Chapter 72 - For Science (Patreon)

When he was a little kid, Jor watched a frog jump with such speed that he was unable to catch it despite chasing it with all of his might. Granted he was around five years old but whatever. The trick was its jumping power, although the amphibian was unable to compare with the fleas that could jump around a hundred times its height and weight.

As a frog monster, Jor had a considerable jumping power. He used his newfound leg power to body slam one of the cultists. His chosen target was one of the water users, Test Subject B. In mid-air, Jor curled his body to a ball and crashed with Test Subject B’s face.

Eat my toxin! And Arte — Hard Impact!

Frog-Jor released the Terribilis’ deadly toxin from his skin and coated his body with an Arte he learned recently, moments before they hit each other.

During his fight with Leon, learned a few of his shortcomings. One of it was his lack of non-element Arte. Unlike normal elemental Arte, these Arte could be used by everyone regardless of their affinity. During his time with the cult, he found quite a lot of these type of Arte and learned a few that were suitable for him.

Hard Impact Arte was one of them. This Arte was very simple, it made the user’s fists harder like it was made of rock. Although originally this Arte was for punching, Jor modified it a bit he used it for his frog body slam.

“What the—” Test Subject B was startled by the sight of a blue ball of flesh that came out suddenly from the white gas. 

The collision of monster frog muscles plus Victa empowered muscles plus Hard Impact Arte was enough to break through Test Subject B’s Water Barrier and his mask. If seen in slow motion, B’s face skin was funnily deformed by the ripple of the crash. His mouth was slightly opened so Test Subject B involuntarily kissed Frog-Jor’s skin.

“AAhh!” Screamed B after the impact staggered him. Jor bounced off his face and landed on the ground.

“Huxley, you alright? What the hell is that!?” Test Subject C said while pointing at the blue frog.

“What? What happened? Cough… cough...” Test Subject A wasn't doing so well inside a cloud of irritating gas. He already backed away quite a lot from his initial position, trying to get out from its radius.

“I’m fine, the attack wasn't fatal. It only broke my mask… A frog?” B was perplexed by the sight of the mysterious thing while pinching his hurting nose.

“Kwork, kwork.” Jor responded after meeting B’s eyes that were filled with question marks. He leapt again, back into the cloud of smoke.

“Water Arrows!”

C threw arrows of water at the frog’s direction but he couldn’t see the result because of the thick smoke.

“Did you get it?” B asked.

“I don’t know, the gas is too thick. It’s a pity we don’t have a wind user with us. They can take care of this irritating gas in a flash.” C replied.

“Cough… he plans to escape. I’ll guard the main entrance, you two search for him. The frog must be his familiar, don’t let down your guard despite he’s a level 0, cough…”

A ordered them with much difficulty, his throat was sore, hard to breathe, and his eyes were tearing up as if he was just finished watching a heartbreaking Korean drama series.

“That frog seem to be a tier 1, how could he have a familiar stronger than himself?”

“How the hell would I know! Cough… just do it!”

“Got it. Huxley, you–”

C never finished, when he saw B’s unnatural purple face. The skin that touched Jor’s frog poison became deep purple as if coated with paint.

“Ggghh… nggellehhh…” B mumbled, twitched, and fell down like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Huuuxley!!” C hurriedly tended to his fallen comrade.

“What is it?” Test Subject A asked.

“This… this is poison! That frog is poisonous!” C spoke while looking at the spasming Test Subject B, the poor guy also frothing from his mouth now.

“What poison is it? Do you know the frog’s species?” A seemed panicked.

“I don’t know! Do you think I’m a walking monster book or something?”

“Antidote! Give him an antidote!”

“We don’t have it! We used our last bottle a week ago!”

B’s hands were rigid on of his chest like a squirrel, his eyes were wide open but unfocused. As if he was naked in a snowy mountain, Test Subject B was shivering on the floor. The poisoned skin on his face gradually became lighter in color, no longer deep purple like before.

At a distance, Frog-Jor was watching this with great interest.

Hm, the effect of my poison works fast. Just a mere touch and he became a human-vegetable in a minute. This comes from a mere touch? I wonder what would happen if I inject my poison in his bloodstream.

Oh? They don’t know I’m a Terribilis Frog? In other novels, this would be the part where they prattle the rareness of my kind, the deadliness of my poison, the ugliness of my face, the fatness of my body, and so on. I kind of want to hear their info dump… just a little.

Mu? Antidote? And they don’t have it? The quality of my enemies is really mediocre. But food for thought, if they have antidote, would it cure Test Subject B of his poisoned status? More testing required in the future.

Ouch, the gas started to irritate my eyes. Arte — Mini Water Barrier, just around the eyes… ahh better.

Well, it appears that’s it for Test Subject B. Farewell then, your death is necessary. Now onto another experiment! For science!

Jor cast an Arte, a Water Ball Arte whilst hiding in the smoke.

“Look out!” A screamed.

“Hmph,” C dodged it cleanly. They still had the common sense to be wary of their surroundings.

Yep, the Arte I cast in monster form is as powerful as it was in my human form. Next!

Rapid Water Steps!

Frog-Jor used an Arte for speed and jumped to the side. He couldn’t run in this form so he jumped, it was so fast that he crashed with a crate.

Wow, higher speed but harder to control. Faster than when I was using it in human form… maybe all body-reinforcing type Arte would become more powerful in my monster form. And I think I know why.

Jor’s first Arte didn’t change in power but his second Arte did, why was this the case? Jor’s conjecture was because the second one also factored his body capability. A monster with stronger legs than a human’s would benefit more from the Arte’s effect.

It also depends on the monster though. I doubt a sloth could run fast even if I use movement-type Arte.

Jor did a few more testing then he went in for real. His jump was almost in a straight line with little downward arc. When his limbs touched the ground or the wall or an object, he jumped again as quickly as possible. Frog-Jor jumped around the two cultists like a bouncing pinball.

“There it is!”

“Sand– no! It’s too fast, can’t aim!”

“Shit! Why it’s jumping around like that?”

“Don’t let it touch you! A graze and you’re a goner!”

While they were panicking, Jor was analyzing.

I need more traction on my feet, there are frogs with sticky pads on their legs but not this Terribilis. If I somehow could strengthen my grip on surfaces, this pinball maneuver effectiveness would go up exponentially and I could fight three-dimensionally. Attack from the ceilings or walls like Spider-M… Frog-Man! I recall there’s an Arte for that in the cult, I’ll look into it later. For now, take one of these two down first.

Confident Test Subject B or Huxley as they called him was down for good, Jor focused his attack on the other water user, Test Subject C.

What Test Subject C saw was a spear so fast that he could only see the lingering shadow of it. He felt a yank almost at the same time and only realized what happened to him after it was over.

“The frog took off my mask! It know to aim! It can think!!”

“What the fuck! Tier 1 monsters should only have animal level intelligence. That is impossible!” The sand user couldn’t believe what he saw.

Test Subject C felt another yank at his feet but it wasn’t strong enough to bring him down, it only made him stumble.

“I saw it man, it was a tongue!” Test Subject A was aghast.

Frog analyst Jor was hard at work.

My tongue is super-sticky and super-fast, the speed is satisfactory to take things by surprise but I lack the strength and mass to make a human trip and fall with my tongue alone. Time to destroy you, bye-bye Test Subject C. Arte — Hard Impact!

Jor turned into a grog cannonball once again and crashed with Test Subject C on his chest. They were both level 1 so Jor could break his defensive Arte at the cost of one attack. Unlike before, he pressed the attack before he reached the floor.

Now, Frog Assault!

His tongue jumped out from his mouth and stick itself at C’s chest while he was mid-air. Turning his tongue into Batm*n’s grappling hook gun, he tugged his own tongue to pull his own body and he gave C a tight frog hug.

“AAAHHHH, get it off, get it off, GET IT OFF ME!!” Test Subject C was so panicked it was bordering hysterical.

“Sand Arrow!” A tried to blast him off from the side.

“Kwork!” Water Barrier! Can my poison penetrate his clothing? Hrrrghhhh!

Jor defended against A’s attack and released as much poison as he could from his skin. It was a strange feeling, releasing the frog’s toxin was like sweating. As a human he couldn’t control his own sweating process but as a monster frog, he could. It was a bit like controlling his human saliva gland, human Jor could spit relatively easy; Frog-Jor had it easier discharging poison.

“Water Barrier, Water Barrier, Water Barrier, AAAHHhh!!!” In a desperate attempt to stop himself from being poisoned, C applied Water Barrier Arte over and over again.

His efforts were in vain, the frog stuck to him like glue and the poison seeped through his clothing to his body.

“Kwork, kwooork~”

A didn’t know why but he felt as if the frog was laughing. Currently, the blue frog was the most terrifying he had ever seen. Ignoring the screaming person next to him, Test Subject A turned tail and ran.

Frog-Jor leapt gave chase, preventing Test Subject A from leaving the warehouse. In the name of science, he couldn’t let him go. He still had more experiments in mind.

FOR SCIEEEENCE!