one of the only times i have seen Loremaster Gtdead biased. I do believe had no reason to lie, cocky as he is, i do think he took down valravn with the other kids. Plus he would've been called out by the other kids if he really did nothing.
I actually have a good reason to suspect that Cole did nothing in this fight other than just "trying" to wound Valravn and failing hard. I will explain in the end of the post.
In any case, just taking part in this fight makes it extremely likely that he had to survive Valravn's attacks, especially considering that he probably was the only one who would do any damage to Valravn, and he would be the prime target.
Some snippets that showcase Cole's character.
Ella "Only Goliath is down there. I let the other loose."
show cole an with hpunch
Cole "What!?"
Cole "Have you any idea how hard it was for us to beat that thing!?"
Ella "Of course, I saved you after all."
Cole "......"
show ella m flip with dissolve
Ella "Hmhm, what's the matter? Afraid he'll come back for revenge? Aren't you my oldest, my strongest, my best? Where'd that confidence go?"
He uses the word "beat", but when MC taunts him it's clear that he believes he didn't beat shit.
Ella "How many have you found?"
Cole "Five, not including the one I'm tracking down now."
Cole "Proud of me?"
show ella ant flip with dissolve
Ella "...And how many of those did you take off your brothers and sisters?"
show cole laugh with dissolve
Cole "Pssh, they gave them to me. And I left them mostly healthy afterwards. It's a win/win."
He takes credit for something he didn't do and he only admits that because Ella knows what's going on.
Cole "We saw your big fight. I bet you're proud of yourself huh? Beating that weakened shell of a monster. You have no idea how big of a bullet you dodged thanks to me."
You "What does that mean?"
Cole "It means that if you fought that thing as I had to fight it, you'd be spending the rest of your life as an immobile heart dispenser, getting eaten day in and day out."
menu:
"Taunt him":
jump tauntcole
"Thank him":
jump thankcole
"Shrug":
jump shrugcole
label tauntcole:
You "You fought it before huh? Did you win?"
show cole n with dissolve
Cole "......."
You "Didn't think so. Guess you're just jealous I finished the job you couldn't."
show cole an with dissolve
Cole "As if loser. That thing was nothing compared to what it used to be. Even Big Sis had to-"
The idiot actually was the reason why MC eventually fought Valravn and he still believes that his action was beneficial.
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Valravn's threat level:
Valravn when MC fights him is a B Class threat according to the description. Small arms don't work against him, heavier tech like Tanks are useless against him and they normally send a level 3. MC was level 2 and Xanthe said that his chances were extremely low. This resonates fairly well with what Ella says about the chances of a level 2 vs level 3s, so I consider this matter closed.
Considering that a bunch of level 3s had trouble beating him, he would be a Class A or higher during that fight. Perhaps stealing his heart weakened him.
I think that Valravn in full power is a rank S, like the other monsters with pure connections to Apostles, Aglaecwif, Hex, Goliath etc. However it seems that his power level is a bit too malleable. He is a tough bastard but he needs to consume if he sustains injuries, true to his carrion status before his ascendance.
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Why I think that Cole and the kids never had a chance against Valravn and it was all Ella:
I will try to be as clear as possible with the progression here, because it's important.
1) Valravn was strong enough to fight a bunch of level 3s.
2) After the fight, Valravn was barely functional. It took many hearts and Deus? to restore his basic functionallity.
3) If MC as a level 2 managed to beat Valravn, then MC as a level 3 would completely wipe the floor with him.
4) 4-5 level 3s are surely more powerful than a single newborn level 3.
5) The team of level 3s had so much trouble that Ella had to go save them.
My point: If the kids were capable of wounding Valravn so much that it needed to eat with a straw, they would have done it without Ella, by chipping at it constantly till he couldn't take anymore. Valravn seems to lose a lot of power when he gets wounded, so the chipping strategy would work wonders till it is weak enough for Cole to blow it up and leave it barely alive. But they couldn't. Charlie, Zara and Shen have mental powers, Briar is probably support guessing from him behavior, and Cole has heat based powers (MC uses Valravn's armor replica for fire immunity).
It's obvious that they bit WAY more than they could chew, but Cole instead of admitting his mistake of fighting an extremely strong monster without knowing that it resisted all his attacks, he claims he "fought and weakened it". It's quite possible that during the fight, Cole was all "Protect me and I will kill it", so all he did was raising his hand and looking mean, never managing to do anything useful while the others did all the work of handling Valravn and surviving it's attacks.
I'm calling it here, it was Ella 100% that wounded Valravn. All the kids managed to do was annoy him, dodge him and perhaps trip him but all of them were incapable of wounding him.