Rexus ~ Chapter 22!

“Whoa, there! Bad lefty! Down!” Jaxon forcefully pulled his hand away from his face as it snapped at him, saliva splashing on his cheek. He looked over at Jess as he ran out of mana and his hands returned to their normal state. “Whew! My goodness, I haven’t had to tame my hands since I went through puberty!”

“Disgusting.” Jess sniffed at him. “So… what the heck just happened?”

“I ran out of mana to sustain the T-Rex head hands.” Jaxon was squeezing his hands into fists, trying to feel exactly what had changed with the skill usage.

“Not what I meant.” Jess was staring at his hands as if she expected them to lunge at her. In other words, no different than usual. “Also, don’t call them that! They have a skill name.”

“Should I give them names, do you think? I called this guy ‘Lefty’ out of habit, but as a T-Rex head, should it be something different?” Jaxon was staring with rapt fascination at his hands. 

“Your normal fists have names?” Jess shook herself, trying to focus on the situation. Jaxon’s strangeness seemed to be infecting her. “I meant: what was that? Was that the class skill you got?”

“Yes! Now I need to practice with them and train them. I should really only do that when I have some enemies around. Best way to train something is to have a way to reward it, after all.” Jaxon turned on his heel and started walking over to the edge of the plateau the temple was on.

“You’re going to feed your hands?” Jess muttered indignantly, following after him a moment after he dropped off the edge of the cliff. She watched as Jaxon slid down the slope like a snowboarder, somehow maintaining his balance on the steep drop. She shook her head and started carefully making her way down. “If I try that I am going to fall and break something.”

Jaxon reached the midpoint of his descent and hopped in the air to shift his momentum a bit. The slope was changing from about seventy degrees to a forty-five-degree angle, so his speed also reduced drastically. His excitement had consequences; his worn-out boots chose this moment to lose their last point of durability and vanished into motes of light with a sound like shattering glass. Jaxon’s swift reflexes allowed him to catch his balance, but he was now barefoot on a rocky hill, moving at a fairly high speed. “Ow, oof, ah!”

He started to take terrain damage, the rough movement tearing up his feet. Flashes of tiny numbers leaving his health filled his vision, and when he finally got to a flat area, he sat down and gripped his soles as hard as he could and hissed in pain, “Ssss-ahhhh!”

Jess slowly made her way down, taking long enough to arrive that Jaxon’s health was nearly full. She looked at his position and the blood around his feet, then reached down and pulled a small rock out of his heel. She held up the blood-soaked object and waved it at him. “You can’t get to full health with something like this stuck in you. Come on, that's basic.”

“I would have gotten around to it.” Jaxon looked at his health bar, noting that it had fifteen health greyed out. Drat, unless he got magical healing, a health potion, or some kind of advanced first-aid, his health was capped at four-fifteen. There must have been a bunch of debris or something in his feet as they healed. “Worst possible time for my boots to give out.”

“Weren’t you crushing small creatures recently by stomping on them? I feel like that would have been worse,” Jess retorted with a small, happy smile.

Jaxon was enraptured by the expression and found himself speaking before he could stop himself. “My goodness, you look far less severe and annoying when you smile! It almost makes me forget that you almost murdered me recently.”

The first real smile he had seen from her vanished like fog in the noontime sun, and she turned and stalked away from him immediately. Jaxon stood up and reached for her, but she ducked out of his weak grasp. He locked eyes with her. “Jess, I really mean that.”

“You are such an–”

Ah-whooo! The still air was shaken by the throaty howls of the monkeys in the forest. It seemed the humans had been spotted, and the predators in this jungle were hungry. Jaxon turned toward the forest and allowed a malicious smile to spread across his lips. “I guess I should get a warm-up in before bringing out Lefty and Terror. Then I can bring them out and show them what happens when you try and attack me. I might even give them a treat if they show the proper respect.”

“I can’t get over the fact that you are planning to feed your hands.” Jess gave up on being mad at Jaxon for now, instead turning to face the loudest of the sounds coming toward them. There was a couple hundred feet of grassy plains surrounding the base of the plateau before the forest began, and though the primates coming toward them were being loud currently, it was unlikely that they would just charge straight at them without even attempting a stealth attack. 

Sure enough, the howling from the closest group faded away to nothing even as the grass at the edge of the forest started rustling. Jess was easily able to track the progress the animals made, but Jaxon began griping in frustration. “Is the wind moving that section of grass, or is it the stupid monkeys? Are they already behind me?”

Jess grabbed his arm as he started to turn around. “Jaxon, I think one of their skills might be to make you look away from them as they get close so that they take you from behind.”

Jaxon’s eyes widened in horror. “They can do that?”

“What? Of course they can stab you in the back.” Jess shook her head at Jaxon’s oddly relieved expression. “I need you to listen to me. I don’t have a weapon, so it’ll be really hard for me to fight these things. You can’t see them right away, but if we work together, I’ll be able to let you know where they are and you can fight them off. That sound like a plan?”

“Sounds lovely.” Jaxon settled into a fighting stance, then glanced at Jess. “Am… am I facing the right way now?”

“Yup, you’re good.” Jess stood behind and to the left of him, carefully watching the grass around them. She knew the creatures were close, and she needed to be ready for them. Her eyes caught a faint motion as one of the beasts turned its head too quickly, and she calmly let Jaxon know. “Ahead, just a few feet and to your right. I’m pretty sure that one is the closest to you, and I think it knows it’s been seen.”

Her warning was spot on, as the Trial Primate chose that moment to act. It exploded out of the grass, which should have been far too short to hide this large creature. Jaxon knew it was coming and was even able to dodge most of the swiping claws, but he overestimated his abilities. He had become used to moving and dodging at the last second, but his body was unable to keep up with the strain he put on it with his lowered skill levels. Four lines of blood were drawn on his cheek, passing just under his lips and missing his neck by a hair’s length.

Jaxon turned his doge into an attack of his own, grinding two stiffened fingers into the beast’s windpipe and cracking cartilage. 

Critical hit! Damage increased by 220% (Acupressure bonus) -66 health!

Jaxon grunted in annoyance as the damage indicator blocked his view—why had it suddenly become an annoyance? Did his preferences get changed? He growled at the notification as he swung his other hand forward. “I can’t stand the sight of you. You’re so annoying!”

Jess choked just as she was calling out the next attacker, “O-one on your left! Also, fine! When this is over, we’ll just go our separate ways! Why are you like this?”

“No idea what you mean, Jess.” Jaxon punched out, hitting the primate in the thick part of its skull and damaging his hand. “Gah! This is so much easier when I have some protection for my hands!”

Jess used the bonuses granted to her by her new armor to dodge and weave through the expanding troop of monkeys, taking light damage but unable to deal any herself. “Jaxon! Drop and roll left!”

Jaxon dropped as soon as he heard her but rolled to the right before her words were complete. He got stepped on but was able to avoid the surefire critical that would have torn open his back. He had the wind knocked out of him, and it took a hard shift to open his airway. Eight monkeys had charged into battle with them, and without weapons, the humans were starting to have a tough time holding them off. Jaxon started to land crippling or disabling blows, intent on making it difficult to be overrun by sheer numbers.

In a few moments, his efforts started to bear fruit, and the primates began to slow. Whether it was because the creatures were attacking slower thanks to twisted limbs or simply moving on legs with severe and sudden cramps, the tide began to turn against them. Jaxon knocked one over and sharply punched it in the jaw four times before rolling backward and activating Adjust. The mandible he had targeted shifted and broke, causing serious pain and disorientation. While the beast flailed on the ground, Jaxon landed a heavy blow to its neck, cutting off air and blood flow. 

“Jaw-dropping action! One down, seven to go.” Jaxon bent his knees, bobbed in place, then splayed his hands and wiggled them tauntingly at the remaining troop. His non-official skills in inciting violence were near mythical by themselves, which was proven as the remaining opponents rushed at him while howling furiously. Jaxon twisted to the left as the first strike came down, jumped over an attempted tackle, and weaved between a pincer tactic. He took every available opportunity to lash out with an attack of his own, landing a few critical hits over the course of a few seconds. 

This wasn’t enough to take any of the beasts down, and they began to rotate away from him if they took too heavy of a blow. He couldn’t pursue them without opening himself up to all sorts of attacks of opportunity, and they seemed to know it. “Jump!”

Jaxon heard Jess speak and took to the air as soon as her words registered. Two primates crossed in the air under him, having attempted to bring him to the ground with flying tackles from either side. As Jaxon was coming back to the ground, he felt something click in his mind and realized that his newest skill had just finished cooling down. He settled on the ground and found himself in a swiftly closing ring of bodies.

“I’m surrounded!” Jaxon exclaimed with false horror before allowing his true feelings to shine through. “Attacking in any direction it is! Living Weapons!”

“Craw?”

“Nyah!”

Jaxon’s hands blurred and were replaced by T-Rex heads. They made some interesting sounds, perhaps inquisitive or interested vocalizations. The primates, either not realizing the danger or disregarding it, continued their attack. Jaxon lashed out with his arm the same way he would with a straight punch, not having any control of his hands other than to direct them. The jaws of his hand opened and tore into the monkey’s face, and as Jaxon pulled back his hand, a good chunk of its cheek came with it.

Another fist flew out, and Lefty latched onto one of the beast’s clavicle. Jaxon tried to pull his hand back, but the feral T-Rex head refused to let go of its prey. Clawed paws tore long strips of Jaxon’s sides open, and he growled in fury. 

Intimidation success!

Lefty let go of the monkey and turned toward Jaxon with a low *hiss*. Jaxon glared back at it, even while swinging Terror into range of an unprotected throat. The long, sharp, sturdy teeth tore through the soft flesh with ease. The monkey dropped to the ground with a wet gurgle, and Terror swallowed the chunk of meat it had taken.

Mana restored: 38.

“Behind you, Jaxon!” Jess hadn’t been idle, taking any opportunity to distract or attack the creatures who were focused heavily on the Monk.

“What! If they eat during combat they last longer?” Jaxon turned and drove Lefty into the stomach of the primate charging from behind. He crouched and pushed, lifting and throwing the creature over himself while his left head-hand tore through its entrails.

Mana restored: 54.

“That’s a full second’s worth of mana!” Jaxon laughed as gore rained down on him, looking like a psychotic murderer for all purposes. He pushed up and off the ground, jumping and using his superior weight to take one of the monkeys to the grass. Instead of punching repeatedly, he simply pressed his hands into the monkey and let his hands grab mouthfuls of fresh meat. Then he yanked back, allowing them to tear the meat off and swallow it.

Jaxon was having too much fun to realize how many blows he was taking, but the damage was beginning to add up. A paw slapped against the back of his head, tearing furrows in the skin and nearly cracking his skull. If his bones hadn’t been more flexible than normal, that may have even given him a serious injury. He rolled forward over the now-still monkey and sprang back into battle. His hands gripped onto a pair of furry shoulders, the teeth digging deeply into the animal’s body. Through the adrenaline, Jaxon noticed that the T-Rex heads had found a good spot, and he wanted to try his other abilities in tandem with the Living Weapons. “Adjust!”

Wherever the teeth were grazing a joint, there was a sickening *pop*. A wall of damage notifications appeared in front of Jaxon, and his prey shuddered and stilled. He made sure to tear out a small feast for his hands as he turned to engage the others and was able to finish off the few undamaged creatures in only a few seconds. Holding down the final monkey, Jaxon moved his hands like pistons, allowing them to eat their fill. 

When they seemed to want no more, he turned them toward himself and smiled at them. “We are going to have you sample the flesh of thousands of beasts! We will restore the T-Rex as the apex predator in this world! Ah… at least T-Rex heads!”

“Craw!”

“Nyah!

After a few seconds of inactivity, his hands returned to being just hands, and Jaxon sighed contentedly. There was a wall of blinking notifications waiting for him, so he started with the most recent, filtering out the combat damage logs.

Experience gained: 200 (25 * Trial Primate x8).

As this is the first time you have made a kill with your Living Weapons, new information has been unlocked! You can choose to devote the experience from the kills to either leveling up Living Weapons, devote it to your specialization to increase your class level, or allow the experience to flow to your character level. These options can be changed at any time but must be done before combat. Where would you like the experience to go for now?

“To the weapons,” Jaxon responded to the prompt as soon as he finished reading the text.

Experience division set!

Your Living Weapons’ disposition has shifted from ‘Feral’ to ‘Wild’. They are now 10% less likely to attack you if they come in range! Levels of disposition are: Feral, Wild, Confused, Timid, Placid, Poorly Trained, Trained, Obedient, Fully Tamed. There are many ways to move through dispositions; try to find what works best for your creatures!

Skill increase: Adjust (Expert VI)

Skill increase: Body Compression (Novice III)

Skill increase: Contortionist’s Dodge (Student 0) Congratulations! You have regained the Student Rank for a skill you sacrificed! Title gained: Power’s Cost.

Skill increase: Jump (Apprentice I)

Skill increase: Living Weapon (Novice II)

Title gained: Power’s Cost: You have given up skill levels, not to combine them but to gain something greater. Now, through dedicated effort, you have regained the lost ranking! +1 to each stat except Karmic Luck!

Assassin Class unlocked! Would you like to replace your current class with ‘Assassin’? Yes / No.

“No.” There was only one remaining, so Jaxon finally looked at the notification that had been blinking at him since he first got his T-Rex Head Hands.

Quest complete: Finding a specialization! You have listened to your heart and followed the true path of a Monk. Optional requirement of gaining a class and specializing without joining a party technically completed: Reward: New skill.

Passive skill gained: Battle Meditation (Novice I). You are not designed to sit still to clear your mind. Your mind is focused and true to itself only when doing things. Effect: Skills costing Mana or Stamina cost .5n% less after you have been in combat for at least five seconds, where ‘n’ equals skill level.