The monster roared furiously, its huge body clumsily turning in place and raking at the air. Its speed simply couldn't keep up and was instead being dragged slightly off balance.
The dark-red energy flowing over its body writhed like a nest of maddened pythons, surging around as if trying to judge on its own where Saitama's real attack would land.
Instead, that only caused brief local stalls in its energy allocation—
And that was exactly the opening Natasha had been waiting for.
"Attacks are working! Its energy flow is locally disrupted! The target is tracking Saitama's movements!" Natasha's voice was low, tense, but tinged with excitement. "The core node's energy reaction is flaring—it's confirmed! Right at the spot where the top of the shoulder blade connects to the cervical spine! The dark-red glow is the densest there!"
Like a curse that refused to let go, she had already used the distraction from Saitama's insane speed to sneak up behind cover close enough to clearly see the monster's back.
"Right now, Clint!" Steve bellowed.
He himself did not rush the monster's main body. Instead, he seized on a fleeting opening and hurled his vibranium shield with all his strength.
This time, his target wasn't to attack—
It was to jam.
Whoosh—!
The shield sliced through the burning air like a spinning blue full moon, carrying tremendous kinetic force. It slotted with surgical precision right into the crook of the monster's right forelimb—the joint between the massive claw it had just lifted to sweep to the right and the arm itself!
The shield's edge bit deep into the gap between bone armor and muscle.
It couldn't truly injure the creature, but the torque of the spinning shield and that split-second of jamming made the monster's entire right arm jerk to a halt mid-swing!
"Hit!"
Almost in the same instant the shield wedged into the joint, Clint loosed his first arrow from high above!
He didn't shoot the monster—
He shot the ground at its feet.
Thud!
The arrow struck the ground half a meter in front of the monster's left foot. The spiral mechanism at its tip spun up at high speed, drilling into the earth.
A mass of ultra-viscous, near-instant-curing synthetic gel erupted from the ground like a volcano!
The monster was caught completely off guard. When its raised left foot came down, it stepped directly into a huge, rapidly solidifying blob of "super glue."
It couldn't truly bind the creature, but the sudden, powerful adhesion threw its balance off.
Combined with the right arm jammed by the shield, the monster's enormous body lurched into a clearly visible, potentially fatal stagger.
Aow!?
The monster roared in shock and fury, straining to rip free of the restraints on its foot and arm.
In that instant, every bit of its attention instinctively focused on the parts of its body that were pinned.
The patch of flesh on the back of its neck where the densest dark-red glow flowed was now completely exposed, its head unable to turn freely.
The energy sheathing that critical spot, disrupted by the unexpected tangle, tightened and slowed for a fraction of a moment.
This was it!!
Natasha, who had been waiting in the shadows behind for a killing opportunity, sprang like a hunting panther.
No one knew when a pair of short vibranium daggers had appeared in her hands.
Her goal wasn't to strike the core node—
She knew she couldn't pierce that defense.
Instead, with a whip of her wrists, she sent both daggers spinning like throwing knives toward the narrow gaps flanking the now-exposed energy core node on the monster's neck.
Ding! Ding!
Two crisp impacts rang out.
The vibranium daggers struck the seams dead-on.
They didn't deal real damage, but the instant physical jolt and faint energy disturbance made the energy at that core node twitch like a nerve jabbed by a needle.
The center of that dense halo of light opened up for just a few tenths of a second—
But that was enough.
(End of Chapter)
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