Mountain Back Toad

On Shang clan city’s battle stage, Li Hao fields a giant toad that is larger than a mammoth, grey-skinned with moss and tiny rocks on its surface, millstone-sized eyes, and a swollen back that carries a real hill of mountain rocks about ten and a half feet high, complete with grass, weeds, and a few trees. It is the rank three Gu mountain back toad. ^{ch. 289}

Appearance

It is a giant toad, larger than a mammoth, with two eyes as large as stone mills. Its body is grey, with a huge stomach and strong limbs. There is green moss on its skin, and even some tiny rocks on the surface. Its back is extremely swollen, like it is carrying a small hill. That hill is real, made of mountain rocks about ten and a half feet high, with many layers and folds, like it is shaved by swords and axes. Grass and weed grow on the mountain rocks, and there are two or three trees. ^{ch. 289}

Form and rank

It is heavy and cumbersome. The hill on its back is made of dense mountain rocks, and once its four legs stand on the ground it is like an unmovable mountain. The text ranks it among the heaviest rank three Gu. ^{ch. 289 ch. 290} Spectators compare it to a castle that combines attack and defense, with low speed as its only clear weakness. ^{ch. 289} No cited chapter gives a Chinese name, glyph, or feed.

Effect

Its signature move is to leap up and crash down like a mountain, hard enough to shake a battle stage and knock spectators off balance. ^{ch. 289} Li Hao also rides it into a ground charge that can send a foe flying if it connects. ^{ch. 290}

Its defense is high enough that early blows from Fang Yuan’s beast-phantom strikes only make it sway, and onlookers treat it as a lofty, immovable image, ^{ch. 290} until sustained all-out attacks force it to croak, spit blood, and finally die when the hill on its back collapses. ^{ch. 291}

Position Swap Gu combination

Li Hao bought the mountain back toad at an auction house after obtaining the rare Position Swap Gu, then rebuilt his kit around that pair after leaving the strength path for a support style. ^{ch. 290} Li Hao’s true core in the match against Fang Yuan is that same pair. ^{ch. 291}

Position Swap Gu lets him trade places with the toad (or with an opponent), covering the toad’s slow movement and dropping its crash onto a target that has no time to dodge. ^{ch. 289 ch. 291} Spectators call the combination unbeatable until Fang Yuan ignores Li Hao and keeps attacking the toad, burning Li Hao’s primeval essence through repeated swaps and healing attempts. ^{ch. 289 ch. 291}

Cited chapters name no other owner.

Fate on the battle stage

Path

Stage fight recall