The frog finished its opponent and immediately rushed to help the beetle, before that simple creature got itself skewered. Only, the barrier of quills stopped it too, no matter how it tried to approach.

  And judging by the cries of pain, time was running out. It needed to find a way through, even if overcoming this defense seemed impossible.

  Though if it couldn't deal with the hunkered enemy, there was another, simpler way to end hostilities...

  It circled around, keeping far away from the quills, until it got to the beetle. Then, in an unfortunately quite familiar manner, it reached under... and flipped its friend on its back.

  The beetle didn't even complain, too caught up in its confused anger, wiggling its legs around. It would be useless: if none of their other friends helped, it would never get back up on its own.

  The first time this had happened was very disappointing, reminiscent of the crab and how easy it had been to defeat: though the beetle did feel stronger than that creature had been, it had the same kind of weak point, and in an even more severe way. At least the crab could have used its hands to defend itself and try to get up if it went down!

  Now, the frog was just happy to have a way to neutralize it, before it hurt itself.

  Rather, it should focus on improving its own reaction speed. It had been too late now, and the beetle had lost another leg. If the frog didn't step up its game or find a way to quell the creature's aggressiveness, its friend might not see the end of their journey.

  But now wasn't the time to think about such things. It needed to dispose of this other creature, before some friend incautiously helped the beetle up, letting it go back to try getting itself hurt; or worse, some enemy made use of such a vulnerable position. The area might be mostly cleared, but better be careful.

  ...now, how to go about this?

  In the first place, how had the beetle even managed to get into a fight with a porcupine, of all things? As far as the frog knew, these things weren’t predators. They were rather most predators' nightmare – the simple ones at least – turning their own aggression against them with their unbreakable defense.

  It was somewhat similar to the beetle, actually. But with more focus on-

  Similar to the beetle...?

  Inspired, the frog carefully approached the opposing creature from its side. Predictably, the porcupine wasn't a friend – and was probably a fair bit smarter than the beetle – and tried to fend it off. No matter how it tried to approach, the thing slowly rotated, presenting its front, the most armored part, and the one with dangerous teeth.

  There must be a better way to go about this, but the frog was short on patience right now: it was pressed for time and, as usual, none of the others would come to help. So it forced the matter along.

  It dashed to the side and pressed against the quills as soon as it reached the flank, letting them pierce its flesh, only keeping its face clear. It reached under. Fortunately, the frog's skin was tough enough to mitigate most damage: the quills pierced the outer, safe layer, but didn't get into the precious things beneath.

  Its left hand wasn't as fortunate, and the porcupine lunged and managed to take a bite. But the frog had grown tenacious.

  Ignoring the pain, as soon as it got a good enough grip, it pulled and kept pulling, hefting the porcupine up by its side until the creature toppled over helplessly, in a quite funny likeness of the beetle.

  This creature would know how to right itself back up though, given time. In fact, it was already starting to wiggle back and forth. Putting a stop to that would be easy, as simple as jumping onto the exposed underbelly and digging in.

  ...But it didn't feel right.

  Knowing porcupines and knowing the beetle, it must have been the latter that had forced the fight. The frog always tried to help its friends when it could, but didn't feel like killing in this situation, for some reason.

  So, it just took a run-up... and then shoved the porcupine in time with its wiggling, making the creature flip over so hard that it flipped again, and again, and again. And down the hill it went.

  Even if it was ostensibly an enemy, as the frog saw it rolling, it couldn't find it in itself to hate it. Rather, it felt an unknown, curious lightness – a pleasant feeling – until the creature reached the end of the hill.

  Only when it bounced off against a boulder - the highlight of the entire scene - did it remember itself and hurry back. There was a beetle to un-roll-over and a gathering of friends to check.

  Climbing back up to the alcove just beneath the very top where its remaining friends were feeding, the frog found itself happy with the outcome of this scrap, all things considered.

  And as it weaved through them distributing spoils around - starting from the least capable - seeing that there were almost no losses this time, that feeling was only confirmed.

  Every time they had to fight for a hill to rest and feed on it was risky, as there was no way to know what kind of opposition they would face in the fight for the sparse places high enough to feed on, now that the currents had become so stingy. Most likely, if it had taken the frog just a little more time to deal with its own opponent, the beetle would have met the same end as the shrimp. Already, too many friends were dying to the treacherous terrain alone.

  Finishing up with the non self-sufficient and moving to the ones with space for improvement, the frog decided that it should try to be more dependable for its friends' sake. More aware of the situation of every creature. Because there was no other they could really depend on, unfortunately.

  The bison might have made things easier since it had joined their group, but how it would behave was always a mystery. The frog found its gaze moving onto the creature's enormous frame, always easy to spot from anywhere between their friends.

  Just earlier, the grasshopper had been locked in a fight close to the gigantic creature. It hadn't bothered to help at all. Even the frog had almost failed to come to the rescue, hidden as the grasshopper had been from view behind that massive bulk.

  Honestly, it didn't know what to think about that one, if it could at all be called a friend. It had joined in peacefully, but had never quite fit in. Even now, after so much time tagging along without a itch, the frog didn't feel more at ease in the slightest - though that might be its own paranoia, admittedly.

  The bison felt smart. Much smarter than the other friends. At least on the level of the grasshopper, and by even entertaining such a comparison, the frog was probably only fooling itself.

  It was also very strong. Not only was it enormous, the biggest creature the frog had seen by a good margin, but it also felt incredibly dangerous, in a way that it hadn't felt since the owl. With that creature - and the lizard, in minor part - they shared that same feeling of specialness that no other had shown since. What was something like this doing with its friends? What was it doing with the frog? It felt bad to even think, but-

  As if aware of its thoughts, the bison's eyes snapped onto it, with such an intensity it felt as if it could bore a hole through its body. The frog immediately averted its gaze, not daring to even hint at a challenge.

  This hopefully-friend might be even stronger than the owl, and that creature was scary as anything. If it ever decided they weren't friends, after all...

  And it couldn't be singled out for not helping, either way. Because, besides the frog itself and sometimes the grasshopper, the others just... weren't that good at being friends. Sometimes, it felt as if they only helped each other by happenstance, rather than any conscious decision.

  They were far more likely to do nothing and watch one of theirs die than to intervene.

  Not out of malice: they were simply incapable of understanding what they were supposed to do. If it weren't for the frog, most would even forget to take the gems from the predators they downed.

  Initially, it had been exasperating that weaker creatures like the shrimp, or unbalanced ones like the beetle, refused to try and transform with stronger filaments when they had the chance. But it went much deeper than that.

  A few would even forget to feed entirely, and would be long dead without the frog's encouragements. It had to do these rounds after every fight, gather the spoils and distribute them.

  At least the grasshopper had seemed to understand and usually contributed. That had felt really good, at first: to finally have one creature that understood, and did what was necessary.

  Unfortunately, the more time went on, the more the frog suspected that the grasshopper was only going through the motions, and simply liked to follow along for whatever reason. Like now.

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  It would never try this on its own accord, and always needed guidance. Which was simply...

  but it kept good company, and that was already a lot.

  Anyway, they had pulled through, and even the frog itself had barely lost anything at all: just the two fingers the porcupine had bitten off. Once, that would have felt like a big deal, but not anymore.

  The first time – when that cod had taken a chunk of its left foot – had been bad. To realize that this time there wouldn’t be a convenient transformation just behind the corner, and it would miss this bit of itself for a very long time, potentially forever… it wasn’t a good feeling.

  Now it had grown used to losing parts. Mostly. And it had regained some confidence: maybe it would have to struggle, but with the kind of opposition they were starting to face, it might only be a matter of time before something good enough to transform came along.

  The only loss it still regretted anymore was its eye, but as long as it had the rest, everything would be fine. It had grown too comfortable with this body, too skilled, to be held back by something as little as that. And was probably almost at the very top of what it could achieve right now.

  It had even finally gotten the hang on the annoyance!

  Well, mostly. They still liked to pile on afterwards, but at least it could now feel when they were about to cause a distraction, and delay until a time when they wouldn't get it killed.

  ... But that wasn't all good news, was it?

  Even if creatures strong enough to consider had started to appear, the frog was far from ready to overcome them. If it truly reached its limits and still fell short, then it would truly be stuck. Or forced to start a lengthy process of small transformations that would leave it weakened for an unconscionable amount of time.

  There was no chance to find unplundered spoils, this time. Not of that strength. Whatever could kill those would always take the spoils.

  It might have to try cozying up to the bison - their only bulwark against that kind of opponents. But that one seemed to be no different: it always took the gems, even those that felt far below it. It was hard not to think that wasn't just to spite for the frog.

  It figured the only creature in this group that actually cleaned up after itself would be the one to have the gems it needed.

  And there had been no progress with that mysterious insight, that it had first perceived in the owl’s territory. The thing within the essence, that could surely elevate the frog above...

  but that was clearly just a delusion, product of a bad mental state.

  Well, it was no use focusing on things outside of its control, when there were other things that it could do.

  So, it started climbing the rest of the way up. There was something it needed to check.