With the bison so thoroughly smashing their defenses and the frenzy sweeping away every survivor, the guards had never managed to recover the ground lost.

  No matter their strength and coordination, there were just too many creatures spilling in.

  Worse, their desperate attempts to stop the charge - before their champion had intervened - had deprived them of such numbers that they'd been weakened on the other fronts. Even if their retreat had been much safer and more orderly where the knight was, they had been forced to pull back and eventually completely abandon the other trails. But at least, they'd done it before the frenzy could rush ahead of them and...

  they'd predicted it!

  They'd known the bison would get to where the trails merged into one and expose the backs of their lines everywhere else, so they'd retreated beforehand, to avoid being surrounded!

  Their foresight and smarts were truly astounding!

  ... In any case, the paths that were once filled with orderly bands, were now teeming with frenzied creatures just as the valley below - likely even denser, when squeezed into such tight confines! - trapping the guards in a small area around the summit. The throwers on top of the outcroppings, still pelting every creature that looked too strong or too smart, were the only ones still outside.

  Except for the vertical, impassable sides of the cliff – and the fight close to the top, flattening creatures and guards alike – everywhere was covered by an uninterrupted mass of swarming flesh.

  It should be impossible to distinguish any individual.

  And yet, even in all this chaos, even while so focused on trying to feel the flow beneath, the frog could never have missed the thing that was making its way through the throng.

  It wasn’t that big, compared to the creatures around, and its frame wasn’t anything impressive, with so few limbs. Actually, it looked thin and weak, to the point it should be a wonder that it could even move at all in that mass. Overall, it was somewhat similar to a guard, but after something massive had taken hold of it squeezed really, really hard.

  Based on its appearance, this creature should be no more dangerous than the many things crawling around it. Let alone the likes of the bison and the knight, or even the owl.

  And yet…

  And yet for the first time since it had started watching, the frog stepped back from the edge of the hill and lied down to hide.

  It wouldn’t miss the bison and the knight’s fight, of course. But it didn’t look again until it had found and crawled behind a convenient rock formation from which to sneakily peek. Leaning out with its head alone, and only the barest amount.

  But its eyes didn’t go back to the fight. They went again to the dark one, waving through the crowd as if it weren't there. Immediately, the frog realized what exactly had set it off.

  The thing felt like nothing. And that was horrifying.

  Whatever it had met, if it moved, then it could be felt. Even the guards, that were so muffled and distant, and so wrong... they still felt like something. The frog even had a vague conception of what their gem might be like.

  This creature, if it even was one, felt like nothing at all. No different than the rocks or the air itself. To the point that the frog was sure that, if it could check inside, there would be no gem at all. Which was incredibly disturbing on its own.

  And then there was the vague... outline, around its frame. That felt like the whisper of a whisper, much weaker and somehow entirely different than with the guard, let alone the knight. If... untainted?

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Though the strangest part was that it wasn’t flowing towards and around the dark one, but away. Around it in a manner as if the flowy thing was actively trying to avoid the creature. But then why go near in the first place, when it easily evaded most anything? Was the dark one some kind of renegade guard? There was no way to even begin to interpret all this.

  What was certain was that this creature felt as if it had no strength at all and no impossible tricks like the knight's. And yet the frog knew that it would stand no chance to even run, if the dark one ever got angry with it.

  A strange feeling, not born of the certainty and instincts embedded deep inside, but of something volatile. Perhaps the same obscure and baseless part of itself that thought it perceived the whisper. But the frog was completely sure, nonetheless.

  Even if by all means it was supposed to be one of the weakest creatures around, the dark one was weaving through the throng with such perfection... Using no strength, it was moving up faster than the bison had, easily bypassing creatures with no need to ever attack or defend.

  Even the knight, with its impossible movements, looked clumsier than a critter in comparison. The very air should have trouble doing that.

  It seemed to be headed for the top. Perhaps for the collateral, like every other creature around... For some reason, that didn't feel right. But the only other point of interest was the confrontation up there. Why would it want to reach for that?

  The two creatures had kept on fighting without either gaining the advantage, wreaking enormous damage to anything else in the vicinity. In this battle alone, the bison might have killed more creatures than any guard since the frog and its friends had arrived here. Combined.

  ... probably a huge exaggeration, but the untended piles of splattered materials gave that impression.

  Even the guards weren’t spared. They kept organizing groups to support the knight, trying to poke the bison in its blind spots, or preparing their little traps... to very little success, with their opponent in its endless charging state. Instead, they got crushed like any other. And the knight didn’t seem to mind.

  The frog couldn’t understand such disinterest towards those that clearly should be friends. Why were both creatures like that? Why didn’t they care?

  Even the owl – that hateful thing – had worried about the smaller ones.

  The frog found itself despising both combatants, and wishing that it could do something... bad to them.

  Perhaps it could harass the winner, somehow? It had learned from the scavengers what was the best moment for that, and most likely whichever came out on top would be very weakened. Or maybe it could even jump both of them? The throng was dangerous, surely, but now that the biggest obstacle had been removed, it could make its way through, with some effort.

  Of course, these were just fantasies to amuse itself. It knew very well that such creatures were out of reach, completely untouchable by any...

  The dark one had gotten just outside the area of the fight. Any imaginings instantly vanished.

  Did it perhaps intend to...?

  But it was making no move to join in, standing still - occasionally slipping around an incautious creature throwing itself to its death - as the bison went at the knight. The dark one simply watched as the fight kept going the same as before.

  Maybe it just wanted to learn from the fight too? That felt ridiculously improbable, but the knight's whisper was truly something awe-inspiring, and the dark one really was doing nothing at all.

  ... until the bison was knocked right in its direction. And the thing, rather than moving back, rather than doing anything to avoid the immense mass hurling its way, stayed still.

  As the hulking creature impacted the ground, the frog thought for a moment that the dark one had been crushed. It felt like a bizarrely absurd thought. And in fact, when the bison bounced back, there was a disquieting figure clinging onto it.

  The bison didn’t notice: it charged back again at the knight just as always and they engaged in their fight as if nothing were different, while the dark one slowly but surely moved forward on its body, towards the head.

  The bison didn’t care.

  Surprisingly, the knight made a mistake! Its stance faltered suddenly, and it failed to knock the bison away in time.

  It was thrown with the full power of the charge and flung hard in the air, crashing helplessly against the rocks. It didn't seem particularly injured, but rather than picking itself up, it stood still. As the bison - caught by surprise by the sudden success - struggled to recover and curve around. However, pretty soon, it sped up even further, backing up more for a running start, into what would likely be a final, triumphant charge. Even if its opponent had survived the first charge... it wouldn't shrug off this one.

  Then - perhaps from the posture, the angle of what should be its head, or from the strange... twinge in whisper - the frog realized what had distracted the knight: it had seen the dark one, that had just reached the bison's neck.

  Still, the creature didn’t seem to care as it reached the maximum distance, and prepared to turn around.

  It didn’t seem to care even when the dark one reached down, with its pitifully small claws...

  and separated the bison's head almost entirely from its neck. In one motion.

  Certainly it didn’t care when its body gave out, and it went rolling down the hill.

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