"Cover him!" Spider-Man took advantage of the path Saitama had carved out, firing web after web to yank monsters away from both sides whenever they tried to close in, or to glue their feet in place. Hawkeye focused on picking off any enemies that tried to launch ranged attacks at Saitama from the sides or rear. Captain America and Doctor Strange guarded the flanks and the back, holding off the tide-like pursuit.
The black-robed mages clearly realized what they were trying to do, and their attacks grew even more frantic. Dark magic poured down like a storm—corrosive acid, mind-warping whispers, space-rending rifts, summoned self-destructing dark spirits… one vicious, bizarre spell after another.
Doctor Strange pushed his magical defenses to the limit. Seraphim Shield, Rings of Raggadorr, Bolts of Balthakk, and other spells rotated nonstop, barely managing to block most of the magical onslaught—but the pressure was enormous, sweat already forming on his forehead.
Captain America's shield was knocked flying more than once by powerful magic. Each time, he relied on sheer skill and willpower to retrieve it and throw himself back into the fight.
At last, one black-robed mage—far taller than the others, his aura vastly stronger, very likely the archmage leading the ritual—fully shifted his attention from the ceremony to Saitama.
He let out a shrill incantation and thrust both hands forward!
Boom!
A pure torrent of black energy over two meters wide surged out like a roaring black dragon, blasting straight toward Saitama! Wherever it passed, even space itself twisted slightly. The ground was gouged into deep trenches. Its power dwarfed every previous attack.
"Saitama!" Spider-Man screamed.
Facing a dark torrent that could erase an entire army, Saitama simply stopped—then…
He didn't dodge.
He didn't retreat.
He threw one punch straight into it.
There was no explosion. No struggle.
The terrifying black torrent met Saitama's fist and was instantly diverted—like it had slammed into the hardest wall in the universe. It didn't "break" so much as split, flow around his punch, and collapse into nothingness, dissolving like a phantom image. Saitama's fist didn't even slow down, as if he'd only shattered an illusion.
"What?!" The black-robed archmage let out a hoarse, disbelieving gasp. One of his strongest attacks… destroyed by raw flesh?
Saitama punched through the torrent and accelerated again, crossing dozens of meters in an instant to appear right in front of the archmage.
The archmage reacted fast, stacking multiple layers of dark shields around himself and retreating hard, trying to open distance and keep casting.
But Saitama was faster.
A simple straight punch.
Crack—BOOM!
The layered dark shields shattered like brittle glass. The punch kept going, stamping into the archmage's chest.
The black-robed mage flew backward at several times the speed he'd been retreating, slamming into the far cavern wall and embedding deep into it—life or death unknown.
With the leader taken down in an instant, the remaining black-robed mages froze in brief panic and stiff confusion.
"Now!" Captain America roared.
Spider-Man seized the opening, firing a web-line toward the object above the altar, trying to latch on and yank it over. But the moment the web touched the leaping dark energy around it, it was corroded and melted away instantly.
"No good! That energy's too strong!"
Hawkeye fired several arrows in quick succession at the last few mages guarding the altar, forcing them to defend or dodge. Doctor Strange threw out magical bindings toward the object itself—but the dark energy violently repelled the spell as well. The two forces clashed, sparking with a piercing sizzle.
(End of Chapter)
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