"Wha... What are you doingggggggggg!"
Set had struck the Crayfish from a direct side angle using Power Crush, sending it flying.
Many were dumbfounded at the sight, but the first to snap out of it and shout was the Scholar who had insisted the creature be captured alive.
From that Scholar's perspective, it was surely outrageous to inflict such damage on an unknown monster from another world.
That said, he was the only one who felt that way.
The other Scholars were interested in the Crayfish's ecology, but they valued their own safety more.
"It's still alive! Let's go, keep at it!"
The Crayfish had been sent flying toward the flat, empty ground—not the lake, not the forest, not the burning Slime—and so it was still moving despite gouging up the earth as it slid.
Seeing that, Gaga shouted to his Lizardman subordinates, and they pursued with weapons in hand.
"St-stop! What are you doing! That's enough! Stop!"
The Scholar screamed, but his voice no longer reached Gaga.
Set's blow must have been tremendously powerful.
The shell on the side that had been struck was shattered, the flesh beneath sliced apart by the fragments of its own shell, and in some places gouged out deeply by the sheer force of the impact.
"Kishaa..."
Even so, driven by survival instinct, the Crayfish rose from its half-collapsed state... and in the next moment, though with less speed and sharpness than before, it lashed out with its antennae like whips.
"Hmph!"
If it had been in perfect condition and caught him off guard, that would be one thing, but a strike like this could never work against Gaga.
He swung his greatsword sharply and knocked the antennae aside.
...The fact that he only knocked them aside rather than severing them showed just how flexible yet resilient the Crayfish's antennae were.
"Guh... I'll handle these antennae! You all attack the main body!"
The two antennae swung in continuous succession.
Deflecting the barrage with his greatsword, Gaga issued sharp orders to his subordinates.
The subordinates took up their weapons and launched their attacks against the Crayfish.
The obvious target was the flank where the shell had been shattered by Set's blow.
"Rei! The venom stinger on its tail—leave it to me!"
Naturally, Gaga had noticed the Crayfish watching for an opening to fire the venom stinger on its tail.
In this regard, he demonstrated the ability worthy of being called a Hero in his original world.
Rei, holding the Twilight Spear at the ready, opened his mouth in response.
"Got it. Leave that side to me. You focus on the antennae. And watch out for its fangs too! Set! Break the shell in the other spots!"
"Grrr!"
"You fools, stop! Won't you stop?! Do you have any idea how precious that monster is?!"
Seeing Rei give Set orders and realizing they intended to kill the Crayfish outright, the Scholar shouted desperately.
But since the other Adventurers and Scholars were pinning down the Scholar as he tried to charge into the battlefield, all he could do was shout.
Some of the Adventurers were momentarily overwhelmed by the Scholar's intensity, but physical ability does not lie.
While they may have been more physically trained than ordinary Scholars from conducting fieldwork, in pure physical ability, they could never match the Adventurers the Guild had trusted enough to assign here.
Watching the situation from the corner of his eye, Rei took aim with the Twilight Spear at his target... the Crayfish's tail.
The venom stinger extending from the tip of the tail was, without question, a rare material.
An unknown monster that had emerged from a lake teleported from another world.
Compared to the Slime thought to be the Lake Master, it was considerably smaller—though still roughly ten meters in total length—so by Rei's estimation, it might be a mid-boss... no, perhaps a Mini-Boss.
But even against such an opponent, there was no doubt it was an unknown monster, and a powerful venom stinger from an unknown monster held great significance all on its own.
Moreover, depending on how it was used, poison could also become medicine.
That was precisely why Rei wanted that venom stinger if at all possible. Beyond that, if it was a Crayfish, he figured the meat would be delicious.
Back when he was in Japan, he had seen a TV program where a comedian caught crayfish in a river and ate them, and he had also seen that in China they were considered a standard luxury food ingredient.
...Of course, the Crayfish Rei and the others were currently fighting was, to be precise, a monster that looked like a fusion of a crayfish and a scorpion.
Above all, since it was a being from another world, while Rei recognized it as a crayfish and scorpion, there was no guarantee that was actually what it was.
At any rate, Rei targeted the Crayfish's tail... or more precisely, the base where the venom stinger extended. He concentrated... and after a few running steps, he hurled the Twilight Spear.
The released Twilight Spear sliced through the air as it flew straight... and pierced through the Crayfish's tail at the base of the venom stinger. Barely losing speed, it continued flying past.
Retrieving it to his hand, Rei shouted.
"The venom stinger is nothing to worry about anymore!"
At those words, the Scholar who had been restrained by his comrades let out a cry of anguish.
But for those fighting the Crayfish, there was no longer any need to listen to the Scholar's voice.
The Lizardmen led by Gaga launched a simultaneous assault on the Crayfish.
Among them, the most devastating was, as expected, Gaga's attack.
Or perhaps Set's strikes from the opposite side.
The Crayfish used the fangs around its mouth, its antennae, and even its massive bulk itself to attack the enemies surrounding it.
Several of the Lizardmen were sent flying or seriously injured by those attacks.
But overall, there was no mistaking that Gaga's group had the upper hand.
"Alright then, that means..."
Holding the retrieved Twilight Spear in his left hand, Rei drew Death Scythe from the Misty Ring with his right.
He closed the distance to the Crayfish in a straight line.
Under normal circumstances, the Crayfish would have noticed Rei approaching.
But right now, the Crayfish had to continuously attack the enemies striking at it from all sides.
If it neglected its attacks on the surroundings, it could end up dying right then and there.
Given that, attacking those around it was naturally the highest priority for the Crayfish.
However, for the Crayfish, that proved fatal.
Closing the distance with Death Scythe in hand, once he reached a certain range—specifically about five meters—Rei swung Death Scythe.
But it was not swung toward the Crayfish; it was swung toward the ground.
"Underground Transfer Slash!"
The blade of Death Scythe swung down toward the ground, and in the next instant, it transferred through the earth... and cleaved the scorpion-like body from below at a distance.
"Kishaa!?"
No matter how tough its shell was, it could never withstand the blade of Death Scythe.
Perhaps if it had possessed a harder shell, it might have managed somehow, but unfortunately the Crayfish's shell was not that sturdy.
What's more, while the claw-like areas might have held up better, the blade Rei swung had transferred through the ground and struck upward from beneath the surface.
The Crayfish undoubtedly had a hard shell, but the underside simply could not help but be thinner compared to those other areas.
That made it the perfect target for Rei.
...Even so, the shell was still tough, but before Rei's Death Scythe, it was sliced through with ease.
The Crayfish, its body cleaved open, naturally slowed down.
No—the fact that it merely slowed down was itself a testament to the Crayfish's resilience.
After all, its body had been slashed open.
Normally, moving around in such a condition would cause the innards to spill out.
That this did not happen made it clear that the Crayfish was a powerful monster—or at the very least, one with exceptionally high defense.
"It's slowed down! Attack! Don't be afraid!"
Gaga's shout rang out across the battlefield.
Even with the Crayfish's high defensive capability, having its body slashed open would not kill it immediately, but it would certainly slow it down.
Gaga was not one to overlook such an opening.
And the Lizardmen, following Gaga's orders, launched attack after attack against the Crayfish.
The Crayfish, startled by the sudden intensification of attacks, tried to retaliate with its remaining claw and antennae. But in its current state, the Crayfish was already half-dead—well, that was perhaps slightly exaggerated, but it was in no condition to fight properly.
Even so, it continued fighting... and eventually, judging that it would die if it stayed, it tried to flee the area.
"You think I'll let you? Set!"
"Grrrr!"
Just from hearing his name called, Set seemed to understand what he needed to do.
He moved instantly, blocking the path between the Crayfish and the lake.
"Kishaaaa!"
The Crayfish thrashed its remaining claw and antennae while issuing a threatening cry toward Set, who stood blocking its path.
But that was all it could do; it made no attempt to attack Set.
It remembered that Set had shattered the shell on its body and even severed its right claw at the joint. It surely felt it could never win in a proper fight.
In truth, while the Crayfish was far more massive than Set, in a head-on fight, Set would win without question.
Set himself understood that, which was likely why he faced the Crayfish with an air of composure.
Its body battered and slashed apart... the longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for the Crayfish.
Rei had been watching the situation, ready to intervene at any moment if something happened... when suddenly, he heard a commotion from behind.
What is it now? he wondered, turning around—and saw a Scholar running.
If the Scholar had been fleeing out of terror of the Crayfish, Rei could have understood that.
But the Scholar was not running away; he was running toward the Crayfish.
For a brief moment Rei questioned it, but one look at the Scholar's face brought both understanding and comprehension of why he was doing this.
Because that Scholar was the very one who had been screaming from the start not to kill the Crayfish, to capture it alive.
He should have been pinned down by his fellow Scholars and skilled Adventurers—how exactly he had broken free, Rei did not know.
But he understood that letting him go would be trouble.
From past experience, he could easily imagine that leaving someone like this to do as they pleased in this situation would unquestionably lead to problems for them.
Specifically, the Scholar would likely use his own body as a shield to protect the Crayfish.
If it were Set, he might manage to avoid attacking the Scholar.
But Gaga and the Lizardmen were a different matter.
The Scholar had charged into the battlefield of his own accord and interfered with their fight.
By ordinary reasoning, it would not be unreasonable to judge that if he got caught up in the battle, it was his own fault.
And if the Scholar died from Gaga's group's attacks, it would become a problem later.
His actions made it hard to believe, but these Scholars were all individuals of considerable status.
For that reason, to prevent future trouble, Rei thrust the shaft of Death Scythe between the Scholar's legs just as the Scholar tried to run past him.
"Waaah!"
The Scholar's foot caught on the shaft of Death Scythe, and he tumbled forward.
Rei brought his foot down onto the Scholar's back, pinning him to the ground.
This too had the potential to cause problems later, but it was still better than the Scholar dying.
It was a bit of a stretch, but it wasn't entirely impossible to argue it was an emergency measure to prevent the Scholar from getting killed in the crossfire.
While he was thinking about this, he sensed the Adventurers approaching from behind.
"Let me go! You... do you think you can get away with doing this to me?!"
Beneath his foot, the Scholar was struggling with all his might, but such words had no effect on Rei whatsoever.
"Sorry! He suddenly used an unbelievable amount of strength and broke free!"
"Be more careful next time. ...It's over."
At Rei's words, the Adventurers looked toward the Crayfish—just as Gaga's swung greatsword severed the Crayfish's head.