Rei charged straight toward Black Wolf.
Death Scythe in his right hand, the Twilight Spear in his left—his usual Twin Spear Style.
Yet as Rei bore down on him, Black Wolf didn't dodge with Teleportation as he always did. He simply stood there, watching.
...What filled Black Wolf's eyes, though, was a ravenous hunger.
A hunger so fierce it looked as though he might starve to death on the spot.
The way he regarded the approaching Rei was not the gaze of a man facing an enemy who would take his life—it was the look of a predator eyeing prey it intended to devour.
(The hunger is worse than I expected. I figured he'd have a little more composure left.)
Exactly how much damage Death Scythe's strike had dealt was impossible to tell now that the wound had already closed.
But since it hadn't been enough to bisect his torso in a single blow, it certainly hadn't been fatal.
Just how deep had that strike gone?
With no way to know, Rei needed to land another blow—similar in force, or greater.
"Either way, the best thing to do is try!"
His voice rang out just as the distance closed, and Rei swung Death Scythe.
A ferocious strike that seemed to cleave not just the air, but space itself.
Black Wolf dropped into a crouch with a beast-like motion and evaded it.
(What?)
In the same instant, Rei thrust the Twilight Spear in his left hand at the crouching Black Wolf.
But Black Wolf leaped sideways, dodging that strike as well.
(What?)
The same question surfaced again as Rei watched Black Wolf's behavior.
Until now, Black Wolf should have been using his Teleportation skill to evade Rei's attacks.
Whether from Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear, a single hit from Rei carried enough force to inflict a fatal wound.
Given the worst-case scenario, it wouldn't have been strange for Black Wolf to play it safe.
It wasn't as though he teleported every single attack—dodging normally when setting up a counter would have been perfectly natural. But this was not one of those moments.
Which meant something was definitely wrong.
"Gah!"
From the tail end of his evasive motion, Black Wolf kicked off the ground and lunged at Rei.
Fangs bared, it was a strike unlike his silent actions up to now—an attack driven by a fighting spirit rooted in appetite.
Compared to his previous strikes, it was a full tier above in speed and momentum. And yet Rei dodged it effortlessly.
(This is... I see.)
A moment's thought, and he understood why he'd been able to dodge so easily despite the attack being more powerful than before.
The speed was higher, but that was only because the strike had been launched on pure instinct, with no thought given to what came next.
From Rei's perspective, this unmistakably meant Black Wolf had become easier to fight.
No matter how fast his attacks grew, if he could only throw straightforward, almost reckless assaults driven by nothing but hunger, there were countless ways to deal with him.
Furthermore, his refusal to use Teleportation—Black Wolf's greatest characteristic and advantage—only made him an easier opponent for Rei.
(I never thought a single strike from Death Scythe would change things this much. A critical weakness for Black Wolf... no, it's precisely because it's Death Scythe.)
In a normal fight, inflicting a wound serious enough to be called a heavy injury on a Black Wolf who mastered the Teleportation skill would be difficult.
The reason things had gone this smoothly was simply because it was Rei wielding Death Scythe.
"Alright. We're entering the endgame, then. For what it's worth, if you surrender now—!"
Mid-sentence, Black Wolf lunged at Rei again.
Baring his fangs, aiming for Rei's body, he sought to tear off flesh and bite through it to satisfy his appetite.
In terms of sheer quantity of meat and its tenderness, Elena—watching the battle unfold from a short distance away—might have been the better target. Rei briefly wondered as much, but since Black Wolf was coming at him, there was no need to worry about that. Dodging the fanged strike, he thrust out the Twilight Spear.
"Guah!"
Black Wolf twisted his body reflexively to evade—but since it came right after an attack driven by hunger, he couldn't dodge completely.
The Twilight Spear's tip slashed deeply across Black Wolf's left arm.
"Gyan!"
Black Wolf let out a shriek. Whether pain and surprise had overtaken his hunger, he leaped backward.
The Black Wolf of before would have healed the wound on his left arm the moment he created distance from Rei. But...
"Gya, gyan! Gyan!"
Having pulled back, Black Wolf let out a cry that sounded confused—yet also as though he were enduring pain.
(It worked, huh.)
Twilight Spear in hand, Rei observed Black Wolf's condition.
His current state was going exactly as Rei had intended.
One of the Twilight Spear's abilities was to hinder an opponent's recovery.
The ability itself wasn't particularly powerful; high-rank Recovery Magic or effective potions could overcome the recovery-hindering effect and heal the wound.
From what Rei could see, since the heavy wound from Death Scythe's strike had been healed enough to not impede his movements, Black Wolf's Regeneration Ability certainly surpassed the Twilight Spear's recovery-hindering effect.
But... yes, but.
Black Wolf had merely healed the wound from Death Scythe, and yet he now displayed this intense hunger, exhausted to the point where he couldn't fight as he normally did.
Given that, the wound from Rei's Twilight Spear strike was borderline fatal for Black Wolf, who possessed such a powerful Regeneration Ability.
And indeed, the wound showed no sign of healing. Black Wolf groaned in pain and hunger.
"Gya, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!"
A figure completely unlike the taciturn Black Wolf that Rei knew.
If Rei, knowing nothing of Black Wolf's current state, had seen him now, it would have been questionable whether he could have recognized him as the same person he'd encountered before.
Fangs protruded from his mouth, drool streaming from them—whether from hunger—as he let out one growl after another.
His eyes were bloodshot, fixing Rei with the stare of a creature that had found its next meal.
Looking at Black Wolf in this state, being told he was the same person Rei had been trying to tame with Nikuman and Fruit Water was asking the impossible.
"I'll be putting an end to this now. Unfortunately, I can't keep dealing with you forever."
With Death Scythe in one hand and the Twilight Spear in the other, Rei addressed Black Wolf, who was groaning in hunger and pain.
Even in that state, Black Wolf must have sensed Rei's killing intent. He turned his bloodshot gaze toward Rei and let out a sound of threat.
"Gugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
It was a threatening cry—but also proof that the hunger within him had grown even stronger than before, and he could no longer resist it.
Letting out that roar, Black Wolf was seized by both the instinct of hunger and the killing intent Rei radiated... and the next moment, he broke into a run.
Rather than starving to death here, he would gamble on the slim chance of survival by devouring Rei's flesh.
There was no longer any trace of sanity in his eyes.
Dominated by hunger, intending to devour and kill the one who had directed killing intent at him.
Thinking of nothing but that, he charged straight at Rei.
True to the name Black Wolf, he didn't run on two legs but sprinted on all fours.
Watching Black Wolf hurtling toward him, a flicker of pity appeared in Rei's eyes—only for a moment.
Driven entirely by hunger, not a shred of Black Wolf's will remained; it was an attack born of pure instinct.
It was hard to believe this was the same person who had fought him head-on all this time.
The one who had reduced him to this state was, without a doubt, Rei.
And yet, even so... to Rei, Black Wolf was an opponent who gave him much to think about.
"I'll free you from that. Sleep."
He murmured, and swung Death Scythe at Black Wolf, who was charging straight at him, fangs bared, ready to sink them into Rei's flesh.
"Power Slash."
Not a skill that sharpened Death Scythe's edge, but one that enhanced the raw power of a single strike.
Its force was so great that even Rei struggled to suppress the recoil.
And unleashed simultaneously was the Twilight Spear in his left hand.
Charged with magical power, that strike realized its full potential, demonstrating tremendous force.
Death Scythe's Power Slash and the Twilight Spear's strike—two blows launched at once, crashing down on Black Wolf as he came charging in to devour Rei.
As if delivering a counter to the jaws gaping wide mid-lunge, the Twilight Spear pierced into Black Wolf's mouth, passing through his throat and impaling his torso.
The Power Slash, swung at the same instant—normally a two-handed technique but delivered here with one—couldn't transfer its full force, yet it held more than enough power to bisect his torso.
...Incidentally, Rei had pulled the Twilight Spear free just before the torso was severed, so the spear that had been impaling Black Wolf's body didn't end up taking the brunt of Death Scythe's strike.
Wielding two long weapons at once, unleashing them simultaneously, and yet keeping them from touching each other—just how much skill that required goes without saying.
But pulling that off was what made Rei, Rei.
And... as a result of that feat, Black Wolf's torso was split into upper and lower halves, each sent flying in a different direction.
A wound to the stomach from Death Scythe could have been healed.
But with his torso itself severed, surviving any longer was impossible.
"Gu... ga..."
The fact that he didn't die instantly was a testament to Black Wolf's extraordinary vitality, resilience, and Regeneration Ability.
Observing Black Wolf's condition, Rei swung both weapons to shake off the blood clinging to them, stored them in his Misty Ring, and approached—more precisely, approached Black Wolf's upper half.
They had fought with their lives on the line, yet Rei didn't truly hate Black Wolf.
It puzzled even himself, but the fact remained: since Black Wolf was beyond saving, Rei wanted to witness his final moments.
He also wanted to know why Black Wolf had suddenly attacked today—and why, if he was going to attack at all, he had come in broad daylight instead of at night, which suited an assassin's strengths.
He wanted to hear the circumstances, if possible.
Of course, the Black Wolf that Rei knew never uttered a word, so he didn't actually expect to hear anything.
...Which was exactly why Rei's feet stopped for an instant when he drew close.
"Here... is... I, what on earth..."
Those were clearly intelligible words.
And they had undoubtedly come from the mouth of Black Wolf, who had no lower body—just his upper half.
"Black Wolf, you... you could talk?"
"Black Wolf? That's my... no... wait. It's coming back to me... I see..."
Called by that name—whether because of it, or because he saw Rei's face—in any case, Black Wolf seemed to understand who he was.
But the moment he tried to speak further, blood spilled from his mouth.
It was only natural. His torso had been severed into upper and lower halves; still being alive at this point was nothing short of miraculous.
Even the powerful Regeneration Ability that had wrought that miracle couldn't keep the dying Black Wolf alive.
All it could do was stave off instant death and prolong his life a little longer.
"I see. You're... the... Nikuman, huh. ...If possible... I wanted to eat pork kakuni-man... the ones they sell in Yokohama Chinatown... ate them with my mom..."
Just like that. Rei's feet stopped.
If the words coming from Black Wolf's mouth had only been about Nikuman, there would have been no issue.
But the term Yokohama Chinatown changed everything.
Rei had grown up in the countryside of Tohoku, but even he knew about Yokohama's Chinatown from TV and various other media.
Naturally, a term like Yokohama Chinatown had no business existing in this world. The fact that Black Wolf was saying it meant... in other words, where he had come from required no deliberation.
But Black Wolf's hair was black now, and silver when they had met at night.
As far as Rei knew, there was no one in Japan whose hair changed color depending on the time of day. ...Unless they dyed it.
"Hey, don't tell me you came from Jap—"
He had started to ask—Did you come from Japan?
But by then, Black Wolf was already gone. He had fallen into a peaceful sleep.