The claws extending from Black Wolf's fingers had, just a short while ago—back when Rei had handed him the nikuman—been perfectly ordinary claws with nothing unusual about them.
At the very least, they were by no means the dagger-sharp blades they were now.
Given that only a few days had passed since Rei had given nikuman to Black Wolf, for his claws to grow this much in that span of time was, under normal circumstances, absolutely impossible.
"Black Wolf, huh. I see!"
At this point, Rei could no longer claim he didn't want to attack Black Wolf.
He drew his usual weapons—Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear—from his Misty Ring and assumed his stance.
What was fortunate was that the location Black Wolf had chosen as his battlefield was a wide, open space.
If this had been somewhere like a back alley, he would never have been able to swing his long-handled weapons as freely.
Of course, the reason Black Wolf had chosen such an open area was not out of consideration for Rei. It was simply because his combat style was far better suited to fighting here than in a cramped alleyway.
Black Wolf, in his customary silence, vanished from the spot once more... and in the next instant, he was standing a short distance away from Rei.
(Teleportation? Is he teleporting individually? No, but... something about it feels off compared to teleportation. What in the world is that... is it really teleportation?)
Watching Rei and Black Wolf face each other, Elena sensed something wrong about Black Wolf's movement.
What exactly could one do, and how, to achieve that kind of movement?
Did he possess a Magic Item, or was it something else entirely?
Rei knew that this ability of Black Wolf's was a skill, but he had never told anyone about it.
That was precisely why Elena was bewildered by his movements as well.
Even so, she did not reach for her beloved sword Mirage at her waist, because Rei had told her to leave this fight to him and not to intervene.
Above all, as far as Elena knew, Rei was the strongest man alive.
At the very least, that was what she believed.
Since it was Rei who was fighting, all Elena could do was watch and believe in his victory.
"Your skill is as troublesome as ever. Teleportation... no, something about it feels different from ordinary teleportation. But even so..."
Cutting off his words there, Rei swung Death Scythe in his right hand.
It was a strike that seemed to slash through not just the air, but space itself.
Even Black Wolf, who should have held the advantage in this situation, froze for an instant, his eyes widening at the sheer intensity of the blow.
"If you get caught by one of my strikes, your loss is decided right then and there. If you're still coming at me knowing that, then I'll take you on."
A remark that was half threat.
But naturally, Black Wolf—renowned as a highly skilled assassin—would never fall for such a bluff.
Vanishing once more, he reappeared behind Rei in the next instant and swung claws honed as sharp as daggers.
"I figured you'd come with that!"
Shouting sharply, Rei dodged the attack from behind while swinging Death Scythe.
"Multi Slash!"
It was one of Death Scythe's skills—simple, yet possessing an extremely powerful effect.
"!?"
Black Wolf evaded Death Scythe's strike, but Multi Slash was a skill that allowed two attacks in a single swing.
Yes—for instance, if Black Wolf dodged by a hair's breadth as he had just now, the second attack would close that razor-thin gap and land a slash on the opponent.
...Even so, Black Wolf, who instinctively sensed the danger of Rei's Death Scythe and the viciousness of the Multi Slash skill, did not suffer a fatal wound from that strike.
A faint scratch appeared on his cheek, but that was all.
Of course, the very fact that he could scratch the assassin known as Black Wolf meant this was no halfhearted attack.
Perhaps startled by the Multi Slash skill as well, Black Wolf once again vanished from in front of Rei and reappeared at a distance.
(That teleportation... is it teleportation? Regardless, I've figured out that it's a skill, but vanishing and appearing with no preparatory movement whatsoever is troublesome.)
If it were teleportation using a Magic Item, there would need to be some kind of action or gesture required to activate it.
But the skill Black Wolf used had no preparatory movement of any kind.
Truly, before he even knew it, Black Wolf would be right behind him, so he couldn't let his guard down for even an instant.
If he came charging in at high speed... that sort of thing could be dealt with.
Rei possessed sharper five senses than an ordinary person, so he could track Black Wolf's figure visually or feel the displacement of air through his sense of touch.
But when it wasn't even high-speed movement—when someone simply appeared behind him out of nowhere—detecting them through such means was difficult.
(No, thanks to my sense of touch I can feel when Black Wolf moves behind me, so I'm able to respond. It's not completely useless.)
Above all, what made Rei find Black Wolf terrifying was his use of killing intent.
At one moment, he would slam his killing intent at Rei with pinpoint precision, as when he had appeared today—and at other times, like in this current fight, he would target Rei without letting any killing intent leak at all.
That said, for Black Wolf as well, Rei's behavior—responding instantly as if he had read his actions in advance—was nothing short of troublesome.
Black Wolf needed to carefully assess what Rei would do next.
If he made any careless move here, he would immediately suffer a fatal blow from Rei's scythe or spear.
After all, he had already been injured—lightly, but still—by having his cheek slashed in Rei's attack.
"So, what'll it be? The first one to get hurt... was you, even if it's just a light wound. Are you still going to keep going?"
Rei, having assumed his usual Twin Spear Style with Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, spoke those words while floating a provocative smile.
Originally, Rei had not wanted to fight Black Wolf, but since the other party had come to kill him like this, there was no reason not to take him on.
Whatever Black Wolf was thinking, getting himself killed was not an option that existed for Rei.
But when asked "are you going to keep going?"—if Black Wolf backed down immediately, he would never have launched an attack in broad daylight like this in the first place.
What answered Rei's words was the act of further extending claws that were already sharp as daggers.
No matter how you looked at it, that did not signal retreat—rather, it seemed to declare that he would resume the fight right now.
Furthermore, several sharp fangs extended from Black Wolf's mouth, bared at Rei as if to show them off.
"I see. So you're going to fight after all. ...Well, if you think of it as assassin and assassination target, this outcome might be natural. In that case... I'll also go at you seriously from here on out, with the intent to kill."
The earlier Multi Slash, if it had landed squarely, would have dealt massive damage to Black Wolf and possibly even killed him.
But even so, Rei had not put any killing intent into that attack... it was an action taken with the thought that he didn't need to kill.
However, that would change from here on.
He was about to truly challenge an opponent who had come to take his life.
Given that, it was only natural that his next strikes would be made with the intention of taking his opponent's life.
"I can't go all out here, but even so... there's plenty I can do!"
Shouting, Rei kicked off the ground and closed the distance to Black Wolf.
An ordinary method of movement, unlike Black Wolf's instantaneous relocation.
But just because it was ordinary did not mean his speed was slow.
Rei's figure, kicking off the ground to move, was difficult to track even with the eyes.
That said, Black Wolf was undoubtedly a first-rate fighter.
He was able to clearly track Rei's movement as he charged toward him, and was even thinking of slamming a sharp claw strike into him as a counter.
"You think I'll let you!"
Since Rei could see Black Wolf's stance as well, he understood almost intuitively what the other party was aiming for.
Unarmed combat, where one attacked with one's own arms, had a speed that surpassed other weapons, above all else.
Especially for a first-rate fighter of Black Wolf's caliber, his strikes could be called extremely powerful and swift.
An attack that an ordinary person would never be able to dodge.
But Rei was far from ordinary, and above all, he had sparred with Vihera—who also used unarmed combat as her primary weapon—an absurd number of times.
Dodging Death Scythe's strike, Rei waited for Black Wolf, who was trying to slip inside his guard, with the Twilight Spear in his left hand.
Since the range was different, it wouldn't bring out the maximum power... but it was still more than enough force to blow the opponent away.
"!?"
Black Wolf agilely dropped flat to the ground to evade the Twilight Spear's horizontal sweep.
Naturally, he had no intention of staying down; the moment the Twilight Spear passed over his head, Black Wolf kicked off the ground from that position and surged forward.
The sharp claws aimed for Rei's legs.
The area at one's feet was one of the harder places to defend against an attack, and Black Wolf was undoubtedly acting with that knowledge.
That was exactly why he had targeted that spot.
Though not to the same extent as Black Wolf, Rei's movements were extremely swift.
It must have been a judgment that he could disrupt those movements by attacking his legs—an attack made with that intention.
But... Rei, having sensed Black Wolf's strike, kicked off the ground and leapt into the air almost reflexively.
Being airborne meant being unable to change direction, and under normal circumstances, it was not a move one should carelessly make during combat.
However, that was only under normal circumstances. For Rei, who wore Sleipnir boots that allowed him to kick through the air, the sky was no different from solid ground.
Kicking through the air to create distance from Black Wolf, the moment he landed on the ground, he drove Death Scythe's butt cap into the earth.
"Terrain Manipulation!"
The current level of Terrain Manipulation that Death Scythe possessed was four.
He could raise or lower the ground within a seventy-meter radius centered on himself by up to one hundred fifty centimeters.
Being able to manipulate the ground to that degree meant it was not difficult to instantly sink the earth beneath Black Wolf and trap him in a hole.
Of course, since the hole's depth was only one hundred fifty centimeters, he couldn't completely submerge Black Wolf's body in the ground.
Even so, it was possible to create an opening sufficient to halt Black Wolf's movement for an instant... no, for several seconds. Rei pulled Death Scythe's butt cap from the ground and ran toward the hole where Black Wolf was trapped.
What extended from the ground was Black Wolf's neck.
Since he wasn't buried, he could have moved easily if he had tried.
But for Black Wolf, the ground suddenly sinking beneath him was completely unexpected, and even seeing Rei approaching, he couldn't react immediately. He couldn't—but even so, in the next instant, Black Wolf had vanished from the hole.
Seeing that, Rei stopped in his tracks and shot a sharp gaze toward his front-right diagonal.
There, Black Wolf was staring intently at Rei while casting a wary glance his way.
That last attack must have been completely unexpected for Black Wolf as well.
Not imagining Rei was capable of such a thing, he directed a steady, watchful gaze at him, looking for an opening.
"What's wrong? The renowned assassin Black Wolf—at a disadvantage when fighting head-on after all? Honestly, I have no idea what you were thinking, challenging me to a frontal fight."
Rei's words were half provocation and half genuine question.
Normally, an assassin would not openly challenge someone to a fight the way Black Wolf was doing.
A typical assassin would slip poison into food during everyday life... or aim for a vital point while passing by, or attack someone in their sleep.
Of course, with Rei's abilities, none of those methods would be easy.
But difficult did not mean absolutely impossible.
At least to Rei, those methods seemed to offer a higher chance of success than challenging him head-on like this.
Yet Black Wolf did no such thing and came openly to defeat... no, to kill Rei.
If he were someone ignorant of Rei's strength with excessive confidence in his own power, it wouldn't be strange for him to do such a thing. But the one facing Rei was Black Wolf.
Even though it hadn't been a serious fight, they had clashed lightly enough that they should have understood each other's abilities.
Despite that, why did he challenge him head-on like this?
That, even Rei did not understand.