"...Did I go a bit too far?"
"Guruuu?"
Rei muttered as he looked over the Sandworm corpses scattered around him—or more accurately, the various chunks of meat.
The state of the monster was particularly gruesome; the Sandworm head Rei had pulverized with his initial Power Slash was now nothing more than bits of flesh, ranging from a few centimeters to dozens of centimeters in size, strewn across the dunes.
Fortunately, they were in the middle of a vast desert, and the wind was already carrying the scent of blood away, but the metallic stench lingering in the air was still thick enough to be noticed with a single sniff. It was dense enough that even someone without Rei's heightened Five Senses could have easily identified it.
"...You certainly overdid it a little," Elena remarked, flicking away the Sandworm blood and body fluids clinging to her Whip-sword blade.
In contrast to Rei and Seto, who had simply crushed the creature's skull, Elena had displayed the refined edge of her swordsmanship by cleanly severing the head with her Whip-sword. Faced with such a precise feat, Rei couldn't find a way to argue.
"Anyway, let's hurry up and collect the Sandworm carcasses so we can go find that Spear Frog... Hm?"
"Gururuuu?"
"What is it?"
Elena cut herself off mid-sentence. Simultaneously, Rei and Seto noticed an abnormality as well.
Calling it an 'abnormality' might have been a bit of a stretch, considering the previous incident with the Bandit Goblin Mage. Something was simply approaching their location.
"Is this it...!? Is it finally here?"
The intruder wasn't tunneling through the earth like a Sandworm, nor was it soaring through the sky like a flying monster. Instead, they sensed something kicking off the desert floor, leaping toward them rather than flying.
The reason they could detect it despite the considerable distance was simple: whatever was approaching was massive. Furthermore, several other presences were drawing near as if in pursuit of the giant entity.
The giant creature had a sandy-colored hide. Under normal circumstances, it would have been easily mistaken for the desert's natural camouflage, but its size was so immense that there was no way to miss it.
Using the strength of its hind legs, it cleared nearly ten meters in a single bound. The way it leaped repeatedly made it clear it wasn't even using its full strength yet.
"That's... the Spear Frog Anomaly Species, isn't it?"
"Yeah, most likely."
Rei nodded in response to Elena’s question. Beside him, Seto had already lowered its body into a crouch, ready to intercept the Spear Frog at a moment's notice.
Neither Rei nor Elena had ever seen a Spear Frog in person before, but there was no mistaking a giant frog-like monster nearly three meters long.
Regardless, this was a welcome development. Their target had delivered itself right to their doorstep. However, the reason the two humans wore stunned expressions was because of who was following the beast.
"Wait... the ones chasing it from behind..."
"...Yes. That's definitely Vihera and her group."
Elena replied succinctly. Behind the Spear Frog heading straight for them were the silhouettes of Vihera and Byune. Their Porter seemed to have been left in the dust, unable to keep up with their speed. The two of them were sprinting across the desert with incredible haste, hot on the heels of the Spear Frog.
"Well, anyway... it looks like we'll be fighting the Spear Frog together after all, just like Vihera suggested."
"...Even so, she went in a completely different direction. How on earth did we run into her here?"
As they spoke, they readied their weapons—the Death Scythe and the Whip-sword—waiting for the Spear Frog to close in. Both hoped to end the fight with a single decisive blow.
"Maybe they found the target, but it got away, and they've been chasing it ever since?"
"Then why would the target head straight for us...? Oh, I see."
Elena looked at the Sandworm corpses scattered about and nodded in realization. The strong scent of blood from the butchered meat was the obvious lure.
Rei noticed her reaction and came to the same conclusion. His cheek twitched, but he turned to look back toward the oasis as if clinging to one last hope. It had become quite small in the distance, but it was still visible. He had wondered if a frog-type monster might simply be seeking water, but the evidence pointed elsewhere.
"...Want to bet on it?"
"No, I'll pass."
Though he glanced at the oasis, he knew the Sandworm blood and meat were the culprits. Rei gave a small shrug and focused his gaze on the Spear Frog, which was now within a hundred meters. Then, he noticed something else.
It wasn't just Vihera and Byune following the beast; there was a swarm of smaller creatures positioned between the lead frog and the pursuers. Setting aside their size, their appearance was almost identical to the Spear Frog Anomaly Species in the lead.
(So those are the Normal Spear Frogs.)
Rei briefly considered using magic for a preemptive strike to take down the Anomaly Species, but the distance was closing too fast. It was already under twenty meters. Normally, that would be plenty of distance, but this opponent cleared ten meters with every hop. He didn't have time to chant.
Fortunately, Rei had other long-range options besides the Death Scythe's Flying Slash.
He placed the Death Scythe on the sand and pulled a spear from his Misty Ring. It was a cheap, half-broken thing—worthless as a primary weapon—but for Rei, it was a perfect disposable projectile.
(I've only got about fifty of these left, though. I'll need to hit up a weapon shop or a blacksmith shop later to restock.)
He twisted his upper body, readying for a javelin throw. He glanced at Elena and then toward their two acquaintances chasing the pack. Elena immediately understood his intent and shouted a warning.
"Byune! Vihera! Rei is about to attack! Get clear!"
The warning reached them. Running behind the massive frog and its smaller swarm, Vihera and Byune skidded to a halt, kicking up clouds of sand.
Seeing this, Rei waited until the gap had closed to ten meters—the distance of one more jump for the Spear Frog to reach them, or rather, the Sandworm meat.
"Haaah!"
With a sharp shout, he performed a spear throwing.
The Spear Frog was mid-leap, unable to evade in the air. It should have been skewered. Rei was certain of it, as was Elena, who stood by with her Whip-sword ready just in case.
The spear, launched with Rei's superhuman strength, struck the Spear Frog true. And yet...
"What!?" Elena cried out in surprise.
The spear had been thrown with enough force to pierce the air itself, and it had hit the Spear Frog right flank. But an instant later, the weapon slid across the creature's skin as if it had hit nothing at all, careening off in a different direction.
Up close, they could finally see the oil-like Body Fluid secreting from its skin, making its body shimmer with a greasy light. That oil had deflected the spear's tip.
The only saving grace was that the spear had been rusted and chipped; the jagged edge had managed to leave a shallow scratch on the Spear Frog flank. Had it been a high-quality, perfectly smooth blade, it would have slid off without leaving so much as a mark.
"Rei!"
Elena grabbed Rei’s hand as he momentarily froze from the force of his throw, dragging him out of the way. Seto snatched the Death Scythe from the ground with its beak and followed. Seconds later, the three-meter-long frog crashed down exactly where Rei had stood.
The Spear Frog seemed unable to forgive the fact that something had bypassed its oily protection and wounded it. Instead of lunging for the Sandworm meat, it turned its inscrutable, unblinking eyes toward Seto.
"Here it comes!"
"Right!"
At Rei’s signal, the trio leaped backward. In the next instant, the Spear Frog’s mouth snapped open. A tongue lashed out with a speed equal to Rei’s thrown spear, gouging the desert sand.
True to its status as an Anomaly Species, the tongue was split at the base into two sharp, spear-like tips.
"Gerouo!"
Its attack missed, and the creature let out a distorted croak before retracting its tongue.
"Gururuuu!"
Seto tossed the Death Scythe back to Rei and lunged forward, signaling that it would handle the beast itself.
"Rei! We can't just focus on that one!" Elena shouted, gesturing toward the direction the frogs had come from.
The group of Normal Spear Frogs had already closed the gap to about ten meters. Rei hesitated for a split second on which threat to prioritize, but his worry vanished when he saw Vihera. She had reached the rear of the swarm, her gauntlet claws flashing as she shredded the Spear Frogs in her path. Byune was right there with her, driving her knife into the Spear Frog's Back of one creature after another.
"I'll leave the swarm to Elena! Vihera's coming up from the rear anyway—whoa!"
The giant frog wasn't about to let him finish. It thrust its tongue out again, aiming to impale Rei. He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the lashing muscle as it sliced through the air. He swung the Death Scythe's blade in response.
However, the creature controlled its tongue with terrifying precision. It clashed the two points of the tip of the tongue together to parry the Great Scythe, knocking the blow off course.
"Gurururuuu!"
Seto saw the opening and dove from above. Since Vihera and Byune were present, it couldn't use its more destructive skills, so it attempted a heavy physical strike with its foreleg.
"Guruuu!?" Seto let out a rare cry of confusion.
The blow that should have crushed the frog's skull met that same oily surface. With a sickening, slippery sensation, the impact was parried. Seto's strike hit the ground instead, erupting into a massive sand pillar.
"That damn body fluid again!"
Rei clicked his tongue, spinning to maintain his momentum after his own missed strike. However, as he saw the sand from Seto's impact raining down from the sky, a grin spread across his face. He swung the Death Scythe again.
"Flying Slash!"
The shockwave, empowered by the level-up and his spinning momentum, tore through the air.
"Gegegerooo!?"
The attack severed the monster's right foreleg. It continued through, biting deep into the wound Rei had made with his spear and widening it before flying off into the sky.
"You relied too much on your defense!"
The Spear Frog, which had shrugged off a spear and Seto's strike, had been cut down so easily for two reasons. First, the Flying Slash was stronger than ever. Second, the sand Seto had kicked up had coated the frog's oily skin.
As a desert dweller, a little sand usually didn't bother it, but it was enough to provide the friction Rei’s blade needed. That tiny difference was all it took for the Flying Slash to bite true, robbing the beast of its legs.
The Spear Frog collapsed onto the dunes, unable to stand. In a final act of spite, it lashed out with its twin tongues, but Rei severed them with a single stroke. He brought the Death Scythe's blade down one last time, cloaking it in magic power, and the Spear Frog's Flame of Life was finally extinguished.