Chapter 111 - Snakes, Frogs and Lizards (Patreon)

The three lesser frogs jumped towards the group, Hera and Alex jumped to the side. Each of them dealt with one of the creatures. Leo was holding back the third one while Blue distracted the big one coming from the pond.

Bonnie and Mark were moving back, flinging spells and arrows towards the smaller ones. Luckily, fighting the lesser frogs was very similar to the frogs they were used to fight. They only had to be more careful with their tongues. Every time one of the creatures opened its mouth, more of that sludge fell to the ground, spreading even more poison around.

Blue was punching the larger frog, sparks crackling around the two. Hera's eyes went towards her friend. She needed to deal with the small one quickly to help Blue.

With a sidestep, Hera was able to cut the frog twice on the back of its neck. Still, it wasn't enough to kill it. Two arrows hit the frog's face, and Hera took that chance to hit it once more on the neck, trying to cleave its head off. The frog was in bad shape but still endured the assault. Luckily enough, its wounds didn't splatter more of the sludge. Only the liquid coming out of its mouth seemed to be part of the poison.

It took Hera four more strikes before she was able to kill the monster in front of her. A few to the face and head, with the last one opening up its stomach. With the lesser poison frog on the ground, Hera rushed to help Blue. Apparently, that was the same idea that Leo had. The hunter was already dashing towards the giant frog to help the controller.

The loose skin of the poison frog was proving to be a problem for Blue. Her fists would sometimes lose its power as the skin was pulled to the side. Blunt strikes seemed to be far from optimal while fighting that creature.

As Leo arrived, his spear pierced the frog's stomach, making some of its blood and some small amounts of sludge spill in the pool. Blue had to dodge away from it. It was hard to fight the creature without jumping in the water.

When Hera joined the fray, she had her chakram tied to Yarnball. Having a mid-range weapon could help a lot to deal with the frogs without getting close enough to be splashed by the poison. It was a shame she still had yet to learn any new attack spells. The poison spray and needle would probably be wasted in this area.

Soon after that, Bonnie started to throw spells at the poison frog. The beast sent its tongue towards Mark and Bonnie. Hera tried to hit it with her chakram but could only make a small cut on the tongue. Alex followed up with an upward strike, making part of the tongue to fall to the ground.

Hera turned back to aim at the frog's head. She kept spinning her chakram, aiming at its eyes. Leo was split between stabbing the creature and telling Tiger to stay back. The rain frog wanted to help in the fight, but there was no way to attack the poison frog without Tiger falling in the water.

Because of the difficult terrain, the fight took longer than expected. It was hard for Blue to keep the frog's attention while she couldn't attack it as often. Finally, after five minutes, the frog died, its corpse being submerged inside the pool.

"Crap! Are you going to die?" Mark gasped.

"Stop with the drama, it's just a bit of poison," Bonnie pushed the man who was looking at her arm away. There was some sludge covering the cloth atop her right bicep.

"Sorry! I should have kept its attention on me," Blue said as she rushed towards the researcher.

"Don't worry. We have the pearls. Everyone ok with me using one here?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, but can we use two? The frog dropped something different," Leo said.

Bonnie, who was holding a pearl near her arm, stopped her hand and walked over to the pond. In the middle of it, there were a few coins, a pearl, and something that looked like a brick. The researcher stared at the pearl for a moment and kneeled by the water.

"Hera, hold this," Bonnie gave the pearl to her friend.

"What are you... Bonnie!" Hera watched as the researcher placed her hand in the contaminated water.

"Now give me the pearl. I'm not sure if we need to break it or just touch the poison for it to work," Bonnie said. Hera just gave the pearl back, still in shock from the situation.

"What are you doing?" Leo yelled.

"I'm testing how this pearl thing works. It never said anything about the range. Maybe one pearl is enough to cleanse both the water and my arm. Worst-case scenario, we use two here," she explained.

"We didn't even agree if we were going to use two," Leo rebutted.

"Sorry, I wanted to test this fast. I can feel the poison starting to seep into my arm." Bonnie said as she dropped the pearl into the water. She did it with her other hand, ready to catch the pearl in case it didn't work.

As the pearl hit the poison, it melted into the water. A light pearlescent glow started to cover the area, spreading through all the pond and beyond. Bonnie was bathed in the light as well as Hera, who was near her.

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You have been cleansed by a [Purifying Pearl]
Poison immunity granted for the next 3 seconds.
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When the light vanished, Hera and Bonnie stared at each other.

"Did you get that notification?" Hera asked.

"Yeah, this thing is way too strong. Look how big is the area it affected," Bonnie looked around. Even a tree that was by the bond was clear of all poison.

"I'm not talking about that, Bonnie. The three seconds," Hera said with a smile.

"What are you..." Bonnie suddenly jolted up with a big smile, "You think that would nullify attacks?"

"Yep, it said immunity to poison, not resistance. So if something spits poison or uses a strong poison spell, this could save everyone. Or at least I think it would. We still need to make sure of it," Hera explained.

"What are you two talking about?" Alex asked.

They explained about the notification and how it could potentially save them from a big attack. After that, they checked the loot from the monsters. In total, they got 50 gold, another large pearl, and something that looked like a block of clay.

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Impermeable Clay
Consumable

When applied to a surface, this clay created an area that cannot get wet.
If used inside the Frog Valley, the clay becomes a layer of protection against any environmental poison in liquid form.

Duration 1 hour
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"Nice! With this, I can jump in the water and actually fight," Blue said as she read the description.

"Yeah, although I'm still weirded out about where the frogs came from. Look," Alex jumped into the small pond, that was now clear of poison, and walked to the middle of it. The water never got higher than her thighs, "Its weird, right?"

"Well.. things inside dungeons do disappear in a less natural way. And we know they appear like that too. I think it was called... spaning," Bonnie said.

"It's actually spawning," everyone stared at Mark, who just corrected Bonnie, "What? It's a gaming term. When a monster appears out of thin air, they are spawning. Spawn kill is actually a widespread tactic in games."

Hera nodded, hearing his explanation remind her of the term, even though it was a long time since she played a game. The group finished their looting and kept heading to the other side of the valley. Blue was excited about using the clay, but she agreed that it was better if she waited to get closer to an area they would actually need before wasting it. By the amount, it also seemed like they could use it on multiple people, especially if they only covered part of their bodies.

They moved through the valley, being careful of any possible ambushes. As they walked, the small frogs gave way to tiny snakes. When the two species met, they seemed wary of each other, almost like in the middle of a cold war.

They fought a few more of the lesser poison frogs on the way, but since the group was staying clear of the poison pools, none of the bigger ones appeared. After crossing to the snake territory, the poison frogs stopped appearing. Instead, odd bloated grey snakes started to assault the group. They weren't very agile, and a few weren't even able to move their heads properly. Yet they came in larger numbers. At one point, Blue was dealing with three of them while each member of the party dealt with another snake, even Tiger had to hold one of them back on his own.

At least the snakes would drop some pearls. They found one item every ten or so snakes. Gold was still dropped by most of them but in much smaller quantities. Even after killing more than twenty snakes, they only got 18 gold and a couple of pearls.

After some time, the normal snakes were considerably big. A few were already large enough to eat Tiger whole. The group was moving in a tighter formation. Seeing giant frogs was one thing, but seeing giant snakes was terrifying. A regular snake was already enough to swallow a person. A snake that reached their waist without even raising their heads was something out of a nightmare. Their luck was that none of those snakes weren't attacking them.

The group reached an area where the walls of the valley closed in. There was a large cavern in the wall with some large stones protruding from the ground creating secondary entrances on the left side. Coming out of the holes, several snakes were watching something. Hera followed their eyes and saw a gigantic viper fighting with a purple and black giant lizard. The two monsters were almost as tall as the trees around them.

The two beasts were throwing each other to the sides, slamming its massive frames on the walls. Hera and her party were all shocked by the display. This was a real fight between monsters. The ground rumbled with each impact between the titans in front of them.

The viper was not only biting but also using its tail as a whip. With a strike of its claws, the lizard made some deep gashes in the viper's skin. In response, the viper went to bite the lizard. It had a clear shot at the lizard's neck, but the bite stopped short, spraying a liquid on the creature's side. The lizard's skin started to fizzle and boil as if it was hit by burning oil. The beast roared and jumped towards the viper, pinning it to the ground with one of its legs and clawing away at it with the other.

The viper looked helpless, but just for a moment. It took advantage of the position of its body and wrapped itself around the lizard. They both struggled for a moment, Hera unconsciously held her breath as if she was watching a wildlife documentary. Then, with a sickening crunch, the lizard went limp.

The viper let go of the creature and raised its head in a silent roar. When it finally lower its head, Hera came out of her daze and activated the Affinity Sight and her [Observe].

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Chu'a - Elder Snake (Acid Affinity)
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Greater Poison Lizard (Corpse)
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"That one uses acid, can we do anything about that?" Hera asked.

"I'm not sure, you think the clay could work?" Blue suggested.

"I don't think so. It talks specifically about poison," Bonnie replied.

"Guys," Leo called.

They all turned their heads to where Leo was looking. In front of them, the giant viper was staring at the group through its red eyes.