Rei looked around at the soldiers of the punitive force around him.
Each of them were pointing their spears towards him, but their expressions were either filled with terror……or awe.
Overlord’s Armour was a skill formed by the visible compression of magic power. They must have realised that they stood no chance of winning, no matter how hard they tried, after seeing Rei use that skill.
However, that was only the reaction of those who had seen Rei fight in person. As for everyone else, it was hard for them to understand the power Rei was wielding.
「What are you doing! Even if he has a title, he’s just one person! If we keep attacking, we can deal with him, even if it’s Crimson!」
The commander of the soldiers shouted in an effort to raise morale.
He clenched his teeth, thinking what he was supposed to do if the morale of his soldiers would drop so greatly just at the sight of Rei.
The commander was someone from the Second Prince’s faction and someone that held a fairly strong level of trust from Shurus.
However, while he had heard of Rei’s power, he had never seen it with his own eyes.
It might have been a different matter if he had gone to see the finals of the fighting tournament.
Regardless, he had only heard of Rei’s strength and had never seen it in person.
This created a difference in understanding of Rei’s power between him and the soldiers who had seen Rei use Overlord’s Armour.
「But, that man is dangerous! If things continue like this, our soldiers will become exhausted!」
「I know! But, is there anyone who can deal with him?!」
The man shouted back at his lieutenant.
His words were also true. If there had been anyone able to deal with Rei as an individual themselves, they would have been put on the battlefield long ago.
The damage caused by Rei in this civil war wasn’t small after all.
But……with no single person able to deal with Rei, the commander’s decision was to throw numbers at him.
It wasn’t wrong. ……Yes, the idea wasn’t wrong.
But, as someone who had seen the battle between Rei and Noiz with his own eyes, the lieutenant could only see the plan as sheer suicide.
Suppressing quality with quantity.
As he turned to look at Rei, he couldn’t think of many other people who were more ill deserving of that statement.
At that moment, screams started to be heard, as if agreeing with the lieutenant’s thoughts.
「AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!」
「Run away, run away, run away!」
「No, we can’t defeat him!」
「Damn it, damn it, damn it! He’s coming, he’s coming!」
「AHH, my arm……where did my arm go, my arm!」
Sounds of screams mixed with angry shouts distorted his surroundings.
「Commander! Right now……」
The lieutenant tried to get his commander to see reality, but……he was unable to finish his words as his consciousness faded to black.
His only relief was that he died without fully understanding what had happened to him.
He never realised that he had been blasted away by Rei, who had charged right into him while wearing Overlord’s Armour, breaking his neck from the impact.
「What-!」
The commander of the unit finally seemed to understand who the person before him was.
It was someone with enough magic power that it could be seen by the naked eye.
「You’re the commander of this unit? I’m sorry, but you’ll have to die.」
Rei stretched out with left hand at those words.
It seemed like Rei was saying that he didn’t even need to use the Death Scythe, which he was holding in his right hand. The commander pulled out the long sword at his waist and entered a stance against the presence that he could only describe as an overwhelming fear of death.
「Heh.」
Rei gave a murmur of admiration in front of the commander.
He knew the effect Overlord’s Armour had……and the pressure the person before him was facing.
It was only natural as he had been training the rebel soldiers to stand in front of him as he used Overlord’s Armour.
However, while the man in front of him appeared to be intimidated, he had still been able to pull out his weapon and enter a stance.
With his equipment, he was definitely different from the ordinary soldiers around him.
「This is a good opportunity, why don’t you tell me your name?」
「Ha-hah. When asking for someone’s name, it’s polite to give your own first.」
Rei nodded at the man’s retort and recalled his left hand, which had been stretched out towards him, before speaking.
「I’m sure you already know, but I’ll tell you my name. I am Rei. I am a B rank adventurer and hold the title of Crimson.」
「Radasnote. I belong to His Highness Shurus’ faction.」
「I see. Radasnote. Then……are you ready to die?」
「Unfortunately, I don’t have any plans for that just yet. I’ll have to return those words to you!」
「……Let’s do this then.」
「Come!」
Time must have erased Radasnote’s fear. Rei dashed forward, filled with fighting spirit.
He normally wouldn’t have been able to achieve such speed.
But, with Overlord’s Armour, it was a completely different matter.
By the time the commander was able to focus his sight on Rei, long sword in hand, Rei was already past him.
The Death Scythe was still in the same position as before.
「What-! Impossible. Movements that even my eyes can’t……capture?」
Those were the commander’s final words.
The next moment, his body split in half at the torso as he upper body slid onto the ground.
The unfortunate mushy sound of organs and blood spilling on the ground could be heard as a strong rusty smell spread into the surroundings.
When the nearby soldiers saw that, they were unable to understand what had happened……but, the next moment, they were brought back to reality by the bloody smell.
「UW-UWAAAAAAH-! Commander, the commander, in one hit!」
「Damn it, damn it, what can we do with this monster!?」
「Why is someone like this here! I thought they said most of the rebel army was already gone!?」
「I don’t know! Don’t ask me, ask someone higher up!」
Their commander had been killed and the lieutenant was nowhere to be seen.
The commander’s lieutenant would usually be the one to take over in situations like this, but the lieutenant was already dead as well.
He hadn’t even been killed by Rei’s attack……but killed as Rei had charged over towards their commander.
「I see, it’s been a while since I’ve fought in an earnest battle like this, I’ve definitely gotten a lot more used to it compared to before. This is probably the result of steady training. Anyway, since we’re here, these are all enemies. If that’s the case, might as well reduce their strength as much as possible. Fortunately, when I’m using Overlord’s Armour, it’s easy to take on these kinds of opponents.」
Muttering to himself, he took a step towards a soldier who was trying run away……moving even faster than when he had fought the commander earlier.
In that moment, his body accelerated as he plunged into the soldiers of the punitive force while wearing Overlord’s Armour.
Just by touching them, arms and legs would shattered as the soldiers were blown away.
Since that was the case if Rei just touched them, there was no way to survive a head on collision.
Rei rammed straight through the enemy army like this.
That alone was enough to leave the punitive force in a state of utter chaos while creating dead and injured en masse.
This scene caused fear and despair for the punitive force and hope for the rebel army.
『UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!』
Seeing the punitive force terrified by Rei’s appearance, the rebel army pressed the attack.
In terms of numbers, the rebel army was still at an overwhelming disadvantage.
However, with the extent that morale had fallen to, it was pointless to just have superior numbers.
If they stayed here, they would definitely be killed.
That was what happened and many soldiers abandoned the battlefield as they fled.
The rebels didn’t just silently watch on.
If they let the punitive force escape, who knew when they would attack again.
Since that was the case, they pursued in order to eliminate as many as they could.
With that……the anomaly that occurred with Rei’s appearance on the eastern battlefield started to spread to other battlefields.
To be more precise, it was Rei who spread it himself.
After smashing through the soldiers in his current battlefield with Overlord’s Armour, Rei attacked the punitive force soldiers in a neighbouring battlefield.
「Uwaaah-, what, what happend!?」
「Commander!? Eh, where has the commander gone? He was next to me just now, but now he’s gone……」
「H-Hey, over there……is that the commander?」
「Uh, it can’t be? His arms, legs, and even his neck is broken!」
With Overlord’s Armour active, Rei plowed through the soldiers of the punitive force.
No one could block his path as he pushed forwards, blowing away any soldiers in his way.
The only and greatest drawback of this method was that Rei was completely unable to make fine adjustments to his movements as he still didn’t have complete control over the skill.
In other words, it was a method of attack that could only be used when only enemies were in his surroundings. If he had allies nearby, he wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart.
Because of that, Rei chose not to attack locations where the rebels and punitive force were fighting, but locations were only the punitive force was present.
「Run away-, run away-, run away-!」
「He’s coming he’s coming he’s coming he’s coming, he’s coming!」
Such screams and angry shouts echoed throughout the area, but Rei was unable to pay them any attention.
He was doing his best to gain better control of Overlord’s Armour as a single misstep would cause him to plunge face first into the ground.
That was why Rei’s attention was mostly on controlling his skill as he careened through the punitive force.
Purely in terms of attack coverage, his fire magic was a lot better, but this method of attack was a lot less likely to hit any allies.
Compared to Rei, Set’s method of combat was a lot less flashy.
「Gururu~!」
He gave a warcry as he descended from the sky, swinging his claws to crush the heads of the punitive force’s soldiers.
At the same time, he used his momentum to leap forward, bouncing off any soldiers in his way.
Unlike Rei, who was using Overlord’s Armour, Set was very much still just flesh.
That meant that anyone he collided with would be knocked over but didn’t necessarily suffer fatal injuries.
It was impossible to reach Rei’s level without using any skills……but his current enemies didn’t pose a problem to Set regardless.
As skills had been forbidden by Rei, Set was only able to attack with his physical body in order to hide the fact he wasn’t an ordinary Griffon.
「Gurururururururururu~!」
With a cry, Set used King’s awe against the punitive force soldiers.
Due to its effect, most of the punitive force soldiers were left frozen, unable to move.
A few were able to resist the full effect, but even then, their movements were clearly slower.
And, to Set, soldiers who didn’t move were not even enemies, just target dummies.
「Gurururu~!」
Set’s claws didn’t just easily kill the soldiers wearing leather armour, but also those wearing expensive plate mail.
Even if they were wearing a helmet, a strike from Set’s front claws would take their head off all the same. A blow from Set’s hind legs might not break their armour, but it would still break their bones and destroy their organs.
Some of the soldiers outside of the range of Set’s King’s Awe used their bows, judging it impossible to fight Set at close range.
However, Set was among the punitive force to begin with.
Furthermore, with many soldiers in the surroundings unable to move due to the effect of King’s Awe many of those arrows hit their allies.
In addition, with his strength, it wasn’t that hard for Set to knock away any arrows targeted towards him, not to mention he was wearing the Bracelet of Wind Manipulation, which could block projectiles in the case of an emergency.
And, most importantly, Set was smart.
As arrows were shot towards him, it wasn’t difficult for him to use the immobilised soldiers as shields.
Of course, the effect of King’s Awe wouldn’t last forever.
Over time, the soldiers would gradually regain their ability to move.
That was why Set, who was limited with regards to his ability to use skills, needed to reduce their numbers by as much as possible during this time.
「Gururururu~!」
His front claws swung out as he gave a loud cry.
Power Crash immediately turned several soldiers into chunks of flesh at once.
When the surrounding soldiers saw that, they completely lost the will to fight.
「A-AHHHHHH-!」
The soldiers who escaped the effect of King’s Awe were the first to run away and the rest ran after them shortly after.
They had come this far to defeat the rebels……humans, not to fight A rank monsters, like a Griffon.
As they gave themselves excuses to run away, the soldiers disappeared from Set’s first battlefield.