With his back against an Orc shack, the man appeared to be resting while remaining alert for an ambush. Sni watched him through her sights, her bow drawn taut.
(So much for a Gryphon-tamer. This is all he’s got? He’s being targeted by a bow and can’t even sense a hint of bloodlust. Honestly, Al was worrying far too much.)
Having completed her preparations to fire at any moment, Sni flicked a glance toward Ceryl, who was positioned on the roof of the building opposite her.
Ceryl caught the signal and gave a small nod. Al and Murgas were ready as well.
(Newbie, you have only yourself to blame for carrying magic items that don't suit you. We'll sell that Item Box and use the gold to fund our new lives... starting now!)
Holding her breath, she steady her aim and released the arrow. It sliced through the night air toward the idle target. The projectile struck him squarely in the torso, and Rei collapsed to the ground without a sound.
"Alright, move in!"
Ceryl's command rang out instantly. As the words left her mouth, Al and Murgas leapt from the shadows, wielding a bastard sword and a dagger. Ceryl followed, floating down from the roof with her longsword and shield in hand.
Sni drew another arrow, keeping her bow ready to provide cover as she watched her three companions close the distance.
The moment the arrow had been fired from the shadows, Rei’s eyes had tracked its flight with perfect clarity.
Had it been aimed at his head, he would have either swatted it away with the Death Scythe or dodged it entirely, but the projectile was headed for his torso. Judging that they had chosen his chest because it was an easier target, he allowed the Dragon Robe to absorb the impact against his right flank while he feigned a collapse.
Seconds later, he heard Ceryl’s voice from the opposite building. He counted the footsteps of three people—Ceryl and two others—rapidly approaching his position.
(According to the information from Bobbs and Elk, the Stars of the Night consists of four members: two warriors, an archer, and a thief. In this situation, the archer is the biggest threat, but she can’t pierce the Dragon Robe, so she can wait. That makes the thief the next priority—they're nimble and dangerous in the dark.)
While lying still, he analyzed the three sets of footsteps to identify his targets.
Warriors and thieves moved differently; their equipment weights and gaits left distinct acoustic signatures. He mapped them out in his mind.
(The left, then.)
Ceryl was approaching from the front. From the heavy footfalls and running speed, the person closing in from the right was Al, the party's other warrior. Rei tightened his grip on the Death Scythe while remaining motionless on the ground.
Naturally, the thief was the fastest. The first to reach Rei was Murgas, the lightest-equipped member of the Stars of the Night.
"Murgas, what's the word? Did Sni's arrow put him down for good?"
Ceryl’s voice drifted over from a short distance away as she drew closer.
"Hang on, Boss. I'll check."
Rei felt a cold grin form in his mind as the footsteps drew near.
Usually, the smart move would be to confirm a kill from a distance by throwing a dagger or a stone. If Murgas had targeted his head with a projectile, Rei would have been forced to counterattack immediately. But whether out of greed for his weapons or simple laziness, the thief chose to approach the "corpse" personally.
(Now!)
The moment Murgas stepped into his reach, Rei exploded into motion. Still lying on the ground, he swung the Death Scythe in a low, horizontal sweep that hugged the dirt. He kept his magic power suppressed to ensure the strike remained undetectable until the very last second. He felt the heavy resistance of flesh and the snap of bone as the supernatural sharpness of the blade sheared through both of Murgas’s ankles.
"Wait... what? A—ah... Gyaaaaaaaaaaaa! My feet! My feet!"
Murgas let out a dazed cry of disbelief before the reality of the injury hit him. Unable to stand, he crashed to the ground. Seconds later, the searing agony registered, and he began to wail and thrash in the dirt.
"Tsk, he’s still alive? Al, go! It’s just a death rattle. Sni, cover us!"
Ceryl had assumed that Rei’s only significant magic item was the Misty Ring on his finger. She had no way of knowing that the robe he wore was a masterpiece without equal in the Kingdom of Mireana—or the entire world of Elgin. She firmly believed Murgas had been hit by a desperate, lucky strike from a man at death's door.
In fairness, she couldn't be blamed. The Dragon Robe had been crafted by Estha Nor of the Zephyle Clan, one of the greatest alchemists in history. It was enchanted with a powerful concealment effect specifically to hide its true value. It was impossible for a C-Rank adventurer in the sticks to see through such high-tier sorcery.
Rei used the momentum of his sweep to spring to his feet. He stepped toward the screaming Murgas and delivered an upward stroke with the Death Scythe. The blade scooped through the man’s midsection, bisecting his torso and silencing his wails instantly.
"Gah!?"
Murgas let out a final, choked gasp as his internal organs spilled onto the ground. Rei glanced at the shoes still standing nearby, detached from their owner, and gave a faint, grim smile.
(I don't feel any guilt for killing him. That's a useful trait to have right now.)
"Murgas!? Dammit, he’s unharmed! Sni's arrow didn't do a thing! Al, hit him together!"
"Boss!? Maybe we should pull back!"
"Don't be stupid! We’ve already committed. It’s either we kill this brat now, or he gets away and reports us to the Guild. Use your head!"
"...Fine, dammit!"
The two warriors coordinated their timing, swinging their swords from the front and right. Identifying Ceryl as the more dangerous of the two, Rei decided to thin their numbers first. He focused on Al, using the shaft of the Death Scythe to flick Murgas’s discarded entrails directly at the man’s face.
"Tsk!"
Al instinctively swung his bastard sword in a wide arc to clear the gore, successfully avoiding being blinded. However, he had fallen for the trap.
"Idiot! You're open!"
Ceryl’s warning came too late. A bastard sword was powerful, but its weight made it difficult to recover once committed to a swing—especially when an opponent had already slipped inside your guard.
Al felt a sudden rush of wind. When he looked for the small, robed figure, Rei was already gone.
"Al, he's inside!"
Ceryl lunged forward with her longsword, but she couldn't close the gap in time. Like the scythe of the Reaper itself, the massive blade was poised to harvest Al's life.
(Shit, the Boss won't make it. My sword is out of position... Is this really how it ends!?)
Faced with imminent death, Al’s mind raced with crystalline clarity. He found himself questioning his life choices and deeply regretting letting Ceryl talk him into ambushing Rei.
"Don't give up, you moron!"
The shout snapped him back to reality.
"What...?"
He was still alive. Confused, he looked down to see several arrows buried in the dirt exactly halfway between him and the spot where Rei had been about to swing the scythe.
He realized then that the voice had been Sni’s. Her suppressive fire had forced Rei to back off.
"Are you okay?"
Ceryl was suddenly at his side, her sword leveled to keep Rei at a distance. Only then did Al truly process the fact that he was still breathing.
"Boss, this kid is the real deal. He didn't tame that Gryphon with just luck."
"Clearly. A G-Rank newbie with this much power? It’s absurd."
Rei watched them, a cold smile playing on his lips.
"You're wondering how strong I am? Let's just say I'm confident I can handle C-Rank monsters without much trouble."
He whirled the Death Scythe with a low whistle, keeping the two warriors in his sights while remaining acutely aware of Sni on the roof.
Her timing with those arrows had been impeccable. Rei had only evaded them because his physical capabilities bordered on the superhuman; a normal man would have been turned into a pincushion.
(Most surprising of all, she used Al as a decoy. She waited for the exact moment I committed to the swing to fire, and yet she still shouted for him to stay alive. They actually trust each other.)
Rei had written the Stars of the Night off as nothing more than petty thugs. Their motives were indeed criminal, but he realized now that their teamwork was genuine.
(Not that I’m going to let them kill me for it. The moment you chose to ambush me, your lives were forfeit.)
Al wiped cold sweat from his brow, looking for any opening. Ceryl did the same. From the roof, Sni kept her bow drawn, waiting for Rei to blink.
Rei held the scythe by the middle of its shaft, spinning it like a quarterstaff in a rhythmic display of intimidation while he calculated his next move.
(The most annoying one isn't the two in front of me; it’s that woman, Sni, providing long-range support.)
He flicked a glance at her. She was perched on the roof of an Orc shack, well out of reach of ordinary melee attacks. If he tried to chant a flame spell, Ceryl and Al would be on him before he finished the first line. Normally, he would have no way to reach her. But Rei was anything but normal.
Using the centrifugal force of the spinning scythe, he gouged the dirt with the shaft, kicking up a blinding cloud of earth and stones at the two warriors before leaping backward.
Arrows thudded into the ground where he had stood a heartbeat before. As he reached the peak of his leap, Rei activated Sleipnir's Shoes.
Just as he began to descend, he kicked the air, using it as a solid platform to propel himself even higher.
Arrows whistled through the space beneath his feet. Sni had accurately predicted his falling trajectory, and had he been a normal human, he would have been hit. But the magic of Sleipnir's Shoes defied her logic.
Seeing her target skip through the air, Sni frantically reached for another arrow, but a voice reached her first.
"Too bad for you."
Rei was already on the roof, standing directly in front of her with the Death Scythe raised high.
"!?"
Sni tried to scream, but the magic-infused blade fell before she could make a sound. The massive crescent tore through her shoulder and sliced diagonally through her torso. Her body slid apart, spilling blood and viscera across the thatched roof.
"Sni!?"
Ceryl and Al cried out in unison, but the light had already left their companion’s eyes.
"You bastard! You killed her!"
Al roared in a blind rage, but Rei only met his gaze with eyes like frozen glass.
"What? Is it only okay when you’re the ones doing the killing? You came here to murder me. What right do you have to complain when I return the favor? Or do you think you’re the only ones entitled to take a life?"
"Shut up! Get down here and face me! I’ll carve you up just like you did to Sni and Murgas!"
Despite Al's provocation, Rei remained on the roof.
"What’s wrong? You can handle a thief and an archer, but you're afraid to fight a real warrior? If you're a man, fight me fair and square!"
"Heh. Fair and square? You ambushed me four-to-one and you have the nerve to talk about fairness? Don't make me laugh. You might be a mediocre adventurer, but you’ve got a real future as a comedian."
"Don't you mock me!"
"Fine, let’s wrap this up. And just to correct you—I’m not a warrior. If anything... I’m a Magic Warrior."
"What...?"
Ignoring Al’s confusion, Rei began to chant, pouring his mana into the words.
"O Fire, thou shalt exist only within the domain I decree, and elsewhere thou shalt find no purchase. As the price for thy fleeting breath, consume my power within these bounds and sublimate thy life in an instant."
As the incantation began, glowing red lines of mana traced a circle on the ground, trapping Al and Ceryl within.
"Tsk!"
Sensing the lethal intent in the magic, Ceryl threw herself backward, clearing the circle just in time. But Al, whose rank was lower and whose judgment was clouded by grief and rage, wasn't fast enough.
Had he maintained his usual caution, he might have sensed the crushing weight of the death closing in on him. But it was too late. The red lines had already formed a perfect seal.
"Wild Dance of the Fire Spirits."
The spell triggered. The area within the red circle was instantly encased in a translucent crimson dome. As Al’s face twisted in sudden terror, countless lizard-like fire spirits manifested within the sphere. They were too numerous to count. A split second later, they began to detonate in a chain reaction. Each explosion triggered the next, until the interior of the dome became a roaring furnace of blinding, white-hot heat. Al didn't even have time to scream before he was reduced to ash.