time a monster had literally dropped something for me.

I concentrated on the brownish mushroom with glowy yellow dots and got an actual description, shiny letters in my mind’s eye.

--hypnotic mushroom that grew on top of a hypnotic frog. Not being part of the frog, they developed a symbiotic connection throughout centuries of coexistence.--

--Properties: can be boiled in water to produce a sleep poison, or consumed for its Greater Healing properties. Grade E--

So that’s how it was, we were fighting a real tag team match, two vs two. And the mushroom was E-grade to boot, while the frog was just F-grade. No wonder it could put my tag partner to sleep. It made sense now.

Speaking of which, I had now two options, two completely different paths to follow, I could keep the mushroom, boil it, and get a sleep poison that would certainly help with my quest. Heck, I could just throw it into a cooking pot and wait for every Dokkalfar (whatever they were) to fall asleep.

Or I could give it to the bear.

Yeah, it was not even a question about what to do was it?

I painfully stood up from the puddle of marsh water, my bones creaking, my muscles screaming, especially my knees and shoulders. I could also feel my knuckles burning, in a nutshell, my whole body was asking for a truce.

Fighting against my own body, I slowly closed to the bear, I could hear his shallow breathing, sorry gurgles coming out of his mouth, and his hind leg spasming involuntarily now and then.

Using its own, massive body, which still was higher than me even in its current ‘laid on the floor and dying’ position, to support myself straight, I walked up to his mouth, I could see bone, missing teeth, and rotting flesh, being seared away by the lingering effects of the frog’s acidic blood.

I put my hand on its forehead, careful not to poke its third eye.

“Alright buddy, I know we didn’t get to a nice start in this relationship, but you helped me and I helped you,” I said, while petting his head and looking into his third eye, the other regular set of eyes closed already.

“I am not deluded into thinking that a mighty King of the forest such as yourself would become friends with me, but I was raised to pay my debts, and that is exactly what I am going to do” I continued my ramblings, knowing that the bear was not understanding anything I said.

“You see this here mushroom?” I asked, hopelessly. “I know that it can heal you if you eat it, now, I don’t have any honey to make it easier on your palate, nor do I think you can chew it, what with your missing teeth and having no tongue and all,” I said in a very serious tone.

“So I am going to do you a solid, and just stuff it down your throat; I know it won’t be pleasant, but medicine never is right?”

“On second thought, I believe you guys eat whole salmons, so maybe this won't be as hard on you as I figured at first,” I said while pushing the mushroom down his throat, my arm disappearing into his mouth.

The bear’s third eye widened a bit, and I could feel his swallowing moves in his throat, so I let go of the mushroom and took out my arm. A few scalding marks on it, due to residual frog blood.

I waited for a while, sitting next to the bear while petting his head, which was as big as I was when sitting until I could hear his breath stabilize, he was not bleeding any longer, and I could see how his flesh was being regenerated, even his tongue was back.

Before he could gather his strength and his teeth and claws reformed, I stood up, threw a few Odenwald berries into his mouth for good measure, which he chewed greedily upon; and started my way towards the light beacon. No longer hurting, having eaten some berries myself, but still tired.

It was time to resume my quest.