When he re-emerges, I can immediately tell that there has been a qualitative change in the creatures that I must defeat to advance to B-rank. Which really isn't that surprising, considering the fact that Toril is still only C-rank and would have had no problem with the previous group of monsters.
This creature stands on two legs at about eight feet tall. It is covered in light blue fur, looking far more soft than it does protective. It has two massive paws, with claws that don't look to be particularly sharp. It has small, triangular ears atop its head, which is adorned with two large, round, twinkling eyes and a button nose. The fur on its belly is a much lighter color cementing its special appearance.
And what do I mean by 'special?' This creature looks like a stuffed animal, ready for any toddler to hug. A bit big, perhaps, but a cuddly stuffed animal nonetheless. And this monster of a beast tamer wants me to beat this thing up?!
"Wait, you want me to defeat [this] thing? Can it even fight?"
"Yes, and yes. Defeat it as you have the previous monsters, I must warn you, don't let your guard down! This creature is capable of quite a few tricks, though I won't inform you as to what those are. Now, begin your fight!"
As soon as he says this, the creature releases a water element attack, a compressed bullet of water flying toward my forehead at considerable speeds. Determining it to be too unlikely a dodge to engage in, I instead decide to opt for the much more interesting method of dispersing the attack.
There is some risk with this method, as it will fail entirely if my opponent is much stronger than I am. However, between elementalists, this is a surefire way to suppress weaker practitioners. As for straight magic users, well, this is just a method of punishing them for encroaching on our elementalists domain when they employ a spell within our limited area of influence.
Not that that's really worth mentioning, this opponent is most certainly an elementalist. The attack shows some resistance towards my hijacking, if my opponent were a straight magic user, the resistance would be nonexistent. Still, the stuffed animal-like creature has already released its attack, which is now closer to me than it is to the creature, so taking control over it is easy enough.
I grab hold of the attack, quickly returning it to the creature which forms a small barrier of water in front of it, which the returned orb quickly crashes into Or should I say splashes into? I don't know, command over language has never been my strong suit.
I follow up this attack rather deviously, with a lightning element attack. My opponent has thus far shown a great affinity for water, why not punish that with lightning? I mean, how are you going to stop an orb of lightning with a water barrier, eh?
Apparently my opponent doesn't fully understand the most basic elements of electricity, as it tries to avoid my attack by encasing itself in water. When it is laying unconscious upon the ground a fraction of a second later I can only be glad that I only used a fraction of my strength and hope that it learned a good lesson today.
After the beast tamer has rushed his big teddy bear away, he eventually returns with a big lion. And I mean [big]. Like, close to the size of an elephant. This is a somewhat sizable courtyard, but I worry about the creature's mobility.
In appearance, the lion looks like a lion, the only difference being its silver fur, excessive musculature, and, of course, its size. As soon as the beast tamer calls a start to our fight, it releases a crushing roar, releasing an aura in much the same way as General Lion once did. Admittedly, this lion's aura is qualitatively weaker, but that still doesn't convince me that this enemy should come right after the wannabe care bear.
After its roar has been unleashed, it pouches towards me, closing the small distance in only a single bound. I fling myself away while pelting it with a variety of elemental attacks. To my distress, the attacks are dispersed as they near the monstrous creature, showing that no magical trickery shall grant me victory today.
[Well, where there's no magic, there's my legendary sword!] Thinking this, I swap my new sword for Reinhart's blade in my dimensional storage ring before again taking a defensive stance. [Scare me away now, kitten! For now I shall outpower you in a melee battle, and in the process crush your pride as you lose to a mere human!]
It roars again, as though it is forced to announce every attack. And an announcement of attack, it is. Once the beast roars, it lunges towards me, its cloud paw flashing in the light as it swipes at me.
This time, I don't leap away, instead leaping towards the beast before blocking its attack. Where previously it was set up to hit me with its claws, now its arm, too carried forward by its momentum to be put to a stop, crashes into my blade. Where its beautiful silver coat was sufficient for dealing with my magic, against a legendary blade, it can do nothing to defend itself. Carried by its own momentum, the lion's front leg flies off, having been swung into my blade with the full of the beast's power.
This time, it is the cat's turn to back away, cowardly retreating, its front right limb reduced to a bloody stump. Despite retreating, the beast hardly seems out of the fight; its gaze contains deep animosity that was previously absent as it warily glares at me.
"What, kitten? Not used to being injured by a creature you view as inferior to you, lower down the food chain, hmm? I love putting blustering fools into their place, even your appearance is in itself the greatest bluster I have ever yet encountered, how could such a weakling dare to appear so majestic? Can't even defeat a mere human, how pathetic."
The lion looks at me without comprehension, its wary expression still plastered on its face as it stands defensively, hiding away its profusely bleeding stump of a limb. I sigh, thinking [it would seem that my efforts were wasted, how can I attain a flustered and poorly thought out response from an animal that can't even comprehend what I say to it? Things are no fun when your taunts pass over your opponents head…]
On the bright side, the haughty beast tamer is looking at me like I am a lunatic. And perhaps I am; my madness skill is far above your average lunatic's ability to even envision. Still, maybe my taunting was aimed at him? Yes, by mocking his blustering fool of a pet, I would be mocking him by extension, right?
Ah well, my attempts have brought no success, I haven't weakened my enemy's resolve by one bit. Well, I suppose I'll just have to beat him with fair measures.
Without any warning, I charge down my enemy. While I can't boost my speed with magic due to my currently equipped weapon, in such a small courtyard it doesn't really matter, even with only the level 25 power boost and some slight strength and speed boosts, I close the distance in less than a second.
My sword flashes towards the lion's remaining front leg, it responds as I had hoped it would, by raising its remaining front paw to block with its claws. [Ha! Such a method may work against another, but not me!]
Sure enough, my sword cuts right through the lion's claws, traveling to its shoulder as I continue my charge unabated.
Once the lion has been removed of its front legs, the beast tamer calls out my victory. I am tempted to ignore it, and kill this beast, both for the satisfaction and the xp levels (which are surely abundant), but knowing that I likely can't afford the fees for doing so, I refrain.
"Aren't you perhaps underestimating the ability of your lion there? He still had his back legs and mouth, I'm sure it wouldn't have been that easy of a victory from there, especially being unable to use magic against him on my part."
"You and I both know full well that your victory was certain, where are you going with this?"
"Well, you see, we also both knew that I would be able to beat it before I even fought it, that fight was just a further waste of my time. I've already been playing your little game for over an hour while my friend rings up a massive tab in the main guild hall, do you think that we could speed this up a bit?"
"I've told you already, it is necessary to defeat every monster in each rank-up set, and I have explained why. That said, if you truly wish to be done, we can be, you are already a certified C-rank, we can stop this at any point."
"Hmph, you're just trying to escape your duties, I see right through your plotting. No, you've wasted this much of my time already, I may as well see how high a rank I can achieve."
"Then stop complaining."
[Heh heh. Ah, this is fun! What could be more fun than messing with others? A joy beyond the description of words, a joy that many refuse to experience. Though my worry about Toril's tab is probably pretty justified… Well, worst case scenario, I'll split and leave the mess to him. After all, good friends help clean up after one another; he should take one for the team if the bill is too high. In fact, he should thank me for giving him this opportunity to demonstrate his devotion to our friendship! Yes, maybe I'll leave any tab, big or small, to him, so that we may really crystalize our friendship through his generosity! Well, we'll have to see, I'll decide after I see the bill.]