"…Phew. I’m just glad I wasn't needed."
Brasso let out a sigh of relief as he watched the battle end in the blink of an eye.
Phron’s aerial surprise attack had been a point of concern, and though she’d missed the head, her blade had still torn through the Harpy’s neck and chest, killing it instantly. Seto’s talons had struck with enough force to pop a Harpy’s skull like a raw egg. The one Rei targeted with his spear throw fared no better; the weapon had bored straight through its head, the sheer momentum shattering everything above the neck.
Despite his relief, Brasso kept his spear leveled at the cave entrance, his eyes fixed warily on the dark opening.
After her kill, Phron had moved immediately into the shadows. Seto, too, had used the recoil from its strike to kick off the ground and take to the air.
"It seems we haven't been noticed yet."
Rei held his breath for nearly a minute, watching the cave. When no other Harpies emerged, he finally allowed himself a sigh of relief.
From a patch of darkness near the cave entrance, Phron signaled for them to join her.
"Shall we?" Rei asked.
"Indeed," Brasso replied.
The two exchanged a look before heading over to Phron’s position.
"That Harpy Rei hit… it let out a bit of a cry before it died," Brasso whispered as they ran across the barren, rocky earth.
"Yeah. My timing was slightly off. Do you think it reached the ones inside?"
The dwarf shook his head. "It sounded like a confused call to a comrade, as if it were asking what was wrong. Since it was aimed at the others nearby, it probably didn't carry deep into the cave. Unless, of course, there are more of them roosting right past the entrance."
"Let's hope not."
By the time they reached the cover of the shadows, Phron was waiting for them with a smug grin.
"How was that? Leave it to me and that’s what you get. Pretty swift, wasn't it?"
"…I thought you were aiming for the head," Brasso grunted.
"Hah!? I wasn't aiming for the head—it's too small a target. I was going for the neck from the start!"
Ignoring Phron’s low-voiced shouting, Rei moved to store the Harpy she had nearly sliced in half and the one Seto had decapitated into his Misty Ring, wanting to hide the scent of blood as quickly as possible.
While the two continued to bicker, Rei walked a short distance away to retrieve the third carcass—the one he had impaled.
"The spear… is gone, huh."
He searched the immediate area, but the weapon was nowhere to be found. It wasn't on the ground, nor was it stuck in the cave wall or a nearby tree. He concluded that it had likely passed through the Harpy’s head without losing much speed, flying off into the dark wilderness beyond. He decided to give up on it.
As he had mentioned to Brasso, it was a cheap thing he’d taken from a thief. In terms of quality, it was barely a normal-level item—any blacksmith or weapon shop owner with high standards would have labeled it a crude product.
"What's the matter?" Phron asked as Rei returned. Their argument had apparently reached a lull, and seeing Brasso’s dejected expression, it was obvious who had won.
"Nothing. I just realized I wouldn't be able to recover the spear I threw."
Rei shook his head and looked up as Seto, which had been circling above to keep watch, spiraled down to join them.
"I see. Well, more importantly… now that the sentries are dealt with…" Phron’s eyes drifted toward the cave entrance.
Rei followed her gaze and nodded. Brasso had already recovered from his defeat and was gripping his favorite weapon, the Earth-shaking Hammer. Seto landed beside Rei with barely a sound from its wings, its sharp eyes fixed on the dark tunnel.
"…Alright, Rei. Blast your magic into the cave. I’ll leave the intensity up to you, but try not to bring the whole ceiling down. We need to recover the materials. This request doesn't pay much to begin with, so I’d like to pad our pockets with Magic Stones and subjugation parts."
"The quality of my ale depends on those rewards, you know," Brasso added.
"Pipe down, you," Phron snapped back, though she turned an expectant look toward Rei.
"I’ll do my best with the cave, but as for the intensity… I have no idea how big it is in there. Just pray the space is wide enough that the Harpies don't all turn to ash."
"…Mmm. I suppose we can't help that if we can't scout the interior."
"Don't worry too much about what this drunkard pops says, Rei," Phron encouraged. "Just focus on wiping out the flock in one go."
"Understood. If you’re ready, I’ll start."
The two nodded, and Seto let out a low trill from the back of its throat. Rei began to chant.
"O Flames, your power is my power. Burn the enemy by consuming my magic power according to my will. Your nature is spreading fire and hellfire. Use my magic power as a catalyst and increase your firepower further."
As he spoke, more than ten fireballs manifested before the blade of the Death Scythe.
True to the spell’s name, ten of Rei’s signature Fireballs hovered in the air. The night was suddenly driven back by a fierce, orange light, and the temperature spiked as the magical heat radiated outward.
"Hot! Hey, Rei! Is this really okay!?" Phron hissed.
The spheres of fire, each the size of a human head, bobbed in the air around the scythe as if swimming through water.
"10 Fireballs!"
Rei completed the spell, and the spheres streaked into the cave entrance. Moving as if they possessed a will of their own, they vanished into the depths. The sudden brightness faded from the entrance, and the oppressive heat was quickly whisked away by the cool autumn breeze.
"I don't know how deep it goes," Rei warned, "so fire might come back out the way it went in. Get back."
"O-Right!"
"Understood!"
Phron and Brasso scrambled back toward the brush. An instant later—
BOOM!
A series of thunderous explosions rattled their eardrums. It wasn't just one; the fireballs were detonating in a rapid-fire chain reaction deep within the mountain.
"Kikikii!?"
The high-pitched, panicked screeches of Harpies caught in their sleep echoed out of the tunnel. Fortunately, no monsters emerged from the entrance where Rei stood waiting with his scythe.
However…
"Rei, above you!" Phron’s warning shout came from the bushes behind him.
Rei looked up, as did Seto.
Against the night sky, illuminated by the fire pouring from the cave, were the silhouettes of Harpy wings. But the light wasn't just coming from the main entrance; a glow was visible from the far side of the peak as well.
"I see. So there’s a back exit."
He watched as the Harpy flock, having identified Rei as the source of the attack, began a high-speed dive.
"Kikikii!"
A Harpy plummeted toward him, its spindly but sharp talons extended to strike.
"Hah!"
Rei swung the Death Scythe in a wide arc, dismissing the attack as a non-threat.
The blade, reinforced with magic power, caught the diving creature mid-air. In a single stroke, it sliced through the monster’s torso. The Harpy slammed into the earth, the impact splitting its body into upper and lower halves that skidded across the dirt in a spray of blood and entrails.
"Hyaaaaaah!"
Behind him, Phron let out a battle cry as her sword impaled another diving Harpy.
Rei flicked the blood from his blade and looked skyward again. Nearly twenty Harpies were still circling, waiting for an opening to swarm them.
"…It seems most of them were sleeping near the other exit," Brasso muttered, stepping up beside Rei with his hammer on his shoulder. The head of the weapon was matted with blood and feathers, showing he had already done his part.
"Guruuuuu!"
Seto took to the air, meeting the Harpies in their own element. It moved with a grace they couldn't match, snapping beaks and shattering talons with its own powerful strikes.
"The bird seems to be having the time of its life," Brasso remarked.
"Maybe, but we're still outnumbered. Then again, if they're going to stay clustered together in the sky, this is actually easier."
"Rei?"
"I’m going to use a large-scale magic. Cover me for a moment."
The two looked up at the sky, now flickering with the orange light of the burning cave.
"…I see. Very well, leave it to us."
As expected of veteran adventurers, they understood his intent immediately. Rei smirked, gathered his mana, and spoke.
"O Flames, dance and swirl. Illuminate the world with your magnificent ballet, and entrance all with a dance so beautiful it burns."
Hearing the words, Seto likely remembered this spell. It was the same magic Rei had used when they first escaped the Forest of Magic. Though the setting had changed from a forest to a mountain, the tactical situation was nearly identical.
Seto dove toward the ground, landing beside Rei just as he designated the target area and spoke the final keyword.
"Dancing Flames!"
Nearly a hundred human-sized pillars of fire erupted into the air. While the number was smaller than what he had produced in the Forest of Magic, it was still five times the number of remaining Harpies. The flames drifted through the air with a flickering, rhythmic motion, as if they truly were dancing.
"Kikii!?"
The Harpies were overwhelmed. There were too many flames to dodge. As soon as a monster touched one, the fire engulfed its entire body, incinerating it in seconds.
"Well, I’ll be… I’ve been an adventurer a long time, but I’ve only seen fire magic like that once or twice in my life," Brasso breathed.
"…Yeah," Phron added, sounding stunned. "To be honest, I think I underestimated him."
Phron stood among the few carcasses she had downed, breathing easily as she watched the rest of the flock turn into falling cinders.
"Still, with them burned that thoroughly, there’s not going to be any materials or Magic Stones left to harvest," Brasso noted with a sigh.
"It couldn't be helped," Rei replied, still holding the Death Scythe as he scanned the area for stragglers. "If we’d fought them all head-on, things would have gotten messy. They might have gotten scared and fled to start a new nest somewhere else. This was the only way to ensure we wiped them out in one go."
"…True. It’s better than having them come back next week."
Despite having just cast a massive, high-level spell, Rei showed no signs of exhaustion.
"He uses a spell that big and still looks like he could go all night," Phron muttered, her voice a mix of awe and exasperation.