An Aura Farmer's Guide to Another World
Chapter 58: The Toad Boss - Part 2

Chapter 58: The Toad Boss - Part 2

The toad stood before the towering pipe organ, its eyes flicking from Cupcake to Lucy, then landing on me.

Cupcake wove her path toward the toad, fluidly dodging the incoming tongue whips instead of blocking with her shield.

Finally, with nothing between her and the toad, she leaped toward its head. Yet, even as she launched, the toad managed to lash its claws, aimed squarely at her chest.

Cupcake met his claw with a ringing clang of her spade shield, and in the same fluid motion, drove her long sword directly into the center of its head.

Without delay, the amphibian’s razor-sharp claw lashed out, ripping across Cupcake’s chest.

In a blink, she twisted mid-air on the same axis and swung her spade shield to parry the claw. The impact, however, sent her hurtling toward the western wall of the altar.

I dashed forward and leapt toward the toad’s head, hands clenched tightly around my sword’s hilt. I raised it to the heavens and brought it down with the weight of a mountain.

My strike was caught by the toad’s claws just as I’d anticipated. I touched down on the claw and sprang upward, gaining more height.

The toad looked up in my direction, trying to decipher my next move.

I glanced toward Lucy, standing at the altar’s edge, and called out. "Now!"

With flawless timing, Lucy threw her blade. It zipped through the air and hit the same point where Cupcake had landed her blow.

Mid-flight and upside down, I extended a finger toward the sword, locking its position in my sights.

"Blood Art Technique: Negative Touch."

A round wave of gravity, the size of a football, streamed from my fingertips, slamming into the hilt of the sword and driving it deeper into the toad’s skull.

’Crack!’

The sound of cracking filled the air as the surrounding scales fractured, revealing red flesh beneath the dark outer layer.

Touching down a few paces away, I found myself to the east of the toad. Lucy confronted it from the front, while Cupcake flanked it from the west.

All of a sudden, the toad closed its eyes and sat on its limbs, its body heaving.

’Thud-thud.’

Evelyn walked onto the stage and stood beside Lucy.

"All guests have been safely evacuated," she said, resting her sickle on her shoulder with a smirk. "Now, if you don’t mind, I’d love a taste of what that bad boy is serving."

"Let’s repeat the attack pattern. Hit the same spot; keep striking until the skin breaks," Cupcake said, gripping her sword’s hilt.

Evelyn strode toward the silent toad, its body slowly swelling and shrinking. "That’s no fun way to fight," she said. "Let me enjoy myself, you can have him all to yourself when I’m done hanging out with him."

"Stop!" Cupcake yelled, but it was too late.

Evelyn flashed forward and closed the distance. Her hand touched the toad’s skin, stroking it gently. "Wake up, sleepyhead," she murmured. "Time to entertain mummy."

Its jaws clamped onto her arm, but Evelyn only smiled, resting a hand on its head. "Come on, hit me harder! Make me feel something truly worthwhile."

From afar, I spotted faint streams of purple gas seeping through the cracks in its scales.

The toad stood eerily still, yet its body had swollen unnaturally, like a living bomb on the brink of detonation.

What is it planning?

Evelyn withdrew her hand, and we watched in stunned silence as her flesh sloughed off, rotted from within like wet paper peeling off bone.

Evelyn examined the wound with quiet interest, then dragged her tongue across the exposed flesh, swallowing the viscous purple fluid as if it were nectar.

"Cupcake! Barrier—now!" Evelyn barked.

Cupcake flicked her gaze to me, then to Lucy. Without a word, we bolted toward Lucy, and as we reached her side, Cupcake crossed her fingers, summoning a barrier around us.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

A noxious HISS erupted from its pores, followed by a wet PFFFT as pockets of gas burst.

In an instant, purple gas surged around us, thick as fog, our vision swallowed in an impenetrable haze.

In mere heartbeats, the poison occupied the space, filling the cathedral wall to wall, floor to ceiling.

It launched upward and crashed onto the barrier. Then again, pounding the exact point until fractures split across its surface.

As it soared upward for a third strike, Evelyn dashed forward and leapt, slamming a kick into the toad mid-air. The force hurled it backward, crashing toward the cathedral’s exit.

Evelyn smiled, completely unfazed, her lungs drawing in the poison like it was spring air. "You wouldn’t leave Mummy out of the fun, would you?" she purred. Her hand showed no sign of injury, like it had never rotted at all.

The toad paid Evelyn no mind. It hurled itself at our barrier again, aiming to shatter it with sheer force.

With a fluid twirl of her chain-sickle, Evelyn sprang into the air, rising to meet the beast head-on before it could crash down.

Evelyn hurled the iron ball with force, the chain whistling through the air but it struck the toad’s hide and bounced off harmlessly. He barely flinched.

The iron ball attached to the end of her chain was deflected toward her.

Evelyn smacked the iron ball with her sickle, launching it straight at the descending toad. It struck his underside with a clang only to bounce off, his belly scales deflecting it like steel.

Evelyn soared toward the cathedral’s ceiling, eyes locked on the plummeting toad. As they closed the distance, she struck the chain’s iron ball again and again, each blow hammering the same spot beneath its belly.

The arrogant toad finally collided with Evelyn mid-air. She drove an uppercut into the same spot she’d pummeled with her iron ball, her fist shattering the scales and slamming into its belly.

The impact launched it backward like a missile, crashing against the cathedral’s ceiling with a thunderous boom.

Her fist shattered on impact but within seconds, the broken bones and torn flesh knit themselves back together, restoring her hand to its flawless form.