The adventurer reflexively swung his longsword at Rei as he charged straight toward him.
Even though the timing should have been perfect—bringing the blade down right on Rei's head the moment he closed the distance—the longsword was still mid-swing by the time Rei was already in front of him.
Rei's speed had been completely beyond anything the man could have anticipated.
I messed up.
That realization flashed across the man's face for just an instant, but Rei paid it no mind whatsoever as he drove his fist forward.
Leather armor was softer than metal armor, but it was still protective gear. Punching it bare-handed would normally be enough to injure the attacker.
Yet Rei's blow carried more than enough force to shatter the man's ribs, even through the leather.
"Guboah!"
Screaming in agony, the man went flying.
The real stroke of bad luck belonged to the second man standing in his path.
A full-grown adult was hurtling straight toward him.
Recognizing the need to dodge, the second man tried to move—but in that split second, he collided with a comrade nearby instead.
The one saving grace was that the man he crashed into wasn't currently engaged with an enemy.
The adventurers still held the advantage in numbers at this point, allowing them to swarm each opponent with multiple fighters.
But that numerical edge had been effortlessly overturned the moment Rei and his group entered the fray.
In the end, the second man was crushed beneath a mass of flesh weighing roughly a hundred kilograms—adult body plus equipment combined—and lost consciousness entirely when his head cracked against the floor as he went down.
There was a decent chance his skull or neck was fractured, but Rei couldn't care less.
"Right, the tables have turned. If anyone still wants to fight me under these conditions, step forward now!"
Rei's shout froze the adventurers in place.
Hearing that voice, they must have finally grasped the overwhelming gap in ability between them.
Seeing them stop dead in their tracks, Rei allowed himself a flicker of hope that maybe—just maybe—the fighting was over.
But then... several adventurers snatched up their weapons and bolted.
"N-no damn way! You expect us to fight a monster like that?!"
"Besides, that's Crimson Rei! Why the hell is a monster like that in a place like this?!"
They screamed over their shoulders as they fled, but neither Rei nor Crow and the others made any move to pursue.
They understood all too well that chasing fleeing enemies would only force the rest to fight with the desperation of cornered rats.
With numbers already working against them, there was no reason to attack opponents who were doing them the favor of thinning their own ranks.
(So some are staying behind. Troublesome.)
Rei had been hoping everyone would just cut and run.
But only about half actually fled.
The remaining half stayed put for reasons he couldn't fathom... and naturally, they readied their weapons against Rei and Crow's group.
Even now, they showed zero intention of backing down.
(Why are they so fired up? I suppose if they're adventurers who don't abandon requests halfway, it's not exactly a bad trait... no, wait. Requests? If that's the case...)
That single word—request—triggered a possibility in Rei's mind.
To confirm his suspicion, he spoke up.
"You guys. Are you by any chance the adventurers who attacked the Jalis Workshop?"
Several of the remaining adventurers reacted to the question.
It wasn't an overt tell, but it was more than enough for Rei to read.
"Hit the mark, huh. I don't know what you're thinking, ending up in a situation like this. I don't know, but if you're planning to take me on right after the Jalis Workshop, you'd better brace yourselves. And this time, I'm not the only one you're dealing with."
During Rei's speech, Crow and the others made no move to attack.
Under these circumstances, victory was all but guaranteed if it came to a fight.
Looking ahead to what still needed to be done, it was only natural to prefer that the enemy withdraw rather than exhaust themselves in unnecessary combat.
They couldn't afford to waste time here, either.
With a rendezvous with Gigalana waiting once this battle was over, the calculus was obvious.
And even after regrouping, a clean escape was far from certain.
The moment Dailas learned this room had been seized, he would inevitably realize that the safe inside his hidden room had vanished as well.
Once he knew that, Dailas would never let Rei's group walk out freely... assuming the evidence was actually inside the safe, that is.
Beyond that, having his own mansion attacked was a matter of pride for Dailas.
Between all those factors—and possibly reasons Rei couldn't even imagine—one thing was certain: the breakout would be a brutal fight.
Wanting to preserve their fighting strength for that moment was only logical.
Yet contrary to Rei and Crow's wishes, the adventurers who remained showed no sign of retreating.
If anything, they tightened their grips on their weapons.
Every line of their posture screamed a single resolve: they would absolutely crush Rei and his group right here, right now.
Seeing that, Rei concluded that further threats wouldn't make them budge. He drew Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring and stepped forward.
"I'll handle these guys. You all go on ahead."
"No, but—"
"Think about how wide this space is. If I fight with my weapons here, I might catch you in the crossfire."
The implication was clear: he couldn't fight at full capacity with them in the way.
Several assassins bristled at Rei's attitude, their gazes sharpening, but Rei ignored them and pressed on.
"Is your mission to fight these guys? No, it isn't. So go do what you're actually supposed to do."
Hearing that, Crow nearly shot back: You're the one who should be saying that.
After all, Rei was the one carrying the safe believed to hold evidence of Dailas's crimes.
By that logic, Rei's own advice meant that he—burdened with the safe—should be the first one through the exit.
Crow kept that to himself, though. Saying it out loud here would just paint a target on Rei's back.
"Understood."
That was all he said.
He judged it more efficient to leave the fight to Rei and get moving immediately.
A few assassins cast dissatisfied looks at the decision, but Crow ignored them and broke into a run.
The other assassins, seeing Crow take off, clearly decided they couldn't leave him unattended. They scrambled to follow... which meant the adventurers remaining behind couldn't let Crow's group go unchallenged.
"After them!"
"You think I'll let you?"
The instant one adventurer shouted, Rei kicked off the floor and inserted himself between Crow's group and the adventurers.
It happened so fast that the adventurers had no idea how Rei had gotten in front of them.
Even so, they understood one thing clearly: to reach Crow's group, they had to go through Rei first.
The adventurer at the front barked with frustration and thrust his spear forward.
"Out of the way! Move!"
A full-powered lunge, every ounce of fighting spirit behind it.
It might have been the strongest strike the man could muster, but—
"Too naive."
Death Scythe sheared through the spearhead like paper, effortlessly defanging the attack.
Then Rei swept the Twilight Spear horizontally, cracking the shaft against the man's skull and snuffing out his consciousness.
"Now then. The fact that you haven't run even now means you've chosen to fight me. That's a fair assumption, right?"
"No, that's—"
The sight of their point man going down so easily must have rattled him. One adventurer started to stammer something in response, but Rei was already moving before the words left his mouth.
"I gave you your chance!"
Death Scythe carved through the air with that declaration.
The man who'd tried to speak threw up his longsword on pure reflex to block it.
It was instinct born of adventurer experience—but a careless move nonetheless.
The longsword's blade met Death Scythe's haft... and instead of deflecting the blow, the sword snapped clean at the midpoint. The full force of the strike caught the man's body and sent him airborne.
A hundred kilograms of Death Scythe, driven by Rei's strength.
The longsword absorbed a fraction of the impact, but the hit still carried more than enough power to inflict grievous injury.
Bones cracked as the man was hurled sideways—not toward his comrades, but straight into the wall. The collision added damage on top of damage, far worse than a simple knockback.
"Right, next. And let me be clear—since you refuse to back down, neither will I."
Something in Rei's voice must have gotten through. Several of the remaining adventurers recoiled on instinct.
But in front of the Rei that stood before them now, that hesitation was a fatal opening.
The instant he registered them pulling back, Rei exploded forward.
The adventurers swung their weapons on reflex, a desperate, simultaneous strike—
"Too naive!"
A single sweeping arc from Death Scythe caught the bulk of those weapons at once, shearing through some, blasting others from their owners' grips.
"Gah!"
One adventurer grunted as a strike he never saw coming jarred through him.
His longsword was torn from his hands by Death Scythe's blow, and his fingers went numb from the shock.
The impact was so intense he genuinely wondered if he could grip anything at all in that state.
Yet even after witnessing that, the adventurers didn't falter.
(What is going on? I've demonstrated this much of a gap—they should have pulled back ages ago.)
As far as Rei knew, the adventurers in front of him were the same ones who had attacked the Jalis Workshop.
If so, they should already have a thorough understanding of his strength.
And even if someone had failed to grasp it during the Jalis Workshop incident, what Rei had just shown them here made it unmistakably clear: these adventurers couldn't handle him on their own.
(So why won't they run? At the Jalis Workshop, they scattered immediately. What's different? Could it be...)
A thought surfaced. Maybe there were reinforcements beyond the adventurers present here—and those reinforcements were heading for Crow's group. In other words, the ones remaining were just a stalling force.
Logically speaking, that was unlikely. This fight hadn't been planned; it had unfolded on the fly. The odds of enemy reinforcements bumping into Crow's group were slim.
(Unless one of the ones who fled first was sharp enough to figure that out? If so... that's bad.)
It wasn't that Rei doubted Crow's group.
As assassins of Fusetsu, their skill was genuinely top-tier. He'd confirmed that firsthand last night.
But assassins were assassins. They excelled at striking from the shadows, not at slugging it out in the open.
Against amateurs or half-trained fighters, they could hold their own in a straight fight without issue.
But against seasoned adventurers with real combat skill? That was a different story.
And if those adventurers outnumbered them, Crow's group would be at a serious disadvantage.
(I jumped the gun a bit. Still, no matter what I do next, I need to clear these guys out first. That much hasn't changed.)
Rei tightened his grip on Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear. He'd take down everyone standing in his way as fast as possible, then chase after Crow's group.
"Fair warning—things are about to get rough from here. If you die, don't come blaming me."
Perhaps it was the undeniable seriousness in Rei's voice that made the adventurers flinch for just a heartbeat.
Into that opening, Rei charged straight ahead.