Frog of war, p.1
Frog of War, page 1
part #2 of Anura Rising Series
Frog of War
Anura Rising: Book Two
J. S. Grulke
Copyright © 2020 by J.S. Grulke
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book (except brief quotations for articles or reviews) may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author.
Cover Art: Ebook Launch
Edited by: LitForge Edits
To Boo,
For your unrivaled support and countless hours spent reading about a warrior frog.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
About the Author
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Acknowledgments
1
Henry shot upright with eyes wide and grabbed instinctively for his axe. He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his brother’s voice from his head. The rush of the twin waterfalls effectively blocked out all sounds from the village, but not the ones inside his head. His heart raced from another restless night filled with replays of the battle they had survived a week ago. He could still feel the suffocating presence of Nergal in his head.
Henry recounted the events in his mind. Nergal had gotten inside his head and made him believe he was back in Louisiana. If it were not for the faith that Ott and his other obligates showed in him on the battlefield, he could’ve cost himself a chance at actually returning to his family. I was home. It seemed so real. What if I actually joined Nergal? Would he have brought my mom and Ben here?
Using his axe as leverage, he pushed himself up from his hastily constructed bed of gnarled branches and stood in the center of his cave. The damp confines of the secluded spot provided him a safe retreat, a place where he could be alone and not have to answer to anyone else. He paused as he heard Augus grumbling his way up the path toward his cave. Well, for the most part.
The Araci chief greeted Henry by pounding twice on his chest. He pulled a small leather bag from its place on his thick leather belt and handed it to Henry. “Here’s last night’s haul.”
Henry held his hand out and the large toad-like warrior dropped it into his palm. “Anything worthwhile?”
Augus shrugged. “More of the same, but I have a feeling we will be reaching the higher quality stones any day now.” He turned and motioned toward the chest at the back of the cave. “Thank you for holding onto these for me. I trust you the most out of everyone here.”
Henry opened the bag and poured the stones into his palm before handing it back to Augus. He stared at the shimmering gems for a moment, then returned his gaze to the warrior. “I’ll put them with the others. Keep up the good work in the mine and lumber camp. I can’t remember a time where we ran low on either lumber or stone. We’ve really been able to make some decent progress with everything you have gathered.”
The chief smiled and clapped a hand onto Henry’s shoulder. “Thank you; the Araci are in our element here. It feels good to get back to what we’re best at.” He paused and nodded at the stones in Henry’s hand. “Please remember, if you find anything you can use, take it. I’m going to get back down to the mine before the others notice I’m gone. Come visit when you get a chance.”
Henry gave Augus a small wave before turning to the chest near the back of the cave. The cats had outgrown the wooden trunk the day after they had defeated Nergal, and were currently nearly triple the size they were when he had first found them. Now, the chest was packed with many of the items he had obtained since arriving. The old wooden lid was barely able to close from everything currently inside. Henry planned to sell or use everything eventually, although he’d had to toss the hound eyes and rotting flesh after they filled his cave with an overwhelming odor of sweat and sulfur. Everything else had its place, and he tried to keep it as organized as possible. He had found that even though the items were placed in the chest, they still showed up in his tome, under an "Inventory” page.
Behind the chest, Henry had started a second storage in a large hole in the floor of his cave that he kept covered with a stack of old pelts. This was much more restrictive than the chest, but it worked well for storing all of the Aracis’ gems.
Henry had accidentally discovered that the gems were more than oddly shaped colorful rocks when he slipped a small one in his pocket. The bag he carried lit up brightly, alerting him to the fact that something had changed in his book. He was surprised to find that the small gem actually provided a 1% increase to fishing skill when carried in his pocket. Unsure how to use them, he organized them by color. The best gem in the collection was a round dark crimson stone that gave a 5% bonus to melee damage. Augus would typically bring the stones up to the cave toward the end of each day before heading back down and joining the other Araci in a large hut that they had constructed as a central gathering point and barracks for the hulking toad-like creatures.
A low, scratchy voice from the entrance of the cave interrupted his thoughts. “Ahem. You awake?” Ott didn’t wait for an answer, carefully setting his bag of totems down in the middle of the floor and propping himself up on the old wooden chest. It creaked under his weight as he adjusted his tail off the side.
“Yes, Ott, I’m awake. You are staring right at me. Augus already beat you here this morning.” Henry tossed the pelts back over the makeshift storage and walked across the cave, sitting on the edge of his bed. The bed creaked under his weight, as if it were about to fall apart at any moment. Henry remembered the building skill in his tome and wasn’t surprised when it was still level one, even after he’d piled together all the sticks for his shitty bed, which took him the better part of a day. It hadn’t even given him a single level. Still, having a bed was better than the alternative of the mossy cave floor.
Ott grabbed a book from within his robe, leaned back against the cave wall, and flipped through a few pages. Casting a small golden spell in his hand, he lit the cave brightly while keeping his eyes focused on the book. “They're already more than halfway finished with the arena, the inn, and the smithy. “The kobold shaman visited him regularly. After arriving back at the village, Henry had made Ott his second-in-command in charge of overseeing the village development, a job which the shaman took very seriously.
Henry was unable to hide his surprise. “Already? We just learned those two days ago. Spek is getting faster.” He paused and began to rub his hand over his head as he had when he was back home, pulling it back as he was reminded of the fact he no longer had hair. Flipping his tome open, he ran a finger down the building skill tree. Spek, when he was not running around the village building everything he possibly could, had taught everyone in the village the first level of building. At the time, Henry hadn’t thought much of it, but now that the village was beginning to grow, he was thankful for the portly warrior-turned-builder.
Back when he had reached level thirteen, the last points he’d allocated were for the lumber and mining camp. After all of the fighting, building, and farming, Henry had reached level twenty-one, and was able to allocate eight additional skill tree points. Quickly reviewing his current skill tree, he started with the buildings that he had allocated points for.
Buildings:
Smithy [0/1]
[Create and upgrade weapons and armor]
[Currently under construction: 63% of 100%]
Pier [1/3]
[Allows pier construction. Increases fishing skill for all who use it by 20% and also increases the likelihood of discovering valuable treasure while fishing]
[Bonus: Ability to build small watercraft]
[1/3 Piers Complete]
Arena [0/1]
[Provides a place to practice melee, magical, and ranged skills]
[Currently under construction: 52% of 100%]
Inn [0/1]
[Provides residents and visitors a place to gather, eat, and drink]
[Four rooms available to rent to visitors]
[Currently under construction: 51% of 100%]
Temple [0/1]
[Temples are used for village inhabitants to communicate to Lagoa’s assigned deity]
[Cleanses curses and diseases]
[Construction not started]
Weapons:
[Two-Handed Weapons]
[Guardsman 5/5] [100% bonus damage for two-handed weapons]
[Achilles 1/3] [Chance of attack to slow enemy movement speed by 10%]
[Slicing Arc 2/5] [Hit multiple enemies with the same swing. Damage is reduced for the second target by 50%. Each consecutive point reduces the damage penalty by an additional 10%.]
Crafting:
[Town Center]
Living:
[Hut*] [*Discovered by Town Center]
Farming and Gathering:
[Mill]
Current Filled Capacity: 84%
[Farm]
Status:
Planted: 4/4
Available: 0
Known Plants:
Marule
Patates
Swamp Fronds
Float Grass
[Mining Camp]
[Lumber Camp]
Defense:
[Guard Tower 2/5]
Henry was running low on new buildings for Spek to construct, although the Brugg builder had enough to keep him busy for a while with the new smithy, arena, and inn. Despite his extensive workload, the portly Brugg spent most of his days whistling obnoxious tunes as he made the rounds between building projects with a wide grin on his face.
Henry shifted his attention from his book to the shaman and let out a long breath. “I am pretty satisfied with my choices so far. Although, I’ll need to learn how to build a few additional structures at this rate, just to keep our master builder busy.”
Ott returned the book to his bag and held up his staff, turning it slowly in his hand. “Personally, I would’ve started with the temple instead of the smithy.”
Henry grabbed his axe off of his bed and tapped the blade on the ground. “Look at our weapons. I’d say we need a place to sharpen and improve our blades, or they will be useless.” He held up his axe and frowned. “Even though my Onikuma axe is better than that old gnoll one, it would be nice to improve its damage output.”
“You keep smashing that blade on the ground; it’s no wonder you’re complaining about it being dull. You know, if you would’ve listened to my suggestions, there’s a good chance that problem would have been taken care of.” Ott pointed at the blade of Henry’s axe as it rested on the rock of the cave floor.
Henry scoffed and flipped the axe upright. He grabbed it in one hand and tapped the butt end on the ground. “I don’t think Kana would sharpen all our weapons just because we randomly built a temple. There are plenty of other things that are more worthy of her attention. Don’t worry, Spek will have the other buildings completed soon, and then we can turn our attention to the temple.”
Ott lowered his gaze, his face twisting as he pointed his staff out past the waterfalls to the new structure to the south of the town center. “What about that? Did we really need an arena? We have Kana.” He paused and fixed his eyes back on Henry’s. “Trust me, it won’t be long before we find ourselves in conflict again. That will give us all plenty of experience in fighting.”
“Everyone is looking forward to the arena, especially the Araci. Hell, they fight every chance they get. Like Augus mentioned, ‘a place to take out our aggressions without repercussions, other than maybe a few hurt feelings’? Sign me up.” Henry jabbed the butt of his axe toward Ott a couple times playfully, pushing the shaman backward.
Ott swatted away the weapon and shook his head. “I don’t know why anyone would look forward to anything as barbaric as the arena.” He paused and gave Henry a sly grin. “Although, it may be a good place for me to test out my new totems.”
“Don’t push it.” Henry set his axe down on his bed and gave Ott a small smirk. He walked to the cave entrance and looked out at his growing village. The arena occupied the area south of the town center, where the tall lanky frog, Piran, and his clan had set up their former camp when they had first arrived. It was the largest building in Lagoa by a significant margin and had required extensive wood collection before they could start. Henry turned to Ott and pointed out at the arena. “Look at it. It is going to be at least four times the size of the town center by the time they are finished. It will need to be, though, especially if Kai wants to take Bug inside. Her Goliath is growing almost as fast as those cats.” He turned back to Ott and shrugged. “The good news is that it looks like Spek will be able to start on a new building project sooner than I expected.”
“Have him start on that temple. You will not regret it. I tried to build one at my own village, but it was one of the things that led to my exile. The others felt I should’ve been using my time to help them mine Anurite.” He shook his head. “Mining, when I could be learning how to harness the powers of Anura and honoring Kana instead? Easy choice, in my opinion.” He paused and lifted the amulet that hung loosely around his neck. “We need a temple, but I agree it’s strange that nothing else is available. There must be something you’re doing wrong.” Ott shot him a friendly grin, swung his bag of totems back over his shoulder, and patted Henry on the arm. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You have others in this village that will need things to do as well.”
“Really helpful, Ott. That reminds me, we need to train a couple others to gather so we can take the load off of Jinx and Zia. They're going to burn out soon. They’ve been basically gathering nonstop since we freed them from the Gnoll cultists.” Henry paused and ran his hand back along his smooth head, pressing down as if the pressure would help him come up with a solution. “Who do you think we could recruit?” Henry stood and looked out at the bustling shoreline of the lake in the center of his village.
Ott shrugged. “I am sure we will have more villagers that will be freed up to gather soon. How about the two that are sleeping in the town center?”
Henry sighed and shrugged. “Maybe? They haven’t said one word since they arrived, though. I can’t tell if they want to help, or if they want to eat me.”
Ott shot him a sly smile. “Why don’t we find out?”
2
Henry shook his head slowly. “I didn’t really expect to find two massive bear creatures sleeping in our town center when I woke after the fight with Nergal.”
Ott shrugged, leaning on his staff. “I’m sure they weren’t expecting to be the last remaining Onikuma, on the brink of extinction, either. They were forced from Mythelluna after it fell; I don’t think they had much of a choice.” Ott had made an executive decision to let them stay while Henry was still recovering. The only thing they said since they arrived were their names, although they had taken a particular interest in the construction of the smithy and jumped right in to help once Spek started it.
Arelle, the strong, brown-furred bear woman, and Peloth, the quiet, hulking bear man worked tirelessly to gather stone and form it into large bricks for the forge. Other than sleeping in the town center and spending time building, the Onikuma kept to themselves.
