"There is someone in danger."

Leon didn’t think twice. He started running before he could even think. It was as if his body was moving on instinct.

Moments later...

He reached a high slope. He could see everything clearly from there.

A fight. It was far in the distance below. The area was filled with monsters. There were too many of them. Like there was no end. And more than twenty people were fighting to hold their ground against them.

"A gate outbreak!" Leon whispered. His eyes quickly locked onto a familiar figure.

"That’s Jasper Hudesman... one of the seven S-class hunters in all of Delvan. The guild master of the Razor Wolf Guild."

Delvan, one of the nations of the Northern Continent, had only seven S-class knights in total. Each of them was a living legend, heroes admired by millions.

And Jasper was one of these seven legends. He was also the one who had woken up at 4 a.m. today due to a sudden emergency call.

At the moment...

He didn’t look like a human. Thick fur covered his whole body. His upper clothes were torn apart, revealing his broad shoulders and monstrous physique. His fingers had transformed into razor-sharp claws. His face resembled a ferocious wolf, with two protruding fangs.

Beast Transformation. That was Jasper Hudesman’s awakened ability. And right now, he was fully unleashed.

An orc charged at him — just like the one Leon had nearly died fighting inside the gate.

Jasper didn’t even spare it a glance. He threw a punch. His fist didn’t even make contact...

Yet the explosive force released from it tore through the air and blasted the orc into pieces.

Leon’s breath hitched.

This... this was the power of an S-class. The very creature that had pushed him to the brink of death was nothing more than an insect before Jasper.

But Jasper wasn’t paying attention to the lesser monsters. His gaze was fixed on something far more dangerous.

The dungeon boss. A colossal minotaur, towering at least twenty feet tall, advanced with earth-shaking steps. In its hand rested a massive hammer — so large that its surface alone could crush an entire person.

With a deafening roar, the beast swung its weapon down. Jasper raised his left hand and stopped the hammer mid-swing with his bare palm.

Effortlessly.

The ground beneath him cracked as he leaned forward.

Then...

He shot upward, his right arm drawn back, muscles coiling with explosive force.

BAM!

His fist slammed into the minotaur’s chin.

The impact sent the massive creature flying backward as if it had been struck by a speeding train.

But Jasper didn’t give it a moment to recover.

He leapt into the air again and descended like a meteor. His kick crashed into the minotaur’s abdomen with brutal force. The giant let out a pained roar, its massive frame lifting off the ground, both its bull-like head and pillar-like legs thrown upward from the sheer impact.

Jasper dominated the battlefield with overwhelming ease, yet something in his gaze betrayed a rare trace of urgency.

Leon noticed something strange. Even in the midst of battle, Jasper’s eyes kept darting in a certain direction — again and again, tension flickering within them.

Frowning, Leon followed his gaze. Just below the slope he stood on, four people were trapped. They were completely surrounded. Three green orcs. More than ten humanoid boars. And two starving dire wolves.

A dire wolf suddenly opened its maw and hurled a blazing fireball toward them.

Among the group, a beautiful girl dressed in black tights and a short skirt stepped forward. A long witch hat rested atop her head. Raising her staff, she pointed it toward the incoming attack and chanted a spell.

In an instant, a sphere of water surged forward and collided with the fireball, extinguishing it completely.

Another girl moved at the same time. Clad in full combat attire, she wielded a pair of daggers. As the humanoid boars charged, she lunged forward like a shadow slipping between them.

She leapt. Spun midair. And drove her blade cleanly into the neck of one of the boars.

She landed without pause. Moved again.

Rushing toward another beast, she stepped onto its body with incredible speed, using it as a foothold before spinning through the air and delivering a powerful kick to its chin. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The boar was lifted off the ground, its massive body thrown upward, but before it could fall, the girl flicked her wrist.

A dagger shot through the air. It slipped perfectly through a gap in the creature’s armor and pierced deep into its flesh.

The remaining two were men. One of them was young. Even younger than Leon. And in his hand... was a scepter. The very same scepter Jasper had brought out from the cupboard in the morning.

He was supposedly a mage as well, but at the moment, he was in no condition to fight.

The other man, in his mid-twenties, grabbed him and began dragging him back.

"Calm down, Noah. Don’t act recklessly. It’s a good thing your brother arrived in time... or we would’ve been in serious danger." Even as he spoke, he kept pulling the boy away.

But the horde was closing in. Especially the orcs.

Meanwhile, Jasper unleashed a barrage of blows.

One.

Two.

Three.

Each punch landed squarely against the minotaur’s chest. The first strike caved it in.

The second forced a spray of blood from its maw. And the third...

punched clean through. A gaping hole tore open in its chest. The colossal body trembled... then went still.

Dead.

Jasper didn’t linger. He kicked off the corpse and prepared to rush toward the group trapped below.

But before he could...

More monsters surged toward him. There were still nineteen hunters fighting alongside him, all locked in battle. As an S-class, these low-class monsters stood no chance against Jasper.

Every punch destroyed. Not killed... Destroyed.

But even he couldn’t ignore the sheer numbers. For some reason, monsters were continuously coming out of the gate. The endless tide of monsters slowed his advance, holding him back from where he needed to go.

"Damn you all!" Jasper roared, his fury erupting. His attacks grew even more savage.

A single punch blasted fifteen goblins apart.

His claws swept across in a wide arc, carving deep crimson furrows through four orcs at once — dropping them instantly.

Seeing his frustration, one of the hunters rushed to his side. "Guild Master! Go ahead. I’ll hold them!"

The hunter raised his hand. A massive fireball formed before his palm, blazing intensely. With a sharp thrust, he launched it forward.

It tore through the battlefield and exploded, incinerating a large cluster of monsters in one devastating burst.

Jasper didn’t hesitate. He bolted forward.

But then...

He saw it. Too late.

Far in the distance, the man dragging the young mage was locked in combat with three orcs, completely occupied.

And just behind them...

A humanoid boar had already closed in.

Barely two meters away. Its chained mace was already mid-swing, hurtling toward the defenseless boy.

Jasper’s eyes widened. "No... don’t...! NOAH!"