Rei and Set flew directly from the Guild Training Ground toward the city outskirts. Watching them go, Kenny turned her attention to Baslero, who stood beside her.
"Come on, standing here won't help anything. Let's head back inside the guild. We need to dry you off, or you'll catch a cold."
"But..."
Even as he answered, Baslero’s eyes remained fixed with an intense, burning gaze on the horizon where Rei and his companion had disappeared.
"I’m serious! You're just going to get sick if we stay out here. Children should do as their big sister says!"
Kenny grabbed Baslero’s hand with a mock-angry huff. Despite her well-known preference for younger men, she apparently didn't harbor those kinds of feelings for the ten-year-old Baslero. She began dragging him forcefully back toward the guild. Perhaps, if Kenny had looked closely into the boy's eyes at that moment, she might have seen the spark of a newfound, iron-clad resolve.
"There they are!"
A few minutes after soaring out of the City of Gilm, Rei spotted a blue mass on the highway below while scanning the area from Set’s back.
It was a flock of Icebirds, swarming over two of the three wagons in a merchant caravan.
From this height, it was clear that the caravan guards were resisting desperately, but they were hopelessly outnumbered by over fifty monsters. With the Icebirds averaging about a meter in length, the guards lacked the numbers and the raw power to repel such a violent swarm. One wagon had already been completely demolished; the adventurers who had guarded it, the horses that had pulled it, and the merchants themselves had been swarmed and devoured alive.
"Tch. They’re clumped so close to the wagons I can’t just wipe them out with magic."
Rei clicked his tongue, gripping the Death Scythe. He knew the monsters were weak to fire, but he couldn't very well incinerate the Icebirds along with the people he was trying to save.
Even as he weighed his options, the distance between Set and the flock closed in the blink of an eye.
"No time to overthink it. Set, I’ll support the wagon on the right. You take the one on the left."
"Guruuu!"
Set gave a short, high-pitched purr of acknowledgment and dove straight toward the swarm on the ground.
"Gururururururruuu!"
The Gryphon let out a sharp, piercing roar to announce its arrival.
"Kee?! Kee!"
Alerted by the sound, the Icebirds attacking the wagons shrieked. Their cries were high-pitched and grating, sounding more like monkeys than avian monsters as they signaled the threat to their kin.
"Keee! Ki-ki! Kee!"
But their warning came too late. Or rather, Set’s flight speed was simply too overwhelming. By the time the majority of the flock realized a high-rank monster like a Gryphon was upon them, Set was already passing over the wagons, and Rei was leaping from its back.
"Haaaaaah!"
Plummeting through the air, Rei channeled magic power into the Death Scythe and swung. The blade flashed through an Icebird hovering above a wagon, slicing it clean in half without the slightest resistance.
"Sleipnir's Shoes, activate!"
He triggered the magic item, allowing him to kick off the void and take a few steps through the air to adjust his trajectory. He landed solidly on the driver's bench of the lead wagon.
"Out of the way! Flying Slash!"
With a sharp shout, Rei unleashed a wave of force from his scythe, bisecting two more Icebirds as easily as the first.
"Wh—?! Who are you?!"
One of the adventurers fighting to protect the wagon shouted reflexively.
There were four guards left at this wagon: two swordsmen, a spear user man, and a single archer woman. They all looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. The man with the spear was the only one who could spare a glance; the two vanguards were occupied trying to keep the Icebirds at bay, struggling to block the ice-coated talons and beaks, not to mention the Ice Arrows being fired from the flock.
"I’m Rei, an adventurer dispatched from the guild in the City of Gilm!"
As he spoke, Rei swung the Death Scythe in a massive arc. The shaft was over two meters long, and the blade itself exceeded a meter. The reach was immense, and the force behind the strike—powered by Rei's superhuman strength and the scythe's weight—was truly the stroke of a Grim Reaper.
Infused with magic power, the blade sliced through anything it touched, while the heavy shaft shattered bones and sent torsos and heads flying.
It was a spectacle of absolute dominance. The four adventurers and the merchants hiding inside the wagon stared in dazed disbelief, wondering if what they were seeing was real. Rei, however, didn't give them time to marvel.
"Don't just stand there! The fight isn't over! Tell your friends at the other wagon that the Gryphon is an ally!"
Normally, these veterans wouldn't have been so quick to obey a boy who looked young enough to be called a child. The merchants were savvy negotiators, and the guards were experienced adventurers in their own right. But having witnessed that single, overwhelming display of power, not one of them even thought to argue.
Still, the mention of a Gryphon made the adventurers' faces pale. An A-Rank monster. If it truly were an ally, it was an incredible boon, but if it turned on them... as professional adventurers, they couldn't help but feel a surge of instinctive dread.
Even so, they knew they couldn't afford to be picky if they wanted to live. The spear user man gathered his breath and screamed toward the other wagon.
"The Gryphon is an ally! It’s the tamed monster of a reinforcement from Gilm! Whatever you do, don't attack it!"
His voice, raw and desperate, carried across the chaos to the defenders of the second wagon.
"Did you hear that?! Help is here from the City of Gilm!"
"But a Gryphon as a tamed monster...? Ugh, you persistent pests!"
Answering the first woman’s somewhat relaxed voice, the second woman swung a halberd, her axe-blade severing the neck of an Icebird that had been diving for her throat.
"Never mind that! Arrows! I need cover! My shield is at its limit!"
The woman at the front shouted in a near-scream, brandishing a sword with her right hand to keep the monsters back.
Unlike the wagon Rei had reinforced, this wagon was guarded by three women. The vanguard calling for cover was equipped with half plate, a sword, and a shield—a defensive style focused on endurance rather than mobility, which was rare among adventurers. The woman with the halberd wore leather armor reinforced with metal plates, and the third was an archer woman desperately firing to keep the swarm from closing in. All three were capable-looking adventurers in their twenties.
Just as the woman with the halberd—the leader, Taenia—was about to strike another approaching Icebird, a shadow fell over them.
"Gururururururuuu!"
A massive roar shook the air as something giant surged past the women, its sheer bulk slamming into several Icebirds and sending them tumbling through the air.
"...Wait? That roar... was that the Gryphon?!"
The female swordsman, Phabel, shouted as she deflected a charging bird with her shield and used the moment it hit the ground to crush its neck with her metal-reinforced boot.
Stepping over the monster’s carcass, she glanced toward Taenia. There stood Set, his body length exceeding two meters, fixing the Icebirds with a gaze so predatory that it seemed to freeze them in place. He stood protectively before the wagon, daring anything to approach.
"Kee! Ki-kee! Ki-ki-keee!"
"Ki-ki-ki..."
"Keeee!"
Lower-ranked monsters like the Icebirds had no hope of withstanding the pressure of an A-Rank beast. They began to circle the wagon at a distance, making those grating simian shrieks.
"Are we... are we actually saved...?"
The halberd-wielding Taenia breathed the words in spite of herself.
Looking around, she saw about twenty Icebirds still circling, waiting for an opening. After fighting without a single second to catch their breath, even this tense stalemate felt like a miracle.
"Phabel, Luido, can you still fight?"
"I-I can manage. But my shield is almost done. It won't take many more hits," Phabel replied, looking at her battered gear. Her heavy armor had protected her from the worst of it, but her face and hands were covered in small lacerations.
"I’m running low on arrows too~" Luido, the archer, added in her characteristically leisurely tone. Being in the rear, she was uninjured, but her arms were trembling and twitching from the strain of rapid-firing for so long.
"Stay focused. Use your potions now."
"But Taenia-chan, we're okay now that the big guy is here, right?"
Taenia shook her head as she poured a potion over an ice-chilled cut. "We’re safe for the moment, but we don't know when they’ll snap. We have to be ready. Do we have any spares left?"
She called out to the merchants hiding inside. They nodded and hurriedly handed out several vials, though they froze for a moment when they saw Set. Their fear lasted only a few seconds, however; as experienced merchants, they recognized the Tamed Monster's Necklace around the Gryphon's neck and realized it was an ally.
"...So that’s a Gryphon."
"It's my first time seeing one."
"Me too."
"Me four."
Taenia gave a tired, wry smile as the merchants stared in awe at the beast. An A-Rank monster was a terrifying threat as an enemy, but as an ally, there was no one more reassuring.
"I wonder how the other wagon is doing. I saw someone dive off the Gryphon earlier..."
Just as she spoke—
Vwoom!
A massive Flame Tornado erupted from the direction of the other wagon, incinerating nearly a dozen Icebirds in a single instant.
"...Eh?"
Taenia stared, dazed by the sudden pillar of fire. Her companions, the merchants, and even the surrounding Icebirds were equally stunned.
However, the reactions were polar opposites. To the humans, the fire was a beacon of hope. To the Icebirds, seeing their kin incinerated by the element they feared most triggered a visceral transformation.
Had the magic been cast a few moments later, the Icebirds might have fled, broken by Set’s presence. But witnessing their kind slaughtered by the hated flames sent the flock into a frenzy. All thoughts of survival or fear were erased, replaced by a mindless, violent rage.
"Ki-ki-ki-ki-keee!"
The Icebirds shrieked in their simian tones. Instinct told them that attacking the Gryphon was suicide, so the survivors from Set's side pivoted, diving toward the wagon Rei was defending with blind fury.
Whish!
"Kee?!"
The lead bird in the charge was suddenly struck mid-air, an arrow piercing its torso from a completely unexpected direction.
"More reinforcements?!"
Beyond the swirling flock, Taenia saw a wagon racing toward them from the City of Gilm. On the driver's seat stood a female adventurer, drawing her bow and loosing arrow after arrow with deadly precision. Taenia let out a cry of pure, unadulterated joy.