The Aduns were intelligent creatures, but they remained beasts. Snow sensed Khan's feelings and tried to accelerate to reach Liiza quickly, but pressure promptly spread from the base of its wings to make it slow down.
Khan felt worried, but he didn't dare to leave clues of his relationship with Liiza. Moreover, his girlfriend would scold him if he ended up doing something so stupid for her. She would take his actions as a lack of trust in her abilities.
Snow remained in the back of the Aduns' group after Khan's reminder, and everyone soon landed at the base of the hill, right outside the battlefield. Liiza noticed their arrival, but her opponent didn't give her the chance to turn or greet them.
The toad was quite big. It was shorter than an average man, but its belly and legs made it quite large. Its mouth alone was almost one meter wide. It seemed able to eat a human or a Niqols in a single bite.
The creature's skin was dark-blue, but it appeared lighter than the Niqols. A few large dark spots covered a good part of its short front limbs, bent legs, and large back. Its eyes were completely black, and clear eyelids covered it whenever it blinked. Moreover, smoke came out of the ground right under it, but its source was unclear.
Khan studied that phenomenon after he jumped off his Aduns and hurried toward Liiza with the rest of his group. His new position soon allowed him to see thick drops of greenish saliva falling from the corners of the toad's mouth and creating deep holes on the ground as soon as they touched it. The smoke came from the instantaneous corrosion generated by that liquid.
Liiza was fine. She wore her iconic cold expression as cold sweat fell from her forehead. Khan couldn't see any injury on her figure during his short glance, but her tracksuit was dirty in multiple spots. It was clear that she had to throw herself on the ground a few times during the battle.
The arrival of the group made the toad stop to study the situation. Liiza used that chance to inspect the newcomers, and her gaze inevitably lingered on Khan for a few seconds when she noticed his state.
Khan's chest was bare, but his trousers and the torn fabric that covered them didn't hide the nature of his clothes. Liiza noticed that he didn't change after the previous night, and faint worry slowly seeped into her mind.
"[We picked him up along the way]," Doku explained before clearing his throat to switch to the human language. "What did you learn about this monster?"
Doku and the other Niqols didn't see anything wrong with Liiza's previous inspection. After all, Khan was a peculiar presence in that group, and his appearance made the whole matter rather odd. In their minds, it would have been strange if she didn't show any curiosity at all.
"Its saliva is deadly," Liiza explained while showing a frown to Khan and moving her gaze back to the toad, "Its tongue is like a whip, and its skin is slimy."
Khan couldn't help but notice the thin wet layer that covered the toad's skin at that point. His expression grew colder as he understood that the creature was a bad match for his abilities. The monster's mutations appeared even stabler compared to the fiery bird-like beast from before.
The toad made up its mind in those short seconds. Its mouth opened, and Liiza gave voice to a loud "dodge" at that sight.
A scarlet whip shot out of the creature's mouth and tried to crack on one of the Niqols, but the latter managed to dodge the attack thanks to Liiza's warning. Everyone had jumped to the side before the blow landed on the ground, but they didn't miss the scene of the toad quickly retracting its tongue while they straightened their position.
The tongue had created a hole on the ground in the Niqols' previous position, but the sheer might of the organ didn't appear as scary as the saliva that accompanied it. The toad had left a large patch of its corrosive liquid in that spot, and the terrain could only vanish in a thick trail of dense smoke under its corrosive effects.
The small hole quickly transformed into a one meter deep pit. The scene added value to Liiza's warnings and made them accept that the slightest contact with the creature's saliva could lead to severe injuries or worse.
"Did you hit it already?" Khan asked while keeping his eyes on the monster.
"A few times," Liiza explained. "It's slow, but it's hard to reach its insides, and its physical prowess is no joke."
"Your name is Khan, right?" Doku asked after the group spent a few seconds in complete silence.
"I didn't expect you to know," Khan honestly revealed. "Doku, right? The honor is mine."
Doku turned toward Khan and performed a respectful nod to complete a formal introduction, but faint hesitation seeped inside his voice during the request that followed his gesture. "Can you bait the toad? You are fast enough to dodge the tongue."
The other Niqols wanted to look at that interaction, but they didn't have the guts to turn toward Khan. He had basically taken care of the last monster on his own, but Doku still wanted him to play a dangerous role in the current battle. It didn't feel fair to put him alone against the threatening tongue, but the tactic made sense.
The aliens would have found it easier to accept the event if Khan weren't a human and didn't already put himself at risk in the previous battle. Yet, the current situation felt quite dangerous, and Doku's tactic had a high chance to succeed, so they remained silent and waited for Khan's reply.
"Be sure to kill it quickly," Khan exclaimed as confidence filled his face.
Doku nodded, and the other Niqols heaved a sad sigh of relief once they learnt that none of them would have to perform that dangerous role. Only Liiza remained utterly expressionless. She couldn't let anything reach her face because she feared what it would reveal.
"Try to keep up," Khan announced before taking a deep breath and bending forward.
The toad noticed that sudden movement and opened its mouth again. A scarlet whip shot out toward Khan, but his figure vanished when the attack reached him.
Liiza almost gave voice to a worried gasp, and the other Niqols felt as surprised as her to notice that the tongue had only pierced an afterimage. Their eyes quickly went back to the toad and noticed that its mouth had closed after Khan's upward kick.
'Really a bad match-up,' Khan cursed in his mind as he did his best to keep track of the saliva falling from the tongue less than a meter from him.
His mind couldn't linger on those thoughts for too long. Khan was right under the toad's mouth. He could launch another attack right away, but he held back from doing so.
The monster tried to open its mouth and swing its tongue toward its opponent, but Khan kicked it closed again. His attack even made the creature tilt to the opposite side due to the power released in the impact.
Khan felt happy to notice that the toad wasn't as strong as the lightning monster. He could heavily affect its body with his kicks and interrupt its offensive. The only problem was with the actual damage that his attacks inflicted.
His kicks could push the toad away, but they didn't manage to pierce its skin. Moreover, the slimy liquid that covered its skin made it troublesome to deliver precise attacks. Khan's foot had almost slid across the creature's mouth during his first technique, and his foothold even felt unstable after touching that fluid.
Khan prepared himself to take a step back and shake the slimy fluid that had accumulated on his left foot, but two figures suddenly ran at his side and reached the back of the toad.
Doku and Liiza had been the fastest among the Niqols. Their reaction to Khan's movements had been almost immediate, so they had managed to reach the toad after he completed his second attack.
The two Niqols threw their palms forward, and the toad croaked in pain as the alien's mana seeped past its slimy skin and ravaged its insides.
Khan's eyes widened in fear as drops of corrosive saliva rained out of the creature's mouth. Some of them tried to fall on him, but he quickly shot forward to go under its body and reach its side.
The corrosive saliva fell on the ground behind Khan and dug the terrain while releasing trails of smoke, but he didn't manage to focus on the event since he slipped due to the slimy liquid covering his left foot. Still, he didn't panic and used his falling motion to spin on himself, place his hands on the terrain, and make his leg rotate until it slammed on the toad's throat.
The monster croaked in pain again and spat even more saliva, but Khan had developed a somewhat reasonable approach to the battle after those three exchanges. He didn't have time to remove the slimy liquid, so he would limit it to its left foot. The other leg would have to work as a foothold for the rest of the fight.
More dark figures ran around the toad and reached its back to launch attacks meant to hurt its insides. Bula and the others finally joined Doku and Liiza and took their position to assault the monster with their best offensive.
The creature moved forward due to the pain spreading from its back and put Khan in a troublesome situation. He couldn't push the toad away when it used the entirety of its body to charge ahead, but he couldn't retreat either due to the rain of corrosive saliva behind him.
Khan could retreat to his left, but that would make him abandon his position. The toad would have the chance to turn at that point, and the Niqols would lose their openings.
Khan was basically crouching under the right side of the toad's mouth. He could jump to his left and avoid the massive body threatening to squash him, but there was a small opening above him.
The entirety of his physical strength and mana flowed into his right leg as he shot upward and leapt past the monster. His airborne body started to spin as he stretched his left leg. His heel eventually landed on the creature's head and delivered a blow so powerful that the toad slammed its mouth on the ground.
The Niqols didn't hesitate to launch another wave of attacks, and dense trails of smoke engulfed Khan since the toad spat a large amount of saliva that corroded the ground right under him and freed its mouth.
The smoke clouded Khan's vision, but he focused on his left foot and cut away everything else. The slimy skin and the liquid around his shoe made him slide across the toad's head, but he waited until he found a decent foothold before putting strength in his leg and performing a backflip.
The foothold on the monster's head was far from stable, so Khan's backflip ended poorly. He fell on his knees and slid through the ground as his hands stabbed the terrain to stop his momentum. He had failed to perform a perfect retreat, but he had successfully gotten out of the toad's range without touching the saliva.
The Niqols launched another wave of attacks, and anger ended up taking control of the toad at that point. The creature pieced the layer of smoke and fixed its dark eyes on Khan before opening its mouth and launching its threatening tongue forward.
Khan couldn't stand up in time to perform a sprint with his left foot covered in slimy liquid, but his right leg could still help. He kicked the ground under him and shot forward to slide right under the tongue that landed a few meters behind him.
Saliva fell from the organ and threatened to reach Khan, who was lying under it. Yet, he promptly rotated on himself to dodge the incoming corrosive liquid.
The toad titled its head to follow Khan's movements and never gave him the chance to stand up. The scarlet organ chased after him and engulfed the area with smoke. He found himself unable to escape from the tongue while spinning on the ground, so he opted to shoot ahead again once it almost reached him.
His action only managed to buy him some time since he remained under the tongue. Khan had to start rotating again, but the scarlet organ soon stopped following him.
Khan didn't hesitate to push with his hands and stand up while bending his right leg to prepare a sprint, but his body relaxed when he gazed at the scene ahead.
The toad wasn't moving anymore. Its mouth had closed after bluish blood had fallen from its edges and had mixed with the corrosive saliva. The Niqols behind the creature wore disgusted expressions as they tried to wipe their palms clean with their tracksuits, but Doku didn't forget to nod toward Khan when he noticed his gaze.
Liiza was also looking at him, but her face didn't betray any emotion. However, it was clear that the monster had died, and Khan couldn't help but heave a tired sigh as he sat on the ground.
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