Alexander did not understand it, but for some reason, fighting side by side with everyone felt somewhat nostalgic, even though this was their first time fighting together.

Not to mention the more they fought and the more their synergy increased, it also felt like he himself was getting stronger.

Alexander could feel it in his very soul; these people fighting with him were people he could entrust his life to.

It was a rather strange feeling. Except for Mina, he had only met the others just recently. Yet, the moment he moved, they moved with him.

He only needed to say a few words, and they already knew what to do. It wasn’t just him; the others could feel it too.

Under Alexander’s lead, they were able to move far better than they could ever do by themselves. It wasn’t just a one plus one equals two situation; it felt more than that.

Dyr’s cleaver came crashing down toward them with enough force to split the stone road apart. Alexander stepped forward first, his broadsword raised with both hands.

He did not try to stop the blow head-on. He already knew that such a thing would be impossible with his current strength. Instead, he tilted his blade and shifted the force aside.

The cleaver scraped against his broadsword, sparks bursting in front of his eyes as the weight of the strike pushed down on him. His arms screamed, and his feet dug into the broken stone beneath him, but before the pressure could crush him, Cael moved.

Cael’s longsword struck the side of the cleaver at the exact point Alexander had guided it toward. The impact was clean, precise, and without a single wasted motion. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The cleaver’s path shifted just enough to miss Alexander completely and crash into the street beside him. Stone exploded upward, but Alexander was already moving through the dust.

"Nina!"

Alexander shouted, and Nina, who was wrapped in her aura mantle that was like lightning, made a move.

Her figure shot forward in a sharp line. Unlike Alexander, whose movement carried a straightforward force, and unlike Cael, whose swordsmanship was silent and precise, Nina’s attack was elegant and piercing.

Her rapier did not aim for Dyr’s thick body. It did not aim for the crude armor covering its chest or the monstrous muscle bulging beneath its skin.

She aimed for the snake head. The snake head, which had been hissing toward Mina, noticed the danger and twisted away at once. Its long neck bent unnaturally, avoiding the first thrust by a narrow margin.

However, Nina had already expected that. Her rapier changed direction in the middle of the attack, the tip flashing like a silver bolt beneath the morning sun.

The blade pierced through the side of the snake neck, not deep enough to kill it, but enough to make the creature recoil violently.

Dyr roared in anger. The lion head turned toward Nina, and the massive cleaver in its hand swept sideways.

Nina did not hesitate. She pulled her rapier free and stepped back just as the cleaver tore through the air where her body had been.

The wind from the swing alone made her hair and dress flutter violently. Before Dyr could follow up, Ryan rushed in from the side.

"Hey, big guy! Three heads and you still can’t keep up?"

Ryan’s voice was light, almost playful, but his movements were not careless. His twin short swords flashed as he slid low and slashed at the back of Dyr’s leg.

The blades scraped against hardened flesh and armor before finding a shallow gap near the joint. This move momentarily staggered Dyr.

But only for a moment. The ram head tried to smash its horns at Ryan, who was caught a little by surprise as he tried backing away, but he was not fast enough. It was Nina, who was the fastest among them, who was able to push him away from danger.

"That was a close one." Despite almost getting a hole in his stomach from the ram’s horns, Ryan remained at ease.

"Don’t lose focus," Nina said as she was looking for her next chance to strike.

Ryan rolled his shoulders and tightened his grip on his twin short swords. "I am focused. It’s just that his three heads are very distracting."

Before Nina could respond, Dyr moved again. This time, it did not simply swing its weapons wildly.

The lion head roared, the ram head lowered, and the snake head rose high above them, its long neck coiling like a whip ready to strike. Alexander’s eyes narrowed.

"Its rhythm has changed."

Cael was a little surprised that Alexander was able to see through that with just subtle movements of Dyr.

He was also surprised by how Alexander was moving. He was very different from the last time he saw him during the entrance examinations.

Not only that, Alexander from that time was only at the first mantle, but after just a few weeks, he was now at the second mantle. There was also the fact that he was getting much sharper as the battle continued.

’This is the first time after Big Brother that I have met someone who could improve like this.’

Cael’s icy blue eyes remained on Dyr, but a small part of his attention stayed on Alexander. He wanted to see more of the other party; he wanted to see how far his sword path could reach compared to his.

Cael’s thoughts were disrupted. The monster suddenly slammed its spiked mace into the ground.

The impact sent a violent tremor through the broken street, and jagged cracks spread outward beneath their feet.

"Jump!" Alexander shouted as he jumped.

Mina thrust the butt of her spear against the ground and lifted herself just enough to avoid the worst of the tremor.

Nina’s aura flashed like lightning as she stepped across a falling chunk of stone and landed lightly on the other side.

Ryan stumbled but managed to leap backward at the last moment, his twin short swords crossing in front of him as bits of stone struck against the blades.

Cael moved the least. He simply shifted one step to the side, found the narrowest stable piece of ground, and stood there without much of a reaction.

Alexander landed heavily, his knees bending under the force, but his eyes never left Dyr. The moment the shockwave passed, Dyr’s snake head struck. Like a spear, jaws wide, aiming straight for Mina as she landed on the ground.

Mina pushed her body to the side using her spear, and then, with a quick reaction, spun her body and spear to counter.

The spearhead flashed upward and struck the snake head beneath its jaw.

It was not enough to pierce deeply, but it forced the snake head upward, making its fangs snap shut on empty air.

The sound of its jaws closing was sharp and ugly, and Mina knew that if she had been even a fraction slower, her shoulder would have been torn apart.

She landed and immediately retreated two steps, but Dyr did not allow her to breathe.

The snake head twisted in midair, its long neck bending with impossible flexibility as it struck again from a different angle.

Yet this time, Alexander had already arrived and attacked the neck of the snake. As Alexander’s blade had slashed downward, the snake head could not evade this strike. Dyr used its mace to stop Alexander.

But Cael, Nina, Ryan, and even Mina moved to block the attack together. The impact forced them back, their feet scraping across the broken stone, but the mace could not break through.

Using the time given to him, Alexander was able to cut off Dyr’s snake head. The snake head fell to the broken street with a wet, heavy sound.

Dyr stopped moving, and an intense killing intent assaulted Alexander’s group. Dyr’s remaining heads let out a roar that shook the entire street.

The lion head howled with rage while the ram head thrashed violently, smashing its horns against the air as if trying to destroy anything within reach.

Dark red veins pulsed across Dyr’s body, brighter than before, crawling beneath its flesh like burning roots.

"Dodge!" Alexander shouted.

Dyr went berserk. The massive cleaver swept across the street in a wide arc, no longer aimed with any sense of technique.

It simply tore through everything. Stone walls, broken carts, iron fences, and debris were all smashed apart as the blade passed through them.

Alexander barely ducked beneath the swing, feeling the wind tear across his back like a whip.

Nina moved with a flash of lightning, evading the strike. Mina pushed herself backward, evading as well. Ryan did the same thing. As for Cael, he had already stepped away from Dyr’s attack range the second Alexander cut off the Dyr’s snake head.

"Okay," Ryan said, his smile finally looking a little strained. "It really did not like that."

***

Lucen’s group, who had just finished killing the red ogres, wanted to help Alexander’s group, but Lucen stopped them, saying this was their fight.

So right now, Thornefang, the Royal knights, the Tower Mages, and the Iron Wolves were simply spectating the battle.

"Sir Lucen, are you really not going to help them?" One of the knights asked.

"As I said before, this is their battle. Surely none of you will bring dishonor to them as warriors by interfering?"

The royal knight who had spoken stiffened at those words. His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword, but he could not immediately refute what Lucen said.

They were young, yes. Too young to be standing in front of a monster like that. But they were also warriors of Norvaegard.

To step in when they had not yet fallen, when they were still fighting with their own will, would indeed be an insult to their resolve. Seeing his reaction, Lucen spoke with a confident smile.

"Do not worry, if it seems that their lives are truly in danger, I will make a move."

After saying that, Lucen once again focused his attention on the battle between the boss monster Dyr and Alexander’s party.