In the depths of the green mist that had been briefly scattered by Saitama's punches, the main body of the monster was finally revealed clearly under the murky light—a colossal mushroom cap, like a gigantic, rotting mountain of flesh.
Vast, grotesque, overflowing with a nauseating vitality, it was rooted in the center of the park—
The source of all the monsters.
The origin of all the pollution.
"Found you."
Saitama's gaze locked onto that massive core.
On his shiny bald head, those dead-fish eyes flashed with a sharper sense of purpose.
"Saves me the trouble of looking."
Without the slightest hesitation, he kicked off in midair.
The space beneath his feet seemed to groan under the strain.
With a thunderous boom, he turned into a human cannonball, tearing through the green mist that had just begun to flow back together.
He ignored the scattered bat swarms desperately trying to fill the gap and intercept him, shooting straight toward that terrifying mushroom core.
Any stray monsters foolish enough to drift into his direct path were wiped out instantly—
Not even by his fists, but by the shock waves and pressure ahead of him as he charged, blown into powder by sheer speed alone.
"Steve! Look over there!"
Natasha's voice cut through the chaos of the battlefield, tinged with the relief of seeing a turning point.
Captain America, Steve Rogers, struggled to swing his vibranium shield again, batting away a giant bat that had dived at him with razor bone claws.
The deadly talons scraped across the shield's surface with an ear-piercing shriek that sent a spike of numbness through his arm.
Even worse was the constant low-frequency psychic assault from the mushroom cap itself.
It was like countless cold needles relentlessly stabbing into his brain, bringing dizziness, nausea, and a rising, uncontrollable irritability that threatened to crack his will.
But his iron mental resilience held firm against the corrosion.
He forced himself to look toward where Natasha was pointing.
He saw Saitama, like a red war god, blasting a bloody tunnel through the sea of bats.
Where his punches passed, the green mist retreated, and the colossal, pulsing, evil core was laid bare.
More importantly, Saitama was charging straight toward that core with unstoppable momentum.
"He's opening a path!"
Steve's voice suddenly grew strong, as if something heavy had been lifted from his chest.
He forcibly pushed down the nausea and splitting headache from the psychic assault, then swung his shield to swat away another monster trying to close in.
"Target: the central core!" he shouted over the comms. "Concentrate all fire! Clear a way for the bald warrior!"
The order was clear and decisive.
It instantly galvanized the S.H.I.E.L.D. elite agents who had been barely holding the line.
They were well trained.
Even under the same crushing mental interference and pain, they reacted to the Captain's command without hesitation.
"Team A! Left-side mycelium zone! Breaching rounds, prepare!"
"Team B! Right-side suppressing fire! Don't let those things interfere with him!"
"Team C, on me! We're going straight for the weak point in the defense!"
The agents answered with short, clipped acknowledgments and moved as one with astonishing coordination.
They advanced in sync with Captain America, pushing their front line forward.
Steve led from the very front, vibranium shield up, a nearly indestructible moving bulwark that blocked the majority of physical strikes and deflected the lingering shock waves of the mental attacks for the agents behind him.
They pushed up to the perimeter of the mushroom cap's "core" area—
A living fortification made of writhing, thick mycelium.
Those crimson tendrils lashed about like rabid, living whips, covered in disgusting mucus and lined with sharp, backward-facing barbs.
"Open fire!"
The specially modified weapons roared in unison.
High-output energy beams, micro armor-piercing rounds, and liquid nitrogen freeze rounds poured down on the churning mycelium wall like a storm.
The energy beams blasted chunks of scorched flesh away.
The armor-piercing rounds shredded sticky tissue into ribbons.
The freeze rounds turned large swaths of the mycelium brittle in an instant, making them crack apart with sounds like shattering glass.
(End of Chapter)
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