But just playing distraction and bait had always been something that annoyed him. He felt like a buffon whenever he was forced to act that way. So while it closed in he looked it over again. If the weakness was really in the chest he was in a bad spot. It was fully twice his height. His head was level with its crotch.
His blows like Cass's shots could punch holes in the monster but they closed up shortly after. It wasn't like he could knock it down. Then his eyebrow went up. Or could he? When he had hugged the one leg it had separated completely. It took a short while for it to reform. Sure it had remained stable on just one leg. But if it had no legs... Now he was eyeing the legs. Particularly the area where they narrowed greatly before attaching to the waist. His punches had knocked a good chunk out of the monster before.
Glancing past the monster he could see Cass running, her oversized rifle swaying as she did. She wasn't particularly slow. But she wasn't very fast either. They needed to get her more speed mutagen. He had time to try a few things. Rushing in he avoided the next attack and went to bear hug the leg. At the last moment, he was forced to spin away almost falling over to avoid a solid pillar shooting out towards his face. He had forgotten about that ability.
He continued his stumble and turned it into a dodge then rushed back towards the leg again. His left arm shot forward and smashed into the expected counter. More of his health whittled away but the smaller pillar shattered. If it was like before he had a little time before the elemental could replace it.
Another dodge, close enough this time he was certain it had scraped along the back of his armor. But he was unhurt and hardly had time to think on it. Jake just hoped his pants were still dry, he felt like he almost let a few drops out in fear. Diving in he wrapped his arms around the leg and again it disconnected when he started to lift. Ready for it this time he didn't stumble and instead spun around and chopped out with his entire left arm. His forearm smashed into the narrow part of the leg and almost managed to push right thru. Growling in frustration he smashed his ruined right fist into the middle of his forearm and pushed it the rest of the way thru. Pain shot up his arm again and more of his health trickled away. But none of that mattered. As soon as his arm separated the leg it fell apart into a pile of the putty like clay. The entire towering monster crashed down to the ground.
Jake had to dig his toes into the ground to keep his balance and was glad his upgraded boots worked the way they did. It had been weird at first walking around in what felt like footie socks. But he found it gave him much greater stability and balance. Now he looked the monster in the face. Its featureless head wasn't all that different from Jake's smooth mask. In a frenzy, he started smashing all over its chest with his left fist. Each blow knocked a melon sized hole in the chest.
"What did you do?" Cass spoke from just beside him.
"Where is the weak spot?" He didn't have time to explain. It was already starting to rise up slowly as the pile of putty beneath it started reforming the legs. His one handed barrage faltered for a moment as he hopped over the club as it snapped sideways across the ground as if to trip him.
"It's moving all over the chest. Sometimes it goes in a circle other times it shoots all over. There is no pattern I can discern. I'll try to let you know where it was." After that it devolved into her breathless voice, which was odd since it was her thinking and shouldn't require any breathing, crying out stuff like. "Left nipple. Center. Belly Button. Right um lower below no now its."
It was useless. Whatever the weakness was it was moving too fast for her words to keep up with. Jake kept punching all over the chest area. Even resorting to using his damaged right arm regardless of the health drain it caused. It was still getting taller and so far it was useless.
In an act of desperation, he jumped back instead of just hoping to avoid the next club sweep. Jake crouched down and then launched his entire body with all the force he could muster right into the chest of the monster. He crossed his arms over his head to shield it and smashed right into it. Soft putty-like clay collapsed down on him. It felt like the thing was trying to smother him. Then it fell away, it had just been the sheer weight of the dense material collapsing on him as the monster fell apart.
Struggling free of the mess he shook the putty off himself. It was a bit tacky but not really sticky. It was still rolling away like a melting candle when he whooped excitedly.
"Something is wrong. I still see a health bar and it hasn't changed." Cass spoke in his ear again. Jake looked around and spotted the health bar nearby. Looking below he saw a blob of the putty stuff moving. More of the melted clay stretching towards it. 'Crap. I didn't kill it I just knocked its core away?'
Already it was the size of a watermelon and more little streams were stretching from the big puddle back to it. Jumping over Jake punched down with all the strength his left arm could produce. The putty-like flesh parted before the force of his blow and he felt something solid connect with his fist. It was carried down and smashed into the hard ground. The health bar depleted putting it down below half but wasn't done yet.
Worse the clay he had punched through now closed in on his fist with a strength that made it feel like had just put his arm in an industrial press. With a scream of pain, he wrenched his arm free. Dirt flew up as the anchors the monster had dug into the ground were yet too shallow to hold him. In a rapid flurry, he smashed his left fist into the ground repeatedly. Something finally broke beneath his fist and the putty-like clay both around his arm and currently crawling up his legs as he crouched on all four, turned to dirt. Fine dry dirt that crumbled away