"It's about time."
Night had fallen. The moon shone in the sky, a few clouds drifting across its face.
With the surroundings completely shrouded in darkness, Rei murmured the words from within the trench.
Fortunately, the trench they had dug during the day hadn't been discovered by the Dragonias.
Normally, if they suddenly saw a section of the ground bulging upward, they would find it suspicious.
But the Dragonias—with a few exceptions like the golden-scaled Dragonias Rei had encountered—possessed nothing resembling intelligence. They simply moved about, driven by hunger.
Given that, considering the current situation, the Dragonias likely wouldn't question the sight of raised ground even if they saw it.
In that sense, the Dragonias did indeed have what could be called weaknesses.
"Yeah. I don't know how the Dragonias behave at night, but wouldn't it make sense for them to be asleep by now?"
It had already been a few hours since the sun set.
By Rei's estimation, it felt like around nine or ten at night, but for the Dragonias, it wouldn't be strange for them to be asleep at this hour.
Nodding at Vihera's words, Rei eventually turned his gaze to the other Centaurs in the trench.
He saw Centaurs who—though they understood in their heads that everything would be fine—were only now truly grasping the reality that they were about to head directly to the Dragonias base and watch Rei annihilate it with magic. The realization had them on edge.
Even though they understood that Rei's power would see them through, the fear of the Dragonias had clearly seeped deep into their hearts.
That was how great the damage the Centaurs had suffered at the hands of the Dragonias had been.
Looking at those Centaurs, Rei spoke.
"Listen up. You're about to witness the Dragonias base being annihilated. That should hold great significance for you. ...Actually, I think the guys from Zai's settlement changed quite a bit from seeing that alone."
"What do you mean... specifically, how so?"
One of the Centaurs asked, his tone timid.
Their own settlement had been attacked by Dragonias several times, so they likely felt that way all the more.
"Let's see. The first thing I noticed was that they regained their confidence."
As far as Rei knew, many of the Centaurs were proud, possessing the strength that once earned them the title of Ruler of the Plains.
But they had continued to suffer casualties in battle against the Dragonias—enemies with whom communication was utterly impossible—and as a result, it seemed to Rei that they had nearly given up.
And yet, Rei effortlessly overwhelmed the very Dragonias they had been powerless against.
For anyone watching, it was a sight sufficient to prove that the Dragonias were by no means invincible.
"Confidence..."
Several of the Centaurs who had been listening murmured the word.
"That's right. Confidence. After witnessing this, you will definitely regain yours."
So Rei told them, though truthfully, he couldn't be certain whether the Centaurs would actually regain their confidence after watching him annihilate the Dragonias base.
But even so, he thought it was better to say it now.
By putting the idea out there, there was a good chance that when the Dragonias base was annihilated, they would remember his words and find their confidence restored.
"Well then... shall we get going?"
Seeing the Centaurs fired up after hearing the word "confidence," Vihera asked the question.
Her attitude made it clear—since they were showing this much enthusiasm, it was probably time to take action.
At Vihera's words, Rei thought for a moment... and then nodded.
"Sounds good. At this hour, a lot of the Dragonias should be asleep. That makes things easier for us."
With that, Rei looked around.
The Centaurs in particular seemed motivated by what he had just said.
Observing this, Rei nodded in satisfaction, retrieved the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring, and struck its ferrule into the ground to activate a skill.
"Terrain Manipulation."
It was the same skill he had used to create the trench.
Naturally, it activated without issue—the sunken ground rose, and the raised ground sank.
In a matter of seconds, the trench that had easily held twenty people vanished.
Even so, the Centaurs in particular experienced the sensation of the ground rising beneath their feet—a sensation one would normally never feel—and several of them were bewildered.
For Rei, it was a feeling he was used to from elevators, so he felt no particular unease.
"All right, no problems. ...Let's go. Where the Dragonias are is on the other side of that hill, so we're not far. All that's left is to annihilate the base and return to the campsite."
There was no sense of gravity or desperation in Rei's tone.
That was how little difficulty lay in annihilating the Dragonias base.
Among the Centaurs, some were still tense at this late stage... or perhaps because the moment was now upon them.
But even those individuals, upon seeing Rei's casual demeanor, naturally felt their tension ease.
What's more, they even found themselves wondering why they had ever been so afraid of the Dragonias.
Seeing Rei's Terrain Manipulation up close, and watching him use the Misty Ring right before their eyes, surely factored into this.
With Rei around, they would never lose, even against the Dragonias.
Of course, if that feeling grew too strong, it would lead to the very concern Rei had—that they would believe everything would be fine as long as he was present—and taking that too far would be a problem.
"All right, let's go."
Telling the Centaurs that, Rei began walking toward the hill.
Vihera and Set flanked him on either side as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
A moment later, the Centaurs followed.
The hill was not far from where the trench had been made.
Also, since it was a hill, the path up wasn't particularly steep, so the group reached the top with ease.
From there, they could naturally see the Dragonias base on the other side.
As Rei had expected... and to the Centaurs' astonishment, a great number of Dragonias were sleeping there.
They must have been sleeping to forget their hunger, even if only a little.
"Just as I expected. No problem. ...You all wait here. Set, you're with me. Vihera, you—"
"I'm obviously coming with you."
Not letting Rei finish, Vihera cut in.
For Vihera, who had come this far specifically because she wanted to fight the golden-scaled Dragonias, being left behind was simply not an option.
Rei hadn't been entirely serious about it anyway, so he decided it was fine for her to come.
(The question is... what magic to use. Fire Whirlwind would be on a much smaller scale compared to the last base, so it'd take more effort. In that case, is regular Flame Magic fine? But if there's a golden-scaled Dragonias, Vihera will definitely want to fight it.)
As far as Rei was concerned, he didn't care about the method when it came to killing Dragonias.
As for the golden-scaled Dragonias, if it had something like a Magic Stone, that would be a different story... but if he didn't have to worry about that, then letting Vihera fight it if she wanted to was perfectly fine.
With that settled, Rei didn't raise any particular objection to Vihera's words and moved somewhat closer to the base.
Rei had wondered whether the act of descending the hill itself might draw their attention, but most of the Dragonias were asleep, and not many individuals were awake.
Those that were awake weren't paying any particular attention to the hill and were simply wandering about aimlessly.
(They're probably trying to distract themselves from their hunger.)
If they wanted to distract themselves from hunger, sleeping was the quickest way.
In fact, the majority of the Dragonias were asleep, likely forgetting their hunger, at least temporarily.
But the Dragonias that were moving about were, naturally, hungry... no, it wasn't something so mild as that. They were tormented by hunger.
"Could those Dragonias that are awake and moving around be lookouts? If so, since I can't imagine ordinary Dragonias doing something like that, it would mean there's a commander at this base, right?"
Rei hesitated slightly before nodding at Vihera's question.
"There probably is one, but we barely understand anything about the Dragonias. Considering that, I can't deny the possibility that there isn't one."
At Rei's words, Vihera looked dissatisfied.
She wanted there to be a commander—and ideally, a powerful enemy even stronger than the golden-scaled Dragonias that Rei had fought.
For Vihera, who loved battle, thinking that way was only natural.
As for Rei, honestly speaking, since he couldn't look forward to obtaining Magic Stones or materials, he wouldn't be particularly happy even if a powerful enemy appeared.
"For now, if there is a commander, I think it'll come out once I use magic. That's what happened at the last base."
Saying that, Rei gripped the Death Scythe and looked toward the base.
As before, the Dragonias showed no sign of noticing their presence.
(With that scale... yeah, that magic should work for the first time in a while.)
Having decided on the magic to use, Rei began chanting.
Oh flames, dance, dance. With your graceful dance, illuminate the surroundings, and captivate all who witness your beautiful performance until they are seared.
Along with the incantation, flames materialized around the Death Scythe.
Normally, the number of flames produced by this magic would be one hundred.
But this time, Rei poured in more mana and boosted the number.
Six hundred.
He had heard that the enemy numbered around five hundred, and from what he could see, that estimate seemed about right, which was why he had increased the count.
...Of course, it had already been proven that Flame Magic was ineffective against red-scaled Dragonias.
Rei didn't know exactly how many red-scaled Dragonias were at this base.
But when he had scouted from the hill during the day, he felt there had been a fair number of them.
This magic was one where the flames attacked enemies with a certain degree of autonomous judgment.
Because of that, Rei was curious how the flames would behave when facing the red-scaled Dragonias.
Would they judge that attacking was pointless and leave the red-scaled Dragonias alone... or would they persistently attack endlessly, determined to bring them down?
"Dancing Flames."
The magic activated.
Naturally, with six hundred flames floating in the night sky, even Dragonias that weren't posted as lookouts noticed the abnormality.
And upon noticing it, they half-instinctively concluded that prey had arrived—that someone to satisfy their hunger had come—and charged straight toward the flames.
With such movement happening around them, the sleeping Dragonias naturally woke up.
...Though many couldn't wake up in time and were burned to death by the flames' attacks.
Against the flames that struck one after another, the ordinary Dragonias were utterly helpless.
Since the flames had no physical body to begin with, there was no way the Dragonias could do anything about them.
A Dragonias bit at the flames and got its face set ablaze.
A Dragonias desperately swung its claws, only to fail to land a single hit and have its hand burned instead.
Such scenes could be seen all over the base.
"As expected, no good, huh."
For nearly all of the Dragonias, it was a scene that could truly be called hell.
The only ones unfazed were the red-scaled Dragonias.
They showed no sign of caring about anything being done to them. Instead, they displayed a rare, bewildered demeanor—unusual for a Dragonias—as if wondering what on earth they themselves were doing.
They bit at the flames, but naturally couldn't kill them.
At the same time, the flames couldn't burn the Dragonias either.
They had fallen into what could truly be called a stalemate.
What was unexpected for Rei was that many of the flames were converging on the red-scaled Dragonias.
Since there were six hundred flames, the other Dragonias were still being attacked, but...
"Gyagagagagaaagagagagaagagaga!"
Suddenly, an unpleasantly loud voice echoed across the battlefield.