Standing before him was the man with the halberd — Filma.
As one would expect of someone leading some of the finest elite troops in the Kingdom of Mireana, his stance was flawless, and the sheer intensity of his presence was palpable just from facing him.
But... even while feeling the pressure of the physical force directed at him, Rei couldn't shake the sense that something didn't quite add up.
This was probably the first time he had met the man standing before him.
No — he had participated in the war against the Bestia Empire, so they had crossed paths back then. But at the very least, this was the first time they had faced each other as adversaries — technically in a mock battle, but adversaries nonetheless.
And yet, Rei had the distinct impression that he had fought Filma somewhere before.
Was it possible he was simply feeling overwhelmed by Filma's imposing presence and imagining things? Thinking that, he tightened his grip on the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, but there were no issues — he was in his usual condition, of that much he was certain.
(Then that means it's not just me being nervous and thinking I've fought Filma before. In that case, did I actually fight him somewhere? No, but... if I had experience fighting someone as famous as Filma, I would definitely remember it.)
Looking at Filma, Rei tried to recall the memories of those he had fought before.
But there was no way Filma, standing opposite him, would miss the fact that his mind was elsewhere.
"What's wrong? Do you have the luxury to think about unnecessary things while facing me?"
"...No, my bad. Before we fight, there's something I want to ask — have we fought before?"
Unable to come up with an answer on his own, Rei decided to ask Filma directly.
Filma, upon being asked the question, was careful not to let his surprise show.
He never expected Rei to remember him from a single encounter years ago.
"Who knows. But... if you can beat me, that might become clear?"
What came from Filma's mouth was a provocation.
In response, Rei stepped forward, gripping the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
He didn't simply step forward — he kicked off the ground and closed the distance in an instant.
A scythe, a spear, and a halberd.
Though the weapons Rei and Filma held were different, all three were undeniably what one would generally classify as long weapons.
Given that, Filma would naturally dislike having someone suddenly close the distance into his weapon's range.
Rei's action was calculated in that instant.
That said, since Rei's weapons were also long weapons, he was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in close-quarters combat.
But since Rei had initiated the action himself, he naturally had a plan for how to attack after closing the distance.
The first thing swung was the Death Scythe.
Given that the Death Scythe originally boasted a weight of a hundred kilograms, even a hit from the shaft rather than the massive blade would deal significant damage.
The blow was aimed at the torso — the hardest area to evade — but Filma leapt backward to dodge it, and immediately kicked off the ground again, this time closing the distance with Rei himself.
Rei felt a slight sense of incongruity at Filma's action.
The Death Scythe strike that had been swung first was a preemptive blow, but even so, given that Filma was rated as equal to or greater than Elena, he should have been able to receive it with his own halberd.
Going out of his way to dodge that exaggeratedly was enough to make Rei question it for a moment, brief as it was.
Still, they were in the middle of a mock battle.
Rei didn't have the time to dwell on the details, and he blocked the horizontal sweep of Filma's halberd as if to say it was payback for moments ago.
However, here too a momentary question arose.
Filma was right-handed, and if he were to swing the halberd horizontally, it wouldn't have been strange for him to swing it toward Rei's left side — the side where he held the Twilight Spear.
But since Rei had attacked with the Death Scythe first, swinging toward that side might have had a higher chance of landing an effective blow.
Of course, which side to aim the halberd's strike at was largely a matter of personal preference, so whether the strike just now was unnaturally revealing was not something one could readily agree with.
Even so, from Rei's perspective, it looked like Filma was avoiding clashing with the Death Scythe.
"Ngh!"
Rei caught Filma's halberd strike with the Twilight Spear.
But what slipped from Rei's mouth was a sound of surprise at receiving an unexpectedly heavy blow.
Rei's physical abilities were more than enough to be called superhuman, and normally, a single strike wouldn't be able to numb his hands.
For a strike to numb Rei's hands, it wasn't difficult to imagine just how much power was packed into it.
(If I'd taken that hit squarely, a normal person would probably be dead, wouldn't they?)
While it wasn't enough to numb his hand in a single blow and send his weapon flying like it had with Leodanis in the first mock battle, Rei's left hand still retained considerable numbness.
Of course, it wasn't as if he couldn't fight in that condition... but this was a mock battle, and he had to avoid inflicting fatal injuries on his opponent.
Filma's strike, which had collided with Rei's Twilight Spear, should also have been something he could stop if needed, or change where it landed depending on the situation, so as not to inflict a fatal wound on Rei.
(Probably, though!)
Thinking that, Rei swung the Death Scythe in his right hand while rotating his body halfway.
Naturally, the strike used not the blade but the butt cap of the Death Scythe. But seeing that, Filma retreated backward without hesitation.
Twice.
...Yes, he had retreated twice in a row to avoid taking the Death Scythe's attack.
(He's completely grasped the Death Scythe's Special Ability.)
If he weren't wary of the Death Scythe's ability — a weight incomparable to its appearance — there was no way he would go so far as to systematically avoid clashing with it.
That meant Filma knew the Death Scythe weighed over a hundred kilograms.
Facing Filma, Rei directed his gaze at the Death Scythe gripped in his right hand.
The fact that the Death Scythe possessed such an ability wasn't something he was particularly trying to keep hidden.
In the first place, anyone who had fought Rei wielding the Death Scythe would understand that it weighed more than it appeared.
Even so, in the case of the Death Scythe, given that its very appearance was menacing, attention would naturally be drawn to the massive blade rather than matters of weight.
His glance at the Death Scythe lasted only an instant, but there was no way a skilled fighter like Filma would miss even a momentary opening.
The moment Rei averted his gaze, Filma stepped forward once again.
"Hah!"
Along with a sharp exhale, the halberd was swung.
The slight increase in speed compared to before was likely because Filma had judged from their exchange that such speed and power would pose no issue.
Rei tried to deflect the blow aimed at his torso with the Death Scythe, but Filma had no intention of letting the halberd collide with the Death Scythe, using the movement of his wrist to forcibly alter the halberd's trajectory.
Normally, forcibly moving a heavy weapon like a halberd with just the wrist would place considerable strain on it — enough to sprain the wrist, even.
But that was only if one were normal, and Filma was by no means a being who fit into such a category.
While continuing to avoid contact with the Death Scythe, the long shaft of the halberd, its trajectory altered, came rushing in to strike Rei's torso.
Rei received that blow not with the Death Scythe but with the Twilight Spear, and attempted to entangle the halberd as he had done with Sharisla, but what came back to Rei's hand was a solidity like that of bedrock.
Filma had naturally anticipated the movement that was originally intended to entangle the halberd and send it flying upward.
Because he had watched the fight with Sharisla, he was able to respond immediately.
No — rather, he had even tried to use Rei's movement to entangle the Twilight Spear as a counter.
Rei, in turn, gripped the Twilight Spear firmly just as his opponent had, preventing his weapon from being taken, and thus a momentary stalemate between the Twilight Spear and the halberd was born.
But while Filma held the halberd with both hands, Rei held the Twilight Spear with his left hand alone.
In other words, the Death Scythe — the weapon Filma was most wary of — was free to move.
"As if I'd let you!"
Filma's movements had stopped because he was locked in a contest with the Twilight Spear, but when he saw the Death Scythe — the great scythe that could literally reap an opponent's life with ease (though since this was a mock battle, Rei had no intention of going that far) — closing in, what Filma did was go limp in the knees and drop to the ground.
If he had simply retreated backward from there, it would have been an obvious enough action that even Rei could have used that movement to entangle the halberd.
Indeed, Rei had anticipated that Filma would take such action and was about to move the moment he retreated.
That being the case, the act of Filma dropping his center of gravity was entirely unexpected for Rei.
And an unexpected action brought about a momentary stagnation in Rei's thoughts, brief as it was. Still, the right hand gripping the Death Scythe tracked Filma's movement half-reflexively.
Filma, understanding the movement of the Death Scythe, launched himself upward in a single burst from his seated position on the ground.
How one could perform such a movement from a lowered posture was beyond Rei's comprehension. He couldn't understand it, but the Death Scythe passing beneath the airborne Filma was an undeniable fact.
Furthermore, through that series of movements, Filma even managed to forcefully wrench the halberd free from the entangled Twilight Spear.
'...'
Both took distance from each other, silently assessing the other's condition.
The sharpness of the gaze directed at him was one that sought an opening in the opponent.
Even the act of briefly averting one's gaze from the opponent, which had been the catalyst for the previous exchange, was more than enough to trigger a fight in this mock battle.
Thus they faced each other for perhaps ten-odd seconds... or maybe tens of seconds.
For that length of time, both observed the other in silence. And then, as if carried on a winter breeze, a leaf from some plant drifted between Rei and Filma from nowhere.
Why a plant leaf existed in this snowy season, no one knew.
But the moment that leaf passed between the two of them, Rei and Filma both surged forward at once.
Both had acted with the understanding that the other would not miss this moment, and because of that, neither was flustered by the distance between them closing in an instant.
Evading the strike of Filma's halberd, Rei unleashed a strike with the Twilight Spear.
Since it was a mock battle, not a thrust with the spearhead but a horizontal sweep.
That blow, however, was blocked by the halberd, and Rei swung the Death Scythe as if to exploit the brief opening created when his opponent's movement slowed.
Filma also tried to use the momentum from being deflected by the Twilight Spear, rotating his body to land a strike on Rei. But that movement came to an abrupt halt.
It went without saying, but between launching a strike while spinning once and simply launching a strike, the latter was overwhelmingly more advantageous.
Well, if the opposing enemy was someone below one's own level, that would be another story. But this time Filma's opponent was Rei, who was by no means below his level.
The Death Scythe thrust before his eyes. Filma stared at it, and for a brief moment considered whether he could turn the tables from here, but ultimately concluded that there was nothing he could do about the current situation.
If this were real combat rather than a mock battle, he still had a few hidden techniques in reserve, but there was no need to reveal them in a mock battle.
Moreover, while he was on friendly terms with Rei, they were not clear-cut allies.
Depending on circumstances, there was a possibility of a future where they became enemies.
Given that, what Filma should do here was not search for an opening to counterattack, but rather...
"I yield. I surrender."
To honestly accept his defeat.