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Chapter 173

「A Gamelion.」

Hasta muttered the name of the monster in expectation. The white monster that had been greedily devouring the internal organs of the Goblin stopped and looked behind with a sharp gaze when he heard that sound.

After noticing that there were two adventurers there, it buried its fangs back into the Goblin without caring at all.

However, its 1m tail swayed from side to side, as if watching what was happening behind it.

「……Hasta, fortunately it hasn’t noticed Set. Once we move from here, Set will attack from the sky.」

Although Rei quietly called out from behind the nervous looking Hasta, Hasta shook his head to reject that suggestion while firmly grasping the estoc in his hand.

「Even though I asked Rei-san to help with hunting a Gamelion, I can’t just leave everything to you. Besides, there’s also the conditions my father set.」

At his words, Rei remembered that Hasta wanted to fight it himself and not just have someone do it for him.

「If I left everything to Rei-san and Set, I would be betraying my father and mother. ……I’m sorry, Rei-san. Please let me try first. If I get into a hopeless situation, please help me then.」

「……Is that fine?」

「Yes.」

As Hasta nodded without any hesitation, Rei remembered the words of the the adventurer they had met upon entering the plains.

(It’s true that he does have reckless tendencies. However, there’s no helping it since conditions are conditions. I’ll just step in once things get dangerous.)

Thinking to himself, Rei gave a small nod.

「I understand. However, since I’m working together with you, it would be troublesome for me if you died. If it get’s dangerous, I’ll step in right away.」

「I’ll be relying on you.」

While watching Hasta ready his estoc, Rei moved a short distance away to see what he could do.

Of course, in case anything dangerous happened, he held the Death Scythe in his hands.

In addition, Set had hid himself on the ground to make himself as unnoticeable as possible so that the Gamelion wouldn’t detect him and run away.

「……I’m going!」

Giving a sharp and tense cry, Hasta dashed forward with his estoc, narrowing the distance to the Gamelion.

Zing~!

Noticing a presence approaching it, the Gamelion swung its tail sharply……

「!?」

Hasta slid forward to avoid the tail that was swung like a whip, closing the distance further.

This situation reminded Rei of some of the sliding tackles he had seen in football on TV when he was in Japan.

「Haah!」

Of course, with Rei’s physical abilities, the swing of the tail wasn’t too fast to him. He could slash it off with the Death Scythe’s blade or block it with its handle. And that would only happen if it came to a point where avoiding it by even a hairs breadth was impossible. However, Hasta couldn’t do that with his physical skills, as a result, he just slid under it.

「Ga!」

But as a Gamelion, having its attacks avoided wasn’t something unexpected. Holding the corpse of the dead Goblin it had eating from in its mouth, it gave a displeased cry as it threw the corpse towards Hasta.

Although it was only the size of a human child and its insides had been eaten up, it still weighed over 20kg. If he had been using a common weapon that a lot of other adventurers used, like a long sword, spear or axe, he might have been able to cut through the corpse with force. However, Hasta used a estoc, that specialised in thrusts. Naturally, he couldn’t cut down the corpse of the Goblin. If he was prepared for his weapon to break, he might be able to do so, but that would cause him to lose his means of attack against the Gamelion.

In other words, Hasta had no way to deal with it.

「I must gather my strength to do this!」

Shouting as if to inspire himself, he pulled out a knife with his left hand, that wasn’t holding the estoc and stabbed it into the ground to forcibly stop himself. At the same time, the corpse of the Goblin flew past Hasta and struck a tree a short distance from Rei, scattering blood into the surroundings.

「Haa!」

Although being touched by its prey only caused it to pause momentarily, it was enough for Hasta, who only needed a moment to do a quick stab.

With a cry, he thrust forward with the tip of his estoc, striking the base of the Gamelion’s tail without missing. Though the body of a Gamelion was covered in fur that boasted a strong defense against slashing and stabbing attacks, its tail wasn’t covered in fur……

「Gyan~!」

Having its tail cut near the base, the Gamelion let out a scream that echoed into the surroundings.

(Heh, he can do it.)

Although he kept the Death Scythe ready to go in at any time, Rei gave a sigh of admiration in his mind.

「Not yet!」

Without needing to see the 1m meter tail fall off, Hasta instinctively understood from his experience as an adventurer that this was his biggest opportunity and stabbed forward sharply a second time.

Since the fur of a Gamelion was resistant against cutting and piercing, he aimed for a place that wasn’t covered with fur. It also had to be a place where the attack would be lethal. In other words, its eyes, which were close to its brain. If he could pierce his estoc into its eyes, he would destroy its brain. This was the only opportunity Hasta had to defeat the Gamelion with a single blow.

However, of course a Gamelion would know its own weak point. And of course, it knew how to react when its eyes were targeted.

Kin~!

A sound of metal hitting metal echoed into the surroundings. The source of the sound was Hasta’s estoc. And……the tip of the Gamelion’s sharp, blade like ears.

「What!?」

「GAAAAA!」

For Hasta, that thrust was one of the fastest and sharpest strikes he had ever made in all the battles he had fought so far. However, the huge rabbit before him had stopped it with its blade ears. Even though he knew its ears were like a knife, he had never had the opportunity to spar with an opponent like a monster of a higher rank.

And as the Gamelion blocked Hasta’s estoc with its blade ears, it opened its mouth showed its sharp fangs as it tried to bite into Hasta……

「!?」

Hasta pulled back his estoc and tried to use it as a shield but it was already too late. The Gamelion’s fangs would take his life faster than he would withdraw his estoc. The next moment after he thought that.

Slash!

「Ga……a?」

Activating Shoes of Sleipnir and dashing into the air, Rei dropped from a height of about 6m and poured magic power into the Death Scythe before cutting straight through the neck of the Gamelion.

「……Eh?」

The head and fangs that were originally supposed to cut into his body passed by his side. Hasta leaked a voice as he saw that surreal scene.

「Are you okay?」

Rei asked after shouldering the Death Scythe that had cut through the Gamelion’s neck like a guillotine.

「Ah, yes. Yes. Of course I’m okay……eh? That’s?」

Hasta turned to look at the Gamelion, which had blood gushing from its neck as it rolled a short distance away from him.

However, Rei didn’t pay that much attention to Hasta and just frowned slightly as watched the blood gush out.

「Should I wait until most of the blood drains out?」

Rei muttered to himself.

「……」

Hasta just looked at Rei silently.

He had heard the rumors. But still, since Rei was the same rank as himself, D rank, even if Rei was stronger than him, Hasta didn’t think he would be that much stronger. Somewhere in his mind, he had thought Rei’s evaluation was mainly due to his Griffon, an A rank monster.

However, with Rei’s strength had easily killed a Gamelion that he was struggling with. Even though the Gamelion had been focusing its attention on him, Hasta being something like a decoy, Rei had still managed to slice through its neck with a single attack. Its fur coat was originally a strong defense against slashing attacks.

At this time, it could be said that Hasta experienced the immeasurable abilities of the adventurer called Rei in person.

「So, right after coming to the plains, we’ve hunted the monster we came for……what do you want to do now? Do you want to head back now? Or do you want to look for a few more?」

Rei asked, not knowing Hasta’s thoughts.

Hearing that question, Hasta brought himself back to reality.

「Ah, that. Since it’s a monster that appears for a limited time during this period, I heard from the guild that less than 1 in 5 parties actually manage to hunt one. Because of that, let’s head back if we hunt another one or two. Actually, I feel we’re quite lucky to actually hunt one, I never imagined we could find a Gamelion so soon after arriving.」

「I see. ……By the way, since you said that they live in the Forest of Monsters, aren’t there any risk taking adventurers that go into the Forest of Monsters?」

「Ahahaha. That’s a good joke Rei-san. There no adventurers crazy enough to enter the Forest of Monsters. There are a few monsters that I could deal with in there, but I’ve also heard that there are B and A rank monsters in there. There are even S rank monsters.」

「……I see.」

While nodding at Hasta’s words, Rei remembered the Dragon he had seen as he left the Forest of Monsters. He wondered if that was an S rank monster. At the very least, it was a monster that would be really difficult for him or Set to deal with at the moment.

At the same time, he thought of the Jalms, giant flying squirrel monsters, that he had encountered leaving the Forest of Monsters.

(That said, I heard that the Gamelions came out from the Forest of Monsters, but what about those Jalms?)

When Rei and Set had left the Forest of Monsters, they had been attacked by over 100 of them……while thinking about that, he recalled the Jalm’s habits.

(I see, so we’ll have no problems if we come out during the day because they’re nocturnal.)

While Rei thought about that, Hasta broke away from the surprise he had off Rei, gulped and digested what had happened.

He spoke while changing his impression of Rei he had in his mind.

「Still, Rei-san is amazing. To kill a Gamelion in a single blow. ……To be honest, although I was told you were strong, I actually thought it was mostly because of Set……but now I have a much clearer impression.」

「Well, I understand that my build doesn’t look like one of an adventurer. Thanks to that, I’ve had the experience of other adventurers picking fights with me.」

「Ahahaha. At first glance, Rei-san certainly has a delicate build. When you wear that robe, you could only be seen as a small mage.」

Rei didn’t want to boast about himself and gave an unintentional smile at Hasta’s words.

「Of course they gave me a reasonable reward. ……So, should we hunt two more Gamelions before leaving it at that and going home?」

「Ah, yes. Let’s do that.」

「I see. Well in that case, it will be quicker for Set to find them from the sky. Oh, looks like the blood has almost finished draining.」

It seemed that most of the blood had already flowed out from its body. The bleeding from its neck had ceased and a rusty smell had spread around to the surroundings.

Fortunately for them, maybe because it was a forest, the smell was soon scattered by the wind.

Touching the corpse of the Gamelion, Rei stored it into the Misty Ring. Of course, Rei didn’t forget about the head, which he had cut off himself, and the tail, which was proof of subjugation that Hasta had removed.

「Then, Set. Into the sky again……Set?」

「Gururururu~」

Rei was about to ask Set to fly up into the sky to look for another Gamelion, but Set looked back towards the plains from the forest they were in and gave a cry as if wary of something.

And the next moment, Rei’s own sharp hearing picked up what Set had been alerted to. He heard something like a scream. A voice that was shouting like they were trying to escape from something was coming closer.

「……Rei-san?」

However, only Rei and Set heard it at the same time. Hasta, who was an ordinary human, had no idea what Rei and Set had noticed.

「Get ready. Apparently there are some adventurers being chased here. ……What do you want to do? Do you want to help them? Or do we keep looking for Gamelions, which is what we came here for?」

Since they had come to this plain, which was under the effect of the Forest of Monsters, anything that happened to anyone was their own responsibility. That was why Rei had asked like that. However, Rei had already half expected how Hasta would reply.

「Although that’s true, I can’t abandon adventurers who live in the same city. Besides, Rei and Set are also here. ……That is, I’ll have to rely on you.」

「I thought you would say that. I don’t know what kind of monster attacked them, but for me, it’s a great opportunity to collect magic stones. Any problems Set?」

「Guru~!」

Set nodded, saying leave it to me.

Hasta, who was watching them, bowed his head and thanked Rei.

「Thank you very much!」

「Don’t worry about it. We’ll head for the adventurers being chased before they get done in.」

「Yes!」

「Gururururu~!」

The three of them left the forest and returned to the plains.

And the moment they returned to the plains, they could see some adventurers running towards them.

They could be easily identified because there were few obstacles on the plain. Four adventurers were running towards the forest in Rei’s direction. A Gamelion chased behind them.

Everything up to this point was expected by Rei. There was just a slight difference……

「A rare species.」

Hasta murmured to himself.

Yes. The Gamelion that was pursuing the adventurers was nearly three times the size of the one which Rei had taken down