"Damn it, I acted too soon."
Breathing hard, Ryutas spat out the words.
His body already bore several slash wounds. There was no question about who had inflicted them—the Reblurina soldiers currently fighting him inside the cave.
In terms of pure skill, Ryutas was unquestionably superior to the soldiers. However, even with that edge, the gap wasn't decisive enough to matter. It was a difference the soldiers could easily compensate for with sheer numbers.
That was precisely why, as the battle wore on, Ryutas and his guards gradually accumulated wounds, small as they were. For now, they were merely grazes, but what would happen if the fighting continued was painfully obvious without a second thought.
Namely, death.
Of course, since Ryutas and his men held the advantage in combat skill, the soldiers were taking heavy casualties as well. Already more than ten had fallen, and even more were wounded. But even so, it was only a matter of time before Ryutas and his men lost.
The battlefield had now shifted entirely inside the cave. Initially, the fighting had taken place right near the entrance, but the soldiers' pressure had gradually forced them backward. Already, just behind Ryutas and his men was a fork in the tunnel, splitting into a Y-shape.
I should have made sure to ask which way the one I sent to fetch Rei went...
Ryutas cursed his mistake, and understandably so. If they fell back toward where Rei and the others were—toward the path where reinforcements would likely come from—there would be no problem at all. But if they retreated the other way, away from Rei's group, they would have to hold out on their own until Rei and the others broke through the enemy swarm and reached them.
Honestly, if asked whether they could hold out that long, it would be difficult to say yes with any confidence.
That was why Ryutas hesitated over what to do now.
Rei's group probably headed first to where Jaya's people were gathered. But a considerable amount of time has passed since they entered the cave. Considering that, the possibility they moved toward the giants can't be denied. Above all...
The biggest problem was that even if Ryutas retreated toward the tunnel where Rei and the others were likely to be, there was no guarantee the guard sent to call for reinforcements had actually gone in that direction. They would head toward the tunnel where Rei's group was. The guard sent for reinforcements would also head toward Rei's group. Upon hearing the report, Rei would immediately dispatch reinforcements. Unless all of those actions lined up perfectly, it would be difficult for Ryutas to survive.
To Rei, I still have utility value... or at least, I want to believe so. Otherwise, he'll abandon me without a second thought.
Dodging a soldier's spear thrust, Ryutas closed the distance and drove his longsword forward in a thrust, piercing the man's throat. He leaped backward, yanking the blade free in the same motion.
"Uwah!"
"Damn it, you'll pay for Darreu!"
Blood erupted from their comrade's neck and splattered across several soldiers' faces, blinding them. Blood was a viscous liquid. If it got in your eyes, you wouldn't recover your vision as quickly as you would with water. And in the kind of melee currently underway—especially near the front lines—losing your sight was fatal.
In fact, Ryutas's guards didn't miss that opening. They quickly closed in on the blinded soldiers and slashed them with daggers, inflicting deep wounds.
Meanwhile, a roar of fury erupted from the mouth of a soldier who appeared to have been an acquaintance of the man whose neck had just been slashed open.
"Young master, we can't hold any longer...! We need to fall back and regroup, or we won't be able to keep this up!"
"I know! ...Damn it!"
Holding out here any longer was no longer feasible. They needed to fall back once and reorganize. But if he made the wrong choice here, it would directly mean death. In other words, a choice he absolutely could not afford to get wrong.
...Though even if he made the right choice, it still required an extremely high-difficulty chain of events: the guard successfully reaching Rei, Rei actually listening to the report, and then Rei coming with reinforcements.
What do I do? Which way do I retreat?
While he was still deliberating, the battle between Ryutas and the soldiers continued unabated. From the soldiers' perspective, Ryutas had killed their colleagues, their comrades, their brothers-in-arms. To them, Ryutas and his men were nothing but enemies who could absolutely never be forgiven, orders aside.
"Tch, you're persistent!"
A longsword swing accompanied by a roar. That strike, laden with Ryutas's frustration and desperation, was precisely because of that not as sharp as his previous blows. Born of impatience, the swing was easily deflected when a soldier reflexively used his own longsword as a shield.
If that had been all, it might still have been manageable. But precisely because it was a strike born of haste, Ryutas's body lost its balance on a small step in the ground—the kind of minor unevenness that would normally mean nothing at all.
"Ah..."
An overwhelming blunder, obvious even to himself.
The soldier understood it too. He would not miss the perfect opening Ryutas had just handed him. He raised the longsword in his hand high...
Fuck!
A fatal mistake, born of his own impatience. He realized it—and yet also instinctively understood that it was already too late to recover his stance. In the corner of his vision, he saw a guard trying to do something, but with the soldier's longsword already on the verge of swinging down, it was too late no matter what anyone did.
It's over...
Just as he thought that and was about to give up, Ryutas suddenly felt a gust of wind tear past him.
What was that? Opening his eyes, Ryutas saw one of the soldiers with a hole blown clean through where his leather armor had been—a hole easily large enough to fit a fist through. And stuck to Ryutas's face was something warm and wet, along with something solid.
"Huh? What..."
The moment he was about to mutter those words, Ryutas felt another fierce gust of wind tear past right beside him.
"Leave the rest to me."
At the same time, a voice reached his ear. Then came the sensation of a robed figure passing right beside him.
Under normal circumstances, Ryutas would have easily understood what had happened. But right now, he was in a life-or-death crisis. That was why he couldn't process what was happening to him in the moment.
However, the situation did not wait for Ryutas's actions or understanding. A violent impact sent him flying.
At first, even Ryutas didn't understand what had been done to him. Still, acting on instinct, he propped himself up with his hands on the ground and turned around. What entered his field of vision was red. To be precise, blood. And scattered all around were fragments of flesh, bone, and internal organs.
The one who caused it was the very person Ryutas had been wishing would come—the adventurer with the alias of Crimson...
"Rei!"
"Sure thing. ...Though I'm pretty sure the hero's supposed to rescue the heroine in situations like this, you know!"
Along with those words, Rei swung the Death Scythe in his hand.
If this hadn't been inside a cave, some of the soldiers might have managed to dodge reflexively. However, this was a cave. It was wide enough for giants to move through, but the space was still inherently finite. And the weapons Rei carried were a great scythe called Death Scythe, with a handle roughly two meters long and a blade about one meter in length. Furthermore, in addition to the Death Scythe, he held the Twilight Spear in his other hand. Considering attack range alone, escaping from Rei's targeting inside this cave was nearly impossible. Especially with the soldiers packed tightly behind them, the space available for those in front to dodge was truly limited.
Just a few dozen seconds ago, the soldiers' victory had been a foregone conclusion. They had taken casualties, yes, but those losses were within an acceptable range, and they believed they were on the verge of winning. In truth, that belief was by no means mistaken—but that was only assuming the ones fighting the soldiers were Ryutas and his guards alone.
The one who arrived was Rei.
"For now, just stay back."
With only that brief statement, Rei swung the Death Scythe once more toward the soldiers.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"What, what, what the hell are youuuuu!"
"Reglio! You bastard!"
A single sudden flash, and several soldiers had their torsos cleanly bisected all at once. Additionally, the spears Rei had thrown before launching his melee attack—disposable near-broken spears stored in massive quantities inside his Misty Ring rather than the Twilight Spear he currently held—had also claimed several lives.
To the soldiers, Rei was nothing short of a grim reaper or a God of Plagues. But facing those very soldiers, Rei stepped forward as if shielding Ryutas and spoke.
"I don't know what business soldiers have coming all the way here... but you came as soldiers risking your lives. In that case, isn't it only natural that a fight breaks out? ...Well, it's not like I particularly enjoy killing people. If you retreat now, I won't pursue you."
"Don't screw with us! You attack us and then tell us to leave? Who the hell do you think you are!"
"Who do I think I am? Let's see. Can't you tell who I am from looking at this weapon? I thought my name was fairly well-known. Bit disappointing, really."
At those words, the soldier who had just shouted turned bright red with anger and indignation, convinced he was being completely looked down upon and mocked.
However, even if this soldier didn't know Rei, with this many people present, it was only natural that someone would at least recognize the name...
"Rei? ...Impossible. What is an alias-holding adventurer from the Kingdom of Mireana doing in a place like this!?"
"He's making things up, isn't he?"
"No, Crimson Rei supposedly wields a scythe larger than his own stature."
"A scythe..."
At the word, the soldiers turned their gazes toward the Death Scythe in Rei's hands. It was unmistakably a great scythe, with an appearance that could not possibly be mistaken for anything else. And a great scythe was an extremely unwieldy weapon; normally, no one would use one.
But the Rei standing before the soldiers held that great scythe in his right hand alone—and furthermore, held a crimson spear in his left. It was by no means something an ordinary person, let alone someone of Rei's small stature, could wield. And yet, the soldiers were watching with their own eyes as he wielded it with complete mastery, proven by the deaths of their comrades.
If that was the case, it was not strange at all for them to realize that Rei—that the small figure before them was the adventurer with the alias of Crimson.
"Is this guy... really Crimson Rei?"
One of the soldiers, who was somewhat knowledgeable about the affairs of neighboring nations, muttered under his breath. Under normal circumstances, that voice would have been drowned out by the noise of the surrounding comrades, and no one would have overheard it. But Rei's hearing did not let that murmur slip by.
"Correct. Looks like you know quite a bit. In that case, I'll keep you alive for now. As for the rest of you... I'll let you go if you quietly retreat right now."
"Don't screw with me!"
One of the soldiers shouted. They were the soldiers of the glorious nation of Reblurina. For them to be attacked one-sidedly and then shown mercy and spared—something like that was absolutely unforgivable.
...Reblurina was a superior nation, and those who lived there were a superior people. They had submitted to the Kingdom of Mireana due to a difference in numbers, but that was supposed to be overturned in the near future. The soldiers, having been taught as much by the upper echelons, had accepted it as absolute truth.
It might have been pure, in a way. But right now, because of that very purity, the option of retreating had vanished from their minds even in the face of Rei. Because they were superior beings. They could not retreat before the people of inferior nations.
However... such circumstances had nothing to do with Rei.
"...I see."
With that single word, Rei, who had somehow already closed the distance to the soldier who had shouted, thrust out the Twilight Spear in his left hand. A thrust at a speed truly worthy of being called godlike. The soldier, who had believed in—or rather, blindly faithed in—his own superiority, had his skull crushed without ever realizing what had happened, extinguishing his Flame of Life.
Using the recoil from pulling the Twilight Spear back, Rei spun his body halfway and swung the blade of the Death Scythe, bisecting the torsos of several soldiers—leather armor and all—cleanly top to bottom.
Catching a glimpse of Byune attacking other soldiers in his peripheral vision, Rei reaped lives with the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, as if dancing through the spraying blood of the enemy soldiers.
Truly befitting the alias of Crimson.