I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet (Volume 10) – Can They Claw Their Way to Victory?
Aria’s return home is not quite the catch-up she had hoped for. Before long, Visago of the Four Fiends attacks and he’s brought an army with him. Can they stop him from destroying Lumilus and stealing the philosopher’s stone?
I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet (Volume 10) – Can They Claw Their Way to Victory?
What happened?
After the initial greetings were over, Aria took her friends to meet her mother, Leona. Everyone is excited to introduce themselves, although Tama gets caught in between Aria and her mother when they hug. Leona is surprised to see the Sword Saint with them and even more surprised to learn that Alisha is now Aria’s teacher. Even more surprising, however, is that Alisha’s mother was also called Leona… Only Tama makes the obvious logical jump by assuming that Alisha and Aria are actually sisters and don’t know it. They do look remarkably alike! Anyhow, there was an even bigger surprise in store for Aria as Leona will be fighting in the coming battle. She learned the derived skill – Shockwave, a two-hit area of effect attack. Leona is actually a captain in the Amazoness Corp.
The next morning, as everyone was practicing their skills and sparring with one another, the alarm was sounded that signaled Visago’s attack. Alisha put a massive magic barrier over Lumilus, allowing them to attack the army of monsters outside of the town. After a massive attack from Aria’s mother, the monster army was on the retreat. That meant that Visago had to take matters into his own hands. He summoned the S-Ranked dragon, Nidhoggr and launched an attack on the shield. It was time for Aria and Tama to step into the battle. Tama took on his Sacred Beast form and carried Aria through the air. They came face to face with Visago and were suddenly locked in deadly combat. After a while, Visago gave them the chance to turn and run, but that just told Aria that he was on the verge of losing. She used her derived skill – Excalibur and destroyed the final member of the Four Fiends.
What did you think?
More epic battles. This was a wildly entertaining volume with some fantastic fights. We also met Leona, Aria’s mother, and she did not disappoint. In fact, she was twice the character that I believe she was referencing with her two-hit area of effect attack (sounds a lot like a two-hit multi-target attack…) Anyhow, Leona was amazing and while I doubt she will be in it as a regular character, I would expect her to reappear from time to time.
One thing that has been nagging at me for a little while was that in the last volume, they showed the first hero fighting alongside the Sacred Beast. Now, the painting looked remarkably like Aria and Tama, but that happened a longtime ago. Surely, that’s not them. Well, the final chapter of this volume introduced us to Mai, the daughter of the Grand Sorcerer and the Imperial, who has travelled through time to presumably find Aria and Tama. I get the feeling that they are going to go even further back and become the first hero and the Sacred Beast. I can’t say I was expecting time travel in this series, but it’s as welcome an addition as Leona.
What was your highlight?
It has to be the way that Aria pushed on and found a way to defeat Visago after blaming herself for letting him escape the first time around. The best victories are those where the hero has to come back from a disappointment, learn something new, and use that to defeat the villain. It’s even better when the villain is so overconfident that it feels like they deserve the defeat even before considering that they are the bad guy! This is a classic method of storytelling that allows the hero to grow in a way that allows them to overcome an obstacle that they couldn’t defeat before.
Without tasting defeat or disappointment, the hero would never grow. Growth without trials can feel unearned and like cheating. The more we see the growth of the hero, the easier it is to empathise with them, and the more the audience empathises, the more likely they are to bond with them. The story might pull them in, but the connections to the characters are what keep their attention.
Series Information
Manga
| Author | Nozomi Ginyoku | |
| Artist | Taro Shinonome | |
| Volumes | Ongoing | Chapters |
| 1 | You’ve Got to be Kitten Me! | 1-6 |
| 2 | Reincarnation is the Cat’s Meow! | 7-12 |
| 3 | Cat-astrophe Strikes! | 13-18 |
| 4 | Is the Cat Finally Out of the Bag? | 19-24 |
| 5 | A Dragon with a Fire in Her Belly… | 25-30 |
| 6 | The Breast of Friends! | 31-36 |
| 7 | The Cat That Got the Cream! | 37-42 |
| 8 | A Behemoth Meets an Elite Order! | 43-48 |
| 9 | A Fur-rocious Battle! | 49-54 |
| 10 | Can They Claw Their Way to Victory? | 55-60 |
| 11 | A Whisker in Time! | 61-66 |
