Rei sidestepped the descending longsword, checking his footing as he pulled one leg back and dropped his right shoulder to evade the strike.
But his opponent hadn't expected to finish things with that single blow either. In the next instant, she redirected her downward slash into an upward arc.
The longsword blade came racing toward him, yet Rei swung the Twilight Spear without a trace of panic.
Normally, he fought using the Twin Spear Style with both Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear. Today, however, as a handicap, he was limited to the Twilight Spear alone.
In the air, the longsword blade and the Twilight Spear's tip clashed — and in that instant, Rei rolled his wrist, catching the blade against the spear's tip and sending it flying upward.
"Ah!"
Had this been a duel between polearms, such a maneuver would hardly have been unusual. But the idea of a spear disarming a longsword like that never crossed the swordsman's mind. She froze for a heartbeat in surprise — only to find the Twilight Spear's tip already leveled at her face.
"…I yield. It's my loss."
The woman who spoke — Mireinu — accepted her defeat with a frustrated sigh.
Hearing that, Rei calmly lowered the spear.
"For a strike delivered in this snow, it was solid. But you're clearly mindful of the footing underneath you — compared to before, your slashes lack their usual sharpness. …Well, the fact that you haven't had much reason to move around lately probably plays a part too."
"I suppose so. Well, that's exactly why I asked you to train with me."
Mireinu's gaze swept their surroundings.
A world of silver stretched in every direction.
Not a soul in sight besides Rei and his group.
Naturally. Even though it wasn't snowing today, the temperature outside was plenty cold. Under such conditions, there couldn't be many people eager to hold combat training at the Guild's training ground.
Even Rei wouldn't have gone out of his way to come here if Mireinu hadn't invited him.
"Mn!"
As if taking Mireinu's place, Byune stepped forward.
It was her turn now. She fixed her gaze on Rei, dagger in hand.
Vihera watched over Byune with visible amusement.
…No, if anything, it would be more accurate to say she was eagerly awaiting her own turn after Byune's.
"Alright. Ready?"
"Mn!"
At Rei's words, Byune nodded.
Her demeanor seemed the same as always — or so he thought. But unusually for the normally expressionless girl, there was a gleam of fighting spirit in her eyes.
Byune was typically close to expressionless, yet now, with her fight against Rei looming, she was brimming with determination.
For a while now, Byune had been receiving combat training from Vihera. This was her moment to show the results — or so she clearly believed.
(With Byune's combat style built around mobility, there's no way she can perform at full capacity in terrain like this.)
Feeling the snow beneath his boots, Rei readied his spear.
He wasn't wearing his Sleipnir boots today. Instead, he had on the pair commissioned from the boot shop — the ones meant for taking on requests. They were made from monster leather and reinforced with iron plates.
In Rei's mind, they were closest to safety boots, though compared to the ones he'd worn back in Japan while working a rice-carrying gig at a delivery company, these were more comfortable and far sturdier.
Of course, the ones from Japan had been mass-produced, while these were custom-made by a skilled craftsman, fitted to the exact shape of his feet. The materials differed too — synthetic leather versus monster leather — and in terms of comfort, what he wore now was clearly the superior pair.
He'd tried them on a handful of times since picking them up, but this was his first time using them in actual combat — a mock battle, true, but still. He was reasonably tense.
Even so, as expected of a craftsman whose skill ranked among the best in Gilm, the boots performed flawlessly. They couldn't match the Sleipnir boots, but they had no problems worth mentioning.
"Alright. …Come!"
"Mn!"
That single word served as the signal. Byune launched herself forward.
Just as Rei had predicted, the snow underfoot kept her from reaching her usual speed.
Even so, perhaps owing to her background as a bandit, she closed the distance with Rei at a pace utterly beyond that of any amateur.
Byune herself seemed to understand that simply closing the gap wouldn't give her a chance at victory. With the hand not holding the dagger, she swiftly drew a long needle and hurled it.
The needle tore through the air, flying straight toward him. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to even track with the naked eye — but Rei caught it in his field of vision as naturally as breathing.
He swung the Twilight Spear—
"Ngh!?"
Something about the cluster of needles flying toward him felt wrong. Rather than deflecting them, Rei dove to the right, evading entirely.
(What was that?)
The thought crossed his mind midair, but Byune must have seen his movement as the perfect opening — she let fly another volley of needles.
…That was when Rei saw it.
Byune's left hand, swept toward him.
Between her fingers, she gripped several long needles. But one gap held nothing. …No — something was there, nearly impossible to see.
The fact that her other fingers held ordinary needles made the concealed one all the harder to spot.
Even so, with senses far beyond those of any ordinary human, Rei could faintly but unmistakably make out that something was indeed there.
If this had been anyone else, there was no doubt they would have failed to see through the invisible needle Byune was concealing.
"Gh!?"
The released needles — visible and invisible alike — flew straight at Rei.
The one he could see while Byune held it became nearly impossible to track once released. Rather than attempting to deflect them with the Twilight Spear, Rei once again chose evasion.
The needles punched through the space his body had occupied a heartbeat prior.
They might have been blunt-tipped for a mock battle, but getting hit would still hurt. And these weren't thrown by some amateur — Byune was a master of the long needle. Rei had no desire to let any of them connect.
He had the Dragon Robe, of course, but a needle could still slip through a gap and strike bare flesh.
"Mn!"
Confirming that Rei had evaded her needles, Byune lunged forward with her dagger.
Even in the snow, her step was faster than what an ordinary warrior could muster. Part of that was her bandit-honed agility, but her small frame and light weight certainly helped. And the combat training she'd been doing with Vihera in the snow had clearly paid off as well.
"Do your best, Byune!"
Vihera's voice rang across the training ground — cheering on someone who, strictly speaking, wasn't her student, but whom she had trained with nonetheless.
Byune clearly heard it. Her speed surged as she bore down on Rei.
Rei held his ground, the Twilight Spear at the ready.
In terms of reach, he held the overwhelming advantage. But the moment she slipped inside that reach, the advantage would swing to Byune.
Knowing this, Rei made no attempt to deny her entry or maintain the spear's range. He simply waited.
He's underestimating me.
Perhaps sensing exactly that, Byune kicked her speed up yet another notch — and instead of aiming for his torso, she slashed her dagger at his thigh.
A strike that seemed to carve through the air itself. A blow that pushed Byune's signature swiftness to its absolute limit, aimed squarely at Rei's thigh—
"Too slow."
With that single phrase, Rei rolled his wrist, half-spun the Twilight Spear, and swept Byune's legs out from under her with the butt end.
Precisely because Byune prided herself on speed, the impact was devastating. She tumbled across the snow.
Somehow she managed to recover her footing — only to find the Twilight Spear's tip hovering before her face.
"…Mn…"
Byune murmured with a faint trace of disappointment, though it was only in her voice.
Her expression barely shifted. Thoroughly expressionless, as always.
As Byune acknowledged her loss and lowered her dagger, Rei pulled the spear back.
She rose to her feet and quietly returned to Vihera's side.
"Well, Byune gave it her best, but… she still needs to sharpen her skills a bit more."
Vihera murmured as she gave Byune's hair a light pat.
She wasn't offering encouragement — she was simply stating a fact. Byune gave a small nod in response.
"Well, I'll avenge Byune. Don't you worry."
"She's not dead, you know."
Vihera stepped forward with a crunch of snow, and the words slipped from Mireinu almost involuntarily.
"Is that so? Well, all I need to do is beat Rei, right?"
"…Vihera, is it possible you just want to fight him yourself?"
Mireinu's manner of speaking to Vihera was in no way appropriate for addressing a former member of the Imperial Family.
But Vihera welcomed it — even relished it.
She considered herself an adventurer, not royalty. So naturally, she preferred it this way.
"Ready? Here I come."
"Yeah."
This mock battle was Vihera's first real fight since regaining consciousness in the dungeon.
She had been training with Byune, but that was just training. This was different.
She undoubtedly thought of Byune as a little sister. But when it came to a sparring partner, some dissatisfaction was inevitable.
Rei, on the other hand, was the ideal opponent in every sense of the word. After all, even at full power, Vihera had never once beaten him.
By that measure, this mock battle was the perfect opportunity.
Savoring the crunch of snow beneath her feet, Vihera stepped forward and faced Rei.
No more words passed between them. Then a gust of wind swept through, kicking up the fresh, untrampled snow from the ground.
As if she had been waiting for exactly that moment, Vihera launched herself forward.
Her speed eclipsed even the swift Byune by several notches.
As if offering a light greeting in place of words, she unleashed a single flash from the claws extending from her hand gauntlets.
The horizontal sweep tore through the air — but Rei, who could evade such a strike with ease, slipped past the claw with a razor-thin margin—
"What—!?"
The moment the claws of magic swept past Rei's chest, they extended. By more than a meter.
The instant he registered the movement, Rei reflexively swung the Twilight Spear to deflect them.
The Twilight Spear versus the hand gauntlets that produced the claws of magic. Both were Magic Items. Furthermore, both the hand gauntlets and the foot guards Vihera wore were masterpieces, crafted with the utmost dedication by an Alchemist whose technique surpassed anything found outside the Bestia Empire — commissioned back when she still lived there.
But even so, compared to the Twilight Spear — forged from countless rare monster materials — they were inevitably a step below.
The clash ended with the Twilight Spear's tip shearing through the claws of magic.
He had blocked the attack on reflex, but the surprise still registered. Rei's eyes, hidden beneath his hood, locked onto Vihera with the piercing gaze of a bird of prey that had just found its quarry.
"You've picked up some new tricks."
"Hehe, have I? I owe that to you, Rei. Even I never imagined I'd be able to pull something like this off."
"…I see."
That single reply told Rei everything he needed to know about how Vihera had gained this ability.
It was the same reason her eyes had turned silver.
She had absorbed the heart of the Silver Lion — the organ holding its densest concentration of magic — along with the very essence of the being known as Unbris.
"Now — here I come again!"
Vihera's eyes glistened with desire — the desire for battle — as she surged forward.
Had any man been watching, most would have found their baser instincts stirred by the sight of her now.
Diaphanous garments that seemed almost transparent from behind billowed through the air with every movement, and with each flutter, Vihera's hands and feet lashed out.
At a glance, they didn't look like the limbs of someone trying to pummel another person. In reality, each strike carried the power and precision to effortlessly send a grown man flying.
Such blows rained down without pause, and Rei deflected and evaded them all with the Twilight Spear.
It didn't look like a fight. It looked like a dance — and that dance continued for nearly an hour.