Mother Frogger

The lighting dimmed the further they got into the forest, the foliage above them getting thicker and thicker, providing a fitting atmosphere for what they were about to face.

Sarr'ina gripped her bow tightly as the telltale sounds of a nearby pond made itself known, the croaks and ribbits of amphibians, buzzing of dragonflies, and sound of ripples in disturbed waters was all too familiar to the group. They were nearing the Cursed Waters.

Eventually, they were able to spot the clearing which contained the large pond, Luca could already spot a few frogs hopping around near the water, aswell as what could only be a large amount of amphibian eggs? They looked a lot larger than normal, but he didn't know if the monster was able to reproduce... If it was then it's lucky they came to destroy it, he couldn't imagine the amount of damage they'd cause if they started spreading. "We need to destroy those eggs." he whispered, pointing at the eggs on the water.

Gil'ga nods, "It breeds? This is bad news indeed." he mutters, knocking an arrow while crouching low behind the bushes. "Any idea on how to draw it out?" he asks the duo.

Luca shakes his head, "It didn't appear when I was here, only attacking Ina..."

"Maybe it likes women?" she jokes despite her pale expression.

Luca gets a grim thought, "I wouldn't put it past it... Those eggs are too large for any normal frog to lay, unless the monster can procreate without a mate, it must've found a substitute."

Gil'ga shakes his head, "I do not think that is the case, I have never heard of something like that ever happening."

"What? You've seen a huge frog before then? This is not the time for common sense Gil-" Luca is interrupted as the ground starts trembling slightly... The group thought it must've been a small earthquake, but by the dislodging of large amounts of foliage, it was clear that wasn't the case.

It'd arrived, the monster was huge, the size of a monster truck bulbous sickly yellow eyes and dark green skin covered in pustules. It was revolting to look at, and the thought of getting close to it almost made one want to gag.

It slowly crawled into the clearing with a large deer in its mouth, though, only the hind legs were visible from its closed maw. Its front legs were stubby but any thought of severing them were lost when they saw how thick its skin seemed to be.

The back legs looked muscular and powerful, as if it could jump from one side of the pond to the other with relative ease.

Gil'ga looked at the rest of the group as it slowly clambered towards the water, "We should strike now before it submerges, this is the best opportunity we are likely to get." he quickly says.

The rest of them nod, all readying their bows and aiming towards the creature's eyes...

*Twang*

The sound of the arrow leaving the bow somehow alerted it to their presence, it closed its eyes as if it were waiting for an attack, Gil'ga, Zul'meshii, and Sarr'ina's arrows strike true but don't deal any permanent damage, the arrows just lodging themselves into its eyelids. Luca's falls shot and hits it in the throat, doing no damage whatsoever.

The toad turns towards the group and croaks at them, the sound significantly louder and more intimidating than expected. It hops a couple times as they fire another volley, the beast closing its eyes again as if it knew what was coming.

They hit by still are unable to pierce its eyelids, Luca changes his targets from the eyes to the back legs due to it being easier and more likely to hit. His arrow flies and pierces the webbing on its foot, finally drawing blood and causing the creature to croak in pain.

However, before they're able to fire another round the beast opens its move and shoots its tongue at them, everyone dives for cover and successfully dodges it, the tongue sticking to a tree. They'd thought it might be stuck like that, but the toad wrenches its head backwards and literally breaks the tree in two due to the force.

Luca fires an arrow at its eye, but it falls short again, instead flying into the open mouth of the creature. Seemed he was onto something as it quickly backed away due to the pain and laid its focus on Luca... "Shit" he muttered as he dove behind a tree as the tongue shot at him.

The tongue hit the tree and shot back into its mouth, taking a large amount of bark back with it, the monster was still almost completely unharmed, the only damage that'd been done was superficial so the odds weren't looking all that great at the moment.

The monster shot its tongue at Luca again, hitting the same tree as before, however this time the others had been ready, shooting arrows at the tongue as its tried to tear down the tree. Gil'ga and Zul'meshii's arrows struck two and pierced just below the sticky tip of it, thoroughly enraging the giant toad as he retrieved its tongue.

It'd apparently had enough of just trying to eat them and instead starting hopping towards the group, no longer firing its tongue. Luca had to retreat as the creature jumped against the tree he was hiding behind, causing the thing to completely collapse.

The other kept trying to hurt it with their arrows but achieved almost nothing from their efforts. Luca continued to run and tried to find cover behind another tree, but felt something strike him in the back before he could get to safety.

"LUCA!" Sarr'ina shouted as she saw the beast's tongue hit him.

Luca only realised what'd happened when he started to be tugged towards the toad, he dropped to the floor and started grabbing anything he could to keep himself from being eaten, getting eaten alive by a bear hurt enough, but slowly digested within a giant toad? FUCK NO!

"SOMEONE SHOOT THIS FUCKING THING!" he exclaims, as he struggles against it, his arms already exceeding their limits as he tries to resist the creature's strength.

Gil'ga throws his bow over his shoulders and gets his knife out before sprinting towards them, ready to cut the damn thing's tongue out... Only to find that someone else had beaten him to the punch.

"Das'ju!?" Sarr'ina exclaimed in surprise as the young hunter jumped from a nearby tree and severed the toad's tongue with his knife.

"I hope I am not too late?" Das'ju asks as he quickly helps Luca up.

"Any longer and I'd be frog food. Thank fuck you came though!" he says.

The two aren't able to continue chatting though as the enraged monster looked as if it was about to jump ontop of them.