168 Tongue

As three Bullfrogs' heads whipped towards Elero, her heart skipped a beat. Thomas thrashed around as a Bullfrog's foot pushed the air from his lungs. He inhaled swamp water and coughed it back up. 'He's going to get crushed to death,' Elero thought as she prepared to rush in. 'But I'm not going to make it!' The water bursts up as two figures lept out of the mud.

Two spears pierced straight through the Bullfrog's soft underbelly. Its two bright, yellow eyes dulled. It fell to its side, giving one pain-filled croak. Doevm and Frey pushed the bloody corpse off of Thomas, who wasn't moving.

The other two Bullfrogs didn't pay attention to their companion. Their eyes were locked onto Elero. They both lept into the air, creating gyzers in their wake. Elero condensed life essence around her legs and crouched down. 'Now that I know your weak points,' she thought as she aimed at the rightmost Bullfrog's underbelly. 'You two don't seem so tough anymore.'

She uncoiled her legs and she launched into the sky. Wind whistled around her longsword. She straightened herself, becoming as arrow-like as possible. The Bullfrog didn't even have the time to screech as she tore a hole through its center. She emerged the other side wearing a bright smile. She opened her eyes to see a world full of red. The other Bullfrog's head snapped towards her. Its tongue flew out with a thwap. She turned her body, but not soon enough. The tongue wrapped around her ankle. She could have sworn that the Bullfrog smirked.

Before the Bullfrog could withdraw its tongue however, she released the life essence around her legs. The liquidated ankle, contained in only a bag of messily flesh, slid right out of the tongue's grasp. She swung the longsword with both hands as she twisted. The tongue retracted inches away from the bloody blade.

She clicked her tongue and moved her life essence back to her legs, which cracked back into place. The Bullfrog thudded down on the solid soil. Elero however, landed in the water. A small waterspout erupted around her. Her legs sunk straight into the mud. She clicked her tongue. "I hate this damned swamp."

The Bullfrog bent low and opened its mouth, displaying its few teeth-like protrusions. Compared to the mutated Bullfrog, this one's teeth were less in both size and number of teeth. Just before its tongue shot out, a large figure darted towards it, Frey.

He charged in, not with his spear, nor his Kopis, nor even his shield, just his bare hands, which were stretched out. He slammed into the Bullfrog's hind leg. His arms wrapped around it. Life essence surged around him, engulfing him as if he was on fire. "Miss Mech," he groaned as the soil sunk under him. The Bullfrog tried to jump away, but Frey held tight, not allowing its leg to uncoil. "Fuck it up."

Elero however, had a perfect view. She rooted herself and took a deep breath before swinging. The longsword flashed into the side of the Bullfrog, missing the soft underbelly by inches. The Bullfrog flew past her, bounced off of the ground, and slid back dozens of feet before coming to a stop. A torrent of blood erupted from its side as it righted itself, its eyes still spinning. Its head moved around in a daze. Its croak was now nothing more than a raspy exhale.

Frey looked over to Doevm, who threw an unconscious Thomas over his shoulder, and cursed: "Is he breathing?"

Doevm shook his head as he waded to shore. "Even though he is not breathing, he is still alive. I can save him but you two need to hurry up and kill that Bullfrog."

"Miss Mech," Frey said as he drew his shield. "I'll distract while you deal damage with that thing." Elero nodded and walked behind him. His shield morphed from solid to liquid back to solid. The large crack which ran down its center, vanished. He crouched down much lower than before; his eyes focused on his opponent with a fury.

The Bullfrog shook its head and finally came out of its daze. When its eyes locked onto its target however, it was not on Frey or Elero, but at Thomas and Doevm. "Hey, over here. I'm your target." Frey beat his shield with his spear. The reverberating metal thuds echoing through the swamp, and the Bullfrog's eyes snapped towards them. "That's right," he said as he moved in, his spear resting on the top of his circular shield. Elero was close behind him, her longsword ready.

The Bullfrog coiled its legs and Elero did the same. Just before jumping, however, it looked to the other and released the tension. It opened its mouth, displaying a few long, teeth-like objects in the upper part of its mouth and circled around them. Frey closed in as they circled.

"Change of plans," Elero said. "I think it's going to come at you with its tongue. When it does, jump to the side." Frye nodded. She changed to a reverse grip on her longsword and raised it high. Her blade was pointed at the ground.

The Bullfrog's mouth opened and closed in a rhythmic pattern. Several sloshing sounds came from within its stomach. Its body ballooned up in size. It croaked. Elero's heart was louder than a drum. A drop of sweat went down her cheek as they waited, getting closer, and closer, and closer. Forty feet became thirty-five. 'Not yet,' a voice said. Thirty-five became thirty. 'Not yet.' Thirty became twenty.

The Bullfrog croaked. Then came the tongue.

Elero's world darkened. The only thing in her mind was the tongue flying out towards them. The blur which she assumed to be Frey sidestepped around it. She waited with bated breath. Her hands ever so slightly tightened. The tongue went past him and entered her range. 'Now!' She plunged the longsword straight through the Bullfrog's tongue and pinned it to the ground like a nail. 'Forward!' Both her and Frey charged in at the Bullfrog's sides.

The Bullfrog let out an ear-piercing screech as it pulled on its bloody tongue. It only elongated its wound.

Frey condensed life essence around his arm, which raised a spear high overhead. He took aim. The spear's leaf-like tip demanded the beast's blood.

The Bullfrog's eyes widened. First came the spear, which whistled into its leg and ripping the limb straight off the body. The spear traveled a dozen more feet before slamming into a tree.

The Bullfrog's screech reached an even higher pitch as it neared death's door. Elero ran to its right and held out a single bare hand. Life essence flared around her fingertips, which extended. Five sharp nails ran around the Bullfrog's body before stabbing straight through its soft underbelly. The Bullfrog gave one last mournful cry before falling over dead. Frey and Elero feel to their knees, taking deep breaths.

"You're crazy strong, do you know that?" Elero huffed. She disconnected her nails and let her hand go limp.

"You're not too bad yourself," Frey said as he stood back up. They stood there for a moment, bordering on collapse and regaining their breath. The adrenaline wore off, and Elero felt pain from several points in her body, mostly around arm which she hadn't the time to heal prior. "Doevm was right to keep his eye on you."

"He what?" Elero's bright smile vanished as her brows scrunched together and her head cocked to the side.

"Nothing," Frey waved his hands. "It's nothing. Really, nothing. I got slammed pretty hard. Let's get our weapons before more Bullfrogs come this way." He hurried off.

"One weird event after another with these people," Elero mumbled before going to retrieve her longsword. The three corpses, she began to pull into her spatial ring. After Frey got his spear, he helped with the rest. After pushing in the last Bullfrog corpse into the spatial ring, Frey turned back to Doevm.

His face went bright red as he pointed a finger. Elero followed his gaze over at Doevm and Thomas, both of whom had their lips pressed together. 'I guess not all weird things are bad,' she thought. 'but how does he know that technique?'

Doevm pushed both hands into Thomas's chest in another set of CPR. Thomas sat up and coughed the swamp water out of his lungs. He glanced around. "What happened?" He looked around at the three Bullfrog corpses, then to Elero, who was covered in blood, then to Frey, whose face was bright red, then finally to Doevm, who was wiping his mouth with his shirt.

"You passed out and I saved you," Doevm said as he stood up. He walked over to the Amphiboards and paddles, which were still tied up to the tree. While everything had been pushed into the mud, it all looked to still functional. "We need to move before they come back."