Scattered across the surroundings were chunks of flesh that could only be described as the remains of red-scaled Dragonias, along with charred refuse burned so thoroughly that not even a trace of what creature it had originally been remained.
Those were the corpses of the countless Dragonias slaughtered by Rei using the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
Such corpses littered the entire area, strewn across every surface.
And yet, Rei had sustained no damage whatsoever.
To be precise, a handful of Dragonias had attempted to strike back at him. This was particularly true among the silver-scaled Dragonias that had arrived later—more of them had tried to retaliate. But even the silver-scaled Dragonias, which possessed far greater intelligence than ordinary Dragonias, were nothing but fodder to Rei with the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor active.
The carcasses of Dragonias, literally trampled underfoot, lay scattered everywhere... and yet, countless Dragonias still remained in the vicinity.
(Even after all this fighting, the ones that ultimately show up only go as far as the silver-scaled Dragonias. Not even the golden-scaled Dragonias have appeared, and the other Dragonias that were beside the Queen show no sign of revealing themselves. Are they waiting for the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor to run out of time?)
It was easy to imagine that the seven-colored Dragonias that had first fought Rei was staying hidden for the same reason.
He understood that much. But regardless, since the top priority right now was reducing the number of Dragonias, Rei and those intelligent Dragonias were in agreement on that front—though naturally, they were working toward diametrically opposed goals.
"Thinking comes later. Better to thin their numbers before any more troublesome ones show up...!"
With those words, Rei channeled the mana of the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor and unleashed a massive, whip-like strike in a horizontal sweep.
The Dragonias touched by the crimson mana were sent flying—scales scorched, flesh split, and bones shattered.
If the Centaurs on the surface could have seen this sight, they would have been left speechless.
In their own battles, some had grown capable of fighting one-on-one by now, but for the majority, Dragonias were nothing short of terrifying.
And yet Rei was overwhelming those very creatures so completely that the phrase "brushing aside" barely did it justice.
What stood before him was unmistakably a Dragonias. Anyone could see that at a glance—but the sight was enough to make one question whether these were truly the same creatures they knew.
That was how utterly one-sided the massacre Rei was carrying out had become.
Of course, when it came to devastating the enemy, it wasn't just Rei—Set and Vihera were equally devastating.
Set was roughly the same size as a Dragonias, but a single strike from its front legs effortlessly sent Dragonias of comparable size—and in some cases, larger than Set itself—hurtling through the air.
Vihera was felling opponents with a mere touch using her signature Magic Impact Palm, and at times she employed aiki- and judo-like throws, turning the enemy's own force against them. Or, without relying on any such skill or technique, she simply punched Dragonias away with raw strength.
It was absolutely beyond anything the Centaurs could hope to achieve.
...And yet, judging by the number of Dragonias still present in the Underground Space, the count had not dropped to anything resembling a fatal level—a testament to just how troublesome the Dragonias were.
(No, not the Dragonias. The Queen's troublesome nature.)
When Rei had first reached the Queen's location, numerous Dragonias had been in the process of being birthed from her body.
In other words, even now, while he fought, new Dragonias were being continually produced.
What kind of Dragonias those were, Rei couldn't say.
But based on his combat experience so far, individuals possessing intelligence and the ability to command other Dragonias were exceedingly rare.
Among them, the combat-specialized silver-scaled Dragonias appeared to exist in considerable numbers... but even so, compared to ordinary Dragonias, they were overwhelmingly fewer—or so his instincts told him.
...Though to Rei with the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor active, ordinary Dragonias and silver-scaled Dragonias alike had become enemies with no meaningful difference between them.
"Anyway... onto the next!"
With that shout, Rei charged into the Dragonias swarm, still wreathed in crimson mana...
"Hm?"
Something struck his mana barrier. It fizzled out without dealing any damage, which struck him as odd.
Continuing to carve through the dense pack of Dragonias, he scanned his surroundings to see what had happened—and spotted several mottled Dragonias a short distance away. He understood immediately what they had done.
The Blood Laser fired from their eyes—one of the mottled Dragonias's signature attacks.
Whether by luck or by reading Rei's movements, it had found its mark, but the crimson mana had stopped it short of reaching him.
It had no effect on Rei.
But that was only because the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor was active. If it had been Vihera or Set, how much damage would a direct hit from the Blood Laser have inflicted?
Judging thus... Rei concluded that, considering what would happen once the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor expired, he needed to eliminate as many Dragonias with long-range attack capabilities—like the mottled Dragonias—as possible.
"So for that reason, you lot need to disappear!"
He shouted, kicked and shattered a nearby blue-scaled Dragonias, and forcibly changed his direction of advance.
Among the sea of red-scaled Dragonias, it was one of the rare blue-scaled ones—but now it had been kicked apart by Rei, scattering blood, flesh, bone fragments, organs, and bodily fluids as its life ended.
Rei paid it no mind and charged toward the cluster of mottled Dragonias... when he suddenly shifted his gaze to a point farther away.
The reason was simple—he had felt something else strike the crimson aura enveloping him.
What his gaze found there were several more mottled Dragonias.
(I see. A decoy.)
They attacked first to draw his attention, then exploited the opening.
It wasn't a particularly complex tactic—no, it was downright simple—but Rei was nonetheless slightly surprised that Dragonias would employ such a method.
Then again, while ordinary Dragonias driven by hunger were one thing, Dragonias with intelligence using tactics like this wasn't implausible.
With that reconsideration... Rei's direction of advance did not change.
Whether this was the mottled Dragonias's strategy or not, the top priority right now was to reduce their numbers as quickly as possible.
They had likely placed the mottled Dragonias before Rei as a decoy or bait. Even if it was a trap—no, precisely because it was a trap—he would tear that very trap apart. So he judged, and so he acted.
The mottled Dragonias Rei targeted showed no sign of alarm at his charge. Instead, they fired their Blood Laser once more.
That the attack was meaningless against Rei was obvious from everything that had happened so far. Yet they kept firing—whether to spare their comrades from harm, or simply because the option to stop didn't exist in their minds.
Regardless, despite having no effect, despite being unable to even slow Rei down, the mottled Dragonias continued firing their Blood Laser...
"Die."
With that single, simple word, the Death Scythe in Rei's hand effortlessly bisected the torsos of several mottled Dragonias.
Being the ones placed as decoys, their numbers were few. A single swing of Death Scythe killed all but one. When only that survivor remained... it chose not to flee, but to attack.
Perhaps because Rei was already so close, it didn't use its signature Blood Laser. Instead, it lunged with a hooked claw.
Rei sidestepped the strike and drove the Twilight Spear in his left hand through its head, shattering it.
The fight was over in an instant. But of course, that was only the case in this particular spot.
"Whoa!"
Rei dodged a Blood Laser fired from a distance.
With the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor active, he knew it would be blocked by the crimson mana even if it hit. But the moment he registered it as an enemy attack, his body moved to evade on instinct—a natural reaction for anyone who lived by the sword.
He kicked off the ground and charged toward the roughly twenty mottled Dragonias firing Blood Lasers from afar.
But a silver-scaled Dragonias moved to block his path, attempting to hinder his charge. Rei didn't slow down in the slightest, as if the enemy's efforts meant nothing to him.
The silver-scaled Dragonias swiped with its hooked claws and tried to tear into Rei's flesh with sharp fangs... but the instant it touched the crimson mana, its body was set ablaze—or its bones shattered—and it was sent hurtling away.
Ordinary Dragonias couldn't stop Rei.
That was precisely why the silver-scaled Dragonias—beings with intelligence that could be called a High-ranking Species—had stepped forward. But even they were so utterly powerless before Rei with the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor deployed that there was nothing they could do.
"You lot can wait. First... it's you!"
Without so much as a glance at the silver-scaled Dragonias he had sent flying, Rei charged toward the group of mottled Dragonias.
The combat-specialized silver-scaled Dragonias were troublesome, yes. But what Rei found even more troublesome were the mottled Dragonias with their Blood Laser, capable of attacking from long range.
Along with the white-scaled Dragonias that could fire Breath, they were opponents that needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible.
...By that same logic, the seven-colored Dragonias with its teleportation and air-running abilities, and the transparent-scaled Dragonias with its absurd Optical Camouflage and ability to leap to nearly one hundred meters in height, were unquestionably targets that needed to be destroyed as well.
However, aside from the seven-colored Dragonias that Rei had already wounded, none of those were currently in the vicinity.
The other major concern was the golden-scaled Dragonias.
A complete superior version that combined the traits of both the copper- and silver-scaled Dragonias while exceeding each individually.
Naturally, as such a being, the golden-scaled Dragonias were few in number. Though not as rare as the seven-colored Dragonias, Rei estimated they were likely fewer than the transparent, white, and black-scaled varieties.
...And yet, when the copper-scaled Dragonias had guided him to the Queen's location, the golden-scaled Dragonias had not been at her side, unlike the other new types.
Regardless, troublesome foes needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible.
With that in mind, Rei swung Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear at close range against the mottled Dragonias.
They excelled at long-range combat, but forced to fight head-on—especially with Rei already in their midst—they had no way to respond.
If the enemy had been someone other than Rei, a Centaur for instance, they might have managed. But standing before the mottled Dragonias was not a Centaur—it was Rei.
The silver-scaled Dragonias had likely been there originally to prevent Rei from closing the distance... but to Rei with the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor active, opponents of that caliber weren't even worth fighting.
And so... the nearly twenty mottled Dragonias were annihilated in under five seconds.
"Alright, next... it's you!"
He shouted and launched Deep Flame—a technique that projected mana as a projectile—toward the silver-scaled Dragonias that had survived his earlier charge.
The Deep Flame, thrown as a fist-sized sphere of mana, erupted into explosive flames the instant it touched a silver-scaled Dragonias. It consumed them one after another, burning relentlessly... until eventually, every last silver-scaled Dragonias was reduced to charcoal.