Rexus ~ Chapter 12 :D

Unable to protect himself by having a tree situated behind him, Jaxon was taken to the ground as a monkey jumped silently at his back. Since he had been focused on the ones attacking from his front, and Jess hadn’t been able to call out a warning, Jaxon was now on the ground being savagely torn into by various-sized animals. Jess was having her own troubles, being unarmed and under attack by the most agile of the monkeys. They were the only ones who could keep up with her movements, and none of them would have been able to land a blow on Jaxon if he were able to see where they were coming from before they landed on him.

Jaxin was losing health rapidly, his constitution fairly low for a front-line fighter of his level, but he had finally been able to secure solid positioning for himself. He pushed himself to the side, knocking over several monkeys and escaping the claws of the others. Jaxon had torn skin that was waving as he moved, each motion releasing blood. As he whirled around to dodge another leaping monkey, he struck out and buried his stiffened fingers into it’s yielding flesh. 

“Yes, the bone is right there, as it should be!” Jaxon slammed his hands into the animal as it landed on the ground, as much to damage it as to feel out it’s joint structure. “The bones are elongated, but otherwise similar enough to begin.”

The needles in his gloves penetrated the joint deeply on his third attack, slicing open cartilage and severely reducing the monkey’s usage of that limb. Then he needed to move again as the others came to the rescue of the screaming simian. Jaxon bent his head backward as claws lashed out in an attempt to tear out his eyes. Using the momentum to his advantage, he grabbed and tossed the offender over him and into a tree. There was a crashing of wood, and the animal was reduced to a paste as a massive wooden limb smashed down repeatedly.

“I like that quite a lot!” Jaxon laughed as he shifted away from his typical strategy. instead of working on each patient individually and giving them the proper care and assistance they needed, he worked to disable one and fend off the others until he could throw one at a tree. When the fourth monkey was destroyed by the environment, the other six retreated, screaming and howling. Once again the sound was repeated by their fellow predators, and much closer this time. “Jess, we need to leave! Jess?”

Jaxon looked around with deep disappointment. Ah well, if she hadn’t been able to survive until this point, perhaps it was for the best that she… Jess stepped out of the underbrush, breathing heavily. she had several shallow cuts on her, nothing like Jaxons somewhat grevious wounds. 

Experience gained: 100 (25 * Trial Primate x4)

Health: 312/400 Status ailment: Bleeding (Heavy) -10 hp per minute until wound has been closed.

“You doing alright there, Jess?” Jaxon was holding a couple of the deepest gashes together, and used one of his acupuncture needles to artificially staple the flaps of skin together. After he had done this to the worst offenders, he saw that his ailment had been reduced to ‘bleeding (moderate-heavy)’ and he was now only losing seven health per minute.

“I’m fine, Jaxon.” Jess brushed a few leaves off her shirt and took a deep breath. “If we can’t sleep here, let’s log off and meet up again in the morning, alright? I don’t think it’d be smart to continue on in the dark.”

“Fair enough.” Jaxon opened his screen, tapping the logout button.

Warning! Logging off while in this area will return you to the most recent position outside of the trial area. Are you sure you’d like to continue? Yes / No.

“It seems that is not a valid plan.” Jaxon looked over at Jess as the howling began to increase in pitch and volume. “I think that we should instead attempt to run for it. Can you lead the way without getting us in trouble?”

“No promises on the trouble, but I have the map and compass permanently set in my vision, so I can at least guide us.” Jess turned and started walking. Jaxon was glad to hear her words, he had planned to go a different direction entirely! It seemed that she was indeed a positive investment toward his future success. “There are monkeys following us, but they are staying back for now. I think they will only attack when enough of them arrive to cause us serious issues. When enough are killed they back off. Now, I can’t ensure that is the truth, but it is what I have seen in combat to this point.”

“Ah, do you have plans to be a battlemaster or tactician?” Jaxon asked approvingly. “That was an excellent assessment of our current predicament, and highlighted points I had not thought of. If you would like a recommendation to my guild when we leave here, I would be happy to do that for you.”

Jess looked back at him briefly, giving him the faintest of smiles. “Thanks Jaxon, that might be nice. I doubt I would want into your guild, but what one is it?”

“The Wanderer’s Guild.” Jaxons words made Jess miss her footing and trip over an exposed root. Luckily the tree did not seem to take offense to this, and no branches came whipping at them. “I too did not think there would be great benefit from joining, but was pleasantly surprised at the swift jumps in level and access to decent gear. I’d recommend thinking on it if you are interested at all.”

“You are in one of the Noble Guilds?” Jess went quiet for a moment, focusing on pushing through the underbrush and staying ahead of the other roving bands of monkeys that she was certain were out there. So far the ones trailing them hadn’t made any threatening moves, but they would let out a deep bellow every once in a while to alert the others to their location. “I can honestly say that I am glad I met you now. I would love to get into that guild if it is at all possible.”

“All I can do is make the request.” Jaxon shrugged expansively, an interesting sight on a man in hopping over blackberry bushes. “We need to finish this first, though. My bleeding debuff has vanished, but I have lost a significant amount of health. What do you suggest we do from here?”

“We should keep moving until daylight, and hope that we can lose our pursuers.” Jess stated frankly. 

“Are you sure?” Jaxon looked at her, barely able to make out her outline in the darkness. “Alright, I guess! Stand and fight it is!”

“Wait, no, what?” She had already taken another dozen strides, but Jaxon’s sudden stop and whirl had also caught their followers off guard. He was already amongst their troop, and had dislocated all four limbs of one of them and started in on the second. The first was wailing on the ground unable to do more than flop around in agony as his tormentor beat down the others.

Only four creatures had been following them, the others too damaged or already dead to do so. Jaxon reduced that number to one, and it ran off into the forest howling. He would have given chase, but decided that it was more important to finish off the others first. 

Experience gained: 75 (25 * Trial Primate x3)

Looking down at the elongated claws on the primates, Jaxon had a sudden idea. He poked the wrist over and over, finally activating adjust and watching the monkey paw pop off the hairy arm. He picked it up, inspected it, then took another paw before handing them both to Jess.

Item gained: Trial Primate Paw (Trash). While not useful in a traditional sense, this paw can be used in lieu of small blades or slashing weapons. Adds +10 slashing damage on hit, with a 20% chance to cause bleeding on a critical hit.

“What are these for?” Jess inspected the blood-dripping paws with disgust.

“Those are your new weapons!” Jaxon patted her on the arm, leaving behind a bloody handprint. she flinched away as the wet warmth registered. “You don’t have anything better, so we gotta make due. We should get going before others find us.”

Jess gingerly held the makeshift weapons, trying to find a good way to use them without getting covered in gore. “I hate this so much.”

“Come on, Jess. we need to get moving.” Jaxon smiled at her disconcertingly. “Stop monkeying around.”

“I’ll cut you.”