Ozzy watched as Trinidad moved from where she'd been standing next to him to in front of one of the coaching frogs in all but an instant. She'd accelerated on a dime, spraying muck and debris up in her wake as she moved faster than Ozzy was capable of thinking. Faster than the frog could think too.

  Against her wishes Trinidad had agreed to leave Ozzy some of the tier one frogs. The one she teleported in front of now was nearly three times as large as the one that Ozzy had faced. Not only was it larger but it had truly monstrous features to go along with its tier up.

  Protruding from the frog's mouth it was a pair of massive tusks, much like the kind that Ozzy had seen on American razorback boars. That wasn't where the differences stopped however. Claws stretched out of the ends of their webbed feet, curving into wicked talons. Spiked crests, like those belonging to rockfish rose from their backs. Strangest of all however, each of the tier 2 frogs all had a third eye.

  The frog's third eye rested exactly between and just above their normal two. Coming to nearly perfectly resembled the hippie abstractions. Ozzy had grown up seeing all through Louisiana of third eyes and other transcendental irises. In similar fashion the frog's third eye was slit vertically rather than horizontally.

  Trinidad hadn't bothered to explain much of the Tier 2 frog's abilities to Ozzy. She'd focus largely on general strategy as well as well as explaining to him that if he did end up getting into a duel with one of the tier 2 frogs, he might as well just curl up into a ball and let it have its way with him. She’d said that while she didn't doubt his abilities, a tier 2 monster was not only out of his league but capable of eating his whole league.

  It was a friendly throwback to the time Ozzy had fired his most powerful weapon at Ceranicus during his and Trinidad's bout at the edge slinger’s compound. His weapons failing to pierce the elf’s flesh and only really being able to stun the sociopathic gang leader. While he doubted the frog's defenses were better than the elf’s based how easily his rounds had pierced the last frog, he doubted he would have enough overall firepower to bring one down. They were just too big. Even dwarfing Trinidad who was nearly twice his height.

  Despite the massive size difference, Trinidad charged in unworried by the Great Frogs' monstrous presence. In fact, she moved so quickly the monster hardly had time to register her before the first strike came. Flashing out in front of the large woman like a twilights first sign of dawn.

  A flash and boom erupted from the monster’s face as Trinidad threw a fist directly into the frog's center mass. Froggy flesh rippled and tore, as the explosive force of Trinidad's ability was rapidly compressed by her descending fist.

  The Frog was forced back by the sheer force and brutality of the strike. Due to its size and shape, it was hard-pressed to back pedal and instead did the only thing that it thought itself capable of, moving forward. With muscles coiled tighter than any earthly spring it leapt forward, directly into Trinidad.

  Mana burned, and from where Ozzy stood nearly 200 meters away, he felt as Trinidad activated an ability so energy intensive that it could have powered his hometown.

  As its momentum carried it forward, the frog found that despite its massive form and weight. It was unable to move its assailant. This proved to be a problem as nearly a hundred tons a flesh and muscle carried themselves forward with no interest in stopping anytime soon.

  Trinidad proved to be something of an immovable object to the frog’s flabby unstoppable force. But while the frog was hardly more than poor semblance of that ideal, Trinidad was very much the real thing. The frog continued forward, its body stretching to the point of tearing as the laws of physics themselves fought against it.

  Just then Ozzy felt another flash in the ambient mana of the area as Trinidad activated another ability, this one somehow even more intense than the last. Light emanated from the frog. Turning the monster into something of a funny-looking night light for all of half a second before with a massive crashing boom the frog went up in smoke, blood, and ash.

  At the epicenter of an explosion of gore Trinidad stood untouched by the viscera and filth around her like an angel of death. She stared death at the approaching frogs, radiating power before seemingly remembering something and turning to wave in Ozzy. The brief bit of humanity in her form was somehow even more terrifying than the inhuman goddess of death Ozzy had only just born witness too. It was like this was just any other Tuesday to her, and the blood and gore that painted her surroundings bothered her even less than litter on the sidewalk might have bothered Ozzy on earth.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Rushing for the second frog Trinidad leapt up into the air where she dodged a massive acid dripping tongue to come down on the monster with the axe kick from hell. This strike too was empowered by her explosive abilities, turning what was an already devastating blow into an outright fatal one.

  While Trinidad fought, she let some of the monsters through, she was really only interested in the tier 2s. Letting any of the weaker tier ones through to get at Ozzy so long as they didn’t get in her way. Any that did quickly found a rapid path to eternal darkness as Trinidad eviscerated them with little more effort than it took her to raise a hand and cast an explosive beam at them.

  ***

  Ozzy found himself on the bad end of a group of great frogs. About four of them had made it past Trinidad without incurring her wrath. Each was somehow smart enough to realize that the scary lady was way out of their league and they’d have a much better bet with the short stationary guy out on his own.

  The frogs bounded towards him like it was a done deal. They hardly expected for the first of their number to get knocked out of the sky and land in a broken bloody heap. They certainly hadn't expected it to happen to the second. It was no matter though. By the time the second had fallen, the third and fourth were nearly on the lone hunter. Rather than retreat however, he advanced.

  His first fight with one of the frogs had been an unlucky thing. Still running on the high of several recent victories, Ozzy had entered the fight cocky and ripe for destruction. It was only through the grace of the cosmos that he'd been lucky enough to have an ability like Void Shift. Without it he'd have certainly needed Trinidad's help to escape, and potentially suffered even worse injuries warranting Aria or Arlan to come down and get him.

  The way he approached this fight however was like a man at war. He let himself slip back into that frame of mind where every dark corner, every alleyway, every window, every rooftop could hold hidden dangers and potentially death. Every frog in this fight was no longer an underpowered tier one monster to him, but a living walking breathing tank. Tanks commanded respect.

  Intrinsically he knew that were he to get into an altercation with all of the frogs at once, he would most certainly be overrun and die. Instead, he approached it much like Trinidad had. While he didn't have her power or her rapid blitzing abilities he did have more utility.

  Any strike you could see coming could be a Void or the Void Shift, and any enemy he deemed too troublesome blinded by his unholy darkness. Everything else was ripe for destruction via double ought buck, and an ability he’d somewhat neglected until now.

  Ozzy rapidly approached the closest frog it let out an excited ribbit. It was like it thought Ozzy was running towards it to feed himself to it and not any sort of threat. Rather than wait for its meal to reach it, the frog moved proactively. A slimy pink tongue launching out towards him but Ozzy ready for it, already shifting.

  Slipping into his rat form Ozzy went directly under the tongue. It continued out over him to strike pointlessly into the rotten muck. Before it could begin to reel in the tongue, Ozzy spent the small amount of mana it took to slip back into human form and placed a hand on the top of the now still tongue.

  BOOM

  Powder strike activated immediately, tearing directly through the monster tongue and sending out a gout of blood as the monster let out an unnatural grunting and wheezing roar. It sounded like a lion who’d spent its whole life smoking and had just collapsed one of its lungs. Ozzy made the comparison more real, by shooting it in the chest where he hoped frog longs would be.

  Knowing the attacks wouldn’t be enough to even slow the monster Ozzy slipped back into his rat form before any harm could befall him and using two powerful well-timed blast from powder strike launched himself into the air. It was good thing too, as only a second later, Ozzy watched as the fourth and only uninjured frog landed right where he had just been standing.

  Before he reached the apex of his flight Ozzy slipped back into human form. The moment of airtime allowed him to do two things, namely reloading his rifle, and getting a view of where all of the frogs were at. The third and fourth were doing fine already tracking his flight and preparing to move towards where he would fall. The first was much in the same camp though it was farther off, only just having recovered from taking Ozzy’s opening shot. The second was just barely managing to drag itself across the grimy wasteland, Ozzy having apparently hit something vital.

  While in the air Ozzy opted to do something that some might have considered as “wasteful” after all there was no telling if he’d even be able to manage it. In the heat of the moment however it only came as natural for Ozzy to try. Raising his rifle, he aimed and fired as he reached the apex of his flight. Surprisingly even to Ozzy the shot landed, striking the the frog he’d just blown the tongue off of in the back. Ozzy would have granted that it wasn't the best shot, but for one he made while flying through the air? He was pretty damn pleased with himself.

  Ozzy hit the ground in a tuck and roll, the muddy ground serving to absorb just about all of the dangerous momentum he’d acquired. Popping back up to his feet he had a round in hand, already shoving it into the breech of his rifle as turned just in time to catch the slimy pink appendage of a frog tongue flying straight at him.

  Unlike before Ozzy had hard coded in his mind what to do if he saw one of those tongues come anywhere close to him. He was slipping through the void before it even reached him, though he wouldn’t have called the ability wasted as it allowed him to perceive his options without the need to worry about being struck, and the frog had practically lined the shot up for him.