Chapter 224: I can help, and you know it!

--Saturday, May 30, 2172

[Pixie-Bob, focus on recovering 100% and stay alert in case Saito or the others need an escape tunnel.] After Tomoko shared the mental image, Shino looked at Ryuko and sent a new telepathic message.

[Understood.] Ryuko quickly responded, also sending a message, but her gaze was fixed in the distance, as if she were trying to see something.

[For now, let's check the boat to see if it's still there.] Shino sent a new message, looking at the dragoness who had landed in the corner of the crater.

[I already saw it, it is there, but it’s in pieces. Looks like the spiders destroyed it while trying to escape.] Ryukyu, who had landed near the edge of the crater, commented via telepathic message. Shino quickly replied seriously.

[Then you focus on recovering too, Ryukyu. It's likely we'll be depending on you to get out of this place.]

[Yes, I will.] Ryukyu responded with a serious tone. After giving one last glance at their surroundings, Shino gave a firm order.

[Let’s start moving.]

Soon, the group of girls began moving across the surface, aiming to reach the coast. But just at that moment, the ground started shaking violently—so much so that it felt like the surface of the sea on a stormy day. Immediately, all the girls tried to lift into the air, but at that instant, a pillar of light shot up into the sky.

Along with the pillar of light, the girls saw thick black lightning bolts shooting out in all directions, accompanied by a crushing pressure that almost made them lose consciousness. As they staggered, dizzy and disoriented, they saw a beam of light shoot down and crash into the ground like a meteorite. But just a few seconds later, the girls realized it wasn’t a meteorite at all.

From the impact crater, a man dressed in armor—broken at the arm and leg—rose into the air, surrounded by thick arcs of jet-black electricity. Instantly afterward, the man shot upward like a bolt of dark purplish light toward the pillar of light, letting out an almost maniacal laugh that echoed across the island, making it tremble violently.

………

Immediately after sending the strange figures that had attacked him flying, Kai launched several flying slashes at them while simultaneously retreating, raising a massive cloud of dust. At the same time, Sage, controlling the hundred swords, unleashed a wild barrage of slashes at all the surrounding ‘voices,’ which grew more numerous with each passing second.

As he stepped back, Kai felt one of the voices suddenly appear behind him, prompting him to look over his shoulder. Raising his right sword over his shoulder, Kai blocked and deflected the spear-like weapon that was attacking him while moving fluidly and spinning around, unleashing a devastating slash with his left sword.

“Electric Slash!!”

Completely caught off guard, the figure took the full force of the impact and was sent flying at high speed, crashing into one of the walls of the massive cave. This caused it to explode into a thousand pieces and triggered a shockwave that violently shook the air.

[Sage, what’s going on with the Haki? The amplification of Conqueror’s Haki is way too much.] As the strange screech shook the cave once again, Kai communicated with his trusty assistant, his tone full of surprise.

[I don’t know, Master.] Sage replied while pointing with her right sword to the right, where many strong ‘voices’ were gathering. [The mini-self’s aura level is the same, but the effects of the Conqueror’s Haki have increased by about 30%.]

Though intrigued by this newfound power, Kai had no time to reflect on it further, as the ‘voice’ he had sent flying reappeared in front of him, and the second was approaching at a speed no less than his own. For some reason, both enemies appeared only as pitch-black humanoids, as if they had been painted in pure black.

Unleashing his Conqueror’s Haki at full power and deeply blending it with his aura—similar to how he had done when healing Edgeshot—Kai engaged in a high-speed exchange of blows with the figures. Using fluid movements powered by his electric aura, Kai defended against and countered the relentless attacks of the black figures.

The high-speed clash caused the air to swirl even more erratically, while brutal explosions shook the cave, shattering nearby structures and hurling massive chunks of rock that obliterated the surrounding spiders—something Sage took advantage of to synchronize the attacks of the swords.

But the more blows they exchanged, the more obvious something became to Kai: the figures had almost no technique. Their movements were far too simple, relying mainly on brute strength and speed—a performance several levels below that of the male Drider, who had actually seemed like an experienced fighter.

But even though their technique was pathetic, the two figures shared something with the male Drider: aside from their super speed and strength—comparable to All Might’s—they also seemed to possess that strange internal destruction ability. Something that felt almost like a crude imitation of his advanced Armament Haki.

Having fully assessed the figures’ skill level, Kai changed tactics. Deflecting an attack from the figure that seemed to teleport by swinging it over his shoulder, Kai caused its spear to clash with the spear of the second one attacking from behind. In that instant, Kai used his right sword—still blocking the first figure’s spear—to drive both weapons downward as he spun, all in one fluid motion.

“Electric Slash!!”

Mid-spin, Kai shouted powerfully as he unleashed two dark flying slashes, crackling with electricity. They struck the figures head-on, sending them flying with such force they broke the sound barrier. Upon landing, Kai stomped the ground hard and shot toward the central pyramid at terrifying speed—prompting a chilling howl to echo once more through the cave, though this time it sounded desperate.

[Don’t come any closer!!!]

Using his aura to hold his ground against the hurricane-force winds tearing through the cave—so powerful they sent multi-ton boulders flying like paper—Kai advanced, surrounded by purple electricity. But suddenly, he sensed something strange: the ‘voices’ he had previously knocked away were becoming erratic, though their strength didn’t seem to change.

With a serious expression, Kai came to a halt, and as his body continued to move forward from inertia, he turned and unleashed a powerful counter-slash behind him. Almost in perfect sync, two spears—moving faster than the speed of sound—collided with the slash and were sent flying backward. But Kai’s expression didn’t ease.

Suddenly, one of the dark figures materialized in midair, catching both spears, then threw one toward the ground. But strangely, like some kind of shell, the dark figure in the air began to crack and dissolve, revealing a pale, coarse grayish skin covered in long, twisted hair. At that moment, the second figure—moving at high speed—caught the spear the other had just thrown.

Soon, in front of Kai appeared what looked like two monsters—twisted hybrids between humans and spiders. The one who could teleport resembled a human with spider-like mandibles and six red eyes, with gray skin covered in hair reminiscent of a spider’s, along with unusually long arms and fingers.

Meanwhile, the second one looked more like a humanoid insect, with double-jointed, backward-bending legs, three long claws on each hand, and skin that resembled an exoskeleton. Additionally, the strange creature had a head that looked like a deformed version of a spider’s, very different from the other one, whose face resembled a human's but with spider eyes and mandibles.

Before Kai could fully take in the details of the horrifying figures, they shot toward him at high speed with their spears aimed at him. Extending his sword forward, Kai entwined the tip of it with the humanoid insect’s spear, attempting to deflect it.

But to his surprise, at that moment he felt the intentions of the ‘voice’ become complex, momentarily throwing him off. This lapse allowed the monster to apply enough force to knock his hand aside, creating a huge opening that the second monster—the ‘spider-human’—immediately took advantage of.

Materializing in front of Kai, the spider-human swiftly thrust its spear straight at his heart. At the same time, the screech echoed through the cave once more, but this time it was filled with equal parts apprehension and rage, along with a hint of hope.

[You must die!!!]

Along with the meaning of the screech, an image appeared in Kai’s mind—a vision of the future in which he was impaled by four dark web-spears with points of light that appeared from nowhere, followed by being decapitated by the monsters standing before him.

With a thought, Kai teleported, using one of the swords he had randomly chosen as an anchor—but to his shock, a nearly identical vision appeared in his mind again, only the location was different.

Opening his eyes in disbelief, Kai quickly teleported to a new sword—randomly chosen from the nearly one hundred Sage controlled—but once again, the image of himself impaled and decapitated appeared in his mind. With a dark expression, he teleported again, but nothing changed. The spider had even managed to counter his teleportation.

………

Using his Quirk to stretch his body, Edgeshot advanced through the tunnel, which trembled slightly, weaving through the spiders that had managed to escape the powerful assaults of All Might and Chatora, who were moving ahead of him.

But internally, the ninja hero felt increasingly solemn. After all, the further he moved through the tunnel, the heavier and slower his body felt—almost as if it were screaming at him to run away.

But aside from that strange sense of foreboding, as he continued forward, Edgeshot noticed that the trembling in the tunnel was intensifying—rapidly reaching the level of a moderate earthquake. A clear sign that the battle taking place ahead was of cataclysmic proportions.

Suddenly, a brutal cannon-like blast of air nearly sent the ninja hero flying, but he quickly managed to stabilize himself by throwing himself against one of the walls.

After a few seconds, the hurricane-force wind died down enough that Edgeshot no longer needed to cling to the wall. At that moment, All Might’s serious voice echoed through the tunnel.

“Let’s move!”

All Might quickly took the lead, rushing forward at full speed, followed closely by Chatora and Kamui Woods—who was riding on the back of the strange brown panther. Edgeshot elongated his body and launched himself after his teammates.

Soon, the team saw that the tunnel they were in intersected with another one—just as a new blast of air struck them head-on. But they all noticed that the air was coming from the intersecting tunnel.

Once the gust settled, All Might immediately jumped into the second tunnel, with the others following right behind. After a few more hurricane-like bursts, the group finally began to see flashes of dark purple lightning in the distance—and they quickly followed them.

But along with the lightning, the team felt an overwhelming pressure, as if something were trying to crush the air from their lungs and slam them into the ground in total submission.

The pressure made Edgeshot feel as if he were running straight into the lair of a terrifying beast. A primal fear took hold of him, causing his entire elongated body to bristle uncontrollably. It seemed the spiders couldn’t withstand it either, as nearly all of them were either dead or unconscious, swept away by the hurricane-force winds.

“Sage! Let me through! I can help, and you know it!!”

Soon, the group spotted a massive, dark pit in the distance. But at that moment, Chatora’s serious and almost urgent voice rang out in the tunnel. With confused expressions, everyone turned to look at him—only to see his fists clenched tightly, full of frustration and helplessness.

All Might was about to ask what was going on, but before he could speak, Chatora looked at them and spoke with a voice filled with urgency.

“Move quickly! Something serious is happening!”

Without another word, Chatora leapt directly into the tunnel, his heart heavy. He was closely followed by All Might, whose face had turned solemn.

As soon as he entered the tunnel, Chatora heard Sage’s voice warning him that she had orders to send him away if he took one more step forward. Growing impatient and desperate, Chatora tried to plead with the fairy, knowing it was pointless—Sage would never disobey Kai’s orders.

But to his surprise, after a few moments, Sage agreed to let it go in a heavy tone, while also warning him to keep his Accomplice summoned. Something like this was almost unheard of—for Sage, Kai’s words were law, and there was only one thing that came to Chatora’s mind that could make the fairy ignore them: Kai’s life was in danger.

…

Jumping into the well, Edgeshot soon reached the bottom, allowing him to witness a scene he would probably never forget. Over an ancient city with a stepped pyramid at its center, dark and whitish lightning bolts could be seen spreading in all directions.

At the same time, what appeared to be blurry humanoid figures were moving everywhere at impossible speeds. The figures collided with such overwhelming force that their clashes caused explosions and tremors that threatened to collapse the cave.

(How can anyone be this powerful…?)

The ninja hero could only stare wide-eyed at the scene before him. Such colossal, soul-crushing power was something that should belong only to the greatest hero—the one and only Symbol of Peace, All Might. And yet, here was someone he had never even heard of, unleashing a power that perhaps even surpassed that of Japan’s brightest star and strongest pillar of justice.

That revelation caused a tight knot of uncertainty to form in the ninja hero’s chest about what the future might hold. But at that very moment, Edgeshot felt all his instincts scream at once—so loudly that time itself seemed to slow. His mind dulled, and brief flashes of his life began to flicker before his eyes. He didn’t understand how or why, but it felt like the end had come.

“Get down!”

At that moment, Edgeshot heard All Might’s firm voice, and almost instinctively, he threw himself to the ground. Just then, a brutal explosion went off behind him, sending him flying through the air uncontrollably. But before he could be flung too far, Edgeshot felt a strong hand grab his arm midair. He quickly turned to look—and saw the outstretched arm of Tiger, stretched like rubber.

………

Although the spider seemed to have found a way to counter his teleportation, Kai discovered that it wasn’t perfect. There was a slight delay—anywhere from a few milliseconds to a full second. That was more than enough time for him to jump to another sword and avoid immediate danger, though at the relatively high cost of aura. Each teleportation consumed nearly 1% of his total aura per use.

But the problem was that he wasn’t alone. There were those humanoid spider-monsters, who—after shedding that dark ‘shell’—began launching complex and precise attacks, like seasoned warriors. On top of that, there were still spiders that managed to resist the effects of Conqueror’s Haki and survive Sage’s relentless assault with the swords, attacking him the moment they had even the slightest opportunity.

The strain of teleportation, combined with his ongoing clashes with the spider-monsters and Sage’s unrelenting sword assault, was draining Kai at a terrifying rate. So much so that his vast reserves of Haki and Aura could be completely depleted in less than five minutes. It was enough to cast a dark expression over Sage’s beautiful face.

Even though the lovely fairy knew her master still had a trump card—Inverse Flow, a technique that would give him five minutes of unlimited aura—and from what it seemed, Haki was now also affected by that ability. Still, it was clear that unless they uncovered the secret behind the web-spears, even if he had a full hour, the only outcomes left were death… or retreat.

Because of this, Sage—amid her relentless assault in all directions, trying to thin out the seemingly endless swarm of spiders—pushed AP Field to its maximum capacity, determined to figure out how the spears worked. But even though it was obvious that those web-spears must function like conditional webs, she couldn’t identify anything consistent among the attacks and future-vision projections—except one thing: her master wasn’t a spider.

Reaching the worst possible conclusion, Sage realized that retreat might be their only option. But she also knew her master wouldn’t agree. The “mother” spider—the one controlling the others—had its own consciousness, and just those two humanoid spider-monsters alone were more than enough to erase someone like All Might from existence. If they didn’t eliminate everything here and now, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Worse still, the Pussycats were still on the island. If the spider monsters made it out of the cave, they would be in serious danger. But at the same time, they were too far away for her to reach them and use Accompany to send them to safety—and using the final ability of the Accomplices would drain her master so heavily that it would force him to activate Inverse Flow, effectively condemning him to finish everything within five minutes… because five days of total inactivity afterward could prove fatal.

While Sage wrestled with what she should do, a dark expression shadowing her beautiful face, she suddenly sensed that Chatora had gotten closer than he should have. Not wanting to drain any more of her master’s aura, Sage chose to interpret his orders a bit more freely and quickly sent a message to Chatora’s armor.

[Chatora, don’t come any closer. I have orders to send you away if you take even one more step.]

[Sage! Let me through! I can help, and you know it!!]

***

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