Ruby winked her hazel eye and swam as hard as she could to the sea floor. Searching through the mass of discarded bones and frog-garbage, Ruby managed to find a usable trident and darted inside one of the holes. Everything that Nerice described about the yout of their homes was completely accurate. Pockets of air held most of their foodstuff and had dry air from the surface blowing lightly to dry and preserved what they’d caught. Dangling beside their dried fish and baskets of oysters, Ruby spotted the hundreds of bck and white pearls affixed on their makeshift rope in strands of ten. Quickly jerking the pearls off the ceiling, it was a loud and ear-piercing croak from a female frog that got Ruby’s attention. Watching the mother hop to a corner where her tadpoles were, she crouched down to protect the younglings. Initially contempting just taking the pearls and dried food, Ruby kept her hazel eye affixed to the rumbling croak of the mother. While she didn’t think much about the loud cautionary sound, Ruby soon found out that it served a secondary purpose in that it summoned others to the location, much like people above would ring a bell to get the attention of others. When another dy-frog came into view, Ruby fake thrust the trident at the newcomer then with a quick sidestep to avoid the incoming attack from the first frog flipped her dagger up in time so that the frog impaled itself on the magical blood-craving bde. Ruby drove the knife down as far as it could go, spilling the mother's entrails all over the rock floor. Squatting behind the body of the dead frog, Ruby first heard the frog start its terror sound just before it leapt in front of the tadpole pool. “Shut-up.” Ruby commented and jumped from her hiding spot and kicked as hard as she could into what she thought was the frog’s knee. Smashing its face on the rocky flooring, the frog knocked itself out. A hearty and swift downward jam of the trident ended any possibility that the dy frog would recover. Pulling the three-pronged spear from the frog's back with a sickening tear of its skin, Ruby shook off the blood and looked at the pool of tadpoles.

  {“Nerice, what should I do about these tadpoles? I have about a dozen in this mineral pool that are frantic. Do they have any function that I can get from them? I doubt they would remember anything that happened with the others.”}

  While Ruby waited for an answer from Nerice, She searched the bodies and recovered a couple more bone daggers and strands of pearls. “Nice.” Ruby looked around the room and yanked down the crunchy seaweed and did the best she could to make a basket, to no avail. “Dried shit. There has got to be something I can use to carry all this out.”

  {“Tadpoles have a poison sack that they can use for protection. I’ve found it stronger than that of the Portuguese man o’war. That sack hangs off their belly and ejects a cloud like we do our pheromones, it dissolves away as they grow up and can protect themselves. Gather it if you like, they won’t be harmed since that pool is acting like the mother and keeping them safe…The best thing is that once the sac is emptied, there is a pink pearl in it. I think that is the initial source of the poison that hardens, but I am not super sure.”}

  {“Nerice, do we need the poison? Will it hurt that kraken out there?}

  {“Love, it is up to you. I mean we can try the poison somehow…but we would need a mountain of it for that beast. Do you have time to gather all the sacs? I suspect that there are still a few more of the frogpeople you will need to terminate. Personally, I would kill everything down there and let the tadpoles fend for themselves. It is really up to you. I have a few sharks coming in and cleaning up the mess. Maybe we can avoid being wanted this time.”}

  It took the pair no less than three hours to clear out all of the living frogs and extract the poison from the tadpoles. While making her dashing darts to kill the frogs that approached her, Ruby managed to find a few tight nets in which she could hold her bounty in. One by one Ruby kicked the frogs into the shark-infested water where it turned a bright red while the carcasses were devoured.

  {“Have you gotten all of the kyanite you need, Nerice?”}

  During her exploration of the colonies' different pces, she found what she’d consider a small armory and a wall of small spearguns. By testing the few spearguns she’d found, Ruby guessed that since the tips had broken the rock walls, that they could be useful against the kraken.

  {“Yes, Tanya. I am just using their table to turn it into drinks for myself. It shouldn’t take very long. How many of the frog people are left? Because the fun part of this is that the student mages are broken and torn apart like that kraken did it. I can’t seem to find the teacher…the mage.”}

  Ruby listened to her dymate and loaded a few spearguns and slung a whale leather quiver over her body and jumped back into the water, heading out of one pink illuminated hole-way. Blocking her way, a small set of three frogmen had their knives in their bulbous lips and threw their tridents hoping to hit their target. All three of the spears slowed down in the resistance of the water and Ruby carefully swam between them and aimed one speargun and then fired. A thick and wide dart with crossed fins at the end, made the arrow spin like a propeller and gave it the range with power to outright kill one of the defenders when it pierced its chest. Seeing their companion felled with a single shot, the st two split up and used their powerful legs to thrust themselves at different angles to try and stab Ruby wherever they could.

  Initially getting her gun reloaded, Ruby quickly fired as she thrust herself backwards and the arrow spun harmlessly between her two opponents. Devoid of a trident, Ruby slid her trusted gleaming blood dagger from its sheath and felt its warmth pulsing in her hand as though it somehow knew it would soon be tasting blood. One frog came in from above Ruby’s position while the other kicked and hurdled itself towards her from the side.

  Convinced that he would hit his target squarely on her side, the frogman began swishing its dagger back and forth like a wicked saw. It was a spin and a set of loose hair floating in the water that told the amphibian that his attack had failed and the feeling of dread set in. No sooner did the frog bring his legs up to kick, than it felt the stinging heat of Ruby’s bde and subsequent removal of its leg as it fell into the depths. Blood cascaded from the open wound and the sharks that were circling the area to protect the twin mermaids attacked with a frenzy and sent bits of flesh and bone into the water.