An Aura Farmer's Guide to Another World
Chapter 57: The Toad Boss - Part 1

Chapter 57: The Toad Boss - Part 1

The giant Toad boss stood four meters tall and three meters wide, with silver claws on all its limbs.

A pungent, earthy odor, thick with the scent of decay and stagnant water, wafted off its skin.

Instead of typical amphibian skin, its surface was covered in large, overlapping, dark scales, fissured with cracks from which faint, sickly vapors emanated.

’Ribbit-ribbit!’

The Toad croaked repeatedly, expanding like a balloon and contracting like a sponge.

Near the podium, Annelise and the Bishop went still, locked in place, as did every one of the thousand guests gathered in the cathedral.

With spears poised and eyes locked on their target, Beatrice’s guards edged forward from the Cathedral’s inner walls, creeping ever closer to the altar.

Cupcake’s heel clicked sharply against the floor, snapping our attention to her. "Evelyn, on three, guide the guards and get the guests out. Lucy, move Annelise away from that toad. Darling, take the Bishop and get him to safety."

"3-2-1."

Evelyn sprang from the altar, landing on the red carpet that split the crowd. "Evacuate immediately! All guards must ensure the guests’ safe escape."

With a blur of motion, Cupcake lunged at the giant toad, her long sword arcing downward just as its claw lashed upward, crashing into her blade with a burst of sparks.

’Clang!’

I curved my path toward the podium, grabbed the Bishop’s robe with one hand, and hauled him over my shoulder, my sword still firm in the other. Beside me, Lucy mirrored the motion, lifting Annelise away from danger.

Together, we sprinted to the altar’s edge and launched into the air, landing hard on the crimson carpet. I set the Bishop down quickly. "Go now," I commanded.

’THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-STOMP-CRUNCH!’

Like ants, the crowd of guests streamed toward the exit, their movement slowly dissolving into chaos.

The toad’s massive foreclaw came crashing down, aiming to flatten Cupcake, she barely dodged, forced to stumble back a few paces.

As Lucy and I lunged with swords drawn, the toad caught our movement from the corner of its eye. With shocking speed, it launched itself toward us in a thunderous leap.

He flew past us, landing with a sickening thud in the middle of the Cathedral. His tongue lashed out, a blur of pink, snatching a fleeing lady, and in one horrifying motion, he swallowed her whole.

Four guards broke from the crowd, hurling their spears at the monster. The toad didn’t flinch, its scaled skin tanked the blows with chilling indifference.

’Ribbit-ribbit.’

His thick skin deflected the spears.

In a blink, the toad’s tongue lashed out, snagging one of the guards mid-motion and yanking him straight into its gaping maw.

From the Cathedral’s exit, Evelyn launched herself onto the shoulder of a fleeing guest. She leaped from one person to the next, a dark blur among the panicked crowd, until she finally reached the closest guests to the monstrous toad.

Evelyn hurled herself toward the toad’s head, her body twisting in a tight vertical spin. The chain-sickle spun with her, building a lot of momentum as she closed in.

Evelyn remained suspended in a furious spin while the toad met every blow with razor-sharp claws. The grinding contact between her weapon and its scales lit the space with a shower of fiery orange light.

Evelyn dropped back, standing between the monster and the retreating guests. At that very instant, Cupcake weaved forward like lightning, sliding into position beneath the beast’s looming head, ready to strike.

She pinned her twelve-foot sword to the floor and clutched the handle. In a flash, she launched herself atop the hilt, using the leverage to spring forward, delivering a devastating kick to the toad’s head.

The force sent the monstrous amphibian rocketing backward, crashing with an earth-shaking impact onto the altar.

Lucy and I ran toward the toad, now sprawled against the ruined pipe organ. We didn’t wait for it to recover.

While I jumped and landed squarely on its underbelly, Lucy thrust forward, her blade aiming mercilessly for its exposed flank.

’Clang!’

My sword was deflected, and Lucy’s blood sword shattered, reverting to raw blood.

The toad’s paw lashed out in a wild arc, aiming straight for my skull. I jumped back just in time, Lucy mirrored the move, retreating with a thin river of blood that clung to the air around her.

Lucy seized the floating ring of blood, and in a blink, it hardened into a sword. "It’s tougher than it looks," she muttered, eyes locked forward, as I joined her at the altar’s edge, shoulder to shoulder.

The toad regained its balance, unscratched by all of our attacks.

’EEEEEK!’

The amphibian screamed, its snake eyes glaring at us. In a terrifying blur, its movement tripled, and its tongue lashed out toward Lucy and me.

I caught the tongue with my blade, but the force sent me skidding back across the floor. The toad’s tongue recoiled and lashed out at Lucy. She deflected the strike, only to be knocked back beside me.

’Thwack!’ ’Thwack!’ ’Thwack!’

The toad’s unyielding strikes hammered down on us, driving us back relentlessly until we found ourselves on the altar’s very edge.

As the toad pulled its tongue back, readying another strike, a barrier formed in front of us, and Cupcake streaked toward the altar with lightning speed.

Dropping into our midst like a thunderbolt, Cupcake met the toad’s attack head-on. Its tongue lashed out but was stopped by the invisible wall protecting us.

Fingers crossed, she advanced on the frog, absorbing its blows directly onto her barrier.

After the third hit, just before she could close in on the toad, her barrier shattered, leaving her exposed.

The toad retracted its tongue and inhaled, swelling even larger than before. Its glare locked on Cupcake, convinced she was naked and exposed to its next attack.

As the toad lashed out, Cupcake clenched her left fist, and in an instant, a translucent shield shimmered into existence before her.

The shield was a large spade that covered her entire frame, easily deflecting the incoming tongue lashes.

As the tongue deflected off the barrier, Cupcake rolled over it in one fluid motion, then swung her odachi, slicing through it like a blade through butter.

Green blood sprayed from the severed tongue as the toad yanked it back with a screech, thrashing its limbs hard enough to make the polished stone floor tremble.

"Let’s focus all our attacks on the center of its head until the scales break," Cupcake instructed, casting a glance at us from the corners of her eyes.