Steve lifted his head, staring at the dense cluster of holes at the center of the enormous cap, where noise and slime were continuously being spewed out.
He tightened his grip on his shield.
His objective was clear: he had to force his way into the core area, find a real weak point, or sever its energy source.
But there was no denying it—this would be a suicide charge with almost zero chance of success.
Just as Steve steeled himself to risk everything—
Boom!!!
A golden figure dropped from the sky like a fired shell.
With no flourish at all, it slammed straight down onto the junction between the colossal fungal cap and the thick rootlike mycelial network at the center of the park.
The impact point was pinpoint precise.
Crack!
The ground sank violently under the blow.
A shockwave exploded outward, kicking up a ring of air churned full of torn grass, dirt, and dead leaves.
The wave of force briefly scattered the pale-green spore mist that had been hanging over the park.
The massive cap shuddered violently under the sudden impact, like a mountain struck by a giant's hammer.
Even the airflow in the holes at the top—those tireless vents that had been spitting out shrieks—stuttered for a moment.
"Grrroar…?"
The huge cap let out a low, meaningless sound, like wind groaning through a rotten tree hollow—confusion, or… outraged shock?
The dust cloud slowly settled.
A bald head and a red-and-yellow hero outfit came into focus through the haze.
Saitama stood steadily in the shallow crater he had just created, his brows tightly furrowed.
One hand pinched his nose shut, and the other flapped in front of his face like he was trying to shoo away a fly, his expression full of unmistakable… disgust.
"Hey!"
Saitama tilted his head back, looking up at the purple-black cap looming right in front of him like a wall blocking out the sky, thick purple slime still dripping from it.
His voice, thick with irritation, cut cleanly through the background screech.
"You're noisy as hell! And… you stink! What the heck are you supposed to be?"
Saitama's arrival was like a boulder hurled into a dirty, stagnant lake.
The omnipresent, nerve-torturing shriek seemed to falter for a heartbeat at the bald man's "entrance," as if it had been choked off.
"Mr. Saitama!"
Seeing the figure that had just landed, Steve felt a knot in his chest finally loosen.
But almost immediately, the grim weight of facing this inhuman threat was replaced by another kind of tension—
This monstrous cap's weird nature and abilities were simply too dangerous.
"Watch it! Its slime is highly corrosive! The spore mist it's spreading can mess with your emotions and cause hallucinations!" Steve shouted over the noise, shield up in front of him, eyes locked on the thick main tendrils under the cap that were slowly writhing like waking pythons.
It was obvious Saitama's "seismic entrance" had enraged them.
Several of the thickest main mycelia stopped swinging.
Their "tips"—which looked more like mouths constantly opening and closing, drooling slime—turned in unison toward the intruder: Saitama.
Under the umbrella of the cap, the volume of the noise suddenly jumped to a whole new level.
It was no longer just piercing; tangled in the sound was the cacophony of what felt like countless people weeping in despair.
At the same time, more pale-green mist billowed off the main body and every tendril, rolling out like a smoke screen, heavy with a rotting plant stench so strong it made people want to vomit.
"Ugh… So loud… My head's spinning…"
A young girl who was still near the park—one of the people Clint had saved earlier with his flash arrow—clutched her head and dropped into a crouch.
A pained, twisted smile contorted her face.
The green mist's effects were intensifying.
"Cover your mouth and nose! Get away from the fog!"
From his perch up high, Clint loosed another flash arrow.
The explosion of light went off near the main cap, briefly blowing away a patch of mist, but the monster's noise and psychic pollution field seemed completely immune to this kind of brightness.
All he managed to do was barely drag the attention of one main tendril his way for a second.
(End of Chapter)
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