Facing the sand wave surging toward him, Saitama didn't retreat or brace himself the way Steve did. Instead, he made a move that nobody expected
He jumped straight up, and dove headfirst into the center of the quicksand vortex!
"Saitama!" Steve cried out in shock. He knew better than anyone how terrifying it was to be swallowed by quicksand—let alone a living sand monster!
Saitama's figure was instantly engulfed by the rolling sand and vanished from sight.
The quicksand vortex seemed to freeze for a split second, then grew even more violent, as if it were eagerly digesting the food that had thrown itself into its mouth. The huge face on the sand surface twisted into a humanlike, savage grin.
But that grin stiffened almost immediately.
Deep within the sea of sand, Saitama wasn't suffocating or being crushed to death like any normal creature. His body was strong enough to ignore that kind of physical pressure entirely. As he sank in the darkness (inside the sand), he could clearly sense the direction the grains were flowing.
All of the sand currents ultimately pointed toward one specific energy source underground.
"The core… is down below." Following instinct, Saitama swam toward the densest concentration of energy.
The sand monster realized something was wrong. This "food" wasn't being digested at all—he was closing in on its fatal weak point: the black crystal core that maintained its form and life!
It frantically mobilized sand grains, trying to crush Saitama out, or lure him off course. Deep under the desert, it was like a sandstorm had erupted—aboveground, the dunes heaved and rolled violently.
But Saitama's strength and speed were beyond anything it could imagine. He was like a deep-sea torpedo, ignoring every obstruction as he tore through layers of sand, diving straight down!
At last, in the pitch-black depths of the sand sea, he saw a faint black glimmer.
A black crystal about the size of a fist—spinning slowly, radiating a strange force field.
All living sand grains originated from it.
Sensing mortal danger, the sand monster let out a soundless shriek and gathered its final power, forming a dense sand wall around the crystal.
Saitama threw a punch.
Simple. Direct.
Bam!
His fist pierced the sand wall effortlessly, striking the black crystal dead-on.
There was no earthshaking explosion—only a faint, crisp sound, like glass cracking.
The black crystal instantly filled with fractures, then crumbled into dust. The force field that sustained the sand monster's existence popped like a punctured bubble, vanishing in an instant.
In the next moment, the raging quicksand vortex aboveground settled immediately. The enormous face on the sand twisted, dispersed, and disappeared. The whole desert returned to silence, as if everything that had just happened had been nothing but an illusion.
Steve and the squad stared tensely at the sand that had suddenly calmed. A few seconds later, the spot where Saitama had vanished bulged upward.
Then Saitama "swam" out of the sand like it was water. Aside from being covered head to toe in sand, he was completely unharmed. In his fingers, he pinched a small clump of black crystal powder, studying it with curiosity.
"Ptoo, ptoo—ugh, sand in my mouth." Saitama spat out a few grains, dusted himself off, and walked over to Steve, holding the powder out to him. "Here. Seems like it was because of this thing."
Steve Rogers, a man who had lived through World War II and witnessed countless major battles—looked at the bald man who had just crawled out of a sand monster like he'd returned from a beach vacation, and for a moment, didn't know how to react.
He took the powerless powder, then nodded solemnly.
"…Thank you, Saitama. You saved us again."
(End of Chapter)
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