The kaiser rex was a monster but still showed signs of intelligence by sniffing around to try and locate its real target. Its jaws snapped down again but came back empty once more. The illusion magic Raphtalia used could confuse even a monster’s sense of smell. Rat and Holn had been impressed by this facet of their magic. Fox-type demi-humans and monsters could use their sense of smell to defeat illusions, but Raphtalia and the others could overcome even that obstacle. The tanuki always seemed to outfox the fox in Japanese folklore, so maybe that was part of it. The past Heavenly Emperor had displayed the ability to confuse the sense of smell of Takt’s fox woman. Their powers were legit, but it might be dangerous to literally assess our combat abilities based on folklore from my home world. Raph-chan seemed to have better illusion skills than even Raphtalia at the moment, making Raph-chan our most proficient user of illusions.
“Raphtalia and the others have made an opening!” Keel barked. Then she gave a mighty howl and swung her sword down from above. It was just a normal longsword, but she looked like some kind of berserker with it in her diminutive paws.
“S’yne!” Raphtalia called.
“I’m here!” Cutting in a little late to the party, S’yne split her scissors into two blades and slashed into the kaiser rex. The monster was completely defenseless, and S’yne’s attacks quickly found its throat, slashing it.
“I’m ending this!” Raphtalia returned to deliver the final blow. “Instant Blade! Mist!” The kaiser rex was writhing in pain. Then Raphtalia relieved it of its head. The dinosaur collapsed into the dirt, going extinct without pretty much any opportunity to meaningfully fight back.
“It was faster and tougher than I was expecting,” Raphtalia commented.
“But it seemed very weak to illusions,” Ruft replied.
“That’s true. We’re a good match for it,” Raphtalia agreed.
“What about me?” S’yne asked.
“You stopped it from moving around too much. That was a big help,” Ruft told her.
“I didn’t lag behind too much, right?” Keel asked, also seeking affirmation.
“You’re fast on your feet, Keel, which really helped confuse it,” Raphtalia told her.
“You really think so? I want to be faster though, like you, Raphtalia. Maybe I can ask Bubba Sword Hero for a better sword,” Keel wondered.
“That’s a good point . . . Why do you even use a sword, Keel?” I asked. She chopped off the kaiser rex’s tail and then turned to me. She was small but nimble, I’d give her that.
“Huh? You gave it to me, so I’m using it,” Keel replied.
“I bet you could use the same kind of attacks monsters do, like biting and stuff,” I said. She had decent fangs when in therianthrope form. I almost thought just biting the monsters would do more damage. I’d seen her with something clamped in her jaws once, shaking it from side to side like a dog did.
“Bubba, do you think of me like a monster?” Keel asked.
“Have you ever looked in the mirror? I bet Raph-chan could use a sword better than you. Everyone needs to use the right weapon for the job,” I said.
“You could fight in your demi-human form, Keel,” Raphtalia suggested.
“I can move around more easily like this,” Keel said after a moment’s thought. “I’ll stick with it.” She always seemed to choose her dog form for battle. It made her even smaller than normal; I was impressed she could fight at all.
“Your therianthrope form is great. Very cute too,” Ruft said, choosing this moment to get involved.
“It’s not cute! It’s cool!” Keel yipped back.
“Come on, Keel. Your cuteness is your biggest selling point,” Ruft replied.
“I know, but I want to be cool!” Keel retorted. The sight of Keel and Ruft bickering as they defeated monsters was pretty surreal, like cute village mascots causing hardcore violence.
“Let’s keep moving,” Raphtalia said smartly. The party turned smoothly to face the incoming emperor triceratops.
“They’re making zhort work of thiz,” Shadow said. “Bazed on the incoming experience I’m receiving, I would have expected theze battlez to take a little more time.”
“That’s just how strong we’ve become,” I replied. “Ruft has decent specs and just blends into fighting alongside the others without any trouble. Keel is still a little slow off the blocks.” Ruft was Raphtalia’s cousin, which explained a lot. The bonuses from his therianthrope form were not to be sniffed at either. When compared to the rest of the party, Keel was definitely a step behind.
“Bubba! I’m going to prove myself! That’s what all my training has been for!” she yipped at me. Sure, whatever, I thought to myself. “Special attack time!” Keel yelled. She gave a howl, light glowing around her, and then she charged as a shining dog back into battle. “Zweite Wild Fang!” she shouted. It looked like an attack incorporating magic. Keel could use beast magic, which included howling to boost her own stats. For this attack, she had wreathed herself in magic to increase her attack power and then performed a charging magical strike.
“I don’t feel like I can make a contribution to thiz,” Shadow admitted.
“Raph!” said the ninja Raph specimen.
“Don’t worry. When they fight something that’s too slow to hit them, I don’t make much of a contribution either,” I admitted. My role was just to keep attack support on them and maintain buffs. I also needed to make sure Shadow and the Raph specimen stayed safe, so I couldn’t move around a lot. It didn’t seem to matter for this one, anyway.
“Air Strike Shield, Second Shield!” I shouted as an incoming lord pteranodon dropped down fast to launch a hit-and-run attack on Raphtalia. My shields appeared in the perfect spot to block it. It screeched more like a chicken than a powerful dinosaur, surprised at whacking into my sudden defenses. Then S’yne turned her scissors into a ball of twine, wrapped up the lord pteranodon, and Raphtalia finished it off with her katana. S’yne proceeded to deploy a spider web of threads in the event of any other attacks from the air.
“Over here! Ah! Keel!” Ruft called, even as he avoided an attack.
“I’ve got you!” Keel replied. Ruft had confused a king stegosaurus with some illusion magic, and he was proceeding to take it apart with his axe while Keel helped out. With all the illusions in play, the dinos were attacking thin air half the time. There wasn’t much for me to do. These looked like powerful monsters, but they didn’t have any illusion resistance.
We continued to clear out the excess of monsters, with Shadow and the ninja Raph specimen increasing in level and abilities along the way. The incoming experience was pretty good. It was almost a match for hunting with the sisters. I wondered why experience was so good in this time period. Mamoru and his gang were pretty strong, but in terms of level, they weren’t setting any records. I wondered what they did about class-ups. They didn’t have a Dragon Emperor, no filolials, and no Raph species either. So how did they perform limit breaks to class up? Maybe in this time they could limit break just by having a hero around.
“Let me get into the action!” Shadow said, feeling more confident with his boosted abilities and joining the battle with Raphtalia and the others. “Hide Behind!” Shadow launched some magic at the kaiser rex. The monster jerked and looked behind himself. That seemed like a pretty funky effect.
“That’s dark magic, isn’t it?” Raphtalia said. She could create both light and dark illusions. She had a pretty deep understanding of dark magic.
“Correct,” Shadow replied. “I’ve focuzed my learning in magic that controlz and directz the attention of my targetz.” That made sense. He was skilled at a kind of infiltration that took a different approach from Raphtalia and the Raph species, such as making enemies turn away so he could sneak past them or hiding his presence. Kizuna had a pseudo-ninja among her allies too. Maybe these two operated in a similar fashion.
Raphtalia and the others quickly took the distracted kaiser rex apart.
“If I have thiz Raph Zhadow with me, there’z no target we cannot infiltrate!” Shadow said.
“That’s the name you’ve given to your Raph species?” I asked.
“It iz a zhadow from the Raph zpeciez! Zimply a dezcriptive term, not a name!” Shadow replied.
“You are such a pain in the ass!” I replied. I wasn’t sure if he/she/they was just messing with my head now, but I’d had enough of all this ninja stuff! Believe it!
“Raph Shadow . . . can’t we do better than that for a name?” Raphtalia asked. She seemed to want to fight Shadow on this point too. Names weren’t an area I had any right to speak about, but I could see why she might want to complain.
“Hey, have the Raph Shadow equip this,” I suggested, taking out a wrapped package I had brought along. The Raph Shadow climbed down from Shadow’s shoulder and took the item from me.
“I thought that waz your lunch!” Shadow said as though he thought I carried food with me everywhere I went. If we needed to eat something, we could just portal back.
“It isn’t?” Raphtalia asked. “I thought the same thing.”
“Me too!” Ruft chimed in.
“And me! I was looking forward to a nice meal!” Keel yipped.
“Me too,” S’yne added. I felt a sinking feeling that everyone had drawn the same conclusion. I wondered if the idea that some kind of packet I had with me meant I was packing food came from my cooking skills.
“This is not food-related. It’s something experimental. I put it together to try with Raph-chan,” I explained.
“That sounds like something I’m going to object to most strongly,” Raphtalia said immediately.