"Get down!" Remey mmed her fist on top of a grotesque monster. "These stupidva eels are getting on my nerves!" Her anger was a little too much for Onyx to handle so he had stepped back.


    "Remey, they are just youngva eels. They aren''t smart enough to avoid us even when we beat them back like this. You should use your defense breaking palm to break them in one hit." With the small encouragement from Onyx, Remey deemed it worthy not to hold back.


    The crack of Remey''s palm hitting the four small eels that had slithered from a nearbyva pool echoed off the dark rocks. The pair had been moving toward theva pools with a few of the herbs they had in mind just out of reach.


    The attacks seemed to make their dent in the youngva eels. They were either beaten with one solid strike or fled in fear. The two eels left behind were imed by Remey who pulled them out of the smallva pool to cool, she would dly drag them back to make Walker store them away or sell to the tamer''s outpost.


    "Where are those bushes now?" Rmeey saw that there were some burnt light bushes near the pool but they had all been stripped of leaves.


    "They arepletely cleaned up over here too. What would eat them like this?" This was a loss for Onyx since he wasn''t sure what ate these leaves.


    "Probably eaten by ember finches. They are little light and fire elemental birds that can eat ten to twenty leaves a day. That''s one of the reasons that the burnt light bushes are so rare." Remey found it even more annoying that she had just dealt with theva eels.


    "We can try the next pool over there. But it looks like there are some more monsters around." Onyx could make out the moving shapes of something near the next pool.


    "Onyx, you have great eyesight. Those are perfect ingredients!" Remey was instantly happier than she was a moment ago. She pushed herself toward the nextva pool. Just as they approached, Onyx began to make out the shapes he saw moving.


    "Crabs? Made of rocks?" The reason that Remey was so excited to see them was a loss to Onyx. so far he had not been needed in battles or to find things.


    "Onyx, they are a great find. Those are a type of golem. Yes, they look like crabs. It''s weird, but they are great for alchemy. Because they live in very hot ces and are formed frompressed magma rocks, they have a lot of trapped earth mana." Now Onyx was seeing why they might be important.


    "We need to break their shells and toss their cores in to theva pools. They will form new bodies eventually. But the rocks are ideal for a high earth affinity potion. It''s not what we needed but perfect! I''m d you saw it." This made onyx feel much more useful. "Use your tail to break a few and disorient them. I don''t want them running back in to theva pool."


    Without any further waiting, Onyx erged himself and mmed his tail down on the group of seven small rock golem crabs. The back stone they were made of shattered under the sudden force. The crabs were tough against pressure but not from sudden striking force. The shards broke off and fell everywhere.


    "See those little diamond shaped things? Those are the cores. Knock them in theva. These things won''t attack anyone anyways. Some alchemists wille just to hunt for them if they need them for a potion material. But most people just use the shards of stone for arrows or spear heads." Remey knew that the material would be somewhat of use for Gil. However, she also knew that he was after better arrow materials. Just because these were good alchemy materials did not mean that they were the best arrow materials.


    "You will want to stop that." Onyx stopped Remey from smashing the next crab golem. The single reason sat before him. Just waiting for the two to notice.


    "But the crabs'' movement scares away the ember finch!" Remey started to pluck the burnt light leaves as quickly as possible. She wanted to bring as many back as possible. "The best part is they can be stored in these pouches without burning or losing their potency." Remey had brought specialized her pouches for fire elemental herbs. It was a simple preparation for the area she was exploring.


    "Should we go and gather more of the crabs and leaves?" Onyx prepared to m his tail down again. There were three more nearbyva pools with more crabs near them. Between them were more burnt light bushes.


    The proceeding smash and grab tactic were very unusual for Onyx and Remey. They were moving like dwarven golems with their tasks assigned. It wasn''t the challenge in beating the crab golems but instead the challenge of terrain.


    Onyx had the added challenge of moving across the less hot parts of ck stone so that he would not get burned. From this, he was able to focus on controlling his body movement to a much higher degree. The fear of severe burns was enough motivation for him to change the way he was used to moving. He had to getfortable being ufortable.


    Remey was much the same. She had a lot of movement techniques practiced. Because of how she fought, she had to be able to dodge. It was not something she liked to do but something she required. Because of this, she had to be light on her feet, a perfect skill to have moving over the potentially soft rocks. The closer she got to theva pools the more carefully she had to feel her footing and the safety. Both she and Onyx made radical improvements in their bodily movement without even realizing it.


    <o>,m …..</o>


    ….