Count nodded solemnly at Yū, acknowledging Talebrook's grunty, their little creature, their baby child, as part of the party and not of the proceedings.

"Well, part of the quest or not, I'll be keeping the beasts out of the general area regardless, so you needn't worry about his safety. As far as I'm aware, most pets do not tend to get targeted by monsters unless they're the aggro-attracting type, which..."

Count paused to think.

"... I... struggle to think of any. Is it just the newly-implemented ASCA? To be honest, I don't know that much about the pet system in this game, and there weren't really any back in R:2 that I knew of. If I had, I would have raised one."

He continued nodding, as a polite Japanese man might, making understanding noises, as they explained the circumstances behind the NPC Grunties' health bars and how woefully non-viable healing them might end up being should the quest go south. From a man who would ordinarily simply not pay attention to people he didn't know, this was somewhat unusual - but, well, he had partied with Talebrook more than once in the past.

Count's stoic "act" wasn't so much of an act as it was him simply not paying attention to people he didn't know. People he did know, he was fairly cordial to.

He accepted the party invitation, and turned to listen to the NPC with about as much glee as one might accept a promotional flyer from some underpaid teenager standing around in a mall. Yes, yes, he read the quest description, thank you very much - he didn't need the primer. Were there people who did?

Or was this meant to be a distraction from the quest transition? If so, it didn't do a fantastic job - he could still see the other players fading away, and the beasts fading into existence.

"... Does anyone else think this farm would benefit heavily from, say, a herd dog or two?" Count asked, rhetorically, whilst waiting for the monsters to get just close enough that he could pull off his combo.

As soon as they were at the exact range for him to trigger his Wicked and Fatal Boundaries...

"Reaper's Dance," Count plainly stated as he struck the ground with force with his flaming scythe, many jagged wing-shaped scythe blades erupting from the ground outwards as if the teeth of some enormous fictional sandworm.

His combo was very simple, and very deadly. Reaper's Dance was already an AoE that dealt a solid chunk of damage, but with Wicked Boundary in effect, it would be turned up a notch once more to what might be considered "high" in a game FAQ. With the new level adjustment system, that meant bad news for the Beast Kittens.

And Fatal Boundary meant a 50% chance to Stagger enemies at mid-range, so not only would these "kittens" (their teeth didn't look particularly kiten-like, admittedly) be shredded by his attack, but those of them surviving would also have a decent chance of not moving quick enough to avoid whatever follow-up would come from Incubus and Talebrook.

That said, most of them survived that assault, though their HP looked mighty low. Count had only managed to finish off the one that Talebrook had already struck.

"Were they weak to flames, I'd have been able to one-shot them, but I can see why they didn't give these things elemental affinities," Count mused, scythe still stuck in the ground. "It would be very cruel to newbies who decided to overspecialize. Imagine, for one second, that you're a non-caster who picked up a shiny elemental upgrade for your one and only weapon, and then you head into a quest, and all the foes are of the element your weapon is now attuned to. Wouldn't that be tragic?"