Prideful Warriors

Ten minutes. I am certain that it is around that time when the croaks stopped staring at the tower. Since Urick was correct about the poison gas bomb lasting for three minutes and Fionn just used one of his around a minute ago.

Fionn acted just as Finnley instructed and used his bomb after Aran.

The croaks let out a frightening cry. They stretched their arms as they growl while also slamming their long huge tail on the deep sand.

Still covered by the green poison gas, we watched them as they do whatever it is their doing. Then, I remembered something.

"Ah!" I said.

Startled, Urick gasped combined with his loud deep voice. "What the- you okay bro?"

I apologized.

"I just remembered. It could be them," I said to everyone.

They appeared confused about what I said.

"What could be them?" Finnley asked.

Realizing that what I said is vague and lacked details, I explained what I was trying to say.

"The one that sent Jin flying, I think it's those monsters," I said, then pointed at the croaks that are still growling into the sky.

With my brief explanation, I saw most of them widen their eyes. Especially Jin who has the smallest eyes in the group.

"Yeah, now that I think about it. The answer is simple, it must be one of them that sent me flying," Jin said.

Growls made by the croaks became louder. It almost made my ears bleed.

Then, I saw all of them stopped. The hundreds that passed through us scattered around the other groups of players, the dozens circling around our vicinity, and the few around the cover made by the poison gas bomb, all stopped at the same time.

Without warning, they all dived into the deep sand and exposed only the fin on their backs as they swim. They became faster. If they were as fast earlier, Jin would've been swept and killed by the croak he managed to defeat.

It's like being inside a boat with thousands of sharks swimming around. But the sharks are larger, faster, and more terrifying.

The hissing sound didn't come back. Knowing this, it made me more certain about what was to come.

"They might try to send us flying like Jin," I said a bit louder than my normal tone for everyone to hear.

Siti's face shifted, and her scowl disappeared. All that's left on her doll-like face are buckets of sweat and a terrified expression.

"Wha-what should we do?!" Siti said.

As we marvel at the webbed fins of the croaks skittering around the sand, I could see everyone becoming nervous.

Fionn's smirk also vanished,

"They'll be coming for us underground. What do we do?" he asked.

Urick stopped us from replying by shushing us with his index finger touching his lips.

"You hear that?" he said.

Without the hissing of the air hiding it, though subtle, we heard and felt the movement of sand underneath.

"It's coming!" Finnley said.

Panicked, everyone including me, tried to walk around the area covered by poison gas.

"Where is it?!" Siti shouted.

Without thinking I shushed her as loud as I could. She covered her mouth with both of her hands and I could tell that a tear might fall from her eyes at any minute, again.

With no one speaking, we tried to hear and feel the flow of sand, as well as the croak that is trying to fish us.

I felt it. Though I was not sure about its exact location, I could tell that it is under the sand I'm standing. With my index finger, I pointed down. Everyone moved away, as quietly as they could.

When they saw me standing still, aside from Siti, Fionn, and Jin, everyone is telling me to move away. In response, I gave them a thumbs up.

As the sound became more noticeable, I made a noise with my feet and jumped out of the way without looking at whether something came.

I only heard the sound of the sand splashing from where I was standing. Then the sound of it filling up the hole the croak made.

Aran approached me and asked, "Gray are you okay?"

"Dude, you're right. It's one of those monsters. It tried to hit you with its tail." Urick said.

Finnley raised both hands showing his palm as if trying to tell us to still remain quiet. Again, we heard something moving underneath.

Scared Siti exclaimed, "Shit! What do we do?!"

The sound of the moving sand underneath became more clear, I realized that the croak will go after Siti. As if my body is moving on its own, without thinking, I tackled her and managed to get both of us out of the way in a perfect time.

Still, on the ground, I lay on top of Siti's body and could hear her heavy breathing. I pulled myself up with both my hands as support. And with a firm and serious tone,

"Stop making any loud noise," I said.

A tear fell from Siti's eyes which she wiped immediately then nodded her head.

"Get off me," she whispered.

Jin and Fionn listens close while the others assisted us in getting up. We remained silent. And for over half a minute now, we didn't feel or hear the sand moving underneath.

Everyone's focused on trying to react fast and signal everyone when they feel that a croak is below us. I did the same, but, as I glance at Siti, I remember our meeting at the first stage.

I thought she was just like most of the hardened criminals in Hell's Oasis who experience joy with other people's suffering. But, with what just happened and her actions since joining the group, maybe my initial impression of her is wrong.

Siti's either a great actress or a scaredy-cat trying to appear confident and unafraid of anyone or anything. Looking at her and now analyzing her actions, I think it's the latter. She has a scowl on her doll-like face and is rude to appear daunting, but I guess it's her way of coping with being afraid of everything.

How did she even survive the first stage? Though I guess the question I'm more curious about is, how did Siti end up being a player of this year's Hopeful Homicide?

I was pulled from my thoughts by Amelka who's close to me. She's waving a hand in front of my face. When I noticed her, she pointed at Urick who was trying to tell everyone without making any sound that he felt something below him.

By standing still and not making any sound. The croak just roamed below us and didn't attack. After another minute, it tried to fish. We still didn't move since no one felt it under them.

The croak's tail appeared in front of me. It missed me by a couple of meters.

No one's speaking. We tried to regulate even our hearts beating since we don't know if the croaks could detect if it beats too loudly.

We're in a dire situation, yet, I find myself thinking straight and trying to figure out how to win. Again, I'm still questioning myself about being able to see through a life-or-death situation by also being rational. Did I always have it in me? I know that I've done it a few times since I came into this hell, but, I never thought I'm this capable.

After only a few minutes of thinking, I came up with a bunch of assumptions. It isn't anything mindblowing or difficult, but, seeing that no one brought it up, even Finnley, I guess they're focused on the current danger of a croak below trying to fish for us as we hide inside the poison gas.

One thing I realized is that, once a croak is below it seems like it cannot see or smell. I guess it's obvious. Rather, they could feel vibrations even at the top layer of the deep sand. And that is how they could fish for us.

Another thing is that only one of them is below us. In this I'm unsure. Though, it appears that my assumption is correct. The other croaks just circled around us and there hasn't been a consecutive attack like the explosions caused by air.

It led me to think about their description. Looking at the moving croak buried in the sand near us, its description appeared again.

"Croak"

"Dwellers of the land of sand. They are loyal subjects of the tower who thinks of it as their mother. Though they look unintelligent, they can communicate and are prideful warriors."

At first, I thought its only purpose is to create a story for these monsters and missed a clue in it. The croaks are "prideful warriors". It isn't a coincidence that only one of them is trying to send us flying and only a single croak tried to attack Jin when he was caught earlier.

Even against Siti's previous group, I saw the croaks go after a single person at a time.

But the biggest evidence is what happened to Jin after falling from the sky and killing one of them. They just stood and looked at him, a fallen enemy.

Even though I was thinking, I am still cautious of the monster below. From afar, on a group of players near Hector's, we heard a loud thud that almost sounded like an explosion. It made us look and saw one of the players sent flying. He was screaming.

Then, like a thunderbolt, a croak jumped out of the sand and swooped him from the sky. In a second his screams halted. Our eyes widened. The croak seems to be three or more times faster than the one Jin killed.

What should we do? I thought. We couldn't create movement and I'm not sure if the croak could detect the sound of our voice.

Trying to answer questions in my mind, I stumbled upon one that gave me an absurd idea.

Why is the croak fishing for us? I asked myself.