Darius noticed that time began to return to its usual speed. He cut his train of thought and decided to investigate later, for he had gleaned a single clue from everything he had heard and experienced so far.

He shifted his attention back to the fight, just in time to see Gunner leap into the sky and crush the Ogre into the earth with his knees. Like a beast, his Branded Servant began punching the back of the Ogre's head in with a shocking amount of force.

Darius paused as he opted to watch Gunner fight instead of outright interfering. A part of him didn't want to believe it, but it appeared as if Gunner might be able to kill a monster 7 levels higher than himself on his own.

Darius felt that it should be impossible, but he also felt it was logical. The reason he himself could not achieve such results at Gunner's level was because of the single fact Caesar had highlighted when Darius first awoke in this world.

No matter how talented, handsome, or witty Darius thought he was, at the end of the day, his talents were tied to mercantilism. His genius revolved around mercantile concepts and his charisma shone in negotiations. In every other situation, he was just another 70+-year-old man at best.

Especially combat. Caesar had bluntly put it that the transmigrator would struggle to become combat-capable before the Journeyman stage, which would have been true had he not lucked out with Transmutation and created various things to assist him.

Darius only cheaped out by learning skills easily through skillbooks. Alas without skill points, those skills would stagnate forever, not to mention that they were all at the basic stage because of his low CP threshold per day.

In contrast, Gunner was half-giant that was born with better stats than Darius, whose talent for combat far surpassed his master due to Giant's bloodline. According to the system, it was even royal blood!

[Single-headed Ogre - Level 7 Monster

HP: 98/125 MP: 14/14]

Gunner was seriously laying down the hurt on the monster with his never-ending punches. Even Darius began to grimace at his brutality, imagining himself trapped beneath the half-giant lad while he rampaged.

However, at the end of the day, the Ogre was still a level 8 monster. Despite its dizziness, it pressed its arms to the ground and pushed its torso up forcefully with all its strength.

This tossed Gunner off its back and made him roll and crouch like a beast, his expression locked into the rictus of a snarl. His green eyes glowed with brutality like a shark that had been triggered by the smell of blood.

The Vanguard didn't give the Ogre much time to gather its bearings as he charged at it once again, bringing his shoulder forward as the focus of his momentum.

The Single-headed Ogre roared in a mixture of anger as well as disgruntlement as it noticed the Branded Servant's charge, then swung its club to meet the lad's assault. Here, Gunner's weakness showed, which was his poor Agility.

He was unable to alter his trajectory as he had put too much force into the charge. As such, his torso was struck by the barrel of the club, sending the lad flying into a nearby tree. Not only did Gunner crash into it, he even broke through.

Darius' face became grim as he planned to quickly heal his Branded Servant in case the lad was crippled, but was shocked to hear him roar and smash what remained of the tree aside as he glared at the Ogre with the light of madness in his eyes.

A strange greenish energy coiled around Gunner the longer he roared and even Darius felt pressured by the power he was generating. Confused as to what was going on with that, he checked Gunner's status.

His eyes widened when he saw that the half-giant had somehow gained a new skill called 'Earth's Guardian'. Upon inspecting the skill, Darius understood what was going on.

From the description given, Earth's Guardian was a skill exclusive to the royal family of the Giants, who had been blessed by Gaia as her protectors on the surface. They had been blessed to have increased defense, offense, and magical resistance, yet poor speed.

It would explain why Gunner's starting stats had been so high in those categories, as it was purely a racial thing.

However, the idea that Branded Servants could auto-learn and retain racial skills even after been overwritten by the Supreme System gave Darius many ideas for the future.

As for Gunner, he charged at the Ogre once more, who roared back in defiance. It activated one of its skills, 'Grapple'. It rushed to meet the lad to take him into a grapple hold, which Gunner mimicked as both fighters clashed in the center of the clearing.

The two struggled to overpower the other as they shifted about and struggled while locked in the hold, but Gunner was slowly losing ground. After all, he only had 12 points of Strength while the Ogre had 13, which was just enough to give it the advantage.

However, the green energy surrounding Gunner became more intense and began entering his body slowly, making his skin start to glow in the same color.

The more energy entered the lad, the more of an advantage he gained over the Single-headed Ogre, that was now sweating and screaming at Gunner.

The Vanguard wasn't done, as he suddenly absorbed all the greenish energy at once and channeled it into his arms.

To the horror of the onlooking Darius, Gunner smiled menacingly and roared in dominance before he raised his left leg and braced it against the chest of the Ogre, using his newfound strength to rip the arms of the monster right from their sockets!

The half-giant wasn't done yet, as he used both arms like a club to beat and brutalize the now dis-armed Ogre to its knees.

Darius could only watch on in a mixture of dismay and morbid fascination as his Branded Servant beat the life out of the monster until its body was no longer recognizable before he stopped.

Bloody and panting like a beast, Gunner turned and glared at Darius.