By the time Rei arrived inside the grove with Gurin, the rat Beastkin, the Gamelion was already on the verge of death.
It had completely dominated in the fight against Krono and the rest of Beast’s Fang, a C-rank party, but once Johanna, Rent, and the others joined the fray, the sheer numbers disadvantage instantly put it on the back foot.
「Gaaaaah~!」
With a loud roar, the Gamelion dashed forward and lunged straight towards Johanna. It was a final strike born from the desperate desire to drag at least one person down with it and tear them to shreds.
Although the Gamelion possessed fur with a strong resistance to slashing attacks, its right eye was already gone from a spear thrust, its ribs were broken, and its internal organs crushed from the strikes of Shanto, the bear Beastkin, and his club, alongside the mace wielded by one of the former guerrilla force men. Despite being in such a state, the Gamelion directed its final blow at Johanna……
「If you think you can take me down that easily, you’re dead wrong!」
Holding her spear ready in a thrusting stance, Johanna stood her ground against the oncoming Gamelion.
「Johanna!」
Rent shouted as he watched her, but Johanna paid him no mind. She stared directly at the fangs closing in to bite her face……and the exact moment those jaws tried to snap shut, she evaded the Gamelion’s bite by a hair’s breadth while thrusting the tip of her spear deep into its open jaws, straight into its throat.
The Gamelion, boasting a massive 3m frame, crossed paths with Johanna, a woman of average height, but when they finally moved past each other, it was the Gamelion that collapsed to the ground. The single spear thrust had penetrated its upper jaw straight and through its head, shattering its skull and brain to deal a fatal blow as it crashed heavily into the dirt.
The surrounding adventurers were quiet for a few seconds before Krono finally spoke up on behalf of everyone.
「Is it……over?」
「Yes. If it were still alive after that, it wouldn’t be a Gamelion, it would be some kind of undead.」
Johanna approached the Gamelion, which lay dead on the ground with its limbs stretched out. Prying open its mouth, she pulled out her spear.
「Wow……amazing……」
Perhaps showing interest as a fellow woman, Jona, the fox Beastkin, directed a gaze filled with deep respect towards Johanna.
「She’s a former member of the guerrilla force, after all」
Rei muttered quietly to himself.
Johanna’s excessive affection for Set was always her most prominent trait, but as a former member of the guerrilla force, her actual combat ability was the real deal. Then again, she had undergone harsh training alongside Rei, so it was only natural.
「Good work. So, what are we doing with this Gamelion? As for the split……」
「Hey, wait. Who the hell do you think you are?」
Shanto interrupted, cutting off Rei’s words with a fierce glare.
Of course, Shanto knew exactly who was standing right in front of him. In Gilm, any adventurer who didn’t know who Rei was would have to be incredibly ignorant or an absolute fraud. ……Though, there had been an alchemist who didn’t know Rei, even if they weren’t an adventurer.
Even so, the reason Shanto questioned Rei so aggressively was likely because he assumed Rei was going to casually take credit for their prey despite having done absolutely nothing in the fight.
Sensing exactly what the bear Beastkin was thinking from his glare, Rei opened his mouth to clarify.
「Just so you know, I have no intention of claiming any rewards from this Gamelion, Rent and the others who fought alongside you are a different matter though. I’ve already been promised a completely separate reward, anyway.」
「……Really? Can we actually trust you? If you’re lying to us, I’ll never forgive you, alright?」
Rei gave another nod towards Shanto. Only then did Shanto finally look relieved.
Krono directed his gaze toward Shanto……and then leapt up, driving his fist straight into the back of Shanto’s head.
「Guh! H-Hey, that hurts!」
「You idiot, do you have any idea who you’re talking to!? That’s Rei-san, a B-rank adventurer with the alias of Crimson! What the hell were you thinking, picking a fight with him like that!?」
「I-I am so sorry, Rei-san! Our resident moron just……look, we don’t have any grudge against you or anything, really.」
Amidst the echoing scolding, Jona bowed her head repeatedly. Beside her, Gurin stood around awkwardly, looking incredibly uncomfortable. Since he was the one who had brought Rei along, he probably had no idea how to handle the situation.
「Don’t worry about it so much. I don’t have any intention of causing trouble for you guys, either.」
「……Thank you so much, seriously.」
Krono apologized one last time, effectively putting an end to the sudden dispute.
「Ah……so, what are we doing about the Gamelion’s shares in the end?」
Rent asked everyone present, figuring that this was the one thing they needed to settle right away. Receiving Rent’s gaze, Krono thought for a moment before speaking.
「Let’s see. If you guys hadn’t shown up, we would have definitely been killed by that Gamelion. Considering that, just surviving is a massive benefit for us already, so I wouldn’t mind giving you the entire Gamelion, but……」
「Hey, Krono! That’s pushing it way too far! It’s not like we’re rolling in cash ourselves, you know!? Even if their share is larger because they saved our lives, which is fair, we still need a piece of it ourselves!」
「……But how are we supposed to split it down the middle? This is a Gamelion we’re talking about, their bodies are highly resistant to slashing attacks.」
As the members of Beast’s Fang bickered back and forth, Johanna called out to them.
「Um, if it’s Rei-san, slicing a Gamelion cleanly in half should be incredibly easy for him. What do you think, Rei-san?」
「Slicing a Gamelion in half? ……Wait, I guess an adventurer with an title can do that sort of thing easily?」
Krono muttered under his breath while turning his gaze toward Rei.
Holding onto the hope that the rumours about Rei were genuine, Krono spoke up.
「Um, Rei-san. Could we ask you to do it?」
「Hey, hold on, Krono!」
Having just spoken so aggressively to Rei moments ago, Shanto clearly couldn’t stand the idea of relying on him now. He reached a hand out to grab Krono’s shoulder, but Gurin stopped him.
「Hey, Shanto……cut it out, don’t show any more disrespect to Rei-san. We were saved by them. If Rei-san and his party weren’t here, you wouldn’t even be alive to mouth off right now.」
「Gurin……tch, fine, I get it! It’s a fact that we can’t do anything unless the Gamelion gets divided up, anyway.」
At Gurin’s words, Shanto voiced his compliance, though his massive frame still practically radiated dissatisfaction.
(It’s not like it was actually decided that I’d be the one doing it, though. Well, I guess there’s no point wasting time here.)
Despite feeling slightly annoyed, Rei pulled the Death Scythe out from the Misty Ring. The members of Beast’s Fang openly surprised at the sight, but since Rei was thoroughly used to that reaction already, he paid it no mind.
Pouring magic power into the Death Scythe, he unleashed a single slash toward the collapsed Gamelion.
The strike effortlessly split the Gamelion, a monster that was supposed to have an incredibly high resistance to slicing attacks. The corpse was cleanly halved right down the middle from head to tail, causing its internal organs to spill out as a heavy scent of blood drifted into the surrounding air.
「Amazing……just like that……」
Witnessing Rei’s strike, Krono was fully convinced that the rumours were absolutely true, or rather, that the rumours had actually downplayed Rei’s true ability. The others felt the exact same way, with Shanto eyes going particularly wide in sheer shock.
「……Ah. Um, you guys can decide how to split the internal organs. You saved us, so we won’t complain about whatever you choose.」
After standing dazed for a few seconds, Krono finally snapped back to his senses as he spoke to Johanna and Rent.
Watching them, Johanna and the others silently sent sympathetic looks toward Krono’s party, understanding exactly how they felt. They had already seen Rei perform an innumerable number of unbelievable feats. He had single-handedly annihilated an entire army with a flaming whirlwind and displayed a monstrous level of combat power during his training sessions against the guerrilla force. Granted, the guerrilla force members had assisted in wiping out the army, but Rei’s abnormal strength had still been thoroughly seared into their minds.
Because of that, seeing the sheer shock on the faces of people witnessing Rei’s greatness for the first time was something Johanna and the others couldn’t help but nod along with internally.
「Right, then let’s start dismantling it. ……Do you guys have a cart or something with you?」
「Yeah, we left it outside the grove. Well, nobody’s watching it right now, so……Gurin, if you could.」
「On it.」
Gurin replied to Krono’s request and dashed off outside the grove, heading in the opposite direction from where Rei’s party had arrived. He had likely gone to fetch the cart they left behind.
Watching Gurin leave, Krono turned back to Johanna’s party.
「Where’s your cart?」
「Eh? Oh. Well, we have Rei-san with us, so……」
「……Right, makes sense.」
Krono cast an envious glance toward them for a split second, but he immediately shook his head as he spoke.
「Then let’s get these internal organs sorted out.」
「Right. Let’s get to work.」
Everyone present except Rei moved in closer toward the Gamelion. Watching them, Rei felt there was no point in him staying around, so he called out to Rent.
「Rent, I’m going to look for another Gamelion. I can leave things here to you, right?」
「Hmm? Oh, yeah, that would actually be a huge help. It wouldn’t be any fun if we came all this way to hunt Gamelions and only ended up with a single half.」
「……Make sure you process that half properly, though. It would help if the internal organs are already dealt with by the time I find a new Gamelion and come back.」
「Ha, that depends entirely on when you get back.」
「Ah, Rei-san. Are you heading back to Set-chan’s side?」
Johanna spoke up with an incredibly envious tone, but since the Gamelion matter still needed to be dealt with, she couldn’t exactly abandon her duties. Suppressing her burning desire to ask to go along, she could only watch.
「Yeah. Just wait here for a bit. Knowing Set, it shouldn’t take him very long to spot a new Gamelion. Though, it might be tough to find one if every Gamelion out there is already fighting other adventurers.」
「Please do. Set-chan will definitely find a Gamelion in no time, so we’ll make sure to finish up our preparations early over here.」
「Good luck.」
Exchanging those final words, Rei left the area.
Watching him go, Rent looked a tiny bit happy, likely because he realized that with Rei gone, he would finally get a chance to talk to Johanna. Whenever Rei was around, Johanna naturally spent most of her time talking to Rei about Set, which wasn’t exactly thrilling for Rent, who was desperate to show off his best side to her. Still, the reason he didn’t pick any petty fights with Rei was because he had asked Rei to come along in the first place, and more importantly, he had invited Rei fully knowing how much Johanna loved Set.
「Hmm……you guys are pretty lucky, you know. Being able to form a party with that Rei.」
The one who spoke up was Shanto. He had maintained a prickly attitude the entire time Rei was around, but the moment Rei left, his demeanor softened considerably.
「Oh, do you dislike Rei-san? I wouldn’t exactly call him a saint, but it’s not like he has a bad personality or is an unpleasant person, you know?」
「Is that so? Well, I guess you’d know. I just really don’t want to acknowledge a guy like that.」
「Can I ask why?」
「Hmph, it just pisses me off seeing a tiny guy like that throwing around so much power.」
Shanto grunted as he hoisted his club onto his shoulder.
Looking at his fellow party member, Krono let out a deep sigh. One of Shanto’s biggest flaws in Krono’s eyes was that he tended to look down on anyone smaller than him. Shanto had an naturally massive frame. Because of that, very few people were larger than him, leading to his deeply ingrained belief that being bigger meant being stronger, which was a constant source of headaches for Krono as the leader of Beast’s Fang.
Back in the city where they used to operate, there weren’t any other remarkably prominent adventurers, so Shanto’s logic had actually held up. But now that they had come out to Gilm, Beast’s Fang was nothing more than one of the countless C-rank parties wandering around the area.
(Well, I guess that’s exactly why Shanto is being so stubborn about it, though.)
Shanto was a childhood friend who boasted the highest attack power in their party and Krono honestly wished he would just drop his strange prejudices. If he could just get over that hurdle, he would finally grow into a truly exceptional adventurer……or so Krono thought.
「Hey, Krono! We’re supposed to be processing the Gamelion’s internal organs, right? Don’t leave it all to us, get over here and help!」
「Whoops, sorry. I’m coming. When it comes to Gamelions, the internal organs actually have a lot of useful materials, so we have to be careful.」
Snapped back to reality by a slightly irritated Jona, Krono offered a brief apology and hurried over toward the halved Gamelion corpse, joining the others who were already busy processing the materials.