Yushai lunges at the masked man with his spear. The masked man uses Yushai's own spear as a defensive weapon. He fights gracefully, where in Lithuania, his velvety red cloak smoothly creates a gloomy effect. The mask, in evolution, prevents him from seeing his opponent and predicting their actions. Yushai skillfully avoids traps in his personality tone. They fight with spears as if in a fencing duel. Ultimately, the masked man uses the ability of textualization, and the floor on which Yushai stood suddenly erupts with enormous, crystalline spikes of unprecedented size, one after another, directly at Yushai, preventing him from even moving.
Saigid watches the duel unfold with a mixture of awe and frustration. He sees Yushai's movements falter as the crystalline spikes erupt around him, trapping him like a caged animal.
"Bloody hell," he mutters under his breath.
His eyes narrow at the masked man's movements—the elegance, the precision. There's something unnerving about how calm and controlled he is.
And then it hits him.
"Yushai!" Saigid calls out sharply, voice cutting through the tension. "Don't move! His power depends on contact—he needs touch or proximity to trigger crystallization!"
A beat.
"If you can't beat him..." he says lowly, red eyes flashing with dangerous intent, "...then make sure he touches you last."
"What?" asks Hanchu in surprise.
Hanchu shoots a man in the head. But he turns these bullets into crystals. Lyutic falls down from the crates and runs to save Yushai.
Saigid ignores Hanchu's question, his gaze locked on the battle and the danger Yushai is currently stuck in.
"Yushai, get ready to move fast!" he calls again. "If you get even a second of opportunity, you need to act."
His heart hammering in his chest, he watches anxiously as Lyutic rushes to Yushai's aid.
Lyutich breaks several spikes and helps free Yushai at the moment a man defending himself from Hanchu's bullets.
Suddenly, the warehouse was filled with the sound of a lot of buzzing. The huge mosquitoes are back.
Lyutic shouts, "I'm activating the sponsor's ability!"
[Sponsor's ability is activated]
"Dear mosquitoes, we have treated you to our friend. Do you remember? So this man is also a treat for you." Lyutich says, pointing at the masked man
Saigid tenses as the warehouse fills with the ominous hum of the massive mosquitoes, his eyes locking on the swarm as they swarm.
When he hears Lyutich's words, Saigid' brow furrows with skepticism. "He's using that as their weapon?" he mutters, shaking his head at the risky move.
But then, he notices something. The masked man—who's been so calculated thus far—seems almost panicked by the sight of the mosquitoes.
His hand trembles slightly as he raises it, trying to crystallize one of the bugs—but they avoid it.
Saigid' lips twitch into a dark smirk.
"Ah..." he murmurs, voice low with realization. "He's afraid of them."
Without hesitation, he turns to Hanchu and shouts:
"Stop shooting at the man—shoot near him! Make them swarm closer!"
"There are no bullets. I'm out of bullets," Hanchu said timidly.
Lyutic moves his huge muscles around the crystal cage. And someone from the cages that were prepared for future cocoons shouts, "Free us! We will help too!"
His eyes flick back and forth between the captives and the masked man, who is still trying (and failing) to fend off the swarm of mosquitoes.
"Fine, we'll release them," Saigid agrees, gesturing for Lyutic with a nod. "But we don't know who these captives are, or what side they're on," he adds, a hint of wariness in his voice. "Keep an eye on them."
"Do they believe on the side of the man in the mask" Hanchu says, "I think they won't be against us."
At Hanchu's words, Saigid rolls his eyes slightly, a brief flash of irritation on his face.
"Don't be so naive, kid," he mutters, his tone cynical. "We've only just met these captives. We don't know who they'll align themselves with. Trust but verify."
As Hanchu makes his way down to release the captives, Saigid watches with a tense expression.
He can't help but feel uneasy about releasing strangers into the mix... but right now, they need the extra manpower to deal with the masked man.
"Hanchu!" Saigid calls out sharply, eyes still fixed on the fight. "Hurry up!"
"There is no key, you need to break the lock!"
A low curse escapes Saigid' lips. "Damn it," he growls, frustration flaring.
He turns his gaze back to Hanchu, the tension still clenched in his muscles. "Can you break the lock?" he asks bluntly, voice edged with urgency.
"How?"
Saigid rolls his eyes at Hanchu's helpless question and leaps down from the crates with a sharp scoff.
"Use your damn cannon as a hammer, or have Lyutich tear it open—do something!" he snaps, red eyes flashing. "We don't have time for incompetence."
"why aren't you doing anything? You're sitting on these boxes and bossing around!" says Hanchu indignantly.
Saigid turns sharply toward Hanchu, red eyes blazing with dangerous amusement.
"Because someone has to keep an eye on the spider-thing and make sure it doesn't start cocooning us all while you play hero," he snaps back, voice low and edged. "And last I checked, you're the one who can't shoot anymore—so don't lecture me about doing nothing."
He leans forward slightly. "Now get that cage open—before I decide pushing you off this roof counts as 'helping'."
Hanchu hits the castle with his cannon in the hope that it will help. But the lock turned out to be very strong, so strong that it broke the cannon.
Everyone inside the cage hit themselves on the forehead with their hand.
"Saigid," Hanchu's voice carried plaintively.
Saigid stares at the broken cannon, then at Hanchu's pitiful expression. A long, exasperated sigh escapes him.
"Bloody useless," he mutters under his breath—before leaping down in one fluid motion.
He strides to the cage, red energy already coiling around his fist like smoke.
"Move," he growls, grabbing Hanchu by the shoulder and shoving him aside. "Let a real predator handle this."
With a single brutal punch—charged with stolen power—the lock shatters, crystals exploding outward like shattered glass.
Saigid glances inside the cage, eyes narrowed.
"Now," he says darkly. "Prove you're worth saving."
The mosquitoes fall onto the crystal floor one by one. In the end, there weren't any mosquitoes left. The man's weight in his own blood could barely stand on his feet. His hands were shaking and smoke was coming out of his palms. At which point, a sinister laugh rang out. Everyone was looking at the masked man, but it wasn't him who was laughing. And there's someone behind him. Laughter comes from the cocoon in which the Kakhach is located.
"Well... shit," Saigid mutters under his breath, every muscle in his body tensing as the laugh echoes from Kakhach's cocoon.
His red eyes narrow, flickering with suspicion. "That's not him," he says lowly. "Something else is waking up."
Despite his fatigue, a man approaches the cocoon and uses your ability. The cocoon turns into a huge large crystal.The masked man falls dead with his arms outstretched.
Suddenly, all the sealed cocoons explode and people come out of them. Kakhach looks very beautiful with a fiery red beard and hair as if he had just left the salon. And his body was covered with glitter and he looked like he was on the cover of a magazine. That's what everyone who came out of the cocoons looked like.
"So, where's my pet? Where's my mosquito?" he asks, spreading his hands, "by the way, this is my new pet. His name is the phone," says Kakhach, pointing to an octopus-headed spider.
"No, Saigid is definitely our Kakhach," says Hanchu, clapping him on the shoulder.
Saigid blinks in disbelief, stunned into silence for a moment as the scene unfolds before him.
He watches as Kakhach emerges from the cocoon, the man's appearance completely changed and... actually kind of handsome, if Saigid is being honest.
His gaze lands on the... octopus-headed spider. "...The... what?" he says flatly, eyes wide with bewilderment.
"he seems good, we talked, and he put me in a cocoon. We chatted telepathically and he agreed to help me. He's my pet now!" he says, pointing at Saigid so that he knows.
Saigid just stares, the befuddlement still very clear in his scarlet eyes.
He glances between Kakhach and the spider-octopus, trying to wrap his head around things.
"...You're telling me you... made friends. With a giant spider. And it agreed to help you. Because you had a conversation with it. Telepathically."
His tone is one of disbelief mixed with incredulity and slight disdain. "I've heard a lot of wild things in my lifetime—but that has to be the most ridiculous one."