"This armor works great!" Kyle said as he kept running through the canyon, taking an occasional bite from the corpse he was carrying with him.
"It is an effective way of combat," Theodor said. "Humans hunt and fight in groups, and almost all of them have one Shouter, who is generally heavily armored and can take a beating."
Kyle was reminded of the MMORPGs he played on Earth.
"A Tank?" Kyle asked.
"I am unfamiliar with that word," Theodor said.
"It’s someone who attracts the attention of enemies, making the enemy mostly focus on him," Kyle said.
"Yes, that’s what a Shouter is. Use the established words," Theodor said with a bit of annoyance.
Then, Kyle remembered something that bothered him in MMORPGs.
"Why does the enemy just not engage with the Shouter? The others are more threatening, right?" Kyle asked.
"Easier said than done," Theodor answered. "It’s not like the Shouter is helpless. They can also unleash devastating attacks, and if you ignore them, they will kill your group one by one."
"They charge into the middle of your formation, which makes them vulnerable but also very threatening."
"Hm," Kyle answered as he kept running. "Then, what do you do in that case?"
"Change formation," Theodor said. "A Shouter can take a beating, but they are not invincible. Send a fast and agile Fighter at them that can avoid their attacks while being threatening."
"The agile Fighter might not be able to get through a Shouter’s shield or even their armor, but if that Fighter manages to hit a joint, the eyes, or the neck, the Shouter will still die."
"The Shouter can’t allow that to happen, and they need to protect these areas."
"As long as the Shouter is busy protecting themselves, they can’t interrupt the others from attacking the enemy team."
Kyle was approaching the end of the canyon.
"How would that fight go?" he asked.
"Most of the time, nowhere," Theodor said. "As long as the Shouter protects themselves, the Fighter won’t be able to cause any real damage. However, the Shouter also can’t hit them while they are busy with protecting themselves."
"The initiative is on the Fighter’s side. If they want to force the fight and make a risky move, there is a high chance that they will die. But if they don’t, they are free to retreat since they are faster."
"It’s about who makes the first mistake and whether or not the Fighter actually wants to force the fight."
"But in your specific case, this would be different."
"I would lose, right?" Kyle asked.
"Correct. Since you do not have a shield, it’s harder for you to protect yourself from intelligent, agile, and fast attacks. Additionally, your weapon is very slow."
"However, if you were to fight another Shouter, they would be the ones in trouble."
"Huh, interesting," Kyle said as he peeked over the canyon’s walls.
He saw a couple of hills in front of him.
"Pass along the edges of the hills," Theodor said.
Kyle nodded and ran towards the first hill.
Since there were so many of them, Kyle couldn’t see very far into the distance, but that was a good thing.
He passed by the first hill and reached the second.
At that moment, Kyle’s instincts warned him of danger, and he jumped to the side.
A huge mouth filled with teeth shot out of the hill, clamping down on the space where Kyle had just been.
The mouth was about four meters long and looked like the mouth of a big crocodile.
Kyle lowered himself and rammed his pick into the maw’s chin.
Blood exploded out of the chin as the pick buried itself deep.
He kept his swing going and swung over his body.
His entire body bulged beneath the armor as his Ether consumption quadrupled.
"GET OUT!" Kyle shouted.
The ground of the hill cracked as Kyle tore the beast out of it.
The beast flew over Kyle, unable to escape the hammer’s grasp.
And crashed to the ground.
Sure enough, it was some sort of sand crocodile, but its body was just as big as its mouth.
It was thing was half mouth and half everything else.
Green Ether gathered around the hammer as Kyle swung downward.
The crocodile’s body bent around the hammer.
As Kyle lifted his hammer, he noticed that the crocodile was quickly trying to get up.
"Not dead yet?" he asked.
Then, he swung again, and this time, he targeted its head.
Since the crocodile was busy getting up, it couldn’t avoid the attack.
Its head cracked in several places, and its panicked movements were replaced with convulsions.
That was a sign of severe brain damage.
"Surprised this guy survived a strike," Kyle said.
"That’s an Initial Ferocious Beast," Theodor answered.
"Oh, that makes sense," Kyle said as he lifted the beast’s corpse.
It was quite heavy, but not that heavy.
Kyle looked at the velociraptor corpse.
"Whelp, got no space for you," he said as he threw the remainder of the corpse to the ground.
Then, he lifted the crocodile corpse over his head.
This thing was big and essentially covered Kyle’s entire body.
"Meat and meat shield acquired," Kyle said with a grin as he tore a chunk out of the corpse.
As expected, it tasted wonderful.
But this time, he didn’t stop running.
His speed had slowed down even more due to the corpse, but that was not an issue.
As Kyle walked past another hill, that hill exploded as well, and another crocodile maw clamped around Kyle’s crocodile corpse.
"Oh no, you don’t!" Kyle shouted.
He hit the underside of the jaw again and pulled the crocodile out like it was a weed in his garden.
After killing that one as well, he dropped the old corpse and continued running with the new one.
Staying out here was not safe, which was why he didn’t finish the first corpse.
The faster he got past this area, the better.
"Another one?!" Kyle shouted with anger as another crocodile clamped on his corpse.