Jake's dad had woken him up. His father had an odd look on his face as if he was straining. "Jake, a girl is on the phone for you?" Jake looked at the clock and saw it was barely nine in the morning. His dad looked like he was getting ready for bed. Working the night shift had them rarely seeing one another anymore.
Jake dragged himself out of bed and took the phone from his dad. Who gave him of all things a thumbs up before leaving. "Hello?"
"Did you just get up?" Cassandra sounded far too awake for so early on a Sunday. Jake had never been a morning person but lately, he felt exhausted when he logged off the game. It was getting better but he still slept like a rock.
"No." He lied.
Jake could hear her roll her eyes and make that superior look she used in class. "Then do you want to log in now?"
"Geez, I didn't know you were such a hard core gamer." He stifled a yawn.
There was a long pause. "The game is ok sure. But." She stopped talking for a bit. "Never mind just call me when you are ready to log in then."
"Huh? I don't have your number. How did you even get mine?" He heard her roll her eyes again.
"The student directory. Our home numbers are in there."
"Just give me like twenty minutes and I'll log in." Jake was mostly awake now.
"Ok." Her tone had changed and he didn't know what type of tone it was.
Before he could say anymore she suddenly said bye and hung up.
"Girls." He mumbled to himself.
Twenty minutes later he logged in to find Cass standing there waiting.
She was Cass again, not Cassandra. Her snobby rigid confidence was gone. She smiled at him and gave a small wave as he left the log out room. All week she had been better but still Cassandra at school. They hadn't gone out of their way to avoid each other but hadn't gotten together either. She did stop going out of her way to pick fights with him at least. Seeing each other at school was just plain odd. It was like neither of them knew how to act.
The game made everything different. They weren't Jake and Cassandra they were Merc and Cass. A Power Claw and Heavy Sniper. It may not seem like a big difference but both of them felt oddly more free as the latter than the former. No social concerns. They weren't classmates but party members in a game. Jake still had trouble processing why it felt so different. Why he felt shy or worried that the others in school might find out about them. He didn't know what they were, but he had to admit it. When he saw her just now. His stomach had been filled with a strange fluttering sensation for a moment.
Jake suggested they look for others to join up with. It would be easier with more people and others with more experience could show them around. Plus, he felt too self conscious being alone with her suddenly. Cass didn't say much at first but then proposed they just explore a little first. He didn't know why but she never took her eyes off his boots the entire time she suggested it. Stopping to check his boots they didn't seem any different.
Together they just picked a random direction and headed out. Jake wasn't all that worried. Beyond the little settlement of Hub 4A there stretched a barren wasteland of dry red dirt. Small twisted shrubbery grew here and there. In the far distance, the horizon was broken with what looked like hills or other terrain features but they were much farther than they planned to go.
There had been a number of transport options. Vehicles existed. Everything from flying carpets or brooms to hoverbikes or more conventual vehicles. All of them were priced in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of credits. It would be a long, long time before they farmed up that kind of cash.
While exploring they didn't see any monsters. Nothing moved other than small dirt devils born of the occasional hot breeze. They didn't seem to be anything other than dirt carried on the sudden wind. Eventually, Jake pointed to a large rock the size of a boxcar.
"We can take a break in the shade of that rock. Maybe use it to get a better view of the area. Then let's head back to the Hub town if we don't find anything. We should have asked where we could find monsters before leaving." He took out his water sphere and gulped down several cool mouthfuls before passing it to Cass. It reminded him of Ella so he quickly reached over. "Sorry." He wiped the mouthpiece off. Cass gave him a confused look then one of understanding and looked away while drinking.
They had just stepped into the shade of the rock and felt their faces relax in relief. It was hotter than they expected. Jake was about to sit down when movement caught his attention.
His fingerless gloves barely reformed into his huge armored gauntlets in time to intercept the blow. A stone pillar the size of a tree shot out of the rock as if it was spring loaded. His upgraded boots had changed when his gloves did. The military boots had melted into liquid metal that coated his legs from the tip of his toes to mid calf. They hardened and seemed to merge with his pants. Each toe was individually coated and ended in claws. Jake found it odd and yet at the same time rather natural.
They dug into the ground leaving two shallow troughs gouged in the dirt as he skidded back. Using his armored forearms to absorb the impact had lessened the damage. Some of his shield was depleted though and his arms vibrated from the blow. Worse, despite his shield not breaking his health had ticked down a little. Just a small bit, but that had never happened before. Cass, hugging her rifle, was already running away from the rock. A rock that was currently standing up.
It rose up like a deflated doll being inflated into a towering humanoid shape. Turning from red stone to an almost fleshy pink. It had only one arm, the tree sized club that had launched out to hit Jake before. Its huge legs looked comically thin in the thighs while at the bottom it looked like rolls of clay formed huge bellbottoms. One of those odd legs rose up and dropped down with enough force to shake the ground.
It had no features. Just a misshapen mass for a head. A second step forward shook the ground again. "Well, at least it is slow. Let me try and get its attention and you shot it." Cass had moved past him and was already dropping prone.
Jake darted in, his boots gave him an explosive burst of speed but it lasted only a split second. It was great for closing gaps and dodging but couldn't be used for prolonged running. The huge monster cocked back its arm. It looked like it was going to make a sweeping attack but was so telegraphed Jake wasn't worried. He would just duck under it.
The attack came just as expected. A sweeping blow from right to left. Only it was all wrong. The upper part of the arm didn't move. The long club-like section had just rotated to the right forming a ninety degree angle with the upper part of the arm. Almost half the length of the club stuck out behind it. The arm was more a T shape than anything. It was like bending the arm at the elbow. Only instead of swinging the whole arm, the club snapped forward. Again, it reminded Jake of pulling back a spring loaded lever and letting it go instead of swinging an arm.
It was fast, much much faster than he expected it to be. Diving forward he felt the wind from the blow sweep past the back of his neck as he landed hard on the ground. Rolling on instinct he barely missed being crushed by that giant foot as it snapped forward, again the movements were oddly stiff and rigid. Yet somehow very fast, each movement almost explosive in nature. The result was that they were much faster than the behemoth had let on being capable of. Now on his back, he watched as a bullet ripped through the chest. Its chest parted like water, the hole punching through with enough force some of it stretched out behind. Only for it all to pull back in and seal up. There was no blood, no cries of pain, and most terrifyingly, no health bar.
Jake kick flipped to his feet as the monster's arm winded up again. This time obviously to swing forward coming from high to low in order to smash him. Another bullet ripped through the head of the monster in a similar manner. A comet trail of the pink putty material of its body trailed with the blow before pulling back to seal the hole. Not waiting for the next attack Jake kicked off the ground hard to dodge out of the line of the next attack. It left him directly in front of the monster as the arm crashed down beside him with enough force that it felt like an earthquake beneath his feet.
With all his might he smashed his oversized fist right into the crotch area of the towering monster. Jake was basely eye level with its waist and was just glad it was as anatomically correct as a Ken doll. His blow had a similar effect to Cass's bullets. Jake had expected it to feel like punching water but it did feel like he hit something solid as a rock. The shockwave from his fist's impact sent the putty-like flesh shooting out the back of the monster while making a hole bigger than Jake's head. He saw it start to pull back in. Again there was no health bar.
[Earth Elemental added to beasteary]
Cass fired off a sudden salvo of three rounds so fast he only heard one retort. Her rifle was normally bolt action. She had gotten better at using it. She had always known how to work the rifle, how to aim, manipulate and use it. But it was stiff like she was just going through the motions. Unlike Jake, she had started with a class skill. [Heavy Rifle Proficiency]
Somehow it let her know the basics of using her class weapon. But after a week of playing she had gotten really good at it. Still, no normal amount of skill could allow her to fire off that many rounds so fast. Jake assumed it was her new skill from the Dread Spitter boss.
The thing's body erupted backwards as the three bullets punched through it. Just like with the Dread Spitter she was too close and the rounds passed through so fast they seemed to do far less damage than normal. That was another weakness of her class and probably the biggest balancing act to her insane damage output at long range. Up close she did less damage and was vulnerable since she had to get prone to fire.
"Reloading!" That last attack had emptied her magazine. Worse, the putty body of the monster had already returned to normal.
Jake struggled to keep his footing as another massive foot slammed down with enough force to send out a shockwave and a dust cloud. Right after he had to drop into a crouch to avoid the sideswipe of the elemental's one massive arm.
There was a short wind up period between attacks and Jake took the opening. Lunging forward he launched into another straight jab. Putting his forward momentum and full body weight into it. A smaller pillar shot out of the monster's body directly towards Jake's fist intercepting it. They clashed with bone jarring force.
Jake took both shield and health damage while the pillar shattered from the impact. Jake gritted his teeth, he felt that impact all the way up to his shoulder. But he noticed the shattered fragments of the pillar didn't suck back in. The stump of the pillar pulled in as Jake skidded back. But the bits that fell away stayed gone.
Finally, a health bar appeared. But as far as Jake could tell it was still full. Before Jake could say anything Cass shot right into the same spot the pillar had just disappeared into. Again the bullet ripped through the body like it was putty. The comet trail of fleshy mud sucked right back in. The health bar didn't move.
"I thought that would work. You hurt it." Jake heard Cass call out and glanced back to see her getting up to run further away. She needed at least two hundred yards to not suffer a penalty to damage.
"Think Jake. Think. What kind of weaknesses do earth elementals have in books?" He muttered to himself before his eyes lit up.