The next day saw the sky full of grey, looming clouds. A chill wind blew across the marshes as Lana led them all further into the swamp than before. Clay grimaced as he smelt rain on the wind. He nurtured the dwindling hope that the downpour would hold off until after they'd destroyed the Lair.

His hopes were dashed moments later, just as they started off towards where Lana claimed the Lair was located. There was another rumble of thunder, and then a gust of wind. He grimaced as the raindrops started to descend.

Lana glanced up for a moment. Then she looked at him. "Do we wait?"

Clay shook his head. "No. We want to hit the Lair before they do something unexpected." He didn't know what the Guardians might do if they delayed too long. An attack on Glanwood was one possibility; a new, massive wave of spawn was another. Technically, both would be survivable, but so was the attack on the Lair.

Better to have done with the whole thing than delay further.

The rain continued to fall as they pushed further into the swamp. Despite the weather, he could still detect the putrid smell growing worse as they walked. It seemed to surround them the further they walked, and he quickly started to envy Olivia her scarf.

As they drew closer to the enemy, the land around them changed. Puddles grew shallower; the patches of dry land became rarer. More and more of the trees and bushes were replaced by snarls of vines, which piled on top of each other to form crude tangles. Thick, foul mud clung to their boots as they walked, to the point where even forging their way forward became difficult.

Lana glanced back at him. "It's worse like this the further we get in. Like the whole world is made of mud and vines."

Harry snorted. "Don't forget the eels." He shuddered.

Lana shook her head. "They're going to be everywhere. Just… be ready."

Clay exchanged a look with Olivia, who nodded. "We are. Let me know when we are close."

The [Minstrel] nodded, humming quietly. They walked in relative silence for a while, pushing further in spite of the worsening storm. The wind grew worse, and Clay grimaced as the chill cut through his cloak. He could only imagine how the others, with their relative lack of [Stats], were feeling.

Ahead, a shape rose above the piled vines, a mass that swelled up from the surrounding mud like a blister. Clay peered at it, wondering if the frogs had somehow managed to build a fortress similar to the fortifications around the Lair at Zelton.

As the details became clearer, he realized it was somehow much, much worse. It looked as if an entire hill had been transformed into some kind of home for the monsters, pierced through by dozens of holes that would give the things shelter. Vines were incorporated in its construction, woven through the mud like a net to keep the shape of the place. He could already sense hundreds of eyes peering out at him from those holes, all filled with malicious intent. A part of him wondered if he could see the red glint in their eyes from here.

One thing he could sense was their voices. A sonorous song of hundreds of monstrous throats was audible over the rain and the thunder, a chorus of croakers singing in some terrible harmony. It rose and fell as they walked, growing louder the closer they came.

Lana stopped, her expression serious. She looked at Clay. "This is probably as far as we can get without stumbling into something. The croakers got really aggressive past this point."

Paul nodded. "They really didn't like it when we got within sight of that place."

Clay looked back at Lana as she pointed at the top of the hill. "We think the actual Lair is at the top there. You can just barely see what looks like a building."

He followed her finger and found she was right. Half-hidden by the storm, and seemingly half-swallowed by the mound beneath it, he thought he could see the decaying remnants of a building of some kind. It didn't look like the dead tower he'd found in the Tanglewood, or the twisted spire at Zelton. It still made his hackles rise as he watched it, though. His ethereal senses were starting to cry out for attention. Whatever waited for them was on the top of that hill.

Lana continued in a low voice. "The vines start getting thicker and closer together here, too. It's almost like they form a maze of some kind. We haven't been able to find a good way in, so we'll probably either have to climb over them, or cut our way through."

Clay nodded slowly, studying the nearest clump of the stuff. He looked back at Lana again, who was watching him expectantly. "Syr Lana, I'm taking command of this mission."

She nodded, and he felt a slight shift in the [Commoners] around him as his bonuses took effect. They seemed less bothered by the rain, and their movements were quicker than they had been. It was ridiculous to worry that a group of warriors at level eleven and above would have trouble with what they were about to face, but it was still comforting to him that his [Experiences] would make disaster all that much less likely.

He continued in a calm voice. "Work together when we breach their defenses. Don't allow yourselves to get separated and keep moving towards the center. Don't slow down. The faster we reach the Guardians, the sooner we'll be able to kill them and scatter the rest."

Paul frowned. "Won't we have to chase them down later?"

Clay nodded. "Yes, but it'll be easier to spend a week or two hunting them than it would be to spend weeks healing from an injury you took because we let ourselves get buried in monsters. We aren't here for the young ones today."

Olivia spoke up, her voice suggesting that she was already focused on her task for the day. "Try to leave some of the elders for Clay and I. We don't need to reach the next level of the Bane [Achievement], but it might make dealing with the Guardians easier."

Harry chuckled. "Of course. Wouldn't want to miss out on the Soul, either, right?" She just stared at him for a moment, and his humor drained away.

Elizabeth spoke up before the moment could grow more awkward. "Are you going to use the lightning again, Clay? Lana didn't get to see it before."

He opened his mouth to answer, but Lana broke in before he could. "Yeah, I missed out! I heard it was impressive. You wouldn't want to disappoint me, would you, Sir Clay?"

Clay gave her a tolerant look. "I'm not here to show off, Syr Lana. I'm here to get you to the Lair so you can seal it yourself." She grimaced and nodded, looking a little nervous. Then he cracked a smile. "At the same time, yeah, I'm going to be using the lightning to start off with."

Olivia arched an eyebrow at him. "You don't want to wait and use it on the Guardians?"

"I feel like they might be too close for us to use it." He shook his head. A near-miss with the Anthem would be a severe problem, especially with the amount of power he intended to use. "Better to burn us a path through the smaller monsters and give us a chance of getting through them without a problem."

Harry laughed. "Well, it should definitely do that." He looked at the hill, where the figures of the frogs had yet to appear. "We should get to it, then."

They all nodded, and Clay grinned. "Well said." He looked at the vines again. He knew they could probably climb over them, even without using Mischief's Ladder. It wasn't like any of them were unfamiliar with clambering over a batch of vegetation, except maybe Olivia, and she'd have no problem with it.

All the same, it felt like putting his hand into the croakers' trap. They could jump over the things easily, and who knew how many would be waiting for them on the other side? Worse, what if they decided to hide inside the things and snap at them from below while they climbed up and down?

No, sometimes the best way out was through. He looked at the others. "Three of us need to use the Flame-Tongued Song to burn a hole. We push through here, and keep moving straight towards the center. Anyone volunteer?"

Harry, Paul, and Elizabeth all stepped forward. They nodded and then fell into the [Chant]. He looked at Lana and Olivia. "We cover them and go through as soon as the hole is made. It's going to get ugly quick."

They both nodded, and then he heard a sudden hush fall over the place as the frogs fell silent. He turned and looked up at the hill, knowing already what he would see.

There were three hulking shapes, all at the apex of the hill. Their bulky forms dwarfed the other frogs he'd seen, and he could tell, even with the rain, that they were staring directly down at him. Clay forced himself to grin and tossed the Guardians a salute.

Then three streams of flame poured forward. Vines burned and shrunk in the heat, their leaves blasted to pieces. Chunks of the walls of vines collapsed as the pieces supporting them were turned to ash, and steam rose in a newborn cloud.

Beside him, Lana nocked an arrow. Olivia began the [Chant] of Vanishing Ember, her voice low compared to the roar of the fire. He began his own [Chant], the Ballad of Air, and tried to time it for when he thought the opening would be ready.

It happened a little later than he'd expected. All at once, a massive section of the vines gave way with a crash, sending sparks, steam, and smoke spiraling outward. The flames from the others washed forward, suddenly unobstructed by the mass of vegetation. The others cut out their spells, leaving the burning wreckage their only obstacle—at least until Olivia extinguished the flames with her own [Chant], leaving the way clear.

Clay led the others as they charged through, using the tendrils of air to brace the tunnel the others had carved.

Ahead, the croakers were waiting.

A batch of dart croaker spawn leaped at Clay, their maws beginning to open. He responded with a speed that might have even caught him off guard, once. His spear stabbed and cut through them without a hint of hesitation; the notifications for their deaths swept by him as he pushed on past their fallen corpses.

Ahead, a group of decay croaker spawn started to glow with power, only to collapse a moment later as a barrage of icicle spears cut them down. An adult dart frog leapt upwards, only for Lana's arrow to snatch it out of the air in a spray of blood. Harry hacked his way through a group of mud croakers with wild abandon, while Elizabeth smashed an adult version with a single swing. Paul yanked another group of them out of mud with Firm Step; Olivia tore through them like a whirlwind of death.

All of them were shouting [Chants] as quickly as they could, unleashing ice, fire, wind, and earth on any monsters foolish enough to enter their view. The slaughtered remnants of the horde of frogs that had confronted them had been left to wallow in the mud behind them, trampled even further into the muck by their own onrushing companions.

The swarm of spawn and adult versions had been unrelenting as they had fought their way closer. Occasionally, the group ran into a dead end and they formed a wall while one of them burned a new path through. Each time they slowed, the spawn tried to overwhelm them, throwing themselves at the [Commoners] with unrelenting fury. All around them, the stench of the corruption had worsened, while the continual groaning of the frogs' song continued to rise above the growing storm.

A flash of bruise-colored tongue nearly struck Clay, and he paused long enough to finish his own [Chant]. The tendrils of the Ballad of Air reached out and wrapped around a pair of adult croakers; he lifted them high enough to throw them away from the battle. They landed on the heads of their fellows, while he grabbed the tongues of others.

Even as he did, Olivia unleashed another spray of icicles, sending over a dozen spawn reeling. Harry blasted another group with flame, while Paul and Elizabeth combined their Drums of Earth to crush a pack of mud croakers trying to swim through the muck to strike.

As the croakers fell back for a moment, Lana raced forward. Her bow sung a rhythm of its own as she picked off half a dozen adult Dart Croakers where they were lurking on the tops of the vine piles. Then she inhaled deeply and unleashed a wave of fire into the wall directly ahead of them.

Once again, the fire tore through the vegetation and frogs threw themselves at the group in a futile attempt to stop it. Their bodies flopped into the mud as the [Commoners] fought, and Clay felt his heart beat harder as the sounds of more enemies flooded his senses. His ethereal sight was near-useless now, with the corruption and the number of monsters all around them, but its alarm appeared to grow just a little more desperate as one more gap appeared in the vine hedge.

Lana fell back for a moment, picking off another pair of targets as they tried to leap at her. Clay pushed forward, even as Harry extinguished the remaining fire and Olivia and Elizabeth worked to cover their rear.

When he burst through the opening, Clay nearly froze at what he saw waiting for them.

Some part of him had been expecting the frogs to have left the land as it had been, save for their parasitic plants and encroaching mud. Now he saw just how mistaken he'd been. All around the central mound, the ground suddenly sloped away in a muddy decline. It dropped all the way to what looked like one part pond, one part moat, filled with sludgy, pungent black water. He could see things writhing in the liquid, and realized with a start that a horde of croakers were waiting down there.

His instinctive revulsion gave way to determination. Clearly, the moment they approached the moat, they'd be dragged into the filth and picked off by enemies even better concealed than usual. When he lifted his eyes, he saw things didn't end there, either. The entire side of the mound appeared to be alive with crawling croakers, all of whom seemed to be descending towards the moat or waiting for them to arrive on the far side of its muddy shores. Their eyes glowed red, showing that the Guardians were personally directing these.

Clay decided that it was time at last to show the monsters exactly what was coming for them. He spoke calmly as the others pushed through the opening and joined him. "I need time. Keep them off us."

The others responded by taking up positions around him. Croakers were still throwing themselves at them, even as the massive horde below waited patiently. The others picked them off as they came, their breath steaming in the cold air.

He drew in a deep lungful of the corruption, trying to ignore the foul smell of it, and began the Anthem of Thunder.

Some portion of the magic whispered about the potential waiting for him to unleash in the clouds above and the earth beneath. Thunder rumbled as he spoke the words, making him briefly worry that the storm itself would seize control of his attempt to direct its fury. Rather than hesitate, he bore down and continued it.

When he finished the repeated portion of the Anthem the first time, he began it again immediately. By the time he'd finished the third time, the frogs below appeared to be worried about something. Black fluid began to stir and ripple as he finished it the fourth time, showing the bodies beneath shifting and repositioning. Clay ignored it, beginning the fifth time.

By the sixth time, the others were exchanging grins. Harry laughed in triumph, and Lana sang her own [Chants] with a vicious kind of satisfaction. When the seventh time was finally done and Clay began the ending portion of the [Chant], he heard Olivia calling to the others to start the [Chant] for Floating Step. He grinned a little in agreement, even as he poured his strength into directing the spell. As the last syllables flew from his lips, he focused on the moat below, and the shore beyond that. If he could just do enough damage to—

The world turned white.

Sounds crashed over him less than a heartbeat later, and Clay felt the power of the Anthem surge through him in a terrifying wave. It had been a long time since he'd used it, and it seemed like the [Chant] had grown impatient with its neglect. Even as the light faded from the first bolt, a second blast of energy tore the sky, followed by a third, a fourth. So many bolts shattered the air that it seemed like a continuous stream of destruction. He felt each blast of sound as it struck him; to his shock and alarm, he felt twinges of the same energy pulse through the soles of his boots. Had he aimed too close, after all?

{Will increased by 1!}

Fortunately, the panic quickly faded as the bolts marched across the terrain, throwing the rain and clouds into sharp relief. As the last bolt finally fell, Clay stared numbly at what he had caused below.

The sludge of the moat was covered with steam, but the mist was not thick enough to hide the bodies. There were hundreds of croakers, all lying terribly still in the pool of filth. They bobbed and drifted, with more and more of them appearing by the moment. It seemed like even the ones that had been further away from the strikes had been affected; the few he could still see moving were thrashing in agony. If they weren't dying already, they'd likely been crippled.

Those on the far bank hadn't fared much better. Small, flickering fires had been left behind by the lightning that had climbed halfway up the hill. Croakers had been blasted in pieces by the falling lightning bolts; they lay where they had been tossed aside by the marching strikes, littering the mud like broken, discarded toys. Enough had been slain that it almost looked like an avalanche of mud and corpses, all sliding down towards the filth at the bottom. Those still alive were thrashing and fighting to take up the position of the fallen, but they were having to fight their way past the corpses of their fellow monsters to do so. Even with the Guardian's driving them, they did not appear to be enthusiastic about their chances.

Olivia nudged him, and Clay realized with a start that the others were nearly done with their [Chants]. He started the words for Floating Step, rushing through the simple [Chant] with the benefit of his own abilities. Their own feet had just started to levitate when he joined them, pushing off from the mud beneath towards the muddy slope.

Then they were accelerating down the slope towards the corpse-strewn moat below. Clay kept his focus on the [Chant], knowing that losing control of it now would result in him slamming directly into either the mud or the moat, and neither appealed to him. Croakers which had been stunned by the lightning, now started to recover, barking at them from the mud where they had been hidden. Some tried to blast them with magic or lash out with their tongues, but the [Commoners] were already moving too fast, and the monsters' reflexes were too slow to make up the difference.

Before any of them could adjust, Clay and the others had reached the pool. They bobbed terribly close to the filth, their spell barely keeping them from plunging directly into the foul water. Clay tried not to gulp down an extra lungful of the wretched air as he bounced and skidded across the lumpen surface of the moat, bobbing along with every corpse he sped past. At the very least, the [Chant] had preserved their momentum, so by the time they slowed to a halt, they had already reached the far shore.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The lightning had cleared them a path, and Clay led them as they charged up it, releasing Floating Step as soon as they could land on relatively solid ground. Burnt mud and dead croakers weren't the best footing, but it scarcely seemed to matter as they slammed into and through the still-recovering swarms of croakers, cutting through the frantic monsters as if they were nothing more than an annoyance.

They smashed through the ranks of the monsters, tearing through the creatures with ease until they were nearly halfway up the mound. Clay swept another pair of decay croakers out of the way with his spear, sending them tumbling away in ruins, and looked up to see a new wave of enemies emerging on the slope above them.

It was a crowd of elder croakers, their larger forms standing out among the smaller versions. They halted, however, and Clay grimaced as he realized they meant to strike at his group from afar while they were distracted by the adults and spawn. There had to be some way to reach them, but—

His thoughts cut off as Olivia fell back and drew out her sling. She gave the handsign for 'advancing' as she spoke the [Chant] of Pursuing Leap. He froze for a moment and looked back in desperation. "Olivia, wait—"

A dart croaker tried to snap at him, and he was forced to dodge and cut it down. By the time he looked back, she was already spinning the stone. He looked at the others, and Paul shouted at him. "Go!"

Clay nodded and started the Pursuing Leap as well, stowing his spear and pulling out his bow. He shot a pair of mud croakers while the words tumbled from him. Nearby, Lana followed suit, while the remaining three set themselves in a defensive formation, smashing and hacking at the horde around them.

All too quickly, Olivia unleashed her slingstone. It rose into the sky, slicing through the rain—and she suddenly was yanked after it, taking to the air as the spell pulled her in the stone's wake. She'd practiced the technique relentlessly, and Clay grimaced as he traced the arc of her ascent and realized she'd land right in the middle of the pack of elders. He was going to have to match it as best he could.

As his own spell neared completion, he drew an arrow back and shot it skyward. A flicker of natural lightning backlit the sky, seeming to freeze the battle in sharp relief. He winced as he saw the height of the arrow; he'd put a bit too much strength into the pull.

Still, there was no other option. With a frantic motion, he stowed the bow and grabbed his spear. Then he completed the [Chant], and he was suddenly flying through the air.

Olivia had already landed among the elders, her scythe reaping a terrible toll among the frogs as they tried to scramble away from her. He saw a decay elder rearing back, out of her reach. Corrupted energy gathered in its maw, thick and ready to reduce her to dust.

Clay's arm moved almost of its own volition. He hurled his spear down with all the force that he had, sending it shooting through the rain like a thunderbolt all its own. Even as he did, he released the [Chant] and started the Cycle of Return, hoping that the arc he'd started would be enough.

The spear struck his target right in its wart-covered back. It crunched down through skin, flesh, and bone; the elder decay croaker seemed to collapse as if a giant had stepped on it. What power it had gathered dissipated rather than streaming out towards Olivia; the only sound it managed to make was an agonized wheeze as its life fled.

{Decay Croaker Elder slain! Soul increases by 30}

{Achievement Reinforced! Frogsbane: 35% increase to all skills and damage against frogs. Bonus increases to 70% versus Mud Croaker Spawn, Dart Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Adults, Mud Croaker Adults, Dart Croaker Adults, and Decay Croaker Elders.}

{Might increased by 1!}

Clay pulled his knife free of its sheath as he descended on the rest of the elders. He hit the sloped mud surface and rolled, somehow, uphill through the mire. As he did, he slammed into a wet, rubbery surface. A part of him recognized it as the form of a mud croaker, and he latched onto it with his free hand. It croaked in alarm before he drove the knife into it repeatedly, stabbing and hacking with the heavy blade while he continued his [Chant]. It jerked and scrabbled at him, but he stabbed it one last time before ripping the blade back along its length.

{Mud Croaker Elder slain! Soul increases by 30}

{Achievement Reinforced! Frogsbane: 40% increase to all skills and damage against frogs. Bonus increases to 80% versus Mud Croaker Spawn, Dart Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Adults, Mud Croaker Adults, Dart Croaker Adults, Decay Croaker Elders, and Mud Croaker Elders.}

Even more strength flooded into him as he shoved the corpse aside and rose. Then he grunted as a flicker of motion slammed into his head. It deflected off his helmet with a clanging sound. When it retracted, he identified it as a dart elder's tongue.

His immediate reaction was to hurl his knife at it. The heavy blade turned end over end through the air. It struck point first, punching into the dart croaker's head between its eyes and sunk in up to the hilt. He saw the monster's head snap back, and its body suddenly went stiff.

He lunged back and away from it as the croaker exploded into a cloud of burning poison. There was just enough distance that he remained outside of it, but the croakers nearest to it weren't quite as fortunate.

{Dart Croaker Elder slain! Soul increases by 30}

{Commoner reaches Level 19!}

{Maximum level for all Stats is now 34!}

{Experience gained (Blackmage: Gain 20% power to Storm Chants.)}

{Experience gained (Bow Expert: Gain 10% to damage when wielding a bow.)}

{Achievement Reinforced! Frogsbane: 45% increase to all skills and damage against frogs. Bonus increases to 90% versus Mud Croaker Spawn, Dart Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Spawn, Decay Croaker Adults, Mud Croaker Adults, Dart Croaker Adults, Decay Croaker Elders, Mud Croaker Elders, and Dart Croaker Elders.}

{Mud Croaker Elder slain!}

{Mud Croaker Elder slain!}

{Decay Croaker Elder slain!}

{Mud Croaker Elder slain!}

As Clay landed, his boots slipping in the mud, it seemed like his situation had grown far worse. He was weaponless, surrounded by enemies, and without allies nearby. Anyone could have seen it as a hopeless situation.

Yet as he took his next breath, the monsters around him seemed to be moving so slowly, as if the mud had slowed their every twitch. A mud croaker tried to tongue-slap him, and he just leaned out of the way, grabbed the tongue, and pulled. He put an elbow into its head and then used its flailing body as a shield when a decay croaker tried to blast him with bolts of corruption. Its fragmenting corpse made for a decent projectile as he hurled it at the offending decay elder, slamming into it and knocking it onto its side.

More tongues snapped at him from dart elders, and he dodged them as if they were standing still. He didn't catch them the same way, not knowing if he could avoid the poison cloud if he killed them at close range. The cloud he'd already formed was drifting downhill, and that was bad enough. Another decay elder tried to bathe him in magic, and he sidestepped the flow of death and ran forward, extending his arm to the side.

Then the [Chant] completed, and his spear tore its way free and flashed towards him. The butt of the thing smashed aside a decay elder that hadn't been paying attention, and when it reached Clay, he immediately thrust it into the eye of the one that had tried to kill him. It collapsed, and as it did, help arrived.

First, it appeared in the form of the Canticle of Ice, cast by Olivia. Spears of ice impaled half a dozen elders, including ones that had been trying to surround him. Then, dart croakers began to explode, one after another as arrows filled the air.

Lana had arrived.

She descended from where her own Pursuing Leap had brought her, her bow thrumming out a song of ruin as she sent arrow after arrow into the elders. Frogs twitched and collapsed as broadhead shafts burst through them, and when she landed, she kept loosing shot after devastating point-blank shot. He saw at least one arrow punch all the way through a decay croaker to hit the mud croaker behind it. The elders fell back from her in confusion and panic, even as he and Olivia continued to cut them down.

For a time, Clay lost himself to the battle, slaughtering the monsters as they came at him. He was dimly aware of the others continuing their own efforts—more arrows peppered the croakers, more ice and fire punched through them, and Olivia's scythe hacked through rubbery flesh—yet his world seemed to narrow to his immediate opponents. He smashed decay elders like they were made from paper, tore mud elders from the ground like he was plucking weeds, and sent his knife into the heads and bodies of dart elders before recalling it to do it again. The creatures thrashed, fought, and died as he pushed forward, wanting to end the fight.

Then, all at once, it seemed as if the croakers had run out of numbers to throw at him and his friends. He stomped the life from a mud croaker, cut open a decay croaker with a single swing, and then stumbled slightly as he realized that there were no new targets to find. The hillside in front of him had no more monsters waiting, and when he looked to the sides, he saw Olivia and Lana finishing the last of their opponents as well.

Further down the slope, the remaining [Commoners] had fought their way free of the croakers there as well. They were moving up the slope at speed, mud and blood coating them in equal measure. Clay felt a hint of relief at seeing them safe; he'd worried about splitting their forces. After all, he couldn't tell what plans the Guardians might have as they…

His thoughts broke off as he looked past Paul and the others, to the pool of filth and the slope beyond. The mud seemed to writhe with croaker spawn, as if the very ground itself was made from the creatures. They were flooding in from all directions, their eyes glowing crimson as they hopped, crawled, and swam.

Lana stepped beside him and followed his gaze. Her next breath was a whisper of horror. "Oh, gods."

He shook himself free. "We need to kill the Guardians. That will scatter them." As the others joined them, breathing hard, he nodded to them. "Use the Drums of Earth to bring down the hillside. Keep them back. We'll handle the Guardians while you do."

Paul and the others nodded. Clay turned to Lana and Olivia. "Come on, we have to finish this before all that gets to us. Let's go!"

As they forged their way up the remaining slope of the mount, he heard the three other [Commoners] beginning their [Chants] in unison. He spared a faint hope that they'd be able to keep the swarm back and then focused on his own [Chant]. The Stanza of Steam had been fairly effective against the last Guardian he'd faced; he could only hope it would be just as effective this time.

As he cleared the crest of the mound, the Guardians were waiting for them.

The Guardians were froglike, as Clay had expected, but they were nearly the size of a house. Their backs were full of warts, all covered with smaller lumps of their own. Each one had leathery, toughened skin that looked strong enough to act as armor, and a pair of horns stretched from each of their heads. Large eyes watched with cold, inhuman patience, as if Clay and the others' appearance was something they had waited for a long while.

Clay charged the closest of them, his spear ready to strike. His previous experience had taught him that giving a Guardian the chance to react was usually a mistake. He closed the distance quickly, crossing the hilltop with blurring speed. Olivia charged as well on his right while Lana stopped and drew her next arrow from her quiver on the left.

The Guardians stared at him, seemingly unaffected by his approach. Clay continued the Stanza, intending to use it the instant he got close enough. It had killed a Guardian before; surely it would do just as well here. All he had to do was—

Ahead of him, the Guardians suddenly swelled. He felt a sudden rush of air as their throats seemed to expand, flaring out below their broad mouths. His mind flashed back to when he'd seen screamers among the swinefolk draw in an extra deep breath. Clay hesitated, fighting between the urge to continue the Stanza, and the need to warn the others.

That hesitation cost him. Before he could make his choice, the Guardians struck. They didn't open their mouths; if anything, they simply widened the sacs beneath their mouths. A sound like the world ending rippled out from them, smashing into Clay a handful of strides before he could reach them.

Clay was thrown backwards, his feet slipping in the mud. Olivia was tossed aside as well, and even Lana was forced to crouch and brace herself as the wave of noise reached her. He managed to keep hold of the Stanza, but just barely, and it was useless to him without getting closer.

Even as he rolled to his feet, now liberally coated in mud and with his ears ringing, the Guardians crouched. Lightning arced between the horns on their head, and Clay had a bare hint of warning before a bolt of shining blue electricity snapped directly into his chest.

The second blast knocked him back even further, sending him sliding back in the mire. Steam rose from the spot where he'd been hit, and Clay grimaced as he went to one knee. His chest burned despite the armor, as if the blast had gone straight through his protection. What kind of attack had that been?

He hadn't been alone in taking damage, either. Both Olivia and Lana had been hit. The [Minstrel] had taken the worst of it; she was clutching her arm and breathing hard, while Olivia was already shaking her head as if trying to clear it. Clay looked back, already preparing to dodge another strike.

Yet the Guardians had straightened up again, their eyes still locked in the same impassive, uncompromising glare. Their throats inflated again, but instead of the brutal shock of sound, there was a lower, bass growling noise. Each of their mouths opened, and a flood of deep green fog poured from their maws to wash across the top of the mound. Clay's eyes went wide as they disappeared within the cloud.

Olivia grimaced as the cloud approached them. "Clay? I don't think breathing that is a good idea."

Lana nodded, backing away towards the edge of the hill. "Yeah. What do we do?"

Reluctantly, Clay allowed the Stanza to slip away. He needed information now that he couldn't end things quickly. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "I'll use Ballad of Air to clear it. Try to get clear shots on them when I do. That way we can—"

Three massive forms hurled out of the mist. Clay jerked backwards as he recognized the gaping maws of the Guardians, ready to swallow them all.

Time seemed to slow for a moment. He wasn't worried about Olivia; she had more than enough speed and reaction time to avoid the attack. More than that, her bonuses and skills were geared towards a direct confrontation; the Guardian attacking her might have made a mistake giving her the chance to fight at close range.

His real worry was Lana. The [Minstrel] was almost as dedicated to stealth as he was, and her most powerful weapon was most useful at range. Worse, she was a far lower level than him and Olivia, with less experience against Guardians. Her eyes were wide as the frog lunged at her, panic temporarily freezing her in place.

Clay moved before he really could think. He twisted towards Lana and lunged, his foot digging into the muck. With the same motion, he hurled his spear at the Guardian in front of Lana, aiming for the space just behind its mouth. As it flew, he started the Orison of Soul; clearly, they'd need more information before they'd win this fight.

The spear caught the Guardian and slammed it off course. Its gaping maw missed Lana as she finally started to backpedal, her hand darting for the arrows in her quiver.

Then one of its webbed feet swung forward, and Lana went tumbling backwards through the mud, some of her arrows scattering across the hilltop.

He had just enough time to feel a burst of triumph before the Guardian that had been aiming for him tried to snap his arm off. Clay twisted frantically, just barely snatching his fingers out from between the thing's lips; the air from the bite rushed past him. The Guardian wasn't done yet. It thrust its head forward and up, nearly spearing Clay with its crude horns.

The impact still sent Clay stumbling backwards, but he managed to keep his feet. He tore his knife free of its sheath, still continuing the Orison as he tried to find a weakness to exploit. There was a moment when he felt relief at the fact that the Guardian wasn't continuing to chase him; the one near Lana appeared to have turned its attention to him as well, instead of finishing off the [Minstrel] at its feet.

Then the frogs reared back, and air rushed past him as they breathed in.

Clay's eyes widened. He just barely crouched down and braced himself as the Guardians unleashed the same roaring wave of sound. It hit him from both Guardians at once, and it was not more pleasant at close range. His own voice was nearly lost in the hurricane of noise, and while he managed to continue the Orison, his tongue grew tangled and his ears rang as the sound forced him backwards. Just as his vision began to blur and his heels reached the edge of the hilltop, it ended, and the Guardians crouched forward again.

He shook his head, trying to focus. Had the [Chant] fallen apart? It felt strange, like he'd said something wrong. Energy crackled between their horns, and panic made him shake his head again. They were going to strike at him with lightning again. If he didn't want to share the fate of the croakers in the moat below him, he needed to move.

Neither of the Guardians appeared concerned about him. The one he'd speared used a hindleg to rip the weapon free and send it spinning aside. Its companions simply shifted, as if adjusting its aim. Clay started to step to the side, only for his balance to fail him. It was an effort to continue the [Chant]; his tongue felt thick, like he'd been dosed with an unpleasant medication.

Then, just as the lightning built to a crescendo, the one on the left jerked and released a sharp bark of rage and pain. He looked over at it as it stumbled into its companion, fouling the aim of both monsters. Lightning stabbed into the muck nearby, sending tingles crawling up his legs. The fresh pain of those jolts pulled him out of his stupor, and he gave his head another final shake.

As his vision cleared, he recognized what had caused the Guardians such trouble. Three of Lana's arrows stood out from its upper lip like an unpleasant mustache; the archer put a fourth there, right beside one of its nostrils. The Guardian unleashed an enraged croak as it righted itself, and its companion shoved at it spitefully.

A glance told him that the third Guardian had so far fared the worst of them. Olivia kept dodging its attempts to swallow her and cut at its nostrils each time it tried. He didn't know if it had tried to roar at her, but it shot a bolt of lightning at her as she dodged away. It caught her, but she just slid back a little. Smoke rose from her armor as she began to charge in again.

Taking a hint from her, Clay charged the one right in front of him, knife in hand. It reared back and tried to stomp on him. He dodged the move easily, hacking at the webbed foot as he sprinted beneath the creature. The thing tried to crush him beneath it, but a sudden lunge helped him to avoid that fate.

He completed the Orison just as he spun around, aiming to try to climb the thing's broad back. It took hold, but something about it was odd, as if it had changed. The words sparked as they formed, and he felt a pull at his ethereal senses as if they'd become involved somehow.

[Guardian Horned Thunder Toad]

[Rank: 10, Type: Frog, Title: Guardian]

[Demesne: Glannwood Bogland Lair, Liege: Mire of Decay]

[Type Kills: 0, Deaths Caused: 82, Age: 50 years]

[Guardian (Bound to the Lair, Bringer of Ruin),

Creator (Origin of Dart Croaker Spawn),

Commander (Lord of Croakers, Captain of the Mire),

Eternal (Reborn in the Bogland While the Lair Stands)

Stormcaller (Wields Lightning Strikes, Obscuring Fog, and Thunder Roars)

Massive (Fatigue Ridden, Thick Hide, Armored Back, Unwieldy)]

Clay felt his heart seize as he saw the words. How had he done that? Had the Guardians somehow damaged the [Chant]?

Then he set aside those concerns as he reminded himself of the task at hand. The [Chant] had given him a clearer view of his opponent—and one thing he hadn't seen was the ability to regenerate.

He raised his voice over the sounds of the grunting, shifting creatures. "They don't heal! Every hit counts!"

The one in front of Clay shifted around, trying to face him, and Clay's eyes narrowed. The movement was faster than he would have liked, but it was nowhere near the speed that other Guardians had shown. He ran in the opposite direction, forcing it to continue trying to turn clumsily towards him. Clay heard Olivia finish a [Chant] and the one facing her suddenly recoiled as fire washed across its face.

Of Lana he didn't see anything, but he had to trust that she was still using the opening he'd given her. Once this one was down, he'd go and see if he could help further.

The toad abruptly abandoned its efforts to catch sight of him. One diamond-shaped pupil locked onto him, and its throat swelled. He grimaced as it began to vomit more obscuring fog onto the ground, sending it billowing out in a foul cloud.

Foul, but not poisonous. Just blinding. Clay grinned and ran straight at the toad's back, beginning again the Stanza of Steam. This time, he leapt onto the toad's back, grabbing onto a wart with one hand and stabbing deep with his knife. He continued as the stench-ridden fog rolled over him, making him continue his [Chant] with a cough, but nothing worse.

Stab by stab, he climbed up towards its head, holding on as it shook and lurched beneath him. He saw the bulbous eyes rolling in all directions, as if attempting to locate him. Clay felt its muscles starting to gather and braced himself. The Guardian leapt a moment later, kicking away from the mud in an attempt to buck him free. They shot skyward together as the thunder rolled above.

He felt a brief moment of weightlessness as the toad began to fall. Clay looked down and felt a stab of panic. The entirety of the bogs seemed to be splayed out beneath him. He could see Olivia dodging a lightning bolt and hacking through a forelimb in a spray of gore. Lana faced her own Guardian, which was staggering, its bulging eyes ruined by arrows. Below, on the hillside, Paul, Harry, and Elizabeth were sending another mudslide down against the waves of croakers trying to climb up to them. All around, more and more monsters were gathering, their small forms turning the landscape into a churning horde.

Then they fell together, with Clay holding on for dear life. The words of the Stanza sped from his mouth as the ground rushed up towards them. A moment later, the impact nearly robbed him of breath, and he only managed to force himself to continue through sheer determination. Mud fountained away as the toad shook itself again, lightning crackling in all directions as it tried a new method to reach him.

Clay shook the crackling energy aside without much thought; dispersing it like that had lessened the effect. He'd nearly finished the Stanza by now, and he resumed his climb towards the horns of the creature, digging his knife in with each move.

By the time he reached the back of the creature's skull, he'd just about finished the [Chant]. He felt the power of it bubbling up inside him and grinned. The toad tried to shake him aside again; muscles began to bunch up, ready to hurl them skyward once more.

He didn't give the toad the chance. Instead, he dug the Pell knife in one last time, securing his hold on it. Then he placed his free hand against the toad's back and finished the [Chant], focusing the power of it ahead of him.

The bar of steam shot through the toad's skin as if the rubbery armor of its hide was not even there. He smelled the scent of burning flesh even through the stink of the corrupted swamps and the pounding rain, and he felt a ripple of agony tear through the creature.

Clay swept his hand back along the toad, ripping the wound wider. Warts exploded as the steam reached them. Parts of the creature that had never been meant to see the light of day boiled and burst inside it. By the time the spell finished, he'd cut a gash nearly half the length of its back, one that wept steam into the rain-filled air.

For half a heartbeat, he thought the thing had somehow survived it. It trembled beneath him. Then it collapsed, the strength fleeing its dying shell.

{Horned Thunder Toad slain! Soul increases by 100}

He grinned and pulled himself away from the sagging corpse. The others were still fighting, and if he had the chance to help—

Even as he watched, one of the Guardians, covered in slash wounds, leapt towards Olivia. She jumped away, leaving her war scythe behind. It stood like a flagpole, unnaturally still and sturdy in the mud. When the Guardian slammed into it a moment later, the weapon didn't slide. Instead, the creature impaled itself through the throat, and Olivia ran in with her knife before it could recover.

On the right, Lana was circling her own opponent. Its ruined eyes still tried to track her, but she seemed unconcerned. Clay saw her eyes narrow, and she raised her voice; he recognized the words of the Canticle of Ice. The frog reacted instantly, turning towards her and sucking in air through its nostrils.

Before it could complete the breath however, Lana shot it right in the nose. The arrow went straight into one of the openings, and the toad made a sudden choking sound. It hadn't managed to react before Lana shot it again in the other nostril, blocking more of its breath. As the creature struggled, Lana finished her spell, and half a dozen spears slashed in at her target.

A wave of relief went through his aching body as Clay realized that the battle was no longer teetering on the brink of failure. He shoved himself off the corpse and started the Cycle of Return. If he was going to help, he wanted to be at a distance. As he'd already found out, the smell when they died was somehow even worse than when they were alive. How was that fair?

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