"Well, for now I don't have to worry about anything else, but... what should I do?"
"Gaaaaaaah!"
Perhaps taking Rei's words as provocation, the red Cyclops bared its fangs and glared at him.
Its left hand was clenched tight, ready to swing a fist at him at any moment.
It was merely clenching a fist, but as expected of a monstrous Cyclops standing roughly five meters tall, it radiated enough force to easily bludgeon—no, crush—a human body.
In fact, considering it had the strength to effortlessly swing the hammer lying on the ground, Rei figured it wouldn't have any trouble taking a human life.
(Hm? Wait... what the...)
Even as he faced off against the red Cyclops, a question surfaced in Rei's mind.
Until just moments ago, the creature had demonstrated an absurd healing ability—regenerating immediately even when its torso was bisected, and reattaching its right shoulder without a second's delay after he'd severed it with a Flying Slash. And yet, for some reason, the red Cyclops now standing before him appeared to be shielding its right arm.
No, not "appeared to"—it was actually shielding it.
That only deepened his suspicion.
Despite having displayed such an abnormal Regeneration Ability, why wasn't the right elbow healing?
Having its right elbow crushed was certainly a severe injury.
But compared to having its torso bisected, it should have been nothing more than a minor wound.
(In other words, there's definitely some kind of trick to it, huh.)
Though it almost certainly didn't understand Rei's suspicions, the red Cyclops gripped the fallen hammer's handle with its free left hand.
In that instant, the blood flowing from the right elbow—crushed by Death Scythe's strike—stopped, and the bone that had pierced through the skin retracted back into its body.
"I see. So that's the secret to your immortality."
The red Cyclops had revealed the source of its abnormal Regeneration Ability, as if answering Rei's question.
Just as with the secret behind its regeneration, Rei found this behavior questionable as well. But once he recalled that a Cyclops's intelligence was by no means high, it actually made sense.
In other words, it was probably trying to show off the secret of its power to instill fear in him.
"Your abilities may be high, but it seems your brain hasn't gotten any smarter. Revealing the trick to your own magic act makes you a third-rate magician, you know? Well, I doubt you could pull off anything as clever as a magician anyway."
"Gaaah!? Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Whether or not it understood Rei's words, it seemed to grasp that it was being provoked, and the red Cyclops unleashed a roar of fury.
Giving in to its anger, it switched the hammer from its left hand to its right and closed the distance, raising the weapon overhead.
But perhaps because its rage was too intense, the blow it swung with all its might became a wide, sweeping strike.
"I'm not slow enough to get hit by a swing like that!"
As he shouted, Rei tightened his grip on Death Scythe and leapt diagonally to the right—to the red Cyclops's left side.
The wide hammer strike failed to catch him and slammed into the ground, carving out a crater as lightning crawled across the earth.
Through this attack, the red Cyclops had always been able to neutralize somewhat agile opponents by catching them with lightning.
Based on past experience, it probably assumed that even if an opponent tried something clever, it could still inflict damage. But with Rei in the air rather than on the ground, it was a different story.
Sleipnir—magic item boots that allowed the wearer to step on air.
For Rei, who specialized in speed-focused combat, they were a magic item that had saved him countless times in battle.
Relying on them once again, Rei kicked off a Wall of Air and, using the principle of a Triangle Jump, swung Death Scythe infused with magic power.
"Power Slash!"
A strike just like before.
The difference was that this time, instead of the blade, he aimed at the red Cyclops's torso with the handle.
Had he used the blade, it would have regenerated from the cut just as before.
So he judged that using a blunt strike to blow it away would ultimately be more efficient.
...Yes. Not within this forest, but to a place slightly farther away—a clearing where all the trees had been uprooted by the Cyclops, leaving an open space.
"Uwooooh!"
Death Scythe weighed roughly one hundred kilograms.
Combined with Rei's physical strength and the power of Power Slash, even a red Cyclops standing about five meters tall couldn't withstand the blow.
The overwhelming mass transmitted through Death Scythe's handle—the combined weight of that mass of muscle and the hammer gripped in its right hand—meant that even Rei needed a full-power strike to send it flying.
"Gah!?"
With an incredulous scream, the red Cyclops was launched through the air.
To think I'd be blown away by something this small—a scream that seemed to say it couldn't accept what had just happened.
Even so, the fact that it had been sent flying couldn't be changed, and by the time the red Cyclops bounced off the ground several times and regained its footing, there were no longer any trees around it.
It had been knocked back to the clearing where the trees had been uprooted entirely to make room for the five Cyclops to move.
"...Well, if there are no trees around, I can fight to my heart's content. Honestly, if I used Corrosion, it would take some time, but destroying that weapon wouldn't be difficult..."
Even a powerful magic item was meaningless if you couldn't wield it properly.
The red Cyclops's strength was undeniable—it could swing the hammer with one hand, after all.
But even so, it was doing nothing more than swinging it around blindly.
There was no technique whatsoever. The hammer, swung purely by brute force, would certainly deliver a lethal blow if it connected.
However, an attack with no technique—just mindless flailing—had no chance of hitting Rei.
(Well, if it had been using the hammer properly, I would've had no choice but to use Corrosion. But since it can only manage brute-force attacks like before, that's exactly why I felt like taking the thing from it.)
Given that it was a massive lump of metal, its sheer attack power as a hammer was naturally high. But what drew Rei's attention most was its effect as a magic item.
One effect generated lightning at the point of impact, and the other granted its wielder an abnormal Regeneration Ability.
If asked whether he could use it in combat himself, Rei would say it was too unwieldy due to its size, making practical use impossible.
Moreover, from his perspective, the power to grant its wielder such abnormal Regeneration Ability seemed somewhat sinister.
(Thinking about it differently, the low intelligence of this creature—likely a Rare Species or High-ranking Species—could also be considered a side effect of the hammer. ...Well, given that it's a Cyclops, there's also a pretty high chance it was just stupid to begin with.)
The red Cyclops must have judged from the fact that the small opponent before it had sent it flying that this was not an enemy to be taken lightly.
Taking up the hammer, it bared its fangs with a growl and let out a roar.
"Gaaaaaaaaaah!"
If it were someone who wasn't an adventurer—no, even a rookie adventurer—would have their legs tremble at that roar, their heart seized by fear, their movements slowing to a crawl.
Some people might even die of shock from the sheer impact.
It was a roar that conveyed that much ferocity, but Rei brushed it off like a gentle breeze, even having the composure to survey his surroundings and confirm the battlefield.
And after listening to the entirety of the roar, Rei opened his mouth with a smile on his face, Death Scythe still in hand.
"Well, is the performance over? If you can show me a more entertaining trick, I wouldn't mind keeping you company a little longer..."
"Gaaah!"
Its roar—something that should have made anyone who heard it cower and lose their will to fight. Faced with an opponent who remained completely unfazed by it, the red Cyclops finally, if only faintly, sensed that the being before it was something beyond its comprehension.
But even so, unable to abandon its pride as the one commanding the other Cyclops, it couldn't bring itself to acknowledge that.
What stood before it was nothing more than its prey.
Forcing that thought upon itself, as if to prove it, it raised the hammer to smash that small body in a single blow...
"You're too naive."
With that murmur, the red Cyclops was overcome by instinctive terror and retreated several steps.
Before it knew it, something had gathered around the being far smaller than itself.
It was invisible, but it was definitely there.
Normally, Cyclops didn't possess the ability to sense magic power. But whether due to the influence of using the magic item hammer, or because it was a Rare Species or High-ranking Species, the red Cyclops was able to feel the magic power compressing and concentrating around Rei. ...It was able to sense it, to its own misfortune.
"Gah!? Gaaaaaaah!?"
Something beyond its understanding was happening.
Judging this, the red Cyclops thought it had to do something about the small being before it and raised its hammer while closing the distance—but in that instant, an intense heat made it stop and retreat once more.
When it noticed, the small being before it was wreathed in something red, gazing at it with an aloof stare.
The only change was that it was clad in something red, and yet its very presence seemed to have grown.
Getting closer would mean being exposed to that heat alone, and touching it directly would likely result in far worse than burns—the red Cyclops instinctively sensed this.
If this had been an ordinary Cyclops, it probably would have fled on the spot.
But the red Cyclops, confident in its own power and proud of having dominated the other Cyclops through force, couldn't bring itself to do something so pathetic.
"Gah, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
A roar as if to rouse itself.
At the same time, the hammer held by the red Cyclops pulsed with a heavy throb.
Then, on the surface of the hand gripping it, veins became visible enough to see clearly, and...
(That's not right!?)
What for an instant looked like veins spread as if eroding the red Cyclops's body—no, rather than eroding, it was more like taking root inside its body and branching outward.
"Gah, gah!? Gaaaaaaaah!"
The red Cyclops must have noticed it too. Whether it was a scream, terror, or whether having roots spread through its body caused intense pain, it raised a voice that echoed throughout the surroundings.
But that scream was not the roar it had been letting out before—it was unmistakably a scream of agony.
"What is that?"
Rei was confident that he could bring down the red Cyclops before him whenever he wanted.
The one screaming before him was likely a Rare Species or High-ranking Species of Cyclops.
A High-ranking Species was one thing, but a Rare Species possessed strength equivalent to one rank above the base species.
In other words, this red Cyclops was a monster equivalent to B-Rank.
...Rei was certainly a B-Rank Adventurer, but he was no ordinary B-Rank Adventurer. He possessed enough strength to fight toe-to-toe with S-Rank Adventurers.
That was why, even against a B-Rank equivalent monster, he believed he wouldn't lose as long as he didn't let his guard down, and he observed the red Cyclops's suffering.
Visually, it was clear that the hammer gripped in its hand was the cause of the current phenomenon, but even from Rei's perspective, it was a sight he was seeing for the first time.
If left alone, the red Cyclops would undoubtedly become stronger than it was now.
But since a magic item was involved, Rei had no intention of missing this sight, even if it meant taking some risk.
"Does it transform from the magic item's effect? This isn't some game's final boss."
Rei muttered while recalling games he had played back in Japan, but the red Cyclops continued its transformation as if to say that was irrelevant.
The muscles of the right hand gripping the hammer hypertrophied further, looking abnormal even compared to its already massive body.
The roots that had spread from the hammer throughout its body pulsed, and each time they did, the roots beneath the skin flickered with a dark red, dull light.
"Gaaaaah... gaaaaaaaah!"
The light of will vanished from the single giant eye of the red Cyclops, which had screamed as if uttering its death throes... and with a gait as though it were being remotely controlled, it took a step toward Rei.
"So that's the result. Thinking about it, I guess it was a good thing I didn't touch that hammer earlier."
Thanking his own good fortune, Rei waited with Death Scythe in hand for the red Cyclops, which was walking toward him with stiff, awkward steps.