The frog marched dejectedly the way it came, so zoned out that when it found itself back in its cave, it didn't know how it had gotten here. But better that way: moving against the surge must have been miserable.
Feeling defeated, it laid against the edge and peered at the castle, refusing to look the dark one's way.
One piece of good news was that the knight hadn’t headed straight for the bison - as it had feared - but rather went to respond to some overwhelming increase in the swarm on the left side of the hill. Still, looking at the guards' champion caused only fear and frustration.
The frog had avoided thinking on how much ground the guards had taken back. As things stood, had the knight moved for the bison, it would have probably reached the body for real.
Instead, it focused on the those unfortunates moving towards the closest line below, about to make contact and fight a pointless battle. Its gaze got caught in particular on a very eye-catching jellyfish, moving bonelessly in a way reminiscent of a certain friend. One that had died in about that very spot, in fact...
The frog knew it should rather be trying to come up with a solution, but it needed to recover. So it fed for a while and tried to just watch idly, to ignore the mounting dread.
But its thoughts would always go back there.
Diving back into the tunnels and trying to find its way down there was a tempting idea, knowing now how pervasive they were.
However, without a way to navigate them, it would just be a waste of time. More likely to end with it falling to the abyss on a wrong turn, or taken along by a collapsing ridge.
...That the frog had got so good at so many things, but none of them were useful in this situation was so very frustrating! as if it was constructed specifically to counter its strengths!
It was good at sneaking, but that was useless with this crowd.
It was good at moving through treacherous caves, but that was useless with how unpredictable and twisting they were, close to the castle.
Even the moves it had learned at great pain had turned out to be completely useless here! It might not have pushed them to their best, but even if it had, things wouldn't change much. Whatever the dark one had done to easily move through the throng - a less intense one than now, but not overly much so - it must be unrelated.
If only the frog hadn't been so focused on the bison and knight’s fight back then, or if the terrifying creature had bothered to repeat the feat...
Caught in a useless spiral that only increased its anxiety more and more, it pointedly kept looking away from the knight, sure than when it saw the guard champion again, the horrible creature would be standing over the bison.
Meanwhile, the jellyfish had progressed remarkably quickly and finally reached the line of guards, about to meet the same destiny as the similarly looking friend. As every one of the creatures that came here… to...
...
Every creature managed to get to the line.
All of them.
...
How had the frog managed not to realized that?
The dark one might have been quicker and smoother, but simply going forward was something every creature down there was capable of – at least those that didn’t get squished, or fell into cracks, or whatever other unfortunate event on the way. How could the frog not have- what was their secret!?
It started looking around – the jellyfish already dead, body on its way to the castle – trying to understand. But they just didn’t seem to be doing anything at all. They were putting no effort, barely even fighting against the flow!
No matter how the frog looked, it couldn’t glean their secret. But it was already moving. It would just have to go back down and try to do what the others were doing, hoping that inspiration would come.
They would not keep the truth from its superior mind!
Of course, none of them knew the whole secret as only the dark one had managed to get back... but getting up there would be enough. Once it was at the bison, it could grab the filaments, dive into a tunnel or something and transform there.
Its new strength would see it out. Or maybe not out... but to the very thing they had all come to find so long ago!
The frog kept moving around the wall of death, trying to get as close as possible to its objective before diving in.
Its gaze quickly found a bigger creature that it could climb onto and use as transportation... But then it looked at all the others around that were simply pressing their bodies against the wall, and remembered itself: it had decided to do as they did, and so it should. At least until it understood their secret.
But even from up close, there really didn't seem to be anything special!
For a while it entertained the idea there might be some hidden method, but ultimately refused to believe they were all in on something - even the simplest of them - and keeping it from the frog.
But if it wasn't that, then what? They were really, just... simply...
walking up to it? Could it be?
... With extreme reluctance, the frog approached.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Exposing itself so much, letting so many hostiles get so close to its body, was against all its instincts. But its will was stronger, and it forced its feet to walk up right against the writhing flesh... though barely a step away, it faltered.
Was it really about to make itself so vulnerable? About to willingly walk into the very trap that had been the end for-
Something rammed the frog from behind, and then it was in.
Frenzied creatures all around... but they were moving forward. They were actually moving forward!
The frog was doing it!
To think it had struggled so much trying to be creative when just mimicking the others was getting it exactly where it needed.
They were truly marching up, quick and steady, and there was such unity of purpose!
Too much unity, in fact.
Strange. Weren't these creatures supposed to be frenzied? They certainly had been when the frog had first come here to the collateral. It was only reasonable to get nervous and touchy when pressed so tightly against unknowns, some of which might well be predators.
Perhaps once they reached the guards things would change, but now they were walking as if they'd all been friends since forever and could understand each others' mind like nothing.
It was like they were all in this strange... even deeper daze?
It wasn't doing much for the frog.
While the others were marching in lockstep, it was always a bit out of tune. Always a step behind, always barely in the wrong place.
But as long as this got it to its destination, it could bear with the occasional tripping or step on its feet.
And when they finally crested a bump and the bison's titanic body appeared, the frog was overjoyed: they were heading straight for it! The taste of transformation already in its mind. It couldn't believe this could be this easy!
And it was right to doubt, for soon enough, the others followed the trail and forced the frog to turn sharply to the right too, away for the bison. Up the hill...
and towards a true wall of death.
Let alone losing the filaments, if the frog let them they would drag it towards the line of guards. With so little space to move and the opponents in close ranks, there would be no fighting, no use for its moves. It would be slaughtered like the others.
Panicked yet again, it turned sideways and started to shove- but was immediately shoved harder back in place, to follow along. The surge had claimed it now, and they wouldn't allow it to fight back for any reason.
Of course, no way would the frog allow them to get it killed, not ever and certainly not when it was this close! Perhaps it couldn't fight against the surge, but there was another thing it could do, one it had gotten pretty good at.
It let itself be dragged forward for some more time, waiting and hoping against hope that some bump in the ground with the right shape, or a bend that would split the mass the right way would just...
here!
As soon as it found enough footing, the frog coiled down… and jumped as high as it could, and to the side.
The enormous turtle it landed on wasn’t particularly affected by the impact – maybe it didn’t even notice the added weight of its passenger.
Even better, none of the others seemed to mind: evidently, they only wanted the mass to keep moving and would only get angry when something tried to stop that. A lone frog jumping over their heads didn't faze them at all, allowing it to easily find the next target.
Unfortunately a streak of something extremely fast, and extremely dangerous, cut off its jump. And it was lucky that had only been a jump and not something more precious.
A thrower was onto it, for some reason.
Because apparently there always had to be some huge problem behind every corner in this bison's gem recovery stuff.
But the frog didn't have time to feel sorry for itself, when it turned out that far more than just one thrower had gotten angry: it might as well be all of them, in fact.
They'd all turned this way, spikes hurling by and filling the air with death as the frog frantically jumped from one big creature to the next, in a desperate attempt to stay alive.
Of course not having a plan ready for this eventuality would come back to bite it! Did it really think they would let it approach the bison just like that, when defending that body was basically all the throwers really cared for!?
But there was nothing to do about it now. It could just keep jumping in weird ways, hiding behind bigger creatures and generally trying to stay ahead of the deadly volley. Alas, even if the throwers were missing the frog, they were still bound to always hit something in this density.
And it turned out that even this mysterious, unifying daze could be broken with enough violence and death.
The frenzy was back in full now, with many shaking off their single-minded purpose and going mad with panic, attacking everything in a disastrous chain reaction. One that was unfortunately affecting the frog too, forcing it to delay some jumps or rethink them entirely.
During one such botched move, a spike hit mid-air, dead-on in the lower belly, almost punching all the way through and deviating its course.
It landed hard on a llama and quickly burrowed inside its fur. Fortunately it had chosen well with this sturdy and stubborn creature, that kept walking forward despite it all, uncaring of the frenzy or the spikes that were pelting it by the moment.
Why were the throwers this angry? And they might not even be the only guards acting strangely...
While pulling out the spike, the frog carefully leaned out to take a peek forward, confirming its suspicions: the entire line ahead, and many more guards beyond, were wriggling strangely, in a way they hadn’t since the bison’s last charge.
Alas, there was no time to worry about them as the llama collapsed sideways all of a sudden - it might have been a durable and stubborn thing, but it was no bison. Fortunately, the frog had angled its body well and avoided getting caught between the ground and the dead creature.
However, now that it had no elevated surface to use as a springboard, how would it...
But as it pulled itself out of the fur, it wasn't to the crazed throng it had expected. In fact, there was a suspicious lack of frenzied things in the frog's intended direction, creating an almost perfect path towards the bison?
It couldn't believe its luck. As in, it really couldn't. Obviously there was something afoot here, something very wrong...
But what else could it do?
The frog sprinted forward as fast as possible, trying to rush through the thinned out area before it could close up, or anything else ridiculous happened.
And it made it quite far before something smashed against its back, sending it flying and then bouncing hard onto the ground.
As experience with falling as it was, the frog easily rolled with the impact, throwing the creature off and jumping back up all in the same move. It landed on its feet ready for a fight, angled towards the aggressor.
But the creature was already dead.
And the frog only had to look around confused for a little bit before the obvious cause made itself known.
Bearing down on a poor frog, was the guards' champion.
The knight was here.
