By the time Rei reached the grove alongside Grin, the mouse beastman, the Gamelion was already on its last legs.
While the creature had initially held the upper hand against Chrono and the other members of the C-rank party Beast’s Fang, the arrival of Johanna and Lento had turned the tide. Faced with superior numbers, the Gamelion had been driven back in the blink of an eye.
“Gaaaaaaaah!”
With a thunderous roar, the Gamelion kicked off the dirt and lunged at Johanna.
It was a final, desperate strike, launched with the sole intent of dragging at least one person down to the grave with it.
The Gamelion possessed a coat of fur naturally resistant to slashing attacks, but its right eye had already been extinguished by a spear strike. Its internal structure was faring no better; bones were shattered and internal organs crushed by the relentless assault of Shanto’s club and the hammer wielded by the mobile unit man.
Despite its mangled state, the Gamelion threw everything into one last lunge at Johanna, but—
“If you think it’s that easy to take me down, you’re dead wrong!”
Johanna lowered her spear into a thrusting stance, waiting for the monster to close the distance.
“Johanna!” Lento screamed.
Johanna ignored him, her eyes locked on the fangs closing in to crush her skull. The instant the jaws began to snap shut, she sidestepped the strike by a hair’s breadth and drove the spear tip deep past the teeth and into the creature’s throat.
The three-meter-tall behemoth and the average-height woman crossed paths. When they finally stood on opposite sides, it was the Gamelion that collapsed.
The single thrust had pierced through the upper jaw and into the head, pulverizing both skull and brain. It was a fatal wound. The Gamelion slumped to the ground, dead.
A heavy silence hung over the clearing for several seconds as the onlookers processed the sight. Finally, Chrono spoke up as the representative of his group.
“Did we… get it?”
“Yes. If it were still moving after that, it wouldn’t be a Gamelion—it would be some kind of undead.”
Johanna approached the beast. It lay sprawled on the earth, its limbs limp and stretched out. She reached into the Gamelion’s mouth and wrenched her spear free.
“Whoa… amazing…”
Perhaps intrigued by a display of such prowess from another woman, Jona the fox beastman watched Johanna with a gaze bordering on reverence.
“I guess being former mobile unit counts for something after all,” Rei muttered under his breath.
Johanna’s obsessive doting on Seto was her most prominent trait, but her history with the mobile unit meant her skills were the real deal. It was only natural, considering the grueling training she had endured under Rei.
“Good work. Now, what’s the plan for the Gamelion? As for the spoils—”
“Hold it. Just who the hell are you?”
Shanto cut Rei off, interjecting with a sharp, suspicious glare.
Of course, Shanto knew exactly who the person in front of him was. In the current city of Gilm, an adventurer who didn't recognize Rei was either incredibly ignorant or a total fraud. Well, except for that one alchemist Rei had encountered, but he was an exception.
Even so, Shanto’s aggressive tone likely stemmed from the fear that Rei—who hadn't lifted a finger during the fight—was about to swoop in and snatch their hard-earned Gamelion away.
Rei sensed the man’s apprehension and spoke up.
“Just so we’re clear, I have no intention of taking a share of this Gamelion. Lento and the others fought alongside you, so they’re entitled to their cut, but I’ve already been promised a different reward for my help today.”
“…For real? Can I trust you? If you’re lying to us, I won’t let it slide, got it?”
Rei offered a silent nod to the skeptical bear beastman.
Only then did Shanto seem to find some relief. However, before he could say another word, he turned his gaze toward Chrono.
“You colossal idiot!”
Chrono performed a sudden leap and slammed his fist into the back of Shanto’s head.
“Gah! Hey, that hurts!”
“Do you even know who you’re talking to?! This is Rei-san, the B-rank adventurer with the alias Crimson! What were you thinking, trying to pick a fight with him?!”
“I-I’m so sorry, Rei-san. Our idiot… well, please understand we don’t have anything against you personally.”
Amidst Chrono’s shouting, Jona bowed her head repeatedly in apology.
Beside her, Grin stood awkwardly, looking as though he wanted to sink into the ground. Since he was the one who had brought Rei to the scene, he clearly didn’t know how to navigate the tension.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rei said. “I’m not interested in causing trouble for you guys.”
“…Thank you. Truly,” Chrono added, and with that, the immediate conflict was settled.
“Anyway,” Lento cut in, looking at everyone present. “We should probably decide how to split the Gamelion.”
Chrono considered the proposal for a moment before answering.
“Right. Honestly, we would have been killed if you hadn't shown up. Just being alive is a win. I was thinking we should just give the whole thing to you, but…”
“Hey, Chrono,” Shanto grumbled. “That’s being way too generous. It’s not like we’re exactly rolling in gold. At least half… No, look, I know they saved us, so it’s fine if they get a bigger share, but we still need something to show for this.”
“But how are we supposed to split it in half?” Chrono countered. “It’s a Gamelion. Their bodies have a massive resistance to slashing attacks.”
Johanna stepped in to address the bickering members of Beast’s Fang.
“Well, I’m sure Rei-san could split a Gamelion right down the middle easily enough. What do you think?”
“The Gamelion? …Well, I guess for an alias holder, that’s just another walk in the park?” Chrono whispered to himself.
Hoping the rumors of Rei’s power were as true as they seemed, he looked toward Rei.
“Um, Rei-san… could I ask you to do it?”
“Wait, hold on, Chrono!”
Having just been so confrontational, Shanto’s pride clearly couldn't handle relying on Rei now. He reached for Chrono’s shoulder, but Grin moved to block him.
“Come on, Shanto. Don't be disrespectful to Rei-san. We owe them our lives. If Rei-san and his friends hadn't been here, you wouldn't even be alive to complain.”
“Grin… tsk. Fine. It’s not like we can do anything with a whole carcass we can’t carve up anyway.”
Despite his massive frame radiating dissatisfaction, Shanto finally relented.
It’s not like I actually agreed to do this, Rei thought with a hint of annoyance. But I suppose there’s no point in wasting time here.
Rei reached into his Misty Ring and withdrew the Death Scythe.
The members of Beast’s Fang stared in blatant shock, but Rei was long since used to that reaction and ignored them. He channeled magic power into the weapon and delivered a single, fluid horizontal slash at the Gamelion lying on the ground.
The strike easily bypassed the resistance that was supposed to make the beast's hide so formidable.
The Gamelion’s carcass was severed cleanly from head to tail into two equal halves. The internal organs spilled out onto the grass, and a heavy, metallic scent of blood filled the air.
“Incredible… so effortlessly…”
Seeing the feat with his own eyes, Chrono was convinced. The rumors were true—if anything, they were a modest understatement.
The rest of the party felt the same, especially Shanto, who could only stare with his eyes wide and jaw dropped.
“…Right. Um, as for the internal organs and other materials, you guys decide the share. We won’t complain; you saved us, after all.”
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Chrono finally regained his composure and addressed Johanna and Lento.
Johanna and her group watched them with sympathetic eyes, nodding inwardly. They knew exactly how the beastmen felt. They had seen Rei perform the impossible more times than they cared to count.
From annihilating an entire army with a flame tornado to the terrifying combat power he displayed when training the mobile unit, Rei’s strength was burned into their memories. Seeing someone witness his power for the first time was a familiar sight they could only smile at.
“Alright, let’s start the dismantling then. Do you have a cart?” Johanna asked.
“Yeah, we left it outside the grove. Since nobody’s around to steal it… Grin, go get it.”
“On it!”
Grin ran out of the grove in the opposite direction from which Rei’s group had arrived. Once he was gone, Chrono turned back to Johanna.
“What about your cart?”
“Oh, we don’t need one. We have Rei-san, after all.”
“…I see.”
Chrono shot them a look of pure envy for a fleeting moment before shaking his head. “Then let’s get these internal organs sorted out.”
“Right. Let’s get to work.”
Everyone except Rei moved toward the carcass.
Seeing that his presence was no longer required, Rei called out to Lento.
“Lento, I’m going to go look for other Gamelions. You can handle things here, right?”
“Hm? Yeah, that would be great. We came all the way out here for gamelion hunting, after all—it’d be a waste to go back with only half a beast.”
“Make sure you handle that half properly. It’d be best if the internal organs were processed by the time I find a new target and get back.”
“Hah! That’ll depend on how fast you are.”
“Oh, Rei-san! Are you going back to Seto-chan?” Johanna asked, her eyes full of longing.
However, she couldn’t very well abandon her duties with the Gamelion still sitting there, so she bit her lip and forced herself to stay behind.
“Yeah. Just wait a bit. Seto should be able to find a new one pretty quickly. Although, it might be tough if every Gamelion in the area is already being hunted by other adventurers.”
“I’m counting on you! I’m sure Seto-chan will find one in no time, so we’ll get ready on this end as fast as we can.”
“Good luck.”
With those brief words, Rei vanished into the trees.
As Lento watched him go, a small, satisfied smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He figured that with Rei gone, he could finally have a real conversation with Johanna.
Whenever Rei was around, Johanna spent all her time talking to him about Seto. As a man who desperately wanted to show her his own good side, Lento found it a bit frustrating. He had invited Rei along specifically because he knew Johanna loved Seto, but that didn't mean he enjoyed being the third wheel.
“Hmph… you guys are lucky,” Shanto remarked.
He had been prickly while Rei was present, but the moment the youth left, his attitude softened significantly.
“Oh? Do you dislike him?” Johanna asked. “I wouldn't call him a ‘nice person,’ exactly, but he’s certainly not mean-spirited or cruel.”
“Is that so? I guess. It’s just… I don't really want to acknowledge a guy like that.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Hmph. It just rubs me the wrong way, losing to a shrimp like him.”
Shanto hoisted his club onto his shoulder and let out a dismissive snort.
Chrono let out a long, weary sigh as he watched his friend. One of Shanto’s biggest flaws was his tendency to look down on anyone smaller than himself.
Since Shanto was a massive individual, there were very few people larger than him. He firmly believed that size equated to strength, and that stubborn prejudice was a constant headache for Chrono as the leader of Beast’s Fang.
In the town where they had originally operated, there hadn't been many top-tier adventurers, so Shanto’s worldview hadn't been challenged. But here in Gilm, Beast’s Fang was just another face in the crowd—one of countless C-rank parties.
Then again, I guess that’s exactly why he’s being so stubborn about it, Chrono thought.
Shanto was his childhood friend and possessed the highest raw attack power in the party. Chrono truly wished he would cast aside his strange biases. If he could just overcome that hurdle, he would finally reach the next level as an adventurer.
“Hey, Chrono! Stop daydreaming!” Jona snapped. “We have to process the Gamelion internal organs. Don’t leave it all to us; get over here and help!”
“Right, sorry. I’m coming. We have to be careful—Gamelion guts have a lot of useful materials.”
Snapped back to reality by Jona’s irritation, Chrono offered a quick apology and hurried toward the carcass where the others were already busy at work.