For the Giant Wolf, colliding with Rei—who was overwhelmingly smaller—and being sent flying as a result was likely the last thing it expected.
At the same time, the fact that a single strike from its claws, which had torn apart countless monsters until now, had failed to kill Rei was nothing short of astonishing.
However... even so, as a creature that had survived in the Forest of Magic, it quickly shifted its mindset.
Hearing Rei call out Set's name, it bared its fangs toward the sky almost reflexively.
That it could perceive Set descending from above was likely thanks to the Giant Wolf's sharp five senses.
The sound of Set cutting through the air as he fell, and his scent.
Reacting to those cues, the Giant Wolf turned its fangs skyward, intent on landing a counterattack.
That decision was not wrong. It had simply underestimated Set far too much.
Since Rei's command had been spontaneous, Set hadn't had the time to gain much altitude before his descent.
Even so, the fact that he had flapped his wings and taken flight the instant Rei used Power Slash spoke to a near-telepathic sync between them.
Though he couldn't gain much height, the strike's power was still amplified by his falling speed, the weight of his body exceeding three meters in length, and the effect of the Bracelet of Herculean Strength. On top of all that, he had even activated Power Crush for the blow.
As a result...
"Gyain!"
Set's foreleg strike overpowered the Giant Wolf's fangs, which had tried to bite down and crush it, snapping one clean off.
Even after taking Set's fully-powered blow, the damage wasn't a shattered jaw—it suffered nothing more than a single broken fang. That was a testament to the Giant Wolf's toughness.
"Gyaiiin!"
A second scream from the Giant Wolf echoed across the area.
The cause was the Twilight Spear, thrown by Rei.
Having deemed Set the greater threat, the Giant Wolf had let its guard down against Rei.
Of course, letting its guard down did not mean it had completely diverted its attention.
As a creature that had survived in the Forest of Magic, its judgment in such matters was by no means lax.
But... the distance between it and Rei had grown from Death Scythe's strike, and it was an undeniable fact that it had focused its awareness on Set.
Seizing that opening, Rei unleashed the Twilight Spear.
The spear flew straight and true, piercing the Giant Wolf's right shoulder.
Even with the body of an A-Rank Monster, the Giant Wolf apparently could not stop the thrown Twilight Spear with flesh and bone alone.
Or perhaps, the spearhead had simply torn through skin and pierced flesh without ever striking bone.
Regardless of the reason, there was no doubt that the Giant Wolf had taken significant damage—both from having its fang broken and its right shoulder pierced.
"Set, we're pressing the attack! Don't let it go on the offensive!"
Rei shouted, recalling the Twilight Spear that had pierced through the Giant Wolf's right shoulder, gone clean through the tree trunk behind it, and flown off somewhere.
Set responded instantly. Landing on the ground with the momentum from his Power Slash, he activated a new skill.
"Gururururu!"
Along with that roar, fifty Ice Arrows materialized around him.
It was Ice Arrow at Level 5, its power dramatically enhanced.
The Giant Wolf, which had been crying out in pain, quickly noticed Set's state. The clearly disdainful gaze from their first encounter was gone, replaced by a glare full of fury and killing intent directed at the one who had generated the Ice Arrows.
In that moment, Rei broke into a sprint the instant the Giant Wolf's attention shifted to Set.
Set was about to unleash fifty Ice Arrows at the Giant Wolf.
Charging into that barrage was, objectively speaking, nothing short of suicidal.
But... Rei was certain Set would never land a hit on him, and even if an Ice Arrow struck by some mistake, Magic Shield could handle a single shot without issue.
Kicking off the ground, Rei closed the distance to the Giant Wolf in under a second... only to see the shoulder wound that had just been pierced by the Twilight Spear frothing and healing before his eyes.
(No way!? What kind of Recovery Ability is that!)
Though stunned, he caught sight of the fang, still broken, at the edge of his vision. The Giant Wolf undoubtedly possessed an extraordinary Regeneration Ability, but even that had limits...
"Multi Slash!"
The slash from Death Scythe came down on the Giant Wolf's right leg.
Rei had originally wanted to strike a vital spot like the head or heart, but with the ten-meter Giant Wolf standing, there was simply no way to reach those areas.
He might have managed it using the Sleipnir boots, but the Giant Wolf was still focused on Set, and more importantly, floating in the sky would make it harder for Set to attack as well.
"Gyaun!"
The slash severed the Giant Wolf's right leg.
Since he had used Multi Slash, it didn't end there. Four additional slashes tore through the stump where the leg had been severed, worsening the wound further...
"And while I'm at it, take this too!"
From his Multi Slash stance, Rei spun quickly, channeling even that momentum into a thrust aimed at the Giant Wolf's throat with the Twilight Spear.
That feat was only possible because Multi Slash had severed the right foreleg—precisely the right foreleg—causing the head to drop lower.
"Gufan!"
The scream that escaped the Giant Wolf's mouth sounded strangely muffled—likely because its throat had been pierced by the Twilight Spear.
Naturally, Rei's attack didn't end there.
Now, with the Giant Wolf having lost its right foreleg and its stance lowered, was exactly the time to press the follow-up.
"Multi Slash!"
Pulling the Twilight Spear free from the Giant Wolf's throat, Rei used the recoil to unleash Multi Slash once more.
The Giant Wolf's chest was slashed wide open.
At the same time, as if to support Rei's assault, Set fired all fifty Ice Arrows—not a single one missing, every one piercing into the Giant Wolf's body.
Had anyone been watching objectively, they might have called the sight of the creature riddled with Ice Arrows cruel.
Beyond the arrows, its chest was torn open so deeply that bone was visible beneath the flesh—and those bones were themselves severed or shattered by Multi Slash.
Whether the Giant Wolf judged from its own condition that there was no saving itself, or whether it simply could not forgive Rei for inflicting such devastating damage...
In any case, with one fang still broken, it poured its remaining strength into lunging at Rei, trying to tear his body apart with its jaws.
But for Rei, that was both a crisis and an opportunity.
Without the slightest fear of the Giant Wolf's fangs bearing down on him, Rei swung Death Scythe at its neck.
Under normal circumstances, the Giant Wolf's strike would have dealt massive damage to Rei.
But those were normal circumstances.
Before the fangs could reach Rei's body, the Shield of Light blocked the blow, then shattered into light.
And in the next instant, Rei's Death Scythe severed the Giant Wolf's neck.
"Haa, haa, haa..."
Amid the thick stench of blood hanging in the air, Rei let out heavy breaths, leaning against Set where he sat on the ground.
The source of that stench was the Giant Wolf lying a short distance away.
More precisely, the Giant Wolf whose neck had been severed by Rei's Death Scythe, blood still pouring endlessly from the wound.
Even wreathed in that heavy smell of blood, Rei fought desperately to steady his ragged breathing.
He hadn't sustained any real injuries in the battle with the Giant Wolf.
But even so, fighting an A-Rank Monster had evidently kept him tense without his realizing it.
And this was, after all, inside the Forest of Magic.
There was no telling when another monster might appear in the middle of the fight.
(Right, first I need to get out of here.)
Once his breathing finally settled, Rei stood up.
In truth, he hadn't been moving long enough to be genuinely out of breath—the heaviness was more mental than physical.
Pulling himself together, Rei first approached the severed Wolf's head.
Set stayed at his side, scanning the surroundings so they could respond to anything at a moment's notice.
"It's huge."
Looking at the head severed by Death Scythe, the thought struck Rei with full force.
Given that the Giant Wolf was nearly ten meters long, its head was naturally enormous.
The head alone was unquestionably larger than Rei's entire body.
He stored it in his Misty Ring...
"Guruu."
...and then Set padded over and set down something he had been carrying in his mouth.
What is this? Rei wondered at first, but on closer inspection, he recognized it as a sharp fang.
It was the Giant Wolf's fang, snapped by Set's diving strike from the sky.
Because of its massive body nearing ten meters, even a single fang was considerable in size.
Large enough that it could likely serve as a weapon as-is, without any processing.
"Well now... this is something else."
Rei murmured, studying the fang with genuine admiration.
Of course, just because it looked usable as-is didn't mean he would actually wield it that way.
While it was undoubtedly functional without modification, properly processing it into a true weapon would make it far more powerful than using it raw.
By that logic, the fang should definitely be refined and crafted into a proper weapon.
(The question is who would use it, though.)
Given the fang's length, using it as a longsword would be difficult.
That meant either a short sword, or something between a longsword and a short sword... a so-called Middle Sword.
If it were a short sword, the obvious choice would be Byune, but Byune already wielded Hakumo, a dagger made from High-Rank Monster materials.
Given that, there was clearly no need to go out of his way to give her a similar weapon.
(Which means, would it be material for a Magic Item? I have no idea what kind of material this fang would become, but... a wolf's fang, huh. I read somewhere about creating Skeleton soldiers using a Dragon's fang. It'd be interesting if I could do something like that.)
In the end, Rei couldn't settle on a use for the Giant Wolf's fang right there on the spot, so he stored it in his Misty Ring.
Naturally, he also stored the rest—the largest portion of the body—inside as well...
"Ah, I messed up."
He suddenly remembered that some monsters, Dragons included, had blood that was itself a rare material.
If that was the case, the blood of this Giant Wolf, which had been draining freely until now, might have been valuable in its own right.
Whether from physical or mental fatigue, that thought hadn't even crossed his mind.
"It's probably too late now."
The Giant Wolf was nearly ten meters long, but the blood that had flowed from its neck was already mostly gone.
If so, there was no way to collect it anymore.
He might have been able to secure at least some if he had turned the neck downward, but...
Without knowing exactly what kind of monster the Giant Wolf was, there was no telling whether its blood was even usable.
"Gurururu."
As if to encourage the disappointed Rei, Set purred softly.
Grateful, Rei gave him a pat on the head, then placed his hand on the Giant Wolf's body.
In an instant, the massive form vanished.
It had been stored in the Misty Ring.
He made sure to store the severed right leg as well.
With the body gone, there was an odd sense of incongruity—something that large had been there just a moment ago.
"Still, that makes one down, I suppose. Getting an A-Rank Monster on the first day was lucky. This takes a lot of pressure off."
Defeating one on the first day of the two-night, three-day exam gave Rei a reasonable margin of comfort.
(Then again, if it turned out the Giant Wolf wasn't actually an A-Rank Monster, I'd have some concerns. Well, given how strong it was, I don't think I need to worry about that.)
After all, as the name suggested, the Forest of Magic was home to many species not recorded in any Monster Encyclopedia Rei possessed.
Of course, it wasn't as though every single monster was completely undocumented.
In fact, the Water Bear he had slain when first leaving the Forest of Magic upon arriving in Elgin was a well-known name in Gilm.
"Gururururu?"
Set purred at Rei with a puzzled look.
Understanding that Set was asking what they would do about the Giant Wolf's Magic Stone, Rei spoke while stroking him.
"It'd be dangerous if another monster showed up while we were dismantling the Giant Wolf here. Besides, it's an A-Rank Monster, so we need to at least show it to the Guild. The Magic Stone... that comes after."
"Guruu..."
At Rei's words, Set purred, sounding disappointed.