"Alex, quit messing around!" the female hunter wielding twin daggers shouted as she sprinted toward the beast. "It’s just a D-class creature, yet it threw you around like that?"

She leapt into the air, daggers poised to strike as she closed in on the tyrant bear. But something felt... wrong.

’Why is my jump so low? Did I gain weight... or is the gravity here too strong?’ Her mind raced.

She was a weapon wielder — an awakener whose strength lay in agility and explosive movement. Yet that leap... It wasn’t just off.

It was worse than that of an unawakened professional athlete.

Before she could process it, a presence surged in from the side. A massive, blackened palm, cloaked in thick white fur.

BAM!

The impact exploded against her body, sending her flying. Blood burst from her mouth and nose as she was hurled across the ground.

"No... no, no. Why are they being so careless?" Meridith muttered, raising her staff. She shielded Noah behind her and began chanting a spell, her voice steady despite the chaos. "They can’t even handle a single D-class beast?" A strange unease crept into her chest, but she finished the chant anyway.

Seconds passed. Nothing happened. The expected unleashing of a spell attack didn’t occur.

Her expression froze. "Our magic... it isn’t working!" The realization struck too late. The beast was already charging. Closing the distance in a heartbeat, it raised its massive, fur-covered arm.

And then...

The colossal palm came crashing down without mercy.

The sudden shift in the situation paralyzed Meridith. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact.

But the pain never came. Her body wasn’t sent flying. Instead, only two sounds echoed in quick succession.

Thud! Skrrrrrt!

Her lashes trembled in confusion before she slowly opened her eyes. The beast... wasn’t there. Instead... Leon stood in front of her.

He was looking off to the side. Following his gaze, Meridith saw it — the white monster, now several meters away, growling fiercely at Leon. Deep drag marks scarred the snow beneath its feet, as if it had been forcefully shoved back.

Shock seized her. Her eyes flicked between Leon and the beast. ’What... just happened?’

Behind her, Noah remained silent. But inside, he was burning with excitement. ’He’s strong... The others couldn’t even land a hit, yet he pushed the beast back with a single move.’

Leon, however, was thinking of something entirely different. Unlike the others, he hadn’t been affected. He had already realized it — something in this place was suppressing their abilities. For some unknown reason, no one else could use their magic. Maybe it was the nature of this strange environment. It wasn’t impossible. Even on Earth, there were facilities where superhuman abilities could be suppressed using special frequencies. But what surprised him... was that his own strength hadn’t diminished at all.

’Is it because of the system?’ he wondered.

His gaze sharpened as it locked onto the tyrant bear.

’But even so... I’m no match for it.’

It was a D-class monster. And he had only just stepped into E-class. ’So what do I do now?’

The beast moved again. It charged toward Leon with explosive speed, belying its massive size. Its claws lashed forward, aiming to tear him apart.

Leon didn’t retreat.

After his last battle inside the exclusive gate only for him, something in him had changed. Whether it was his growing strength, the life-and-death situations he had faced... or something deeper, he couldn’t tell.

He stepped forward. Crossing both arms, he caught the beast’s forearm, trying to halt its attack. He was already drawing one hand back to counter, thinking he had succeeded...

But he was wrong.

Gravely wrong.

Though he stopped the claws from ripping into him, the sheer force behind the strike blasted him away.

Leon was sent flying, crashing into the ground before skidding across the snow, carving a deep trench in his wake.

The tyrant bear didn’t pause. It slammed its paws into the snow with a heavy WHUMP!, as if declaring war, then surged forward again. Leon had barely pushed himself up when the beast closed the distance in an instant.

A claw swept upward. Slash!

Crimson blood sprayed, staining the white snow red. Deep gashes tore across Leon’s chest as he was hurled back once more.

"Damn it... I’m still not strong enough." Pain throbbed through his entire body.

He crashed into a tree with a dull THUD!, shaking loose snow and leaves that rained down around him.

"We need to save him!" Noah’s sudden shout snapped Meridith out of her daze. Alex had already forced himself up, one hand clutching his chest. The other female hunter slowly pushed herself to her feet as well, wincing in pain.

"We do... but how?" Meridith said, her voice strained. "My magic isn’t working." Her gaze shifted to Alex and the other hunter. "And I’m sure theirs isn’t either."

Alex and the female hunter moved closer, unease written all over their faces. "This is bad..." the female hunter said, panic creeping into her voice. "We’re going to die like this."

"I’ve never heard of anything like this before," Alex said hurriedly. "No one who returned from hidden dungeons ever mentioned their magic being sealed in certain areas."

Meridith paused, her expression darkening.

"That’s because... those who returned never faced something like this." Her voice trailed off. "And those who did..." she added quietly.

"They never returned," Alex finished.

A heavy silence fell over them. ’We’re going to die here.’ The same thought surfaced in all of their minds.

A sharp sound snapped them out of their despair. The beast’s massive fist slammed down but Leon had already moved.

Barely.

But enough.

The tyrant bear pressed forward relentlessly.

An upward slash. A sweeping horizontal strike. Then a crushing forward punch. Yet none of them landed. Leon dodged them all.

Some movements were clean and precise — others desperate, slipping past the attacks by the narrowest margin.

"How...?" Alex muttered, disbelief clear in his voice. "How is he still fighting like that?" No one answered. They were all thinking the same thing.

And just when they thought they had seen everything...

It happened.

"System."

[Yes, Host.]

"The short sword."

A sword hilt materialized out of thin air.