The man with the greatsword and the three women fought desperately against the towering creature. One of them—a demi-human girl with grey hair and wolf ears—clutched her bleeding stomach, yet somehow still fought to survive. The other two battled alongside her, their movements growing sluggish with exhaustion. They'd all noticed the new arrivals, but couldn't spare attention for anything beyond the monster trying to kill them.

Earlier attempts to flee had failed spectacularly. The creature was simply too fast, cutting off every escape route with its animated roots and impossible regeneration. Running wasn't an option anymore—survival meant killing this thing or dying in the attempt.

Miles, the red-haired man fighting the beast head-on with his flaming greatsword, had considered abandoning the others multiple times. He was confident he could pull it off—his speed and strength gave him that option.

But he couldn't leave Rose here.

He didn't give a fuck about the other two women, but if Rose died in this forest, he'd be in trouble. Serious, life-ending trouble with people he absolutely couldn't afford to anger. So he had no choice but to keep fighting this impossible battle, trying desperately to find some way to kill the monster.

Leon assessed the situation in seconds. The four-star badges hanging from their necks marked them as high-ranking adventurers—people with status and connections worth cultivating.

Saving them could be valuable. And that monster would definitely drop great treasures...

Decision made.

He didn't announce his intentions or explain his plan. The situation was self-evident—the monster needed to die, and he had the power to make that happen.

Leon activated his Transcendent rank mana body enhancement. Power flooded through his system like molten lightning, every muscle fiber reinforcing itself with condensed energy. Combined with ten percent of his physical strength down from his previous 15%, the sensation was intoxicating—he felt unstoppable.

Seraphine and Loriel understood each other immediately, without words. They'd fought beside him enough times to read his body language. The monster had to go down.

Leon raised his hand and channeled his lightning element, forming the new skill Thunderstrike volley he'd gotten. The attack streaked across the clearing in a jagged bolt of blue-white electricity, crackling with energy designed to lock up the target's nervous system and muscular control.

It struck the creature dead center in its chest.

Nothing happened.

The monster didn't even flinch. Its regeneration immediately dispersed the electrical energy through its body and into the ground through its root-covered feet, treating the attack like a minor inconvenience.

Expected, but I had to test it. Physics is the same in this world — lightning against wood, bad choice.

The attack might not have damaged it, but it certainly got the creature's attention. Those burning emerald eyes locked onto Leon with predatory focus, recognizing a new threat.

Leon summoned multiple swords made of pure light element, sending them streaking toward the monster from different angles. The weapons glowed like miniature suns, their edges sharp enough to cut through steel. The creature raised its impossibly long arms to defend, bark-covered limbs intercepting the projectiles.

Leon used that moment of distraction to move.

He burst forward with explosive speed, covering the distance in heartbeats. His epic-ranked blade gleamed with a mixed aura of ice and lightning—frost crawling along one edge while electricity danced along the other. Roots erupted from the ground to stop him, thick as tree trunks and sharp as spears, but his sword carved through them like they were made of wet paper.

The injured demi-human girl suddenly appeared in his path, grey hair wild around her face and wolf ears flat against her skull. Her claws were raised defensively, metallic tips gleaming with threat. Teeth bared in a snarl, she'd reacted on pure instinct—a stranger appearing in front of her at impossible speed in the middle of a deadly battle triggered every combat reflex she possessed.

Leon didn't slow down, but he made no hostile move toward her. Instead, he raised his free hand and channeled healing light—the skill he'd practiced in his dimensional space but rarely used on others.

Glowing energy flowed from his palm in warm waves, washing over her injuries with gentle power.

The girl's eyes went wide with shock. The deep cut on her stomach—the one that had been bleeding steadily, weakening her with every passing second—sealed itself instantly. Torn flesh knitted together like an invisible thread was stitching it closed. Blood stopped flowing. The burning pain that had made every movement agony vanished as if it had never existed.

She stared at him in complete disbelief. Not just because a stranger had healed her without asking for anything in return, but because her healing potions had done absolutely nothing earlier. Whatever poison or curse the monster carried had rendered normal healing completely useless, leaving her wounds to fester and bleed.

Yet this worked instantly and completely.

"Stay back if you can't fight," Leon said simply, his voice calm and matter-of-fact.

Then he launched himself toward the monster without waiting for a response.

His speed was incredible. Each movement carried him forward with impossible efficiency, his blade cutting through every obstacle like they were made of smoke. The violent roots that had been deadly threats moments ago fell apart under his strikes, unable to even slow him down.

Behind him, Seraphine and Loriel worked with practiced coordination. They destroyed the smaller minions—animated vines, crawling roots, and other plant-based creatures the monster controlled. They made an effective team, clearing Leon's path and preventing any ambushes from behind. Their movements were synchronized, each instinctively covering the other's blind spots.

The monster's attention shifted completely. It abandoned the three adventurers it had been fighting mere seconds ago, recognizing Leon as the greatest threat to its existence.

And the most nutritious prey, something ancient and hungry whispered through its plant-based consciousness. The mana flowing through this new arrival was dense, pure, concentrated in ways that made the creature's entire being ache with desire.

In an instant, the creature abandoned its previous opponents and appeared directly in front of Leon. The speed was shocking—faster than anything its size should be capable of, defying the laws of physics that should have made something fifteen feet tall and made of solid wood slow and ponderous.

Miles found himself suddenly free from direct combat. The monster's attention had completely shifted away from him, leaving only the animated roots and vines that served as minions. These he could handle easily, even exhausted. They were dangerous to normal adventurers, but his four-star strength made them manageable obstacles rather than deadly threats.

A cold calculation ran through his mind. If this keeps going, those newcomers might actually kill it. Or they'll die trying, and I can escape during the chaos.

Either way, survival suddenly seemed possible again.

But he didn't know who these newcomers were, and he seriously doubted they could handle the monstrosity he'd been fighting for the past twenty minutes. He'd watched it regenerate from wounds that should have been instantly fatal dozens of times. Limbs severed and reattached. Organs pierced and healed. Whatever they threw at it would be pointless in the end.

Time to get out while we still can.

Miles made his decision instantly. He pivoted mid-swing and sprinted not toward the monster but in the opposite direction, toward the tree line and safety beyond. His flaming greatsword dissipated as he devoted all his energy to speed.

He glanced sideways at the crimson-red-haired girl fighting beside him—Rose, the one person he couldn't abandon. "Rose! We need to run! Now!"

He detected hesitation in her emerald eyes, saw her mouth opening to protest or question.

Miles didn't give her time to argue. "Let's get out of here or we'll die!" he shouted desperately, injecting genuine fear into his voice. "That thing is unkillable! We need to leave while those idiots distract it!"

Rose's face twisted with conflict—morals warring against survival instinct. But ultimately, the terror she'd felt watching the monster regenerate from every wound won out. She nodded sharply and ran beside him without looking back, her red hair streaming behind her like flames.

The blue-haired girl followed immediately after. Her face showed clear displeasure at abandoning the fight—her jaw was clenched, her eyes hard with suppressed anger—but she ran anyway, choosing life over honor.

The grey-haired demi-human girl watched her teammates flee. Her expression went completely blank as she processed what had just happened. She'd fought beside these people for months, trusted them with her life, and considered them closer than family; they were cold sometimes, but always had their back.

She thought they were real friends now.

But now they'd abandoned her without a second thought.

Her hand rose slowly to touch her stomach, feeling smooth skin where moments ago there had been a bleeding wound that would have killed her within the hour. This stranger had healed her instantly, asking nothing in return.

Her teammates had left her to die.

The choice was surprisingly easy.

She turned and ran—not toward her abandoning teammates, but toward the two women clearing out the minions with devastating efficiency. Her sharp, metallic claws extended fully, gleaming in the dappled forest light as she moved at wind-speed.

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