Manhood, and its relation to ego!

"You're being over dramatic," One of these men contradicted.

And before a debate could have broken out, he popped that backpack off his back and rustled through it.

A moment later he pulled out a rope, which was attached to a piece of metal that seemed slightly heavy.

Undoubtedly, this thing was a grappling hook. In this case it can prove tremendously helpful.

Altima was sceptical towards such confidence at first, but now she understood that this flashy metal truly was useful.

So she saw it fair to passively encourage, "Let's hope that you know what to do with that thing."

"Relax," That same man gestured.

And then boasted, "I'm the best grappling handler in the revolutionaries."

With that strut of confidence he twirled the hook a few times, took a couple of steps forward and then put in quite some strength, to toss this thing across the corridor!

Disaster itself struck once this so-called capable man took one too many steps forward!

His balance became non-existent, as his foot did not meet with a steady chunk of stone-work, but kissed air instead!

This forced the frog to topple over towards this very pool of slime, which was a couple of meters beneath them.

The grappling hook itself smashed against one of the walls, as this man twisted his body towards the left, in response to this sudden disaster.

The strength of which panic brought along, forced the hook to bounce back towards the group!

After that point, this clumsy man and Altima locked eyes for a quick second.

The lady could clearly see the adrenaline-embraced fear that coated the other's eyes!

This man did not scream out a single word, and simply waited for an excruciating death.

He understood how hazardous this slime was, it was simply not a good fate to crash into it!

But just a blink of an eye later, this same man felt a strong tug which struck his upper body.

And before he could understand what happened, he saw several familiar faces around him.

Altima held the grappling hook lightly on her palm. So from the looks of it, she was the one who pulled this man out of trouble.

The same lady dropped this piece of metal on the man's chest, and stood up once she acknowledged that the other was in one piece.

"Best grappling handler ha?" She lightly teased.

And then advised, "Maybe you should be a little dramatic as well. It's better than being clueless."

After that point, this whole team truly began to cooperate with the big lady.

Not only had she proved herself capable before, but she also saved this frog’s behind just a moment ago.

So it was no surprise that the group trusted Altima more than ever. Most understood that this lady was their pathway to treasure.

If that wasn’t important enough, she could help all of them survive this madness.

After a bit of front-and-back conversation, the lady figured out that all four of these men carried grappling hooks.

These tools aided to create a literal path, towards the other side of the corridor.

And just for the sake of efficiency, the lady ordered them to loot the couple of corpses that they left behind.

Those dead men won't need such grappling hooks anymore, so there was no shame in putting these tools into use.

And this whole effort helped create quite a literal bridge above the slimy dilemma.

These frogs proved useful once more, as they apparently carried meter-long, iron poles on their backpacks.

These poles were bashed against the stone ground beneath their feet, which helped create a dependable spot where they could tie these ropes on.

Of course that procedure took quite a bit of man-handling, but they were finally ready to cross this slime infested corridor.

The lady in command faced Steve and offered, “I am sworn to protect you, would you like to climb on my back?”

After that point, the men close by broke into quite a bit of a giggle.

This was possibly the first time they've been seen with signs of joy, but it was no secret that their jolly mood was directed against the young man.

Steve caught up on that fact, but he didn't want to push this embarrassing situation further.

Which was why he requested, “You’re the most dependable one here, Altima. So you should help my little sister cross this safely.”

Afterwards he peeked at those other frogs and pressured, “The rest of us will do this alone. Some bug almost killed us all but that's not a big deal.”

Right after he decided to pressure, “We’re all men after all, some ropes shouldn't be a challenge for us.”

It was no secret that there was a bunch of sass behind his tone. He trusted this lady to hell and back, but also understood that these other men were the last ones who could mock.

He aimed to shatter what remained of their ego, and had apparently succeeded to a certain extent.

Now with that petty competition out of the way, it was time to sprint into action.

The big lady encouraged Trinia to climb on her back, and then set foot on one of the six ropes. The same ones which had been laid two-meters above the dilemma.

Half of the group expected the tall lady to swiftly drop in the slime after that point, Steve was a bit sceptical too.

Sure the ropes they have set up were firmer than this city's social morals, that was certain.

But neither of them expected for a two-hundred pound frog to set foot on a couple of ropes, and not suffer an imbalance!

Yet contrary to all expectations, this fine woman tip-toed across the five meter long ropes, and reached the other side of the corridor with ease.

The rest of the group was too anxious already, and that kept them beyond busy so far.

So of course they had it even more difficult to understand, that this lady got on the other side almost effortlessly.

She faced these men after such success, and was swift to notice the sour disbelief across their faces.

Likewise she decided to comment, “My legs are stronger than a horse’s, all of this was childsplay.”

One of these frogs was quite offended by such skill and confidence.

Sure the group was thankful to a certain extent, but they simply couldn’t accept the fact that someone of their similar age, was better than them.

Worse yet, the most jealous frog was the same one who had been saved a moment ago. He aimed to do something which would feed his toxic ego.

He tip-toed across one rope with what seemed like a hurried strut. Unsurprisingly, he then lost quite a bit of balance.

Such clumsiness forced this man to fall on top of the other ropes close by!

These ropes halted what could have been this frog's doom, but there was an extra detail that managed to damage his pride.

When this frog had lost balance, his foothold had also severely slipped.

So his crotch had crashed right against the rope! Unsurprisingly, this sour fate caused a strong shock-wave of pain!

So his ego simply dripped towards the slime, as both sides of the corridor hysterically laughed towards this fool's misfortune.

Eventually he reached the other side of the corridor in one piece, and simply avoided eye contact; he felt beaten and humiliated.

The rest of the team made it to the other side, safe and sound. The ropes they had tied down were more than stable, thankfully.

Steve had a bit of an imbalance through the process, but he was the least struggling across the group of men.

Once they crossed this deadly area, they decided to leave the grappling hooks behind.

They understood that this path had to be crossed again, so it was pointless to bring these tools along.

Afterwards the whole team continued to follow along the corridor, but had their hopes shattered after they met with a dead-end.

They walked in a room which was about four-meters across.

Perhaps the widest one yet. The team could move around freely, but that wasn’t a strong blessing at the moment.

All of which this room carried were a bunch of broken beds. The stench of rotten wood slapped them beyond like an angry elderly.

Apart from the broken down planks, there were a few rusty silver plates as well, but that was about it.

Clearly this spot used to be just a sleeping quarter. Places like this usually did not have a big treasure chest, which shone in the middle of the room.

“Great. Our friends had their faces ripped off, all for nothing!” Richard complained as he kicked a pile of wood.

“Shit!” He screamed.

As quite a few splinters pierced through his leather shoe, and against the skin as well.

Before quite a bit of banter could have been spread wide open, the team felt a light rumble beneath their feet!

They couldn't understand the source between that shake, but that itself felt like a minor problem right now.

Simply because the ground beneath their feet, had violently opened up!

The stone-floor's tiling fell apart. It was sucked in towards some odd, two-meter wide hole!

And this whole group suffered a similar fate as well. They were stripped out of luck, and sunk towards that same hole along with the tiles!