I fused a lot of shit in my free time. A lot of things weren't that special or worked all that well in most situations or in other words, I made a lot of niche situational items. A lizardman was the equivalent of a mid-level 2 and even then people typically fought in parties past Riviria due to the way the dungeon worked all the harder to kill you via monster parties and traps.
And an aberrant? That basically added a half-level's worth of stats if not a full level to a monster's danger level. Hence why I under no circumstances wanted to fight that aberrant in melee range as she and the other two would shred me apart without much issue.
So with the monster danger level in mind, I took out my oversized crossbow that needed both me and Tina who was boosted with her blood fury spear skill to actually pull the string back into position. Allow me to nock a small javelin with an explosive tip on its head.
"Range?" I asked Tina softly and she hummed and told me it was about five hundred feet and I focused on the little sight my fusion had made for the heavy cross bow and once the three got to a decent place I loudly whistled making the lizardmen whip around and look for us but we were hiding on the edge of the quarry.
But as they stood like a deer in headlights looking for the source of the shrill whistle I pulled the trigger and a loud crack rang out as the string shot forward sending the javelin zooming out of the crossbow and even with my enhanced senses I couldn't even see the blur of the javelin as it zipped downwards.
A split moment, at that moment the oversized arrow traversed the distance and I could hear the mental 'oh shit' as the aberrant lizardman reflexively blocked the javelin with her metal-looking wooden shield that lizardmen could make with their racial talent.
But even blocking the fast-flying arrow was a danger as with a flash of blinding light the explosive tip of the disposable arrow went off with a mighty booming noise. That rumbled in my chest like a large firework going off in the distance and as the smoke cleared I saw that the other two lizardmen were seemingly dead as they were lying on the sides.
While the aberrant was staggering on their feet with only their enhanced constitution keeping them alive as blood gushed from their form due to the explosion ripping off chunks of flesh.
The lizardman seemingly recognizing the direction the arrow had come from, looked directly at Tina and I. And even with the distance between us, I could hear its roar of fury as it began limply running towards us. "Tina you front line, I will take the flank," I said with a frown as I took out my Rivers of Blood katana with the knowledge that I wanted to kill this monster as soon as possible.
Tina looked between me and the loping monster that had crossed a good hundred feet already and was clearly getting used to its wounds as its stride increased in speed. And Tina asked frankly. "You don't want to tame the aberrant? It's a surface-born monster, it doesn't have the dungeon connection making the taming a dozen times more difficult you know?"
I looked back down at the Lizardman, and she was right, the lizardman in the brief moments I could catch sight of her eyes had brown eyes instead of the glowing red eye sockets that all dungeon-born monsters had which was an indication of them being both dungeon born and under the control of the dungeon directly.
Which also meant... With her being a surface monster, she was literally only half as strong as a dungeon monster due to her not having a monster stone!
"We can try!" I said taking a breath as the lizardman clawed their way up the stone quarry's walls with her sword and clawed hand going through the hard stone like it was a hot knife through butter.
And within a couple more moments the lizardman vaulted over the edge of the quarry and only a hiss of fury fell upon Tina who stepped forward and swiped at the draconic-looking lizardwoman with her spear.
Long clanking noises as armored clawed hands met the blade of the spear, and harsh clacking noises rang out as Tina used the long shaft of her spear to block the swipes of the lizardman's oversized saber she tried to chop the pallum apart with.
While Tina kept the aberrant busy I had taken out a metal wire net that Tsubaki had me make with my fusion ability if I wanted to catch more monsters as all tamers used various methods to cripple or make the monsters as vulnerable as possible before they began beating them silly to tame them.
"Tina get out of the way!" I said as I spun like a discus thrower and just like back in my old life when I would go net fishing, as soon as Tina ducked down with her spear not pointing in the air I threw open the heavy metal net that was lined with hooks to bite into the monsters flesh so they couldn't pull it off.
A metallic clatter rang out as the netting fell onto the lizardman who couldn't move out of the way of the large sheet of hooks in time and the moment its hands attempted to rip the net off... Even I grimaced at the scream of agony it made as the hooks I fused into the net bit deeply into its flesh as it attempted to rip the net off.
'It's a monster, not a person or even a Xeno... Just do what you gotta do Jake." I told myself to shut out the screams as I carefully ducked under its staggering form and with a wet crack I smashed my kanabo right on the lizardman's knees obviously breaking it. As the lizardman fell down with a whimper as the hooks got pushed further into her flesh.
"Alright Jake, now just start being its head in, to tame it," Tina said cheerfully as she took a breath to calm down after using her Blood Fury Spear skill to match the lizardman's strength and speed in the short engagement.