The Eat'em up Beat'em up

Deep in the eastern woods of the Isle of Beginnings, wild flocks of Peco Peco roam. The curious birds pick through the shadowy old growth forests, staying in loose packs to defend against any monster spawns that may attack them.

They aren't always successful. In recent days, the flock has been quite diminished and Once the rumors got back to the Town of Beginnings, a request was posted in the Hunter's Guild for someone to stop the carnage.

The forest where the flock was last seen is prenaturally quiet for this time of the morning. Though morning streams through the trees, it lands on loose tufts of feathers scattered about the clearing. The ground is torn up by clawed feet and the signs of panic.

There is no sound of bird or beast.

Nureha stands in the midst of the forest clearing, crouched down with a Peco Peco feather in her hand, examining it carefully.

    Having checked by the Hunters Guild, Wynfei heard about this situation and decided he would go see what he can find out. His Profession of Tracker would help in this, he took the job and left quickly going to one of the main areas where the Peko Peko's tend to be at.

    He looks around around for a long moment, moving slowly and crouching as he does so. Taking the time to analyze the tracks, he too finds a feather and also foot prints of someone else. He follows them and smiles when he sees who it is. "Hello Nureha." he says in a low voice and crouches beside the fox woman, "Anything of interest?" he asks. He lifts his head up, his slightly pointed ears twitch slightly. "Hmm...need to see where these tracks go."

"Morning." she says, still looking at the feather.

The tracks are pretty torn up and muddled by time and panic, but Wynfei can get a general sense of what happened here. The flock confronted the creature here, in this clearing and then broke into two smaller groups heading north and further east respectively. The creature, whatever it is, is delineated by much larger tracks with big wedge like divots in the ground. It stands on two feet, but those feet are massive compared to the other tracks. It's not immediately clear which flock the creature followed.

Nureha straightens, putting the feather into her inventory. "Thought I might take a walk and found this rather frightful scene on the way. Can you make anything of it?"

    Standing up with Nureha, "Well we should focus on the Predator and it should lead us towards the Peko, even if the tracks aren't the greatest, still something for us to follow for now and get a general knowledge of it." he says as he crouches back down and anaylyze the two foot predator. "What do you think?"

The tracks are damaged, but from what you can make out, there are long swipes in the clearing where something scraped or dug at the ground. A failed attack, perhaps. The weight distribution is low, so it's big but also very squat in nature.

Nureha nods. "From the description, I do not believe this to be a common occurance. We should be on the look out for a Named creature. Possibly even... no. I doubt those spawn outside the Tower in this region." She gestures to the broken terrain to the north and west, where the forest underbrush has been broken and trampled. "Which direction, do you think we should start with? North goes deeper into the woods and east drives towards the coastal cliffs."

    Looking at the claw marks and the damaged done to the area, he nods his head in agreement. "I think we should go where the smallest group of Peko Peko went, that would be east." he says to her. "Thinking about this, it would go after the easiest prey first, then go after the larger group if it's hunter isn't sated." Wynfei says as he looks to Nureha. Standing back up to his full height he stretches, "We should hurry though, we don't know how much of a headstart it has over us right now."

Nureha thinks about this for a moment, then nods in agreement.

They make their way towards the east, towards the coastal cliffs. The smell of the ocean drifts through the thinning trees. The broken underbrush and signs of movement continue to light their path until they reach a rocky outcropping where the tracks peter out against the terrain. It's not hard to follow their quarry without them, however, is there is still the occasional tuft of Peko Peko feathers and rough scratches along the stone.

Finally, a roar announces the location of their hunt target. The trees groan, underbrush snapping as it tumbles out of the trees farther to the northwest in pursuit of two Peko Peko desperate to get away.

It's big. A small hill of meat and shifting reptilian plates of armor. Two gangling, gigantic clawed hands smash together, knocking the birds down just by the force of the wind. It squats on malformed feet, no body to speak of that it's gigantic mouth doesn't take up, beady yellow eyes sunk deep in ridges of bones.

A tag over it's head reads 'PekoPeko Eater'

    The travel here was long but honestly this is one of the many things that Wynfei loved about this world and Japan, as well. Still the game world filled him with more desire to be here. Still as he continues to follow the tracks, it's not long until they find what they are looking for. He sends a party invite to Nureha, "There it is. I don't I've ever encountered one of thise before." eh says to her as he does an Inspeection on it. "Though we need to move quickly before it kills those Peko Peko. How shoudl we handle this?" he asks.

Nureha narrows her eyes at the creature in the distance. A magical glyph design appears briefly over her face, surrounding a stylized eye. When it passes, her eyes still glow faintly purple for several seconds. "The armor over it's shoulders and back is pretty thick. I'd suggest going for a spot under the arms. I'll blind it and slow it down while you advance."

The Peko Peko Eater lets out another roar, charging towards it's prey with a single minded focus.

    Wynfei nods his head and he channels Fierceness of Earth and Lightningstep as he flickers towards the Peko Peko, "Alright." he says to Nureha before he takes off. There is a slight crater where he launches himself from. His stride is long and energy seems to crackle about him as he moves under the PekoPeko Eater. "Knock, knock!" he calls to the monster as he throws an uppercut right under it's arm. "Shoryuken!!!" he calls as he slams his fist right in teh spot Nureha suggested.

Fighting games. Where the collison of hurtbox and hitbox and headspace align.

The Peko Peko isn't very smart and so something coming into it's beady eyesight while it's focused on dinner isn't immediately recognized. A wave of dark energy ripples across the clearing, making it's limbs slow and heavy as if moving through syrup rather than air. The rough fingernails of one hand graze the Peko Peko it was lunging for, but the wild bird ducks under the giant hand and skitters away in a fluttering ball of wings and feathers.

The second turns around, hissing gamely as it bites straight down into the webbing between one massive thumb and it's hand. This, combined with the dark wave, slow it long enough that Wynfei's blazing stride reaches the monster before it is able to react. His fist digs into the soft purplish flesh of the monster, thunder rumbling from his passage as the force knocks the Peko-Peko up off it's giant stunted feet, knocking it over onto it's back.

Stubby legs flail and kick while a blotch of red consumes the underside of one arm, causing it to lay limp while the other arm flails madly. With Wynfei in range of the wild tantrum if he wasn't careful!

    Wynfei focuses Evasive Maneuvers with Flashstep allowing for far faster mobility. Not faster then Lightningstep, but fast enough to dodge which he does. A grin shows on his face as he gathers some distance from his opponent. "Alright, let's go!" he laughs as he bounces around on the balls of his feet, his tail dancing around as he moves within striking distance and throwing another Hammer Strike, this strike hits the same location as the last.

Wynfei speeds across the battlefield which is a good idea since the P.P.E has rolled back onto it's feet and has determined that perhaps it wants to sample the taste of adventurer. It roars fiercely before charging towards Wynfei, giant hands extended to grasp and crush the life, or at least the tail, of their flighty interruption to their meal.

The brave Peko Peko barrels forwards, clawing and kicking dust into the monster's face as Wynfei approaches. Another solid hit is denied though as the wild flailing of the P.P.E as dust gets in it's eyes prevents an easy shot.

Still, the Hammer strike resounds like a gong against the armored plates, that arm going completely dead but the other one still coming around for another crushing pass. Meanwhile, vines begin to grow from the terrain, snake like flowers fighting into the massive creature and sapping it's strength while Nureha stays well out of range.

    Wynfei's whole body vibrates as he hit the armor and even his teeth chatters. His tail goes rigid as he is stunned for a moment and he sees the status effect in his periphirial. "Shiiiiiiiiiit!" he says through clenched teeth. He stumbles backwards, he always hated that damn feeling and this is why.

    He does watches as the Peko tries to help him and he gives an encouraging nod of his head. As the P.P.E. is about to strike him he sees it's slowed. "Thanks Nureha, your fucking clutch!" he calls out to her as the stun runs down and he is able to move again. Wynfei quickly jumps back and grins a little, "Let's see if you like burning." he says as he stands to his side and holds out his hand palm out towards the PPE, he grings, "Blast!" he calls out as he fires, 'Firebolt.' at the PPE.

The P.P.E flails at Wynfei who bounces back out of range before it get a grip. It roars drunkenly, staggering forwards a step as the momentum of the wild swing with it's remaining good arm takes it almost in a comical circle. The Wild Peko Peko backs off, bolting for the treeline as a searing line of fire streaks towards the monster, smacking it straight in the face.

Nureha fires an arcane bolt at the same place, it's eyes and grotesque face covered in red damage marks. "It's getting pretty low. Finish it off!" she calls out to him as the P.P.E, steam rising from it's skin, starts slamming the ground wildly with it's remaining arm.

Every SLAM causes a shockwave to ripple out from the contact, throwing plants, rocks and other debris into the air with each slam.

    "Will try!!" Wynfei says as he stumbles about as the ground quakes, he sees the Peko run off and he smiles a little and focuses himself on the P.P.E. The ground is shaking a lot all due to the PPE. Seeing that the fire did have some effect on it but still he knew that he had to finish it off.

    Wynfei trips and falls as he gets within range and he is hit hard and before he can be hit again an Arcane bolt strikes the PPE. Getting to his feet Wynfei charges in towards the PPE, he pulls back his fist but instead of throwing a punch, he leaps into the air and spins throwing a tornado kick slamming his foot into the creatures side under it's arm where the weak spot. He uses Fierce Blow!

Tornado Kick!

It seems to be enough. The rampaging Peko Peko eater is downed by the focus fire, the foot shoving it hard enough that it tumbles over the rocky terrain. It begins to pull itself up by one damaged arm, then slumps in defeat, shattering into particles of light with a sound of breaking glass.

Nureha brushes off her robe and finally approaches the torn up battlefield. "Very well executed, my dear. I believe the Hunter's guild will be well pleased. And so will any merchants in the future who will need transport."

    Looking at his health, yeah it's low but it will replenish in time. He sighs a little bit and he turns and looks to Nureha, "Whatever, girl you were bad ass out there." he laughs. "It's nice being teamed up with someone who knows what their doing and when to ue what you have." he smiles. "I will let the guild know this creature has been dealt with, but we should keep a look out for more. If there is one there may be more." he says as he looks to Nureha.

Nureha smiles at the complement. "The feeling is mutual, believe me." she inclines her head towards him. She purses her lips, doing some examination of the area. "I'm not familiar with the NEW rules, but Named Monsters tended not to roam in racks. Even if we were to talk about it as if this were a real ecosystem, a predator like that would consume too much. If there were several, the area probably would have been completely drained. Anothing thing to think about should this creep up again."

She peers into the wilderness, crouching down and fetching some berries from her inventory. "Seems like we still have company. I'm going to see if I can get their attention."

Although the rest of the flock has vanished, the two Peko Peko are lingering JUST at the edges, including the one that fought back. They look very nervous.

    Wynfei shakes his arms and legs for a moment getting the feeling back into his right fist, it's still a little numb from hitting the armor. "Good. We should team up again sometime." he offers. As Nureha begins telling him about Named Creatures, he to nods his head, "Yeah I think you're right, but with the changes, we will need to adapt and get to know the land and ecosystem a bit better so that whatever information we have is up to date."

    Following Nureha's gaze, he walks over to where she is and he crouches near where she is, "You want ot capture teh two Peko?" he asks her.

Nureha speaks softly in a low, melodic tone of words that don't make any sense. It must be an Enchanter Hymn.

They curiously advance, sniffing at the offering of berries but not approaching any closer. Nureha puts them on the ground where they quickly snap them up. She repeats this, stepping back a few steps. Depositing berries.

On Nom nom.

Step stewp.

Om. Nom, nom.

Eventually the Peko Peko is out in the open. The System message says <Bonded - Loyalty 1> after she is done. "I think you are trouble." she chuckles faintly. "That's what I will name you."

"And thank you. I think we should work together in the future."