The sheer weight pressing down on his broadsword was terrifying, forcing the Captain’s boots another inch into the shattered ground while his muscles screamed in protest.

’This thing’s raw output is absurd,’ he thought, tasting copper as blood dripped from his lip, ’if I try to match this force head-on, my arms are going to snap.’

He did not try to push the monster back. Instead, he sharply angled his blade, letting the devastating kinetic energy of the fist slide harmlessly down the steel before violently twisting his waist to shove the creature off balance.

The monster stumbled forward, leaving just enough room for the Captain to hook his foot under Helen’s collar and drag her limp body backward across the ground, throwing her toward the safety of the formation.

"Keep her alive!" he yelled, not taking his eyes off the monster.

The monster caught its balance effortlessly, turning its visor toward him while the aura flared around its armor. It did not speak this time, simply raising its fist and vanishing from sight with the same terrifying speed that had crushed Helen.

But the Captain was ready for that.

He didn’t have seven Shards like Helen, and he certainly didn’t have her overwhelming elemental capacity. What he had was three decades of fighting things that were much stronger, much faster, and much more lethal than he was.

The ambient mana in the air suddenly shifted and compressed around him, pulling into his core with a violent hum.

The Zone.

It was not nearly as explosive or flashy as Helen’s freezing glacier, but it was incredibly refined. A dense, humming layer of pale gold mana coated his broadsword and armor, perfectly synchronized with his breathing as he stepped fluidly to the side.

The monster reappeared exactly where he had just been standing, its fist obliterating the ground, but the Captain was already pivoting on his heel.

He brought his broadsword around in a tight, perfectly calculated arc, aiming directly for the exposed joint behind the creature’s armored knee.

The blade sparked violently against the dark metal, failing to cut through the heavy plating, but the sheer kinetic precision of the strike forced the creature’s leg to buckle.

The monster grunted, swinging its other arm in a wild backhand, but the Captain simply ducked under the blow.

He didn’t waste energy on flashy movements, keeping his footwork impossibly tight as he danced inside the creature’s guard, parrying sweeping strikes that should have crushed him and redirecting the momentum to land precise, heavy counterattacks on its joints.

Hajin watched the exchange from the back, his eyes narrowing as he tracked the pale gold mana flitting around the towering monster.

’He is significantly weaker than Helen in raw stats,’ he thought, keeping a tight grip on his chain while the shockwaves from the fight tore across the ruins, ’but his technique is on a completely different level.’

The monster roared, unleashing a rapid flurry of devastating punches meant to overwhelm him, but the Captain met every single strike with his broadsword.

He didn’t block them directly, instead angling his blade to deflect the heavy fists just enough to avoid taking the full impact, slipping past the arms to drive his pommel directly into the creature’s visor.

The blunt force impact snapped the monster’s head back, completely breaking its rhythm and forcing it to stagger away.

The Captain did not pursue, stepping back to take a heavy breath while the pale gold mana hummed steadily across his blade.

His arms were shaking from the sheer strain of deflecting the blows, but his eyes remained perfectly calm, completely locked on the monster in front of him.

Hajin kept his eyes locked on the exchange, his initial awe slowly fading into a tight frown as he noticed the subtle details of the fight.

’He is not actually blocking those hits cleanly,’ he thought, watching the Captain deflect another punch that cracked the ground beneath his boots.

Even with the blade angled perfectly to redirect the kinetic force, the sheer weight of the impact was still transferring through the steel. Every time the Captain parried, his arms trembled violently, the pale gold mana flickering as the bones in his forearms practically bent under the pressure.

Worse than that was the strain of the Zone itself.

Hajin could see the blood steadily dripping from the Captain’s nose and mouth, his breathing growing ragged while the golden glow around his armor slowly began to eat into his own skin.

He was burning his core just to keep up with the monster’s base speed, and his body was rapidly reaching its absolute limit.

’If he takes one direct hit, he is dead,’ he thought, shifting his weight slightly while his grip tightened on his chain.

The monster recovered from the blunt strike faster than the Captain could reset his footing.

It stepped forward, closing the gap instantly, and brought both fists down in a devastating hammer strike meant to crush the Captain into the ground. The pale gold mana flared violently as the Captain raised his broadsword to catch the blow, but Hajin could see his knees buckling before the hit even landed.

He was out of breath, his core was fraying, and his arms were completely spent.

’Now,’ Hajin thought, snapping his wrist forward.

His chain shot across the ruins like a blur, wrapping tightly around the monster’s left ankle just a fraction of a second before its fists connected with the Captain’s sword. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

He pulled back with everything he had, digging his heels into the ground and channeling his mana through the links. The sudden, violent tug on its ankle threw the creature completely off balance, shifting its center of gravity backward right as it unloaded the strike.

The hammer blow still hit the broadsword, but without the monster’s full weight behind it, the Captain was able to deflect it into the ground.

The ground shattered around his boots, but he remained standing.

The monster turned its head sharply, its aura flaring in annoyance as it looked down at the chain wrapped around its ankle, then followed the links all the way back to Hajin.

"I told you," Hajin said, keeping the chain taut while Loccy and Juna fanned out on either side of him, "you are giving off bad vibes."

The Captain coughed up another mouthful of blood, taking a quick step back to put distance between himself and the creature, but he did not lower his sword. He glanced at the chain, then looked back at Hajin, his eyes narrowing slightly as he realized what Hajin was doing.

"You do not have the raw output to pierce its armor," the Captain said, his breathing ragged but his voice surprisingly calm.

"Neither do you," he shot back, stepping forward while pulling the chain tight enough to make the monster’s leg twitch. "But you have the technique to stay alive in close quarters, and I have the utility to keep it off balance."

The monster let out a low, vibrating chuckle, slowly turning its body to face Hajin entirely.

"A combined effort," it said, taking a slow step forward and dragging the chain against Hajin’s grip, "how adorable."

"Juna, Loccy, keep its arms busy!" He yelled, completely ignoring the monster’s taunt.

The two girls blurred forward without hesitation, their wings flaring brightly as they launched themselves at the creature from opposite sides.