Naturally, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias had no intention of silently watching Rei and Set leave.
Just how dangerous an opponent Rei was... that had been demonstrated thoroughly, to an unbearable degree.
Considering that, there was no way the seven-colored scaled Dragonias could tolerate letting them head toward where their Queen resided.
And yet, despite that, it could not move.
Vihera's presence, left behind in this place, filled it with an overwhelming sense of foreboding.
It filled the creature with the conviction that if it pursued Rei and Set, who had just departed, it would without a doubt make a fatal mistake.
Vihera had accompanied them to the Queen's location before, and when Rei and Set were absorbing attacks from the surrounding Dragonias, she had been clinging to Set's foreleg.
That was precisely why she knew that the seven-colored scaled Dragonias possessed teleportation abilities and could walk through the air.
She knew that, and yet, when it came to actually fighting it directly, she still needed to keep those facts in mind.
"I don't think we can communicate with words, but I'll say this just in case. ...If you focus only on Rei and try to ignore me, you'll die immediately, you know?"
Saying that, Vihera began to walk.
Rather than kicking off the ground to close the distance in one burst, she truly just began to walk normally.
Even so, the act of walking was something that many who could discern such things would recognize immediately—it revealed just how skilled the person was merely by watching.
The seven-colored scaled Dragonias, standing at the pinnacle of its race, could grasp Vihera's ability just from watching the way she walked.
Since it had already witnessed Rei's existence, it was not surprised, but had it encountered Vihera first without that context, it would certainly have been caught off guard.
Against Vihera, who was approaching with such magnificent form, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias held its ground and waited.
Rather than taking a teleportation approach, it waited for Vihera to come at it head-on.
That was undoubtedly an attitude born from confidence in its own skill, but at the same time, it also meant it was sufficiently wary of Vihera as a threat.
"Hehe."
Vihera must have understood her opponent's intentions as well.
With a smile on her lips, she continued to advance... and eventually, once she had closed to a certain distance, she stopped and took her stance.
If Rei were to see Vihera's stance, he would liken it to boxing.
Of course, the boxing Rei knew was only to the extent of what he had seen on news programs when he was in Japan, or at most what he had seen in manga or anime.
That was precisely why, even seeing that stance, he would only understand it as something similar to boxing.
In reality, it was merely a stance that resembled boxing, with various fine details differing.
"Gii!"
The seven-colored scaled Dragonias let out a probing cry.
But Vihera made no attempt to be fazed by its voice. She simply watched intently... and then kicked off the ground, instantly closing the distance between them.
That movement was swift—fast enough to make one wonder if she had used the teleportation ability the seven-colored scaled Dragonias itself possessed.
"Gii!?"
Even at such speed, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, freely wielding its teleportation ability, firmly tracked Vihera's movements with its eyes.
Reacting to the incoming fist, it swung its claws.
From the way she had carried her body while walking, it was certain that Vihera's strike was not what it appeared to be.
It judged the blow to be the kind that could easily prove fatal if it landed carelessly—and that assessment was by no means mistaken.
Vihera's physical abilities were not as inhumanly extraordinary as Rei's, but they were still undeniably extremely high.
She also possessed Magic Impact Palm, an attack method that could not be more fitting of the term "one-hit kill," but fortunately for the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, the strike Vihera had unleashed this time was merely a punch, not Magic Impact Palm.
"Giii!"
Raising a sharp cry... but in the next instant, the claws the seven-colored scaled Dragonias swung sliced through nothing but empty air, and simultaneously, with a violent impact, it was sent flying.
The seven-colored scales possessed considerably higher defensive power compared to the scales of an ordinary Dragonias.
And yet, on the Hand Gauntlets covering Vihera's thrust fists, multiple seven-colored scales had stuck fast.
Exactly what kind of impact had caused that was something only the creature being sent flying could accurately comprehend.
From the body of the seven-colored scaled Dragonias that had been blasted away, multiple scales peeled off and scattered.
If the light within this underground space—though the ground, walls, and ceiling were glowing—had been emitting a radiant, intense light like the dazzling sun rather than that dim illumination, the light would have reflected off the scattered scales, creating a beautiful scene so utterly incongruous with what was actually unfolding that it would have been surreal.
For a moment, Vihera entertained that thought, but in the next instant, she swiftly retreated from her position.
The claws of the seven-colored scaled Dragonias passed right through the spot where she had just been standing.
Of course, this seven-colored scaled Dragonias was not the last remaining one—it was the same individual that Vihera had just sent flying.
Seeing that scales on part of its torso were peeled off made that obvious.
It had likely been sent flying by Vihera's punch, and mid-flight, used its teleportation ability to forcibly relocate from its blown-back trajectory to a position beside her.
To pull off such a reckless maneuver and launch an attack toward where Vihera was—or precisely, where she had been—left no doubt that it was an entity standing at the pinnacle of the Dragonias.
"I see. Actually fighting you like this, our compatibility is a bit poor."
If this had been Rei, for example, a single sweep of Death Scythe would have severed its torso or neck, or a single strike of the Twilight Spear would have blown it to pieces—either alone sufficient to stop the creature's breath.
But in Vihera's case, though she possessed physical abilities overwhelmingly higher than those of an ordinary adult male, she could not take the life of a seven-colored scaled Dragonias in a single blow.
Of course, that was only if it were an ordinary strike. If she used skills or generated the Magic Claws produced by her Hand Gauntlets as a Magic Item, that would be an entirely different story.
"Giii!"
Toward Vihera, raising a sharp cry, it unleashed a successive strike.
But while an attack released the instant it teleported was one thing, a strike launched when it already understood she was there was not difficult to react to.
Moreover, since Vihera excelled in hand-to-hand combat, she was perhaps even better at handling such attacks than Rei.
Standing at the pinnacle of the Dragonias race, the strike the seven-colored scaled Dragonias unleashed was powerful, swift, and sharp.
So much so that, had her opponent been a Centaur, it would not have been surprising for them to suffer a fatal blow without even understanding what had been done to them.
It was that powerful a strike... but unfortunately, the one receiving it was not a Centaur but Vihera.
She dodged the attack effortlessly by turning her body, and furthermore, gently touched the swung arm, deliberately diverting the flow of force... then matched the timing and poured in her own power all at once.
In an instant, as if it had leaped of its own accord, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias bounded into the air and was slammed into the ground back-first... and in that very moment, it vanished from Vihera's hands.
"My."
Showing a slightly surprised expression, Vihera looked around.
Then, at a short distance away, she spotted the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, standing on the ground despite having lost its balance somewhat.
"As I thought, our compatibility is poor."
Vihera, as a matter of course, could comprehend exactly what the seven-colored scaled Dragonias had just done.
The instant it was thrown by her, before being slammed into the ground, it had activated its teleportation ability mid-air.
What was slightly unexpected for Vihera was that she, who had been touching the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, did not teleport along with it and remained in place.
Exactly how teleportation was carried out in concrete terms was something even Vihera did not understand.
But she had thought that if she was touching the target of the teleportation, perhaps she would be teleported along with it.
Of course, in that case, it was also possible that only a certain range centered on the seven-colored scaled Dragonias would have been teleported. Had that happened, in the worst case, only Vihera's two hands might have been severed from her body and teleported.
Naturally, Vihera understood that possibility as well.
But even so, she had the confidence that she could manage somehow if it came to that, and at the same time, she also felt that if anything happened, it would be the result of her own judgment.
That was precisely why, while she marveled at the seven-colored scaled Dragonias for doing something like teleporting mid-throw, she held no grudge against it.
"But... just as your compatibility with me is poor, my compatibility with you is poor as well. It was obvious from the fact that you only have close-range attacks."
Whether the seven-colored scaled Dragonias could understand those words was unclear, but it was without a doubt the truth.
Hearing Vihera's words, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias took a step forward, as if to keep her movements in check.
Originally, it likely would have preferred to be even more cautious of Vihera.
But it was also an undeniable fact that the seven-colored scaled Dragonias did not have that luxury.
After all, the fact that Vihera remained here meant that Rei and Set were advancing toward the Queen.
It was true that there was one other seven-colored scaled Dragonias besides itself, but the fact that they were not opponents Rei and his group could deal with casually was something it, standing here right now, understood better than anyone.
That was precisely why, even knowing it was somewhat reckless, it had judged that it needed to defeat Vihera as quickly as possible...
"Being thought of as someone you can defeat so casually is a bit offending. Especially when you're an opponent with good compatibility for me."
For the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, its attack methods were limited to close-range attacks such as fangs and claws, just like ordinary Dragonias.
But all of those attacks were at a level that Vihera could counter.
Having only ever fought in overwhelmingly advantageous situations... no, given that it had been by the Queen's side when Vihera, Rei, and Set entered this underground space, there was a possibility it had no real combat experience at all.
If this had been an ordinary Dragonias, driven by hunger, it would have shown no concern for its own injuries and would have tried to devour and kill its enemy.
But when it came to individuals possessing high intelligence, such as the seven-colored scaled Dragonias, precisely because their intelligence was high, they could not recklessly rely on instinct to try to devour and kill their foe.
In other words, it was highly likely that the intelligent Dragonias that had been by the Queen's side were fighting Rei and his group with virtually no combat experience.
If they had undergone some kind of combat training, things might have been a bit different... but from what I can see, it doesn't look like they've been in that kind of fight.
The seven-colored scaled Dragonias in Vihera's line of sight was, in that sense, something like an unpolished gemstone.
After all, despite having hardly ever fought before, it could engage with Vihera, Rei, and Set well enough to hold its own to some degree.
In that sense, the seven-colored scaled Dragonias was an existence Vihera found regrettable.
She couldn't help but think that, if possible, she would have liked to capture it, train it, and make it capable of serving as her sparring partner.
But it was a fact that saying such things in the current situation was meaningless.
If the Dragonias possessed qualities like ants or bees, then betraying the Queen was something they would never do, or so she believed.
"There's no point thinking about that. ...I want to fight the Queen too, so I'm going to get serious now, alright?"
Saying that, Vihera broke into a run straight toward the seven-colored scaled Dragonias... and the seven-colored scaled Dragonias began searching for a place to teleport.