52 A tempest of calamity-frogs

"Ah! Frogs… so many frogs…" Golnar, a short blonde girl who had joined Ali-Baba's party for the foray into the Marshlands shrieked. She was like a desperate old woman who was in mortal danger but rooted to the spot, and too petrified to move.

As Golnar wasn't well acquainted with the others yet, she had kept silent throughout the whole expedition.

"Ah!!" Miss Fox and Elena yelped in unison as they cast their sights towards Golnar's direction.

"Elena! Lookout."

Suddenly, Aladdin yelled at the top of his voice whilst running towards Elena. The girl's focus was entirely on Golnar who was on the verge of being swarmed by the army of approaching frogs. But alas, she was oblivious to the dangers around her.

"Shash… Shash… Shash…"

"Eh!" Elena's yelped, her expression turning ashen, after glancing at what was behind her.

"Frogs! Frogs…" She yelled while retreating away from the impending danger.

In multiple flashes of color, a tempest of red-eyed calamity-frogs beamed towards the group of seven. They didn't look like the yellow creature in the Matriarch's hands but were in a vast variety of colors and sizes.

The mystics were now encircled by an advancing horde that assaulted them from every direction.

The creepy frogs in the horde moved forward rapidly, madly leaping through the stale air, and towards the party of mystics.

It was raining calamity-frogs in the Ubaya Marshlands.

But among them, one flagrantly stood out. It was a giant of a beast, the size of an Earth elephant. Its green skin was dotted with ghastly yellow inflammations that looked to be filled with pus.

Its serpentine yellow eyes were flaring with menace, and its colossal mouth was pulled back in what appeared to be a very humanistic smirk.

With rapid and ranged leaps, the monster advanced towards Elena's position, whilst letting out an ear-shattering croak.

With each leap, slime splattered from its giant mouth. And as the great blobs of the phlegm oozed onto the leaves of the surrounding aquatic plants, they withered and died at the first contact.

Aladdin could easily tell that this was the famed poison frog beast-king, even rare at the center of the Marshlands.

"Elena! Lookout. That is a beast king." Aladdin cried. The humongous frog was just an arm's length away from Elena's silhouette.

The initial panic had already involuntarily forced Elena some distance away from the tightly knit group of mystics, thereby making her the first target of the terrifying frog.

Although her body was still trembling, she seemed to instantly calm down before stretching her left hand towards the incoming colossal frog. With blue radiance, an ethereal mat woven from strands of energy appeared within the beast's path.

This was the same simple rank-1 levitation spell used by mystics to levitate midair.

The beast gave the small mat a condescending glance as its serpentine tongue rolled out of its gigantic mouth. In a split second, it advanced and crashed into the mat positioned in front of Elena.

The tongue sank into the fluffy mat, knocking it back with great momentum generated by the beast king's power.

Elena was swatted away, like a kite with its string cut as she went flying in the opposite direction.

"Elena!" Aladdin yelled, his heart jumping to his throat.

He increased the amount of mana coating the soles of his feet, and with a sharp turn, he abruptly changed direction and continued his mad dash towards Elena's silhouette.

"Elena… Elena…" Miss Fox cried as she too rushed towards Elena.

But alas, Elena was now barely visible and was fading away swiftly into the obscurity of the aquatic jungles.

"Pipe down, will you. The girl is a member of Section-41. She'll be just fine." The Matriarch uttered, her condescending tone in stark contrast with the gravity of the whole perverse situation.

The Matriarch clenched her fist in Aladdin's and Miss Fox's direction and their mad dashes were suddenly halted mid-step.

"Matriarch! Elena is out there." Aladdin screamed through clenched teeth; turning his sight towards the eccentric Matriarch.

The Matriarch did not answer. However, she waved her hand towards the beast king which now stood motionless before the group. Traces of confusion seemed to manifest in its beastly eyes, as it looked towards the direction in which Elena had vanished.

"Go in peace." The Matriarch intoned, her voice laced with excitement as she extended her slender hand toward the beast-king.

"Croak…" A painful and anguished croak rumbled across the outer fringes of the Ubaya Marshlands as the humongous frog collapsed oddly on its back.

"You're still alive even after this?" Bianca appeared surprised. She pointed her left forefinger towards the collapsed frog.

And in a flash of red luminescence, multiple slashes flashed through the air and bisected the beast king's form into several slabs of meat and bone.

"Croak… Croak…"

The other frogs let out a crescendo of agonized croaks as they madly increased their leaping dash towards the Section-41 mystics.

"I don't like frogs…"

"Chiara, hold on to this for a while." The Matriarch called out to her student as she tossed the six-clawed psychic frog towards Chiara's direction.

The psychic frog of legend was already lethargic, its eyes unfocused; as it gave the impression of being on the verge of death.

"Yes, Matriarch." Chiara dutifully replied, her eyes filled with unconcealed anticipation as she observed the Matriarch's actions. To Aladdin, Chiara's expression looked like that of a young girl seeing her mother prepare her most desired delicacy.

The Matriarch extended both her arms and in a flash, a spinning vortex of eerie red energy appeared in between them.

"Vortex ya Damu ya Kumeza…" She chanted while spreading her arms out further like she was readying to hug the sky.

"Vrooom… Vrooom…"

A vrooming sound, like an old engine starting, resounded across the Marshlands as the spinning vortex abruptly started trembling spasmodically whilst its rotating speed increased significantly.

Instantaneously, the vortex's size expanded after being catalyzed by the Matriarch's silent spell-casting. It quickly transformed into an eerie red colossal wave of volatile energy that was pushed out towards the incoming horde of frogs.

"Goodbye…" She mumbled as a wicked grin lit up her wrinkled face.

"Get down," Chiara yelled, her voice sounding panicked after seeing the Matriarch cast out the spell.