The Crystal Dragon, having its Crystal Breath forcibly interrupted, next launched a physical strike—a natural course of action.
With a speed that belied its massive frame, it closed the distance to Set in a single bound as the latter flew through the air.
Set was caught off guard and froze for an instant...
"Set!"
It was only a momentary lapse, but that instant was more than enough time for the Crystal Dragon to launch an attack.
Rather than flying with its wings, the Crystal Dragon kicked off the ground with its legs and struck the earth with its tail to launch itself upward—though to Rei, the word "launch" seemed far more appropriate—and swung a foreleg strike toward Set.
Since it had leapt to a higher altitude than Set, the strike was less a swing aimed at Set and more one directed at Rei, who was riding on his back.
Rei brought up his Magic Shield to counter the foreleg.
"Guh... whoa!"
"Gru!?"
The Magic Shield blocked the Crystal Dragon's strike. That much was certain.
However, while it stopped the blow, it couldn't completely absorb the shockwave. Rei and Set were knocked out of the air and sent plummeting toward the ground.
"Gurururururu!"
Set beat his wings frantically to slow their descent even slightly.
His desperate effort paid off.
"Gru!"
With a heavy thud, a fierce jolt ran through Set's legs. Even so, he wasn't slammed into the ground and somehow managed to land safely.
"Set! Not yet!"
"Gururu!?"
Rei shouted as he rolled off Set's back to reduce the burden on him as much as possible.
The reason he shouted was that the leaping Crystal Dragon was now descending toward the ground—beating its crystal wings and picking up speed as it dove.
Alerted by Rei's cry, Set used his feline agility to spring a great distance away from the spot.
If the opponent had been an ordinary monster, one roughly Set's size, leaping aside wouldn't have been much of a concern. But the Crystal Dragon dwarfed Set with an overwhelmingly massive body.
Because of that, Set leaped and quickly created distance... and Rei, having rolled off Set's back, also kicked off the ground and swiftly cleared the area.
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed through the surroundings.
The Crystal Dragon had been moving at a speed that seemed impossible for its massive frame, yet the sound of its landing demonstrated just how immense its weight truly was.
"What a nuisance!"
Consider your own weight when you move!
Rei suppressed the urge to shout that as he put distance between himself and the Crystal Dragon.
But a creature as heavy as the Crystal Dragon had beaten its wings and dive-bombed the ground. Naturally, the impact sent clouds of dust swirling through the area, making it impossible to tell what the dragon was doing... and the instant Rei registered a sound, he was suddenly blown away by a violent shock.
"Guaaaaah!"
Rei had no idea what had just happened.
But the moment he sensed something rushing toward him, he instinctively raised Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear. Their acting as a shield was a product of his innate talent for battle.
Even so, the shock that slammed into Rei was far from ordinary.
All he could manage while being hurled through the air was to try to correct his posture—no, he merely attempted to correct it.
Rei himself didn't realize it, but had he not made even that slight adjustment, he would have struck the tree headfirst.
If he had, it wouldn't have been surprising for his neck to snap or his skull to shatter.
"Guh... gah..."
He managed to avoid hitting the tree with his head, but it took everything he had just to rotate his body. He finally stopped his momentum by slamming abdomen-first into the trunk.
What was fortunate was that the point of impact was his abdomen. Had the angle shifted even slightly, his ribs would have struck the trunk and snapped instead.
What was unfortunate, however, was that the sheer force of the impact caused him to vomit the entire contents of his stomach.
And right in front of the Crystal Dragon, no less.
"Gof, gef..."
"Gururu!"
Just as the Crystal Dragon's foreleg was about to come crashing down on Rei while he emptied his stomach, Set swooped in swiftly, seized the Dragon Robe with his foreleg, and yanked him away.
If Set hadn't been there, Rei would have been crushed beneath the blow.
Once Set had put some distance between them and the dragon, he released his grip and dropped Rei to the ground.
"Gururu..."
Looking genuinely worried from the bottom of his heart, yet never once taking his eyes off the Crystal Dragon, Set purred at Rei as if asking, Are you okay?
Beside him, Rei—his stomach apparently emptied at last—stopped retching and stood up.
His ribs weren't broken, and fortunately, there was no apparent damage to his internal organs.
Relieved, Rei drove the pommel spike of Death Scythe into the ground and fixed his gaze on the Crystal Dragon.
Meeting Rei's stare, the Crystal Dragon found it strange that it felt no sensation of having crushed him. It scanned the area... and spotted Rei and Set standing at a distance.
"Gugooooooo..."
It was likely annoyed that its attack had been evaded. The Crystal Dragon let out a low, displeased rumble.
How a body made entirely of crystal could produce such a sound was beyond Rei's understanding.
Still, given the current situation, he needed to focus on how to defeat the Crystal Dragon rather than pondering such mysteries.
(At the very least, the saving grace is that attacks from both Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear get through. The wounds regenerate, but compared to the Dark World Tree, its Regeneration Ability is overwhelmingly inferior.)
It wasn't that the Crystal Dragon's Regeneration Ability was lacking; rather, the Dark World Tree's was simply absurdly high. But since Rei's baseline for high regeneration was the Dark World Tree, he couldn't help but feel fortunate at the difference.
And since his attacks could get through, Rei had a trump card.
"I didn't want to use it if I could help it... but I guess I can't afford that luxury. Set, sorry, but I need you to buy me some time. A few minutes... no, about one minute."
Buying one minute against the Crystal Dragon.
If an ordinary person heard that, they would only interpret it as being told to go die.
But Set was different.
He trusted Rei, and believed that if he could manage that one minute, Rei would unleash an effective attack against the dragon.
Furthermore, Set had enough confidence to hold his own against the Crystal Dragon.
Defeating it would be difficult... or rather, practically impossible under the current circumstances.
Set was rated as S-Rank equivalent, but the Crystal Dragon wasn't merely S-Rank equivalent—it was an S-Rank Monster.
And there was no doubt it possessed the strength to clearly rank among the upper tier of S-Rank Monsters.
Winning a fight against such an opponent was out of the question, but buying time—just one minute's worth—should be manageable.
"Gururururu!"
In response to Rei's words, Set let out a cry that said, Leave it to me!
The Crystal Dragon, which had been glaring at Rei and Set, heard the cry and directed its gaze at Set alone.
Even under the weight of the Crystal Dragon's intimidating stare, Set did not tremble like he had at first.
On the contrary, he let out another battle cry, stoking his fighting spirit even higher.
"Gurururururururururururururururururururu!"
It was not a skill like King's Intimidation. It was a pure roar to announce his existence to the opponent—a declaration that he would be the one to face it.
...In the first place, even if he had used King's Intimidation, the Crystal Dragon was clearly far above Set in rank, so no effect could be expected.
Precisely because he sensed this, Set refrained from using a pointless skill and instead roared purely to rouse his own fighting spirit.
With that, Set broke into a charge, surging forward all at once.
Originally, as a preemptive strike, he considered using Ice Arrow—his current strongest ranged attack.
However, with no way of knowing how the Crystal Dragon would counter it, he couldn't afford to use it carelessly.
Set didn't believe Ice Arrow would deal any damage to the Crystal Dragon anyway. Even if the dragon did nothing at all, the arrows would likely just bounce off its crystal armor and that would be the end of it.
But that didn't mean the Crystal Dragon would quietly stand there and take the volley.
If it responded with something like the Crystal Breath from earlier, the blast would cover a wide area.
What Rei was attempting was something Set naturally understood.
He had been traveling with Rei for a long time; of course he did.
When Rei needed time and took that kind of stance, what he was about to do could only be one thing—activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor, the skill that served as Rei's trump card.
Once activated, Rei would without a doubt be able to fight the Crystal Dragon on even terms.
Which meant Set had to hold the dragon off by any means necessary until Rei finished activating the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
"Gurururururu!"
With that cry, Set leaped forward in a single bound and swung his foreleg.
The skill he used was Power Crush—one of the few in his arsenal that had reached Level 6.
Under normal circumstances, Set would have preferred not to charge the Crystal Dragon head-on. He would have liked to use Optical Camouflage and vanish from sight.
But if Set disappeared in this situation, the Crystal Dragon's attention would naturally shift from him to Rei, who was concentrating his mana to activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
Given that the opponent was an S-Rank Monster like the Crystal Dragon, it would naturally detect any disturbance in its surroundings.
...Or perhaps, as a species that stood at the pinnacle of monsters, it might simply judge that whatever Rei attempted would be futile and ignore him entirely.
But Set, at least, had no intention of betting on that possibility.
That was precisely why he charged at the Crystal Dragon openly and conspicuously.
Set didn't believe he could keep that up for long.
But he must have judged that he could manage for just the time Rei needed to activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
"Gugaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Without the slightest regard for Set's strategy, the Crystal Dragon unleashed a foreleg strike at the opponent charging straight at it.
But Set beat his wings mid-leap, forcefully altering his trajectory...
"Gurururururu!"
...and slammed a Power Crush strike—enhanced by the Magic Item Bracelet of Herculean Strength—into the Crystal Dragon's body.
"Gugah!?"
The blow was worthy of Level 6, as expected.
The Power Crush delivered to the Crystal Dragon's shoulder staggered its massive frame.
The difference in size between Set and the Crystal Dragon wasn't just a few times over. Even ten times wouldn't be enough.
Dozens of times... perhaps even more.
Despite such an overwhelming gap, Set's strike had staggered the dragon—a testament to just how devastating that single blow had been.
Of course, the recoil sent Set bouncing away from the Crystal Dragon, putting distance between them.
Even so, weighing the pros and cons, it was undeniably a net positive.
The Crystal Dragon staggered, and Set used the opening to reset his posture before charging in once more.
What he unleashed next was another Power Crush, again activated after engaging the Bracelet of Herculean Strength.
The Crystal Dragon, struck before it could even recover its stance... toppled onto the ground.