Before Zehn transformed, just when Lucen appeared before him, Alexander and the others were also battling against the vermillion Kobolds and Zehn's men.

Ryan and Nina were having a bit of difficulty facing even a single Vermillion Kobold, but Alexander and Mina were different.

If they had faced off against the Vermillion Kobolds before they experienced the fight against the Gravebacks, they might have been in a somewhat similar situation to Ryan and Nina. But because of their experience, they were able to hold their own against even two Vermillion Kobolds.

On the other hand, Cael, who was the same age as them, was not only able to deal with several of the Vermillion Kobolds but also Zehn's men, who were giving support fire with relative ease.

His expression did not change even once. Cael's face remained as calm and unreadable as ever, as though he were not in the middle of a chaotic battle in a narrow alley, but merely going through a routine drill. His longsword moved in clean, efficient arcs, with not a single wasted motion.

One vermillion kobold rushed him from the front, standing upright like a man, its armored body leaning forward with frightening speed.

Its clawed hand tore through the air toward his face while its jaws opened wide, ready to bite if the slash failed.

Cael stepped aside by the smallest margin and brought his blade down in one sharp motion. Steel scraped against armor before the edge bit into the gap near the shoulder.

A second kobold came in immediately after, clearly used to fighting alongside the first. Unlike normal monsters, these ones did not simply throw themselves forward wildly.

They attacked with coordination, using their armored bodies to pressure their target while Zehn's men looked for chances to strike from behind.

One of those men thrust a spear toward Cael's side at the exact moment the second kobold lunged low. Cael's icy blue eyes did not waver.

He shifted his footing, let the kobold's claws scrape harmlessly past him, and turned his longsword just enough to knock the spear away. Then, in the same motion, he slashed across the man's forearm and forced him back.

If Cael's fighting was like a dance, on the other side of the battlefield was simply chaotic. Robert was using his battle alchemy and refining it as he continued to fight.

Unlike the older alchemists who preferred to rely on spells or prepared vials, Robert was directly altering the battlefield itself with every touch, every gesture, and every burst of mana.

The stones beneath one vermillion kobold suddenly rose into jagged spikes that forced it to twist away. Before it could even recover, the wall beside it rippled and folded inward like soft clay, slamming into its armored body and pinning it for a brief moment.

Robert's amber eyes were shining with dangerous excitement behind his spectacles.

"Hoh... So it can be done this quickly in a real fight. Then if I alter the density here, and the shaping speed there..." he muttered to himself.

One of Zehn's men rushed him from behind, perhaps thinking that the alchemist was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice.

The instant the thug's foot came down, the ground beneath him softened and swallowed his leg up to the knee.

The man cried out in alarm, and Robert turned with almost childish curiosity. "I guess this can also be done."

The next instant, he flicked two fingers upward. The softened ground around the trapped thug rippled violently. Then, from directly beneath the man's other foot, a thick stone spike shot upward like a spear.

The thug's eyes widened in horror. He instinctively twisted his body at the last moment, which saved him from being skewered through the chest, but the transmuted spear still tore through his thigh and sent him spinning sideways with a scream.

Robert's eyes lit up even more. "Well, even made of stone, the narrow shape made it able to pierce rather nicely. Then if I reduce the mass and focus it into a single point..."

He pressed his palm against the alley floor again. This time, three thin stone lances burst upward in quick succession beneath the vermillion kobold that had just ripped itself free from the wall.

The armored creature twisted with surprising speed, avoiding two of them, but the third punched into the gap under its arm and drew a burst of dark blood.

The vermillion kobold let out a furious shriek and lunged at Robert with both claws raised. Instead of retreating, Robert calmly stepped to the side and snapped his fingers.

The stone spear that had pierced the kobold suddenly bent in the middle like soft metal, dragging the creature's body off balance. At that same moment, the ground beneath its feet rose sharply into a slanted ridge.

The kobold stumbled. Robert couldn't help but show his manic smile as he was having fun experimenting with this new way. He had now figured out how to fight using nothing but transmutation.

The mana needed to do transmutation depended on how complicated the materials used and the form he wished to create.

There was also a matter of the speed at which he needed to calculate certain things to be able to transform them into a shape he liked.

The mana used was quite large compared to if he used a spell that had similar effects, but with Robert's calculating power, the speed at which he uses transmutation is faster than most spells.

There was also the fact that transmutation had more versatility, especially even after he had already used it on one thing, he could change and control that thing mid-fight.

"This is much more fun than expected."

***

Even though Cael and Robert were doing most of the heavy lifting, Alexander was doing something even more amazing.

Alexander's movements were becoming more efficient; he was even trying to copy the Unbound Demonic Stride Lucen used a while ago.

Surprisingly enough, he was able to replicate it to some extent, but he could not grasp the entire essence of the movement from that one time he saw it; still, that was enough, as he implemented his own understanding into the movement and made it his own.

It was rougher than Lucen's movements. There were no afterimages, no overwhelming illusion that made one doubt what was real and what was false.

Alexander's version was simpler, more direct, and far less refined. Yet even so, there was something undeniable about it; it was what fit him.

Instead of becoming difficult to read like Lucen, Alexander used the movement to close the distance in a way that felt straightforward and relentless, like a man who had already decided where he needed to go and would not stop until he got there.

One of the vermillion kobolds suddenly broke away from the clash near Robert and rushed straight toward Ryan.

Ryan had only just forced back one of Zehn's men with a cross slash from his dual short swords when he noticed the monster coming for him. His eyes widened. He barely managed to raise both blades in time.

The kobold's claws crashed against his crossed short swords with enough force to make his arms shudder. Ryan was pushed half a step back, then another.

Before he could recover, the vermillion kobold opened its jaws and lunged again, clearly intending to tear through his throat while he was off balance. Alexander saw what was about to happen.

He had been in the middle of exchanging blows with another vermillion kobold when his eyes shifted toward Ryan. There was no hesitation at all.

The moment he realized someone was in danger, Alexander abandoned his own advantage and moved.

His footing changed at once. Aura surged through his body, and he shot forward using that incomplete yet rapidly improving movement technique.

This movement technique, born from what he had seen from Lucen, was something that truly fit a hero like Alexander. It carried him in the straightest possible line toward the place where he was needed most.

The vermillion kobold's fangs were already inches away from Ryan when Alexander's sword slammed into its side and sent it flying across the alley.

Ryan stumbled backward and nearly fell. He stared in shock for a brief second before looking at Alexander's back.

Alexander did not even turn around immediately. He simply stood between Ryan and the monster, sword raised, as though protecting others was the most natural thing in the world.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No, I'm alright... Thanks," Ryan replied.

Even after nearly having his throat torn open, there was still that strangely easy tone in his voice, as though he had merely tripped during training instead of coming within a finger's breadth of death. "You really have good timing, Alex. I was just about to do something cool."

Alexander glanced back for only a brief moment. There was no amusement on his face, but there was no frustration either. He simply gave a small nod, as if Ryan's words were completely normal.

"Then do the cool thing after you steady yourself," Alexander said.

Ryan blinked once, then unexpectedly laughed, "You're right. That's what I'll do."

After speaking with Ryan, Alexander once again moved. As he saw Nina, who was also struggling to fight a Vermillion Kobold and one of Zehn's henchmen.

He did not move toward glory, nor toward the strongest enemy, but toward the person who needed him most. That was why Alexander was different.

Seeing that, Ryan could not help but smile as he was gaining some understanding of Alexander.

"Yeah," he muttered under his breath, tightening his grip on his blades. "Guess I really did end up in quite the interesting group."

As Alexander moved again, Ryan followed without hesitation.