Naturally, even while fighting the assassins, Rei caught sight of Roaby and his companions beginning to move in the corner of his vision.
He didn't know exactly what they were trying to do, but he didn't call out to them. Since they were moving independently, they must have had some kind of objective in mind.
Rather than interrupting, he opened his mouth to draw the enemy's attention and prevent them from noticing Roaby's group.
"What's wrong, is that the extent of your ability? You knew I was here when you invaded, didn't you? In that case, you should have anticipated ending up in a fight with me, and you should have known things would come to this!"
Rei shouted, but few responded.
The reckless ones—the hot-blooded and short-tempered—had been the very first to charge at Rei and get themselves killed.
As a result, the majority of those who remained were people who properly understood the gap in strength between themselves and Rei.
That was precisely why, even hearing Rei's provocation, no one moved carelessly.
There were likely many who wanted to flee, but those who could escape had already done so.
If anyone tried to flee in the current situation, the Twilight Spear in Rei's hand would be thrown and they would be killed effortlessly.
In fact, several had already been killed by thrown Twilight Spears.
Even assassins who killed others for a living did not want to die themselves.
That was only natural for any human being.
From the perspective of those targeted by assassins, they might want to scream, "Don't mess with me."
"If you won't come to me... then I'll come to you!"
With those words, the Twilight Spear flew from Rei's left hand.
Naturally, it was thrown in a direction away from where Roaby and his group were.
The Twilight Spear, thrown with Rei's strength, was not something even skilled assassins could dodge so easily.
Still, from a distance—and having watched Rei throw it many times now—they managed to avoid having their torsos pierced, as Rei had aimed...
"Gah!"
"Gyaaah!"
"Nuooh!"
While they managed to avoid fatal wounds, several suffered injuries such as losing an arm from the elbow down or having their flanks gouged out. Not fatal, but injuries that certainly qualified as severe.
Even so, those who took damage from the thrown Twilight Spear felt relief at not having their lives taken in a single strike... but in the next moment, Rei, who had immediately closed the distance after throwing it, swung Death Scythe and bisected their torsos top to bottom.
Charging into the midst of the assassins, Rei swung Death Scythe, killing several simultaneously.
While doing so, he recalled the Twilight Spear he had just thrown back to his hand.
For the assassins, the wide-ranging strikes from Death Scythe were extremely troublesome, but the Twilight Spear's strikes were equally so.
After all, the spear Rei threw instantly returned to his hand.
When would he throw it again? And even if he threw it, would it immediately return to his hand?
To the assassins, Rei was truly an entity that could be called the incarnation of absurdity.
In reality, inside the Misty Ring, Rei had a large stock of spears other than the Twilight Spear, so even if the Twilight Spear lacked the ability to return to his hand, the result might not have changed.
No, there was too great a difference in quality between the Twilight Spear and the disposable spears Rei kept for throwing, so in that sense, facing the disposable spears was certainly preferable to facing the Twilight Spear.
As Rei rampaged, the assassins' attention was naturally drawn to him.
However... among those assassins, there was a sharp-eyed one.
"Hey, don't focus your attacks solely on Rei! There's a group acting suspiciously!"
One assassin who had noticed Roaby's group shouted sharply.
Those words reached the ears of the surrounding assassins, as a matter of course, and those who judged that fighting Rei meant certain death took the opportunity to pull away from him and head toward where Roaby's group was.
"Tch, Crow, support Roaby's group!"
With those words, he swung Death Scythe and killed the assassin in front of him, then threw the Twilight Spear at the assassins who had been about to head toward Roaby's group.
The assassins had been wary of Rei, but they likely did not expect him to attack them in this situation.
Several assassins were pierced through the back by the Twilight Spear and crumbled to the ground.
"Come on, what's wrong! I'm your target, aren't I! I don't have time to deal with Roaby's group!"
The assassins understood that those were words meant to draw their attention.
They understood that, but if they ignored Rei's words, he would attack them from behind, so they needed to deal with that as well.
"Damn it, leave Rei to us! You guys deal with the ones acting suspiciously over there!"
One assassin shouted in a desperate voice.
Originally, the assassins gathered here belonged to various organizations, and in some cases included those who operated solo.
Given that, there was fundamentally no reason for them to follow the orders of someone belonging to a different organization.
Moreover, for those who had been arbitrarily designated to face Rei, it was only natural that they would want to scream their dissatisfaction, wondering if the others were trying to get them killed.
But... still, many of those who had survived this long were capable individuals, and they could well understand that they needed to hold Rei back here and deal with Roaby's group, who were making independent moves.
Roaby's group was heading toward an invasion point created by golems.
If that point was occupied... well, that would be one thing, but if it were destroyed and rendered unusable, they would be completely trapped down here.
If that happened, escaping would not be impossible... but it would certainly become extremely difficult.
That was precisely why they needed to stop Roaby's group's movement, even if it meant setting aside organizational boundaries and cooperating.
Not every surviving assassin had arrived at such a conclusion.
However, given the current situation, they must have understood that there was nothing to be done if they didn't hold Rei back here.
Such actions were the most troublesome thing for Rei.
If everyone came at him, he simply needed to defeat them all.
Or if everyone fled from Rei, he could strike them from behind.
But having half of them stall him with a readiness to die, while the remaining half moved to stop Roaby's group, was difficult to deal with.
"That's a pretty calm judgment. But you know!"
With those words, Rei swung Death Scythe at the assassins who had turned and were rushing toward him to stall him.
"In the first place, the fact that assassins are attacking head-on is wrong to begin with!"
The strike of Death Scythe, swung with those words, was directed at the assassin who had first shouted that they should stall Rei, and it bisected the body from the right down to the left flank—a diagonal cut.
Even though their equipment was made of cloth, it was crafted from a special fabric that possessed blade-resistant properties capable of blocking a strike from an ordinary longsword. But against Death Scythe, that too failed to function effectively.
To be precise, it did function, but the blade resistance was simply no match for a single strike of Death Scythe.
The body, slashed diagonally, crumbled under its own weight, scattering entrails around.
Following that one, Rei assaulted the other assassins as well.
He swung Death Scythe and unleashed thrusts with the Twilight Spear.
The assassins could not deal with Rei's attacks so easily.
Many had steeled themselves to throw away their lives to buy time, but even such people, upon witnessing the one-sided massacre before their eyes, could not bring themselves to join in.
Those who felt such hesitation were by no means just one or two, and as a result, even though stalling Rei should have required risking their lives, a great number of people began to spare themselves instead.
Rei had no intention of overlooking such movements from his opponents.
He immediately threw the Twilight Spear at the one who had faltered.
"Gah... ugh..."
He likely never expected to be attacked.
His torso was pierced by the Twilight Spear, and entrails spilled out from the wound.
Pressing a hand against his pierced body, touching his own organs, the assassin crumbled on the spot.
"Come on, next!"
Rei shouted as if demanding seconds, but the assassins could hardly afford to respond to his demand.
Rei had temporarily stopped his advance, so in that sense, their initial objective of stalling him was being achieved.
Given that, they were likely thinking they didn't need to push themselves in this situation...
Rei, having roughly understood what the opponents were thinking, had no intention of acting according to their expectations.
With weapon in hand, he closed the distance in one burst.
"Uwah!"
The unfortunate one at this moment was likely the assassin Rei had set his sights on.
Startled by Rei's presence closing in on him in an instant, he swung his short dagger half-reflexively, but in the next moment, the arm that had been gripping the dagger was severed by Death Scythe and went spinning through the air.
Beginning with that strike, Rei's massacre resumed once more.
The assassins desperately tried to manage somehow, but the painful fact was that they could not block Rei's strikes at all and could only evade.
If they tried to catch Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear's attacks with their short daggers, the weapon would break—or even if it didn't break, they would be blown away along with it.
To avoid that happening, they had no choice but to thoroughly evade Rei's attacks.
That said, easier said than done.
Each of Rei's attacks carried tremendous force, and beyond that, the strikes he unleashed were sharp and swift.
Even those who normally possessed the skill to evade could not dodge his attacks so easily.
The fact that some still managed to evade somehow was likely proof that skilled assassins were gathered here... or rather, that such individuals were among those who remained.
It was precisely because they were such people that they moved cautiously, and while taking casualties, they somehow succeeded in stalling Rei.
This is getting a bit dangerous, isn't it? If Seto were here at a time like this, I could manage to deal with things to some extent. No, there's no point thinking about Seto here.
Wielding Death Scythe, Rei thought about Seto, whom he had left on the surface.
For Rei, Seto possessed sufficient strength and was an extremely reassuring presence—a partner he could trust.
Given that, there was no doubt that Seto would be reliable at a time like this.
That said, since Seto was not by his side right now, there was no point in thinking about him here.
Above all, Seto was needed to guard the formal entrance of the Fusetsu hideout.
What he could do right now was annihilate the assassins before him as quickly as possible.
Using magic would be the quickest way, but he had been told that if Rei used magic underground, the ceiling might collapse, and Rei could only accept that.
"If you won't move, then I'll move as I please on my end. I don't know what you were thinking, assaulting the Fusetsu hideout. Maybe you simply found Fusetsu's existence disagreeable, or perhaps there was some other reason. But if you get in my way, I'll respond accordingly!"
With those words, Rei stepped forward and swung Death Scythe at the nearest assassin.
Wary of Rei's attack, the assassin immediately tried to respond.
However, without the option to block, he could only dodge... and the instant he evaded Death Scythe's strike, his head was crushed by the Twilight Spear held in Rei's left hand.
"Damn it! Why is there someone this strong?!"
At Rei's resumed assault, one assassin cried out at the absurdity.
Whether that cry drew Rei's attention or not, the Twilight Spear that had crushed the head was thrown again, piercing the body of the shouting assassin.
The fact that it was not a fatal wound that killed him in one strike suggested that the shouting assassin possessed considerable ability.
However, having suffered the serious injury of a pierced body, it was virtually certain that he would no longer be of use in this battle.
"Three left! Do you really think you can handle me with that level of force?! I need to go after the ones who headed toward Roaby's group, so I'm going to get a little serious!"
With those words, Rei swung Death Scythe.