Chapter 273

Chapter 273: 273

Neo left the cave entrance behind him and turned to face what was coming. The five women with him each took a spear in hand. Sai, Alvina, Luna, Martha, and Sakura raised their weapons and poured mana into the shafts. The wood and metal began to glow with steady light as the power built. Neo did the same. He felt the mana race along the length of his own spear until the tip hummed with force. He looked across the group and saw that every woman had a way to defend herself—except Sakura. She stood a half-step back, empty-handed, her eyes fixed on the dark ahead.

Neo pulled his charged spear free and threw it to her in a clean, hard arc.

"Use this," he said. "Defend yourself."

Sakura caught the weapon. The weight settled into her hands. She gave him a short nod and shifted her stance.

Neo clenched a fresh spear and faced the darkness. From the deep black a wave of green monsters poured forward. They came in every size and shape. Some ran low on four legs like wolves with too many joints. Some stood tall on two legs with long arms that ended in curved claws. Some dragged heavy tails that left wet trails on the ground. Wings beat the air on others. Abilities flashed across their bodies—acid dripping from jaws, sudden bursts of speed, hides that thickened like stone. The mass of them hit the five women at once.

Neo watched who held and who bent. Sai planted her feet wide and met the first rush with sharp, precise thrusts. Her spear never wavered. Each strike found a throat or eye. Alvina moved like water, sliding aside at the last moment and driving her point home only when the opening appeared. Luna stayed low and steady. Her strikes were short and hard, knocking beasts back one after another so the ones behind tripped over the fallen. Those three held their ground.

Martha and Sakura struggled. The weight of the monsters pushed them step by step. Martha’s arms shook with every block. Sweat ran down the side of her face and soaked the collar of her clothes. Sakura’s borrowed spear trembled each time she caught a claw or shoulder. Yet neither of them broke. They kept their positions even as the line slowly bent backward under the press of bodies.

Neo fought beside them. He drove his spear through chests and throats, twisted, and pulled free. The air filled with the wet sound of steel meeting flesh and the high screech of dying beasts. He kept one eye on the women at all times. The three stronger ones pushed monsters away and tried to ease the pressure on Martha and Sakura. Still the whole line slid back, slow but steady. Neo’s own muscles burned under the work. His broad shoulders flexed with every thrust. Thick cords of muscle stood out along his arms. His legs stayed planted and strong even when three beasts slammed into him at once. Sweat ran down the hard planes of his chest and the heavy lines of his thighs.

Then he saw the ones that hurt them most. Certain monsters carried a purple liquid on their skin. It oozed from their pores and coated their claws and teeth. When any weapon touched that liquid the steel hissed and began to melt. Neo stopped for a single breath and rubbed his chin. He needed a plan that would not cost them their weapons.

He tested one idea first. He sent thin threads of mana into the bodies of the nearest poison beasts. When the purple liquid met fire it ignited at once. The monsters burned. Flames raced across their skins and they screamed as they died. The plan worked—until Neo saw the danger clear as day. If every poison beast caught fire and kept charging forward, the flames would reach his women. The fire would hurt them more than the claws ever could.

A better idea formed in his mind. Neo pulled fifty spears from his storage in one smooth motion. He coated each tip with paralyzing poison, then wrapped the shafts in pyro mana so the fire would light only after the spear struck home. When a monster took one of these spears it would freeze in place and burn where it stood. No moving fire. No risk to the line.

He turned to the five women and spoke clear and fast so every word cut through the noise of the fight.

"Listen. These ones have no fixed shape. Sometimes they look like animals. Sometimes they feel dragonic. Sometimes they carry a demonic aura around them. All of them share the purple poison skin. That poison melts metal on contact. And they fixate on the color red. They will come hardest at anything red."

He handed each woman five of the prepared spears.

"Throw these at the purple ones. They will lock up and burn in place. Do not let the fire spread to you."

Neo activated Torch Man mode. Heat rolled off his skin in visible waves. The air around him shimmered. He launched forward into the densest part of the swarm, flying as deep as he could get. He hunted the poison beasts first, driving the special spears through their bodies so they froze mid-charge and burned where they stood. Any monster that slipped past him ran straight into the women’s spears. He trusted them to finish what he started.

He kept hunting. Every type of monster fell under his hands. Claws scraped across the hard muscle of his arms and left shallow cuts that welled with blood. Teeth snapped at his legs and found only solid strength. Sweat poured down the broad lines of his shoulders and the thick columns of his thighs. His breath stayed steady. He killed and kept killing until the numbers around him thinned.

Then he saw the strange thing. All the monsters poured from one single hole in the ground. They came without end, a living river of green flesh and purple poison. Blocking the hole with stone would do nothing; more would simply dig around it or climb over the barrier. Neo scrolled through his inventory until he found a teleportation skill array. One person could place it on the ground in front of the cave. When the monsters rushed in and dropped into the hole they would be teleported toward a volcano.