[TTIABAD] Chapter 112: Fighting a T-Rex!

“What’s the plan?” I asked in a whisper. The T-Rex was currently in a pretty convenient clearing. And it looked… mean. My own eyes were shining in awe but I was really wishing we’d stayed behind with Kasandra to do those team exercises. We worked well enough as a team but we really weren’t exactly a professional unit yet. Experience alone would only be half the issue, proper training would have been invaluable.

Sadly, the other had been cooped up and I’d been just about done with the world. Well, oh well. What’s done is done.

“Attack.” Said Riary.

I closed my eyes and tried not to get upset at someone who hated me. Her plan was fine even, given how well we knew each other’s fighting styles. The other three worked flawlessly and more worked around me than anything and that would be fine. But it wasn’t a plan.

“Are you sure we can take it?” Konohora asked.

“Yup. Strong, definitely super dangerous if any of us fought it alone, but together it should be do-able.”

“I should approach it first from the front. Then Riary can pepper it mildly to ‘get it used’ to being attacked by her. Then Derek can attack it properly. Riary can then up her damage while I try to keep its focus. Konohora can be on standby at first in case any of us get injured. Then once we’ve figured out most of its tricks and abilities, can make critical strikes as needed. Since it’ll probably have some desperate last measures though, Konohora should stay near me just incase. Riary should stay back, with a ring of fire around her to prevent any shadows in case of the assassin.” Tyler said.

We all three turned our heads to look at him. What the hell? Where did you come from?

Tyler blushed, turning away.

“...Grant has been teaching me some strategy.”

“””Ah.”””

“Works for me.” I said.

Plan set, I watched as the giant apex lizard munched on… a strange tree. On one hand, T-Rex’s were carnivores so that didn’t seem to make sense at first. On the other… that tree was definitely 100% made of meat so… yes, please eat it. That’s creepy as hell.

Tyler rushed in, seeming to become a small mountain as his steps started to hit the ground. The T-Rex turned to him and clearly it was more than used to battles. There was a brief moment, of absolute disconnect. Where I wasn’t Derek the Demon. I was Derek Springer, the Human. Derek, the normal person from Earth, who’d never imagined I’d get to actually see a living, breathing T-Rex. The one that thought their bones were so huge. That’s heart stopped beating as he saw it’s massive head, each teeth the size of his arm, reptalian eyes above a massive snout, and a mouth so large it could eat him whole.

A scream wanted to rise up in me as I saw Tyler, my friend, going out to meet such a beast with only a shield and a sword. It seemed insane, impossible, I felt like I had vertigo.

It’s hot breath steamed the air and it lowered itself, head nearly touching the ground, as it began to run. Now I was Derek the Demon again… but Derek the Demon who was scared shitless. This wasn’t a T-Rex. Not one from earth. This thing could have murdered every single dinosaur and probably survived the ice age. It was a magical fantasy T-Rex. It’s movement speed was like a freight train and it’s stomps so heavy that I actually saw the ground crack underneath it. It probably would have won a head on collision with a strain, given it’s thick skull.

And it was rushing right for Tyler, who had his greatshield out and ready.

The T-Rex slammed into the shield.

For a moment, all sound left. There was a strange quiet to everything. Then I was half positive my ear drums shattered, as the loudest noise I’d ever heard exploded outwards. It wasn’t ‘like a bomb had gone off’. It was a bomb that had gone off. There was a shockwave of force that rippled out from the collision, making me feel it in my bones. An unstoppable force had met an immovable object, and the ground did not survive. Tyler skidded back, leaving vast troughs in the dirt, far wider than his body. The ground beneath the T-Rex cracked and ruptured upwards, like Konohora had slammed into at full force. The leaves above me were blasted backwards, along with my hair.

And yet Tyler still stood and more than that… he soon slowed. There was a beat of quiet, as the T-Rex seemed to realize the human it had not underestimated, was still in one piece. And then it was on like donkey kong.

Tyler slashed out with a sword but quickly had to move as the T-Rex tried to snap it’s jaws around him wholesale. Already, Riary began to follow the plan, shooting out weak but effective fire darts at the colossal lizard. It seemed to ignore it, seeming personally offended that Tyler had remained standing after that first hit. And Christ, it was fast. I had known it was above us, in every single metric, but seeing was believing. It was faster than me, tougher than Tyler, strong than Konohora and as for magic… well… I’d already warned them about that.

I moved. Tyler was fending it off just fine, but currently, just fine meant it had kicked Tyler half a football field’s worth of distance away. He needed some backup. I dashed in and I had never wanted my greatsword so badly. I hadn’t just not been trained with it, Xilvia had straight up said trying to use it right now would get me killed. She hadn’t trained me with it at all… and that was probably a good thing? I get why, especially now, feeling how my body felt so much more… natural? In tune with my mind. I could feel it all now. The different muscle groups, the different flow rate, the different cadence of my heart beat. So similar but different to a human and one I’d gotten used to down to the wire. I’d had to use it to survive and that did wonders for connecting brain to body. Truthfully… scarily… I felt more ‘ok’ in a demon body than I ever did in a human body. If I’d known that fighting and working out would have helped my dissociation while I was human…

My teeth grit hard in frustration. This T-Rex was about to become my stress relief.

I dashed towards it, claws out, speed not slow at all. And then everything went… crazy. The T-Rex fucking jumped, spinning around fast as lightning, tail barreling like a whip for my body. I had been in mid-air, jumping myself, ready to claw its side open. I had nowhere and no time to dodge.

It was going to hit me. It was going to hit me like a god damn rocket to the face. My perception seemed to slow down, as I pulled every single muscle I could, turning my body. I became horizontal for just a moment, and as the tail approached me, I moved faster. My claws seemed to stretch out and reach a tail moving in slow motion, as I clawed it, using every single muscle in my hands to pull myself up.

I slammed into the side of the T-Rex like an olympic athlete running into a wall. My body weight wasn’t much… but it didn’t take much to move something hanging in the air. The T-Rex stumbled as it hit the ground but gravity takes such a long time. Before we’d landed, I’d already begun to carve bloody chunks of it’s hide. It was harder, possibly harder than Tyler’s great shield. I could only do scratches… but I could do so many scratches.

At the moment we landed, the next phase of the plan began. Riary hit it like a motherfucking pressure washer, except with fire. It seemed she was going for full penetration as well and I got to learn exactly what a T-Rex’s scream sounded like.

But it wasn’t a B-Rank for nothing.

It rolled.

My mind blanked out at that. Riary was lasering it, Tyler was still blocking a lot of it’s blows and attacks, it had me attacking the side of it, and Konohora was coming in for more devastating hits soon. And yet it still had the presence of mind to roll on the ground. I almost didn’t escape in time.

I could survive a lot of things. I could not survive being rolled over by a creature that weighed multiple tons across the ground. If anything, Konohora had damn well proven that to me earlier today.

I skid across the ground… only to watch the world go dark. Above me… a massive T-Rex’s mouth was open wide, ready to eat me. I merely raised an eyebrow. I’d seen bigger. It bit down with an unnatural ferocity and at an unnatural speed… but it’s jaws wouldn’t close. Hot breath washed over me but in front of me stood someone who had blocked the plane of ice by sheer will alone. Tyler, Great Shield raised up, preventing the T-Rex from biting down.

“My hero.” I said with a roll of my eyes. Tyler didn’t respond. It seemed like he was having trouble not having his shield, or arm, be ripped off by those powerful jaws. I wasn’t too concerned. After all, Tyler wasn’t the only one I’d felt approaching.

Like a siege engine breaking castle walls, a terribly loud crack and bang was heard and the T-Rex was sent stumbling away. Konohora had arrived and slammed with all her strength into the side of its head. A head that now looked a tiny bit… dented. Even its thick and hard as fuck skull seemed to have been cracked by that hit.

I could almost literally see rage in it’s eyes, as they turned crimson red, utterly bloodshot. Whether from anger, fury, or rage, I couldn’t tell. Perhaps a combination of all three? It seemed incredibly angry. And that wasn’t the only way it reminded me of a certain someone. It seemed to take a metaphysical breath and this time, I strongly hid behind Tyler. Just in case. I’d known it was coming but… seeing was believing.

Like some kind of pre-historic dragon, a massive wave of fire left it’s mouth, pouring over us.

Or at least, that was clearly it’s plan. Riary was right there after all. She couldn’t control another’s flames, well, not one a rank above her. But combatting them? She might as well have a fucking Ph.D. in firefighting. Her own flames slammed into them, seeming to overcome and extinguish them. The T-Rex’s flames were magical… but just magical. Riary’s flames were… so, so much more.

Watching it was awe inspiring and while the T-Rex’s flames still felt incredibly dangerous, it was like I was looking at the magical equivalent of a professional athlete vs a toddler. Once more, I got to see the mesmerizing beauty of magic and even in this situation, I felt my heart ease. Riary’s flames were always so beautiful and deadly. Especially having experienced them when she was weaker… it was always a relief to have that kind of power on my side.

When the flames eventually died down, I got to see something new.

The look of Terror on a T-Rex’s face.