Chapter 10: Chapter 10 - Battle
When I looked up, the toad was on me, its throat bulging like crazy as its body glowed like hot metal.
Its tongue lashed out, long and slick, coated in fire. It cracked through the air like a burning whip. I blocked instinctively, arms raised. Pain. Flesh seared, as the force threw me off balance and sent me tumbling yet again. But I stood up quicker this time.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased significantly.]
The Toad approached, its burning tongue lashing out yet again, but I stood my ground this time letting the momentum transform the whip-like motion into a wrapping one.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased significantly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased significantly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased significantly.]
Though the meat of my arms were being cooked alive, I used my new leverage to yank the toad towards me, and using all my strength, my fists clenched, and I swung back.
My attack landed, but didn’t do nearly as much damage as I expected. The toad flinched for just a moment, but its body didn’t move a single foot more.
The toad was smarter this time.
Since it was already in my face, it didn’t waste any more time with its tongue.
For the first time in my entire existence...I swore.
Fuck.
A fireball at point-blank. The detonation sent my body hurtling through the air, far enough to slam into a tree at the border of our camp.
Although the force wasn’t even half of that Gorge-wolf’s paw-swipe, the searing nature of the fire and my still fledgling Fire Resistance made it so it the attack was many times more painful.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[The Skill [Fire Resistance I] has been upgraded to [Fire Resistance II].]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased significantly.]
I groaned as I pulled myself out of splintered, smoking wood, and caught sight of Arthur on the opposite side of the camp. He moved like a shadow, dashing atop the trees and sinking arrow after arrow into the Toad’s hide. Their metal points burned with a white light that left faint trails as they flew.
In only a few more heartbeats, the other Squall-Class Flame Toad collapsed in a smoking heap, the fire of its arrow-riddled hide sizzling out.
Arthur cast a quick glance my way, and seeing I was alright, he turned and dashed away, loosing arrows towards Freya and Gerard’s fights.
It was just me and the toad now.
I charge straight in, ducking under another burning tongue strike, only for it to clip me in the ribs on its way back. The impact flung me straight towards the toad, but I used the momentum to throw another full-strength punch right between its giant eyes, but again, the toad merely took a step back and brushed it off with half a croak.
I spat blood, stood up, and ran forward again. Over and over. It was a different attempt every time.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[The Skill [Fire Resistance II] has been upgraded to [Fire Resistance III].]
But my attacks were useless. The result was always the same, me being flung back like a smoking frisbee.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[The Skill [Fire Resistance III] has been upgraded to [Fire Resistance IV].]
I heard Gerard’s booming laugh carried over the chaos. "Look at him go!"
Arthur’s voice came from somewhere above---I glanced and saw him perched on a branch, causally swinging his bow back over his back. "He’ll manage. Better he gets some practice now."
So they were already done with their fights, now watching me fight like I was a pup chewing on a bone.
My breaths were heavy, but I forced it out anyway, "I...need...a weapon."
Freya sat atop her kill, watching, measuring me for a long moment. Then, with a sharp flick, she hurled one her blades through the air.
It landed point-first into the dirt at my feet.
I looked back up at Freya. She was always sharpening these blades whenever she got the chance, and clearly, she’d been reluctant to let me use them. But she had decided to trust me.
I reached down, gripped the handle---and nearly buckled.
The saber was impossibly heavy. I needed both hands just to lift it free, arms shaking as though I held a blacksmith’s anvil instead of a weapon. I tried to raise it upright, but the weight dragged me sideways, and the toad nearly flattened me with another leap.
Freya fights with two of these?
I staggered back, breath ragged, heat searing my skin, and forced myself to lift the blade again. The toad’s tongue lashed. I tried to block, but the weight dragged me off-balance. The strike slammed into my chest, sending me tumbling through the dirt for the umpteenth time.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
I staggered to my feet, teeth grit.
Another lash came, and this time, I swung upward, dragging the saber with every ounce of strength.
The blade connected not with hide, but with the toad’s massive, bulbous eye. The orb burst wetly, a gout of flame-tinged blood spraying across the clearing.
The beast croaked in agony, hopping back, half-blind now.
I felt it then---a shift. Its rhythm changed. It was more cautious. More hesitant.
Good.
I pressed the advantage, keeping to its blind side, the saber dragging trenches in the earth when I couldn’t lift it fully. The tongue lashed again, but I’d seen it enough now. The telltale bulge of its throat, the twitch before it struck. I ducked under, lunged, and drove the saber into straight into its other eye.
The toad shrieked, staggering, its tongue whipping wildly, fireballs belched in random arcs, at least three of them slamming into me and causing me to fly back yet again. But I held on to Freya’s blade like nothing else mattered.
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[Host’s [Fire Resistance] has increased greatly.]
[The Skill [Fire Resistance IV] has been upgraded to [Fire Resistance V].]
The burns healed quickly, and my attention re-focused on the Toad, now attacking everything around it in an indiscriminate frenzy.
It was blind now. Blind and panicked.
One more swing. I only needed one more swing.