"Boss, what's the plan?" Mira said, her tone grim as she scanned the tunnels, eyes tracking the movement closing in on us.
We all knew what this meant.
A god releasing their divine presence inside the Dungeon…
That was basically a beacon.
"Should we make a run for it?" Grokk added, already shifting his stance, like he was deciding which direction had the best odds.
"No," Ais said before I could answer.
Her voice was calm, but firm.
"There's not enough time."
More movement echoed through the cavern.
Shapes started to form at the edges—monsters crawling out from every direction, drawn in by what Hermes had just done.
Mira clicked her tongue. "Yeah… figures."
Grokk tightened his grip on his hammer. "Then we're surrounded."
Ais stepped forward slightly, blade ready, her focus already sharpening. "They're coming from multiple paths. If we move now, we'll just run into more."
"Ais is right. There is only one way to do this now."
Then I smiled.
"I don't like that smile." Mira said.
"You deal with it."
"I thought so…"
Grokk blinked. "Wait… you mean us?"
More monsters began spilling into view, their shapes becoming clearer as they crept into the light—fangs, claws, glowing eyes, all locked onto us.
Grokk exhaled slowly. "You really picked the worst time to do this, Boss."
"Best time," I corrected. "No better way to learn."
"Tch… figures you'd say that."
Ais didn't argue. She simply stepped forward, sword raised, already accepting it.
Then Mira glanced back at me again. "And what about you?"
I shrugged.
"I'll stay back here," I said casually. "Same as usual."
Grokk let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Of course you will."
Mira shook her head. "Must be nice."
I slipped my hands into my pockets, watching as the first wave got closer.
"Don't die," I added.
"That's all you've got?" Mira shot back.
"I trust you guys."
She huffed, then rolled her shoulders. "Fine. Don't blame us if we make a mess."
"I'm counting on it."
Ais took point without a word, her stance steady, eyes locked on the incoming wave.
"Go," I said.
And they moved.
—o—
The three moved.
Rather, Ais moved first.
One moment she was standing still—
The next, she was already in motion.
Her blade flashed.
The first monster didn't even register what happened before it split apart, its body dissolving into ash mid-step. She didn't stop there. She flowed straight into the next, her movements smooth and efficient, cutting through them like they weren't even there.
Mira blinked. "—What the hell…"
Grokk didn't say anything.
He couldn't.
For a second, all he could do was watch.
Ais carved through the incoming wave with frightening ease.
A monster lunged from her blind spot—
It died before it even got close.
Another tried to circle—
Gone in the next breath.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a slaughter.
Grokk tightened his grip on his hammer, forcing himself to move. "Don't just stand there," he muttered under his breath.
He stepped forward, intercepting a monster that slipped past Ais' initial charge. His hammer came down hard, crushing it into the ground with a heavy impact.
That snapped Mira out of it.
"Right," she said, rolling her shoulders. "Can't let her have all the fun."
She dashed in, her movements sharp and aggressive as she cut into a cluster of monsters from the side. Unlike Ais, her style was loud, forceful, driven by instinct and momentum.
But effective.
Still—
The difference was obvious.
Grokk raised his hammer, blocking the strike just in time, the impact sending a jolt through his arms. He grunted, pushing back before countering with a heavy swing that shattered its body.
He exhaled.
Already feeling it.
"Tch… damn it," he muttered.
Level 2.
Meanwhile, Mira was holding her own, weaving through enemies with a grin that didn't quite hide the strain starting to show. She cut one down, then another, her movements slowing just a fraction compared to before.
"Oi!" she called out between strikes. "Sword Princess is making us look bad!"
Grokk clicked his tongue, adjusting his stance as more enemies poured in.
"Focus on your side," he shot back.
"Yeah, yeah."
The cavern filled with the sound of battle—steel cutting through flesh, the dull thud of impact, the constant echo of monsters dissolving into ash.
And through it all—
ROAR.
The sound tore through the chamber, deep and violent, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
"What the hell…" Mira muttered, her movements halting for just a second.
Then it appeared.
From the darkness ahead, something massive pushed its way into the light.
A serpent with two heads. It was a very familiar monster to them yet at the same time different.
Its scales were pitch black, swallowing the glow of the cavern instead of reflecting it. Its body was far larger than the Amphisbaena they had faced earlier, thicker, heavier, coiling with overwhelming presence as it forced its way forward.
The battlefield went still for a moment.
Even the lesser monsters seemed to hesitate, scattering instinctively as the creature claimed the space.
Its eyes locked onto them.
Mira didn't move.
Grokk didn't either.
Ais stood at the front, blade lowered just slightly, her focus tightening.
They all recognized it.
A Black Monster.
The Dungeon's answer to divine interference.
The Black Amphisbaena let out another low roar, both heads shifting as it sized them up.
Then it moved.
Fast.
Far faster than something that size had any right to be.
Ais reacted instantly. "Move!"
The ground where they stood shattered as the creature lunged forward, its massive body crashing down with enough force to crack the stone.
The moment it lunged, she was already gone—her body slipping to the side with clean, practiced ease. The massive head tore past where she'd been, smashing into the stone with a deafening crack.
Mira reacted a heartbeat later.
"Shit—!"
She threw herself back, barely avoiding the second head as it snapped down where she'd been standing. The rush of air alone knocked her off balance as she skidded across the ground.
Grokk—
Was too slow.
The Black Amphisbaena's attention shifted instantly, one of its heads locking onto him.
Grokk tried to react. He really did.
His grip tightened on his hammer, arms moving to raise it, but he was just a fraction too slow. The difference in speed was overwhelming, and deep down, he knew it.
For a brief moment, everything seemed to slow.
Mira's eyes widened.
Ais turned sharply.
They both knew what was about to happen.
And then—
A sharp metallic clash rang out.
The impact echoed through the cavern, loud enough to cut through everything else.
The Amphisbaena's head stopped.
Right in front of Grokk.
For a second, he just stood there, frozen, his mind struggling to catch up.
Then he realized—
Leon was standing in front of him.
One hand held his sword steady, angled just right to catch the monster's fangs. The force of the impact had cracked the ground beneath his feet, but he hadn't moved at all. He looked completely unfazed, like stopping something like this didn't take any effort.
The monster pushed down, both heads snarling as it tried to overpower him.
Leon didn't so much as flinch.
Behind him, Mira let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Took you long enough," she said, half-relieved, half-annoyed.
Grokk staggered back a step, heart still racing. "Boss…"
Leon, meanwhile, kept his gaze on the monster, calm as ever.
Then, almost casually, he shifted his wrist and pushed back.
The force snapped through the clash, knocking the massive head aside. The Black Amphisbaena recoiled, its body pulling back as it let out an angry, distorted roar.
Leon stepped forward, placing himself between it and the others.
"Step back, you guys have done enough."
Mira let out a breath, still catching herself. "You say that like we had it handled."
Grokk didn't argue. He just took another step back, still a bit shaken from how close that had been.
Ais hesitated for a moment, her eyes lingering on Leon, then on the monster… before she finally lowered her blade slightly and stepped back as well.
Behind him, Mira blinked. "…Is he—pissed?"
Grokk let out a breath. "Looks like it."
Ais didn't say anything, but her eyes stayed locked on Leon, watching closely.
In front of them, the Black Amphisbaena recoiled, both heads hissing, trying to regain control.
Leon didn't give it the chance.
He stepped in again, faster this time, forcing it back with sheer pressure.
"Come on," he said, his voice flat, the irritation clear now.
"If you're going to show up, at least be worth the trouble."
The monster roared, both heads snapping forward again, fangs flashing as it tried to overwhelm him with sheer force.
Leon didn't even spare it a glance.
"After this," he added, almost under his breath, "I'll deal with you, Hermes."
He could feel it. That presence. Lingering. Watching.
At the same time, Leon made a decision.
Not just about the fight in front of him, but about himself.
If Hermes wanted to test him like this, then he might as well make use of it.
He tightened his focus and adjusted the suppression ring he was wearing.
He pushed the limits higher, as much as he could afford in the middle of a battlefield without tipping himself into something stupid or leaving himself exposed.
The Black Amphisbaena surged forward again, both heads snapping in with brutal force.
Leon stepped into it, his movements now slightly faster than before, cleaner in timing and sharper in control. Each clash of steel against fang carried more precision than before, each deflection landing with better positioning, forcing the monster further off balance instead of just stopping its attacks.
Behind him, Mira noticed it immediately.
"Did he get slower?"
Grokk frowned, still watching the fight. "Really? I don't see much difference…"
Ais, however, spoke quietly.
"He suppressed himself."
"Suppressed?" Mira repeated, glancing at her.
Ais nodded once, her eyes never leaving Leon. "I can feel it. His attributes are being restricted… deliberately. He's training."
That made Mira pause. "Is that even possible?"
Ais shook her head slightly. "Normally, no."
Grokk crossed his arms, thinking it through. "Then it must be an item."
Ais didn't deny it. She just kept watching, her expression unreadable.
Mira narrowed her eyes at Leon, trying to piece it together. "So he's fighting something like that… and training at the same time?"
Grokk let out a slow breath. "He really is a monster."
Mira snickered softly, shaking her head like she still couldn't fully believe what she was hearing.
"Of course he is. At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore."
ROAR!
The Black Amphisbaena's roar tore through the cavern again, shaking loose dust and debris from the ceiling.
But what came after it made even that sound feel distant.
Even suppressed, even while actively restricting himself, Leon wasn't just holding his ground anymore.
He was… playing around with it.
Mira's eyes slowly widened. "Okay… I'm not imagining this, right?"
Grokk didn't answer immediately.
Because he couldn't take his eyes off Leon.
Leon stood in the center of the battlefield with his eyes closed.
Completely closed.
And yet every strike from the Black Amphisbaena missed him.
Every single one.
The massive serpent lunged again and again, both heads striking from different angles, trying to crush him under sheer size and speed—
But Leon evaded it all.
Ais, Mira, and Grokk watched in stunned silence.
They didn't speak.
They couldn't.
Leon's movements didn't look like combat anymore. They looked almost unreal, like something had been stripped down to its purest form. Each dodge wasn't just precise—it was strangely beautiful, in a quiet, unsettling way, as if the battlefield itself bent slightly around him to accommodate his presence.
The Black Amphisbaena roared again, frustration building as it lashed out with increasing violence.
Still, it missed.
Again.
And again.
Leon didn't even open his eyes.
And yet, he never once stood in the wrong place.
The longer it went on, the more natural his movements became. What started as deliberate adjustments had turned into something instinctive. His body moved before impact even arrived, each motion blending seamlessly into the next like a continuous flow rather than individual actions.
It was no longer a fight.
It was observation and inevitability.
The monster surged forward once more, both heads striking at once with everything it had left—
They heard him speak.
"This is enough."
Then for the second time since the fight, he unsheathed his sword again then raised it toward the charging Amphisbaena
"Deny, Ruina."
Even from a distance, the words reached them clearly, as if the Dungeon itself refused to muffle them.
The blade responded immediately.
A pulse of light spread along its edge—cold, strange, almost unreal. The air around it shifted, as if something fundamental had been disturbed. Not just light or mana, but reality itself feeling slightly… wrong.
The charging Amphisbaena froze mid-motion.
Both heads halted at once.
Its body tensed, like it suddenly realized something it could not comprehend.
And then—
It broke.
Like a mirror cracking under pressure, fractures spread across its massive form in perfect lines, splitting its existence into segments of impossible geometry.
For a brief moment, it looked like the monster was reflected in shattered glass.
Then the fragments began to dissolve.
Disintegrating into nothing before they could even hit the ground.
Ais, Mira, and Grokk stood frozen where they were, eyes locked on the fading remnants of the Black Amphisbaena.
Not a single word came from any of them.
Only awe.
And the realization that what they had just witnessed… wasn't something they could measure in levels or strength anymore.
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