Smoke billowed into the sky from what was once the Gray's home. Will, Rosalie, and Cosmo could do little to stop the ten foot tall frog monster that was going on a rampage. Will had continued to talk the creature down with no luck. Cosmo had taken a few chances to attack, but each attempt ended with Cosmo being tossed back. Rosalie was trying to wrangle the other two to get them to safety, but even when she tried to get the group to run the frog monster got in their way.

  The beast let out a piercing howl, and Rosalie took this as another chance to attempt an escape. She grabbed Will and Cosmo by the hands, and attempted to lead them away again. The same as the previous attempts, the group was too slow to escape the beast behind them. When he stopped howling he saw the three trying to escape, and easily got in front of them with a single bound.

  “Tch.” Rosalie clicked her tongue as they were once again cut-off.

  Shaking his hand free from his mother's grasp Will called out to Cosmo. “I didn't want to do this, but come on Cosmo. Lightning Javelin!”

  Cosmo prepared himself, and then, from the depths of his stomach, lightning emerged from his mouth. It was the largest Lightning Javelin Cosmo had produced this far, reaching about six feet in length, and hitting the frog on his right shoulder.

  The frog barely reacted to the attack. He looked towards his shoulder that had been hit, and saw a slightly charred bit of skin with some smoke coming off of it. Then he looked back towards the source of the lightning, Cosmo. He lifted his clawed front foot and swatted Cosmo away. Blood splattered as three scratch marks appeared on Cosmo's chest.

  Cosmo was flung between Will and Rosalie, ending up on the ground behind them. Will turned his back to the frog, and ran back to check on Cosmo. Rosalie, keeping her eyes on the monster, backed up to Cosmo.

  “Cosmo, are you okay?” Will asked in a panic.

  As Cosmo started to push himself up he gave a short reply, “Okay.”

  Rosalie's head raced as she tried to think of a way to get out of this, but her mind was going blank. As she stood there, the frog began to move towards them. Its heavy steps wrang out, causing Rosalie to internally panic even more.

  Will shot up and ran in front of Rosalie. As Cosmo got to his feet Will called out to him. “Take mom and get out of here Cosmo. I'll distract him as you escape.”

  Rosalie was about to intervene when she noticed Cosmo walk up beside her. She figured he was going to grab her arm and try dragging her away, but when she looked in Cosmo's direction she didn't see any signs of running away on his face. His piercing gaze was focused right on the frog, and then without a sound, Cosmo began to change.

  There was no scream of pain, or bubbling skin. Cosmo was enveloped in a bright white light that began to morph his body. He grew to about fifteen feet tall, and remained bipedal. His teeth grew larger, and they were poking out from his lips. Black hair emerged from between the scales on his neck, giving him a lion like mane. A similar patch of black hair emerged on the tip of his long tail. Going down his spine was a column of four inch in height scales sticking up into the air, like a stegosaurus. The scales were rounded and dulled.

  With a single stride, Cosmo had moved in front of Will and awaited the oncoming frog monster. Rosalie was in awe of what she had seen and was speechless. Will however, was panicking. Cosmo had once again turned into a wild beast.

  “Cosmo! Come back to your senses!” Will cried out, attempting to talk his friend back like he had before.

  Cosmo turned back towards Will with clear lively eyes. Will too became speechless when he saw this. “Step back.” Cosmo said to Will calmly as he continued standing in wait.

  Listening to Cosmo's words Will moved back, and so did Rosalie. As they made distance from the monsters set to collide, they couldn't help but look towards Cosmo.

  “What happened to him?” Rosalie asked, “he doesn't seem anything like what you described before.”

  “I don't know what happened, but Cosmo is still Cosmo. He isn't going crazy like last time.” Will said.

  Their conversation didn't go any further than that because after Will's reply Cosmo and the frog began to clash. The frog reached Cosmo and whipped around to slam Cosmo with its tail. Cosmo easily caught the tail, gripped it tightly, and then threw the frog monster away.

  The frog landed on the ground thirty feet away, but quickly sprung to its feet again. It shot out its tongue, but Cosmo easily evaded it. Cosmo had grown used to the frog monster's attacks from the previous battle, so he was easily evading and countering the attacks he'd seen before.

  Before the frog had a chance to retract his tongue, Cosmo was on the move. He was charging the frog at full speed. The frog quickly snapped his tongue back into his mouth and attempted to leap out of the way. Cosmo barreled forward thrusting his shoulder into the frog knocking him back. Despite being pushed back, the frog managed to move away slightly, so the attack didn't do much damage.

  As the fight between the two lumbering monsters took place, Lura arrived on the scene. As she had been approaching inside her ship she began to hear the battle unfolding, and rushed in. The battlefield before her left her speechless. The home she had spent these last few days in was in disrepair. Only half the building was still standing, with the other half being reduced to a pile of rubble.

  She saw Cosmo and the frog, already enlarged and engaging in battle. Not far from them she saw Will and Rosalie watching on. Across the way she saw Respyn who locked eyes with her. The distance was too great so Lura couldn't make out Respyn's expression, but if she could she'd have seen the large grin stretching across his face.

  Lura quickly turned around and parked her ship at a safe distance. Then, with the tinfoil hat still adorning her head, she ran up to Rosalie and Will.

  “What is going on?” Lura asked in a panic.

  Will was focused on the fight between Cosmo and the frog, so he didn't even realize Lura had arrived. Rosalie was the one to fill Lura in.

  “When Will, Cosmo, and I were coming home we ran into them. Will and Cosmo had apparently hatched some plan to try and help the other creature, but it didn't work and led to the fight you're seeing.” Rosalie said, glancing in Respyn's direction, making sure he wasn't up to anything.

  “Okay, what about Cosmo? Shouldn't we be trying to calm him down again?” Lura asked, concern in her voice.

  “He's fine. I wasn't there the last time he transformed, but this time it's nothing like you described.” Rosalie answered. “Cosmo still has his sense, he even spoke to Will in this form.”

  “What? Really?” Lura said in disbelief. The last time Cosmo had transformed he had become a wild beast, so it was a confusing revelation for everyone that he hadn't lost himself. Lura turned her attention toward Cosmo to see for herself.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Cosmo and the frog's fight had devolved into a slap fight. The frog was running wild, and didn't appear to be thinking much. Cosmo on the other hand was as sharp as ever, but he couldn't do much other than guard himself or do light jabs back between the frog's attacks. The frog would make a slash with his claws and Cosmo would swat it away. The frog would spin to whip Cosmo with his tail, but Cosmo would leap over it. That had been the extent of the fight since Cosmo had grown to his current size.

  Finally, the frog lunged forward towards Cosmo trying to grab him with his clawed front feet. Cosmo stepped to the side, grabbed the frog by the large spines on his back, and used the frog's momentum to toss him down onto the ground. With the frog on the ground, Cosmo crawled atop him.

  As the frog snarled and hissed, Cosmo tried speaking with it. “Please stop,” was all Cosmo said, but the frog clearly didn't comprehend it. Whether he could understand English or not didn't appear to be the problem, from how it reacted it didn't seem to understand speech at all. Throughout this entire fight, and the attempts to get through to the monster, it had not reacted in a way to show it even understood they were attempting to communicate with it.

  Cosmo realized it, Will realized it, and even Rosalie had noticed. However none of them mentioned it, it was Lura that finally spoke up. “Will, I know you and Cosmo have good intentions, but I think that creature might already be too far gone.”

  “No! I was able to talk Cosmo back to his senses. We can do the same to this one. We can help him.” Will argued.

  “There is a big difference between the two that you haven't seemed to notice yet. Cosmo had someplace nice, and nice people, to go back to. When somebody he had been close with stepped in during the rampage I caused him to enter, he was able to be snapped back. That monster doesn't have somebody close to pull him back to reality. He doesn't know what it's like to have people that care about him and a nice home to return to like Cosmo did. He only knows pain and suffering.” Lura said, turning her attention to the Gray's destroyed home as she mentioned it.

  “That's why we need to help him. So he can get all those things.” Will said.

  “It's too late for that. Even in his smaller state he is just a vicious animal.” Lura said.

  “So what should we do then? Just kill him?” Will asked, tears forming in his eyes.

  Lura hesitated to answer, but she knew what would be the best in this situation. “That's right. Cosmo and him aren't the same as you and me, you know. Death for them isn't permanent, they just become an egg again. Then he can come back, with no memory of the suffering that has been inflicted upon him.”

  Will stared into Lura's eyes without a word. He knew she was right, but he didn't want to accept it.

  “Look out!” Rosalie cried out.

  Will and Lura turned towards Rosalie, and saw Respyn charging the group. They had gotten so into their conversation they had forgotten about him briefly. Respyn realized this was the case, and decided now was the time to make a move.

  Lura moved past Will and Lura to get between them and Respyn. This didn't bother Respyn, and he kept up his charge. He'd beaten Lura handily twice already, so he didn't have any fear of her.

  He got in close, and tried to punch Lura in the stomach. Lura quickly leapt to the side to avoid the attack, pulled her baton from her belt, and planted a swing to the back of Respyn's neck. Respyn stumbled to the ground, but only fell to one knee before leaping back up. Turning back toward Lura with a grimace on his face and his right hand rubbing the back of his neck, he stared at Lura in a daze.

  Shocked she landed a hit so easily, Lura's mind raced trying to figure out why. Seeing Respyn's confused expression she thought she realized what happened.

  “It couldn't really have been that simple, right? This was all it took to even the playing field?” Lura thought to herself.

  As Lura put the pieces together, Respyn had also figured out what had happened. He noticed the shiny metallic hat atop Lura's head, glanced over his shoulder quickly to see both Will and Rosalie also wearing them.

  “So that's what it is.” Respyn thought.

  Respyn took a more cautious stance than he had in any fight with Lura previously. Will and Rosalie moved away from the two fights they were sandwiched between. Meanwhile, Cosmo still had the frog pinned to the ground, but was slowly losing hold from the frog's struggling.

  Realizing she was finally on an even playing field with Respyn due to the silly hat Rosalie had made her, Lura charged in to attack first. She was not going in recklessly, she didn't know how good a fighter Respyn was without being able to read her attacks, but she felt she needed to make the first move to properly feel out his skills. She rushed forward, swung her baton from the side towards Respyn, but this was bait. She intended to miss the swing, but use her momentum to go into a spinning kick. This didn't go as she planned though as Respyn tried to move out of the way of the baton, but actually ended up in the path of the swing. The baton hit Respyn on the side of the head, and again he fell to one knee.

  “Hold on. Is he actually not a good fighter without being able to read his opponents attacks?” Lura thought to herself. She shook her head as if trying to forcefully get the idea out of her mind. She wasn't going to get cocky. No matter what she was thinking she wasn't going to stop treating him as a serious threat.

  Respyn stood up and took the initiative this time. He took calm steps toward Lura who awaited him in a defensive stance. He lunged forward, fist closed, and swung for Lura's jaw. To Lura he seemed slower and more easy to read than in previous fights, so she was easily able to avoid the attack.

  “Was He always this slow, but because he attacked me after I lost my footing I didn't really notice?” Despite her attempts to shake ideas like this out of her head, she couldn't help but analyze Respyn as they fought. She had been easily defeated by him twice, so this fight was throwing her for a loop.

  Respyn stumbled forward a few steps as his momentum from his failed punch pulled him forward. Lura, giving him no time to recover, swung her baton towards the back of his head.

  CRACK

  The sound of the baton meeting the back of Respyn's skull rang out through the area. Respym fell to the ground and everyone watched stunned. Lura had knocked Respyn down multiple times now, something that had seemed impossible just a few days ago. Rosalie and Will watched on in amazement. Will had seen Lura fight Respyn before, so the current one-sided fight blew him away. Rosalie had only heard of his abilities from Lura and Will, but she didn't doubt their words. For Lura to be so easily dealing with him now amazed Rosalie.

  Respyn lifted himself up, but was unable to get to his feet. He stared at the ground as blood from the back of his head trickled down his face, dripped off his nose, and formed a puddle below him.

  He staggered to his feet, and took in his surroundings. Lura didn't want to miss this chance she had, so she again charged Respyn. As he recovered he decided he was in an unwinnable situation, and turned tail to run. Lura's attack whiffed through the air as her target fled.

  Respyn had been a pirate for a long time. His mind reading abilities helped make the job easy most of the time, but that wasn't always the case. From past experience he knew that when things are looking bad, it is best to run. He had no issue running away when he needed to, and he knew this wasn't a total defeat. This was a tactical retreat. He still needed Lura's ship to get off this planet, so he intended to return. For now though, he ran as fast as he could back towards mainstream, where he had been hiding out these last few days.

  Lura tried to chase after Respyn, but he was surprisingly quick. Even if she had been able to keep up, something else would have stopped her in her tracks. The frog monster had finally broken free of Cosmo's grasp, and tossed the ten foot tall lizard to the ground not too far from Lura. She had to leap back to ensure she didn't wind up beneath Cosmo's large body.

  As the frog freed himself and pulled himself to his feet, he saw Respyn fleeing. At that moment, Respyn turned back, and they locked eyes. Without a word spoken, the frog began following Respyn. The loud sounds of the large frog's hops could be heard as him and Respyn disappeared into the distance.

  As they watched the two flee, Will, Rosalie, Cosmo, and Lura caught their breath. Cosmo shrunk back down to his usual side, and the group huddled around to talk.

  “Is everybody okay?” Rosalie asked, looking over the others for signs of injury.

  “I'm okay.”

  “Okay.”

  “I'm unharmed.”

  Will, Cosmo, and Lura answered by taking turns. An expression of relief washed over Rosalie's face at their answers.

  “Now what?” Will asked, looking directly at Lura.

  Lura was unsure what the correct course of action was here. She had word that help was coming, but there was no time frame for when they could arrive. Meanwhile, Respyn and the frog are running loose causing damage. Before she had been weary to face him, but it now seemed like it was doable. Plus, with Cosmo being able to control his transformed state, there was a chance they could take down the frog too.

  To stop Respyn and the frog she knew she would need everyone's help. However, she knew it was not her place to make that decision for them. Lura looked back towards the group of friends before her.

  “What do you all think we should do?”