Almost a filler episode - just a bit of comedy getting the monsters out of the way so things can move on to the more central threats.

That said, it was still good. I expected that Scarlet and Rex were going to get a chance to do their thing, and that’s just what they did. And Alflame is an oddly appealing character. He’s actually very earnest and sincere and thus admirable - it’s just that he’s also a gung-ho moron who doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut, but that’s okay, since everyone knows it, including him. And he and Scarlet are actually sort of well-matched, since he shares her pure love for battle. And the fact that he can’t keep his mouth shut and ends up irritating her keeps him at arm’s length, so while they connect in some senses, he’s not really in contention for her heart, which makes him a good secondary male character - someone for whom Scarlet can feel some (grudging) affection without introducing the threat of a love triangle.

The story’s still moving along at a good clip. I presume what we’re getting is a condensed version of the light novels, which is fine. Adapting a light novel series generally requires either condensing the events of a story to fit them into 12 episodes or going into more detail but not managing to tell a complete story, and of the two, I much prefer condensation.