The passage was far too wide to be called a hidden corridor—broad enough for six people, perhaps more, to walk abreast. Yet presently, nearly fifty armed men were making their way through it.
Seeing every one of them carrying weapons, no one could possibly mistake this for some kind of outing.
But if asked whether all fifty were tense, that was not quite the case either. The degree of tension and sense of danger varied greatly from one individual to the next.
"But seriously, do we really need to go all the way out there as reinforcements? They've got a decent number of Giants assembled over there already, right? Then I don't think we need to bother. Especially not with horse-drawn carriages and all."
Muttering with genuine annoyance, the man glanced behind him. Since he was equipped with Leather Armor made from monster hide, he could turn around far more nimbly than the man wearing Metal Armor beside him.
But even when he looked back, all he saw were his comrades. The carriages they had been riding in until recently were completely hidden behind those bodies, entirely out of sight.
What kind of fool had attacked the Underground Facility in Mejougo—referred to among these men as the Giants' nest—was unknown to him. But whether assembling this many people was truly necessary was, quite frankly, questionable.
"Yeah, true. The Giants shipped over here aside, they should've kept a certain number behind as guards. Probably by the time we arrive, the fight will already be over, won't it?"
The man standing beside him, bow in hand, said as much. True to his words, he looked exceedingly carefree.
Seeing that man's somewhat cavalier attitude, the others around them must have felt their tension ease as well. The nervous atmosphere began to dissipate.
But it was only natural for those around them to be on edge in the first place. After all, since Mejougo's completion, none of them had ever imagined they would end up walking through the passage used for shipping Giants and infiltrating the Giants' nest.
"Relaxing is fine, but don't let your guard down. We still don't know exactly what's happening over there."
The Captain, leading the men at the front, cautioned everyone. Being too tense was bad, but naturally, being too careless was equally unwise.
"We know, Captain. But would there really be some idiot crazy enough to launch an assault on the Giants' nest?"
Such a question was directed at the Captain, but he himself had not been informed of the detailed circumstances either. For that matter, even the information that Mejougo was under attack had come through a messenger.
...If Jaya had been a larger organization, they could have used Summoning Magic or monsters and birds Tamed by Tamers to gather intelligence swiftly and in detail. Unfortunately, while Jaya was an organization without parallel within Reblurina, that was only within the context of a small nation. Let alone the likelihood that they possessed rare Magic Items like Paired Orbs—though even if such items existed, there would have been any number of more effective ways to use them than entrusting one to this Captain.
"Since we received orders to deploy, there must be someone like that out there. We just never found out exactly what kind of opponent they are. Well, we'll find out once we get through here."
The Captain's gaze shifted toward the wall that appeared to be a dead end. Naturally, it was not actually a dead end—it was a concealed entrance to the hidden passage.
"Hey."
The Captain muttered softly, and that alone was enough for a subordinate who understood the command to run to the wall and begin disengaging the mechanism. Then, just as the Captain and his men arrived before it, the false dead end slid sideways, revealing an entrance. Given that it was a passage used for shipping Giants, the entrance was naturally large.
Having come this far, everyone aside from the Captain was steeling themselves as well, but...
"Huh?"
That exclamation of surprise came from the Captain's own mouth. Naturally— they had been about to go in and defeat intruders, but they never expected someone to be standing right there the instant the hidden door opened. No, they had been prepared for the possibility that Giants might be curled up and sleeping there, since it connected to the Underground Fifth Floor. But instead of Giants, a human the same size as themselves was standing there—something that was completely beyond the Captain's expectations.
Given the intelligence that the Giants' nest was under attack, the possibility of intruders within the facility could not be denied. Even so, the idea that intruders had penetrated all the way to the Underground Fifth Floor was entirely unforeseen.
"...Wha—ghuh."
The Captain, who had been staring at the person before him, finally came back to his senses. The instant he tried to shout that it was an enemy, to attack, Rei's fist—struck almost reflexively—sent the Captain flying.
What was fortunate for the Captain was that he had been wearing solid Metal Armor. Combined with the fact that Rei had instinctively held back, the armor was not destroyed. In exchange, he was unable to completely absorb the impact, resulting in several cracked ribs.
"..."
The Jaya troops could not comprehend what had just happened. That intruders had reached the Deepest Layer of the Giants' nest this quickly was completely unexpected, and seeing their own Captain—a man they could never hope to defeat—knocked down so effortlessly with a single blow was beyond belief.
While the men stood frozen, Rei and his party naturally moved to their next action.
The first to charge in was, as a matter of course, Vihera. With punches and kicks, she sent several men unconscious in the blink of an eye. Next, Elena and Rei attacked almost simultaneously.
Having been preempted to that extent, the men finally seemed to realize that the people before them were enemies to be eliminated. They scrambled to mount a counterattack.
However, only those at the front of the formation were in any position to do so. Given that they were moving in a group of about fifty, the men in the rear had absolutely no understanding of what was happening at that moment.
Taking advantage of that confusion, Rei and his party pressed the attack.
The standout fighter in this battle was Byune.
As a thief originally specialized in combat, Byune had only been able to provide support against the High-Rank Monsters Rei and the others frequently fought, as well as against the Giants they had just battled. But this fight was different.
Byune wielded Hakumo, a weapon crafted from materials of the S-Rank monster, the Silver Lion. It possessed no special abilities, but its sharpness was extraordinary—sharp enough that the shields and armor worn by the soldiers here stood absolutely no chance of blocking its strikes.
What was further unfortunate for the Jaya soldiers was that their very numbers made it difficult to maneuver. If they carelessly attempted combat maneuvers, they risked wounding their own comrades with their weapons. There were some who seemed intent on attacking regardless, but even so, with so many people packed around them, their movement was undeniably hampered.
As a result, the number of Jaya soldiers dwindled in the blink of an eye. Rei and his party advanced through the spaces where the fallen lay.
With men collapsed for various reasons—unconscious, too injured to stand, dead—fighting in those areas was treacherous. It was not out of concern for accidentally stepping on and killing someone still alive, but simply a worry about losing balance on the bodies underfoot.
With Rei and his party's strength, something of that degree was hardly worth worrying about. But nothing was ever absolute. Given that, it was only natural to eliminate such hazards beforehand.
"Mm!"
While swinging Hakumo, Byune threw Long Needles with her free hand. The needles struck soldiers who had been trying to exploit openings in her guard.
Piercing through armor was beyond them, but the soldiers did not have every part of their bodies, nor every part of their faces, covered. Had they been wearing Full Plate Armor, it might have been a different story, but the Jaya soldiers had neither the financial means to afford such equipment, and more importantly, with the physical abilities of mere soldiers, their movement would become extremely sluggish.
Then again, even with Full Plate Armor, there were gaps to secure visibility and spaces to allow joints to bend, so truly perfect defense was impossible in any real sense.
As a result, soldiers wearing Leather Armor or Metal Armor ended up screaming from the pain of Long Needles piercing their bodies.
"Ow!"
"Uwaah, damn it!"
"Tch!"
Amidst the echoing screams and the spreading confusion, Byune dove into their midst and swiftly swung Hakumo. The soldiers were easily run through even over their armor, and even their shields were sliced apart, leaving them barely able to defend.
Some had reflexively tried to block Hakumo's strike with their own weapons, but the weapons the soldiers carried could hardly be called powerful. Even in Gilm, they would be considered second-rate at best—third-rate at worst. With weapons of that caliber, there was no way they could block a strike from Hakumo, and they were cut through as effortlessly as the armor and shields.
A few somehow managed to hold, but even then, one strike was the best they could manage. By the second or third blow, it was more than they could withstand.
Unable to defend, evasion was their only option, but with comrades all around, even that was nearly impossible.
As a result, this battle truly became Byune's solo showcase.
However, no matter how much of a combat-specialized thief she was, Byune was ultimately still a small child. In a prolonged battle, the physical toll inevitably slowed her movements.
Several of the more skilled among the soldiers must have noticed her condition. If they could drag the fight out, they could manage something. Or so they thought—
"Oh, I'm sorry. There are others here besides Byune. I'd appreciate it if you didn't forget that."
With those words, Vihera charged into the enemy ranks, seamlessly swapping in for Byune. Sensing that continuing would be physically dangerous, Byune retreated to the rear, falling back to the space where the Black Crystal had been.
Seeing her withdraw, the soldiers clicked their tongues at having let her escape at the worst possible moment—but in the next instant, their attention was seized by the newly arrived figure of a woman of peerless beauty, clad in the flimsy attire of a prostitute or dancer.
...At this point, more than half of the Jaya soldiers had already been defeated, and their remaining combat strength had dropped below twenty. Under normal circumstances, such a decline would have been unmistakably recognized as a crisis.
But the Jaya soldiers were not, after all, military men or mercenaries. They were members of a shadow organization, and those present were not even their elite. In terms of fighting morals, there was little to distinguish them from common bandits.
Given the nature of such men, seeing Vihera—a woman of unmatched beauty—suddenly appear before them, they had no way of comprehending the gap in strength, and it was only natural that they would be swept away by their own lust rather than assess the situation before them.
Not everyone was like that, of course, but in terms of sheer numbers, that type inevitably formed the majority. As a result, the few who kept their heads found themselves unable to move—and naturally, there was no way Vihera and the others would let such prey escape.
Elena's Mirage, in its whip form, lashed out. Arrows swiftly loosed by Marina, each one precisely aimed, cut down those men one after another.
Naturally, Rei was not about to stand by and watch. Rather than the Twilight Spear, he drew disposable spears from his Misty Ring—the same kind he had used before obtaining that weapon. The spears, their tips whittled down to about half their original thickness, would have been completely useless as proper spears under normal circumstances.
Using the Twilight Spear on these guys would be a waste.
If he channeled magic into it, blood and grime on the spearhead could be cleaned easily enough. But even so, he felt that using the Twilight Spear against the small fry before him was far too wasteful.
"Don't forget about me over here... hyaah!"
The spear thrown with those words first shattered the torso of the man it struck, then continued onward, bringing the same fate to several unlucky men behind him.
With that happening before their eyes, even the men still entranced by Vihera's charms snapped back to reality.
They did come to their senses... Unfortunately, by that point, they had already reached a stage where it was far too late for that to matter.