Jake thought she would take him after the Whip Tails. When he mentioned them she stopped to give him a surprised look. "You killed one of them? I tried once but they just knock my arrows out of the air with their tails."
"I got four of them." Jake corrected.
Ella looked him up and down like seeing him for the first time. "I think your class needs to be nerfed."
"Nerfed?" Jake asked confused.
"You know like with the nerf bat… oh my god what kind of gamer are you that you don't know nerfed. No wait never mind you are the kind that would name his character his real name." She snickered at him.
"Gah, what is wrong with using my real name?" She gave him a look as if it was obvious. "Fine. What name should I use?" They had started walking again only to stop. She looked at him again with such a serious expression he felt nervous.
"Hmm." her eyes settled on his gloves. "Your gloves kinda act like Quicksilver. That's not a horrible name. A bit super hero-e. Plus it is too long. A good game name should be short, four letters is best. The last thing you want is people to have to TRY and remember your name. Every had to type out something stupid like Hell prince lord of darkness and death? When it is all one word… misspelled… with stupid numbers instead of some of the letters. How are you supposed to remember that? Then you miss the raid because some emo kid wanted to have a stupidly long name." She seemed to grow more upset as she talked.
"That is an… oddly specific complaint." Jake stated not knowing what else to say.
"Er yeah. Hmm, actually Mercury might not be bad. That is another name for Quicksilver. Hmm, Merc. Four letters. Good meaning. Easy to remember. Alright. Your new name is Merc." She nodded confidently and waved her hands like she was bestowing something upon him.
"Uh." Jake wasn't sure how he felt about that.
"Alright Merc let us go get you some strength monster essences!" Ella took off again and called over her shoulder when he didn't follow right again. "Come on Merc. Did you hear me Merc? Merc?"
Jake mumbled to himself as he followed after the smirking girl.
**********
"Their butts are bright red, funny right?" Ella was giggling quietly as she pointed out the monsters. They looked like baboons. Complete with bright red butts all right. The rest of their body was covered in off white looking spikes. They were so tightly packed they formed a solid covering over every other inch of their body. It kinda looked like the outside of a pineapple. Spiky growths meshed together. They weren't solidly connected because they could still move around easily but it would work like armor.
"Bone Armored Red Butted Baboons." Ella continued. "They have strength and dexterity monster essences." Jake gave her a look that said
"Oh, now I get it." She just grinned back.
"They aren't all that fast. Their range is about the same as mine." She saw his questioning look. "They throw rocks. Or poop. But mostly rocks." She giggled. "I can kite them since they are slow and we have the same range but that bone stuff deflects most of my arrows so it is a real pain. Mostly I have to shoot them in the butt." She giggled again.
"But you just do your thing where you catch the rocks… or poop..." She didn't giggle but looked like she wanted to. "that they throw and then I can shoot them in the butt." Jake rolled his eyes at her when she giggled again. "Butt." She said. Followed by more giggles was her response.
Jake was jogging towards the most secluded of the baboon monsters. There was no point in sneaking up since he was supposed to be the bait and distraction again. Scooping up a rock he winded up and hurled it once in range. It smacked into the shoulder of their target and bounced off seeming to do nothing. Well, not nothing. The monster turned and howled at him before starting a looping gait towards him. It scooped up a rock and hurled it.
Jake had been prepared but still barely managed to catch the rock. The impact knocked his hand back some but he managed to hold onto it. His shield even depleted slightly from catching the rock. Jake slowed in shock and then scrambled to drop the first rock as a second came sailing in on him. No longer jogging but just walking Jake focused on catching each of the rocks sailing at him while letting the enemy close in on him. An arrow launched in to bounce off the creature's head. It ignored it.
"Get it to show me its butt!" Jake couldn't hear her giggle after she shouted. But he was certain she was based on the inflection in her tone. Shaking his head he did start to strafe as he continued catching rocks. Once he got the monster turned around it let out a shriek. The monster whipped around letting Jake see the arrow sticking out of one of the red butt cheeks. Jake swore he heard a laugh in the distance. For the moment not having to worry about rocks he dug the toes of his new boots in and kicked off. Shooting forward faster than he expected he closed in on the angry baboon as it started to wind up for another throw, this time at Ella. His oversized fist smashed right into the back of its head.
Ella's arrows deflected and bounced off so Jake wasn't sure how he would fair. But just like with the hard shelled beetles his fist smashed into the armored head like a sledge hammer. It staggered forward off balanced with a hooping howl of pain. Jake then shoulder slammed into it sending the already off balance monster sprawling face down on the hard packed red dirt. Dropping down to let both knees crash into the small of the flailing baboon's back he started wailing on the back of its head. Oversized armored fist crashed rapidly into the back of its head in a flurry of blows that left him panting and the creature very very dead. Its head flattened while oozing out blood and brains.
[Bone Armored Red Butted Baboons added to beasteary]
Jake was shocked Ella had given him the correct name and took a moment to examine the monster. The bone spikes could be moved and separated giving it full flexibility as he had suspected. When they were close together it almost seemed like a solid object tho.
"Geez. Brooooken. Why don't you just solo everything." Ella huffed as she came up. "Change of plan then. I'll get their attention and drag it past you. Then you just got all psycho on them and clobber them."
Jake was still processing her words when she turned, drew back her bow in a swift movement, and fired. There was an angry howl just as she flashed him a smile before running away from him. Jake glared at her before having to turn his attention towards not one but two of the angry baboons charging toward them. "Stupid girl!"
**********
Ella's new plan actually worked far better than Jake had expected. The baboons were very single minded once angered. Ella made sure to hit them with another arrow just as they got close to Jake to keep their attention on her. Normally they were too busy trying to charge forward while throwing rocks as fast as they could snatch them up. When they were close enough for him to pounce he hit them hard and fast. He found out the hard way that he didn't want to give them a chance to fight back.
They were strong, stronger than him and in a grapple, they held the advantage. A single backhanded swing had knocked out nearly half his shield and sent him skidding back. He somehow managed to stay on his feet even as his boots skidded across the hard packed dirt. Tackling or shoulder slamming them only worked half the time unless he got them off balance first.
The best method he found was simply doubling up his fist and swinging from low to high. The first one he tried it on was charging right by. Instead of leaping on it, he jumped out right into its path. Hands already doubled up and then swung with all his might. Twisting his entire body to put everything into it. To Ella, it looked like Jake was miming a golf swing. The blow lifted the monster up and sent it falling backwards to land on its back. Hands still doubled up he jumped on it and brought them down right on its face. Bone armor covering its face shattered but the monster was still alive. But only until his fists came down a second time.
Ella also used her snare ability when it was available just as the enemies got close. It made an opening and allowed Jake to wade in full force. Working together it was surprisingly easy to kill the monsters. They hit hard sure, but once you knew what to do it was simple. Jake had to admit doing it solo would have been much harder and a lot slower.
"We should take a break. I am starving. We played through dinner last night and when I got out I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse." Jake said while watching Ella fish out the core and mutagen from their latest kill. She hadn't complained about doing it and Jake had let her since he didn't really want to end up covered in gore. He did make sure to stay out of her hugging reach while she was so dirty.
"Booo. We can just eat some of my rations. You won't be hungry when you log off." She flashed him a grin. "Great dieting trick."
Jake raised both eyebrows in shock. "That works?"
"Yep." She said while wiping her bloody hands off on her shorts. "We pretty much cleared out all these monsters anyways so now is a good time for a break. We can split the loot while we are at it."
Sixty three D ranked cores. Sixty Three Mutagen. They had lucked out on one each time. Ella pointed out they were normally where the monster's liver or heart would have been. She was pretty sure the different colors were always from the same spot. Jake had focused mostly on smashing their heads in. Which meant normally the mutagens were always intact. The cores were found where their solar plexus was. Splitting things up was really easy this time. They had an even split of the Strength and Dexterity mutagen. With the odd one being dexterity. Ella diplomatically proposed he could have the odd core and she the monster essence.
Jake agreed.
Their meal turned out to be a waffle style hard bread that tasted like honey. They were the size of a small pancake but after eating one he felt stuffed. Not uncomfortably but the nagging hunger was gone. She also had a water skin that looked straight out of some fantasy movie with a slightly sweet tasting water in it. Jake took a long drink from it realizing just how thirsty he had gotten. He was pretty sure he drank more than the water skin should have had but it never seemed to get lighter either. He was going to ask about it when handing it back but got interrupted when Ella made a big deal about an indirect kiss before taking her drink.
"Stupid Girl." Jake muttered while she laughed at his bright red face.