"Well... that should do. Now, the problem is what to do about the rest."
Rei muttered as he gazed at the ground below—the sight of countless Dragonias reduced to charcoal.
From above, countless flames had rained down like a deluge, succeeding in burning away the majority of the Dragonias advancing on the ground.
Those still alive down there were the red-scaled Dragonias, which not even Rei's Flame Magic could kill, and a small number of other-colored Dragonias that had survived by chance, using their fellows as shields. And...
"The real problem is that golden-scaled Dragonias."
Rei's gaze was fixed on the golden-scaled Dragonias.
He had only fought one once before, but its strength in that battle had been considerable. It was the kind of opponent that would give even Rei a fair amount of trouble in a head-on fight.
Naturally, for Centaurs who had only recently become capable of fighting Dragonias one-on-one through mock battles with Vihera, even Zai—the strongest in the Reconnaissance Unit—would have virtually no chance of victory against a golden-scaled Dragonias.
Because of that, Rei wanted to defeat it here if at all possible. But in terms of boosting Vihera's morale, would it be better to leave it to her, given that she had been wanting to fight one for so long? He couldn't help but entertain the thought.
"Anyway, let's thin their numbers... there!"
With those words, Rei hurled the Twilight Spear, which he had drawn from his Misty Ring in place of the Death Scythe.
Though it was a throw powered only by his upper body while still straddling Set's back... the Twilight Spear tore through the charred, acrid air left by hundreds of burned Dragonias, streaking toward its target.
It pierced the body of a red-scaled Dragonias with ease.
Not only that—the moment it punched through, the Dragonias's upper body shattered as if it had exploded, a testament to just how devastating that single strike had been.
Normally, a Dragonias's scales couldn't be easily damaged even by the Centaurs. Yet Rei's Twilight Spear had shattered its body with such force that the scales might as well have been paper.
Since I'm attacking from the sky, I can only take out one at a time.
Using the Twilight Spear's ability, he recalled the spear to his hand—the same spear that had just carved a crater into the earth below.
Given that he was attacking from the air, it went without saying that each throw could only kill a single Dragonias.
If he had been standing on the ground, a single throw could have killed one Dragonias... and the one behind it, and even the one beyond that.
But under the current circumstances, that was impossible. In the end, he had no choice but to kill them one by one.
Still, clearing this many with spear throws from the sky is a bit unreasonable.
If only a dozen or so enemies remained, attacking with the Twilight Spear wouldn't take that long. But the combined total of the red-scaled Dragonias and the other-colored ones that had survived by chance numbered close to a hundred.
Picking them off one by one from the sky was certainly safe, but also extremely tedious.
"Tch, can't be helped. Set, we're landing to fight on the ground. Watch out for the golden-scaled Dragonias."
The golden-scaled Dragonias was currently the most powerful individual among the enemy.
While fighting the other Dragonias, Rei couldn't possibly believe that such a creature would just leave them alone.
There was more than enough chance that it would seize the opportunity of its fellows dying to launch an attack of its own.
Given that, Rei and Set had no choice but to stay on guard.
Should I just leave the small fry to Set and focus on the golden-scaled Dragonias myself?
He considered it, but even if he made that decision, there was no guarantee the Dragonias on the ground would cooperate.
"For now... it's faster to crush them directly. Set, let's go!"
"Grrrawl!"
Rei leaped from Set's back, drawing the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring midair.
As he descended toward the ground, he activated his Sleipnir boots to slow his fall.
Having done this countless times before, he descended without any particular tension, his movements thoroughly practiced.
Below, the golden-scaled Dragonias pointed at Rei as he descended toward them and let out a sharp cry.
"Naenta eonaoenka!"
That cry reached Rei's ears even as he fell.
Despite the wind roaring past him, the voice carried—proof of just how piercing the golden-scaled Dragonias's shout had been.
Rei couldn't understand the words themselves, but seeing the Dragonias converging on his landing spot, he could vaguely grasp what kind of order had been given.
I see. I could attack from a distance with the Twilight Spear, yet I chose to approach them on my own. From their perspective, they'd never miss an opportunity like this.
Driven by the golden-scaled Dragonias's absolute command authority, the Dragonias gathered at Rei's landing point without a hint of hesitation.
The golden-scaled Dragonias likely intended to swarm Rei with overwhelming numbers, focus their attacks, and bring him down.
That idea wasn't wrong. It was, in fact, a sound tactical judgment.
However... what the golden-scaled Dragonias had failed to grasp was just how much power Rei truly possessed.
It knew he could make precise spear throws capable of accurately targeting Dragonias on the ground from a great distance—even from a hundred meters up—attacks that could practically be called sniping. But it had never imagined he was equally lethal in close combat.
"Too naive!"
Just before hitting the ground, Rei kicked off the air once more with his Sleipnir boots—but this time, his movement was different from usual.
Instead of descending straight down, he kicked off the air and redirected his fall.
With nearly a hundred Dragonias packed together, a slight change in landing spot shouldn't have mattered.
But it was enough to catch them off guard, their movements faltering for just a moment.
Rei didn't let that instant pass. He swung the Death Scythe.
Slash!
True to its name, the Death Scythe severed the heads of several Dragonias in a single stroke, sending them flying.
Yet the Dragonias ordered by the golden-scaled Dragonias showed no concern whatsoever for their fallen fellows. They simply pressed their attack on Rei.
Rei had already witnessed and understood the golden-scaled Dragonias's absolute command authority in their previous battle. But seeing it demonstrated anew like this still gave him plenty to think about.
"That said, it's rather insulting to think mere Dragonias could overwhelm me!"
He shouted as he pressed the attack with both the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
Wherever the Death Scythe's blade touched, heads, torsos, arms, and legs were severed.
The tip of the Twilight Spear crushed skulls and punched through bodies.
Even the shaft was deadly—a single touch sent Dragonias flying from the raw force of the blow.
The Dragonias weren't entirely helpless. They lunged at Rei, trying to sink their fangs and claws into him, but every strike was either dodged or met with a devastating counter from the Death Scythe or Twilight Spear.
And Rei wasn't the only one ravaging their ranks.
Exploiting the opening created by the surviving Dragonias focusing exclusively on Rei, Set tore into those who weren't watching him.
Normally, even with their attention fixed on Rei, being attacked by Set would have prompted the Dragonias to at least counterattack against their new assailant.
But these Dragonias were under the golden-scaled Dragonias's absolute command to target Rei and Rei alone. Bound by that authority, they ignored Set entirely, never once turning to fight back.
"..."
Even as it watched its subordinates being slaughtered one-sidedly by Rei and Set, the golden-scaled Dragonias made no move to issue new orders.
Was it afraid? No. Quite the contrary—high intelligence dwelled in its snake-like eyes, and with that intelligence, it calmly observed Rei and Set devastating its forces.
To be precise, "observing" was a more fitting word than "watching."
Rei swung the Death Scythe to sever torsos and heads, crushed skulls and pierced bodies with the Twilight Spear—all while growing increasingly suspicious of the golden-scaled Dragonias's behavior.
With its subordinates being so thoroughly decimated, why wasn't the enemy taking any action?
Anyway, defeating the Dragonias comes first. Once the golden-scaled Dragonias is alone, there'll be ways to deal with it.
His curiosity about the golden-scaled Dragonias nagged at him, but killing the others took priority. Even now, there was no guarantee the golden-scaled one wouldn't have a sudden whim and issue new orders.
"Whoa!"
A claw swung by a Dragonias directly in front of him was sharper than expected.
Startled, Rei twisted away from the strike, then countered by sweeping the Twilight Spear's butt spike across the creature's front legs.
Dragonias had four legs—sometimes six or eight—but with their weight on the front legs, sweeping them threw the creature off balance.
Multiple legs meant it could catch itself, but bracing still demanded a split second of focus—
Slash!
Rei didn't miss that instant of distraction. The Death Scythe flashed, and in the next moment, the Dragonias's torso was cleaved clean in two.
"Come on, what's wrong? If you want to devour me, you'll have to try a lot harder than that!"
He spun, the Death Scythe carving an arc through the air. A Dragonias that had been lunging for the back of his neck had half its head sheared away, scattering brains and eyeballs across the ground.
Naturally, the debris flew toward Rei too, but he kicked off the ground and shifted position to dodge—then used that momentum to hurl the Twilight Spear.
Thrown from Set's back in the sky, the angle had limited each throw to a single kill.
But Rei was standing on solid ground now.
What happened when he threw the spear here was obvious without a second thought.
It punched through one Dragonias's torso, tore through the torso of the one behind it, and pierced the lizard-like lower half of a third—dealing fatal damage to three Dragonias in a line before flying off into the distance.
Perhaps judging that losing one of his weapons had tipped the odds in their favor, the surrounding Dragonias surged forward all at once.
What drove them was nothing more than hunger and blind obedience to the golden-scaled Dragonias's command. Not a shred of camaraderie existed among them.
It was a scene that would have been absolutely unthinkable among Centaurs fighting as a group.
The Centaurs possessed a fierce sense of solidarity. Not every single one, perhaps, but from everything Rei had seen, that spirit ran through the entire race.
"That said, it's no problem at all for me!"
He shouted and swung the Death Scythe.
"Power Slash!"
The skill activated. The Death Scythe carved through the air, blasting away several Dragonias at once. Their massive bodies hurtled into others, dealing damage and pinning them in place.
Together with Set, Rei cut down every last Dragonias.
Then he looked around.
"Where did the golden-scaled Dragonias go?"
The golden-scaled Dragonias had vanished.