Chapter 149 : Desperate Dance in a Man-Made Hell

Dabi's words hung in the hot, suffocating air, a verdict delivered with terrifying calm. "We're on a schedule."

I didn't have the luxury of feeling despair. As Toga and Spinner charged forward from the front, I felt an intense heat from above as Dabi unleashed another wave of blue fire to cut off my escape route. I was trapped. Surrounded. This was no longer a fight; it was an execution.

The dragon's heartbeat in my chest pounded, not with fear, but with pure, primal rage. My Incursio armor responded, pulsing with raw energy. I knew I couldn't hold back. I had to use everything I had just to survive.

"Let's dance!" Toga shrieked, her knife slicing through the air, aiming for my neck.

At the same time, Spinner's giant sword slashed horizontally, aiming to cut me in half.

I reacted with a speed born of desperation. I manifested Incursio's leg guards and leaped straight up, avoiding Spinner's slash. In mid-air, I twisted my body, using the corridor wall as a foothold to kick myself away from the reach of Toga's knife. I landed between them, in a triangle formed by them and Jirobo, the giant, who was now starting to move forward, grinning.

Behind them all, Kagemaru just stood still, his hands raised slightly, and his horrific army of corpses began to rise again, their broken limbs snapping back into position with a sickening sound of cracking bones, then they began to crawl and drag themselves toward me, closing the only remaining escape route.

I was completely surrounded.

In a mobile command center dozens of kilometers away, Ryukyu stared at a monitor displaying my biometric data. My heart was beating at over two hundred beats per minute. My stress levels and energy output were off the charts. "He's in deep trouble," she hissed.

Nejire, standing beside her, gripped her own arm anxiously. "We've lost audio and video contact. What's happening over there, Ryukyu?"

"The League of Villains," Ryukyu replied, her eyes fixed on the data. "They trapped him. Dabi, Toga, and a few others. They're ganging up on him." She clenched her fist. She was a Top 10 hero, a commander, but at this moment, she could do nothing but watch the numbers on a screen and hope that her most valuable and most unstable asset could pull off a miracle.

Inside the hospital that felt like hell, I fought like a cornered beast. I was no longer thinking about strategy or efficiency. I was just surviving. I manifested both my gauntlets and leg guards, turning myself into a moving black storm. My Dragon's Fang slashed, cutting down the approaching corpses. I parried Spinner's sword attacks, sparks illuminating the dark corridor. I dodged Toga's swift stabs, feeling the cold tip of her knife graze my armor.

"Your blood! I want your blood, Tatsumi-kun!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Jirobo charged forward, trying to catch me in his deadly bear hug. I slid under his legs, and as I got behind him, I plunged my Dragon's Fang into the back of his knee. He roared in pain and fell to his knees, but Kagemaru just chuckled, and with a flick of his finger, Jirobo rose again as if he felt nothing.

I realized my mistake. Hurting them was pointless as long as the puppet master, Kagemaru, was still standing. I had to reach him. But he was protected by Dabi from above and Spinner and Toga from the front.

"This is endless!" I yelled in frustration, kicking back two corpses that tried to grab my legs.

"Of course it is!" Toga replied. "It's a party!"

It was then that I got a crazy idea. A very, very stupid plan born from total desperation. I looked up, at the metal ceiling now glowing red from Dabi's fire. Then I looked down, at the floor that was starting to melt into pools of silvery liquid. I couldn't go forward. I couldn't go back. I couldn't go sideways. So, the only way out... was down.

I took a deep breath, ignoring the burning pain in my lungs. I prepared myself. This would be my final gamble.

I shifted my entire attention to Dabi, who stood arrogantly on the second-floor balcony. I manifested my Dragon's Fang into the most stable short spear form I could manage. I aimed it upward. "Of all the people here," I yelled at him, "you're the most annoying!"

Dabi laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment."

He and the other villains thought I was going to try and attack upward, to escape through the ceiling. Dabi even prepared a larger burst of fire to greet me.

That's what I wanted.

As all eyes were on me, as if I were about to leap up, I twisted my entire body. With a roar that tore my throat, I plunged my Incursio spear straight down, into the already molten and fragile metal floor beneath my feet.

But I didn't just pierce it. I did something more. I remembered the sensation of adapting to fire. I felt the hot energy that my armor had absorbed from Dabi's attacks. With pure will, I channeled all that stored heat out through the tip of my spear in one concentrated blast.

This was no longer Dragon's Fang. This was a new ultimate move I created on the spot. Tyrant's Breath: Point-Blank Inferno.

The result was a catastrophe. The metal floor beneath me didn't just break; it vaporized. The incredibly powerful heat blast from below created a shockwave that collapsed the entire structure of the corridor. The villains standing near me were thrown in all directions by the unexpected explosion. The floor beneath them vanished, and the ceiling above them began to collapse from the loss of support.

I myself was in freefall into the darkness. I fell through several empty floors and abandoned machine rooms, debris of concrete and molten metal raining down around me. I tried to use the remnants of my armor to protect myself, but the impact was too great.

I landed with a bone-breaking thud at the bottom of the facility, in an old sewage disposal tunnel filled with knee-deep dirty water. The water cushioned my fall slightly, but not much. An incredible pain exploded throughout my body before total darkness finally swallowed me.

Above, in the now-collapsed corridor, Dabi, Toga, and the others managed to save themselves from the total collapse. They stared at the gaping hole in the floor.

"That... damn... kid..." Dabi growled, his face black with soot. "He brought the whole place down."

"He got away!" Toga whined, disappointed. "I didn't even get a single drop of his blood!"

"He didn't get away," Kagemaru said quietly, his eyes staring into the darkness below. "He fell. And he's badly injured. Come on. The hunt isn't over."

I don't know how long I was unconscious. Maybe a few minutes, maybe an hour. I woke up to the cold of the sewer water and a stabbing pain in every part of my body. My Incursio armor had vanished, completely destroyed, leaving me in my tattered tactical costume. I tried to move, and a sharp pain in my ribs and leg told me that several of my bones were broken. My passive regeneration was working, but it felt incredibly slow, like trying to douse a bonfire with a single cup of water.

I was alone. Injured. Deep underground. And my enemies knew I was here. This was the worst situation I had ever been in.

I checked my equipment. My secret communicator was crushed. There was no way to contact Ryukyu. I reached into my other pocket with a trembling hand. My fingers touched something small, smooth, and made of wood. The Yozakura token. Miraculously, it was still intact. Right now, this small object was my only hope.

As I gripped it, I heard a sound from above. The sound of debris being moved. The sound of approaching footsteps. They were looking for me. They would find me soon.

I leaned against the slimy tunnel wall, trying to get up, but my legs wouldn't support me. My vision was blurry with pain.

The smell of sewage and rust filled the air. In my hand, there was only a cold piece of wood. And up there, I could hear the monsters starting to dig.