The frog was submerged in Leyn’s ball of water, but this was not the end of it. The Water Qi was still connected to her, so she retained some control over it. With all of her might, she willed the water to go inside the creature, enter through its pores into its organs and cells.

“Watch out! I can only keep the spell up for two more seconds!” Lin shouted, strain visible on her face.

“Alright, everyone get back!” Quin yelled, preparing for his attack.

Lin fell to the her knees exhausted as the spell expired. The ground stabilized and the frog started to emerge. It was no longer submerged in the water, as due to Quin’s order Leyn -- just like the others -- stepped back.

The wild beast emerged completely, and Quin has finished his preparation as well, jumping straight at the frog. He did not use any special techniques or spells, he fell back to his simplest, yet most powerful attack he had: Overcharge. Though it had been less powerful, he had used it before against Mang; he gathered all of his Lightning Qi inside his body and tried to compress it as much as he could and then simply let it explode out at his target.

His current target was obviously the already opened wound at the beast’s side. When his arm was almost entirely inside, he exploded his qi out, through his arm. It was a bit of a gamble, but trusting his knowledge and instincts, he assumed that the frog’s ability to absorb water was quite efficient, and even the few moments it was exposed the Leyn’s water ball would be enough.

Fortunately he had been right, his lightning surged forward, this time not bouncing back and forth but penetrating its flesh and organs and destroying them. The wound, which was growing bigger and bigger was filled with the frog’s poison as well, but Quin did not worry about that. Not only did his lightning evaporate a good chunk of it, but the part of his body that became infected were quickly cleansed by his Lightning Qi.

It took only about two seconds for Quin to empty all of his qi reserves. Though in normal circumstance it would take longer, with Overcharge he could quicken his output rate. It was important to note however, that it put a great strain on his body and after using it he would probably unable to circulate his qi for at least several hours.

With the last bit of his power, he put some distance between him and the monster and then collapsed to the ground.

Aline and Leyn both ran to him, to check if he was alright. To their relief, they saw that he was just exhausted and would be fine after some rest.

After Quin’s attack the beast let out a couple of shouts and convulsed wildly for a few moments, before stopping. Alinor and Sao did not want to leave it to chance and attacked the frog through its -- now big -- wound until they were able to entirely bisect it. Afterward they also went to check on Quin.

“How’s he doing? Will he be alright?” Alinor asked.

“Yeah, he’s just expended too much of his qi and too fast,” Leyn answered. “It seems he significantly increased his output rate for a while and that in turn put a great strain on his body. Fortunately, his body looks like it is somewhat accustomed to it and I also healed him as much as I could. Still, he’ll most likely be out for hours.”

“That’s good to hear,” Alinor said. “I think we should rest for an hour or so before heading out again.”

Nobody had any issue with that so they sat down to rest, and to recover their reserves, of course at least one of them was constantly on the lookout.

Afterwards, they felt refreshed and continued to search for Dreon. Quin was still unconscious, thus they made a makeshift stretcher for him and carried the boy on it.

They could not move as fast as before because of that, however they also had to be more cautious about where they went: they did not want to face a wild beast similar to the Three-headed Scarlet Frog while their strongest fighter is out.

“We should stop here, it’s already getting dark,” Alinor said. “This area seem to be void of wildlife, so we can probably spend the night here peacefully. There’s not much we can do in the dark of the night, as well.”

They began to set their camp, but this time -- to be on the safe side -- they reinforced their perimeter with simple traps, which could alert them in case a wild beast appeared.

The night fell and just when they were about to eat dinner, Quin has finally awoken. He looked around, noting that everyone of the team was alright and that he was lying next to the campfire.

“How long was I out?” he asked.

“At least seven hours,” Aline, who sat next to him, replied.

“Have you found any signs of Dreon?” he questioned.

There was a moment of silence and then Alinor shook his head, looking a bit dejected.

“I’ve just woken up, so I’m full with energy. I’ll look around for a bit then,” Quin said standing up.

“That’s not a good idea, look around, it’s pitch black outside,” Alinor said.

Quin took a glimpse and realized, what Alinor said was right. “Oh,” he said embarrassed, and sat down again. After filling his stomach he went to his sleeping bag and fell asleep right away. Although he said that he was full with energy, in truth his body was not completely restored and he felt dead tired. He even forgot that all of them were supposed to be on night watch, but the others did not mind it.

In the next morning he felt refreshed, like yesterday did not even happen.

They were continuing their journey through the danger zone and the rate they encountered wild beasts were getting higher and higher. Fortunately they had been only smaller and weaker ones and none of them could compare to the frog from yesterday.

It was past noon when Quin took notice of something at his left side: under the lush vegetation on the ground he caught a glimpse of something like a spark. “Guys, wait, I may have found something,” he said, trying to inspect the ground.

The others gathered around him as he began clear the plants off the ground. Eventually the others joined him, and the more place they cleared up the more confused they got.

“What the heck is this thing?” Though Sao rarely talked, this time it was him who asked the question.

“I’ve got no idea either,” Alinor said, shaking his head.

What Quin believed to be a spark previously, had been in truth the light being reflected on the surface of a... Mirror? They have freed a few meters of the ground from the various plants and under them it was completely covered by something similar to the surface of a mirror.

After another few minutes of work, Quin said, scratching his head, “To me it looks like some kind of path? It’s about three meters wide, but even after twenty or so meters we haven’t seen it’s end or start. Furthermore it’s, uhm, probably built? In a straight line. I guess Dreon would’ve loved it.” He paused for a moment, with a hint of sadness appearing in his eyes, but then he realized something and his expression changed to one of anticipation. “You know what that means? I don’t think that even if we continue in this direction, we’ll have much higher chance to find him; he could’ve changed directions any time. However it seems that this mirror path or whatever stretches for quite a distance, so what if we aren’t the only one to find it? I noticed it only by chance, but there could be places, where the vegetation is more sparse. What do you think Dreon would have done after discovering it? I say our best chance at finding him is following it in one direction or the other.”

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Leyn said, smiling.

“Well, what you said is right, we haven’t found a single track of him, so there’s nothing to say that he’s just kept going in a straight line.” Alinor agreed, taking a brief glance at the road made of mirrors and his lips curved up to a half-smile. “Yeah, that’s definitely something he’d interested in it.”

“I don’t think I’d be much help with these things... So obviously I’ve got no objection to it,” Aline said shyly with a slightly red face, hinting her embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about it! We don’t have much idea how to proceed either, just guessing and hoping it’ll be right,” Quin said encouragingly and stroked her head. He wondered why Aline had so low self-esteem, even though he considered her quite clever.

They continued clearing the plants off the mirror road for at least a few hours until they have reached a clearing and when they looked up, they became awestruck at what lay in front of them.

“How could this be here?” Quin asked.

Author's note: Here's an extra chapter for today, I hope you'll like it!