Jasper rubbed his temples as he looked at the last three group members. They were looking through their packets a little more. Oliver, Hitch, and Cory stood before him. Jasper closed his eyes and put on the leader mask. "Are you guys interested in working together?" Jasper asked.
Cory tucked his packet back into his bag and patted it. "I am. Normally, it's just me and Hitch working together, and the others do their own thing." He said. He seemed to have a generally better attitude about things.
Hitch crumpled up the packet and shoved it in his bag. "I'm ready, but can I say that I have no idea what's going on in that packet?" He said.
"That's fine, you don't need to know," Jasper reassured before turning to Oliver. His glasses sat on top of his nose as he neatly folded the packet into a side pocket. His dark eyes locked with Jasper's.
"Things may be different with you around. I'm calculating whether working with you will be more beneficial than if I worked alone." He explained.
Jasper watched him. "Are you calculating that right now?"
"Don't interrupt me." Oliver twitched. Jasper made a kissy face as he watched Oliver's internal thinking machine.
Seconds passed before Oliver spoke again. "I'll work with you." He said.
Jasper vaulted over a fallen log and entered a stony terrain. Large boulders covered the floor, making moving forward a constant game of looking downward. The rocky landscape stretched as far as he could see. There were small hills and cave formations dotted all over the space. A couple of groups were on it, carefully tiptoeing forward.
As Jasper walked forward, a group of spirits attacked a group in the distance. "So what's the plan exactly?" Hitch said aloud.
Jasper turned to the group behind him. "Since Nicholas is going to get fire and air cores, we can get earth and water cores for easy elements. While we're getting the earth and water spirit cores, we'll keep an eye out for any other main element zones and save them for once we're satisfied with earth and water. I also read some rules about challenging other groups to duels over loot. I think that'll be a big source of income." Jasper explained.
Hitch jumped. "What!? Normally, we're the ones getting the shit beaten out of us in a duel. The chances we win against any other group are less than half." He said.
Jasper shook his head. "It was that way before. With me in the duels, I think we'll be able to deal with 95 percent of the first years. But I think I have a plan that'll bear fruit. But for now, we get cores and tame spirits. What's everyone's affinity?" He asked.
"Air." Hitch said.
"Water." Cory stated.
Oliver summoned a spirit and began walking forward. "I have an earth affinity. My spirit is itching to sniff out the spirits hiding in this earthen zone. We should start working with a sense of urgency." He declared as he began hopping from rock to rock.
Jasper followed behind. "I agree." The group was soon jumping across rocks toward a twisted mountain of boulders. Oliver's spirit pranced along in front of him. It seemed alert, its nose twitched every other second as it sniffed the ground.
As they were progressing, it stopped and caught a scent. Jasper got a good look at the spirit and had to admit, it was unique-looking. While a lot of spirits look like animals, there's a lot more that look like things that haven't even been thought of before.
Oliver's spirit was a canine-like, spotted four-legged animal. Its face was sleek and was a cross between a frog and an otter. It had the facial structure of an otter, but had the round eyeballs and bulbous features that a frog has. Its mouth was wide and leaked a little bit of goo. Its skin was a dull grey or brown, depending on the lighting.
It ran across the rocks before putting its face into one of the cracks between boulders. It smashed its front paws down on the boulder, causing a section of earth to shoot up into the air. As Jasper watched this, he predicted Oliver's spirit to be either Dense or Steady with spirit energy. It seemed like a good spirit so far.
On the piece of earth, a large cricket scrambled into the air. It jumped and flew a few feet away before screeching loudly. Around the group, other similar cricket-like spirits rose from cracks in the stones around them. As Jasper spun, he counted. 8 Pygmy spirits, all the same species. His teeth showed as the battle began.
Hitch yelped as their enemies strengthened in numbers. "This many spirits will bring other teams!" He shouted over the beating of the cricket's wings. Jasper drew his spear and readied his shield. His necrotic caterpillar appeared on his shoulder, ready to go.
The blood spirit would be something he'd pull out later. He glanced at his groupmates to see how they were planning to act. All three of them had drawn their weapons and summoned at least one spirit. Hitch had two spirits summoned, one on each side. He carried nun chucks and had a small shield on his hip with a dagger.
He seemed exceptionally nervous. Cory held a standard sword and shield and had a watery bird spirit floating above his shoulder. His face seemed determined and ready. Finally, Jasper looked Oliver over.
This whole time, Jasper's been wondering what Oliver was like in combat. Did his methodical thought process crumble when faced with real pressure? Oliver's eyes were locked onto one of the crickets. His earth spirit was already engaging with the original cricket.
Each cricket was about the size of a full paper towel roll. As Jasper looked at the one Oliver was watching, he predicted they were Sparse or Thorough energy density. This was about as weak as spirits got and would be relatively simple for their group. Their goal should be to secure all the cores of the spirits while being careful not to get injured.
Taking too long may allow others to duel them for the loot. A dark metal staff sat in Oliver's hands. "I want to tame this larger cricket. I will tame one of these crickets." He proclaimed loudly before rushing in after his spirit.
Suddenly, chaos fell onto the group. Everyone's spirits were everywhere, and the crickets felt like they were everywhere too. "Don't kill any crickets yet! Let Oliver try and tame it first!" Jasper shouted as he rushed into the fray.
He wanted to take care of two at once. His spear swung in the air, catching one of the crickets. It pinged off the ground and was back, jumping at Jasper with incredible speed. His caterpillar had similar jumping ability and intercepted the earthen bug midair.
Despite the caterpillar being a stronger density level, its jump could only match the cricket. The two spirits went rolling to the side as another cricket jumped at Jasper. Jasper's spear smashed it to the side. It screeched with noise, causing small stones to appear and shoot towards Jasper. Jasper ducked and ran to avoid the volley of stones.
He kicked his foot into the boulder he stood on and sent a chunk of it flying at the grasshopper. It screeched and forced the boulder to pause in the air. The chunk of stone was sent flying back at Jasper. He leaped to a different section of rock, avoiding his own attack, and immediately leaped onto the grasshopper.
He looked like he was using the environment to his advantage. His shield deflected some stones and allowed his spear to smash into the grasshopper. A few of its legs were damaged now, and its body tilted heavily toward one side.
Having a moment to look around, Jasper watched his spirit be pelted by small stones, but land a bite on the other grasshopper. It's already landed two bites on the spirit, and its necrotic energy was beginning to spread. It flashed forward, tackling the caterpillar to the ground and wrestling it.
Jasper felt comfortable letting his caterpillar battle the grasshopper alone. Since Jasper was comfortably winning against his grasshopper, he looked to the rest of the group. Cory and his spirit fought two grasshoppers with incredible coordination.
Cory's movements and attacks were sloppy, skillless swings, but he had decent situational awareness. His spirit was pulling a lot of the weight of doing the actual damage. During their exchange, Cory failed to keep track of the odd landscape and stuck his leg into a crack between the rocks.
He fell in and scraped a couple of parts of his body against the boulders. He grunted in pain. "Help!" He shouted as one of the grasshoppers sent a volley of small rocks at his immobilized upper half.