Ravens of Eternity

193 Frog Season, Pt Eva quickly drew her Handcannon and aimed it squarely at the swamptoad’s head, specifically right below the armored ridge between its bulbous eyes. She presumed that was roughly where its brain was.

“Wait!” cried Amal. “Don’t shoot it!”

“What? Why the hell not?” asked Eva.

“‘Coz you might end up damaging its poison sac, wherever it is. With all that moss on it, it’s impossible to tell!”

“Doubt it’d be right next to its brain.”

“And you know where its brain is, yeah?”

“Fine, so what do-”

Before Eva could finish her sentence, she was filled with an absolute need to run – Tiamat’s Transcendence practically moved her body for her. She grabbed Amal, grasped her in a tight embrace, then lunged as far away as she could.

At the same time, the swamptoad leapt forward with its mouth agape, and snapped at the location where they stood, only moments earlier. Clouds of dirt and rocks were swept aside as the toad landed on the ground, annoyed that it completely missed its meal.

.....

It pawed at the soggy dirt, as though it was prepping the ground around it for a second lunging strike. This time, it was determined not to miss.

Eva and Amal picked themselves up off the ground and began running in a wide circle around the toad, dozens of meters away.

“Holy fucking hell,” cursed Eva. “That thing’s fast! How’re we supposed to beat that thing without killing it?”

“We can kill it,” replied Amal. “Just can’t blow it to pieces! I can make it OD on my drug – that’ll keep its organs intact. Mostly. We just gotta subdue it for a sec.”

“Oh yeah, no worries, super easy. We can choke it while we’re all halfway down its throat. That’ll subdue it.”

“Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t think it would be half the size of our ship!”

As they ran, Miko came and hovered alongside them. She was scratched up and a little bruised, but her armor absorbed the brunt of the damage she suffered.

“I can attempt to stun it,” she said. “But I do not think it will be very effective – it is too large an organism.”

“Let’s try everything we can,” Eva replied. “I’ll steal its attention so you two can do whatever you need to do.”

Eva turned so that she was now running right towards the swamptoad. She leaned forward aggressively, as though to challenge it directly. Along the way, she picked up a nice and thick branch off the ground, and hoped it was sturdy enough to do some damage.

If not, she hoped Miko would be up to the task.

The swamptoad easily saw Eva heading towards it, and was immediately filled with delight. It wasn’t often when its own prey ran towards it. It turned its heavy body and pointed it towards Eva, then sprung forward with blinding alacrity.

Its gaping maw opened up wide once again, with the intent of snagging her whole.

Eva grinned as she shot forward and activated Ascendant Mode. She poured energy through herself once again. And with one deep breath, she made a spinning leap right under the toad. As she passed underneath its mouth, she brought the branch to bear.

With an exhale, she struck the toad squarely under its mouth, and shattered the branch to pieces.

Eva hit the ground with a shoulder, tumbled and rolled, then regained her balance and stopped standing on her feet.

At the same time, the toad was knocked slightly up and out of its trajectory, then landed unceremoniously on the ground. It quickly got up, shook the dizziness off, then turned its body and spun its eyes around in search of its prey.

Miko hovered a dozen meters above and behind it, while she orchestrated her two other cottonball drones.

“Full strength strikes!” she yelled in Japanese. “Up and down its spine!”

Her two drones sped right towards the toad, and as ordered, launched a series of full power electrical charges up and down the toad’s back. Flashes of blue light filled the clearing as the air was split by multiple CRACKS of electrical energy.

Each bolt that struck the toad blasted off pieces of its protective moss. But other than causing it to shudder and shake, they did little to stop its movements outright.

While the two faced off against the swamptoad, Amal had reached Claire and Max. She gave each of them a small adrenaline shot, which cleared up their dizzy minds in a flash.

Not that it helped too much – the scene of the fight before them left them rather dumbfounded regardless.

“You seeing this?” asked Max.

Claire nodded, mouth agape. Though she wanted to reply, she just couldn’t find the words. Instead, she made sure her EyeCast caught as much of the action as possible.

Clearly annoyed by the drones, the swamptoad leapt straight upwards and slammed right into them. Luckily, they bounced off just as it struck – their relative size and the soft moss kept them intact.

But they were still damaged, and what little armor they had was cracked right at the point of impact.

The ground shook when the swamptoad landed back down, and threatened to knock down everyone around it.

“I cannot stun it,” yelled Miko. “Its defenses are too great, and my drones are too weak.”

“I can try to shoot off it’s legs,” yelled Eva. “That should stop it, right?”

“No, scan for where its poison sacs are first!” yelled Amal.

“Why are we yelling?”

“I don’t know! But it feels like the right time to be yelling!”

Miko’s drones immediately set to their new task and flew in close so they could perform biometric scans of the gargantuan toad. They wove all around it as Eva ran around and provoked it.

She picked up a few rocks as she ran, and threw as many as she could at its eyes.

“I bet you hate that, dont’cha?” she taunted.

It leapt once again and snapped its mouth at her, but she evaded with equal speed and got out of the way just in time. Goaded into an attack, the toad unwittingly crashed into some trees right at the edge of the clearing, and knocked a number of them down from the impact.

It had clearly taken some damage from the crash, and sections of its lower body had been cut open by the splintered wood. Although the pain it felt was slight, its body began to quiver out of sheer anger. Its eyes were turned towards Eva, and held sight of her even as its body turned to face her.

Right about... here, thought Eva.

Then she stopped backing up and squared off against the toad, as though they were in some sort of pistol duel.

“Come on then,” she taunted again, “come take a bite. Let’s see how you handle this.”

The simpleminded swamptoad, now fueled by its anger at being tricked and getting hurt, dug at the ground around it. Its eyes were constantly fixed on Eva, and nothing else on the battlefield mattered.

Not even the drones that spun all around it.

Before anyone could do anything, the toad leapt again at Eva. This time it poured everything it had into the strike, absolutely determined to rid itself of her.

Eva herself jumped straight up, just high enough to clear its gaping mouth, and landed on its head, right on the armor plate that sat between its eyes. In the very same moment her feet touched it, she used Ascendant Form once again and leapt off its head with great force.

She flew upwards a great distance, while the toad was slammed mouth-first into Dro’ren’s watery soil with a deeply resounding SHWOMPH. Its legs were splayed outwards as stars spun in its eyes.

It picked itself up and shook its head clear just moments later. It began to recover, even as Eva was lowered to the ground by Miko’s drones.

“Tough little bastard, isn’t it?” Eva muttered.

Her breaths were heavier now – she had used a great deal of stamina to both evade and attack the lumbering beast. But she was certain she had one more in her. Maybe two.

She backed up once again to a relatively safe distance, and taunted it one more time.

“Come on, ya big lump!” she said. “Come get some.”

This time however, the toad didn’t immediately react to her provocations. This time, it took the pain it received as a big warning sign. Although it didn’t dig into the ground like last time, it still spun to face her.

“Poison sacs identified,” said Miko. “Two, one behind each eye. They are constantly secreting toxins, and its body is coated with it. It sits in a layer underneath the moss. In fact, the moss grows from it.”

“Wait, the toxin’s deadly to people but not plants?” said Amal. “This, I gotta analyze.”

“Good to know,” said Eva. “And since its poison glands aren’t along its legs, I’m gonna go back to my idea about blowing them off. Then you can do all the analysis you want.”

“Knock yourself out.”

Eva drew her handcannon out of its holster and walked towards the swamptoad.

It was immediately alarmed by her sudden aggression. It was a rather simpleminded creature, and all it knew was that whatever was in front of it was not prey.

It reared back and let out a gurgling roar. It was as though it was coughing something up, trying to get something out of its body. Then it began to suck in air – more and more of it.

As it did so, its entire back swelled up, and its armor plating began to rise. Spines protruded from its body, in multiple rows down its back. While it inflated, its spines and natural armor raised up more and more, and its protective moss coat broke up and fell away in clumps.

There, among the spines and skin and armor plates was a milky green substance all over its body. It all flowed freely from the swollen poison glands just behind its eyes.

It fell back down on all fours and stared at Eva with its bloated body.

Then, it released another long, deep, guttural croak. But this time it focused it all on Eva, instead of in a wide area around it. Moss from the ground flung up from the ground as the sonic blast rocketed across the clearing.

It smashed right into Eva, threw her back dozens of meters, and slammed her into a tree. Its trunk splintered in the middle, and its top half fell over on her.

With its attack fully expended, the toad had deflated back down to below its normal size, and was clearly weakened. But it still spun its eyes around in search of more predators. Or prey.

In its mind, all these little creatures were pests. Not only did they disturb its sleep, but they hurt it, too. These things needed to die. Fast.

It quickly found Amal, Claire, and Max bunched up together and focused on them. Fright completely paralyzed them, even as it turned its body towards them.

“We need to run!” cried Amal. “Come on!”

But Claire and Max were absolutely bewildered and frozen on the spot. It seemed to them that there was absolutely no escape from it. Its mouth was too large, its legs too powerful. And they were too small, too slow.

Amal scrambled as she programmed her MedGun to synthesize two more doses of adrenaline, even as the toad dug into the ground around it. Its eyes were fixed on them, just as theirs were fixed on it.

Its legs tensed, then launched at speed towards the three helpless humans. Its huge mouth was wide open and ready to swallow them whole. They realized that no matter what they did, there was no way for them to escape something that large and that fast.

All they could do was close their eyes in anticipation of death.

.....

But it never came.

Half of a tree careened into the toad right before it hit them. There was a sickening CRUNCH as its many branches snapped and broke against its body. No doubt, many of its bones also snapped and broke inside.

Amal glanced over at Eva, and saw that she was just barely on her feet. Blood had covered half her face, and dripped out of her mouth. She also grasped at her ribs, and was doubled over in pain.

Her breathing was incredibly heavy and ragged. When she coughed up blood and fell on all fours, Amal got up and began to run towards her.

“No!” yelled Eva in between breaths. “Frog first!”

Amal nodded, then diverted herself over to the swamptoad. This time, it was completely stunned by the attack. It had been thrown onto its back, and its arms and legs flailed slowly in the air.

She was done configuring a powerful dose of ultrafentanyl by the time she reached it. She quickly injected it with billions of nanites, who swam in between its cells with their lethal payload. They traveled up its bloodstream and straight into its brain.

There, they released all of the drugs they held and instantly soaked the toad’s brain with the most powerful poison it had ever encountered.

Amal backed away when the toad began to squirm violently. It gasped and coughed as its respiratory system began to fail and its body heaved as its lungs fought to breathe. Violent gurgles erupted from its mouth, along with a frothing, sticky mucus mixed with blood.

Its legs shook and shuddered violently as the last of its life ebbed away.

Although its death was a gruesome one, it felt little pain.

If any.

Amal walked back over to the toad and reprogrammed her nanites to neutralize and deconstruct any ultrafentanyl left in its system. Then she recalled them all back into her MedGun and started up its self-sterilization routine.

Max was still utterly dumbfounded by everything he had seen. Claire, too, but to a lesser extent. But him? He had never seen anything like it in his life.

Except, perhaps, in fiction.

“Why in the nine hells are you three out here trudging in swamps in the middle of nowhere!?” he cried. “You’re all amazing! You could be doing anything you want in the entire galaxy, instead you’re messing around with overgrown toads!”

“That’s exactly what we’re doing though,” said Amal. “Anything we want.”

“And it’s called a wooded fen,” Eva yelled.

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