"Guh!?"
The instant Rei saw the massive battle axe swinging down toward him, he tried to kick off the floor and dive into the room purely on reflex, but—
"Guh!"
As expected of an A-Rank adventurer. The battle axe Elk swung down rebounded upward just before its blade struck the floor, refusing to let Rei escape. It pursued him like a homing predator and slammed its strike home.
Rei's misfortune was twofold: Elk's strength as an A-Rank adventurer exceeded his expectations, and the battle axe he wielded was a magic item.
His fortune, however, was that he had just returned from outside and was still wearing his Dragon Robe. The axe's bizarre trajectory—bouncing off the floor just before impact—had also bled off much of its force.
Thanks to the Dragon Robe's defensive properties, Rei avoided anything fatal, but the blow still sent him hurtling across the room and crashing into the wall.
"Guh! Y-you... what the hell are you doing, Elk?!"
The impact knocked the wind out of him, but Rei immediately recovered his stance and roared at Elk, who stood before him gripping the battle axe. And roared was the right word—most of the customers and adventurers in the dining hall flinched and froze the moment they heard it. Even the handful of high-ranking adventurers present, though not completely paralyzed, had reflexively dropped into combat stances.
"...Rei. I'm sorry, but I have to kill you." Elk's voice was quiet, almost flat. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. You can resent me. You can hate me. But... your life ends here."
He murmured it with what appeared to be an expressionless face. But Rei, still burning with anger, sensed something wrong in Elk's demeanor.
(What was that? Elk's state right now... it doesn't look like he's being controlled. But there's almost no killing intent, either... Tch!)
Elk gave him no time to think. Brandishing his battle axe, he charged into the room.
Rei yanked his right side back, forcibly dodging the descending blow on the spot.
(Damn it! None of my weapons are practical in this room!)
Rei's primary weapons were the Death Scythe, over two meters long, and his throwing spears. Both were polearms, and neither could reach full effectiveness in a space this cramped.
He did carry knives, of course. But when it came to countering Elk's massive battle axe with a knife? Rei's conclusion was blunt: impossible.
(Still, better than bare hands.)
He quickly selected a Mithril Knife from the mental list that flashed through his mind. In the next instant, it materialized in his right hand.
"..."
Elk spared it a single glance, said nothing, and came at him again.
Rei ducked low, letting the horizontal sweep pass over his head—
"Too slow!"
Just before the axe cleared overhead, Elk's voice rang out and Purple Lightning erupted from the blade, crashing down onto Rei. But—
"You're the slow one!"
Rei seized the arm hovering directly above him and, in one violent motion, slammed Elk's massive frame—easily over two meters—into the floor.
"Gah!"
His back hit the floor full-on, but the fact that he still refused to release his grip on the battle axe was admirable indeed. More than that—he launched a counterattack, unleashing several more arcs of Purple Lightning from the axe that struck Rei squarely.
"I told you—too slow... hah!"
Once again, his body was hoisted up by the wrist still gripping Elk's arm, and slammed back down.
Again. And again. And again. And again.
Elk's critical mistake was not knowing what the Dragon Robe could do. The defensive power of a garment crafted from the hide and scales of an ancient dragon was simply beyond what the Axe of the Thunder God—the magic item that had given Elk's party its name—could pierce.
"Hey, what's going on in there?!"
"Wait, what's happening!?"
Drawn by the woman's scream from the hallway, Rei's roar, and the sounds of combat erupting from the modest six-tatami room, several figures appeared in the doorway.
What they saw was the small-framed Rei endlessly slamming the towering Elk into the floor by his right arm.
From the sidelines, it looked for all the world like Rei was unilaterally brutalizing Elk. That impression—combined with the fact that Elk was a beloved, well-known figure in the City of Gilm, while Rei's own notoriety among adventurers was more infamy than fame—led to a predictable result.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?! Let go of Elk!"
The first to rush over was a brawny man who grabbed Rei, pinning down the arm that had been about to slam Elk into the floor once more.
That alone wouldn't have stopped Rei. But his movements had been hindered, and in that opening—
"Uwooooh!"
With a roar, Elk wrenched his captured arm free.
All Rei could manage in that split second was to tighten his grip and crack Elk's wrist.
"Argh!"
Elk barely flinched at the pain. He vaulted off the floor and charged at Rei—who was still grappling with the man who'd intervened—raising the Axe of the Thunder God, which he hadn't released despite the cracked wrist, and kicked off the floor to attack once more.
By then, the onlookers had finally grasped the situation. It wasn't Rei who had attacked Elk. Elk was the one attacking Rei.
"Huh? Wait—Elk?!"
The man tangled up with Rei let out a stunned mutter at the sheer ferocity of Elk bearing down on them—more accurately, on Rei—battle axe raised. But nothing so trivial was going to stop the current Elk. The man's face went pale at the massive weapon screaming toward him.
"Tch—out of the way!"
Out of patience, Rei shook off the hands pinning him and drove a kick into the man's torso. Using the recoil, he pivoted toward the window to create distance from Elk, who was already closing in with his axe raised—
And crashed through the glass, out into the open.
If he couldn't use his preferred polearms indoors, the answer was simple: get somewhere he could.
His room was on the second floor, but a drop of that height was nothing given Rei's physical abilities. He landed almost soundlessly, absorbed the impact, and immediately whirled around to face his room above.
What he saw was Elk launching himself through the same window, seconds behind.
"...Tch. Not giving up, huh."
Rei clicked his tongue and drew the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring, assuming his stance.
Elk touched down beside him, killing the impact with the same effortless technique. That body control was worthy of an A-Rank adventurer.
"I don't know why you're after my life. But if that's what you're targeting, I assume you're prepared to lose yours in the process?"
"...Yeah."
Elk's reply was short but carried a low rumble. Seeing it, and reading the anguish in his eyes, Rei furrowed his brow slightly.
(Some kind of circumstance behind this. Even so, I can't afford the luxury of taking someone at Elk's level alive. If I could just subdue him and find out why he's—wait. Why is Elk alone? Rhodos not being here makes sense; he's not strong enough. But Min is an A-Rank adventurer and a skilled mage. She's also supposed to be the one who reins Elk in when he goes off the rails. Min isn't here? Is that even possible? Which means...)
"So you'd better stake your own life, Rei! Because if you don't, you're the one who's going to die!"
Elk's voice shattered Rei's train of thought. He kicked off the ground, closed the distance in a flash, and swept the Axe of the Thunder God horizontally.
It hadn't just been Rei who couldn't fight at full capacity indoors; Elk had been similarly constrained. His step-in speed out here was incomparably sharper than inside.
"I'm not letting you have it your way!"
Rei swung the Death Scythe, intercepting Elk's Axe of the Thunder God head-on.
The sun had already set. In the darkness that swallowed the surroundings, scythe and axe collided, scattering sparks while Purple Lightning crackled from the blade.
"Tch!"
Elk's miscalculation was Rei's sheer physical strength and the weight of the Death Scythe itself. Even Elk, who prided himself on his arm strength—even wielding the Axe of the Thunder God, his cherished magic item and the namesake of his party—was losing in raw power, in weapon weight, and in swing speed. The only reason he hadn't been blown away in a single blow like every opponent Rei had faced before was a testament to just how skilled Elk truly was.
Rei's miscalculation was that the Axe of the Thunder God was a higher-grade magic item than anticipated, capable of clashing evenly with the Death Scythe. He had initially tried to shear through it with mana-infused strikes, but the axe, wreathed in Purple Lightning, held firm against the mana-charged Death Scythe.
Both sides had miscalculated, yet the flow of battle remained firmly in Rei's favor.
But Rei had noticed the unnatural quality of Elk's attacks. Even with the advantage, he had no intention of ending the fight. Deflecting another strike, he locked eyes with Elk and muttered under his breath.
"Elk, I don't know what's driving this. But the fact that Min isn't here tells me most of what I need to know."
Amid the clash of axe and scythe, Elk's face twitched for just an instant—barely a flicker—and hesitation flickered in his eyes.
Rei, watching Elk's face at close range, didn't miss it.
(Just as I thought. Min and Rhodos have been taken hostage, and the condition for their release is my life. That's the gist of it.)
Even as the realization formed, Rei and Elk continued trading blows. Sparks and Purple Lightning scattered with each collision. From the inn, onlookers peered out to see what was happening, and those who had gathered from Rei's room earlier stood watching the two fight in the yard.
None of them intervened. They understood that stepping into a battle of this caliber would cost them their lives.
(He hasn't stopped attacking even after I said that much, but proportionally, these aren't the lethal strikes from the beginning. Which means...)
In an exchange stripped of killing intent—something that could already pass for a Sword Dance—the Death Scythe and the Axe of the Thunder God met once more, and Rei whispered.
"There's an Observer out there, isn't there?"
"!?"
Startled, Elk gave the faintest of nods.
Reading each other, the two broke apart from their near-blade-lock and leapt backward simultaneously.
(Then to end this farce, I need to deal with that Observer first. Fortunately, this is the inn's backyard. The stables are right there. What I need to do is simple.)
The two closed the distance again, scythe and axe crashing together.
To any onlooker, it looked like a genuine, all-out duel. The Death Scythe swept in fast; Elk caught the Grim Reaper's Blade on the Axe of the Thunder God, deflected it with a smooth slide, and loosed a crackling arc of Purple Lightning as a counter.
But beneath the clash of steel, the two were exchanging intelligence.
What emerged was this: Min and Rhodos had been taken hostage, and Elk was being forced to fight. One of the hostage-takers' agents had slipped into the City of Gilm to serve as an Observer, watching the battle. The enemy numbered only four in total, with one acting as the Observer. And the two hostages were being held in the City of Abuelo.
Armed with this information, Rei issued swift instructions mid-clash.
"Listen. I'm going to telegraph a big swing. You dodge it and hit me with something that sends me flying—into the stables. I'll have Set track down that Observer."
"...Can you pull it off? They're skilled at hiding in the dark. Finding them won't be easy."
Rei deflected the Axe of the Thunder God sweeping up from below with a single flash of the Death Scythe and gave a small nod.
"Yeah. Set has Night Vision, and right now, it's the most reliable partner I've got. ...Alright?"
"Can't be helped. You're the only one I can rely on right now. ...I'm counting on you."
Rei nodded to Elk, whose face was etched with guilt, and then—
"This is... where I end it!"
He declared it in a loud voice—loud enough for the Observer to hear—and swept the Death Scythe's blade in a wide horizontal arc. Elk dropped low, sinking into the ground to evade the strike, then swung the Axe of the Thunder God upward. Rei caught the blow on the Death Scythe's shaft, but—appearing to be overpowered by Elk's strength—he was sent hurtling through the air and crashing straight into the stables.