Chapter 8 (1/2)

Rei admired the view as he rode on Set’s back. He held out one of the few remaining Clara Fruits to Set as he stroked his neck.

「Guru~」

Set gave a joyful cry as he ran through the forest, chewing on the Clara Fruit in his beak with a crunching sound.

「According to Zeppairu’s knowledge, we should have been out of the forest a long time ago……」

Rei confirmed the surroundings as he muttered, the forest seemed to continue endlessly.

(Did the forest spread this far in a few hundred years? Well, with magic in this world, maybe it’s possible.)

While muttering in his head, he could not stop the unpleasant feeling in his heart.

As if to ignore unpleasant feeling, he talked to Set while stroking his neck.

「Still, Set is amazing. You don’t seem to be tired at all even though you’ve continued running since morning.」

「Guru~」

Because he was happy that Rei praised him, Set increased his speed further.

A wry smile floated on to Rei’s face, he admired the physical ability of the Griffon as well as his simple mindedness.

Anyway, since Set started running, they had not been attacked once by beasts or monsters. At first, they encountered a monkey with three eyes, a wild boar with 50cm long fangs and rabbits with 1m long, blade like, ears. But they were all shaken off as none of them could catch up with Set as he ran through the forest at high speed.

For Rei, the purpose of fighting the Water Bear and the wolves was to gain combat experience. He hadn’t properly understood the physical properties of his body and he wanted to secure the magic stone to help the growth of Set and the Death Scythe.

But even though he was tempted to fight other monsters with Set after fighting with the Water Bear and the wolves, the highest priority goal was for Set to run and focus on exiting the forest.

「Gururu~!」

Then. Set abruptly gave a cry. Rei felt caution in the voice.

「Set, enemy?」

「Guru~」

Set gave a short cry at Rei’s words.

However, it wasn’t possible to find the enemies in the moonlight with Rei’s eyes.

Still, to counter attack at any time, he pulled out the mithril knife from the sheath at his waist and readied it.

「Gururu~!」

As Set continued to run, he sharply turned his face to the left. At the same time, something came out from the darkness.

「Tch!」

He clicked his tongue as he reflexively used the Dragon Robe to catch the incoming object while protecting himself.

It was unfortunate for Rei that the attack was from the left. If it had attacked from the right, Rei, who was right handed, could have intercepted it with the mithril knife. Or maybe it was lucky for the unexpectedly small object that had hit Rei. Thanks to Set, he didn’t roll off his back.

「Gyi~!」

The object that had been wrapped up in the Dragon Robe raised a cry. Putting the mithril knife in his his right hand into his mouth, he untangled the creature that was caught in the left side of the Dragon Robe and brought it before his eyes.

「This is, a flying squirrel?」

At first glance, it had the size and appearance of a squirrel, but something like a membrane could be seen between its hands and feet. Up to here, it was the same as the flying squirrel Rei knew. The difference was the tail. After all, a squirrel’s tail should have large bushy fur, this tail was like a blade.

However, the blade like tail fortunately couldn’t reach Rei as he held the body from the front.

「Gyiii~!」

It menacingly bared its fangs as Rei held its body. From Rei’s judgement, the fangs growing from its mouth were about 3cm long, long enough for the Flying Blade Squirrel (provisional name) which was about 15cm long.

Since there wasn’t enough time to leisurely search Zeppairu’s knowledge in this situation, while holding the body in his left hand, he used his right hand to break its neck. After confirming that it was dead, he stored it inside the Misty Ring.

「Guru~!」

Set gave another sharp cry. Rei took the mithril knife that was in his mouth back into his hand and thrust it at the Flying Blade Squirrel that attacked from above.

With a guyuu~ sound, the mithril knife pierced the forehead of the Flying Blade Squirrel, Rei frowned, pulled the knife out and stored the corpse into the Misty Ring.

A few minutes later. Flying Blade Squirrels were coming out from everywhere, the tops of trees and bushes like knives. Catching them in his left forefoot, Set killed them and ate them with his sharp beak, tearing them from his claws. But, the Flying Blade Squirrels continued attack without caring if their companions died, the number of corpses increased as time went on.

「Damn, there’s no end!」

Already accustomed to wielding it, the mithril knife flashed through the air. A Flying Blade Squirrel was bisected divided into the top and bottom half and fell to the ground, passing them in an instant.

In this situation, should he prepare a large scale fire magic and burn the whole area around them?　Rei thought at the time.