"Can you hear what kind of monster it is?", Cael leaned closer to Millie.

  "Uhm..", Millie put a hand on her ear, listening closer, "No...Wait, I think it's not really like ordinary footsteps, but more like...stomping? No, jumping?"

  Immediately, Cael's eyes widened, "..A...frog."

  "Millie-Lillie what are you talking about with stomping and jumping?", Lilah tilted her head incredulously, "And what did you say, Cael? Fro..-? I couldn't hear you."

  "Frog.", Cael reiterated, "It's a giant frog monster."

  At that moment, something shook the ground.

  Boom....boom...boom... Like a rhythmic earthquake.

  "How did you know?", Millie looked at Cael.

  He gulped nervously, "I faced it before. It killed my friend and I escaped, so it probably followed me here."

  "...Since you faced it before, what do you think we should do?", Millie asked.

  "Hm...", Cael held his chin, "Let's move and ambush it. Millie, you can hear things before they notice you, right? We'll move closer and launch a ranged attack to get in the first hit."

  "Cael, are you sure?", Lilah hesitated, "What about just waiting here for Verna and the others to come back? Or we go call them first? Or, we just prepare for the frog instead of rushing in..?"

  "No.", he shook his head, "If Verna personally wants to talk to Lully, then it must be important. Moreover, we can't ask her for help for every little thing, she said before we could hold our own, remember?"

  "Um...I agree with him."

  "Millie?!", Lilah turned to Millie, shocked.

  Millie gestured anxiously, "Hey, I'm not disagreeing just to disagree! Regardless of what Verna said before, if we just wait for the frog to appear, what if it can reach and attack us before we see it? Everywhere other than your fire is dark, and I remember reading from books that giant frogs shoot their tongues to drag in their prey from afar."

  Cael turned to look at Lilah.

  "Uh...", Lilah still hesitated, but relented, "Okay... I trust you, Millie. So, Cael, you seem smart. How should we do this?"

  Cael smiled widely, "Okay so..."

  .

  .

  .

  "Uhuh...uhuh...so we just run in, hit it with some magic, then Millie goes there, and us two move back...coordinate...that's it?", Lilah tilted her head.

  "A plan too complex would be hard to remember in the middle of a battle.", Cael stood up.

  "..I guess you're right. Let's go then!", Millie stood up as well, followed by Lilah.

  Soon after, the fire went out.

  "Let's go.", Cael nodded, running further into the darkness with everyone else.

  Somewhere in the approaching darkness, a giant frog with a mildly injured eye jumped forward repetitively.

  Boom...boom...boom...

  It could smell blood. The blood of a tiger.

  It's been several hours since it's had its last meal. It was too hungry to think of anything else other than meat.

  However, as it embraced the peaceful darkness surrounding it, a light from afar was suddenly lighted, and the frog stared as the light grew bigger...bigger...

  Bang!

  Croakk! The frog howled in pain as a ball of fire hit its face and exploded on its already injured eye.

  CROAK! The frog bellowed in rage, using its other good eye to see what could be in the darkness. It could see several vague silhouettes some distance ahead, so it jumped closer to get them in range of its tongue. But it could land, one silhouette abruptly rushed ahead, brandishing at its fragile belly.

  Croak! Croak! When it landed, the frog shot out its tongue at the silhouette, only to miss.

  "Woah! That was close. So what should we do now? Keep attacking?", Millie shouted, dodging the frog's attack.

  "Yeah, be careful!", Cael shouted back, sending a few mana arrows to distract the frog from Millie.

  Crackle...Crackle.. Lilah conjured another ball of fire, "Millie, get ready! I'm sending another one!"

  Clenching her fists, Millie punched the frog one more time before retreating to the other wall.

  Boom! Croak! With the frog as a big target, it wasn't difficult to aim in the darkness.

  For a moment, the frog seemed unable to retaliate, and all three of them began to grow optimistic.

  "I was a little worried when you said it killed your, uhm, friend. But it doesn't seem so bad after a-"

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Lilah move back!", Cael suddenly shouted.

  "??", Millie turned her back to look at Cael and Lilah running away. Her eyes widened, and her speech slowed, "Wait, what?"

  Briefly, Cael glanced at Millie behind him, and turned away.

  Snap! The frog shot its tongue out, and against Millie, not paying attention, it was able to grab her leg successfully.

  "Ah! No!", Millie brandished her fists on its tongue to no avail.

  Knowing its lacking control compared to its friends, the frog executed one of the moves its mother taught it when it was still back in the swamp.

  Whoosh!

  "Ahhh!"

  It jumped up, carrying Millie on its tongue into the air with it, and fell from the air with its tongue lagging behind slightly, to pull back at the last moment and slam Millie on the ground.

  It was as if time slowed down.

  For a second, the frog was happy.

  At the same time, looking at the distance between herself and the ground, and rapidly falling, Millie could only slowly feel the weight of despair consume her and drag her to the ground.

  I'm...really going to die here. She closed her eyes.

  However, just before her head hit the ground, she saw a shadow of a silhouette shooting towards her.

  "...Cael?"

  Just a few seconds ago, Lilah and Cael were running as far away from the frog as possible.

  Lilah breathed heavily, "C-Cael, why are we running? What abou tMillie?"

  "The frog might jump and do a shockwave here. Both of us are mages that don't have much endurance, Millie can handle it well.", Cael seemed unfazed to Lilah's concern.

  "Ahh!"

  However, right after Cael finished his sentence, Millie could be heard screaming behind them, and Lilah looked back only to see Millie's leg having been grabbed by the frog's tongue, and taken up in the air when the frog jumped.

  "No, wait, that-that's not a shockwave!!", Lilah stopped running and turned to look at Millie from afar, "Cael! We need to go back! If, if that frog smashes her head to the ground, then she'll, she'll-!!"

  Halting his steps with her, Ceel turned back, seeing that Lilah was right. If Millie hit her head in that position, with the force of the giant frog, she would die.

  Clenching his fists, he looked at Lilah, "We- I need to go back."

  "We're too far away!! No, Millie!!", Lilah was on the verge of tears.

  "It's fine! I can make it!", Cael conjured a ball of mana in his palm, "Create a ball of fire and explode it. We'll launch me to Millie."

  "!", Lilah conjured a ball of fire, "In that case, I'll go-"

  "No. I'm injured, and the weakest one here. You have much more utility as a mage than me.", Cael smiled, "So I am the most disposable."

  "I should go. Lilah, now!"

  Lilah gritted her teeth, but couldn't refute his point. So she prepared the ball of fire in front of her and when Cael jumped, she exploded it.

  At the same time, Cael merged his ball of mana with her exploding fire.

  BOOM!

  Again, just like what Cael experienced earlier, a large explosion sounded, exploding a part of his leg and shooting his body toward where Millie was.

  It was painful. Several areas of his body burned, and with [Immersion] compromised from mental exhaustion, it was one of the most painful injuries he's ever gotten.

  Gritting his teeth, he conjured a mana arrow.

  "...Cael?"

  And the next moment, Millie found herself opening her eyes wide. She wasn't dead. Cael held her up, preventing her head from hitting the floor, and piercing the frog's tongue with a mana arrow just before the frog could pull back and add more momentum to Millie's fall.

  Millie landed on the ground safely.

  "This...This... Oh demons! Y-your leg!", Millie quickly sat up.

  With a mutilated, burnt, and bleeding leg, Cael laughed. Damn, I'm really playing with my body.

  "Don't worry, it's just-"

  Rip!

  Suddenly, as both of their backs were turned, the frog's tongue shot out between them, and Cael hopped back to dodge it only to realize it wasn't targeting him.

  "Millie!", he called out.

  "Wha-..?"

  Out of the blue, an excruciating pain overcame Millie. She slowly raised her hand to touch her ear.

  It was gone.

  She looked at her hand, covered in dripping blood--a cold sweat breaking out as she struggled to register the pain.

  "Ah..hah...uh..."

  Strangely, for a moment, Cael looked indifferent, moving his hand away from the side of the frog's tongue nudging it a certain direction.

  After, Cael pierced the frog's tongue with another mana arrow, making the frog pull it back.

  Croak!!

  His face was overloaded with worry, "M-Millie! Are you okay? Your ear..."

  However, instead of screaming and attracting more monsters, Millie gritted her teeth, reminding herself that Cael was likely experiencing a far worse pain right now.

  "No...", she breathed heavily, "I'm fine. The frog's tongue is likely incredibly injured now. Let's finish this."

  At that moment, a ball of fire shot and exploded on the frog's other eye. Boom!

  Croak! It wallowed in pain, unable to see well in the dark.

  Cael nodded, "Yes. Let's finish this."

  With a resolve full of determination, Millie stumbled but was able to adapt to her disturbed balance and got up. She ran to the frog, and with Cael shooting several mana arrows in quick succession behind her, she brandished her fists one more time at the frog, weakening it further.

  To deal the last blow, Lilah conjured and shot another ball of fire at the frog's head, hitting it point blank and finally killing it.

  Boom!

  Croa..croaak... Melting under the high temperatures, the frog felt its life fade away from its body. In its last dying breaths, it called out for its mother, who it was taken away from shortly after it killed its first prey.

  It remembered the smell of the swamp, the happiness of its mother teaching it various fighting moves, the sun that once shone on it and the moon that greeted it at night.

  However, with no one answering to its calls, its soul finally wisped away fruitlessly, to be revived and taken through the cycle again once the entrance exam starts next year.

  Pak!

  Millie and Cael high-fived each other.

  "Woohoo! We- we did it...", Millie laughed breathlessly.

  "...Yeah."

  Meanwhile, Lilah ran to them, worried sick, "You two! We finally killed it! We need to treat your wounds!"

  Lilah went to Millie first, "Millie-Lillie, I'll just do a little bit. Just.. cauterize it. It'll hurt but it won't be bleeding anymore."

  Millie's complexion was pale, "Uhm. Okay."

  Sss...

  "Ugh!", Millie groaned.

  But just a second later, the cauterization was done.

  "So quick.", Cael remarked.

  "Of course!", Lilah boasted, "If it was an ordinary fire, her hair would have caught on fire. But because it's a mage's fire, and my fire, it's much more faster! Now your turn. Quick, sit down."

  Millie looked unsure, "It looks so severe...I think it needs to be amputated."

  "Go ahead.", Cael stretched his mutilated leg out, bringing out the short sword he got from Esteine stored inside his clothes and sliced off his leg, driving the knife through his joint, "Ugh!"

  "Okay, I'll go!", Lilah brought her fire closer to the severed area.

  Ssss... The same cauterization process was done, but Cael didn't make another sound, only frowning in pain.

  A moment later, it was done.

  "Hah, how do you feel?", Lilah wiped sweat off her forehead.

  "Fine. For our first time fighting on our own, we all did pretty good.", Cael slowly stood up, leaning on the wall, "You and Millie coordinated quite well. Have you guys known each other before or something?"

  Millie pointed to herself, "We did..?"

  Cael handed Lilah the weapon, and she began cutting off useful pieces from the frog.

  Lilah smiled, "Thanks. Me and Millie were friends since before the entrance exams. We were lucky to meet each other in the maze like how you and Lully met each other here."

  "I see. Best friends?"

  "No.", Millie scratched the back of her head, "Good friends though."

  Cael nodded, and after Lilah and Millie finished scavenging the frog's carcass, they all headed back.