Watching the iron ball flying straight toward him, a small smile formed on Rei's lips.
The massive lump of iron, nearly a meter in diameter, surely possessed tremendous destructive power.
The sheer physical strength to swing it around without any apparent effort was befitting of the contradictory description "a small giant" — standing at two and a half meters tall.
But... even so.
Rei readied Death Scythe, charged toward the oncoming iron ball, and brought the weapon down.
(It's just an ordinary iron ball, not a Magic Item or anything of the sort. There's no need to use Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.)
Indeed, the iron ball hurtling toward him to crush him was nothing more than an ordinary weapon, not a Magic Item.
If the iron ball had been a Magic Item, Rei should have felt the same sense of incongruity he always experienced when encountering one.
...Though that sense of incongruity didn't necessarily manifest with absolute certainty for every Magic Item.
In any case, the Death Scythe Rei brought down should have been able to cleave the oncoming iron ball clean in two.
...It should have.
That much was certain.
But... that was on the condition that Death Scythe's blade actually struck the iron ball, and that Resonance didn't manipulate the chain he held to deliberately alter the iron ball's trajectory.
Resonance, possessing the ability to freely control an iron ball roughly a meter in diameter, did exactly that — resulting in the swung Death Scythe slicing through empty air.
Of course, Resonance himself was in no position to use the iron ball to attack Rei either, so he pulled the chain back and returned the iron ball to his hand.
"Hoh, you've got spirit. I never expected you to charge straight at this iron ball head-on."
Resonance spoke while pulling the chain back wide and swinging the iron ball through the air.
Despite swinging a massive iron ball, there was no sign of strain whatsoever in his tone.
Somewhat impressed by those words delivered so naturally, Rei opened his mouth.
"For all that, you dodged it quite easily, didn't you?"
As he said that, Rei's gaze swept the surroundings for just a moment.
In his line of sight, Zarust and Narcus were each wielding longswords, fighting the other assassins.
Set was also rampaging freely alongside the two of them, sending assassins flying one after another without using any skills.
The reason Set wasn't using skills was likely because Narcus was present, Zarust aside.
Daridora, Narcus's employer, was only a temporary ally. Rei didn't want to reveal too much of their hand, and Set understood this — hence the choice to hold back.
Rei had only glanced away for a moment, having judged that taking his eyes off Resonance was dangerous, but even so, he could clearly see that the two were struggling.
"...I see, so these guys are the type who don't feel pain either. That's troublesome."
"That is our characteristic, after all. ...The effect is somewhat strong, though."
"The effect is strong?"
"Oops, it seems I've said too much. As I told you before, if you wish to know the details, you must defeat me. Do that, and I shall tell you what you want to know. ...Here I come!"
Along with his shout, Resonance once again manipulated the chain and hurled the iron ball toward Rei.
Seeing the iron ball approaching while crushing the air, Rei moved toward it just as before... no, even more aggressively than before, given the ferocious smile spreading beneath his hood.
He raised Death Scythe toward the iron ball bearing down to crush him.
Up to this point, it was the exact same scene replayed as before.
...The only difference, if there was one, was that Rei now knew Resonance possessed the skill and physical strength to freely control the iron ball using the chain.
He swung Death Scythe down toward the iron ball, and seeing this, Resonance naturally manipulated the chain to move the iron ball through the air.
"Flying Slash!"
The single difference from the previous exchange.
That was the fact that Rei's attack was not a swing of Death Scythe, but rather the use of Death Scythe's skill — Flying Slash.
Having reached Level 5, the dramatically more powerful Flying Slash raced through the air in a straight line — not toward the iron ball, but toward the chain that controlled it, severing it clean.
A direct strike from Death Scythe might have managed it, but no matter how much its power had increased, cutting through the iron ball itself with Flying Slash was unthinkable.
Rei's aim was not the iron ball, but the chain.
His reasoning was that, in terms of denying the opponent use of their weapon, cutting the iron ball or cutting the chain made no difference.
Of course, cutting the iron ball would have delivered a far greater psychological shock.
But since the result was the same, Rei saw no need to fixate on that — such was the reasoning behind his attack.
The giant iron ball rolled across the desert with a sound that could only be described as a roar.
Whether fortunately or not, it rolled in a direction completely unrelated to where Zarust, Narcus, and Set were fighting.
"Hmm, so you aimed for that. ...But do you truly think no one has tried something similar before?"
Despite losing the use of his primary weapon — the iron ball — Resonance showed not the slightest sign of panic.
If anything, his demeanor suggested this was well within the range of his expectations.
"For someone who's lost their weapon, you're remarkably composed, aren't you?"
"Hmm, lost my weapon? Wherever did you get that idea?"
"...No matter how I look at it, that's how it appears."
Rei retorted, looking at Resonance holding the chain that had lost its iron ball.
Resonance's greatest weapon — the iron ball — had been sent rolling across the sand when the chain was severed midway, making it utterly unusable as a weapon.
Can't you see something this obvious? Rei's words seemed to say, but Resonance understood this as well, showing no particular change in expression.
"My weapon is right here, you see?"
What Resonance held in his hand as he spoke was the chain, having lost the iron ball at its tip.
Resonance sharply struck the chain against the ground.
It was a blow from a man who possessed the physical strength to swing an iron ball a meter in diameter.
The sand at Resonance's feet was gouged out deeply in an instant and sent swirling into the air.
"...That is undeniably a weapon."
Realizing that Resonance's words were neither bluff nor bravado, Rei readied Death Scythe once more.
The previous strike lacked the raw power of the iron ball, but in terms of speed, it was on an entirely different level.
And for an ordinary human, being struck by a chain wielded with Resonance's physical strength alone would be enough to reduce their body to chunks of flesh.
Knowing that Resonance's confidence was neither bluster nor baseless, Rei lowered his hood with his left hand while keeping Death Scythe ready in his right.
Seeing Rei's face as the hood came down, Resonance's eyes widened for just a moment.
Though he knew of Rei's existence, the fact that Rei usually wore a hood meant he likely hadn't known what his face looked like.
He apparently never expected the face beneath it to be this feminine.
In fact, seeing Rei's slender build — not just compared to himself, but to the other assassins — Resonance had momentarily mistaken him for a woman rather than a man.
Yet the way he recalibrated his thinking almost immediately suggested he was a special existence even among these assassins.
"Here I come!"
Along with his shout, Resonance closed the distance toward Rei.
His movements were so light and agile that it seemed impossible for someone standing over two and a half meters tall.
(With that size, you've got to be kidding me!?)
Rei was momentarily startled by Resonance's movement, but immediately shifted his thoughts and stepped forward to intercept.
Both of them closed the distance toward each other... and the first to take offensive action was Rei, who possessed a means of ranged attack.
"Flying Slash!"
The released Flying Slash shot straight toward Resonance.
A slash flying in a straight line.
But Resonance had already learned firsthand just how much power that attack possessed.
There was no need to take that attack — which had effortlessly severed a sturdy chain — head-on.
Fortunately, Rei had launched the Flying Slash with a diagonal swing of Death Scythe.
That diagonally launched slash was not difficult for Resonance to evade, provided he knew it was coming.
While closing the distance with Rei, he angled his body and let the Flying Slash pass by.
Then, having closed the gap, he swung what could aptly be called a chain whip — the remnants of his chain.
The chain, swung with the same physical strength that had powered the iron ball, would be impossible for an ordinary person to even track.
The chain rushed toward Rei at such speed, but...
"Don't think an attack of that level can do anything to me!"
Rei swung Death Scythe and severed the tip of the chain that had come flying toward his face.
That strike shortened the chain whip, but it didn't mean the attack was over.
The chain whip had already lost its iron ball tip — losing a bit more of the end meant nothing at this point.
Realizing this as Resonance pulled the chain whip back to his hand, Rei took his next step.
"Magic Shield!"
Along with the words that activated the skill, a Shield of Light was generated, and the sudden action startled Resonance, slowing his movements for just a moment.
It was only a moment, but from Rei's perspective, it was a significant opening.
Exploiting that opening, he surged forward in one swift motion.
Seeing Rei's advance, Resonance quickly snapped back to attention and swung the chain whip.
Leveraging his robust frame of over two and a half meters, he brought the chain whip crashing down toward Rei.
Of course, Resonance didn't expect Rei to simply take the hit.
He had clearly heard Rei shout "Magic Shield," and he anticipated that Rei would block with the Shield of Light in front of him.
But... even so, for Rei to not even attempt to dodge — furthermore, to not even direct his gaze at the chain whip and instead charge straight forward to close the distance — was a completely unexpected development.
The swung chain whip struck the Shield of Light that Rei had deployed and was deflected.
Resonance, about to swing the deflected chain whip at Rei again... had his attention seized for just an instant as he watched the Shield of Light that had caught his strike dissolve into particles of light.
And losing focus for even an instant was something one absolutely must not do when facing Rei in combat.
A slash!
The swung Death Scythe carved deeply into Resonance's abdomen.
That he reflexively moved his body and avoided being bisected was likely a testament to his worthiness of leading the assassins.
(But even if that strike wasn't a fatal wound, it was deep enough. There's no doubt it's a serious injury. This should slow his movements—)
—Or so Rei thought, but in the next instant, the sound of something slicing through the air made him reflexively leap backward.
A moment later, a sharp crack and a dull thud rang out across the area.
The sharp sound was the chain whip cutting through the air. The dull sound was its impact against the sand.
"What!?"
Having put some distance between himself and Resonance, Rei was startled that despite inflicting such a deep wound, Resonance had immediately gone on the offensive again... but then he recalled what he had heard from Daridora and his guards, and quickly understood.
"I see, now that you mention it, I heard you all have something that numbs pain. Not just the others, but you as well. ...I've fought opponents of that sort before, and most of them rely on some kind of external method... but I suppose that's to be expected of assassins."
When Rei was in Japan, he had once watched a TV special about a condition where people couldn't feel pain.
It was congenital, and the number of people affected by it was not large.
It was highly unlikely that the entire population of this village happened to have that same condition.
(Now that I think about it, the assassin I fought at the research facility was also from here, right? But it didn't seem like he couldn't feel pain... no, he drank poison and died, so I can't know for sure.)
Even against an opponent who couldn't feel pain, if they drank poison, whether they felt pain or not became irrelevant.
As Rei reasoned thus, Resonance — bleeding profusely from his abdomen, internal organs even slightly protruding — nonetheless spoke with a smile.
"Hmm, did you do something just now? Unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea what you did. ...And of course, regarding the secret of this body as well, unless you defeat me, it shall remain a mystery."
Smiling, tensing his abdomen to keep his internal organs from spilling out, Resonance showed no sign of distress whatsoever.
He took a step, then another, beginning to walk toward Rei once more.
(Even if he doesn't feel pain, there's no doubt that taking wounds will slow his movements. ...In that case, there are plenty of ways to deal with him. And if worst comes to worst, there's always Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor... no, if I use that, I won't be able to extract information from him.)
With Death Scythe in hand, Rei too began walking toward Resonance, who was approaching him.