「-!?」

The next moment, Rei saw a huge battle axe swinging towards him. Almost on reflex, he tried to dash back into the room to escape, but……

「Guh-!」

As expected of an A rank adventurer. As the blade of the battle axe swung by Elk almost touched the floor, which would have let Rei escape, it swung back up as if tracking its target.

Rei’s misfortune was that Elk, as an A rank adventurer, was more capable that he was expected. And, the battle axe used by Elk was a magic item.

On the other hand, Rei was lucky that he had just come back from outside and was wearing his Dragon Robe. And, it seemed that the power of the battle axe was greatly diminished after reversing the direction of its swing just as it reached the ground.

As a result, the Dragon Robe’s defenses prevented any fatal injuries but Rei was violently knocked back, slamming into the room wall.

「Guh, t-this……what are you doing, Elk!」

Rei was stunned for a moment as he was slammed into the wall, but Rei quickly regained his footing and shouted at Elk, who was swinging his large battle axe in front of Rei. ……No, rather than a shout, it might be better to describe it as a roar. Most of the customers and adventurers who were in the dining area were stunned the moment they heard that roar. A few high ranking adventurers weren’t affected by it but immediately went into a fighting stance.

「……Rei. I’m sorry, but I have to kill you. I won’t ask you to forgive me. You can hate me for it. You can hate me. But……your life, I will take it here.」

At first glance, Elk seemed to have no expression. But Rei, who had shouted in anger, felt a sense of incongruity when he saw Elk’s state.

(What? Right now, Elk……it doesn’t feel like he’s being directly controlled by someone. But, his killing intent right now……tch!)

Perhaps Elk didn’t want to even give Rei the time to think. He quickly rushed into the room with his battle axe.

Rei avoided the battle axe swung towards him by pulling the right side of his body back.

(Damn it! All my weapons are hard to use in this room!)

Rei’s usual weapons were the Death Scythe and throwing spears, which were 2m in length or longer. Both were weapons with long reach and were not effective in this small space.

Of course, he also had knives. However, if he were asked if a knife could fight against Elk’s huge battle axe, Rei’s conclusion would be it was impossible.

(That said, it’s still better than my bare hands.)

Thinking to himself, he quickly selected the Mithril Knife from the list in his mind. The next moment, the Mithril Knife appeared in his right hand.

「……」

Elk glanced at it without saying anything in particular before attacking with his battle axe again.

Rei dodged the horizontal swing of the battle axe by squatting down to the floor.

「Naive-!」

Just as the battle axe went over Rei’s head, with Elk’s shout, purple light shone from the battle axe and lighting struck out towards Rei. But.

「What’s naive……is that-!」

With such words, Rei grabbed Elk’s arm that was above him and forcibly slammed Elk, who was over 2m in size, to the ground.

「Gah-!」

Even though his back was on the floor, Elk still didn’t let go of his battle axe. On the contrary, more purple electricity sparked out from the battle axe, slamming into Rei.

「I told you. You’re too……naive!」

As Rei continued to hold onto Elk’s right arm, lifting him up and slamming him onto the floor.

Again and again and again and again.

Elk’s mistake was that he didn’t know about the quality of Rei’s Dragon Robe. The power required to break through the defenses of a robe made from the skin and scales of a dragon that had lived for a long time was something that couldn’t be done even with the magic item that was the origin of the party name Axe of the Thunder God.

「Hey, what’s going on!」

「Oi, what the hell!?」

A few people appeared at the entrance to the room after hearing screams of a woman from the hallway, Rei’s roar or the sounds of fighting from the 6 tatami sized room.

And what they saw was the diminutive Rei grabbing Elk’s arm and slamming the 2m tall Elk onto the ground endlessly.

Looking at the scene from that angle, it looked like Rei was one-sidely attacking Elk. The fact that Elk was a famous and popular person in Gilm was also a factor. Even though Rei was also famous among adventurers, he was famous in a bad way. Because of that……

「Hey, what are you doing! Release Elk!」

The first man to rush in was well built and tried to hold Rei down as he was about to slam Elk to the ground again.

Of course, he wasn’t at a level where he could stop Rei. But he did manage to distract Rei……

「Uoooooh-!」

Elk shook his right arm that was grabbed by Rei as he gave an angry roar.

At that moment, Rei was only able to fracture Elk’s right wrist as Elk broke free of Rei’s grip on him.

「Ah!」

Despite frowning slightly at the pain, Elk jumped up from the floor. He rushed to attack Rei, who was currently fighting the man who was trying to hold him down, while not releasing his grip on the Axe of the Thunder God even with his fractured wrist.

At that point, the people who had come over finally realised the situation. It wasn’t Rei who had attacked Elk, but Elk who had attacked Rei.

「Eh? Wai- Elk!?」

The man that was struggling with Rei was surprised…………to be exact, he gave a shout asking what was going on as Elk swung his battle axe towards Rei. However, nothing would stop Elk at this point. The man’s cheeks twitched in fear as the battle axe was turned towards him.

「Tch, you’re in the way!」

Rei, who was struggling with the man, forcibly shoved away the hand that was trying to hold him down and kicked the man away.

At the same time, Rei used the recoil to move towards the window to get away from Elk, who was approaching him with battle axe in hand, before breaking the glass and jumping out.

Yes, if he couldn’t use the long weapons he was good at in the room, Rei just had to move to a place where he could use them.

The problem was that Rei’s room was on the second floor, but jumping down from that height would be perfectly fine with Rei’s physical ability. He landed on the ground, killed the impact and immediately turned around……looking towards his room.

What he then saw was Elk jumping out the same window as he had several seconds ago.

「……Tch, is there any way to make him give up?」

Rei took the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring as he clicked his tongue.

As Elk landed on the ground, like Rei, he killed the impact of his landing. Indeed, as expected of an A rank adventurer.

「I don’t know why you’re trying to take my life. But, if you are, then you’re prepared to lose your own, right?」

「……Ah.」

Elk gave a short grunt in reply. Seeing that and seeing the distress in Elk’s eyes, Rei frowned slightly.

(What’s his reason? That said, it’s not easy to take advantage or capture someone with Elk’s ability. And if they could, why would they release him to make him fight me……wait. Why is Elk here? I know Rhodes wouldn’t be here because he’s not a match for me. However, Min is an A rank adventurer and a skilled mage herself. And, she can also stop Elk, who can sometimes get out of control. Why isn’t Min here? Could that be possible? In that case, maybe……)

「That’s why, put your life on the line Rei! If you don’t, you will die!」

Elk’s shout cut off Rei’s thoughts as he dashed forward, swiftly closing the distance and swinging the Axe of the Thunder God horizontally like a whirlwind.

Like Rei, who couldn’t use his main weapon in his room, it was probably the same for Elk. The speed of his charge was incomparable to when he had been fighting inside earlier.

「Yes, yes, that’s what I want to see you do!」

Rei also swung his Death Scythe, intercepting Elk’s Axe of the Thunder God.

The sun had already set and the collisions between the scythe and axe scattered sparks into the darkness of the surrounding night. At the same time, lightning sparks ran through the axe.

「Tch-!」

Elk’s miscalculation was Rei’s strength and the weight of the Death Scythe itself. Elk was confident in his own strength and his favoured magic item. But even though he was swinging his party’s namesake, the Axe of the Thunder God, he lost out in power, weapon weight and speed of the weapon swing. Still, because of Elk’s high skill, he was able to fight Rei without being being blown away by a single attack like most of Rei’s enemies up until this point.

Rei’s miscalculation was that Elk’s Axe of the Thunder God was a higher level magic item than he had expected and could clash with the Death Scythe straight on. Initially, he had tried to cut the Axe of the Thunder God with the magic empowered Death Scythe. But, empowered by the purple lightning, the Axe of the Thunder God was able to match the magic empowered Death Scythe.

There were miscalculations on both sides, but the state of the fight remained in Rei’s favour.

Nevertheless, Rei was aware of Elk’s odd behaviour, and for that reason, didn’t intend to finish the fight even though it was in his favour. As he blocked an attack from the Axe of the Thunder God, Rei whispered to Elk as he watched his eyes.

「Elk, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I have a rough idea as Min isn’t here.」

For a moment when the scythe and axe collided, yes……only for a moment, Elk’s face cramped and hesitation showed in his eyes.

And, Rei, who was observing Elk’s face closely, couldn’t miss his momentary movements.

(I thought so. Min and Rhodes were probably captured and taken hostage or something, and the condition for their release……is my life.)

Even while thinking that, Rei and Elk continued to fight with scythe and axe. Each time, sparks and purple electricity would scatter around. The people who had gathered at Rei’s room watched the fight in the garden from the inn.

The reason they didn’t go out was because they knew that if they interfered with that fight, they would die.

(He won’t stop attacking even when I said that, but he’s not trying to kill me anymore like at the beginning. In that case, maybe……)

Rei whispered again when the Death Scythe and the Axe of the Thunder God clashed again in an exchange that held no blood lust.

「There’s someone watching you, isn’t there?」

「-!?」

Elk was surprised at Rei’s words, but nodded immediately.

Seeing that, they both jumped back at the same time to make some distance while keeping close to each other.

(Well then, in order to end this farce, I’ll have to deal with his watcher first. Fortunately, this is the backyard of the inn and the stables are just around the corner.)

After taking some distance, they immediately dashed forward again, fighting with their scythe and axe.

At first glance, they seemed to be fighting seriously. As the Death Scythe was swung, Elk parried the grim reaper’s blade with with the blade of the Axe of the Thunder God, pushing it aside before releasing purple lightning as a counter.

However, the two of them were exchanging information as they struck each other with scythe and axe.

It turned out that Min and Rhodes had been taken hostage and Elk had been forced to fight. One of the people who was holding Min and Rhodes hostage had entered Gilm along with Elk to watch him and this fight. The total number of enemies were small as there were only four of them and one was sent to watch him. The two hostages were currently in the city of Abuero.

With that information, Rei gave some quick instructions to Elk as they struck each other.

「Listen up, I’ll attack you with a big swing. You avoid it and hit me with an attack that will blow me away. Hit me towards the stables. I’ll ask Set to look for your watcher.」

「……Can you do it? They are good at hiding in the dark. It’s hard to find them.」

Rei nodded lightly as he used the Death Scythe to parry the Axe of the Thunder God, which had been swung at him from below.

「Yes. Set has good night vision, and above all, he’s the most realiable helper at this point in time. ……You ready?」

「It can’t be helped. I can only rely on you. ……Please.」

Rei nodded at Elk, who had a remorseful expression.

「Now then……let’s finish this!」

Loudly declaring it so that it could be heard by the watcher, Rei swung out horizontally with the Death Scythe. Elk avoided it by ducking close to the ground and swung the Axe of the Thunder God from that position……Rei blocked it with the handle of the Death Scythe, but was blown away by the attack, as if pushed away by Elk’s strength, and crashed into the stables.

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