Chapter 34: High stakes fight

"Come back! How are you so fast!?"

Despite my high speed stat, I'm having trouble chasing the frogs, the truth is that I'm not good at running and this is some difficult terrain. If it wasn't for my high toughness I'm sure that I would have gotten hurt from stepping on all the sharp rocks with my bare feet, and none of my stats can stop me from repeatedly tripping and falling on the ground...

Eventually, I follow the frogs into a small, concealed valley surrounded by steep cliffs, I see them leave all my clothes on a rock next to a small lake, but the problem is that all around the valley there are...

"Ribbit"

"Ribbit?"

"Ribbit!"

Frogs, more frogs than I can possibly count, some small, some much bigger than me, and all of them are looking at me.

"Uuuum, excuse me"

Step by step I slowly walk into the valley, all of the frogs have gone quiet and are intensely staring at me, this is really awkward...

"I'm only here to get my clothes back, I'll leave in a moment"

"Excuse me, I'm afraid that you will have to fight against me if you want them back"

A small girl that looks no older than 12 with droopy eyes and a completely neutral expression on her face is somehow standing on top of the water of the lake, she's wearing a blue hat and has a frog that wears a smaller version of that hat... why does that feel familiar?

"Uh... who might you be?

She bows her head forward a bit before introducing herself.

"My name is Ranna, the witch of water, I will be your comically underpowered opponent today"

"Oh, I'm Luna"

I try to bow my head in the same way she did, I'm not good at acting formally...

"Wait... do you know Arana by any chance?"

"I do, she's my older sister"

Her sister!? Is this girl the one that Nera told us about? If so that means she's an enemy... and are all of these frogs working for her?

"Why do you want to fight me? What are you after?"

"Nothing, I'm only doing what my older sister told me to"

"Arana told you to do this?"

"No, I mean my oldest older sister"

I'll need to ask Arana about her family one of these days.

She's raising one hand, is she going to start the fight? I can't tell what she's thinking because of her expressionless face.

"I don't know if I can do this..."

Oh? Could it be that she's being forced to fight by her sister and she does not really want to?

"I'm a very shy person, I don't know if I can fight against someone who's only wearing a towel..."

"WELL! THAT'S YOUR FAULT!!!"

"Mmmm, I think I got an idea"

She snaps her fingers and a few of the frogs around us pick up some mirrors and make them face me, she then points her finger at me.

"Those are recording mirrors, if you were to drop that towel at any time during our fight, I'll be able to send the scene to anyone who owns an enchanted mirror, so you better hold on to it tightly"

"What!? You cannot be serious!"

This is bad! I've never been in a fight with such high stakes before, now I'm really getting nervous.

When she raises her hand again a ring on her finger glows and the water in the lake begins to change shape, what kind of attack is this? I don't have my appraisal stone here, so I cannot even check her level...

"Uh... I'm sorry, you seem to be out of range for my attack, could you please move a bit closer to the lake?"

I probably shouldn't... but I cannot say no when she asks so politely...

"Is over here alri... WOAH!!!"

In less than a second, a large mass of water takes the shape of a giant frog and its tongue extends towards me, catching me in a strong current that drags me towards its stomach.

However, I manage to keep hold of my towel.

'Bwadoh Bwance'

It seems like a shadow lance is not going to help, it just made a hole on the frog but the water quickly refills it.

'Gwaviwy wob'

On the other hand, gravity bomb sucks up the water to the side and the frog falls apart.

I fall into the lake which seems to be where Ranna wanted me to be as she tosses a strange blue orb into the water, causing the lake to freeze all around me.

So cold! I need to do something about all this ice trapping me.

'Hellfire'

Hellfire is a spell that recreates a fire spell even though it belongs to the darkness attribute making it perfect for melting the ice, but it seems like I used too much power and most of the water in the lake ends up evaporating.

"Amazing! I have never seen someone use such powerful magic without help from items or equipment"

That praise does not really sound genuine when she keeps the same blank expression and monotone voice...

Anyway, now it's my turn to attack.

'Shadow chain'

The chain wraps around Ranna immobilizing her.

"Ah, you got me"

Really? Did I get her so easily? I was not expecting to beat her with my first attack...

Anyway, now I can finally go get... wait, why can't I move!?

"Ha"

"Ha"

"Ha"

"You fell for my trap!"

"Wait! That was a laugh!?"

Not only did she not smile at all, but she also made several pauses mid-laugh so long that each part of the laugh felt like a different line...

"You know... it's rude to make fun of the way someone laughs"

"I wasn't making fun of it, I was just surprised"

"Anyway, as I was saying you fell for my trap, do you recognize these?"

She shows me the pair of gloves she's wearing... wait, aren't those the gloves that I enchanted with Arana earlier? They were supposed to paralyze anyone who attacks the wearer, is that why I cannot move? She must have put them on after stealing them earlier.

"Since you are the one who enchanted them, this counts as rank 20 magic, even you will be affected by it"

Even though we made them so that they would help me in fights, the first time they get used is against me...

"Wait.. how did you equip those? Are you above level 250?"

"No, I'm not... did Arana not tell you anything about witches?"

"She didn't..."

Is she implying that they really are witches? And what exactly is a witch anyway?

Still, we have both been immobilized and I can break this spell in a few seconds if I focus, which means that I still won the fight.

"Now, burly frog, take off her towel"

"Eh?"

A bipedal frog more than three meters tall with very large muscles approaches me from behind, how can a frog grow human-like muscles like those?

"Riiiiiiibbit"

"Nooo! Not the towel!"

This is bad! I won't be able to undo the paralysis in time! I need to think of something fast!

I can still cast spells but I won't be able to aim, the only thing I could hit in this situation is myself... wait that's it!

'Shadow lance'

I aim my spell at my own neck opening a hole in it, then immediately fix it by using flesh shaping.

"What!?"

For the first time, Ranna is showing a hint of surprise on her face, with that I mean that she's raising her eyebrows slightly.

But there's a reason why I did that, temporary spell effects such as paralysis end when the one afflicted takes mortal damage, even if they are healed afterward, this is a not very well known way of getting rid of them since not many people can do it without actually killing the person they are trying to help.

Now that I can move again I turn around and punch the muscular frog on its stomach, sending it flying against a cliff wall where it makes a hole and gets stuck with only its legs hanging out.

"Since I won the fight I'm going to take back my clothes, is that clear?"

When I show them my fist the rest of the frogs all step aside and at last I'm able to get my clothes back.

After gathering all my stuff I look for a place where I can put my clothes back on.

"You really are Arana's sister, she also usually steals my clothes and then alters them to make them a bit too small for me, she always makes fun of me for being so tall"

"Yeah, that's the kind of thing Arana always does"

"Did she steal your clothes too?"

"Yes, she made them a bit too big for me, she always made fun of me for being so short"

So she also had to suffer Arana's pranks... that actually makes me feel a bit of sympathy for her.

"To think that she would do that even though you are so much younger than her..."

"So much younger? How old do you think I am?"

"Eh? I'd say around 11 or 12?"

"I'm 17 years old..."

"What!? Really!?"

She's not showing it on her face, but it feels like she got a bit depressed, it seems like I touched a sore spot, but how was I supposed to know!?

"You know... Arana betrayed her own sisters, do you really think that you can trust her?"

"Eh... maybe?"

"She probably told you that you had to follow that prophecy, didn't she, but that's going to end with more people thinking of you as a villain, so why don't you join our side? We could break that prophecy and even improve your reputation"

Can they really do that? But even so...

"Nera told me that you have been doing some bad things in her country, I don't know if she misunderstood something, but there's no way I can trust you"

"I see, that's a pity, I've actually taken a liking to you"

Just as I finish putting on my clothes I see something surprising. The chains that were restraining Ranna fall to the ground, the reason being that she just turned into water.

Was that some water clone or something? No, I'm sure that she was a real person, which means that she really is able to transform into water, and that water just went right into the ground.

Using mana sense I can tell that she just left at a high speed alongside an underground water current, so she had an escape route prepared from the start...

I don't think I'll be able to catch her again, and I need to go back with Nera and Arana already, I didn't think about it until now but they are probably wondering where I am...

"This entire incident has been very distracting"

forli

Still, I'm actually happy with the way it turned out, which is not something I feel very often.