The Earth Smasher leader led Jayden to the center of the meadow, then backed away until they were standing on opposite sides of the makeshift arena.

Jayden looked around at the wild, cheering crowd and chuckled. He looked across the grass at the beast.

"Are there any rules?" he asked with a chuckle.

"This is jungle," the beast rumbled, beating a fist against its scarred chest. "There are no rules."

Jayden revealed a grin. "Good. I wouldn’t have it any other way." He said.

The leader let out a sound that resembled a scoff. Then it turned to the assembled troop and pointed a finger at Jayden, barking something to the crowd. The horde immediately shifted their tone, howling in absolute disdain and contempt at the human challenger.

"You make mistake coming here," the leader sneered, its muscles coiling like steel springs. "Jungle is no place for human. You don’t stand chance against me. I am powerful beast."

Jayden smirked, a dangerous, golden light flaring in his eyes. "Why don’t we even the odds, then?" he murmured. Then he reached out to the System and initiated a skill he hadn’t used in a while.

"Activate Hybrid Transformation," Jayden called out mentally. Then, aloud, he whispered: "Earth Smasher."

The system chimed immediately.

[-10 EP]

[Hybrid Transformation Activated - Earth Smasher (D-Rank)]

The transformation was instant. Jayden’s body convulsed as his human anatomy rapidly rewrote itself. His muscles swelled grotesquely, veins popping like thick cables beneath his skin. His legs shortened and thickened into rooted pillars, while his chest and arms ballooned, packing on hundreds of pounds of dense, hardened muscle. Coarse dark hair sprouted across his jaw and forearms, his face sharpening into a feral, hybrid visage.

[Temporary stat boost is in effect: +50 Strength, +20 Agility, +30 Defense, +30 Stamina]

He was now a hybrid powerhouse, but as a partial, lower rank form, he was still several feet shorter than the towering C-Rank leader.

But that wasn’t a problem.

He simply triggered his Size Manipulation, pushing his cells outward. His hybrid frame stretched and expanded, bones cracking and resetting until he stood at an imposing 12 feet tall, looking the white leader dead in the eye.

"Now," Jayden grinned, baring elongated canines. "We can have a slightly fair fight."

The beast scoffed. It slammed both fists into its chest with a sound like a cannon blast, let out a deafening roar, and charged.

Jayden exhaled sharply and charged to meet it. He decided to forgo all elemental or magical abilities; this was going to be a pure battle of physical supremacy.

They collided in the dead center of the meadow.

BOOM!!!

The impact was catastrophic. A shockwave of displaced air exploded outward, flattening the tall grass and sending a tremor through the earth. They locked hands in a grapple, the ground beneath their feet instantly splintering and cratering under the immense pressure.

Jayden gritted his teeth, his muscles screaming. The sheer, raw strength of the Earth Smasher leader was absolutely terrifying; even with his stat boosts and size manipulation, he was being pushed back.

The beast broke the grapple, throwing a right hook that looked like a falling meteor.

Jayden acted instantly. He used his Size Manipulation, instantly shrinking his entire body down to the size of a human child. The massive, lethal fist sailed harmlessly over his head, the wind pressure alone parting his hair. Before the beast could recover its balance from the missed swing, Jayden restored his height to twelve feet, but he didn’t stop there. He commanded the ability entirely into his right arm, enlarging his fist until it was the size of a small boulder.

Then he stepped into the beast’s guard and drove the colossal fist squarely into the leader’s ribs.

CRACK.

The white gorilla gasped, the breath knocked from its lungs as it was lifted off its feet and sent skidding backward through the dirt.

The crowd of Earth Smashers gasped in collective shock.

Jayden didn’t let up. He rushed forward, perfectly blending his tactical mind with his brawler stats. Whenever the beast threw a devastating haymaker, Jayden would shrink his torso to evade, then rapidly expand his limbs to deliver punishing, heavy-handed counters.

Wham. Crack. Thud.

Jayden’s enlarged fists rained down like artillery shells. He caught the beast with a brutal uppercut to the jaw, followed by a sweeping kick to the knees that brought the giant crashing down.

The leader was bruised, bleeding from its mouth, and panting heavily. The horde in the trees was riled up, shrieking and howling in distress, but true to the laws of the duel, not a single one leaped down to interfere.

Jayden stood over the battered king, his massive hybrid chest heaving. "It’s over! Submit!"

The beast spat a wad of blood onto the grass, glaring up with pure, unadulterated defiance. "Never."

Jayden admired its pride, but the fight had to end. He raised his boulder-sized fist, stepping in to deliver the final knockout blow.

Suddenly, the beast’s eyes glowed with a strange, pale light. It looked dead at Jayden, opened its jaws, and unleashed a roar.

It wasn’t a normal sound. There was no physical shockwave, no shattering of eardrums. Instead, the roar carried a strange, undulating frequency. The air visibly rippled, turning thick and viscous like deep water.

Jayden froze mid-strike. His fist felt as though it had been chained to a mountain. The air grew incredibly heavy, pressing down on his shoulders. Even the surrounding beasts covered their ears, groaning in discomfort.

Jayden braced himself, gritting his teeth. He thought he could wait it out. Afterall the beast would have to stop roaring eventually.

But the roar didn’t stop. It grew louder, higher in pitch.

Suddenly, a profound, sickening emptiness blossomed in Jayden’s core. His knees buckled. It felt as though an invisible siphon had been plunged into his chest, rapidly draining the very life force from his veins. His vision swam with black spots, his hybrid muscles trembling uncontrollably.

And then, he received a shocking notification.

[Stamina: 10/337]

[Alert! Stamina is critically low. Loss of consciousness imminent]

Jayden’s eyes widened. "What?" his mind raced. "How? How can a roar drain my stamina?!"

[Hybrid Transformation will now be deactivated to conserve stamina]

Jayden eyes bulged in horror. "No! Wait—!" Before he could resist, the System forcibly ripped the transformation away. His dense, muscular frame dissolved, shrinking rapidly back down to his lean, human form. And without the stamina to maintain his Size Manipulation, that size boost dropped entirely as well.

He stood there, a normal-sized, utterly exhausted human, swaying on his feet. The beast had possessed a stamina-draining Area-of-Effect ability this entire time.

Just then, the terrifying roar abruptly stopped. Jayden barely had time to look up when a shadow suddenly eclipsed in his view of the sun. The white beast was already in front of him, its massive, scarred fist heading straight for Jayden’s face. But Jayden was far too slow, and too drained to dodge.

The blow connected squarely with his face.

Crunch.

The sound of the impact was sickening. Jayden was launched off his feet like a ragdoll fired from a cannon. He sailed horizontally across the entire length of the clearing, tumbling violently end-over-end before crashing brutally into the dirt and skidding to a halt near the edge of the tree line.

[-120 Hp]

[Host has suffered a critical hit]

A massive chunk of his health points vanished in an instant. Dust settled over his motionless body as the white leader beat its chest, letting out a roar of absolute victory.

It had finally managed to land a hit.

Jayden pushed himself up from the dirt, his head throbbing with a blinding, concussive agony. His vision spun in dizzying circles, and a warm trail of blood trickled down the side of his forehead, dripping off his jaw. That hit had come out of nowhere, packing the force of a truck.

He spat a mouthful of blood and forced his eyes to focus.

Across the clearing, the white Earth Smasher had fully recovered. It beat its chest, let out a terrifying war cry, and charged, its massive fist reeled back for another blow.

Jayden leapt backward, his boots sliding through the grass to put distance between them, but the beast was relentless. It closed the gap in seconds, swinging a fist the size of a boulder directly at his skull.

Jayden gritted his teeth. His stamina was entirely depleted; his transformations, his size manipulation, his elemental attacks—they were all locked out without the stamina needed to utilize them. He was basically defenseless. But there were still two things that didn’t run on his physical stamina: his raw physical strength and his mind.

As the colossal fist descended, Jayden thrust his hand forward and unleashed a concentrated kinetic burst directly against the beast’s knuckles. It wasn’t enough to stop the attack completely, but it violently redirected the momentum, pushing the fist just inches past his ear. Using the opposing kinetic force, Jayden launched himself forward, riding the shockwave to deliver a devastating, raw-strength uppercut directly to the beast’s jaw.

The Smasher stumbled backward, its eyes wide in surprise.

But Jayden wasn’t done. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a jagged, heavy boulder resting at the edge of the clearing. Without missing a beat, he seized it with his telekinesis and violently hurled it across the meadow.

The leader barely had time to recover from the uppercut before it looked up.

CRACK.

The boulder smashed directly into its face, shattering into dust and gravel upon impact. The horrific sound of fracturing bone echoed through the arena as the beast cried out, collapsing onto its back.

Jayden didn’t hesitate. He used another kinetic push to launch himself backward, creating a massive gap between them. Then he dropped to one knee, panting heavily.

"Luna," he gasped mentally. "Have you gotten it?"

[Yes, but you have to confirm the transaction yourself]

Just then the system screen materialized in his vision, displaying the Shop tab.

[Would you like to purchase 5 Stamina Regeneration Serums?]

[Costs 1000 Sp per unit. 5000 Sp in total]

[Confirm Purchase: Yes / No]