Jake kicked off, launching himself like a rocket towards the elemental. In myth and books to defeat an EARTH elemental heroes would simply get it off the ground. There it was weaker, sometimes the shear act causing it to crumble away. This was a game and that had to be the solution. Nothing else was working.
The attack pattern was simple enough that even with the speed of the actual attack it was easy enough to avoid. Spinning to the side he avoided the sudden downward smash of the monster again and tackled its leg. Both arms wrapped around it in a death grip before he braced his feet to lift. Excitement flooded him as the leg started to rise despite the monster's resistance. Then he stumbled.
His arms hugging the monster's leg had suddenly lost all resistance and closed. He stumbled forward his feet kicking up dirt wildly as he tried to keep from falling face first down to the ground. In the end, he dived forward into a roll before launching back up to his feet. Glancing back he saw the elemental standing on one leg. A pool of the flesh colored putty piled where the other leg had been. Then the pool stretched up and reconnected to the waist of the monster, and the leg reformed.
Jake wanted to scream, didn't see a reason not to, and did so. "This is stupid! Even for a boss, this is too much. It has to have a weakness!"
In the distance, now on the other side of the monster, he heard a loud exclamation. "Right! Let me look for it."
With no features, it was impossible to tell if the monster was facing him or away. It didn't seem to matter. Without turning around it started towards him with heavy stomps, that one huge club for an arm winding up for another sweeping attack. Jake narrowed his eyes at that club arm. So far the only time he had managed to deal any damage to the monster was hitting that one section that was solid. The arm looked solid. The actual arm connected in the middle of the club. There was a narrow section behind the arm that grew thicker as it met the arm and then continued growing thicker beyond. It looked like the monster's arm had been cut off at the elbow and a giant stone club had been attached. If it wasn't for the fact that as it started walking towards him the previous narrow part swelled up while the thicker end shrank down he would think it was just that. But it was part of the monster. Could he hurt it by hitting that?
Jake rushed in on the monster again. With a final burst of speed, he skidded to a stop inside the monster's reach. It would still swing. He knew this because it had the last time he had tried to get inside its range. But instead of preparing to duck the swing, he dug his toes into the dirt. Planted his feet and cocked back his arm. The monster always swung in the same arc. Predicting it was painfully easy. When the club arm snapped forward he punched out. HIs oversized fist collided with the narrow portion of the arm just in front of the joint.
Pain shot up Jake'arm as a force that rattled his teeth rolled thru him. With his feet dug into the ground, he had hoped to withstand the blow. Instead, it sent him backward a score of feet. Both feet plowing the ground in two wide tracks. Blue energy flashed as his shield burst and his health bar flashed as a third of it went down. Looking down his eyes went wide behind his mask. His metallic right fist was crumbled and broken. His actual hand was far enough away from it probably wasn't broken but it hurt. A lot.
More importantly, he didn't think he could use his right fist anymore. Looking up he actually felt better, if only a bit. The Elemental's health bar had dropped another chunk. Putting them both at about the same percentage of health left. The huge stone club was badly cracked and shattered where he had struck it. To Jake's great joy there was a high pitched cracking sound, like shattering glass, and the arm fell off.
Then that little bit of joy faded. His shield was down and would take a while to recharge. If they traded blows enough times for the monster to die, Jake would already be dead several times over. Even as he watched the elemental started growing back a new club. The only silver lining was that the part that broke off remained there on the ground.
Retreat. They needed to retreat. This thing was just too much for them. It had to be a B rank or A rank boss for sure. It was slow enough that they could easily get away. Unless it had another trick up its sleeve. He just hoped the fact it had no sleeves meant it had no tricks.
He was just about to yell out to retreat when another retort rolled across the barren land. A hole poked right through the chest of the monster, right around its navel. Then another on the left side of its chest. Then a third on the right side. A fourth shortly after near the center.
"Their weakness is moving. Fast. Plus it is small. I need to get further away to increase the wound channel my rounds make. Keep it busy." Cass's voice spoke in his ear as if she was right beside him.
He jumped slightly. They had used the group chat feature before while testing it out. But they hadn't actually been apart enough to need it. Also, it was a bit odd to use. A focused thought instead of just letting his mind wander or speaking out loud took some effort and practice.
"Ok." He thought as hard as he could.
"You don't have to shout." She thought back, again her voice as if she was very close beside him.
"Sorry." he thought back at her a little less forcefully.
"Better." He could feel her smile, it was an odd sensation.
Keeping it busy would be easy. It was slow unless it was attacking. So far all of its attacks had been straightforward enough to be easy to understand.