They broke off into a mad dash, but as they got closer and closer, Muu and Matteo both experienced the same thing. The sheer size of the monster before them was insane. It may not have looked all that impressive at a distance, but up close, the gears in their skulls began to churn. An ordinary toad ate insects, and they stood at ten to fifteen centimeters in length. They had no teeth to chew or grind, so they end up simply swallowing whatever they ate.

In that case, how massive was a toad going to have to be, to swallow livestock whole?

It towered above them all, a monster five meters tall, three meters wide, the sheer size enough to block out a portion of the gray sky. Far from being threatened by the two children running at it from the fields, it regarded them with a lazy blink, an irreverent nonchalance that wasn’t even disturbed when Ash’s arrow sank three centimeters into its slimy, sinuous flesh. In the distance, that horse looked tasty, and there was a snack along the way as well. Shifting its heavy form towards its left, the creature crawled over in a plodding manner, almost uncaring for the presence of Matteo and his suddenly inadequately sized knife.

But of course the toad cared.

Insects, small as they are, were still food, after all.

With no hesitation, and barely any telegraph, its pink tongue flickered out with bone-pounding force and gale-like speed, ready to grab Matteo and fling him into its open mouth.