Part 18: An Exercise in Futility, Part 3

2Yr. 4Mo. 2Wk.

Say, you guys don't really care how many Happy Smile Points the gang earns each and every week, do you? I thought not.



So anyway, we headed off to the Kalaragi Jungle to get that guy his junk. The things I do for the ranch.



Ran into some new monsters, but nothing Chucky couldn't grind into a fine paste. Natsu wanted to get into the action, so I let him tackle a Pancho we ran into. He knocked it down...



...and it got right back up again. Natsu finished it off, of course, but that was goddamn fascinating.

Chucky hit level 12 and learned Foresee. I wish he hadn't; it improves his dodging, but weakens his defense. At least he only lost Thunder Lore for it.



He also picked up a cool new move. Not terribly accurate, though.

iScream decided he wanted to try this cool new Countering technique.



It didn't go so well for him. I think I'm going to largely ignore this and hope for the best.



Natsu hit level 12 and learned a cool new attack. I'll show it off when I get the chance.



Which I didn't this trip because... we ran into this. Just like the one we found in the cave, it had an odd stone on it.



And just like then, Rio had a spaz fit when she picked up the stone, one she didn't want to talk about. I decided it'd be best to head back.



2Yr. 4Mo. 3Wk.

I'm bad at remembering anniversaries. Case in point: two weeks ago was Fight Club's first anniversary. Also of note: it has now been five weeks since I tried to get permission to join the 'big boys' at FIMBA.



So I headed into the jungle. Again.



iScream learned Water Search. (That seems somehow... hazardous.) He gave up Lucky Star for it; frankly, I don't think it was doing him any good.

He had an almost immediate opportunity to put it to use.



Yeah. That was worth it.



He also learned how to throw bombs. Which would be pretty cool, if his aim didn't suck.

(Is it just me, or am I in a bad mood lately?)



Okay, that was at least a little cathartic. Y'know, I think I want one of those Pancho things. Maybe when Garu gets long in the tooth.



Good to see that wild monsters can screw up their counters too.

Note that the animation is different; Natsu is doing his 'missed' animation, but his opponent still took damage. That means that the opponent would have avoided the attack if it hadn't tried to counter.



Oh hey, this is new. Big freaking thorny vines. iScream can fly, but no way in hell am I clinging to his feet; they might fall off!



Anyway, after lots of boring wandering around in the jungle, we came to a rather conspicuously different area, at which point Rio decided to say what I'd been thinking. I mean, Karnab had made it sound easy... too easy.



So it wasn't really a surprise when we got ambushed by a monster right about then.



It was kind of cool-looking, actually; some sort of tree-dog hybrid. Too bad I didn't get a good luck at it before Chucky set it on fire. (The experience let him relearn Thunder Lore and ditch Foresee.)



The monster dropped something that looks sort of like a pirate's hook. We figured it was the closest thing to junk we'd found, and if it's not good enough for Karnab... well, we don't have to advance past Rank D, right?

Oh, and Rio gets a weird vibe from it. In other news, the sun rose in the east today...