Having unilaterally slaughtered the Cobolts frozen in place by Set's King's Intimidation, Rei and Set scanned the area and confirmed that no Dark Elf Children were present.
Then, just as he had done with the Goblin earlier, Rei stored one of the Cobolt corpses in his Misty Ring before letting out a sigh tinged with both relief and disappointment.
The absence of any missing Dark Elf Child here was perhaps fortunate, as it meant they had been spared the sight of the Cobolts' massacre.
At the same time, however, failing once again to find the Dark Elf Children was enough to leave Rei with a deep sense of regret.
"Shall we move on? I'd like to find some kind of clue soon."
"Guruuu..."
Set rumbled in agreement with Rei's words.
At this rate, they would end up clearing out most of the monsters in the forest before ever finding the Dark Elf Children — or so Rei honestly thought.
Not that he particularly minded, but given the circumstances, prioritizing the Children's safety was undoubtedly the right call.
"Anyway, the best approach is to search as much of the area as we can while taking down any monsters we encounter along the way... right!"
The Death Scythe swung in tandem with his words.
At the same time, the sensation of cutting through something soft registered through the scythe's handle and into Rei's hand.
"What was that?"
Rei tried to turn his gaze toward whatever he had just severed, but before he could, he noticed something being launched at them again and swung the Death Scythe once more.
That same soft resistance met the blade again.
It felt almost like cutting through cloth.
What is this? What am I cutting?
He didn't think something so soft could actually harm him, but the attacks were unmistakably fueled by hostility.
Even so, "probably harmless" wasn't a good enough reason to simply ignore them.
On the other hand, with no understanding of what the enemy's attacks were meant to accomplish, passively blocking them indefinitely wasn't an attractive option either.
Tch, no choice. I was hoping to avoid using it at night since it stands out too much, but...
Muttering inwardly with irritation, Rei activated the Death Scythe's skill.
"Magic Shield!"
What materialized at those words was a Shield of Light capable of nullifying any attack — once.
Its potency was extraordinary; it could well be called Rei's trump card for defense. However...
"It really does stand out."
As Rei noted, the Magic Shield was exactly that — a shield of light. In a night forest where even the moonlight was veiled by clouds, it was glaringly conspicuous.
In other words, it made a perfect target.
When the next attack came hurtling in, Rei simply stood his ground and waited.
The projectile flew without so much as a whisper of wind-cutting noise, struck the Magic Shield, and stopped dead.
In the same instant, the Magic Shield dissolved into light and vanished.
But Rei's eyes didn't miss what had struck it.
"Feathers, huh."
Indeed — feathers.
The true identity of whatever had been silently attacking Rei and Set all along was feathers.
The reason they hadn't produced even the faintest sound of slicing through the air was likely because their soft texture canceled out any wind resistance.
"Hoo! Hoo!"
Perhaps realizing its attack had been blocked, the monster that had been firing the feathers let out a cry.
"An owl-type monster, huh... Well, it's obviously not your ordinary owl."
Rei had Night Vision, but even so, once the creature melted into the dense foliage, tracking it visually was no easy task.
Still, what he managed to glimpse was unmistakably the silhouette of an owl.
Of course, given that it was attacking by launching feathers, it was clearly no ordinary bird — it was a monster, just as Rei had said.
In fact, he had caught sight of a third eye on its forehead and horn-like protrusions along its body.
There was no mistaking it for a normal owl.
Its size was nowhere near that of an Aerowing either — only about one size larger than a standard owl.
Which was precisely why it was trying to conceal itself among the branches, vanishing from Rei and Set's line of sight in this dense forest.
Both Rei and Set had Night Vision, but that didn't mean they could track something hiding among the branches in the dark.
Furthermore, as an owl-type monster, it shared a trait that distinguished it from Aerowings — its wingbeats produced virtually no sound.
To be precise, the sound wasn't entirely absent, but it was astonishingly faint. Rei's ears couldn't pick up the beating of the owl's wings at all.
Set could just barely detect it, but even that was only the faintest trace — not nearly enough to pinpoint the creature's location.
"Tch, what a nuisance..."
Clicking his tongue, Rei tried to recall the name of the owl-type monster he had glimpsed for only a fleeting moment.
It should have been in the monster encyclopedia... and the moment he thought about it, the answer came to him.
C-Rank monster — Derutoroi.
As its appearance suggested, it was an owl-type monster classified as C-Rank, yet it was only dangerous enough to be slain by a single person.
In terms of raw combat power, it was merely equivalent to a D-Rank monster. However, its nocturnal nature, its ability to move in near-total silence and blend seamlessly into the surrounding darkness, and its capacity for concealed feather attacks — which Rei had already blocked multiple times — gave it an exceptionally high degree of stealth. That was why it had been classified as C-Rank.
Its Subjugation Proof Part was the tail feathers.
Its beak, claws, the third eye on its forehead, and several types of internal organs were all traded as materials.
"...Derutoroi, huh. For a Three-eyed Owl, it's got a surprisingly cool name!"
The Death Scythe, swung the instant he sensed movement again, sliced clean through the feather the Derutoroi had launched.
With it firing this many feathers, won't it eventually run out? Could I just drag this out into a war of attrition...? No, that won't work either.
They had deliberately entered this dangerous night forest to search for the Dark Elf Children. He needed to bring down the Derutoroi in front of him as quickly as possible and get back to the search.
Having decided that speed was essential, Rei swung the Death Scythe in a feint.
"Flying Slash!"
The released slash shot straight toward where he estimated the Derutoroi to be.
It cut through several thick branches along the way, but by the time it reached its destination, the Derutoroi was already gone.
"Ow!"
Rei had been scanning his surroundings after judging the Flying Slash a miss when he suddenly felt a faint sting at the back of his right shoulder.
To be precise, it was more of a tingle than actual pain.
Because he had been concentrating so intensely on locating the Derutoroi, even a minor stimulus registered as pain.
Gripping the Death Scythe in his right hand, he reached his left hand behind his shoulder and found a Derutoroi feather stuck there.
The owl had likely circled behind him before Rei even fired the Flying Slash, then exploited the opening afterward to launch its attack.
It may have intended the strike as a one-hit kill, but unfortunately for the Derutoroi, its calculations hadn't factored in the Dragon Robe Rei was wearing.
As a result, the feather failed to pierce the robe and accomplished nothing more than a faint jolt of surprise.
"It got behind me, huh... What a troublesome trick."
Rei whipped around instinctively, but as expected, the Derutoroi was already gone.
It had melted into the darkness, hidden among the branches, and slipped away without a trace.
"Gurururu"
Set growled, its frustration plain to hear at being harassed by an enemy that refused to show itself.
Of course, if they abandoned all restraint, there were any number of ways to deal with it.
Set's Fire Breath or Rei's Flame Magic could end it without giving the owl a chance to evade.
But unleashing attacks like that in this forest would inevitably mean an all-out confrontation with the Dark Elves.
And since Rei had no desire for that, such methods were simply off the table.
"Set, if your ears won't work, use your nose."
"Guruu, Gururururuu!"
At Rei's command, Set rumbled as if to say leave it to me and activated the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill.
With senses sharpened far beyond normal, Set sniffed the surrounding air... then locked its gaze onto a single point and opened its beak wide.
"Gurururururuu!"
What erupted from its mouth was not fire, but countless bubbles of varying sizes.
One of Set's skills — Bubble Breath.
It possessed no direct attack power, but when the bubbles burst, they transformed into a highly adhesive liquid that splattered across the surrounding area.
Most of the bubbles struck the branches in their path and popped on contact, turning into sticky liquid that fused nearby branches together.
However, the countless bubbles came in all different sizes.
Some slipped neatly through the gaps between branches, occasionally passing through openings created when earlier bursts had already glued other branches together... until eventually, several bubbles drifted down beneath the Derutoroi.
"Hoo! Hoo!?"
The owl had probably never imagined that its position in a forest it claimed as its nocturnal territory could be discovered so easily.
After all, Rei's earlier Flying Slash had been aimed at where the Derutoroi had already vanished from.
Whether due to that overconfidence or not, the Derutoroi showed no sign of noticing the nearby branches being sealed together by the Bubble Breath, and it ended up hopelessly ensnared.
Its worse stroke of luck came when, upon touching the bubbles while perched on its branch, it tried to take flight.
The bubbles that struck its feet and the branch instantly turned into adhesive liquid, binding the Derutoroi's talons fast to the wood.
Fully expecting to be able to fly, the owl flapped its wings silently and attempted to launch from the branch... only to realize in the next instant that it couldn't, letting out a confused shriek.
"Alright! ...Wait, in this situation I can't exactly rush straight over."
Set's Bubble Breath had been the right move to break the stalemate.
But at the same time, the entire area touched by the Bubble Breath was now coated in adhesive liquid, meaning Rei couldn't just charge through carelessly either.
Scanning the area and confirming no other enemy presences nearby, Rei made his decision immediately.
"Set, keep watch on the surroundings here for now."
"Guruu!"
Set responded swiftly, rumbling in acknowledgment.
Rei gave Set a trusting look, then left the area.
His destination was not toward the Derutoroi, but off to the right.
It wasn't that he was abandoning the fight — he was taking a detour to approach the Derutoroi from another angle.
The Bubble Breath's trajectory was essentially a straight line in whatever direction Set faced. Given that, his reasoning was simple: if he took a route outside the Bubble Breath's path, he could avoid the adhesive liquid entirely.
It let out a scream, so the Bubble Breath probably tangled up its wings or something and it can't move. If that's the case, even with a detour, I should be able to finish it off before it escapes.
Thinking as he ran, Rei dashed through the night forest with the Death Scythe in hand.
Tree branches whipped against him, but for Rei wearing the Dragon Robe with the hood down, they were no hindrance at all.
Ducking his head to avoid the longer branches that would have struck his face, he pushed through the forest until the Derutoroi finally came into view ahead... and there, his forward momentum ground to a halt.
"...I really should have expected this."
The words came with a sigh, and Rei's gaze fell upon the Derutoroi hanging upside down from a tree branch.
Since it was an owl-type monster, Rei briefly wondered if the pose might be intentional — but that thought evaporated the instant he saw the creature thrashing desperately to free itself from its predicament.
Despite its feet being glued to the branch by the Bubble Breath, it had tried to take off without realizing it was stuck, leaving it dangling helplessly upside down.
"How should I put this... it's pitiful."
"Hoo! Hoo!"
Perhaps noticing Rei's murmur, the Derutoroi let out a threatening cry to intimidate him... but given its current situation, there was nothing it could possibly do.
Even so, it tried to fire more feathers at him — but deflecting projectiles launched from a clearly visible position was hardly difficult for Rei... and with a single stroke of the Death Scythe, the Derutoroi's head was cleanly severed.