The Captain stared at the worm’s gleaming eye, the words still hanging in the air while something cold settled in his chest.

’Kenny abandoned them?’ he thought, his grip tightening on the claymore until his knuckles ached. ’He lied to the King, to the council, to me. His squad didn’t get vaporized by some freak mana blast, he ran and left them to die.’

The worm’s eye shifted, watching his face as if it could read every thought passing through his mind.

"Oh, that look," it said, its voice dripping with amusement, "I remember that look. He wore the same one when he realized he could not win, when he dropped his sword and started begging, crying about how he had a family, a name to protect, how he would do anything if I just let him go."

The Captain’s jaw tightened, a vein pulsing in his temple.

"He got on his knees, you know," the worm continued, tilting its head with a slow, deliberate motion, "pressed his forehead into the sand and wept like a child. It was disgusting and entertaining all at once."

"Shut your mouth," the Captain said, his voice low and shaking.

"But will you do the same?" the worm asked, its tone shifting into something almost curious, "will you abandon your children too, run while they die behind you, then crawl back and beg for mercy?"

The Captain’s mana flared, the shards around his wrist spinning faster.

"I wonder," the worm said, its massive body coiling slightly, "what choice will you make when you realize you cannot win?"

A blur of motion shot past the Captain from behind, a streak of dust and golden light that crossed the distance before anyone could react.

Hajin appeared directly in front of the worm’s head with his chain wrapped tight around his right fist and his arm already pulled back, driving his punch straight into the massive eye in front of him before the worm could even register he had moved.

The impact hit the worm’s eye dead center, the chain amplifying the force as his fist drove through the outer layer and sank deep into the soft tissue beneath.

Black fluid exploded outward in a thick spray while the worm let out a deafening shriek, its head snapping back and its body writhing as it recoiled from the sudden pain.

Hajin landed on the sand a few feet away, shaking the black fluid off his hand while the chain retracted around his forearm. He turned his head toward the Captain and Helen, his expression flat and his voice carrying a sharp edge of irritation.

"What are you two doing?" he asked, gesturing toward the chaos still unfolding behind them, the spikes still exploding, the sand still swallowing soldiers, the knights still dying, "wasting time listening to this thing talk when people are dying?"

The Captain stared at him, his mouth opening slightly.

"He’s right," Helen cut in, stepping up beside the Captain with her rapier still in hand and her eyes fixed on the writhing worm, "stop letting this thing play mind games with you, Captain. It’s trying to break your focus because it knows it can’t win if you’re clear-headed."

The Captain looked at her, then at Hajin, then back at the worm that was still shaking off the pain from the punch.

’Is this man truly the Captain?’ Hajin thought, studying the hesitation on the man’s face with a growing sense of disappointment.

’I expected more from the leader of a royal squad, but he has been nothing but emotional and reactive since we stepped into this Gate.’

A flurry of text scrolled across his vision.

[ CringeSlayer91 ] hajin just told the captain to stop yapping and fight, absolute cinema

[ ashley(mod) ] finally someone said it, this captain has been a mess the whole gate

[ ShadowMage44 ] tbf the worm did just drop some heavy lore about Kenny, that would shake anyone

[ KnightFan_Real ] ...okay I got nothing, he’s been embarrassing to watch

[ CringeSlayer91 ] LOL EVEN HIS ONLY FAN GAVE UP ON HIM

Hajin pushed the chat out of his mind and turned toward Helen, his voice flat and his eyes still locked on the recovering worm, "You, with me. The Captain is useless right now so we need to finish this fast before more people die."

Helen opened her mouth to respond, but he was already gone.

He shot forward across the sand, closing the distance in a burst of speed while the worm’s eye snapped toward him, still dripping black fluid from the earlier punch.

It let out a hiss and the ground in front of him erupted, a wall of jagged spikes rising to block his path with their tips already glowing with red light, but he did not slow down.

He shifted his weight and pushed off the sand at an angle, his body moving with the same fluid, low-to-the-ground motion he had picked up from watching Juna fight.

He planted his foot on the side of a rising spike and launched himself sideways, then kicked off another and another, weaving through the barrier like it was nothing more than a set of stepping stones.

The worm’s eye tracked him, widening slightly as he cleared the last spike and leaped into the air.

A second golden ring materialized around his left wrist, the concentric halo humming with dense power as both rings activated at once. The air around him rippled as his stats doubled, the sudden weight of the amp settling into his muscles.

He looked down at the worm’s massive head and smiled, "this one is going to hurt like hell."

He drove his fist down, the chain around his right hand unwinding and then snapping taut at the last second to add its weight to the blow.

The impact hit the top of the worm’s skull with a crack that echoed across the dunes, the force driving the colossal head down into the sand and sending a wave of dust rolling across the entire basin.

The worm’s body went limp for a moment, the spikes around them dissolving into harmless piles of sand as the monster lay still.

Hajin landed on the dunes, both rings still glowing around his wrists as he watched the massive form for any sign of movement, but then the worm spoke.

"Interesting."

The word slithered across the dunes, low and amused, completely at odds with the crushing blow it had just taken.

Hajin’s eyes widened as he tried to move, but the spike was too fast, a thin, black needle that had erupted from the sand beneath him without any warning glow or rising dust, moving faster than anything he had seen so far.

It pierced through his back and exited through his chest.

He looked down at the tip protruding from his ribs, blood dripping onto the sand, his body not quite registering the pain yet as the worm’s head slowly rose from the crater, its ruined eye already healing as it fixed its remaining eye on him.

"That mana," it said, its voice dropping into something hungry, "I want that mana for myself."