With the Necro Golem's gaze fixed on him, Crow hurled another dagger and broke into a sprint toward the main gate.
As if on instinct, the Necro Golem reached out its hand toward him...
"Dodge, Crow!"
The moment Rei's sharp shout rang out, Crow twisted aside. A tentacle shot from the Necro Golem's arm at the same instant.
Thanks to his split-second reaction, Crow managed to evade the tentacle's strike cleanly.
Had he waited to dodge only after seeing the attack, he almost certainly would have failed.
It was his instinctive response to Rei's shout that saved him.
Fortunately, the tentacle wasn't fired in rapid succession, and Crow succeeded in slipping through the main gate.
The Necro Golem lurched after him.
Despite standing motionless before the gate just moments ago, it now charged forward without hesitation—smashing through the gate's frame and emerging from Egginis.
"Alright, now it's just Crow. Seto, I'm counting on you. Same approach as with the bowman earlier. That was pretty rough on him, but Crow should be fine."
The key difference between the man from before and Crow was injuries.
Even though Rei's spear throw had been meant to save the man from being crushed, it had pierced the back of the Necro Golem's knee, causing the man to be splashed with rot fluid.
Crow, by contrast, had no serious injuries. As a skilled assassin, he was also highly proficient in physical techniques.
On top of that, Crow's body wasn't emitting poison smoke, which meant Seto wouldn't need to fly as fast as last time—a small but meaningful difference.
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Seto dove toward the ground.
Naturally, Crow spotted him immediately.
"Rei!?"
Even as he looked at Seto, the name that escaped Crow's lips was Rei's. Since Rei was riding on Seto's back, it wasn't strange for him to call out that name in that sense.
"Grab onto Seto's legs!"
Rei's instruction was terse, but Crow understood instantly, seizing the descending Seto's legs.
Once Seto confirmed his grip, he flapped his wings and climbed back into the air.
A heartbeat later, a tentacle slammed into the spot where Crow had been standing, gouging a crater into the ground.
It was a near thing by any measure, yet Crow showed no sign of relief.
"That was reckless!"
"I had to!"
Soaring through the sky—one astride Seto's back, the other dangling from his legs—made shouting the only way to hold a conversation.
"True enough! But when the Necro Golem targeted you, what do you think would've happened if we hadn't stepped in!?"
"You did step in! So what's the plan from here!?"
"The Necro Golem's outside the city now. We just need to lead it somewhere far enough away and kill it. But first, we need to get you sorted out!"
The tentacle attacks were fast, and even Seto couldn't dodge them with room to spare.
With Crow dangling from his front legs under those conditions, there was a very real chance a tentacle could strike Crow even if Seto managed to evade.
The same held true for the purple Breath.
That was why dealing with Crow first was an undeniable necessity.
Crow seemed to understand Rei's reasoning and had no complaints.
"Seto's going to circle the Necro Golem and drop you near the ground! Get into the city and take shelter!"
"Got it!"
Crow acknowledged Rei's words without hesitation.
Hearing the reply, Rei gave the back of Seto's neck a light pat.
"Alright then... Seto, go."
Seto purred and closed in on the Necro Golem.
The creature had already cleared Egginis entirely. In that sense, Crow had helped them overcome the hardest part—getting it out of the city.
Perhaps irritated that Seto had snatched its prey away yet again, the Necro Golem raised its fist as Seto approached and brought it crashing down.
The fist was far slower than a tentacle strike, but its raw power was overwhelmingly greater.
Then again, no matter how devastating an attack, it meant nothing if it missed.
Seto banked away cleanly, sweeping past the Necro Golem's flank.
Clearing the creature, he angled toward the main gate.
But the gate had already been reduced to rubble by the Necro Golem. Dropping Crow there wouldn't allow for a clean passage through.
Though given Crow's abilities, vaulting over the debris wouldn't be out of the question.
"Drop me off right there, by that rubble!" Crow shouted toward Rei and Seto.
Will that work? Rei wondered—but if Crow was saying it, he must have had a plan.
"Seto."
"Grurru!"
Purring in response, Seto descended toward the ground and released Crow near the wreckage of the main gate.
Crow twisted midair, adjusting his trajectory. Instead of landing on top of the rubble, he touched down on the ground beside it, then vaulted over the debris in one fluid motion and vanished into Egginis.
That swiftness was action enough to earn the thought: as expected of an assassin.
Rei admired Crow's handiwork for a beat, but his eyes snapped back to the Necro Golem.
Whether the creature had seen Seto release Crow or not, Rei couldn't tell—but Seto immediately climbed skyward, ascending toward the Necro Golem's head.
The Necro Golem fired a tentacle at him.
Seto beat his wings to dodge while closing the distance, flying provocatively right in front of the creature's face.
It was nothing short of a taunt.
Of course, having pulled the same move countless times already, it was unclear how much provocation the gesture still carried.
"Alright, now we keep its attention while putting distance between us and Egginis. Once we're far enough out, we can kill it!"
"Grurru!"
Checking Seto's eager posture, Rei glanced toward Egginis—toward the main gate, to be precise.
It wasn't about Crow. Rather, Rei belatedly realized that because of the carriage that had forced its way in earlier, there might still be a fair crowd gathered outside the gate.
Yet as he had confirmed when dropping Crow, the area was empty.
Puzzled, he scanned the surroundings more carefully and spotted a sizable group gathered at a considerable distance from the gate.
I see. They evacuated as a group. That's fine, then.
The reason no one lingered near the gate was likely because they'd been told the Necro Golem would come bursting through.
The fact that they heard the warning and promptly cleared out spoke well of their obedience—though the orders had come from Robel and Dwanda, the people who ran Egginis.
For visitors who'd come to buy golems or on other business, earning the displeasure of Egginis's top authorities before even stepping through the gates would be a disastrous start.
As for the occupants of the gaudy carriage, they were probably nobles who assumed their status would shield them from such orders.
Rei turned his gaze from the evacuees and refocused on the Necro Golem.
Perhaps because its plans had been thwarted so many times, the creature's eyes were locked dead on Seto.
"Seto, ready? We're leading the Necro Golem away from Egginis. We're heading somewhere without roads."
Fighting the Necro Golem near the highway would inevitably spread rot fluid and poison smoke across the road.
Considering the cost of repairs, it made sense to lure it somewhere off the beaten path—terrain where that wouldn't be a concern.
Acting on Rei's judgment, Seto veered away from the highway...
"This way! Follow me!"
Rei hurled a disposable spear at the Necro Golem's feet.
He'd originally wanted to throw it past the creature's face, but Egginis lay directly behind it. A careless throw risked damaging the city.
Aiming for the ground near its feet rather than its face was the safest call.
The spear drove into the earth right beside the Necro Golem's foot, spraying dirt in all directions like a small explosion.
The debris rained down across the Necro Golem's body.
Whether the creature would even notice, let alone care, Rei had no way of knowing.
He'd done it hoping the minor annoyance might stoke its hostility toward him—and the results exceeded all expectations.
The Necro Golem moved faster than before.
Not that it had been slow up to now. Each stride covered enormous ground thanks to its sheer size, so its pace was far from sluggish.
But it definitely hadn't been throwing sharp, precise strikes like the tentacles.
"Didn't like getting dirt kicked in its face? Then..."
From Seto's back, the gryphon deliberately slowing to maintain a lead, Rei drew another disposable spear and let it fly.
The throw struck the ground at the Necro Golem's feet once more, scattering dirt just as before.
The shower of earth came down across the creature once again.
Whether riled by Rei's harassment or not, the Necro Golem thrust out its hand. Rei saw it and barked a warning.
"Seto!"
"Gruu!"
Reacting instantly, Seto beat his wings and banked away.
A heartbeat later, the Necro Golem's tentacle punched through the empty air where Seto had been—a split second too slow.
Whether the Necro Golem was frustrated that nothing it tried connected, or whether some remnant of Dailas lingered in its core and seethed at the failure, Rei couldn't say. Either way, the creature's jaw gaped wide.
"Seto!"
Just the name—nothing more—and Seto understood, veering sharply in a new direction.
That seamless, wordless coordination came from the deep bond between them.
Purple Breath tore through the space Seto had just vacated.
Now that we've come this far, it can fire Breath all it wants. Though it must consume some kind of energy to do it—mana, maybe, or something else entirely. Either way, now that we're outside Egginis, making it burn through as much as possible is the right call.
Rei hadn't wanted the Necro Golem to use Breath inside Egginis for fear of what it would do to the city—the buildings, the lives.
The purple Breath the creature had already unleashed several times had inflicted considerable damage.
But out here, that wasn't a concern anymore.
Though, naturally, dodging Breath that flew as fast as the tentacle strikes was something only Seto could pull off.
"Get angry. Stay angry. Keep chasing me at this pace. Don't you dare turn back toward Egginis."
If the Necro Golem abandoned the pursuit and returned to the city, that would be the worst possible outcome.
So Rei pressed every advantage he had to hold the creature's attention—and his plan succeeded beyond all measure. The Necro Golem fixed on Rei and Seto as the enemies it had to destroy, and pursued them relentlessly, even as they led it further and further from Egginis.