Levi's gaze pierced through the firelight and flying debris, locking onto the depths of the spider swarm.
There was one spider—different.
Smaller than the surrounding cannon fodder, its entire body a dull dark gold. It didn't move at all, eight long legs braced against the ground, like a general inspecting its troops. Only the single eye atop its head glowed red, bathing the entire cellblock in a blood-colored haze.
Found you, Levi thought.
That was it.
His brain spun at full speed, filtering out every trace of battlefield noise—roars, explosions, the screech of metal on metal.
What remained was a high-frequency hum.
A control signal.
The source was that dark-gold spider. Every other spider moved at its command. They weren't independent units—they were its claws.
Take the leader, break the army.
"Steve!" Levi roared, his voice overpowering the explosions.
"Speak!" Steve answered with a single word, bracing his shield against the doorway and holding back the tide of spiders.
"There's a commander in the swarm! The dark-gold one in the back!" Levi fired off the words at lightning speed. "Kill it and these things are done for! Clear me a path—five seconds!"
Steve didn't hesitate.
"Logan!" he shouted. "Left flank—rip it open!"
"ROAR—!"
Logan, who'd been slaughtering his way through the left side, looked up. A feral gleam flashed in his blood-red eyes.
He loved orders like this.
The next second, he hurled himself forward, straight into the densest part of the swarm.
"Get out of my way!"
Bone claws extended, carving lethal arcs through the air. Every swing came with shrieking metal tears and bursts of blue electric sparks. He became a living meat grinder, forcing a bloody corridor through the spider sea.
Pressure on the left skyrocketed—but the center, where Steve held the line, suddenly loosened.
"Now!"
Steve roared and yanked his shield free. The piled-up spiders at the entrance instantly found an outlet and surged inward.
Instead of retreating, Steve stepped forward and hurled the vibranium shield with all his strength!
WHUM—!
The shield smashed into the first spider and began ricocheting. Every rebound struck a joint or sensor with surgical precision before snapping toward the next target.
The swarm descended into chaos.
A path—brief and fragile—opened straight toward the spider king.
By the time Steve finished shouting, Levi was already moving.
He kicked off the ground and sprinted up the wall, boots pounding across the vertical surface as if gravity didn't exist.
The world slowed.
There was only one target.
The dark-gold spider king sensed the threat immediately. A dozen larger, heavier-armored guard spiders surged forward, interposing themselves.
At the same time, plates on the spider king's back split apart, revealing a pitch-black cannon barrel. A dangerous red glow began to gather.
Energy cannon.
Alarms screamed in Levi's head—but he didn't slow.
There would be no second chance.
With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a pinless M24 grenade, dropping it perfectly at the guards' feet.
BOOM!
The explosion flipped several spiders into the air. The formation broke.
That gap—
Was all he needed.
Levi burst through the smoke.
He could feel his skin burning as the energy cannon locked onto him.
But he was faster.
In the instant before it fired, he was already in front of the spider king.
The spider king abandoned its charge-up without hesitation. All eight spear-like limbs stabbed out simultaneously, converging on Levi from every direction!
Too slow.
Levi twisted midair, his entire spine driving the motion, executing an utterly inhuman evasive maneuver. Eight limbs scraped past his clothes, barely missing.
Using the rotational momentum, his body spun like a top. His right leg swept out in a wide arc, heel locked straight, aimed directly at the massive, glowing red eye.
He poured every ounce of strength he had into that kick.
"SHATTER!"
BAM!!!
A deep, muffled impact rang out.
A thin crack appeared across the spider king's hardened eye.
Then—
In less than a hundredth of a second, the crack spread like a web across the entire surface!
CRACK—!
A sharp, crystalline shatter echoed across the battlefield.
The eye went dark.
The dark-gold spider king's massive body jerked violently. Its raised limbs fell limp.
Levi flipped backward and landed cleanly, shaking out his numb right foot.
"Hard as hell," he muttered.
One second.
Two seconds.
An eerie silence swallowed the battlefield.
Then the mechanical spiders—mid-attack—froze, as if someone had yanked out a master power cord. Red lights flickered erratically. Some spun in place. Others even turned on each other.
A few seconds later, amid a chorus of crackle-pop sounds, sensors across the swarm went dark one after another.
They became nothing more than heaps of scrap metal.
The battle was over.
Deathly silence filled the cellblock.
Every surviving soldier stared in disbelief at the scene, their gazes inevitably converging on the man standing amid the wreckage.
Steve panted heavily, catching his returning shield. He looked at Levi's back, emotions churning in his eyes.
Logan hauled himself out of a pile of spider remains, spat out the crushed stub of a dead cigar, and grinned wordlessly, flashing his teeth.
Kid's got bite.
But just as everyone began to believe the nightmare had ended—
A low, resonant hum echoed through the underground facility.
Then a cold, synthesized electronic voice rang out over the broadcast system.
"Warning. 'Nest' breached. Highest-level directive confirmed."
"Initiating… Final Purification Protocol."
"Base will fully self-destruct in three minutes."
"Countdown initiated… 2:59… 2:58…"
The merciless ticking of the countdown rang like a funeral bell in every survivor's ears.
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