Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 47: Still alive

Chapter 47: Still alive

Lava Scissor’s molten brow twitched.

Elius tilted his head. "Could it be... that you don’t want me to attack?"

Lava Scissor’s silence said more than any roar.

Elius smiled thinly. "Because you get tired easily? And once you’re tired... you become exhausted. Slow. Weak."

The villain flinched.

Elius’s voice darkened. "Telling us your weakness so casually... Are you really a proper villain, as you claimed?"

At the rear, behind the scattered debris and still-smoking stone, Ron’s eyes widened. His velociraptor pupils dilated with realization.

"Elius..." Ron muttered, stunned. "You’re a genius!"

Lina floated slightly higher, her hands glowing faintly again. "He figured out his pattern."

Klee clenched her fists, a rare fire in her eyes. "So he does have a weakness!"

Shiro nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on the lone warrior in the center.

"Well played..." he whispered.

Then Ron growled and stepped forward. "Then let’s go help him and finish this together—!"

But before he could charge, Elius spun his head around and spoke with a voice like a blade drawn from the scabbard.

"No."

The air turned cold.

"Don’t interfere," Elius said.

His face was still. Stoic. Focused.

Deadly serious.

Ron flinched. "W-what?"

"You heard me," Elius replied. "This fight is mine now."

The velociraptor boy clenched his claws, chest rising and falling. "But we’re a team! We fight together—!"

But then Shiro placed a hand on Ron’s shoulder.

"Don’t," the ninja said softly. "Don’t insult him."

Ron turned, confused.

Shiro’s eyes were sharp. "He’s a warrior. He stood alone. Took the attacks. Endured them all to learn. Now he wants to finish it alone."

"But—!"

"If you interfere," Elius suddenly said, not turning, "I’ll make you all my enemies too."

Those words.

Like a sword through the heart.

Ron froze.

Lina lowered herself slowly, unsure.

Even Klee bit her lip and stepped back.

Elius turned again to Lava Scissor.

His right blade raised to point directly at the enemy.

His left blade pulled back in a tight guard.

"Let’s continue," he said.

A tremble shook through Lava Scissor’s arms.

He had been mocked. Exposed. A weakness dragged into the light.

And now, all the confidence he wielded like fire—

—was gone.

His fists clenched.

His magma face twisted in rage.

"COME HERE!" Lava Scissor roared.

He stomped forward, the ground melting with each step.

"COME HERE!"

He charged.

This wasn’t the elegant violence from before. This was wild. Reckless. Furious.

BOOM!

He swung his right scissor like a guillotine.

Elius dodged to the side and slashed once—leaving another scar across the villain’s chest.

SZZZZT!

Steam exploded from the wound.

"FUCK YOU! I SAID COME HERE!"

Another attack.

Too wide.

Elius ducked under it and spun—his left blade catching the joint of Lava Scissor’s elbow, slicing through a thin gap in the lava plating.

SKRAAAK!

A piece of stone cracked and fell.

Lava Scissor stumbled.

He gritted his molten teeth.

"You little shit!"

He slammed both blades down.

WHAM!

But Elius had already leapt back, twin swords crossing in front of him, feet sliding in perfect tandem.

"You’re getting tired," Elius said coldly.

"SHUT UP!"

"You’re slow now."

"I’LL KILL YOU!"

Another charge. Another swing. His steps were heavy. His arms sluggish.

Elius no longer needed to dodge wide.

He simply stepped. Slipped. Moved.

Strike. Parry. Slash.

The sounds of steel against lava filled the air like a metronome of defeat.

Ron, watching from behind the rocks, clenched his jaw. "He’s... dancing around him."

Shiro’s eyes sparkled. "No... not dancing. Hunting."

Lava Scissor stumbled again, dragging his right leg.

"COME ON! FIGHT ME!"

Elius’s eyes narrowed.

Then, he moved.

Not to block.

But to end.

His left sword came high.

Right sword swept low.

A twin strike.

SLASH—SLASH!

The sound was sharp.

Clean.

Sudden.

And then—

The flames died.

Like a candle blown out.

Lava Scissor froze mid-step, both arms limp at his sides.

His body hissed.

Cracked.

Black lines formed all across his molten chest.

His eyes flickered. From rage... to confusion... to shock.

He sank to his knees, trembling.

And in that silence—

Elius walked up.

His face still unreadable.

He placed the edge of his right sword just beneath the villain’s throat.

It gleamed in the dim light.

He looked down.

And said, voice low and final:

"...Any last words?"

The battlefield was eerily quiet.

Lava Scissor’s body—no, his shell—had hardened, his molten skin cooling into thick layers of obsidian and cracked brown stone. His molten glow was gone, his body rigid, frozen in an eerie kneeling position.

Then—CRACK.

The neck twisted. Not by Elius.

By itself.

The Earth body—like living stone—snapped its neck in a grotesque turn, slowly rotating its head backward like a rusted joint on ancient machinery.

The sound alone made Ron take a step back.

The rock lips twitched.

"You—" it hissed with dry gravel in its voice.

Elius didn’t hesitate.

SHING!

His sword flashed in a clean, horizontal arc.

THRAK!

The stone head was cleaved from its body.

The monster’s expression was still etched into the face—its mouth half-open, caught between rage and disbelief—as it bounced and thudded to the ground.

The Earth-body stood still for a moment.

Then, like a statue eroded by time, it collapsed—

BOOOM—!

Dust and pebbles exploded in a wide ripple as the massive rock form cracked apart, scattering across the lava-scarred battlefield like broken armor.

And that was it.

Lava Scissor... was dead.

Dead.

Ron blinked several times, his mouth slightly ajar. "That’s it...?"

Shiro’s eyes were locked on the remains. His usually calm, unreadable face was blank—stunned.

Lina was floating mid-air, barely keeping herself aloft. "It’s... over?"

Klee looked around in confusion, mouth moving but no words coming out.

The four of them simply stood there in absolute silence, their eyes locked on the crumbled pile of stone that had once been their unstoppable enemy.

They didn’t move for a while.

Didn’t breathe.

Didn’t believe.

Lava Scissor—this so-called invincible monster, the self-proclaimed proper villain, the one who said that he’s a walking cataclysm who burned through squads like dry leaves—was dead.

Just like that.

Ron stepped forward, claws curling. He stared at the head on the ground, then at the shattered body. "He’s really... gone?"

"I felt his core crack," Shiro said softly. "I don’t sense anything left. No spiritual presence. No residual heat signature."

Klee stepped closer to Elius, then hesitated. "You did it..."

Elius slowly pulled his blades back, the blood—or lava residue—on their edge already cooling and hardening. He looked at the corpse for a long time. Then finally, slowly... he nodded.

"I did."

And then—

"YEEEEEEAH!!!"

Ron roared into the sky.

"HE’S GONE! WE WON!"

Lina flew in a circle midair, letting out a squeal of pure joy. "We won! We beat him! I can’t believe it!"

Shiro let out a rare grin, calm but wide. "He really fell. I never thought... I didn’t think anyone could do it."

Klee ran up and hugged Elius’s arm with small but surprisingly strong force. "You’re amazing! You’re so cool!"

The four began to laugh, shout, scream. Klee punched the air with her tiny fist. Ron started jumping around in a half-raptor frenzy, flailing his claws and letting out primitive screams of victory.

It was chaos.

It was joy.

But beneath it all was disbelief.

Because minutes ago, Lava Scissor had seemed unkillable. His power was beyond them. His movements impossible to track. Every slash of his burning blades left trails of destruction. He had to be dodged, endured, tricked.

And yet now—he was gone.

"Elius," Lina finally asked, floating down and resting, "how...?"

The others turned toward him.

"How did you figure out his weakness?" Shiro added. "That wasn’t just luck."

Elius calmly sheathed one of his swords, keeping the other at hand. "I read his movement pattern."

"What?" Ron blinked. "Like, analyzed it mid-fight?"

"No. Earlier," Elius said, glancing at the earth-stained rocks around them. "The moment he stopped playing around and got angry... I saw a slight imbalance."

The team leaned in unconsciously.

"He favored his right arm more than his left," Elius continued. "That’s the one with the dominant scissor blade. It was more molten. Glowed brighter. But every time he swung wide, his right foot would lag slightly. Not enough to trip him—but enough that his momentum dropped. That’s when I realized..."

He stepped closer to the shattered scissor arm.

"...he uses a lava-based core that requires a build-up of internal heat. If you slow that rhythm down... even slightly... it stops producing energy fast enough. He becomes exhausted."

Klee tilted her head. "So you... waited?"

Elius nodded. "I defended. Let him burn himself out. Then... when his energy was just a little too slow to regenerate..."

He sliced the air once.

"Strike."

Shiro squinted. "But how did you know it was heat-based? Not just a regeneration skill?"

Elius turned, his eyes narrowing with a faint glint. "I didn’t."

"...Then how—?"

"I took a gamble," Elius said. "But the rhythm... it felt right. Like how I used to feel when I was gaming, min-maxing in my battle sword simulator. Reading boss patterns. Waiting for the window to punish."

Ron blinked. "Wait—are you saying that all that time you were just feeling it out like a game?!"

"I mean," Elius said with a small smirk, "it worked."

Lina stared at him in awe. "You’re terrifying."

Klee gave him a big thumbs-up. "Coolest. Boss. Ever."

Shiro crossed his arms. "You read an elite villain’s energy pattern mid-battle and gambled your life on a theory."

Elius shrugged. "Better than charging in blind."

They stood in silence for a moment.

Then Ron grinned. "Damn, man. We should call you Sword Demon or something."

"No, no—Sword God!"

"The Rhythm Blade!"

"Lava Slayer?"

They all chuckled.

Elius finally turned his gaze toward the horizon and sheathed his second sword.

"Let’s leave," he said.

And they turned to follow him.

CLANG!

The sound exploded behind him—steel on stone, violent and sharp.

Elius didn’t even blink.

He didn’t even turn his head.

His right hand had already moved.

And his sword was drawn—blocking a scissor blade that had appeared inches from his back.

The others froze.

Lina gasped.

Shiro’s eyes widened.

Klee whimpered.

And Ron’s claws lifted again.

Because there he stood.

Lava Scissor.

Still alive.

But no longer molten.

No longer laughing like a tyrant.

Instead, wearing a maniacal smile, broken teeth glowing faintly beneath his cracked stone face.

Both arms were now jagged, serrated obsidian scissors, trembling with suppressed rage.

And he whispered—low, raspy, like fire rekindled from ashes—

"...did you really think... I’d fall that easily?