A giant... yes, a wolf monster of a size that could only be described as giant.
Even from a distance, they could understand to some extent what kind of existence it was.
The problem was not its size alone.
No—of course, being large in and of itself meant it was strong, so it was certainly something to be wary of.
But even so, for Rei and Set, fighting enemies larger than themselves was hardly a rare occurrence.
For Set to let out a warning cry in such a situation meant that the giant wolf monster wasn't merely large—there was a reason even Set felt the need to be on guard.
The imposing presence it gives off is certainly strong. But is it really something Set should be this wary of?
Rei wondered this while keeping a wary eye on the enemy.
And then, right at that moment... as if reading Rei's thoughts, the wolf's howl echoed through the night sky.
"Awooooooooooooooooooooon!"
It seemed like a howl meant to intimidate... no, it wasn't—that much became clear the very next moment.
"H-hey. Isn't something... being born from that wolf?"
One of the nearby adventurers muttered, his voice startled, laced with a refusal to believe what he was seeing.
Indeed, that adventurer's opinion was likely shared by everyone else—the Lizardmen and the knight who served as the commanding officer here.
Rei, whose eyesight was sharper than the rest, had already grasped the situation more accurately.
A giant wolf stood on the surface of the lake.
From its body, smaller wolves—small only in comparison to the original—were being born, one after another.
What exactly was happening, Rei didn't really understand either.
He didn't understand, but he could at least grasp that they were dealing with a troublesome enemy.
And that, given enough time, its numbers would only continue to grow.
"Troublesome. They're coming!"
The smaller wolves born from the giant wolf—though still about half Set's size—appeared to share their parent's ability to walk on water. They came sprinting across the lake's surface straight toward Rei and the others. Everyone present was someone of considerable skill.
Because of that, they reacted to Rei's voice... or rather, they had already assumed their interception stances before Rei's voice even rang out.
"Flying Slash!"
The first to attack was Rei.
He swung Death Scythe and unleashed a flying slash.
The slash shot straight toward the approaching wolf... and in the next instant, cleaved it cleanly in two.
Weak?
Flying Slash had reached Level 5, making it far more powerful than when he first learned it. Even so, killing the creature in a single strike was unexpected, even for Rei.
But then... he saw the wolf destroyed by Flying Slash turn into lake water with a splash. Understanding dawned—and with it, a sharp sense of crisis.
"Be careful! The ones born from that giant wolf have a water nature!"
"Huh? Water... ugh, isn't that the worst possible matchup for me?"
The adventurer holding a spear grumbled, looking thoroughly displeased—truly, utterly disgusted.
Rei understood the sentiment.
A spear's primary attack method was thrusting. Sweeping strikes existed, sure, but the core approach was still the thrust.
Against a wolf made of water, though, thrusting didn't seem like it would be very effective.
A slashing attack, on the other hand, could cut through and kill a wolf composed of water, as the Flying Slash had just demonstrated.
"Those with impact-type weapons, to the front line!"
At the knight's order, those carrying clubs and maces stepped forward. Many had such weapons as backups even if they weren't their primary armament. And since they were near the Treant Forest, some had even taken up broken branches as weapons. Just as everyone finished switching, the water wolves—the Water Wolves—arrived at their position, kicking off the lake's surface.
Awoooon!
Howling, the Water Wolves surged forward in unison, charging at their enemies—at Rei and the others.
Rei's group met them head-on.
In terms of sheer numbers, the Water Wolves were overwhelmingly superior. After all, the giant Water Wolf that kept producing them was still spawning more without end.
I'd really like it to stop already. The only saving grace is that these Water Wolves are weak.
Irritated by the relentless assault, Rei swung Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
The Twilight Spear was, naturally, a spear—which meant it was by no means the most effective weapon against the Water Wolves.
However, this was the Twilight Spear.
Charged with Rei's magic, it continued to deliver fatal blows to the Water Wolves despite being a spear.
What's more, rather than thrusting, Rei was swinging it in horizontal sweeps, so it wasn't uncommon for several Water Wolves to be felled at once.
They fell one after another. Partly because Rei and his companions were skilled, but also simply because the Water Wolves were by no means strong monsters.
Still, is today some kind of unlucky day or what!?
Rei half-gritted his teeth as he wondered why, of all days, so many major troubles had occurred in such rapid succession. He slashed through several Water Wolves at once with Death Scythe.
During the day, he had crushed several Underground Organizations in Gilm's Slum District. Upon returning to the Birth Tower, he'd had an unarmed mock battle with Gaga. And now this giant Water Wolf incident.
Kelpies I can understand, but Water Wolves? ...Worst of all, the fact that they're monsters from the lake is what really hurts.
Monsters inhabiting the lake almost certainly had useful materials but lacked Magic Stones. In other words, even after defeating them, the most valuable part—the Magic Stone—couldn't be obtained.
Moreover, Rei and Set possessed Beast Magic, which allowed them to learn new skills using Magic Stones.
Given that, the Water Wolves were far from ideal opponents for Rei.
Above all, while the giant Water Wolf was one thing, the smaller ones born from it simply dissolved into water when defeated, dropping not even a single material.
"Rei, at this rate we're getting nowhere! Take down the source!"
The knight shouted while cleaving through a Water Wolf with his longsword.
He must have understood that, in the current situation, the only one with an effective means of attacking the giant Water Wolf deep in the lake was Rei... or more precisely, only Rei and Set.
Rei nodded.
"Set!"
Grrrgh!
Blowing away several Water Wolves with a single strike of its front leg, Set let out a cry in response to Rei's voice.
Even mid-battle, Set's ears had naturally tracked the conversation between the knight and Rei. Knowing it would be called, it reacted instantly.
Turning the Water Wolves in its path to spray with a body slam, it closed the distance to Rei.
Without slowing from its running speed, Rei leapt onto Set's back.
It was a feat possible only because Rei and Set trusted each other completely.
"That giant Water Wolf. We're taking it down."
Grrrrrgh!
At Rei's words, Set rumbled in its throat, flapped its wings, and soared into the sky.
Perhaps sensing the danger Set posed, several Water Wolves lunged... but before they could reach him, nearby adventurers and Lizardmen struck them down, reducing them to spray.
"You've got this, Rei! Take that thing down already!"
An adventurer who had smashed—no, shattered—a Water Wolf with a mace shouted. Rei answered by swinging Death Scythe in acknowledgment.
Bearing Rei aloft, Set flapped its wings and closed in on the giant Water Wolf.
The lake itself was roughly the same size as Gilm, but fortunately, the Water Wolves that had attacked Rei's group hadn't come from very far away.
With a body height just shy of ten meters, it should have been enormous by any normal standard, but seen from a distance, it inevitably appeared small.
From the shore, without a point of reference, Rei couldn't pinpoint its exact location—but it couldn't be that far.
Flying through the sky on Set, the distance closed in the blink of an eye.
So it really is a Water Wolf.
Getting closer allowed Rei to clearly confirm the enemy's appearance, and he was convinced.
Though its size was on an entirely different scale, its form was nearly identical to the Water Wolves the adventurers and Lizardmen were fighting on the shore.
If he got even closer, he might find differences from the smaller ones, but Rei had no leisure for that now.
Or rather, if it's using the lake's water itself as part of its body, that's a problem.
The giant Water Wolf was still endlessly producing smaller ones. Given the sheer number it had already spawned, it should have consumed more water than its body could possibly contain by now.
And yet, the giant Water Wolf remained just as massive, its size unchanged.
They're chasing us too. ...Of course they are.
Glancing toward the lake, Rei noticed that nearly half of the countless Water Wolves produced by the giant one were pursuing Set across the water's surface.
They could walk on water but couldn't fly, so they couldn't attack Set at the moment.
But that was only for now. There was a possibility the giant Water Wolf might create Water Wolves that could fly through the air... or perhaps flying water birds, or something along those lines. The possibility wasn't zero.
Given that its main body took the form of a wolf, he doubted it had the ability to create birds, but it wasn't an absolute.
Considering all of that, the best course of action was still to defeat the Water Wolf's main body as quickly as possible.
The problem is how to defeat it.
Deciding to try attacking for the time being, Rei channeled magic into the Twilight Spear and hurled it.
Thrown from atop Set's back, it didn't carry the same power as it would from the ground.
Even so, the Twilight Spear, charged with Rei's magic, shot straight toward the Water Wolf at a speed that seemed to pierce through the air itself.
The giant Water Wolf made no move to evade the incoming spear and took it head-on... and in the next moment, its head was destroyed.
"Did I get it!?"
Rei shouted involuntarily as the Water Wolf's head shattered—but in the very next instant, it regenerated from water.
"...Ugh."
Retrieving the Twilight Spear to his hand, Rei let out the sound. Set, judging the Water Wolf dangerous since it had regenerated immediately even after its head was blown apart, flapped its wings with extra force and climbed to an altitude where the Water Wolf's attacks likely couldn't reach.
But the Water Wolf merely regenerated its head, showing no sign of attacking Rei and Set.
Whether that was because it was focused entirely on regeneration and had no room to attack, or simply because it deemed attacking unnecessary in the current situation, Rei couldn't tell.
But one thing was clear: the Water Wolf was an extremely troublesome opponent to defeat.
The real question is how much Regeneration Ability it has. ...I'd like to think it isn't using all the water in the entire lake for regeneration, but...
If it could draw on the entire vast lake to heal itself, the only conceivable way to defeat it would be to evaporate the lake itself with Rei's magic.
If asked whether he could or couldn't, Rei would answer that he probably could.
But this lake had been teleported directly from another world—something extraordinarily rare, even miraculous.
From its waters, creatures never before seen in this world were being discovered one after another. Its monsters lacked Magic Stones, a characteristic utterly unbelievable from Elgin's perspective.
Beyond that, there was also the possibility that some resource not found in this world lay dormant within it, though that couldn't be confirmed without thorough investigation.
Weighing all of these factors, he couldn't bring himself to burn the entire lake away.
In that case... does it have some kind of core?
It had no Magic Stone, but the Water Wolf had regenerated effortlessly even after its head was destroyed.
Even so, the possibility that it possessed some core-like structure couldn't be dismissed.
...No, maybe not. If it truly had a core, then evaporating the Water Wolf itself would...
Still, without understanding what kind of existence the Water Wolf was, he couldn't afford to carelessly provoke it.
Grrh!
While Rei was still thinking, Set suddenly let out a sharp cry, flapped its wings hard, and dodged.
The next instant, the Water Wolf's fangs pierced through the space where Set had been.
Despite flying at an altitude of roughly a hundred meters, the Water Wolf had leapt—without so much as a running start—and reached that height.
"Troublesome. Truly, today is an unlucky day!"
Rei voiced aloud the same thought he'd had just moments before.