Some of the hermit crabs cowered under the predatory gazes of Rei and Set, but that was only a portion of them.
The rest charged at Rei and Set all at once.
"Fast!?"
The speed at which the hermit crabs scuttled across the ground on their numerous legs was several times faster than Rei had imagined.
Of course, it wasn't so fast that it became invisible to the eye or left afterimages, but it was at least fast enough that it bore no comparison to the hermit crabs Rei was familiar with.
Then again, what was attacking them wasn't an ordinary hermit crab, but a hermit crab monster.
As such, it wouldn't be strange for them to possess physical abilities far superior to those of a regular hermit crab.
"Grrrrrl!"
"Screeee!"
The largest among the hermit crabs charging at Set—a specimen with a rock shell about two meters across—initiated the challenge.
Being such a large hermit crab, its claws were naturally large as well.
On top of that, it had four claws, giving it a considerable advantage in offensive options.
...However, that was only the case relative to the opponents the hermit crab had fought until now.
"Grrrl!"
Set dodged two of the four claws and circled behind the rock-camouflaged shell.
Since the hermit crab was carrying a shell—one that could completely house its body—getting behind that shell naturally created a total blind spot, leaving it with no means of attack.
That held true only when there was a single hermit crab, however, and a large number of them had gathered here.
And these hermit crabs' movement speed was clearly faster than what Rei knew... which was exactly why another hermit crab tried to swing its claw at Set, who had circled behind its companion.
But Set was faster than such movements, kicking away the hermit crab that had tried to attack from behind with his hind legs...
"Grrrrrl!"
A single strike of his front leg—it wasn't a blow enhanced by the Magic Item Bracelet of Herculean Strength or skills like Power Crush, just a plain strike, but it effortlessly shattered the rock-camouflaged shell.
"Screeeeeee!"
That strike didn't just destroy the shell... it had apparently also damaged the hermit crab's body enclosed within, as a scream erupted from its mouth.
The shell's defensive power had apparently absorbed some of the force from Set's attack, however, so the blow didn't kill the hermit crab.
It drove one of its claws into the ground on the spot, using it as a pivot to spin around.
Scattering fragments of the shell Set had destroyed in all directions, it turned to face him.
It tried to slam one of its claws down on Set using the centrifugal force...
"Gruu!"
Set's front leg knocked the claw aside.
Unable to withstand the power of the blow, one of the hermit crab's claws was torn off at the midpoint and slammed into the ground.
For a moment, the hermit crab couldn't comprehend what had happened.
It probably never imagined that its claws, which had killed countless prey before, could be severed so effortlessly.
Still, for Set, an attack of this level was nothing more than something he had seen countless times before.
What's more, since entering this Forest of Magic, he had fought multiple A-Rank Monsters... and even the S-Rank Monster Crystal Dragon.
For Set, dealing with that last strike was hardly a difficult matter.
In the next instant, his beak pierced through the hermit crab's face.
While Set was fighting the largest hermit crab, Rei, naturally, was not just standing by watching.
A single swing of the Death Scythe Rei wielded effortlessly cut through the rock-camouflaged shell along with its contents.
A strike from the Twilight Spear pierced the shell, dealing a fatal blow to the body within.
The hermit crabs were fast, but for Rei, it wasn't so fast that he couldn't keep up.
The attacks he unleashed one after another cut down many of the hermit crabs, but...
"What!?"
While fighting the herd of hermit crabs in a dance-like manner, the moment Rei heard the sound of something cutting through the air, he sensed danger and swung his Death Scythe in that direction.
He sliced through whatever had been launched... and upon seeing water spray hanging in the air, he understood what kind of attack had been used.
"Water Breath!?"
A single blast of compressed water fired at him.
Surprised that such an attack had been launched, he turned his gaze toward the one responsible.
"A Rare Species!"
Rei's shout carried both astonishment and delight.
It was a cry upon seeing a hermit crab carrying a shell camouflaged as blue rock.
There was no guarantee he could acquire a Skill from the Magic Stones of these hermit crabs.
Of course, considering they were monsters of the Forest of Magic, he had a feeling that he probably could, but it still wasn't a certainty.
However, based on his past experience, he should generally be able to acquire Skills from a Rare Species's Magic Stone.
That was why Rei was delighted.
...Naturally, a Rare Species received treatment a step above ordinary monsters.
If these hermit crabs were C-Rank Monsters, the Rare Species would be on the level of a B-Rank Monster, for instance.
The reason Set, originally an A-Rank Monster gryphon, was treated as S-Rank equivalent was because the Guild—which knew nothing of Beast Magic—recognized Set as a Rare Species of gryphon.
By now, the Former Guild Master Marina also knew about Rei and Set's circumstances, but since it was the secret of a man she loved... and a secret that would absolutely cause a massive uproar if it became known to the world, Marina would never leak it to anyone.
The same went for Elena, Vihera, and the others as well.
In any case, a Rare Species was that kind of special existence, and naturally, Rei had no intention of letting the blue-shelled hermit crab get away.
While cutting down the other hermit crabs, he closed the distance to the blue one...
"Here it comes!"
Perhaps judging Rei—who was killing its companions while closing in—as a threat, the blue hermit crab unleashed Water Breath once again.
But even a surprise Water Breath attack had been blocked by Rei.
Given that, blocking an attack he knew was coming was hardly difficult.
Slashing through the Water Breath with his Death Scythe, he closed the gap with the blue hermit crab in one breath...
"!?"
In that instant, he felt a chill run through him and leapt backward.
A nearby hermit crab tried to slam its claw down on Rei like a club as he suddenly approached, but Rei cut through it along with its giant shell with a swing of his Death Scythe without even glancing at it.
And then... in Rei's line of sight, the river behind the blue hermit crab suddenly erupted in a spray of water, and something enormous burst out.
"You've got to be kidding me!?"
Rei shouted involuntarily upon seeing the entity that had leapt out of the water.
Naturally. This river wasn't that deep.
It was only about a meter deep at most.
Since it was a natural river, there were places where it suddenly dropped to about two meters, of course.
But that was only in truly narrow spots.
Despite that, the entity that burst from the water... a Fish, possessed a massive size approaching three meters in total length.
No, its true exact size was something even Rei couldn't determine.
That was because a large amount of hair—something like strands of hair—was growing from the Fish's body.
Because of that, he couldn't clearly see all the way to the tip of its tail, so the estimate of about three meters was merely Rei's guess.
Such a bizarre Fish, after bursting from the water, came falling toward the riverbank.
Huh? Rei questioned the Fish's behavior.
He had fully expected it to launch some kind of attack at him or perhaps pounce on the hermit crabs.
Falling onto the riverbank without attacking anyone was completely unexpected for Rei.
However... what was truly unexpected in the fullest sense unfolded before Rei's eyes in the next moment.
Normally, the Fish that had leapt out should have struck the riverbank... the ground or the rocks.
Whether it took damage or not, as a Fish, it would surely be clumsy at moving on land.
That was what Rei had thought, but what he saw was... a Fish diving into the ground.
Not diving in the sense of crashing into the ground, but submerging into the riverbank as if it were water.
It wasn't digging through the ground like a mole, but genuinely submerging into the earth the same way it would a water surface.
That alone would have been surprising enough, but the Fish then wrapped the hair growing from its body around the blue hermit crab and dragged it underground along with itself.
"Hey, wait!"
Rei was dumbfounded by the succession of completely unexpected developments, but he came to his senses in a matter of seconds.
If he had been unlucky, he might have been attacked by the surrounding hermit crabs during those few seconds, but perhaps the sight just now was unexpected for the hermit crabs as well, or perhaps they judged that attacking Rei would invite retaliation—in any case, they made no attempt to attack.
"Grrrrrl!"
However, perhaps judging Rei's state to be dangerous, Set activated his Power Attack skill and made his way to Rei's side.
Though Power Attack was still only Level 1, perhaps due to Set's inherently high physical abilities, every hermit crab that collided with Set was sent flying.
Once Set arrived beside Rei, he checked their surroundings.
Set had probably been unable to detect the Fish's presence either.
Or perhaps even if he could detect it, he hadn't been able to issue a warning since they were in the middle of combat.
In any case, there was no doubt that for Rei and Set, that Fish was a far more troublesome opponent than the hermit crabs.
The most troublesome thing of all was the fact that it could dive underground.
Using its hair like tentacles was also a nuisance, but that was something they could manage with the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear.
However, if it was underground, they couldn't deal any damage to it in the first place.
(No, if I could manage to strike right where it surfaces by coincidence, I might be able to deal damage... but expecting that is nearly impossible. Rather than that, it would be quicker to somehow wait for it to come out from underground and attack it then.)
Fortunately, Rei had Set by his side, who possessed sharp five senses, a Sixth Sense, and the ability to detect mana.
With Set around, he might be able to tell—perhaps only at the very last moment—when the Fish was about to emerge from underground.
"Set, can you tell the timing of when that Fish will come out?"
"Gruu..."
At Rei's words, Set purred apologetically.
...Even so, he kept swinging his front legs and killing hermit crabs that approached them, so while Rei was used to it, anyone who knew nothing would have found it a somewhat surreal sight.
"I see, so it's difficult even for you, Set. ...That Fish, if it's going to take one, it should take an ordinary hermit crab, not the Rare Species."
Rei muttered with a tinge of irritation.
It had snatched the only Rare Species, so that was only natural.
If the target the Fish's hair had entangled had been an ordinary hermit crab instead of a Rare Species, Rei wouldn't have been this frustrated.
"Since the Rare Species was stolen from me, I want to defeat that Fish if at all possible."
Rei's best outcome would be to defeat the Fish and obtain the Rare Species's corpse as well.
Since Rei had already fought the Rare Species, the condition for Beast Magic was already satisfied.
Given that, Rei wanted to obtain the Rare Species's corpse if possible, but since it had been taken underground in that manner, he judged that it would be better to give up on obtaining the blue hermit crab's corpse.
That being the case, he at least wanted to defeat that Fish by any means necessary.
(It's probably not quite an A-Rank Monster... but it wouldn't be strange for it to be around B-Rank given how imposing it was. Its abilities are quite special too. The problem is, I'm not really inclined to eat that Fish.)
Originally, the reason Rei and Set had been heading upstream along the river was because they wanted to secure Fish.
But a Fish with hair growing all over its body like that was something even Rei couldn't muster an appetite for.
Since it was a High-Rank Monster, he could predict that it would probably taste delicious if eaten.
(Orcs and such, I can eat those just fine, but a Fish with hair growing on it, I can't bring myself to eat? I'm starting to wonder what's going on with my own sensibilities.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei continued fighting the hermit crabs while waiting for the Fish to burst out from the ground.