Facing the Queen Bee that had burst explosively from the earth, Rei and Set instantly readied themselves for combat.
Set dug its feet firmly into the ground, prepared to attack at a moment's notice.
Rei dismissed Wind Hand and took up Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
(Still, to think the Queen Bee would show itself voluntarily. ...Being a Queen Bee, it must have been in the deepest part of the nest.)
It had come from the very back of the nest all the way up to the surface while being engulfed in smoke from burning wood poisoned by Set's Poison Claw — a powerful Level 6 skill.
Moreover, as befitting a Queen Bee, its form was overwhelmingly larger than an ordinary Hornet. The Hornets that had emerged from this nest were about fifty centimeters long, but the Queen Bee measured five meters — nearly ten times their size.
"Well now..."
At that sheer size, a voice of surprise slipped from Rei's lips.
That said, his reaction was mere surprise rather than outright astonishment, likely because he had encountered so many monsters since entering the Forest of Magic. The Black Snake and the Giant Wolf, in particular, were clearly more massive than the Queen Bee.
"Gi gi gi gi gi!"
The Queen Bee, having revealed itself on the surface, let out an irritated cry and beat its wings vigorously. The resulting gust scattered all the poison smoke that had been lingering in the surroundings after Rei dismissed Wind Hand.
Given that the fire had already been close to burning out anyway, the poison smoke would have eventually dissipated on its own even without burning the wood poisoned by Poison Claw. Thinking about it, what the Queen Bee did was undoubtedly not very meaningful.
That said, from that movement alone, one could instinctively sense that the Queen Bee possessed considerable strength.
(Normally, when you think of a Queen Bee or a Queen Ant, the impression is that their job is laying eggs. But looking at it like this, it's clearly stronger than an ordinary Hornet. ...Well, considering the Dragonias Queen, that's understandable too.)
The Dragonias Queen was, just as Rei had thought, an existence that laid eggs — or rather, gave birth to offspring. But beyond that, there was no doubt it also possessed high combat power even on its own. If so, it wouldn't be strange for the Queen Bee to possess high combat power as well.
(Still...)
So thought Rei, watching the Queen Bee that was staring intently at him and Set.
The Queen Bee at the end of his gaze was unmistakably a High-Rank Monster. That much he could tell. But at the same time, he felt it was clearly inferior to the Black Snake — and even compared to the Giant Wolf.
Stronger than a B-Rank Monster, but weaker than an A-Rank Monster. That was Rei's honest impression upon seeing the Queen Bee.
That said, that was strictly his impression, and whether it was actually the case was uncertain. At the very least, as far as Rei could remember, the Monster Encyclopedia had some similar Hornet monsters listed, but given the fact that this monster was not recorded, he had no choice but to trust that impression.
(Besides, the feeling that it's weaker than the Giant Wolf is based on looking at this Queen Bee. A monster's rank isn't determined solely by strength.)
If it could produce vast numbers of fifty-centimeter Hornets — countless numbers, even — then its influence would be extremely high. That was why the possibility that the Queen Bee was an A-Rank Monster couldn't be entirely dismissed.
Even so, since Rei could not recognize it as an A-Rank Monster from his perspective, he decided to remove this Queen Bee from the A-Rank Monster category for the time being.
"Gi gi gi gi gi..."
Perhaps unable to tolerate the staredown any longer, the Queen Bee directed a threatening cry at Rei and Set.
However, upon seeing the Queen Bee's demeanor, Rei suddenly felt something was off — and immediately understood.
"Set, if you're going to attack, better do it early. Right now, this Queen Bee is still affected by poison!"
"Gru!? ...Grurururu!"
Set initially tilted its head at Rei's words but quickly understood their meaning.
The Queen Bee had undoubtedly been deep in the nest — whether at the very deepest point was unknown. And into that nest, Rei had been continuously funneling the poison smoke generated by burning wood poisoned by Set's Poison Claw, using Wind Hand.
While the other Hornets inside the nest had been incapacitated by the poison, the Queen Bee had traveled through the smoke-filled nest, meaning it would have inhaled the poison smoke during that journey as well. Moreover, if it had moved upward through the nest, it would have been heading toward areas where the poison smoke was densest, naturally exposing itself to higher concentrations of poison.
"Grururururururu!"
Hearing Rei's words, Set immediately activated Ice Arrow. Fifty Ice Arrows materialized around Set and were instantly unleashed toward the Queen Bee.
"Flying Slash!"
At the same time, Rei swung Death Scythe and released a flying slash.
Normally, he could have thrown the Twilight Spear, but since Set was using Ice Arrow, he refrained — he didn't want to risk the spear getting damaged.
However, as Rei and Set's attacks were unleashed, the Queen Bee violently flapped its wings the instant it saw them. A buzzing sound — one that was familiar to Rei and Set — echoed through the surroundings.
Naturally, the Queen Bee had not taken this action without reason, or merely for intimidation. Simultaneously with producing that buzzing sound, shockwaves were released, and every single Ice Arrow heading toward the Queen Bee was thrown off course.
Flying Slash, having been strengthened upon reaching Level 5, pushed through the shockwaves and continued toward the Queen Bee — but even so, the continuously released shockwaves gradually deflected its trajectory, and ultimately it missed the Queen Bee entirely, flying off in a completely different direction.
And, as a matter of course, the released shockwaves didn't just block Rei and Set's attacks — they also surged toward them.
"Tch!"
Rei channeled mana into Death Scythe semi-reflexively and swung it, cleaving through the invisible presence that was the shockwave. Set tensed its entire body and took the shockwave head-on.
The shockwaves themselves were being emitted continuously, but even so, they weren't devastatingly powerful. Death Scythe was naturally fine, and with Set's physical abilities, it could withstand them without issue.
But just because it could endure them didn't mean they didn't hurt.
"Grururururu!"
Set let out a loud cry and generated another fifty Ice Arrows.
The same skill again? Wouldn't the Queen Bee's shockwaves deflect their aim again, just like before?
Rei harbored such doubts, but he couldn't imagine Set doing something meaningless. If that was the case, he decided to watch what Set was aiming for — and judging that recklessly intervening here might cause Set's plan to fail, he prepared himself to react immediately if anything happened while monitoring the situation.
The Ice Arrows that were unleashed, unlike before, were concentrated on a single point. Previously, given the Queen Bee's large size, they had been fired across a wide area as if hitting it anywhere would be fine — but this time was different. They aimed for the center of the Queen Bee's body, delivering a concentrated strike.
Once again, the Queen Bee vibrated its wings violently to release shockwaves. The sequence up to that point wasn't much different from before — but what followed was.
The shockwaves deflected the trajectories of the Ice Arrows, but each deflected arrow immediately collided with the adjacent Ice Arrow and returned to its original course. Naturally, the arrow that was bumped also had its trajectory deflected, but it too struck yet another Ice Arrow right next to it and returned to its original path. The arrows that returned to course were then deflected again by the shockwaves, bumping into nearby arrows once more and returning — repeating this cycle over and over.
Naturally, if this continued, the Ice Arrows' aim would gradually deteriorate as time passed. But that was only a matter of what would happen given enough time.
The distance between Set and the Queen Bee was somewhat large, but only somewhat. Given that, the flying Ice Arrows would reach the Queen Bee's body before their aim could be completely thrown off.
"Gi gi gi gi gi gi gi!"
The Queen Bee shrieked at the pain of the Ice Arrows piercing into it. But looking closely at its body, only the very tips of the Ice Arrows had actually pierced it.
"As expected of a High-Rank Monster."
From everything Rei had seen so far, the power of Ice Arrow was quite formidable. Fifty such strikes fired in succession — to describe their attack power, the word "annihilating" would be more appropriate. Given that, the fact that the latest attack resulted in only the tips of the Ice Arrows barely piercing the Queen Bee demonstrated its strength more clearly than anything else could.
On top of that, as Rei had told Set, it was still weakened by poison even in its current state. For it to be in this condition despite those circumstances — it certainly lived up to being called a High-Rank Monster.
"Set, ranged attacks won't work well. We'll finish it in close combat! But watch out for those shockwaves!"
Holding Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, Rei called out to Set as he advanced toward the Queen Bee. At Rei's words, Set gave a short cry of acknowledgment and closed the distance to the Queen Bee.
Since Rei was circling to the Queen Bee's left, Set went to the right.
With the effects of the poison still lingering, close combat was undoubtedly more effective than ranged combat. Above all, the fact that the Queen Bee — despite having such impressive wings — was not flying was extremely significant. Most likely, once it recovered from the poison, it would take to the air and fight from there.
Of course, if the opponent took to the sky, Rei could also ride Set and fly — but given the current situation, he wanted to avoid that if at all possible. The Forest of Magic undoubtedly had monsters that flew through the sky. In fact, they had already been attacked by a Hippogriff.
Fighting the Queen Bee — a High-Rank Monster — while also battling other monsters at the same time was something Rei wanted to avoid as much as possible. Since they were monsters flying through the skies of the Forest of Magic, depending on the situation, they could also be High-Rank Monsters. A three-way battle — or worse, against even more monsters — including such High-Rank Monsters was something Rei wanted to avoid.
That was why they needed to defeat the Queen Bee before it could take flight.
"Power Slash!"
Ranged skills were useless against the shockwaves, and even if they somehow landed, they wouldn't deal damage so easily. But if ranged skills didn't work, then he just needed to use close-combat skills. Power Slash in particular, being a strike delivered through Death Scythe, was extremely powerful.
And fortunately for Rei, the one the Queen Bee perceived as a threat was not Rei but Set. It had managed to deflect Rei's Flying Slash off course, but the Ice Arrows Set fired had dealt at least some damage to the Queen Bee. That was likely the reason the Queen Bee was wary of Set.
That said, it wasn't completely defenseless against Rei's attacks. The Queen Bee's compound eyes gave it an extremely wide field of vision. Keeping watch on Set's attacks while also keeping Rei in its field of view was an easy task.
But even so, for the Queen Bee, that decision was nothing but a massive mistake. Allowing Rei — wielding Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear with inhuman physical abilities — to close the distance meant inviting a major crisis.
Then again, from the Queen Bee's perspective, it was only natural to focus its attention on Set, who possessed an overwhelmingly larger body.
That assumption — the Power Slash released from the Death Scythe Rei swung proved magnificently wrong.
"Gyiiih!"
The Queen Bee had probably assumed it could block a strike from Death Scythe. But the attack Rei unleashed was far more powerful — and heavier — than the Queen had expected, exceeding its assumptions.
Even so, the fact that it only resulted in a few of its legs being severed rather than its torso was thanks to the Queen Bee's instinctive movements — and at that same Queen Bee, Set, who had entered striking range a moment after Rei, swung a blow from its front leg.
Against Set's attack, the Queen Bee chose not to block but to evade. Because it had already taken considerable damage from Rei's strike, it couldn't afford to try blocking Set's attack.
Naturally, the Queen Bee didn't simply evade. It rapidly vibrated its wings, attempting to deal damage to both Rei and Set, who had closed in...
"Not a chance!"
"Gru!"
The Twilight Spear thrown by Rei and the strike from Set's Power Attack both struck the Queen Bee's wings.