Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 76: Completed

Chapter 76: Completed

Immediately, the Battle erupted.

Balkan’s new Dreadworm—thicker-horned and glowing faintly green—burst from the ground beneath the beetle and latched onto one of its hind legs.

The creature roared, shaking violently, but Balkan had learned.

This time, the worm spun around its leg, anchoring itself like a vine tightening on prey.

Clint opened fire.

His bullets didn’t aim for damage. Instead, they struck the joints—knees, shoulders, mandibles—each impact was surgical.

Tiny mechanical explosions followed each shot, destabilizing armor plates, revealing pale, softer flesh beneath.

Monkaar leaped forward with a mighty roar, both palms glowing golden-brown with his sonic-earth resonance. He slammed the ground with a dual palm strike—

BOOM!

Vibrations pulsed upward through the beetle’s legs. It trembled, staggering sideways, its footing broken.

But the monster refused to fall.

It twisted, smashing its horn downward, forcing the Dreadworm to retreat.

It turned its gaze toward Monkaar and charged, horn down, legs stomping like a freight train of chitin and rage.

Monkaar braced himself—

Until a screech of steel sliced through the air.

SHING!

Four glowing swords slammed into the beetle from four sides again, forming a perfect cross.

One pierced under its armpit. Another stabbed its knee.

The third jabbed its underjaw, and the fourth slashed down its spine.

Elius floated mid-air, controlling the swords like a puppeteer dancing with precision.

His eyes narrowed.

"There," he muttered. "There’s the joint weakness in the thorax... there’s a chink under the abdomen... the wings are cracked..."

He pressed his fingers together in a formation.

The four swords rotated.

And then—

SLASH!

All four stabbed simultaneously into the weak spots he’d found.

The beetle reared back, screeching, legs flailing wildly. It tried to rise—but its own weight, its own damaged limbs—collapsed beneath it.

With a crash, the creature buckled, collapsing into the shattered earth.

It twitched. Screamed. Tried to rise again.

"Back off," Elius ordered.

Balkan, Clint, and Monkaar leapt back immediately, sweat glistening on their foreheads, eyes wide with respect.

Elius made another hand seal.

"Sand Tomb."

The air bent.

Pillars of sand rose again, faster this time—more precise. They surged around the crippled beetle, forming spiraling walls, narrowing in.

And then—

SLAM!

The coffin formed again.

This time, the beetle didn’t resist.

It couldn’t.

It was too damaged.

Elius waited, sword-hopping until he hovered above the newly formed sand coffin.

He didn’t speak for a moment.

Then, softly, he said, "So that’s how it works..."

He let the silence linger as the dust settled.

But just as Clint lowered his pistols, and Balkan exhaled in relief—

The air shifted.

All four of them felt it.

An ancient chill.

A presence.

It wasn’t loud. It didn’t shake the trees. But it moved through them.

Like a memory that never died.

"...Did you feel that?" Clint said slowly.

Monkaar turned his head, his long ears twitching. "Yeah... like something watching us."

Balkan’s hands clenched his worm talismans tighter. "That damn thing... the one that came out from the wall earlier... my dreadworms remembered its presence..."

As if summoned by their dread, something darted between the trees.

Too fast to see.

But it was there.

WHOOSH!

A figure launched from the underbrush, cloaked in brown rags, its body thin, limbs too long, face hidden beneath dry cloth.

It charged straight for Balkan, arms outstretched like blades.

"Get down!" Clint shouted.

But before it could reach him—

RAHHH!!

One of Balkan’s worms slammed sideways, flinging the creature across the forest. It bounced against a tree and vanished into the undergrowth.

But then—

ZSHHHH!

It ran.

Not walked. Not staggered.

Ran.

So fast the air cracked in its wake.

Elius’s eyes flashed. "Annoying."

He raised a hand.

The four flying swords twitched, then shot forward.

FWOOOM!

They pierced the running figure from four directions—head, chest, legs, and back.

Direct hit.

But—

The creature’s body turned to sand.

Living, moving sand.

It crumbled into the dirt like mist, disappearing into the earth.

"...Tch."

Elius’s arm shifted.

The skin peeled into glowing bronze. Claws sprouted from his fingers.

He raised his arm and slammed it into the ground.

DRAGON CLAW!

The earth exploded.

Cracks spiderwebbed in a fifty-meter radius. Trees snapped. Dirt churned.

But the thing was gone.

"Running?" Elius said, frowning. "It can vanish like that?"

He landed on the ground slowly, eyes scanning the earth.

"It was following us this whole time," he muttered. "Stalking. Waiting."

Clint looked unsettled. "Then we’re being hunted."

"No," Monkaar said. "It’s toying with us."

Elius stood still for a long moment.

Then he turned to them.

"Clint. Balkan. Monkaar."

They stood straighter.

"You’re not strong enough. That thing... can’t be killed conventionally. You need to be sharper. Faster. Tougher."

They nodded, silent but resolute.

Elius looked ahead, deeper into the jungle.

Where the trees grew darker, and the mist got heavier.

Where the whispers in the forest never stopped.

He took a step forward on his sword.

"Let’s go deeper into the forest."

The four of them marched deeper into the forest, treading through the thickening fog and the roots that twisted like serpents across the floor.

Their battle wounds were still fresh—dust clung to their cloaks, sweat coated their skin, and their eyes carried the cautious tension of warriors too seasoned for their age. But still, they pressed forward.

Then the buzzing began.

Low at first—just a gentle hum that prickled at the edges of their hearing. But then it grew.

Louder. Faster.

Vibrations filled the air like a symphony of cracking thunderclouds.

The sky above the trees darkened—not with storm clouds, but with wings.

A tide of insects descended.

Glowing electric blue, thousands of them. Each one the size of a human head, their wings shimmering with lightning pulses, their mandibles sparking with raw energy.

They came like a plague, moving as one, coordinated, intelligent.

"Formation!" Elius commanded sharply.

Immediately, Balkan summoned his three worms again.

They shot from the earth like monstrous eels, screaming as they lunged into the air, snapping at the insects with their horned mouths.

Clint reloaded both of his pistols in a fluid motion, the barrels already glowing from prior combat. Monkaar roared, both of his fists vibrating violently, causing the nearby ground to ripple.

Elius leaped upward, landing on one of his flying swords mid-air. He floated above the chaos, eyes sharp.

Suddenly—

Ding!

A screen blinked before him.

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Earth

Fragments: 5/5

Effect: Fragment only.

Collect remaining pieces to unlock full skill.

His breath caught for a second.

Then—

Ding!

Another.

And then another.

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Earth

Fragments: 5/5

Effect: Fragment only.

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Earth

Fragments: 5/5

Effect: Fragment only.

And finally—

Ding!

[Fragment of Martial Skill found!]

Martial Skill: Unknown

Type: Fire

Fragments: 5/5

Effect: Fragment only.

Elius’s eyes narrowed as all four fragments shimmered and pulsed with power.

They were powerful.

Each one pulsed with primordial energy, like forgotten echoes of ancient martial arts waiting to awaken.

He smirked, satisfied.

’Soon,’ he thought. ’Very soon.’

But there was no time to dwell.

The electric insects were swarming.

Clint fired round after round.

Each bullet discharged a rippling force wave, causing the insects to burst like overripe fruit.

Balkan’s worms coiled through the air, biting and spinning in synchronized fury.

Monkaar punched through the air, causing echo blasts that shattered insect wings mid-flight.

But there were too many.

They burned everything they touched.

When a swarm descended on a tree, it crackled and turned to ash.

One latched onto Monkaar’s back, shocking him so violently his body spasmed.

Balkan roared and sent a worm to knock it off, but another replaced it almost instantly.

Elius’s swords sliced through the swarm, each stroke clean, elegant, efficient. Yet still, they came.

And then, just as quickly as it had begun, the tide of insects dispersed.

A silence settled, thick and heavy.

The trees parted ahead.

A towering door stood, ancient and cracked, covered in insect-like carvings and glowing green lines that pulsed slowly like veins. It was the final gate.

The boss room.

Elius’s expression hardened.

"This is it," he said. "We finish it here."

He turned toward the others, nodding.

Clint loaded two fresh bullets and holstered his pistols.

Balkan clasped his hands and bowed slightly, his worms chittering with excitement.

Monkaar cracked his neck and clenched his fists, his eyes burning with purpose.

They pushed the door open together.

And hell greeted them.