Elk swung the Axe of the Thunder God down, but the Silver Lion swiftly sidestepped and evaded it.
The weapon slammed into the floor, shattering the ground and scattering debris while lightning crackled outward across the surface.
The Silver Lion, however, showed no concern whatsoever for the lightning crawling toward it along the floor. It bared its sharp fangs and charged straight at Elk.
To the Silver Lion, the most troublesome opponents were Elk, who wielded the Axe of the Thunder God capable of dealing effective damage, and Gryphon Seto. Given that, it was only natural for it to decide to take down Elk—the first of those troublesome foes—immediately.
Recalling the Axe of the Thunder God to his hand, Elk kicked off the floor and dodged the Silver Lion's attack. Even so, he couldn't completely avoid the fang strike. A slash wound, as clean as if cut by a blade, opened on his cheek and a single drop of blood trickled down.
Though he had evaded the fangs, he was still within the Silver Lion's attack range. Should he try to land a blow with the Axe of the Thunder God, or should he create some distance first... Elk hesitated for a fleeting moment, less than a second.
But that was all the time the Silver Lion needed to make its next move.
"GROOOOOAAARRRRAAAOOOAAH!"
A roar echoed throughout the chamber. Hearing it head-on would rupture eardrums, and the shockwave's edge could slice through skin. Struck by that signature attack at point-blank range, Elk was blown backward as if punched by the shockwave itself.
Like Rei before him, he dragged his feet against the floor to brake. He immediately readied the Axe of the Thunder God, preparing to respond to the Silver Lion at a moment's notice, but...
"GRURURURURURURURU!"
With that growl, Set, who had been circling overhead, dove toward the ground and swung a foreleg strike downward.
Power Crush—a skill leveled up to five.
It was a blow that might deal even more devastating damage to the Silver Lion than the Axe of the Thunder God. Furthermore, it came from a considerable altitude—not quite a hundred meters, but high enough—and was augmented by the Bracelet of Herculean Strength, a Magic Item that boosted physical power.
Perhaps sensing the danger, the Silver Lion halted its pursuit of Elk and tried to evade the foreleg plummeting from above.
"GRUH!?"
But the reason the Silver Lion's movement stalled for just an instant was that water had stealthily crept up to its feet and entangled its legs.
The Silver Lion possessed strong resistance to magic, but that didn't mean it could nullify magic entirely. Even if the water merely touched the Silver Lion's fur, it could still prove effective by acting like a water snake—or a cord—wrapping around and restricting its movement.
The binding of water had been created by Marina's Spirit Magic, and even so, it only managed to halt the Silver Lion for a fleeting moment.
Set was still positioned several meters above, and for the Silver Lion, evading or intercepting the strike should not have been difficult.
Even among lion-type monsters, there was a fundamental difference between the Silver Lion—a pure lion—and a gryphon, whose upper body was that of an eagle.
As if to demonstrate that difference, the Silver Lion bared its fangs to meet Set head-on... but then let out an irritated growl and leaped away to retreat.
Several Wind Arrows pierced the spot where the Silver Lion's body had just been. Magic fired by Min.
The Silver Lion possessed strong resistance to magic, but it must have judged that taking Min's spell while trying to counter Set midair would cause it to lose its balance. That was a sound judgment. The very spot the Silver Lion had dodged to—the spot where the Wind Arrows had struck—was where Set's foreleg came crashing down the next instant, pulverizing the floor across a wide area.
"Power Slash!"
It was Rei who charged toward the location where the Silver Lion had retreated.
With the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor deployed and his physical abilities enhanced, he unleashed a Death Scythe skill—not one that improved sharpness, but Power Slash, which amplified the raw power of the strike itself.
"GRUAAH!"
The Silver Lion must have sensed the danger in Rei's attack. Rather than absorbing the blow with its body as it had before, it met the strike with a foreleg.
Foreleg and Death Scythe collided in midair.
The result: Rei was sent flying.
This wasn't because Power Slash was lacking in power. It was simply a difference in weight—mass—between the two combatants.
On one side was Rei, whose frame could fairly be described as small. On the other was the Silver Lion, measuring roughly six meters from nose to tail. What would happen when those two collided was self-evident.
Of course, this wouldn't be the outcome against just any opponent. The Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor held that much latent potential. But when the opponent was an S-Rank monster like the Silver Lion, it was a different story entirely.
"Guh!"
Blown back and landing on the floor once more, Rei let out a grunt of pain—his ribs from the earlier blow throbbing dully. He swallowed the sound immediately, refusing to show any weakness to the Silver Lion.
"RAAH!"
He channeled magic into the Twilight Spear, drew out the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor's effect to its maximum, and hurled it with everything he had.
The Twilight Spear tore through the air at a speed difficult for the human eye to track. It struck the Silver Lion's torso just as the creature tried to evade a swing from Elk's Axe of the Thunder God, which had been aimed to stop its pursuit of Rei.
It didn't pierce. It didn't penetrate. It simply collided.
Against any ordinary monster, a Twilight Spear charged with magic while enhanced by the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor would have annihilated the target without a trace. Yet despite taking an attack of that magnitude, the blow couldn't inflict anything that could be called a fatal wound on the Silver Lion.
But... fortunately, even without breaking the skin, the Twilight Spear was flying at tremendous speed, and it succeeded in transmitting the full force of the impact directly through the Silver Lion's body.
The impact stopped the Silver Lion's movement for just an instant. And into that opening came Elk's Axe of the Thunder God.
What rang out was the same high-pitched metallic sound as when Rei had first swung Death Scythe. Up to that point, it was identical to Rei's attempt—but the difference was that this time, the Silver Lion let out a cry of pain.
"GRURRAAAH!"
Even so, the Axe of the Thunder God's strike hadn't dealt what could be called a fatal blow. The Silver Lion swiftly leaped away.
"Gwah!"
...leaving behind Elk's scream of agony in its wake.
The tail, swung in tandem with the leap, sent Elk flying with ease, despite his densely muscled frame. What's more, the tail strike left his leather armor mangled beyond recognition. Not a slash or a blunt impact—it was as if the armor had been shaved away. The fur growing on the Silver Lion's tail had literally scraped it off.
"Elk!?"
"I'm fine!"
Shouting back to his worried wife's voice, Elk pushed forward again, driven by a fighting spirit that refused to let himself be beaten where he stood.
Set, who had taken to the sky again after delivering his last strike, also circled overhead, watching for an opening to land another blow on the Silver Lion.
Rei readied Death Scythe along with the Twilight Spear he'd recalled to his hand and likewise stepped forward.
Two Alias Holders, plus Set at S-Rank equivalent. From the rear, Elena used her Whip-sword in whip form for suppressing fire, Marina alternated between her bow and Spirit Magic, and Min unleashed spells of her own.
Attacks that would have spelled certain death for any ordinary monster rained down on the Silver Lion in relentless succession. But it was precisely because it could weather such an onslaught without dying—and even counterattack without a care—that it earned its classification as an S-Rank monster. Not merely S-Rank equivalent like Set, but an unmistakable, bona fide S-Rank.
"!?"
The instant Rei saw the Silver Lion tense its body, a chill shot down his spine. There was no logical reason for it—pure instinctive detection. And he wasn't alone. Set, Elk, and even Elena's group positioned further back all felt the same thing at the same moment.
"Get back! Magic Shield!"
Rei shouted reflexively as he activated the Death Scythe skill, Magic Shield.
The barrier, capable of nullifying any attack once, fulfilled its role magnificently. But Magic Shield could only block a single attack, and it was woefully weak against continuous barrages.
Specifically, against the attack now being launched from the fur covering the Silver Lion's metal-like body—a barrage of projectiles discharged in all directions.
"GAAAAAAAHH!"
Magic Shield managed to block only the very first of the Silver Lion's hairs... no, the first of what should be called needle-fur in the omnidirectional assault. In the next instant, the shield dissolved, and needle-furs bore down on Rei one after another.
He brought the Dragon Robe up as a shield almost on pure instinct, but it couldn't cover his entire body. In front of his face, which the hood left exposed, he thrust his arm, wrapped in the Dragon Robe—but even that couldn't fully block the attack.
Rather than pain, it was heat.
If there was any fortune in the misfortune, it was that he had been leaping backward at the time, sparing him from fatal wounds. But the silver needle-furs that slipped through the gaps in his hastily raised arm mercilessly carved several gashes across his face.
Thanks to having put his arm up, the damage wasn't fatal. Though, conversely, that meant he had sustained a great many non-fatal injuries.
It was only because he had the Dragon Robe—a powerful Magic Item as armor—that Rei escaped with no worse.
However... Set and Elk, who took the Silver Lion's attack at point-blank range, weren't as fortunate as Rei.
The worst affected was, unsurprisingly, Elk.
Though Set was lower in rank than the Silver Lion, it was a gryphon with inherently tenacious stamina and physical resilience. It had no armor like Rei's or Elk's, and while needle-furs pierced its body all over, the wounds caused pain without incapacitating it.
Elk, on the other hand, did wear leather armor, but it was gear designed for mobility. And naturally, the leather armor's joint sections were left exposed to allow free movement.
Like Rei, Elk brought the Axe of the Thunder God forward as a makeshift shield to protect his face. But even the leather armor worn by a high-rank adventurer like Elk didn't possess the formidable defensive power of Rei's Dragon Robe.
The Silver Lion's needle-furs pierced Elk's body one after another. Those that struck the Axe of the Thunder God were deflected away, but the weapon wasn't large enough to shield his entire frame.
Even so, the fact that none of the wounds proved fatal was likely because needles, while highly effective at causing pain, were surprisingly weak in terms of pure killing power. Had one pierced his skull, instant death would have been unavoidable. But even embedded all over his body as they were now, as long as they missed vital areas, his life wasn't in danger.
...Though naturally, having long needle-furs—needles large enough to serve as weapons—protruding from every inch of his body meant the pain was immense.
And with those needle-furs embedded in his flesh, they inevitably hindered Elk's movements as well. Every time he tried to move, the needles caught against his body and obstructed him.
"GWAAAAAH!"
But Elk was not one to simply take a beating lying down.
Even with needle-furs riddling his entire body, he forcibly swung the Axe of the Thunder God down at the Silver Lion.
"GRUH!?"
The Silver Lion, clearly not expecting Elk to press an attack in the same motion even after taking its barrage, took the full force of the Axe of the Thunder God head-on and was sent flying.
It was likely the first solid damage the Silver Lion had taken since the battle began.
But Elk was far from unscathed, delivering that blow with needle-furs still jutting from every inch of his body. Even so, the fact that he could send the six-meter Silver Lion tumbling spoke volumes about the raw power behind his strike.
"Damn it, how the hell is it not even weakened after shooting all that fur? ...Elk, get outside the room and heal up! In your current state, you'll only drag us down!"
Rei shouted.
Since Elk was the one who had landed the first solid hit on the Silver Lion, those words could have sounded like arrogance. But the truth was plain: Elk, bleeding from all over his body, might hold out for a few minutes, but he couldn't endure a prolonged battle.
Elk knew his own body better than anyone. He understood. Digging in his heels here would only drag everyone down—in other words, it would interfere with obtaining the Silver Lion's heart. Accepting this, he shouted back.
"Got it! Then I'm counting on you for a bit! Don't you dare get beaten before I get back!"
"Hah! By the time you come back, I'll have already taken down the Silver Lion! If you don't like the sound of that, hurry up and return!"
Rei shouted back... and Elk, flashing a grin like a mischievous boy, strode out of the room.