Rita's attempt to save the woman were cut short as the lightning bolt lady launched herself out the lake with her magic. The blast of water that followed her egress launched Rita up in the air with after her.

”I’m glad your ok”

She yelled as Anemone whizzed past. Rita herself was sent cartwheeling through the air, landing gracelssly in the shallow near the beach. Fortunately her thick skull took the brunt of the impact with the lakebed. She scrambled fruitlessly for a few moments before pulling her head out of the sand, mud and water, shaking it a bit and spitting out the water and muck that had gotten into her mouth.

While she was coming to her senses she looked around, trying to gauge how the fight with the toads was going. The fact that there were only 4 people, including her, who had actually engaged the warty menace was a little worrying.

On the inside Yuji had an evil smirk on her face and it took all the muscles in her face to not reveal a devious smirk, she watched as not only the boy she offered the money to, but most of the others began taking some of the money as well, only one of them truly surprised her by not taking anything and looking as if she was upset over something else completely, but before the centaur knew it, what looked like a small goblin snagged some money before running off thanking Yuji, she moved so quickly that Yuji barely could tell if it truly was a goblin or a different creature of their world.

As things began to wind down a little and Yuji began thinking about how these new adventurers would be under her thumb and felt the hug that Xiang gave her, the centaur felt something in the distance, she could feel it's large thumps like the footsteps of a giant moving somewhat close to them with each thump judging between each thump her gut told her quickly what was coming. Soon everyone else noticed it as well and rushed outside to see what it was or to test their skills upon what the mystery creature was, Yuji didn't bother stopping the young warriors from rushing into the fray, but she was slowly walking behind them with her hooves clopping with each step as she went outside and confirmed what the large oversized creatures were.

Yuji placed a gauntlet covered hand over one of her blades as the new warriors sprang into action, she noticed Xiang's eagerness to want to join in, but like Yuji, she wanted to see what these new people were capable of, she could make these toads into frog meat easily, but the horse woman gave her money to these people and she didn't want to give her money to someone who could be useless or someone who'd just be lazy. Yuji watched as Anemone saved the smaller warrior Rita, and the two attempted to save each other back and forth only with Anemone just saving herself and throwing the little green creature to the beach, Yuji spied on the owl man as he was simply gobbled up by the oversized toad, she shook her head, holding back her urge to laugh before he began struggling and looking as if he was pushing himself further into the toad for some reason, instead of wanting to laugh the centaur began to show a little concern and feel as if the owl man had a death wish.

Further across the lake there was a camper fighting his own battle against two toads before losing an item and narrowly dodging a toad's tongue, Yuji put a hand on her chin thinking about getting into this fight. On one hand, she wanted to make sure her potential customers didn't die by toads and they could pay her back, but on the other hand, she wanted to make sure that these warriors weren't weaklings, money was one thing, but these guys looked as if they could be wiped out, she sighed the Centaur trotted up next to Xiang." I think we might need to jump in here, which toad you want to handle? The one with the Owl or the ones messing with the camper across the lake?" She asked Xiang feeling that she would be able to take down one or more toads.

"Hmm... I think I'll go help the camper. Looks like fun!" Xiang said as she took out her crimson blade. It's dark red, gemlike edge reflected a vile light through it's sheen. "Angela, we have work to do~" Xiang unfurled her wings and took to the skies, flying high into the air. Very high. So high in fact, she had a hard time seeing the others below on account of the clouds she flew through. It'll take about a minute before she'd return, mostly because she lost track of where she was once she went up about one-thousand three-hundred feet. Meanwhile back on the ground the toads and adventurers continued to duke it out.

So far none of the toads have fallen, though one was suffering from a rather painful cause of cuts. Blood and saliva filled the toad's mouth as Quarel hacked away at it, the pain enough for him to actually manage to make the creature's mouth open with a split. As it would struggle to shut it's jaws again, it did have one more trick on it's tongue; the meaty appendage would attempt to wrap around Quarrel's arms and bound them to his body. And while his legs still get the toad's mouth open, the huge muscular tongue would kept Quarrel from constantly slashing the toad up. The toad's tongue struck fast and struck hard, trying to coordinate it's attack while forcing it's mouth shut to finish off Quarel once and for all.

As for Rita and Anemone, their combined efforts did succeed in doing some damage to the toad. Anemone's pike stuck out from the warty toad's back, causing it to bleed just a bit. It was certainly painful for the toad, but it only succeeded in making the creature angrier rather than scared. Looking at the two it had the choice to either attack Rita or Anemone, both equally satisfying targets. And while Anemone was the one who hurt the toad, it felt that Rita would still make for an easier meal; she was smaller and didn't have pointy weapons. So the toad shot it's tongue out at Rita with the intent to swallow her whole, just as the toad fighting Quarel did.

As for Daveon the toads continued their relentless assault, charging at him. In a surprising show of intelligence, the two toads launched their tongues towards Daveon, however they deliberately aimed towards his sides. This way if he tried to dodge either to the left or right, he'll run into a tongue. But that wasn't why they fired their tongue that way, certainly not. No they were aiming for a fallen tree behind Daveon, which they'd used their combined strength to pull back towards themselves, and possibly clobber Daveon over the head when that happens.

But not all was lost. Because it was still early in the morning, and two particular characters had just returned from shopping from the city. They took the boat, as they often did, and when they saw the party going on they just had to join. At Daveon's camp he may notice that when the toad's tongues impacted the tree it did not pull back as the toads had planned; big meaty arms held the old piece of lumber in place. At the pier, Quarel would feel the tongue wrapped around his body feel looser as an ethereal force field began to emanate from his body. Rita would suddenly feel her warhammer jerk in another direction, and if she's had a solid grip on it, the hammer would pull her out of the way of the toad's tongue. Or she'd be disarmed.

@Spriggs27@DracoLunaris@Zelosse@Lugubrious@Lunarlors34

This time the toad attacked in the manner she expected it too, its long young lashing out at her, but before the goblin could try and leap to the side she was dragged by her hammer instead. The red ring fortunately made her strong enough to hold on to the shaft, if she hadn’t had it she would surely have been gobbled up. The fact that she was dragged in the opposite direction to the one she was in the middle of trying to leap to was very confusing and so she was promptly plunged into the water again.

She rose from the water and stared bemused at her weapon for a moment. It was a piece of crap that should not suddenly be trying to magically save her life and Rita was not familiar enough with magic to think that someone else might have tried to pull it. Confused and rather worried about her weapons assistance she turned her attention by necessity back to the ugly toad that was already lining up another shot. It was little rough around the edges with that pike sticking out of it, but unfortunately her hammer seemed to have done little to the beast with her initial attempt, but she managed to see a way that she could do much more this time.

After all, when all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail, and she saw a great big nail ripe for smacking.

Sprinting through the water as fast as her little legs could carry her and deftly hopping over a second tong grab she passed the beast’s side and leaped up in the air, swinging her tiny hammer full force into the end of the extruding pike’s shaft, driving it deeper into the beast, before landing behind the toad and driving a second strike towards the closest leg, aiming to hit a slightly more vulnerable area than the creatures thick skull. She’d like to see it try and jump and squash her with a broken leg.

As was traditional, she was screaming her little lungs out in a wordless and rather high pitched battle cry while doing all this.

Yuji watched as the demon took off to the sky with her crimson blade, she looked as if she was gonna have the time of her life going to save someone, she was truly an odd little demon, instead of flying over, she ended up just flying higher up into the clouds and disappeared, the centaur sighed and removed her blade as she charged off to the toad attempting to eat the owl man, Yuji unsheathed her blade as she closed in on the monster toad, time to go and save her money from the mouths of these toads.

The centaur sliced the toad's arm, then spun around and reared her back legs and bucked the large toad back a couple inches, while it wouldn't kill the toad on the spot, it should've been enough to make the toad cough up the owl man and throw him up. Yuji flipped her sword around in her hand and held it backwards, she brought the sword across the toad's large gut, she then went to cut its other arm. Yuji circled around after cutting the toad's gut, she held out her arms in order to catch the owl man as the toad would be too in pain to keep hold of the adventurer.

As she waited for the owl man to land in her arms, she noticed Devon's situation look a little more grim, then she noticed the tree that one of the toads latched it's tongue to a tree that couldn't be uprooted, she noticed the figure holding the tree and decided to give them a hand. The centaur held her sword as if it was a javelin and aimed for the toad's tongue, Yuji threw her sword at the toad's tongue, hoping that it would slice through its tongue or at least even hit the toad at all. While she waited there unarmed, Yuji began wondering where Xiang went and why she wasn't doing as she said she was going to do and give the camper a hand.

@Lugubrious@Lucius Cypher@Spriggs27@DracoLunaris@Skepic@Dead Cruiser

Anemone wouldn't lie, being disregarded by the toad as it continued it's attack on the goblin was pretty insulting in her eyes. She had attacked the damned thing; the least it could was attack her back! Jeez.
This was the difference between monsters and humans. Manners and etiquette in battle.
Well anyway, with the toad focusing on Rita it did make her job a lot easier-wait, what was that goblin doing?
Anemone stared blankly as the goblin charged at the toad, screaming at the top of her lungs like a maniac and swinging the hammer around to match. It was a rather bemusing sight. What happened next wasn't however, as she watched the goblin jump up...
....
And whack the priceless, one of a kind, legendary weapon Fulgar like it was an oversized nail. There were no words to describe how insulted and infuriated that action made Anemone feel.
"Oi! Be careful with that. That's a family heirloom, not a nail." Anemone growled irritably at the goblin, frowning heavily as she considered her next move. She had to retrieve Fulgar, but if it wasn't stuck in the toad before thanks to that goblin; it certainly was now.
Shrugging her shoulders, she decided to do the one thing she knew she could. Charge straight at the thing at full throttle. While it had her back turned to it, she made her move to get atop it's head and grasp onto Fulgar.
"Static Shock." While the move itself was weak, it was being enhanced by the fact that the pike had been stabbed straight into the toad and thus she could channel the spell into the toad. Hopefully it would kill the thing, but it was doubtful. Though having electricity channel straight into your nerves wouldn't be a pleasant experience to say the least.
Her next move would be to try and rip Fulgar out of the toad, though the success of such a move remained to be seen.


Capala had had enough of these losers flailing about with their weapons. First it was that retarded goddess who couldn't tell a joke from a slice of cheese, yes it was that bloody bad, and now while he had been wandering around with this group of fellow wannabes and rejects, lead by a pep talking, annoying succubus, inspecting a potential place to actually work out the literal fuck kind of situation he had found himself in in this world, it had been attacked by Giant Toads.
Of all bloody things, Toads?
Oh well. Shouldn't be that tough right? Well, if how his fellow beginner adventurers were struggling was anything to go off of; they were all going to die. Killed by Toads, not exactly the way he thought anyone could go to be honest.
Ignoring the Toad being assaulted by lightning girl and a small, green goblin Capala grabbed the bottom edge of his gloves and pulled it tightly.
As he did, a loud burst of sound could be heard from the heavens. It felt like a concert was being played above of them, and while it might've hurt the ears of the others it didn't seem to bother Capala. While he wouldn't say he was used to it persay, he was kinda used to the volume of that damned floating piece of junk.
Yes, the floating, invisible jukebox he had sarcastically asked from that air headed goddess. He still regretted saying that, but it was too late to change it so he would just have to live with it.
Feeling the music begin to motivate him, as he always found himself motivated by music, he ran over to the Toad which had just recently lost a couple of limbs and decided to inflict some more possible pain on it, delivering a couple of quick punches before unsheathing his crappy, rusted dagger and going to stab it.
As much as he hated the thing, and weapons in general, he doubted his fists could really damage the thing so this was worth at least a shot.

𝓠𝓾𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓵

@DracoLunaris @Lunarlors34@Lucius Cypher@Spriggs27

The battle of attrition couldn't be said to be going well.

Despite giving it his all, Quarel simply lacked the mass and the strength to perform such a heroic act as forced the jaws of the toad open. Most animals, having sensed that they'd taken a critical wound, would have abandoned the fight and fled to avoid further damage, but this oversized amphibian appeared to stupid to realize how much blood it was losing through the holes in its mouth. Of course, Quarel hadn't hedged his bets on being able to overpower the brute, but rather on the initiative of his allies to come and help him. When adrenaline made every second feel like a minute, though, the lack of aid stung even more.

In the moments that followed, something strange happened. The toad's tongue, still tugging away at him in an effort to drag the strigiforme down the monster's gullet, began to loosen. An odd pressure surrounded Quarel, but given the pressure of toad jaws already bearing down upon him, he failed to notice. The first change he really became aware of was a sudden flinch throughout the toad's entire body, followed by a shifting of its weight. It could mean only one thing: someone's attacking. Quarel gave a grim, angry smile. About time! More blows shook the creature's body, until the duress was too much for it to keep hold of its would-be prey. As spitefully as it could the toad hawked up the owl, and spat him in a spray of blood and saliva into the outstretched arms of Yuji. Quarel gasped in shock as he landed, taking in the oh-so-fresh, wonderful air through his real mouth. After a moment he stumbled back out of her grasp, and seeing the toad in trouble, he was spurred by his rage to help finish it off. After just one step, however, he collapsed, his whole body sore. “Nuuugh.”

He lay there with his mind still rearing to go, and his body pretty much unable to move. At about the same time, two things occurred to him: that he'd have to thank Yuji later, and that his knives were still embedded in the toad's mouth. On one hand it wouldn't be a problem if the adventurers killed the monster, but if it just left, he'd be down his essential, one-of-a-kind weapons. The thought filled him with fear. They were the only nice thing he had, and given their alloy properties, the most promise he had for improvement in the future. He had to get them.

“Gaaaaah!” With a herculean effort, Quarel pushed himself to his feet. A quick inspection confirmed that body the toad's arms had been severed, but they were hardly the sum total of such a creature's mobility. Any second now it could turn and leap away into the water, never to be seen again. He glanced at Yuji, and in an apologetic tone told her, “Gotta get my knives.” Quarel steeled himself to run around the toad before jumping onto its side. Another novice had begun his own attack at the same time, leading the strigiforme to believe that killing it before it escaped would be possible, but nevertheless he clung tight to the monster's warty hide and started to climb toward its head. Perhaps he could claws its eyes out on the way.

The brave heroes continued to fight, bolstered by new allies and mysterious powers. Rita, in a particular stroke of genius, was successfully able to hammer the pike deeper into the toad's body. With a combination of her speed and strength, she was actually able to drive said pike right through the toad, pinning it to the ground. It tried to turn and face her but could not, as it's body was unable to even so much as wiggle towards Rita. It also could not avoid her second strike, which while not doing as much harm as she may have hoped, did at least manage to cause the toad an unbearable amount of pain in it's leg. Injured and immobile, the toad could do nothing as Anemone leapt onto it's back and finished it off with an electrical shock, killing the toad. It's body lady motionless and bleeding at the water's edge. As for Anemone, she'd find it extremely difficult to remove her polearm as it was buried deep not onto into the toad, but the ground underneath.

As for the toad fought by Quarrel and Capala, now it realized that it was outnumbered and outmatched. Though neither Quarrel nor Capala's attacks could do much harm to it, the toad did take an action to attempt to free itself from their attacks. The toad leapt towards Capala with the intent to crush the adventurer with it's massive body, even if it did get stabbed in the process. At the same time it was trying to buck Quarrel off it's back, shaking violently in order to loosen his grip as much as possible. But all the while, neither toad nor heroes would realize that their struggle served as an ample opportunity for another to finish off the creature. "Watch out!" Suddenly a spear was telekinetically hurled from afar, piercing right through the toad's skull. It croaked and slumped to the ground, dead. If anyone would bother to investigate where the spear came from, they would need to look towards the river and see a green-skinned girl on a rowboat. "Aye Yuji! I got da stuff!"

Meanwhile at Devon's camp the situation with the frogs took a turn for the better. Yuji's blade cut cleanly through the toad's tongue, causing the creature to fall onto it's back. All the while Xiang finally finished her readied action and fell from the heavens, bringing her blade down upon the last toad's tongue. Though her blade could not kill, it could still cut and cleave, severing the beast's slimy appendage clean off. The two toads were on their back but quickly recovered. However in great pain and now facing a more prepared enemy, the two toads dove back into the river to retreat, rather than to die fighting here.

And so the battle at Yuji's Estate came to an end. Two toads fled, while two toads laid dead. The adventurers had their share of wounds both physical and mental, but they were ultimately alive. Xiang skipped back to the others and congratulated everyone for their efforts. "Good job team! Hey, you might actually be good adventurers! Maybe. With a lot of training. And better equipment. And more skills. But that's what you'll be working for!" As the succubus spoke, the two mysterious allies revealed themselves. One was a green-skinned man, and another a younger looking but also green-skinned girl.

"Oi oi, all dis ruckus so early, wot's da big idea eh? Can't even pick shroom's wifoutta big ol mess, eh."

"Y'all must be new 'ere. Funny seeing dem toadies all worked up tho, dey musta saw something yummy in da water to come all ornery like dat. Ah! Pop, mind yer manners! Name's Ryla."

"Atch. Roight. Name's Yaj. I'm da chef 'ere, and my girl runs da shop. Happy to meet cha."

@Spriggs27@DracoLunaris@Zelosse@Lugubrious@Lunarlors34

𝓠𝓾𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓵

@DracoLunaris @Lunarlors34@Lucius Cypher@Spriggs27

Far sooner than he had anticipated, and very much against his wishes, Quarel found himself locked in another battle of attrition. This time, he battled to stay attached to the toad that now unwillingly held his prized weapons. At this stage, it didn't seem at all possible that what few individuals remained of the original group could turn the tides and kill this toad. He would more than likely be going for a swim.

He didn't bargain on a spear flying out of nowhere to embed itself in the toad's cranium with a meaty, almost sickening shlork. The weapon's point pierced its brain, and through the critical wound its life seeped out in an instant. In an instant the monsters lost all remaining vitality and sagged, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, or a large waterskin, to the ground. Dazed, Quarel let go of the fresh corpse to stand on shaky legs. On the short but unstable trip to its mouth, he processed that two individuals that appeared to be half-orcs had arrived to save the day, but he had his priorities straight. Without any hesitation he climbed back into the toad's slimy maw, and there worked for about a minute to find and loosen his knives. When he returned to the sunlight, he looked as proud as he did exhausted. He sat down to listen to Jiang's 'congratulations', and the introduction of the newcomers that followed. That said, his focus wasn't all there. The toad experience had taught him one thing: that he couldn't rely on his fellow wannabe-adventurers. With that, his stake in the new career plummeted. In the hardest of times, the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak might have nothing, but they could still have one another. Here, that just wasn't the case. Furthermore, he couldn't rely on the more experienced succubus or centaur wasting their time trying to get him up to speed, and he couldn't rely on strangers coming out of nowhere to lend a hand when he needed it most. There was only one thing for it.

Digging in his pockets, Quarel produced the money he'd taken from Yuji only minutes ago, and dumped it on the ground. “Hey. Sorry to disappoint, but this just ain't for me. I've got other stuff I gotta do, and I can't see any kind of future here. I mean, I almost lost everything in less than ten minutes. If either of you ladies ever find yourselves stuck in the rough part of Axis, find someone with the Nightcrawlers and tell 'em Quarel said you're alright.” With a great effort the strigiforme stood to his feet. He glanced at Anemone, Capala, and Rita, the only others who remained aside from the half-orcs. “Couldn't really see what you guys were up to, but, uh...good work? You lived. I hope you keep on living. Have a good one.”

Were he standing, Quarel might have taken a slight bow before turning to leave, but he needed some more time to recover. Instead, he reclined onto his back, staring up at the sky with eyes of burnished gold. Would he ever, as every wingless bird dreamed, reach the sky? It rose to such a height. Yet, he was not perturbed. The sky should be high. Maybe not as an adventurer, but one day I'll have the power to reach it, and if it were any easier it wouldn't be worth it. A long road lay ahead of him, one without much hope. With the Nightcrawlers, at least, he knew he wouldn't be walking it alone.

@Lugubrious@Lucius Cypher@Spriggs27@DracoLunaris@Skepic@Dead Cruiser

Anemone grumbled angrily under her breath as she pulled hard enough that she felt like her arms would fall off. That damned goblin had gotten Fulgar well and truly stuck hasn't she? On one hand it was an impressive feat, but bloody oath it was annoying. She had better be able to remove this or this goblin was in for a real shock.
Eventually Anemone seemed to give up as her arms felt like someone had tied them to a rack and started cranking like their lives depended on it. She cast a glare over at Rika before Xiang, Ryla and Yaj now speaking bought Anemone's attention to them.
Great. First a goblin, now some orcs? What was this place anyway? From the looks of it, a place of assorted weirdos and weaklings, at least in Anemone's eyes. But they were better than nothing at the least, the less work for her after all.
Besides, she had come here to find a purpose in life and start her life as an adventurer. Not make friends, but it also wouldn't do to make enemies.
"Any chance someone can pull this out?" The purple haired girl began straining some water from her thoroughly soaked dress, which she only just realised was dripping water, as she looked around the group.
It would seem that these two orcs ran the kitchen and shop? Not that it really interested the former noble, but food was always good. Man she could go for a roast...
At that drool enticing thought, she noticed that the owl man was now speaking. Sounded like he wanted to leave, but instead sorta just...laid there, not doing much.
"Jeez one fight and already giving up. You might've been able to see what was going on if you hadn't gone in and turned yourself into a snack. Pathetic." The girl commented bluntly before waiting for someone to pull out Fulgar. She would also continue to dry and strain some more water from her soaked clothes, but honestly it wasn't doing much considering she was still wearing said clothes. The sooner she got a chance to change and thus let her clothes dry, the better.


Capala sooned realised the mistake of rushing at the toad as it too realised it's own mistake of coming close to the adventurers and turned to flee; but not before trying to crush Capala on it's way out. And it probably would've succeeded too if it wasn't for the spear that came flying in out of nowhere and tore through it's skull like a wet paper bag. Like seriously, nasty stuff.
He took a few deep breaths to steady his out of control heart. It felt like it might just pop out, that's how hard it was pounding in his chest. With that initial adrenaline gone, the realization that he was close to death was begining to kick in.
He didn't like this world. He didn't like his old world either, but at least there toads wouldn't try to eat or crush you to death. He could handle thugs, but giant toads? Come on.
Another feeling was also creeping in. That of disappointment and disgust in his performance. Not only had he hesitated in helping the owl guy, but he had pretty much done nothing once he had moved but almost get killed. I mean sure, the owl guy was also getting his ass handed to him but that was a different story.
He halfheartedly listened to what to the half orcs and Xiang had to say, mostly just taking note of their names and congratulations, as he sheathed his beyond crappy dagger. He looked towards Quarrel and shrugged.
He wouldn't lie, he sucked. He sucked beyond belief. Luckily though it would seem that Quarrel was too preoccupied with not being eaten to notice him failing to fight the thing, so that was a good thing. Right?
He frowned at what Anemone had to say though. While she wasn't necessarily wrong, she was a little harsh. Capala could sense the snobby background and practically smell the wealth this girl must've been raised around, which raised various questions none more important than why she was even here, so Capala instantly disliked the girl.
Goblin girl? Well she was a goblin, Capala wasn't too sure what to say or feel about her. I mean, he wasn't used to having a goblin as a potential ally. Even in games in his world, goblins were usually enemies.
Owl guy? Well he seemed like he was leaving soon, but Capala was more interested in him than the strange centaur woman, the orcs and especially that crazy sounding and looking..demon..girl? Quarrel seemed far more like him than anyone else here, plus he had a question he wanted to ask.
"Ignore the snob there. All she did was faceplant into a lake. Anyways, names Capala. Did ya need a hand or something?"