---
Kai's left hand shot out. He caught the shaft, yanked the man forward, and slammed his mandibles down, not to eat but to crush. The captain's throat vanished in a burst of blood and cartilage. Kai spat the ruined metal aside.
Around him, men tried to close, to smother him under weight. The ramp became a knot, enemy bodies pressing in, shields shoving from all sides.
He let them.
Apex Plus was made for press.
He sank his stance low, legs spread, tail-plates locking, and began to turn.
The spear became a pole of rotating death. Every time it passed a body, something broke. A forearm snapped. A thigh bone cracked with a sound like splitting wood. A helm crumpled under a short, precise, piston-like jab. When the spear's arc was blocked, he did not insist. He shifted grip and drove his free claws into whoever had dared to hold it, fingers crushing through layered reed and metal to find ribs and twist.
