Among the many fantasy tropes, there will always be an interesting array of bestiaries in them all. 

Be it in low or high fantasy medieval as well as even sci-fi kinds.

Its no different in this novel, as it has many kinds and types of creatures in it.

And Bob doesn't know even the basic ones.....since he hadn't read that far at all.....

"Gah...!!" Bob grunted as he side stepped to the left to avoid getting slashed by a thin, pale humanoid creature with elongated charcoal colored claws.

Its height is nearly twice as, its features minimal but did not diminish the horrifying visage of its hollow eye sockets, lipless mouth with jagged bloody maws with its left side being obscured by whatever strands of hair it had left on top of its near skinless head.

The monster reared back its other clawed arm to strike at the armored Bob, who in turn was trying to get some distance away from it. But luckily, just as it wildly swung while leaping at great speed at him, Keith managed to come in during the creature's mid leap and clashed his blade against its claws using Aura to reinforce both his body and weapon.

The Aura imbued sword caused it to recoil back once it clashed with the weapon with tremendous force, Keith stood firmly thanks to also using Aura to strengthen his body to maintain his stance. To the young swordsman's surprise, just as he was about to follow up his attack, Bob had lunged ahead with impressive agility and capitalizes the opportunity to strike at the pale monster during it's stunned state. Once within the range of his staff, Bob swung down his weapon with all his might at its head.

The monster grunted upon being struck, Bob then unleashed a flurry of blows by spinning said staff before every strikes to build momentum for stronger hits. The head, the face, the jaw, the ankle, joints, and all the other susceptible spots to get stunned when hit, and using footwork for better movement to dodge as well as countering any of the pale being's attempts to suddenly attack him.

He suddenly felt something was off, and he ducked down, narrowly avoiding something sprouting from its chest then rolled back instinctively. Once he put the distance between them, he was glad to have followed his gut feeling, because he not only managed to dodge an extending spike that sprouted out of its chest aimed at his head he had also managed to avoid getting splashed by some tar-like liquid. The substance was making an ominous sizzling sound, the nearby fallen branches and a small tree close to it was burning.

"Heh....." Bob shakily sighed, he looked at his trembling hands holding the staff. 'This thing is very different, but this feeling is familiar......' he exclaimed in his thoughts while looking at the humanoid creature, "creepy fuck...!" he cursed at it while wearing an uneasy smile, his eyes shaking. 

The creature lunged again, but this time Keith charged in and repelled it away a good distance.

"I'll handle it from here, Bob!" Keith assured his attendant, out of concern for him, especially seeing how shaken he is fighting the monster despite his face being obscured by his full visor helm, he assumed this was his first time handling a non-human opponent so he understands.

Bobby went down on one knee, he removed his helmet and looked at his still shaking hands before touching his lower face unconsciously. He looked at the monster again, who is currently fighting Keith.

"Heh.....hehe...." he chuckled dryly, his gaze locked at the creature. He swallowed his saliva and reached for his magic sling bag, putting in the staff and rummaged in it for a moment before stopping, both edges of his mouth raised even higher.

Meanwhile, Keith was beginning to realize this isn't an ordinary Pale Ghoul. It reconstitutes much faster from damage unlike the ones he had fought before, and its bones are more dense as his Aura imbued blade could only cut half way in when strucked. He took a deep breath and composed himself, sheathing his blade into the scabbard he had also detached from his belt and took an Iaido form. 

"Dancing Petal-!" he was about to unleash one of his trump cards, but then something passed him at great speed, hitting the monster directly at its head,

It was Bob's helmet, followed by the latter shortly with a dagger in hand.

"Bobby!?" he exclaimed with wide eyes, somehow barely recognizes that it was Bob from his pink hair. But what shocked him the most is how different Bob is currently, the glint in his eyes as well as his movement, his weapon is also different now it seems.

Once within its range, the Ghoul roared and brought down its claws at him. Bob dodged by twisting his body to the left, while also slicing its arm using the momentum from the spin, then rolled in between its long emaciated legs while also cutting it on the right thigh. Causing it to fall on one knee before also cutting the left leg after getting behind it from said roll, he then held his knife with both hands and plunged it deep into the back of its head with as much as power he can muster before twisting it quickly, making a crunching noise. The Ghoul went limp and fell with the knife still stuck on its head.

Keith watched in silent shock at Bob's unexpectedly ruthless but effective combat techniques against the Ghoul. He realized there is still more to Bobby than he let on, though he had his suspicion from when he helped him escape the Valiants' and  pranked him using the sparring robot, he hadn't expected his attendant to also be as brutal as he is currently. He had no hesitation at all when cutting the monster, not only that but his cuts were quite precise, he aimed at it's arm tendon and joints to render it limp and useless, then moving on the tendons near the the back of its knees to make it fall and robbing it of its mobility before finally going for the death blow to the back of its head.

However, Keith suddenly felt off when he saw Bob's facial expression. He was smiling casually while panting before wiping his chin then falling to the ground, running his hand through his hair halfway before laying down.

"Hah....haha......hahaha...." Bob started to laugh heartily, unnerving Keith. "ha....hah.....i still got it huh....?" the last part he muttered while staring at his hands. A brief flash of a heavily scarred hands replacing his gloved ones for a moment.

"Bob...?" Keith called out to him in a cautious and concerned tone.

Bobby looked at him, smiled and got up while dusting himself off. "Im fine.......just kinda happy is all....." he told Keith while picking up his thrown helm. 

"About what exactly...?" Keith asked with a curious tone and raised brow.

"Wow, no scratch...." Bob commented at the helm's still pristine condition before paying his attention back at the teen to answer him back. "My edge of course..." he replied while putting on the helm.

"You fought monsters before...?" Keith asked him while being surprised, since he thought this was the first time Bob had encountered them in the flesh.

............................

"......we will finally be rid of those revenants......!!"  the words in a man's voice echoed in the back of Bob's mind, ".....yeah, but that was a while back, kinda worried i lost my edge after a long while hehe!" he sheepish rubbed his helmeted head.

"You really are full of surprises....." Keith attached his scabbard back onto his belt with his blade already sheathed in it, "now i know why my adopted mom and sister is intrigued by you..." he said while scratching his chin.

"They what....?" Bob responded while trying to remove the embedded knife from the dead Ghoul's head. He fell on his bottom after pulling it with all his might, "......what makes me interesting exactly....?" Bob asked as he got up and dust himself off.

Upon hearing that, Keith closed his eyes and sighed heavily, he walked towards Bob. "Just about everything.....to summarize it, Bob.....you tend to make people get interested in you from all the bizarre stuff you do, yet you're very oblivious to it" he told him while pointing at his chest. 

"And now, im getting really, really curious about what else can you do...." Keith grinned as he tapped his black visor.

"Heh, didn't know i was really that popular huh...." Bob humorously posed in a suavey manner while leaning on to a tree.

Keith chuckled "for sure, you even caught the Valiant twins affection, too!" he added.

The bigger man suddenly stiffened for a few seconds, "......come on, let's get this dumb orientation over with...." he huffed as he pushed the now laughing Keith forward to the next location, while also grumbling in despair.

Unbeknownst to them, a pair of pink eyes had been watching them from a great distance for some time now.